Time tracking covers two jobs that buyers confuse: recording hours against clients and projects so they can be billed, and recording attendance so hours worked are a legal record.
This guide separates the two, then ranks the products on setup effort, what the per-user price becomes with the reporting you need, and how the raw hours export.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What time tracking software does
Time tracking software records hours against a client, project or shift, approves them, and turns the result into an invoice line, a payroll input or a working-time record.
Ranking criteria for this time tracking tool list, applied top to bottom: effort to get started, cost in practice, data return, ability to leave, buyer fit. A challenger rule applies on top. Places 1 to 3 are kept for lesser-known vendors when the category has them; large brands rank from 4. For why these five were chosen, and why nothing here gets a numeric score, see how we work.
Per seat on monthly, quarterly or annual billing; a Free plan exists; 14-day trial on paid plans; Enterprise by quotation
Yes
Teams wanting timesheets, schedules and client invoices in one seat-priced tool
Organisations needing stated data hosting or an open-source licence
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the entry says so.
German timesheet tool built around working-time law and break rules
Ranked #1 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Clockodo is the rare product that treats German working-time recording as a core requirement rather than a compliance afterthought, covering break rules, overtime accounts and absence beside ordinary project time, hosted in Germany.
For a Mittelstand agency or engineering office that is the whole shopping list in one subscription. It is plain software with a modest feature curve, the English side is weaker, and outside the German-speaking market most of its advantage disappears.
What stands out
Working-time rules
German vendor
Published pricing
Where it costs you
Little value outside German-speaking markets
English documentation trails the German
Right for
German companies needing project hours and legal time records together
Wrong for
International teams working in English across several countries
Kimai is the independence answer in this category: open source, self-hostable, no per-user licence, and a database you can query without asking anyone's permission. For agencies with technical staff and a data-residency requirement, that combination beats any feature list.
The cost is real work. Updates, backups and PHP hosting are yours, the apps are weaker, and community support means a forum. The hosted plan buys convenience but gives back some of the point.
What stands out
Open source
Self-hostable
No vendor lock-in
Where it costs you
You run the hosting, updates and backups
Mobile experience is behind the commercial products
Right for
Technical teams that want the hours on their own server
Wrong for
Companies without anyone to maintain a server
AustriaFree self-hosted; hosted plan per user per month, published
Time tracking against project budgets, priced by projects rather than users
Ranked #3 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Tick's idea is simple and still rare: show the budget on the timer. Staff see how many hours a project has left before they start, and managers see overruns while they can still act.
Pricing by projects instead of seats suits a studio with many part-time contributors. The costs are what it leaves out. There is no invoicing, no attendance or legal working-time record, and the vendor is small enough that continuity is a fair question to ask.
What stands out
Project budgets
Unlimited users
Small vendor
Where it costs you
No invoicing; hours go to an accounting tool for billing
Small team and a slow pace of new features
Right for
Agencies and studios tracking hours against fixed project budgets with many staff
Wrong for
Employers needing attendance records or a legal working-time record
United StatesMonthly plan by number of projects, published; unlimited users
One-click timers that people keep using after week three
Ranked #4 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Toggl Track wins on the only metric that matters for billable time: how little friction there is between deciding to track and tracking. Timers start from a keyboard shortcut, a browser button or a phone, and idle detection catches the ones left running.
Rates, projects and client reports are all there. It is firmly a timesheet product, so if you need clock-in terminals, statutory break records or overtime accounts, you are looking at the wrong half of this category.
What stands out
Free tier
Published pricing
Estonian vendor
Where it costs you
No attendance, break or overtime rules
Payroll requires an export rather than an integration
Right for
Agencies and consultancies billing client hours from a timer
Wrong for
Shift workplaces needing a legal attendance record
EstoniaFree tier; paid per user per month, published
Timesheets, billing rates and automatic app tracking together
Ranked #5 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
TimeCamp offers most of what Toggl Track does for less money, plus automatic capture of which applications and websites were used, which recovers hours people forget to log. For a small agency watching costs that combination is hard to beat on price.
The interface is denser and the desktop client occasionally needs restarting. In Germany, Austria or the Netherlands, switching on automatic capture is a conversation with the works council first, not an admin setting.
