What are the best time tracking apps for freelancers?

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54

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Considered

283

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Recs.

Jun 27, 2022

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

39 Options Considered

Best time tracking apps for freelancers	Price	Platforms	API
82 Toggl	Free / paid	Windows, Linux, Mac, Mobile	-
66 Timeneye	Paid	Web, Android, iOS	-
-- Hubstaff	Free / paid	Windows, Linux, Mac, Web, Mobile	-
-- TimeCamp	-	-	-
-- Harvest	-	-	-

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score 24 · Answer 1

Toggl

Top Pro

Automatic cloud sync

Toggl Time Tracker other than the free Android app has a web app as well as a desktop app that are free and sync time recorded in each to the cloud, so no matter what device and app that is being used, they are all up to date on the days activities. See More

Top Con

Android app is slow

Render times for the Android app are pretty slow, though the devs do say they are working on it. See More

InquisitiveAsaruludu's Experience

slow, couldn't figure out how to setup this up with master and sub clients and it was slow See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Mobile

Top Pro

Integration with existing services

Integrates with services such as TeamWeek, Pivotal Tracker, Github, Asana, Unfuddle, Gitlab, Trello, Worksection, Redbooth, Podio, Basecamp, JIRA, Producteev, Bitbucket, Stifer, Google Docs, Redmine, YouTrack, CapsuleCRM, Xero, Zendesk, Any.do, Todoist, Trac, Wunderlist, Toodledo, Teamwork.com, Google Mail, Taiga, HabitRPG, Axosoft, Countersoft Gemini, Drupal.org, Esa, Help Scout, Flow, Sprintly, Google Calendar & TestRail. See More

Top Con

Advanced Features are costly

Existing plans leave a few gaps and it quickly gets expensive to add additional features as pricing is per-user. See More

EnthusiasticArshiTengri's Experience

Crashed a lot for me See More

Top Pro

Free for teams up to five

Toggle is free to use for teams of up to 5, there are of course less features such as billing or reports. See More

Top Con

Stable version requires Chrome

The stable version of Toggl on Linux installs as a Chrome app thus Chrome has to be installed on the machine and run (it can be run as a process in the background). A native client is in the works, but it's still in beta. See More

Yanis's Experience

Another good automatic tool I like See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

Toggl has a Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS app as well as a web interface and chrome extension. Basically any device you use you can keep track of time on with this service. See More

Top Con

Desktop app slow

starcrescendo's Experience

Love this app. It has become a reliable part of my day for calculating time. I can make use of the tagging feature in the free version to keep track of time which has been billed or not. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Logging hours spent is simple to do with a few clicks. Works well for simple pricing scenarios (hourly billing, with rate depending on project and person). See More

esparza's Experience

Just can't get enough of this app! Too cool to be true :) See More

Top Pro

Mini Timer

A small timer sitting on your screen which allows you to change the current task quickly. See More

Top Pro

Open source, native Linux desktop client is being worked on

Source code is available on GitHub. See More

See All

score 36 · Answer 2

Timeneye

Top Pro

Straightforward, reliable and portable

Great for small businesses and freelancers as it is easy to use on both a webpage, Chrome plugin and on mobile. See More

Top Con

No start and end times

Sleiman Bassim's Experience

Simple interface. Interactive reports. CSV export. Integration and multiplatform. See More

Specs

Platforms:Web, Android, iOS

Top Pro

Simple and well integrated

With easy integration into things like Google Calendar or Trello users will not have to spend much time setting up this time manager into their workflow. See More

Top Con

Very slow

You have to wait seconds after every single click. Waste of time. See More

Top Pro

Smooth interface and complete management functionalities

Top Con

Features broken

Top Pro

Interactive reports

By institution and by project, weekly and monthly, without time limitation. See More

Top Pro

Data export

CSV and PDF. Entries can be used with other data visualization tools. See More

Top Pro

Well priced

As of 2021, there's just one price of $6 per user per month. See More

Top Pro

Basecamp integration

If you already use Basecamp, you can track time on Timeneye by commenting on Basecamp to-dos with the time spent See More

