Look for a complete small-team workflow.
An employee needs to record a shift and check the result. A manager needs to resolve missing punches and review completed time. The person preparing payroll needs a clear, usable handoff. These are connected tasks, not three separate buying decisions.
For a business with 1–30 employees, start with individual accounts, clock-in and clock-out, break records, recent employee hours, manager review, corrections and an export. Broader HR, benefits, dispatch or payroll-tax software may be useful elsewhere, but it should not be confused with the price of basic employee timekeeping.
Compare annual cost at your headcount.
Write down the monthly base charge, employee rate, location fee and mandatory setup or hardware. Compare the same billing cadence: an annual contract advertised as a monthly amount is not the same cash commitment as paying monthly.
Our proposed launch pricing is $15/month for up to 10 employees or $35/month for up to 30. That is $180 or $420 over twelve monthly payments, respectively, before any applicable taxes. Those are planned rates; the current early-access pilot is free and paid subscriptions are not enabled.
Compare your own quote in the cost calculator →Keep essential features separate from nice-to-haves.
A manager review step or a usable export may matter every pay period. A feature that looks impressive but does not fit your operation may not justify a larger plan. Test the must-haves with sample entries before making a purchase.
Gates currently focuses on the authenticated browser clock and review workflow. Native store releases, paired shared kiosks, verified offline punching and direct payroll integrations are not part of the verified pilot. That limitation matters in a buying decision and should not be hidden behind a long feature list.
Do not trade a cheap bill for an expensive handoff.
Open the CSV and compare a few sample records. Confirm dates, employee mapping, decimal hours and break treatment. Your existing payroll process still determines the correct pay rules, taxes and payments. A generic export is not automatically a vendor-specific integration.
Use a pilot to answer practical questions.
Start with an owner, a reviewer and a few employees. Try a normal workday, an unpaid break, a forgotten clock-out and a correction. Check the final record and export. Keep your established process alongside the pilot until the complete handoff works for your team.
Keep a route back out.
Understand records access, export, cancellation and support before committing to a subscription. Keep required records independently. Good budget purchasing protects the business from both recurring overspending and the cost of choosing the wrong tool.