What stands out
Published pricing
Billing rates
Polish vendor
Where it costs you
Desktop app is less reliable than the leaders
Automatic tracking raises works council questions
Right for
Cost-conscious teams wanting billable hours and automatic application capture together
Wrong for
Companies where employee monitoring is politically or legally sensitive
PolandFree tier; paid per user per month, published
Free for up to five users, with the paid features clearly fenced
Ranked #6 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Clockify's free plan covers up to five users, and above that the per-user price is among the lowest on this page, which changes the arithmetic for a company of eighty where the hours are useful but nobody will sign off an expensive seat licence.
Kiosk mode, from the Basic plan, lets a shared tablet act as a clock, a bridge most timesheet tools do not build. The Standard tier holds the features finance actually wants: approvals, locked timesheets, invoicing. The product is Serbian-built under an American parent, so the jurisdiction is American.
What stands out
Free for small teams
Kiosk mode
US parent
Where it costs you
Approvals and invoicing are paid features
Data sits under a United States parent company
Right for
Small teams that fit the free plan, or larger ones wanting a low per-user price
Wrong for
Buyers who need data held by a European entity
United StatesFree plan for up to 5 users; paid per user per month, published
Records your activity first, then turns it into timesheets
Ranked #7 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Timely inverts the usual design: the machine records a private timeline of what you did, visible only to you, and you turn that into timesheet entries afterwards.
Nobody has to remember to press start, and no manager gets a monitoring feed, which keeps it defensible in European workplaces. The categorisation is helpful rather than finished, so review time remains. The price per user is at the top of this list and there is no attendance side at all.
What stands out
Automatic capture
Norwegian vendor
Private by default
Where it costs you
Expensive per user for the category
Automatic categorisation still needs human correction
Right for
Professionals who forget to start timers but must bill accurately
Wrong for
Teams needing attendance records, or working to tight budgets
Project time and client billing without the extra modules
Ranked #8 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
My Hours does project time, rates per task and client-ready reports for less than most of this page charges, and the reports are legible enough to attach to an invoice without editing. For a consultancy of five to twenty people that is the requirement in full.
The limits are integrations and scope: a short connector list that needs the Pro plan, no scheduling, and only basic attendance, since the vendor sells proper attendance and absence tracking as a separate product.
What stands out
Client billing
Simple setup
Slovenian vendor
Where it costs you
Short integration list, and only on the Pro plan
Full attendance tracking is a separate product, All Hours
Right for
Small consultancies billing clients by project and task rate
Wrong for
Companies needing scheduling, attendance or deep integrations
SloveniaFree tier; paid per user per month, published
Timesheets that turn hours into cost data for grants and projects
Ranked #9 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
ClickTime is bought by the finance team, which explains both its strength and its weakness. Hours arrive already costed, split by grant, project or department, and in the shape an auditor or a funder asks for, which spares nonprofit finance staff a monthly spreadsheet.
The staff who fill it in get a functional but plain experience, so adoption needs reminders. Price the plan that includes approvals and budgets, since the entry tier is mostly a timesheet.
What stands out
Cost allocation
Nonprofit grants
Published pricing
Where it costs you
Entry plan omits the approval and budgeting features
Timer and apps are plainer than time-first rivals
Right for
Nonprofits and consultancies allocating staff time to grants and project budgets
Wrong for
Freelancers who only need a timer and an invoice
United StatesPer user per month by plan, published
Free attendance clock with kiosk mode and face recognition
Ranked #10 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Jibble is the cheapest honest route to a clock-in and clock-out record: a shared tablet in kiosk mode, a phone app with location, face recognition against buddy punching, and a free tier that covers most of it.
For a workshop or a cleaning firm that has never recorded attendance, it is a sensible first system. Face data makes it special-category processing in the EU, so document the assessment first, and expect to export to payroll rather than integrate.
What stands out
Free attendance
Kiosk mode
Face recognition
Where it costs you
Biometric clock-in needs a data protection assessment in the EU
Payroll and scheduling features are shallow
Right for
Small employers needing an attendance record without a licence budget
Wrong for
Project teams billing tracked hours to their clients
United KingdomFree core product; paid per user per month, published
Online time clock with GPS, photo punches and payroll exports
Ranked #11 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Buddy Punch is a straightforward attendance product: employees punch in from a phone, a browser or a kiosk, the manager sees who is late, and approved hours go to payroll without retyping.