See All

score 12 · Answer 3

Hubstaff

Top Pro

Automatic payments and payroll

Set up your team to automatically get paid for the hours they log using the Hubstaff app. Just input their hourly rate, the schedule you want them to be paid on (weekly, monthly, bi-weekly?), and integrate with your favorite payment service (PayPal, Payoneer, etc.) See More

Top Con

Task Mangement

Built-in task manager is not too great, it's best to use a third party app for that. It could be much simpler to create and assign tasks, (5/18/2018). See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Web, Mobile

Top Pro

Integrations

Hubstaff integrates with multiple project management tools and will automatically sync to update your task list. See More

Top Con

Free options are fairly limited

Hubstaff has a free tier and two paid tier options with free trials. The free tier allows 1 user with time-tracking and activity levels functionality. If you want the rest of the functionality, you'll have to pay $7 or $10 per month for the basic or premium plan respectively. You can see the full comparison between the tiers on their website. See More

Top Pro

Screenshots

Hubstaff takes randomized screenshots while users are logging time. Frequency can be adjusted and screenshots can be blurred. See More

Top Pro

Idle time indicator

Hubstaff detects when someone has been idle and will notify the user. See More

Top Pro

URL tracking

View the URLs you've visited while tracking time on Hubstaff, and how long you spent on each one. See More

Top Pro

Works offline

Users can track time offline. The software will upload screenshots, activity levels and time logs once the user reconnects to the Internet. See More

Top Pro

Automatic time reports and timesheets

Hubstaff will generate reports based on time tracked by users. These can be filtered by user, project and date and exported as a PDF, CSV or in Quickbooks See More

Top Pro

Activity levels and productivity measures

Activity levels are measured based on keystrokes and mouse movements (which keys were used are not recorded) and give an indication of how productive a user has been while their Hubstaff timer was running. See More

Top Pro

Application monitoring

See which apps you've used while tracking time to Hubstaff and for how long. See More

Top Pro

Work notes

Hubstaff users can attach work notes to their time entries to describe what has been done. See More

Top Pro

Budgets

You can limit how many hours an individual in your organization is allowed to work per week to stay within budget. See More

Top Pro

Has a free tier and trials for paid plans

Free for one user. See More

See All

score 25 · Answer 4

TimeCamp

Top Con

Free Version modified rendering everyone's tracked data useless

A recent change has made the Free Tier completely useless, locking off every single page in the computer time menu to the paid plan, which is simply unacceptable imo. See More

Top Pro

Graphical timesheets

Graphical timesheets placed in the calendar allows for an easy visual representation of how much time was used on what tasks on what hours for what days. See More

Top Con

Can be intrusive

Due to the nature of the app and that it tracks everything a users does it can easily pick up on an employees website usage. Ideally one should not be cruising the web while working but realistically this can be seen as pretty overbearing of an employer. See More

Top Pro

Available for mobile

Users can track time regardless of their time and location. See More

Top Con

Numbers may be off

Instances of incorrect times for certain activities is pretty damning of an app that is supposed to track time accurately. See More

Top Pro

Easiest of time tracking packages

Top Con

Free Version modified rendering everyone's tracked data useless

A recent change has made the Free Tier completely useless, locking off every single page in the computer time menu to the paid plan, which is simply unacceptable imo. See More

Top Pro

Great for teams

This software tracks your activity on PC. You can use timesheets, invite other members to your team, even freelancers. See More

Top Con

No clients

You can't define clients and assign projects. See More

Top Pro

Can help create an invoice

TimeCamp can create an invoice based on your project hours. The app will take care of the math for you, you just need to provide it with the rate and tax. TimeCamp can also export directly to Xero or Quickbooks. See More

Top Pro

Easily check team attendance

At a glance, the team leader can see how much his team has logged in as well as how much time they have taken off. See More

Top Pro

Collaboration

Keeps the team up-to-date with their assignments, delivers the highest level of conversations. See More

Top Pro

Automatic time tracking

Based on keywords users can configure the software to categorize time automatically. See More

