PTODesk vs Vacation Tracker
Vacation Tracker is a well-run product with low churn and a strong Slack integration. The friction is tiering: accruals and hourly balances are Complete-only, and Complete carries a monthly minimum that makes it an expensive way to buy one feature.
| Vacation Tracker | PTODesk | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Core $1–2 per seat, Complete $3–4 per seat | Flat per company — $29, $59 or $99 a month |
| Free plan | None — trial only | Up to 5 employees, full engine |
| Accruals | Complete tier only, $75–100 monthly minimum | Every plan, including free |
| Mid-year hire proration | Varies | Automatic, with the arithmetic shown |
| US state sick leave | Not encoded | Encoded, dated and statute-linked |
| Integrations | Slack, Teams, Google and Outlook | Slack, plus an ICS feed any calendar reads |
Vacation Tracker list pricing checked 18 August 2026. Competitors change prices — confirm on their site before deciding.
What Vacation Tracker is good at
If these are the things you need, they are the better buy and we would rather say so.
One of the best Slack experiences in the category — much of the product is genuinely usable without opening a browser.
Under 5% annual churn and around 82% year-on-year growth, which is the profile of a product people keep.
Mature multi-department and multi-location handling if you are large enough to need it.
Where teams outgrow Vacation Tracker
Accruals are a tier, not a feature
Earning leave gradually, and hourly rather than daily balances, both require Complete. With its monthly minimum, a 20-person company pays a Complete-tier bill largely to unlock accrual. In PTODesk accruals, carryover and proration are in every plan including the free one, because a leave tracker that cannot accrue is a shared calendar.
The minimum bites hardest at small headcounts
Per-seat pricing with a floor means a 12-person team pays the floor rather than for twelve seats. Flat pricing removes the question — the bill is the same at 12 people as at 24.
No free tier to trial internally
There is a trial but no permanently free plan, so a small team cannot run it quietly alongside a spreadsheet before committing. PTODesk is free to five people with the full engine.
What it costs as you grow
Vacation Tracker at list price, against the cheapest PTODesk plan that covers the same team. Per-seat pricing rises with every hire; a flat price does not move until you cross a plan boundary.
| Employees | Vacation Tracker | PTODesk | Difference a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | $75.00/mo | $0.00/mo Free | Save $900 |
| 10 | $75.00/mo | $29.00/mo Starter | Save $552 |
| 25 | $87.50/mo | $29.00/mo Starter | Save $702 |
| 50 | $175.00/mo | $59.00/mo Team | Save $1,392 |
| 75 | $262.50/mo | $59.00/mo Team | Save $2,442 |
List prices with no discounts applied, including Vacation Tracker's free tier and monthly minimum where they have one. Rows where they come out cheaper are left in.
Common questions
Does Vacation Tracker do accruals?
Yes, on the Complete tier. They are not available on Core, and Complete carries a monthly minimum of roughly $75 to $100, so the effective cost of accrual for a small team is high.
Is PTODesk as good in Slack?
For the core loop, yes — /timeoff opens a request form, the approval card posts to your approvers with approve and deny buttons, and a decision updates balances and the calendar feed. They have had longer to build breadth around it.
When should we stay on Vacation Tracker?
If your team lives entirely in Slack, you are already on Complete, and the per-seat total is comfortable, switching to save money is not a strong enough reason on its own.
Try it against your own numbers
Free for teams up to five, with the whole accrual engine. Import your roster from a CSV, set opening balances, and run it alongside what you have now for a month.
No credit card. Flat monthly price, never per seat.