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.
AuthorHannah ReiterSenior Analyst, Business Applications
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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.
In this order: setup effort, what it really costs, how your data comes back out, whether
you can leave, and who each time tracking tool is built for. Why those five, and why there is no
score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Per user per month; new sign-ups go to TimeTac; hardware tracker sold separately
—
Individuals and small teams who forget to start a timer
Companies needing approvals, attendance or deep reporting
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.
One-click timers that people keep using after week three
Ranked #1 of 16 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 #2 of 16 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 #3 of 16 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
German timesheet tool built around working-time law and break rules
Ranked #4 of 16 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
Records your activity first, then turns it into timesheets
Ranked #5 of 16 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
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 #7 of 16 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
Project time and client billing without the extra modules
Ranked #8 of 16 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 16 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 16 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 16 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 16 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 16 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 16 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 16 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 16 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
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. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
13 of the 16 tools here publish what they cost; the other 3 quote per organisation. The ones you can compare without a sales call: Toggl Track, TimeCamp, Clockify, Clockodo, Timely, Kimai, Tick, My Hours, ClickTime, Jibble, Buddy Punch, ClockShark, Hubstaff.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 16 vendors are established in 8 countries across 2 regions (North America 8, Europe 8). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
03
Consider whether you want the source
1 of these are open source: Kimai. 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?
Toggl Track leads our ranking of 16. The starting and stopping of a timer is faster here than anywhere else on this page, on desktop, browser and phone, which is the only feature that decides whether timesheets get filled in.
Billing rates and reporting are solid. It does not do attendance: no clock-in terminal, no break rules, no overtime calculation, and payroll needs an export.
Which time tracking tools publish their pricing?
13 of the 16, with the pricing model each one publishes:
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.
Clockodo: Per user per month, published.
Timely: 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.
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.
The other 3 quote per organisation.
Is there a free time tracking tool?
Toggl Track, TimeCamp, Clockify, Kimai, My Hours, Jibble offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these time tracking vendors established?
In 8 countries across 2 regions: North America 8, Europe 8.
Toggl Track: Estonia.
TimeCamp: Poland.
Clockify: United States.
Clockodo: Germany.
Timely: Norway.
Kimai: Austria.
Tick: United States.
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.
Which time tracking tools are open source?
Kimai.
Which time tracking tools can you host yourself?
Kimai. The other 15 are hosted by the vendor only.
What should you use instead of Toggl Track?
TimeCamp and Clockify are the next two on this page. TimeCamp is for Cost-conscious teams wanting billable hours and automatic application capture together; Clockify is for small teams that fit the free plan, or larger ones wanting a low per-user price.
Who should not buy Toggl Track?
Shift workplaces needing a legal attendance record. No attendance, break or overtime rules.
If your time tracking product belongs among these 16, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