GPS and a photo at the punch deal with buddy punching, as the name promises. Its assumptions are American, from overtime to the payroll providers it connects to, so European employers must check the working-time record meets local law. Project costing is thin.
What stands out
Time clock
Payroll exports
Published pricing
Where it costs you
Payroll integrations and overtime logic follow US practice
Base fee on top of per-user pricing
Right for
US employers replacing paper timecards for hourly staff across locations
Wrong for
Consultancies and agencies billing tracked hours to client projects
United StatesPer user per month plus a base fee, published
GPS time clock built for construction and field crews
Ranked #12 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
ClockShark sits between the two halves of this category: it clocks people in where they actually stand, with GPS and offline tolerance, and it allocates those hours to a job and a cost code so the project margin is real.
For contractors that combination is rare. The limits are geographic and commercial: the payroll integrations and overtime logic assume American practice, and the base fee on top of per-user pricing punishes teams of three.
What stands out
GPS clock-in
Job costing
Offline capable
Where it costs you
Payroll and tax assumptions are American
A base fee makes very small crews expensive per head
Right for
Construction and field crews costing hours to jobs on site
Wrong for
Office teams, or employers needing European payroll integration
United StatesPer user per month plus a base fee, published
Tracking with screenshots and activity scores for remote teams
Ranked #13 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Hubstaff is built for paying people by the hour at a distance: screenshots, activity percentages, optional location, and an invoice at the end of it. Where the contractor has knowingly agreed to that, it removes an argument.
Applied to salaried staff it does the opposite, and in the EU the legal basis for continuous screenshot monitoring is narrow enough that most employers should not try. Note the minimum seat count when comparing the entry price.
What stands out
Screenshots
Activity levels
GPS option
Where it costs you
Monitoring features corrode trust in salaried teams
Minimum seat count raises the effective price
Right for
Companies paying hourly contractors who agreed to be monitored
Wrong for
Salaried European employees under works council agreements
United StatesPer seat per month, published, with a minimum seat count
Project time and attendance with country compliance rules, now part of Deltek
Ranked #14 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Replicon is the answer when the same person's hours must feed both a client invoice and a payroll run in several countries. Its compliance rules handle overtime and working-time limits per jurisdiction, and project time carries rates and approvals.
The redirect to Deltek tells the other half of the story: it is now part of a project-business suite, so expect the sales process to point there, quoted pricing, and a services team in the implementation.
What stands out
Enterprise timesheets
Compliance rules
Deltek-owned
Where it costs you
Quoted pricing and a months-long implementation
Now one product inside Deltek's wider suite
Right for
Multinational services firms needing project time and attendance under one rulebook
Workforce management where time feeds an HR and payroll suite
Ranked #15 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
UKG Ready is workforce management rather than time tracking: scheduling, attendance, accruals, absence and payroll inside one suite, with a rules engine that copes with union agreements and layered overtime policies.
For a hospital group or a manufacturer with a thousand hourly staff, that is the right class of product. For anyone smaller it is a quoted price, a long implementation, an American vendor holding employment data, and modules that stay switched off.
What stands out
Full workforce suite
Accrual rules
Implementation project
Where it costs you
Quoted pricing with a months-long implementation
Far more product than a mid-sized employer will configure
Right for
Large hourly workforces with accruals, unions and complex pay rules
Time tracking app with a physical tracking cube, now part of TimeTac
Ranked #16 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
Timeular, now called EARLY, attacks the habit problem physically: assign an activity to each face of a desk cube, flip it, and the timer follows without a screen. People who have abandoned three timesheet tools tend to stay with this one.
Since June 2025 it belongs to TimeTac, which keeps the app running for existing users and routes new sign-ups to its own platform, so a new buyer is really evaluating TimeTac. Approvals, attendance rules and administration are thinner than Toggl Track, and hardware costs scale per person.