Top Pro

Billing

Top Pro

Distractions-free design

Easy to use, even for a person who doesn't know anything about PM. See More

Top Pro

Subtasts

You can easily define subtasks! See More

Top Pro

Mobile app for iOS and Android

Top Pro

Integrations

Integration with Trello allows to track time directly there. See More

Top Pro

Task management feature

You can easily create and delegate task for your team. See More

See All

score 7 · Answer 5

Harvest

Top Con

Doesn't work when offline

Users can not use the software if there is no internet connection to connect to the account. See More

Top Pro

Cross-Platform

You can access the app from the web, iPhone & Android. See More

Top Con

Can't create new projects/tasks from timer

The time tracker chrome plugin does not allow users the ability to create new tasks, all they can do is select from a list of already created tasks. See More

Top Pro

BIlling Integration

Users can easily create bills for clients with the software by using the already recorded worked hours. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 6

RescueTime

Top Con

No desktop client

Top Pro

Weekly email summary

Users and team leaders can get weekly emails that summarize what everyone has been spending their time doing. See More

Top Con

All the tracked data is stored on their servers

Top Pro

Detailed reports

Reports show how you allocate your time between various apps, websites and categories of tools as well as tell you how productive you were and if you've achieved set goals. See More

Top Con

Premium version is pricey

The premium version costs $9/month. See More

Top Pro

Keeps track of set goals

The app allows setting goals and helps keep track of progress towards them in the dashboard and weekly email to motivate you. See More

Top Pro

Simple setup

Starting out with RescueTime is as easy as making an account and installing the software. It really is pretty simple and does not take much time at all. See More

Top Pro

Estimates productivity

Users can customize what constitutes productive time and not, this allows for good flexibility depending on what ones job requirements are. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 7

Emacs Org-mode

Top Pro

Many export options

Using plugins you can export your notes to html, pdf, odt, or any other format that your clients desire See More

Top Con

It's complex

With ultimate flexibility comes complexity. It can take time to learn the system and it can take time to become comfortable inside of emacs See More

Nick Anderson's Experience

Org-mode is amazing. Time tracking from task to task, infinitely flexible configuration and the possibility to integrate with other things like Jira. See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux / OSX / Windows

API:Yes

Collaborative:no

Top Pro

Automatic time tracking and generated reports

Top Pro

Jira integration through org-jira

You can clock time in org-jira entries and they are propagated to the upstream jira instance. See More

See All

score 5 · Answer 8

Timely

Add Video or Image

score 1 · Answer 9

PlanArty

Top Pro

Free version

Specs

Platforms:Web

score 6 · Answer 10

Timing for Mac

Top Pro

Fully automatic

No start/stop timers, no forgetting to track time. See More

Top Con

Only works on one device, no billing, no syncing and no mobile or web apps

Timing has a pretty limited use for a paid app as it only works on one Mac device. There is no cloud sync to get the schedules synced to another device. There is also no billing built into the app. See More

Top Pro

Easy time analysis after the fact

once a users day is finished they can go through the history of the app to pick and choose what tasks are worth keeping for time tracking of the day. This makes it easy in the sense that there is no manual tracking needed to be done, everything is recorded and then can be filtered down to the users work tasks. See More

Top Con

Mac only

Is only compatible with OSX, so is pretty limiting in that regard. See More

Top Pro

No Subscription Needed

The app works completely offline - no user data leaves your computer and you don't have to pay some monthly fee. See More

See All

score 6 · Answer 11

primaERP

Top Pro

It is a smart time tracking app for individuals and/or teams

Shows how much time has been spent and monitors the expenses related. Increases efficiency and helps adjusting hourly rates. Provides easy and fast access for data generated both by local and remote teams. Allows to know the profitability of tasks and projects. Precise and effortless tiime records help billing clients more accurately. See More

Top Con

No native desktop app

The only apps available are for mobile or web based, specifically iOS and Android and ones browser, there is no native desktop app provided nor a chrome plugin, which means the webpage or a mobile device will have to be used. See More

Mike's Experience

The To-Do List makes tracking straightforward. Change tasks by a single click. See More

Top Pro

Multi-Platform

Available online or as a mobile app. See More

Top Con

Features broken

Top Con

Expensive for teams

For any plan the service costs on a per user basis, which can become quite expensive for large teams. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 12

