The TimeTac alternative with a personnel file rather than time management alone
TimeTac covers time tracking, project time and holiday. MetronHR brings the personnel file, onboarding workflows, shift planning and client allowances in the same plan, with no base fee and no module calculation.
All information about TimeTac comes from the official provider pages. As at:2. September 2026.
Features in detail
Sources and notes (8)
- 1. TimeTac, Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert): TimeTac warns automatically in the hours statement when stored requirements have not been met. A traffic-light account with several named warning levels does not appear on the product page, however; the term appears only in its own time tracking glossary (timetac.com/de/personalzeiterfassung, retrieved 14 September 2026).
- 2. 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.
- 3. TimeTac, Shift and duty planning / roster: TimeTac records working time but does not plan it. The provider does not list shift or duty planning among its modules.
- 4. TimeTac, Allowances / hour packages: Project times can be recorded and analysed. Client-bound hour packages with periodic renewal and carry-over of unused hours are not documented.
- 5. TimeTac, Digital Employee File: No digital personnel file is named on the home page, the module overview or the pricing page. TimeTac manages employees for time management, not as a personnel file with contracts and documents.
- 6. TimeTac, Onboarding and offboarding workflows: TimeTac's „onboarding service“ is a paid service for setting up your own account, not a workflow for new employees joining.
- 7. MetronHR, Hosting operator without a US parent company: The operator is Hetzner Online GmbH, a German company with no US parent. This marketing website is hosted with Vercel, Inc. (USA) in the Frankfurt region, where no employee data is processed.
- 8. TimeTac, Hosting operator without a US parent company: TimeTac names Germany as its main server location and further locations in EU countries, but names no operator. The provider is TimeTac GmbH from Graz, so a company with no US parent.
~ = 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. TimeTac 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
TimeTac
- Server location of the application
- Exclusively data centres within the EU, with the main server location in Germany. For resilience TimeTac runs further locations in other EU countries with live replication and daily backups.
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- Not named. The provider is TimeTac GmbH from Graz, Austria, with no US parent. TimeTac is certified to ISO 27001 and carries the „Certified Cloud“ seal of the German Cloud Ecosystem programme.
- Processors outside Germany
- The data protection page names none for the application. For the website and operations the consent manager includes Cloudflare, Google, Microsoft, HubSpot, Hotjar, Segment, Zoho and Datadog, among others.
- Source
- TimeTac data protection and data securityabgerufen 02.09.2026
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.
Connections to other software
TimeTac
- DATEV interface
- open API
The feature overview names no more. A short list is no disadvantage in this market; TimeTac has been established for years.
Source: The provider's feature overview, retrieved on03.09.2026.
MetronHR
MetronHR connects to no other software today. What exists: the export as Excel and CSV for every report, plus an iCal feed that carries absences and the duty plan into Outlook and Google. Lexware Office and sevdesk come next.
A long list of connections is not the price of entry in this market: two of the five providers surveyed name only two to four connections themselves.
What MetronHR does better
The personnel file in the same system as the time
TimeTac is time management: record, evaluate, report, hand over to payroll. What is left aside is the personnel work. Contracts, salary letters, social security, health insurance, documents with expiry dates and self-service for employees are not named in the module overview. MetronHR keeps the file per person, with role permissions, expiry reminders and access for employees themselves, linked to the same time management.
Recording and planning in the same tool
TimeTac records when someone worked. Anyone planning when someone should work needs a second tool. MetronHR plans shifts with templates and patterns and the day in 15-minute steps with activities, staffing rules and qualification requirements. Target and planned hours appear per person in the plan, and the actual times feed into the same report.
The price is on the pricing page
At TimeTac the base fee of 19.50 euros a month is on the page, but the module prices per person appear only once you select modules and a user count in the calculator. They are nowhere available as a list for comparison. At MetronHR there are two figures: 5 euros per person on Team, 10 euros on Professional, with no base fee, no module selection, cancellable monthly.
Client allowances with renewal and carry-over
TimeTac records project time and reports on it. For service providers that sell hour packages, the layer above is missing: the allowance per client that renews monthly or quarterly and carries unused hours over. MetronHR keeps exactly that, with a usage view, automatic renewal and a prepared invoice.