What stands out
Physical tracker
Austrian vendor
Now part of TimeTac
Where it costs you
Team administration and reporting are limited
The tracker is a separate purchase for every user
Right for
Individuals and small teams who forget to start a timer
Wrong for
Companies needing approvals, attendance or deep reporting
AustriaPer user per month; new sign-ups go to TimeTac; hardware tracker sold separately
Austrian cloud time and leave tracking, hosted in the EU
Ranked #17 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Self-hostablePricing on requestEurope
TimeTac covers employee time recording, leave management with approval workflows, and project time by client, project and task with budget monitoring. Entries come from a web app, a desktop app and iOS and Android apps, and an automatic mode proposes entries from detected apps and browser tabs.
Hardware options include a clocking terminal and NFC tracking. An API and integrations are listed. The vendor states ISO 27001 certification and no user limit.
What stands out
Modular pricing
EU hosting
Cloud only
Where it costs you
The price is a base fee plus per-module charges, so costs are harder to estimate than with a flat per-user plan.
It runs only as a hosted cloud service, so teams that must keep data on their own servers cannot use it.
Right for
Project teams in the EU wanting working hours, leave and project time in one system
Wrong for
Teams needing self-hosting or one fixed price per user
AustriaMonthly base fee plus per-module prices that scale with users; monthly or annual billing; 30-day trial
Mac app that logs apps and documents without start-stop timers
Ranked #18 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Timing logs apps, websites, documents and calls on the Mac, with idle-time detection, calendar integration and rules created by Option-dragging. The Expert plan adds billing status, report rounding, AI activity summaries and meeting detection.
Connect adds scripting through a Web API and Zapier, AI access via MCP and shared team projects, where admins see aggregate times only. Reports export to PDF, XLSX, CSV or HTML, and a 30-day trial needs no card.
What stands out
Automatic tracking
macOS
Per-user
Where it costs you
Tracking runs on macOS only, so a mixed team with Windows or Linux machines cannot log automatically.
Team collaboration, shared projects and two-way ClickUp, Linear and Clio sync are limited to the Connect plan.
Right for
Freelancers and Mac-based staff who want hours logged automatically from app use
Wrong for
Mixed Windows and Mac teams needing one tracker
GermanyPer-user subscription in three plans, monthly or annual, published; 30-day trial without a card
Automatic time tracking that keeps all recorded data on your own device
Ranked #19 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingElsewhere
Watchers track the active application and window title by default, and editor plugins record coding time. Chrome and Firefox extensions cover browsing. The Activity and Timeline views run in a local web interface at localhost:5600.
Data is stored locally. The project is free with no feature gates, usage limits or ads, with optional Pro subscriptions, one-time donations and GitHub Sponsors available. Erik and Johan Bjareholt maintain it.
What stands out
MPL-2.0
Local-first
Automatic tracking
Where it costs you
Sync between devices is described as still in progress, so each device keeps its own record.
The founders and volunteer contributors are named, but no country or company is stated.
Right for
Individuals wanting automatic, private tracking of computer time without manual timers
Wrong for
Teams needing shared timesheets, invoicing or device sync
Not stated by the vendorFree with no feature gates, limits or ads; optional Pro subscription published, donations accepted
Time tracking and budgets that sit inside your project management apps
Ranked #20 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
The pricing page lists a free plan for up to five seats with limited features, a Team plan billed per seat with yearly prices, and a Custom plan quoted from fifty seats.
A 14-day trial of all features needs no card. Charges are in US dollars by credit or debit card only. The About page describes an independent, self-funded company founded in 2015 with customers in over 70 countries.
What stands out
Per-seat pricing
Free plan
Project integrations
Where it costs you
The free plan excludes integrations, so the embedded timers that define the product need a paid seat.
Country, legal address and hosting model are not stated, and the terms name a US reseller of software developed by another company.
Right for
Teams running projects in Asana, ClickUp or Jira who want hours and budgets there
Wrong for
Buyers who need a stated country, hosting location or self-hosting
Not stated by the vendorPer seat on yearly billing with a minimum seat count; free plan for small teams; 14-day trial without a card; Custom plan quoted
Automatic time tracking with no timers, from a Halifax company
Ranked #21 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Insight carries limited API access and unlimited tracked data retention. Studio adds FreshBooks, QuickBooks and Clio integrations, project budgets and team timesheet reports. Agency adds full API access, SSO and a dedicated account manager.
