JobGate vs AttendIQ: QR sign-in vs GPS clock-in compared (2026)
A scan at the door or a GPS geofence; flags or blocks; no contract or a 12-month one. The two compared.
- AttendIQ clocks people in and out with a GPS geofence in its app, with facial recognition on its top plan. JobGate reads location once when the worker scans the sign on the door; nothing runs in between.
- AttendIQ blocks entry on an expired card or a missing qualification. JobGate flags it to the office and never stops anyone at the gate (the one exception: machine use is refused without a valid card).
- AttendIQ: £4.50 or £7 per worker a month, minimum 25 workers, £1,000 to £1,500 set-up, 12-month rolling contract. JobGate: £5 per worker a month, £30 minimum, no set-up fee, no contract.
- Both export to payroll; both do inductions, cards, toolbox talks and permits; AttendIQ adds a subcontractor prequalification portal and supply-chain scoring on its top plan.
AttendIQ and JobGate both charge per worker and both aim at UK contractors who want attendance and compliance in one place. The difference is in how they get the attendance, what they do when something is wrong, and what you sign up to. This page sets them side by side.
We make JobGate, so we are not neutral. Everything here about other products comes from their own websites on 3 November 2026 and may have changed since. “Not mentioned” means we could not find it on the supplier’s site, not that it does not exist. If you spot a mistake, email hello@jobgate.uk and we will correct it.
Who each one is for
AttendIQ positions itself for Tier 2 and 3 main contractors as a lighter alternative to MSite: GPS clock-in without turnstiles, CSCS rules enforced at every clock-in, and on its Complete plan a kiosk with facial recognition, subcontractor document collection and modern-slavery alerts. Its free Foundation plan tracks cards for up to 250 workers with no clock-in.
JobGate is for contractors of five to a hundred people who want sign-in and signed safety paperwork from one scan, timesheets from the same scan, and no tracking. It is a web page, not an app, so visitors and a subcontractor in for a day use the same sign.
Side by side
| JobGate | AttendIQ | |
|---|---|---|
| How people sign in | Scan the QR sign on the door with the phone camera. Optional gate tablet. | GPS geofenced clock-in in the AttendIQ app; facial-recognition kiosk on Complete. |
| Location | Read once at the scan, with the phone asking first. No background tracking. | Geofence (radius, polygon on Complete). Face or fingerprint check at clock-in. |
| Blocking or flagging | Flags. Off-site scan, no location, missing card, unsigned paperwork: the office is told, the person is not stopped. | Blocks entry on an expired card, a missing qualification or a failed right-to-work rule. |
| App | None. | Native app. |
| Inductions and safety paperwork | Site rules, RAMS, COSHH and any uploaded document read and signed before work; AI-drafted RAMS; subcontractors’ own RAMS; who still has to sign with reminders. | Custom online inductions; 35 ready-made forms (toolbox talks, permits, near miss, inspections); form builder on Complete. |
| Cards | Cards and tickets typed in and checked by the office, with expiry dates shown; machine use refused without a valid card. | CSCS, CPCS, CISRS library; expiry alerts at 90, 60, 30 and 7 days; competency check at every clock-in. |
| Timesheets and payroll | From the scans; pay rules; Sage, Xero, BrightPay, QuickBooks, IRIS, Moneysoft; CIS sheet; approvals add-only. | Payroll-ready export on Essential; multi-stage approval, pay rates, Xero and QuickBooks on Complete; CIS/UTR. |
| Visitors and subcontractors | Same sign; visitors free; subcontractors’ operatives counted only after five days in a month; free document account for subcontractor firms. | Visitor management on Complete; subcontractor portal; prequalification and supply-chain scoring on Complete. |
| Records | Add-only; sealed tamper-evident weekly PDF; public check page. | Compliance export; reports. |
| Accident book | Accident book with RIDDOR, amendments kept. | Near-miss and incident forms. |
| Languages | 23. | Not mentioned. |
| Price | £5 per worker a month, £30 minimum, no set-up fee, no contract, 30 days free. | Foundation free (cards only). Essential £4.50 and Complete £7 per worker a month, minimum 25 workers, annual or monthly; £1,000 or £1,500 set-up; 12-month rolling contract, 30 days’ notice; 30-day trial. |
The real cost
For 25 workers, the smallest AttendIQ will sell to: Essential is £112.50 a month plus £1,000 to start, and you are in for a year, so £2,350 in year one. JobGate is £125 a month, £1,500 in year one, and you can stop next month. For 60 workers on Complete: AttendIQ £420 a month plus £1,500, £6,540 in year one; JobGate £300 a month, £3,600. Below 25 workers AttendIQ does not sell a paid plan at all.
What you get for AttendIQ’s extra on Complete is real: facial recognition at a kiosk, polygon geofences, a form builder, multi-stage approval, supply-chain scoring, fatigue monitoring. If you are a main contractor who needs those, the price is the price. If you are a fit-out firm with forty people across six jobs, you probably do not.
Choose AttendIQ if
- You want the gate to refuse people automatically on card or qualification status.
- You want GPS geofencing and facial recognition rather than a scan.
- You need subcontractor prequalification scoring, modern-slavery alerts and fatigue monitoring.
- You have 25 or more workers and a year’s commitment is fine.
Choose JobGate if
- You do not want operatives tracked by GPS or scanned by a camera, and they do not either.
- You want flags to the office rather than people held at the gate.
- You want the safety paperwork signed on the way in, not only attendance recorded.
- You want no app, no set-up fee, no contract, and a price that works from six people up.
Questions
Is a scan at the door as reliable as a GPS geofence?
For proving someone was there, yes: the scan records the time and a single location reading at that moment, and a scan away from the site is flagged. A geofence is more automatic (nobody has to scan) at the cost of running location in the background all day. JobGate chose the scan on purpose.
Does JobGate check CSCS cards at sign-in?
Cards are held on each person’s profile with expiry dates, and the Cards and training page shows what is expiring. JobGate does not refuse sign-in on card status; it flags. The one place it does refuse is machine use: a pre-use check on a machine will not pass without a valid card for it.
Can I try either without paying?
Both offer 30 days free. AttendIQ’s trial covers up to 25 workers; its paid plans then need a set-up fee and a 12-month contract. JobGate’s trial needs no card and the plan after it is month to month.
Which has the better subcontractor tools?
AttendIQ’s Complete plan has a prequalification portal with CHAS and SSIP document collection and a supply-chain score. JobGate has a request link where you type what you need from a subcontractor (insurance, RAMS, cards), reviews and sends back, insurance checked against a minimum and chased before expiry, and a free account for the subcontractor to keep their documents. AttendIQ goes further on prequalification; JobGate goes further on getting the subcontractor’s operatives signed on site.