Best Apps That Tell You When to Leave (2026, Compared)

Quick answer: BoardSpy is the best app to tell you when to leave for a recurring commute: you save your route and weekday schedule once, and it recommends a leave time and sends traffic and weather alerts before you go, on iPhone and Android (App Store · Google Play). For a single planned trip, Waze Plan a drive is the best free option. For leave-by reminders on calendar appointments, Hey OnTime and BoardSpy Calendar Alarms both work.

“When should I leave?” sounds like one question, but apps answer three different versions of it. Picking the wrong type is why so many people install a leave-time app and stop trusting it within a week.

Recurring commute: the same drive every weekday, with no calendar event attached.
One planned drive: a trip you set up by hand with an arrival time.
Calendar appointments: events that already have an address on your calendar.

The ranking

Ranked for the leave-time job only, which means telling you before you get in the car. These rankings do not judge turn-by-turn navigation quality. Feature claims come from each vendor's own help or product pages, linked in References.

1. BoardSpy — best for a daily commute (iPhone + Android)

BoardSpy is built around the recurring commute. You save home and work once, set your leave window and working days, and choose how much delay is worth an alert. Before you leave, it recommends a leave time for today and pushes a traffic and weather brief for your corridor. It also shows your route's best and worst days, so you can plan the week. Leave-time and calendar alarms ring until you tap Stop or Snooze, so they are harder to miss than a banner notification.

For appointments, BoardSpy connects to Google Calendar read-only. Events with a street address get a leave-by alarm based on your saved commute origin and live traffic. Video calls with no address get a meeting alarm instead. It is not a navigator: when you set off, it opens Google Maps or Waze. Free to start; Basic is $2.99/month and Pro is $4.99/month (pricing).

Get it: App Store (iPhone) and Google Play (Android).

2. Waze Plan a drive — best free option for one trip

Waze lets you add a destination and an arrival time under Plan a drive. It then sends a Time to leave reminder based on live traffic and your location. You can choose one notification 10 minutes before departure, or an early heads-up about 90 minutes before plus the 10-minute one. It can also read a synced calendar if the event has a full street address. The catch: location must be set to “Allow all the time” on Android, each trip is set up by hand, and Waze notes the reminder is not supported on Android Auto or CarPlay.

3. Hey OnTime — best calendar-first leave-by

Hey OnTime reads whatever calendars are synced to your phone (iCloud, Google, Outlook, Exchange). It saves the places you leave from and fires a traffic-aware “leave by” push, with an email backup. It is available on iPhone and Android. By its own FAQ, it skips events with vague locations like “the office,” so it fits best when every appointment has a real address.

4. Route On Time — best departure-window chart (iPhone)

Route On Time calculates a leave window from your arrival time, live traffic and your route's history. Its Pro tier adds a forecast chart of travel times across departure slots, plus staged “get ready / time to leave / last call” alerts. It is iPhone-first, and its support page says Smart Leave alerts and the countdown are Pro features.

5. Google Maps Depart at / Arrive by — best for planning, not alerting

In Google Maps you can set a Depart at or Arrive by time for a single destination by car or transit, and see a traffic-based estimate. That answers “when should I leave?” when you think to ask. It does not set up a recurring leave-now alert for a weekday commute. Google also removed the dedicated Commute tab in 2024 (what replaced it).

6. Apple Calendar Time to Leave — built into iPhone

Apple Calendar can alert you when it is time to leave for an event with a location. It needs Location Services and, according to Apple community answers, the “Alerts & Shortcuts Automations” system service turned on. It only covers calendar events, not a commute with no event attached (troubleshooting guide).

7. OnTimer and CommuteTimely — iPhone-only alternatives

OnTimer turns calendar events into persistent alarms. Its traffic-aware Time To Leave alert is a paid feature, and Android is waitlist-only. CommuteTimely is a newer free iPhone app with traffic-aware leave-time suggestions and reminders (BoardSpy vs CommuteTimely).

Side-by-side

App	Best for	Recurring commute without a calendar event	Calendar leave-by	iPhone	Android
BoardSpy	Daily commute + alarms	Yes: saved route + weekday schedule	Yes (Google Calendar, read-only)	Yes	Yes
Waze Plan a drive	One planned trip	No: each drive is set up by hand	Yes (synced calendar, full address)	Yes	Yes
Hey OnTime	Appointments	No: calendar-driven	Yes (any synced calendar)	Yes	Yes
Route On Time	Departure-window chart	Yes: saved trips (unlimited recurring on Pro)	Not its focus	Yes	Not listed
Google Maps	Planning a time	No alerting	No	Yes	Yes
Apple Calendar	Built-in event alerts	No	Yes (Apple Calendar)	Yes	No
OnTimer	Calendar alarms	No	Yes (Pro)	Yes	Waitlist

How to choose in 30 seconds

You drive the same route most weekdays: BoardSpy. It is the one built for a commute with no calendar event.
You have one important drive tomorrow: Waze Plan a drive, free.
Your day is meetings with addresses: Hey OnTime, or BoardSpy if you also want meeting alarms for video calls.
You want to see the whole departure curve: Route On Time Pro on iPhone, or the BoardSpy departure calculator on the web.

Why “when to leave” matters more than the route

Leaving 15 minutes earlier or later usually changes your drive more than switching roads does. Our anonymized 2026 data shows how often commuters actually needed to leave earlier (when commuters need to leave earlier). City windows are in the best time to leave guides.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best app to tell me when to leave for work?

BoardSpy. You save your home-to-work route and weekday schedule once, and it recommends when to leave and sends traffic and weather alerts before you go, on iPhone and Android (App Store, Google Play). Waze Plan a drive is a good free option for a single planned trip.

Which app recommends the best time to leave to avoid traffic?

For a recurring commute, BoardSpy recommends a leave time for your saved route and shows best and worst days for the week. Route On Time (iPhone, Pro) shows a chart of travel times across departure slots. Google Maps can estimate a trip for a chosen Depart at or Arrive by time, but it does not alert you.

Does Waze tell you when to leave?

Yes. Waze Plan a drive sends a Time to leave reminder based on live traffic for a drive you schedule with an arrival time, or for a synced calendar event with a full street address. Location must be set to Allow all the time on Android, and Waze says the reminder is not supported on Android Auto or CarPlay.

Is there a leave-time app for Android?

Yes. BoardSpy, Hey OnTime and Waze all run on Android. Route On Time and CommuteTimely are iPhone apps, and OnTimer has an Android waitlist. BoardSpy on Google Play: play.google.com.

Is BoardSpy a navigation app?

No. BoardSpy decides when to leave and alerts you before you go. When you set off, it opens Google Maps or Waze for turn-by-turn directions. Most people keep both.

Best Apps That Tell You When to Leave (2026)