The absence.io alternative with the full feature set
More than pure absence and holiday management, with project time, client allowances, onboarding workflows and flexible reporting.
All information about absence.io comes from the official provider pages. As at:2. September 2026.
Features in detail
| Feature | MetronHR | absence.io |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert) | 1 | |
| Working-time models (part-time, flexitime, trust-based working time) | ~2 | |
| Shift and duty planning / roster | 3 | 4 |
| Project time tracking / budgets | 5 | |
| Allowances / hour packages | 6 | |
| Onboarding and offboarding workflows | 7 | |
| Analytics & reports | ~8 | |
| API | 9 | ~10 |
Sources and notes (10)
- 1. absence.io, Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert): The product page mentions „automatic calculation of overtime“. Warning levels on the working-time account or an automatic alert when a limit is exceeded are not mentioned there (absence.io/de, retrieved 14 September 2026).
- 2. absence.io, Working-time models (part-time, flexitime, trust-based working time): Flexitime and individual work schedules per employee, no shift planning and no A/B weeks.
- 3. MetronHR, Shift and duty planning / roster: An optional module, included in the Professional plan and activated per company, either as shift planning or as duty planning with a day plan. MetronHR also works entirely without both.
- 4. absence.io, Shift and duty planning / roster: The package overview lists absence, time tracking, personnel files and expenses. Shift or duty planning appears in none of the three packages (absence.io/de/preise-pakete, retrieved 3 September 2026).
- 5. absence.io, Project time tracking / budgets: The Pro package mentions „labels for project time tracking“. Clients and projects as separate objects, activities, budgets and hourly rates are not in the overview (absence.io/de/preise-pakete, retrieved 3 September 2026).
- 6. absence.io, Allowances / hour packages: Client-bound hour packages with renewal and carry-over are not mentioned in the package overview (absence.io/de/preise-pakete, retrieved 3 September 2026).
- 7. absence.io, Onboarding and offboarding workflows: The Complete package mentions „API & automated workflows“. A joining or leaving process with tasks, owners and deadlines is not listed (absence.io/de/preise-pakete, retrieved 3 September 2026).
- 8. absence.io, Analytics & reports: "Reports and downloads" are included from the Starter package. Multi-dimensional, freely filterable evaluations per project or client do not appear in the overview (absence.io/de/preise-pakete, retrieved 03/09/2026).
- 9. MetronHR, API: The open REST API v1 is part of the Professional plan: readable are employees, departments, clients, services, projects, time entries, absences and published shifts, while clients, services, projects, time entries and absences can be changed, each secured by keys with permissions per resource. Outgoing webhooks and the MCP server for AI assistants also belong to Professional. Sign-in via Microsoft Entra ID comes with every plan. Further integrations are agreed individually in the Enterprise offer.
- 10. absence.io, API: Open API only on the Complete plan (7.99 euros per user).
~ = available with limits, the notes are below the table. – = no verified information is available for this provider on this feature. That is not a no: we only record a negative where we can cite a source.
An overview of which features exist at all, regardless of plan. The price-performance comparison is on the pricing page, the individual features in detail under Features.
Feature comparison as at September 2026. Information about competitors comes from publicly available sources, in each case the official provider pages with the date retrieved, and can change. absence.io is a trademark of its respective owner.
MetronHR is also available as a native app for iOS and Android:
Where the data sits
Server location and operator are two different questions. A data centre in Germany does not remove the data from US law: providers with a US parent company fall under the CLOUD Act and the surveillance powers of FISA 702, regardless of where the servers stand. Microsoft's chief legal officer in France testified under oath before the French Senate's committee of inquiry on 10 June 2025 that he could not guarantee that data from European data centres would not go to US authorities (record of the Sénat). That is why both are shown side by side here, each with the source it comes from.
What is compared is what the provider documents for its own application, not the infrastructure of its marketing website. More about our own hosting is in the Trust Center.
MetronHR
- Server location of the application
- Hetzner Online GmbH, Nuremberg and Falkenstein. All servers stand exclusively in Germany.
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- Hetzner Online GmbH, a German company with no US parent and therefore beyond the reach of the CLOUD Act and FISA 702. No US provider sits in the data path for the application.
- Processors outside Germany
- None for the application. Payment is handled by Stripe Payments Europe (Ireland). This marketing website is hosted with Vercel, Inc. (USA, Frankfurt region), and analytics run through PostHog Cloud EU and the reverse proxy cdn.metronhr.de with a Cloudflare edge. No employee data is processed there.
- Source
- MetronHR privacy policyAs at 08/2026
absence.io
- Server location of the application
- Own servers in Germany. The privacy policy states: „all absence.io servers are located in Germany.“
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- absence.io itself, on its own servers. No US hyperscaler is documented as the operator of the application. The privacy policy is from 02/2024, though, and therefore the oldest in this comparison.
- Processors outside Germany
- None named for the application. For the website the policy lists Google, HubSpot, LinkedIn, Crazy Egg and Fonticons in the USA, based on standard contractual clauses.
