Contents
The question behind the question
In the employee posts analysed, the two most common objections to digital time recording are being forced to use a private device and the worry about biometric recording. Both are legitimate. A private phone is private property, and a fingerprint is biometric data under Article 9 GDPR, whose processing is subject to special requirements.
Read in detail
Anyone looking for a terminal is therefore usually looking not just for a device but for a solution that does not start that argument in the first place. A card reader does that; a fingerprint sensor does not.
Six providers with an evidenced terminal solution
This overview is not a complete survey of the market: it lists the providers for which a statement on terminals with a source exists. For the remaining providers among the 23 compared, the evidence is missing, and a row with a question mark would be worse than no row.
Terminal offerings with sources, as of September 2026
| Provider | Hardware | Costs extra |
|---|---|---|
| MetronHR | an Android device with NFC, supplied by you | no, included in the ordinary plan |
| TimeTac | the provider's own hardware terminals | base fee plus a usage fee per module and person |
| askDANTE | the provider's own terminals | hardware separately |
| MEP24 | terminals via an interface to Datafox | yes, recording to the minute with a terminal is an add-on module |
| Ordio | a terminal in the range | yes, legally compliant time recording with a terminal starts with the Plus package from 129 euros per site |
| ZEP | a terminal in the price calculator | yes, added on like absences and overtime |
| Timebutler | a clocking terminal listed on the pricing page | scope varies by package |
Third-party figures from the providers' pricing and feature pages, retrieved on 2 and 3 September 2026. Crewmeister names "time recording with app and terminal" without stating anything about hardware and is therefore not in the table.
MetronHR
- Hardware
- an Android device with NFC, supplied by you
- Costs extra
- no, included in the ordinary plan
TimeTac
- Hardware
- the provider's own hardware terminals
- Costs extra
- base fee plus a usage fee per module and person
askDANTE
- Hardware
- the provider's own terminals
- Costs extra
- hardware separately
MEP24
- Hardware
- terminals via an interface to Datafox
- Costs extra
- yes, recording to the minute with a terminal is an add-on module
Ordio
- Hardware
- a terminal in the range
- Costs extra
- yes, legally compliant time recording with a terminal starts with the Plus package from 129 euros per site
ZEP
- Hardware
- a terminal in the price calculator
- Costs extra
- yes, added on like absences and overtime
Timebutler
- Hardware
- a clocking terminal listed on the pricing page
- Costs extra
- scope varies by package
Third-party figures from the providers' pricing and feature pages, retrieved on 2 and 3 September 2026. Crewmeister names "time recording with app and terminal" without stating anything about hardware and is therefore not in the table.
What the choice comes down to
Not the device. A card reader is a card reader. What differs are three points that only stand out in daily use.
- Dedicated hardware or your own device: anyone able to use a tablet that is already there has no lead time and no spare parts problem.
- What happens in a network outage: a terminal without a buffer is useless during the fault, and the times are missing afterwards.
- What is on the card: a number is not the same as a name with a photo, and that decides how involved codetermination becomes.
What MetronHR does at the terminal, and what it does not
The card is read, nothing else. No fingerprint, no facial image. The card carries a number, and what is stored is a check value from which it cannot be recovered. At the device only clocking is possible: no evaluations, no personnel data, no settings.
Read in detail
If the network fails, the terminal buffers and delivers afterwards. Every booking carries a consecutive number per device and the hash of its predecessor, so that a gap stands out and the same booking does not arrive twice.
Information about competitors comes from their publicly available pages and can change. This is not legal advice; for a specific case in your business it is better to ask someone with a licence to practise.