Accounts that do not upgrade after the trial move to a complimentary Express plan with a daily timesheet email and three months of limited retention. The company name is Clockk.com Inc., with a Halifax address.
What stands out
Automatic tracking
Per-user pricing
Canadian company
Where it costs you
The pricing page shows two prices per plan without saying which applies to annual or monthly billing, so the real cost needs confirming.
The trial length and hosting location are not stated on the pages read, which leaves data residency open.
Right for
Agencies and freelancers who forget timers and want time captured automatically
Wrong for
Buyers needing a stated hosting location or a European contracting company
CanadaThree plans per user per month, published with an annual and a monthly option; free trial without a card
Automatic time tracker from Munich that keeps tracking data on your device
Ranked #22 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Basic gives automatic and offline tracking, calendar integrations, custom reports and built-in project management. Connect adds more than 100 integrations including Harvest, Jira, QuickBooks and Xero.
Premium adds SSO, Entra ID, SAML, SCIM and priority support. Desktop apps run on Mac, Windows and Linux. Licences are per user across unlimited devices, and the 14-day trial needs no card and does not convert to a paid plan.
What stands out
Local data storage
Automatic tracking
German company
Where it costs you
Over 100 integrations and project software sync only start on the Connect plan, so Basic users report time by hand.
Entries pushed to integrated tools leave the device, so the local-only storage covers tracking data but not what gets synced.
Right for
Consultants and agencies wanting automatic tracking without activity data stored on a vendor server
Wrong for
Teams needing a free tier or browser-only tracking without desktop installs
GermanyPer user per month in three tiers, published with several billing cycles; Enterprise on request; 14-day trial
Time tracker with rates, budgets and invoicing, from Hong Kong
Ranked #23 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingAsia-Pacific
The free plan covers two seats, and after the 14-day trial, extendable by seven days, accounts can stay on it. Professional adds billable rates, project budgets, client invoicing and calendar sync.
Business adds team timesheets, time off, screenshots and integrations with Jira, Redmine and ClickUp. Apps cover web, browser extensions, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android. Integrations number over 50, including QuickBooks, Asana, GitHub and Google Workspace.
What stands out
Free for 2 seats
Cloud-based
Client invoicing
Where it costs you
Screenshot capture, team timesheets and time off sit on the Business plan, so smaller teams on Professional lack them.
The vendor is a Hong Kong company, which puts the contract under Hong Kong law for European buyers.
Right for
Freelancers and small agencies billing clients from tracked hours with budgets
Wrong for
Organisations needing self-hosting or a contracting entity inside Europe
Hong KongFree for up to 2 seats; Professional and Business per seat per month; Enterprise on request; 14-day trial
Timesheet tool with unlimited-user free plan and automatic tracking
Ranked #24 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
The pricing page lists a free plan with unlimited users, tasks, projects and clients, then Starter, Pro and Business per user, each cheaper when billed annually. Viewers and collaborators arrive with Business.
A 14-day trial needs no card, after which the account drops to the free plan unless a card is added. The site names AutoTrack, Calendar Sync, Leave Management, Approvals and live reports.
What stands out
Free plan
Project hours
US vendor
Where it costs you
The vendor is a Delaware LLC, which matters for teams that need European data jurisdiction.
Viewers and collaborators are limited to the Business tier, so sharing hours with clients costs the highest price.
Right for
Small teams wanting free project timesheets before paying for approvals and leave
Wrong for
Organisations requiring a European vendor or attendance terminals with break rules
United StatesFree plan; paid per user per month, published, cheaper on annual billing; 14-day trial without card
Time tracking and timesheets from Sydney with seat-based plans
Ranked #25 of 25 in Best Time Tracking Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingAsia-Pacific
Features named on the site include smart time tracking, schedules and capacity, time off, clients, projects and tasks, timesheets and expenses, financial dashboards, cost and billable rates, client invoices and advanced reporting.
A browser extension connects to Jira, Asana, Notion, GitHub, Slack and Figma. Billing is monthly, quarterly at 10% off or annual at 15% off, with a 14-day money-back guarantee on first subscriptions.