Price comparison
TimeTac charges a base fee per company and a usage fee per module and person on top. The module prices are not on the pricing page as a list; they appear only in the calculator after selection.
| Service | MetronHR | TimeTac |
|---|---|---|
| Base fee, independent of the number of users | none | 19.50 euros a month |
| Price per person | 5 euros Team, 10 euros Professional, in full on the pricing page | Usage fee per activated module, the amount visible only in the calculator |
| Time tracking, holiday and project time together | included in Professional | three modules, each charged separately per person |
| Personnel file, onboarding workflows, shift planning | included in Professional | not available |
| Stationary terminal | Terminal operation on an existing Android tablet, at no extra charge | Hardware terminal from 29.90 euros a month, multi-user app 10 euros a month |
| Trial period | 14 days. | 30 days |
Base fee, independent of the number of users
- MetronHR
- none
- TimeTac
- 19.50 euros a month
Price per person
- MetronHR
- 5 euros Team, 10 euros Professional, in full on the pricing page
- TimeTac
- Usage fee per activated module, the amount visible only in the calculator
Time tracking, holiday and project time together
- MetronHR
- included in Professional
- TimeTac
- three modules, each charged separately per person
Personnel file, onboarding workflows, shift planning
- MetronHR
- included in Professional
- TimeTac
- not available
Stationary terminal
- MetronHR
- Terminal operation on an existing Android tablet, at no extra charge
- TimeTac
- Hardware terminal from 29.90 euros a month, multi-user app 10 euros a month
Trial period
- MetronHR
- 14 days.
- TimeTac
- 30 days
Information per timetac.com/de/unternehmen/preise, retrieved on 2 September 2026, excluding VAT. With annual payment TimeTac waives two monthly fees. A reliable total price cannot be formed without stating the module selection in the calculator, so what stands here is the pricing model rather than a sample calculation with invented module prices.
No credit card needed · cancellable monthly
FromTimeTac moving to MetronHR
Your data comes with you.TimeTac hands them over as a file, MetronHR reads people, personal data, hours and absences out of it, and before anything is taken over you see row by row what will happen. For a team under thirty people that is a matter of one to two hours, most of it spent putting the file together.
- 1
AtTimeTac export
- The hours statement via bulk editing as CSV or XLSX, filtered by period, department or person
- 2
Load the template and map the columns
The template comes as Excel and as CSV, with a second sheet that states for every column whether it is required, its format, an example and the permitted values. If your file's header row matches, the mapping falls away entirely. Otherwise the assistant proposes the mapping and marks everything that did not match word for word.
- 3
Check, then take it over
The dry run is mandatory and writes nothing. It shows for every row whether it will be created, changed, skipped or rejected, naming the column and the value behind the finding. Only the second click takes it over, in one transaction. The default is "create new ones only", and an empty cell never changes a value that has been maintained.
Export routes fromTimeTac according to TimeTac, exporting hours statements, retrieved on06.09.2026.
Comes with you
- People, with staff number, work address and employment contract
- Remaining holiday and the overtime balance as an opening value per person
- Departments, clients, services and projects
- Time entries and absences for the current year
- Public holidays, including regions that differ
Does not come with you
- Files from the old personnel file, they are uploaded again
- The history of an hours account, MetronHR starts from the opening value
How the move works in detail, what the dry run shows and why no invitation email goes out with it is set out on the page switching time tracking.
Frequently asked questions
What you need to know about switching from TimeTac to MetronHR.
TimeTac charges a base fee of 19.50 euros a month for the company and a usage fee per activated module and person on top. What those amounts are per module is not on the pricing page; they appear only in the calculator. On top come hardware terminals from 29.90 euros a month and multi-user access for 10 euros a month. MetronHR costs 5 euros per person on the Team plan and 10 euros on Professional, with no base fee and with all the features of the respective plan. As at 2 September 2026.
Yes, that is what TimeTac from Graz is built for: it also covers the legal frameworks in Austria and Switzerland and offers the interface in English and Spanish. MetronHR is designed for German working time law, and in depth: the Working Time Act, the Minimum Wage Act, a public holiday calendar for all 16 federal states, a check of every entry against maximum working time, rest periods and breaks. Anyone employing exclusively in Germany gets the more precise representation with it.
By its own account TimeTac runs data centres exclusively within the EU, with the main server location in Germany and further locations in EU countries for resilience. The provider names no operator. TimeTac is certified to ISO 27001. MetronHR runs at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, and the operator is named in the Trust Center.
A digital personnel file with contracts, documents and expiry reminders, onboarding and offboarding workflows, shift and duty planning, client-bound hour packages and project budgets with a target-actual traffic light. TimeTac in turn goes deeper on time management and payroll handover and sells its own hardware from 29.90 euros a month; MetronHR turns an existing Android tablet into a terminal, with no rented device.
Yes. TimeTac offers reports and an API through which time, project and absence data can be extracted. From those you carry over master data, hour balances and holiday balances. Worth checking is the hardware: TimeTac terminals work only with TimeTac. MetronHR uses an Android tablet as a terminal, which you can keep using or buy new.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
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