Productivity Challenge Timer

Top Pro

Stats by day,week, month or year

Top Con

The App could stop

Yanis's Experience

Love this app, well done, well thought and motivating ! See More

Top Pro

Motivation rewards

Top Con

Only on phone App

Top Pro

Easy to use

Top Pro

Can't pause the timer

Makes one plan out sessions and work longer See More

See All

score 6 · Answer 13

TrackingTime

Top Pro

Integrations

Lots of integrations for Google, Microsoft, Slack, GitHub etc. See More

Top Pro

Free version

Free for up to 3 users. See More

score 5 · Answer 14

Clockify

Top Pro

Free version available

Top Con

Simple Android app

You can only track time in the app, no dashboard or reports. Although It don't seem to be the case with iOS version. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Web, Mobile

Top Con

Simple Desktop & Linux apps

Limited features, can only track time with no reports or dashboard page. Mac version is better. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 15

Futuramo Time Tracker

Top Pro

Free version

Free for up to 3 users. See More

Szymon Kozak's Experience

Easy to use, smart time tracker with insightful statistics panel - it helps me a lot to analyze my work, better plan future endeavors and work on daily habits See More

Top Pro

Advanced statistics

Find key info on every time record you or your crew have entered. See More

Marek Pasieczny's Experience

Clear design, easy time tracking with possibility to pause and continue tracking when it necessary. See More

Top Pro

Team tracking

Track time together with your team. See who's currently working on what. See More

Magda's Experience

Simply yet very handy app that lets me track time spent on various tasks. See More

Top Pro

Option to continue tracking once introduced task

You can continue tracking previously introduced task - no need to introduce the same task twice. See More

Top Pro

Export to CSV

You can download recorded data in CSV. See More

Top Pro

Manual time recording

You can enter time manually or introduce a desired change (edit or delete a record). See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Easy to use. Log in and start tracking - no extra setup required. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 16

Time Doctor

Top Pro

Easy to use and great UI

You can start tracking time in just 1 click. Also the reports are really useful to track productivity and improvements. See More

Top Con

Expensive

At $10 a month there are cheaper solutions out there for employee monitoring and time tracking. See More

John55's Experience

Great app for tracking time and productivity. I am currently using the green version and it does exactly what I need. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, IOS

Top Pro

Time Doctor tracks work hours and productivity

Excellent at productivity and time monitoring. The desktop client is discreet, the web-based reports are very accurate. See More

Vaishali Badgujar's Experience

Bug free and easy to track time See More

Top Pro

Has email notifications

Users can set up email notifications through the app in order to get activity reports send at certain intervals. See More

Top Pro

All data encrypted

Everything that is sent to Time Doctor's servers is encrypted, so no worries about security. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 17

TimeGuru

Top Pro

Free version

Free for up to 10 users. See More

Top Con

no app, still easy to use from the phone though.

The app missing is not a huge problem for me at all. They have a guide for both Android and Apple on how to get the icon on your phone's homepage, which works just as fine. The only difference is that the system opens up in your mobile browser instead. It almost looks like an app. See More

Charlotte L's Experience

After we discovered TimeGuru, we have experienced a lot more control over the distribution of our employees’ workhours. It is so easy to pull a report over all the employees, customers, even projects. And the employees have expressed their joy with the personal dashboard and worksheet. TimeGuru meets our requirements for a fair price. See More

Specs

Platforms:PC, Mac, Tablet, Phone

Technology:.NET

API:Yes

Collaborative:Yes

Top Pro

Simple userinterface with advanced functions

Top Pro

Helpful support

Top Pro

has every function you need and more, incredibly easy setup guide when you create the system

Even with the app missing, this the most userfriendly system I have tried so far. When creating the system, you follow a very simple guide, that walks you through all the system's modules and functions, and allows you to customize it all to fit your needs. Also, you can easily get the app icon on your phone, that opens up the system in your browser when you click it. It works just as good as an actual app in my opinion. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 18

Time Doctor

Top Pro

Accurate time tracking

Time Doctor is accurate in tracking time and helps save a lot because of accurate time records. Also the alerts help to focus on the tasks and stay productive. See More

Top Con

Cannot edit time from desktop app

It'd be good if edit time functionality is added in the desktop. At present one has to edit time via web app. See More