What stands out
Time tracking
Timesheets
Hosted in Australia
Where it costs you
Plan names, per-plan prices and Free plan limits were not visible, so cost per seat has to be confirmed on the pricing page.
Hosting model and ownership are not stated, which matters for teams with data location requirements.
Right for
Teams wanting timesheets, schedules and client invoices in one seat-priced tool
Wrong for
Organisations needing stated data hosting or an open-source licence
AustraliaPer seat on monthly, quarterly or annual billing; a Free plan exists; 14-day trial on paid plans; Enterprise by quotation
Time tracking software records hours against a client, project or shift, approves them, and turns the result into an invoice line, a payroll input or a working-time record. Differences that change the outcome seldom sit in the features. Here is the sequence we would follow.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
The split is 21 published against 4 quoted. If you want to compare numbers first, start with Clockodo, Kimai, Tick, Toggl Track, TimeCamp, Clockify, Timely, My Hours, ClickTime, Jibble, Buddy Punch, ClockShark, Hubstaff, Timing, ActivityWatch, Everhour, Clockk, Memtime, TMetric, TrackingTime, Traqq.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
Jurisdiction is a buying criterion here. The 25 vendors are spread over 12 countries (Europe 11, North America 10, Asia-Pacific 2, Elsewhere 2), and the home country determines which disclosure rules bind them.
03
Consider whether you want the source
2 of these are open source: Kimai, ActivityWatch. Hosting one yourself trades a subscription for maintenance.
Billable hours and attendance are two different products
The single most expensive mistake in this category is buying across the line. A timesheet tool answers what the hour was spent on so it can be billed: Toggl Track and Timely are built this way and have no concept of a shift.
An attendance system answers whether someone was at work, when they took a break and what the overtime came to, which is Jibble, ClockShark and UKG Ready. The words on the pricing pages are nearly identical. The products are not, and a company that buys a timer for a warehouse ends up with hours nobody can defend and a payroll run done by hand.
Say out loud whether the output is an invoice line or a payroll line.
If staff work shifts with breaks, start on the attendance side of the list.
Check whether the tool can lock an approved period. Billing tools often cannot.
Recording working time is a legal duty, not a management preference
European employers have to record actual working time, not just contracted hours, following the 2019 Court of Justice ruling and the German federal labour court decision that followed it. That raises the bar for what counts as a record: clock-in and clock-out that the employee cannot silently rewrite, break and rest-period tracking, and retention for the statutory period.
Clockodo is built around those rules, and Jibble at least records a clock-in that the employee cannot quietly rewrite afterwards. A billable-hours timer keeps none of that, so if you also need the legal record, you are buying either a product that does both or two products.
Ask whether edits to a submitted entry leave an audit trail with a timestamp.
Confirm breaks and rest periods are recorded, not assumed from a template.
Check the retention period and whether records survive an employee leaving.
Monitoring changes the legal question and the social one
Screenshots, activity percentages and automatic application capture sit on a spectrum, and where you land decides whether you need a works council agreement. Hubstaff sits at the intrusive end and is honest about it. TimeCamp's higher plans capture applications and sites automatically.
Timely takes the opposite route, recording a timeline only the employee sees until they choose what to submit. In Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, a works council has a say before monitoring is switched on, and in most of Europe continuous screenshot capture of salaried staff is hard to justify. Decide the surveillance question before the feature comparison.
Involve the works council before the trial, not after the purchase order.
Ask what the employee sees of their own data, and what the manager sees.
Check whether monitoring can be switched off per team, not only per account.
The hours are payroll and invoice evidence, so test the export
Time data ends up supporting two things somebody may dispute: an invoice to a client and a wage payment to an employee. Both can be argued about years later, which makes the export more important than any dashboard. Ask for raw entries with user, project, start, stop, edits and approver, as CSV rather than a formatted report.
Kimai passes trivially because you hold the database. The suites are harder: getting history out of UKG Ready at the end of a contract is a service request. Also check that payroll integration sends data rather than a file someone retypes each month.
Export a full month of raw entries during the trial and open them in a spreadsheet.
Confirm the export includes edit history and who approved each period.
Ask whether payroll integration is a real connection or a manual file upload.