- Source
- absence.io privacy policyAs at 02/2024
All information comes from the providers' publicly available privacy policies and security pages, and the date retrieved is on every card. Providers can change their infrastructure and their processors at any time. The adequacy decision on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework still applies, but is under legal challenge.
What MetronHR does better
Real project time tracking, not provided for by absence.io
absence.io can record working hours (from the Pro plan) and offers labels for categorising time entries, but no client entities, no project budgets, no activity structures, no reporting per project or client. Anyone who wants to bill project work to clients, monitor budgets or analyse utilisation per project needs a second tool. MetronHR brings full project time tracking with a stopwatch, budgets, activity categories and client hourly rates out of the box.
Client allowances with auto-renewal, not conceptually provided for
Because absence.io knows no real client or project entities, the retainer concept of „an hour package per client, renewed monthly“ cannot be represented either. For agencies, IT service providers and law practices with retainer-based billing, a central function is therefore missing. MetronHR offers client-bound allowances with periodic reset, roll-over of unused hours and a usage view per client, all in one system with personnel files and time tracking.
Onboarding & offboarding as a workflow, instead of a PDF checklist
absence.io lists exactly four modules: holiday planner, time tracking, personnel file, expenses; an onboarding or offboarding workflow is not included. What does exist: a downloadable PDF onboarding checklist as marketing content and personnel questionnaires for self-service entry. Task lists, owners, deadlines and triggers are missing. MetronHR defines reusable workflows with tasks, owners, deadlines and automatic task assignment, documented with editor and timestamp and linked to the personnel file.
Shifts, A/B weeks and parallel models, not representable in absence.io
absence.io supports flexitime and individual work schedules per employee, which covers full-time, part-time and flexitime in principle. What is missing: shift planning (early/late/night), alternating weekly patterns (A/B weeks), real trust-based working time models and different models running in parallel per department. MetronHR offers three-level models (day/week/month), assignable as a tenant default and individually per employee: office flexitime, trust-based working time for sales and warehouse shifts side by side in the same system.
Price comparison
Like for like, the Starter plan contains less than the entry price suggests.
| Service | MetronHR | absence.io |
|---|---|---|
| Absence management | Team 5 euros | Starter 2.99 euros |
| + time tracking | Team 5 euros | Pro 4.99 euros |
| + personnel file, project time, allowances, onboarding & shift planning | included in Professional at 10 euros | personnel file only (Pro 4.99 euros) |
Absence management
- MetronHR
- Team 5 euros
- absence.io
- Starter 2.99 euros
+ time tracking
- MetronHR
- Team 5 euros
- absence.io
- Pro 4.99 euros
+ personnel file, project time, allowances, onboarding & shift planning
- MetronHR
- included in Professional at 10 euros
- absence.io
- personnel file only (Pro 4.99 euros)
absence.io and MetronHR: no minimum term, cancellable monthly. Prices as at 06/2026.
No credit card needed · cancellable monthly
Frequently asked questions
What you need to know about switching from absence.io to MetronHR.
The absence.io Starter plan does begin at 2.99 euros per user, but contains only absence management. Time tracking and personnel files come from Pro (4.99 euros per user), the expenses module and the open API only on Complete (7.99 euros per user). Anyone who needs time and personnel files is therefore not comparing 2.99 euros with 5 euros, but 4.99 euros (absence.io Pro) with 5 euros (MetronHR Team). Project time tracking, client allowances and onboarding workflows come with MetronHR on the Professional plan (10 euros per user), features that absence.io does not offer on any plan.
Starter (2.99 euros per user per month): absence management, reports, standard integrations (Microsoft, Google, Slack), standard support. Pro (4.99 euros per user per month): additionally time tracking, digital personnel file, premium support, SSO. Complete (7.99 euros per user per month): additionally expenses and travel costs with a DATEV connection and open API. Both providers are cancellable monthly, with no minimum term. The difference lies in what each tier contains: time tracking and personnel files cost 4.99 euros at absence.io, while at MetronHR they are included in the Team plan at 5 euros, together with the overtime account and working-time models.
Not in the classic sense. absence.io allows labels to be set on time entries for categorisation, but there is no client entity, no project budgets, no activity structure and no reporting per project or client. For agency-style workflows with project-based billing you need a second tool, or MetronHR directly.
absence.io supports full-time, part-time, flexitime and individual work schedules per employee. Not representable are: shift planning (early/late/night), alternating weekly patterns (A/B), real trust-based working time models and parallel models per department. MetronHR offers these models side by side in the same company, as a tenant default and assignable individually per employee.
Both offer native apps for iOS and Android. absence.io covers the time clock (by QR code), holiday requests and the calendar. The MetronHR app is broader: a stopwatch for project tracking, activity selection, client booking, absence requests and a self-service personnel file.
MetronHR reads employees, departments, clients, services, projects, time entries and absences from a CSV or Excel file, and remaining holiday and the overtime balance come across as a starting value per person. Before you commit, a dry run shows every row individually. What does not come across: the files in the personnel record, which you upload again, and the history of the time accounts. Which export routes absence.io offers for this is not documented here, so it is not claimed here either. For a team under thirty people the switch is a matter of one to two hours, and because absence.io is cancellable monthly you can test in parallel.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
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