Oliver Burns's Experience

I've been using the time doctor for 3 months, and I can't imagine a better app. It is accurate in tracking time. I can make and edit own tasks and projects. The application has an intuitive interface and is easy to interact with. See More

Top Pro

Weekly time worked report

ThriftyEpiales's Experience

Time Doctor makes it easy to track where I spend my time. It's like a time recorder for my tasks and the reports produced makes it easy to review my workday. Client invoicing has become easier after I started using Time Doctor. Great app. See More

Top Pro

Time report

You can track time spent on different tasks and compare them See More

Top Pro

Possibility to edit time

See All

score 1 · Answer 19

Desktop Task Timer

Top Pro

Light version available

There is a cheaper light version available for those that don't need the full functionality of the app or would like to try it out without spending the more money on the more expensive version. See More

Top Con

Only available for OSX

Can only be used on OSX devices, which is pretty limiting for those that use multiple OS's. See More

Top Pro

Export time to CSV

Users can export CSV files from the app to use for billing, etc. Though this does require the non light version. See More

Top Pro

An internet connection isn't required

Due to the app having no cloud sync there is no need to have an internet connection for the app to run. Everything it does is local to the device. See More

Top Pro

Sync time across devices using a shared folder

While not necessarily the easiest of options (really more a work around to the apps limited functionality) users can sync the apps files to a shared folder or cloud storage folder in order to have sync'd time across Mac's. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 20

WebWork Time Tracker

Top Pro

Simply structured interface

Very simple, beautiful and eye-catching interface, which makes the work more pleasant. See More

Top Con

No Integrations

It doesn't have any integrations with other services. See More

Jacob Smith's Experience

We are using WebWork Time Tracker for more than 1 year. See More

Top Pro

The cheapest time tracker

WebWork Time Tracker offers the cheapest services to make it affordable for everyone. The price is standard: 2.99 per user per month. Owners can add as many users as they want and pay later, at the end of the month. The payment will be based on the number of team members at the moment of getting an invoice. See More

Top Pro

It is cheap and it works pretty good for a company based on remote workers

Finding an affordable option to manage all team members spread all over the world is hard. WebWork was a life saver. See More

Top Pro

It converts online report into invoices in one click

You don't have to waste your time creating invoices anymore, WebWork does it instead of you in one second. See More

See All

39 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Toggl

My Recommendation for Toggl

Automatic cloud sync

Android app is slow

Integration with existing services

Advanced Features are costly

Free for teams up to five

Stable version requires Chrome

Cross platform

Desktop app slow

Easy to use

Mini Timer

Open source, native Linux desktop client is being worked on

My Recommendation for Timeneye

My Recommendation for Timeneye

Straightforward, reliable and portable

No start and end times

Simple and well integrated

Very slow

Smooth interface and complete management functionalities

Features broken

Interactive reports

Data export

Well priced

Basecamp integration

My Recommendation for Hubstaff

My Recommendation for Hubstaff

Automatic payments and payroll

Task Mangement

Integrations

Free options are fairly limited

Screenshots

Idle time indicator

URL tracking

Works offline

Automatic time reports and timesheets

Activity levels and productivity measures

Application monitoring

Work notes

Budgets

Has a free tier and trials for paid plans

My Recommendation for TimeCamp

My Recommendation for TimeCamp

Free Version modified rendering everyone's tracked data useless

Graphical timesheets

Can be intrusive

Available for mobile

Numbers may be off

Easiest of time tracking packages

Free Version modified rendering everyone's tracked data useless

Great for teams

No clients

Can help create an invoice

Easily check team attendance

Collaboration

Automatic time tracking

Billing

Distractions-free design

Subtasts

Mobile app for iOS and Android

Integrations

Task management feature

My Recommendation for Harvest

My Recommendation for Harvest

Doesn't work when offline

Cross-Platform

Can't create new projects/tasks from timer

BIlling Integration

My Recommendation for RescueTime

My Recommendation for RescueTime

No desktop client

Weekly email summary

All the tracked data is stored on their servers

Detailed reports

Premium version is pricey

Keeps track of set goals

Simple setup

Estimates productivity

My Recommendation for Emacs Org-mode