What goes wrong most often when buying time tracking software
Buying a billable-hours timer to satisfy a working-time recording duty. The hours are there, the audit trail, break records and locked periods are not.
Choosing on feature lists when adoption decides everything. If starting a timer takes four clicks, the timesheets will be filled in on Friday from memory.
Switching on monitoring because it came with the plan. In several European countries that needs an agreement before anyone is tracked.
Assuming payroll integration means automatic. In many products it is a formatted file that someone still uploads by hand every month.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What is the best time tracking in 2026?
Clockodo takes first place among the 25 we reviewed. Handles project hours and the German legal recording duty in one place: break rules, overtime accounts and absence, with hosting in Germany.
That combination is rare. The product is plainer than Toggl Track, the English documentation lags the German, and it has little to offer a team outside the German-speaking market.
Which time tracking tools publish their pricing?
21 out of 25 state a price model on their own site:
Clockodo: Per user per month, published.
Kimai: Free self-hosted; hosted plan per user per month, published.
Tick: Monthly plan by number of projects, published; unlimited users.
Toggl Track: Free tier; paid per user per month, published.
TimeCamp: Free tier; paid per user per month, published.
Clockify: Free plan for up to 5 users; paid per user per month, published.
Timely: Per user per month, published.
My Hours: Free tier; paid per user per month, published.
ClickTime: Per user per month by plan, published.
Jibble: Free core product; paid per user per month, published.
Buddy Punch: Per user per month plus a base fee, published.
ClockShark: Per user per month plus a base fee, published.
Hubstaff: Per seat per month, published, with a minimum seat count.
Timing: Per-user subscription in three plans, monthly or annual, published; 30-day trial without a card.
ActivityWatch: Free with no feature gates, limits or ads; optional Pro subscription published, donations accepted.
Everhour: Per seat on yearly billing with a minimum seat count; free plan for small teams; 14-day trial without a card; Custom plan quoted.
Clockk: Three plans per user per month, published with an annual and a monthly option; free trial without a card.
Memtime: Per user per month in three tiers, published with several billing cycles; Enterprise on request; 14-day trial.
TMetric: Free for up to 2 seats; Professional and Business per seat per month; Enterprise on request; 14-day trial.
TrackingTime: Free plan; paid per user per month, published, cheaper on annual billing; 14-day trial without card.
Traqq: Per seat on monthly, quarterly or annual billing; a Free plan exists; 14-day trial on paid plans; Enterprise by quotation.
The remaining 4 sell by quote.
Is there a free time tracking tool?
Kimai, Toggl Track, TimeCamp, Clockify, My Hours, Jibble, ActivityWatch, Everhour, TMetric, TrackingTime, Traqq offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these time tracking vendors established?
Vendor countries on this page, Europe 11, North America 10, Asia-Pacific 2, Elsewhere 2:
Clockodo: Germany.
Kimai: Austria.
Tick: United States.
Toggl Track: Estonia.
TimeCamp: Poland.
Clockify: United States.
Timely: Norway.
My Hours: Slovenia.
ClickTime: United States.
Jibble: United Kingdom.
Buddy Punch: United States.
ClockShark: United States.
Hubstaff: United States.
Replicon: United States.
UKG Ready: United States.
EARLY (now TimeTac): Austria.
TimeTac: Austria.
Timing: Germany.
ActivityWatch: Not stated by the vendor.
Everhour: Not stated by the vendor.
Clockk: Canada.
Memtime: Germany.
TMetric: Hong Kong.
TrackingTime: United States.
Traqq: Australia.
Which time tracking tools are open source?
Kimai, ActivityWatch.
Which time tracking tools can you host yourself?
Kimai, TimeTac. 23 products offer no self-hosted option.
What should you use instead of Clockodo?
Second is Kimai, which suits Technical teams that want the hours on their own server. Third is Tick, which suits Agencies and studios tracking hours against fixed project budgets with many staff.
Who should not buy Clockodo?
International teams working in English across several countries. Little value outside German-speaking markets.
We rank 25 time tracking products on this page. If we missed one, its maker can write to us about its purpose and customers. We pick what gets added; the terms of a listing are set out under software advice.
