Sofia S Are you struggling to track billable hours and meet project deadlines? Time-tracking apps could be your solution, giving you a clear picture of how every minute is spent.
In 2024, with the rise of remote and hybrid work, time tracking is more critical than ever.The global time-tracking software market is expected to grow by USD 2,599.62 million by 2027, with a CAGR of 15.05%. These apps simplify time management with features like automated time logging, detailed reports, and seamless integration, helping business owners stay competitive and efficient.
Ready to boost productivity and streamline payroll? We’ve rounded up five of the best time-tracking apps tailored to business needs. But first, let’s look at what makes a great app.
What Makes The Best Time Tracking Apps?
Certain criteria make a time-tracking app the best of its kind. But what are those factors? Well, here goes.
- Real-Time Tracking: In 2024, almost all time tracking apps will allow you to track in real-time. This means there is a running clock you need to launch when you begin a task, and you can pause or stop when you finish.
- Features of Editing Time Tracked and Manually Adding Time Blocks: The app should offer features for correcting the time tracked if you accidentally leave the timer on during a break. You should be able to edit the time log to deduct the number of minutes you weren’t working. The app should also offer features for manually adding time blocks.
- Reporting and Analytics: The time-tracking app should provide comprehensive reports on time spent per project, client, or task and detailed analytics to identify productivity trends and roadblocks.
- Mobile Accessibility: The app should be available on both Android and iOS devices for on-the-go tracking. It should be able to sync data across devices to ensure consistency.
- AI Features: When we speak of artificial intelligence, we mean automation and simplification of workflows across tools in various industries. And things are no different for time-tracking apps. An app that employs AI to auto-track your time or machine learning to assign time blocks to related tasks and projects automatically always has the upper hand over others.
Now that you have a thorough idea of the features to look out for in time-tracking apps let’s take a look at the five best time-tracking apps that have become the talk of the town all over the US.
Best Time Tracking App for Auto-Tracking: Clockdiary
Clockdiary is a leading time-tracking app specifically designed for business owners looking for a reliable, dynamic time tracker to track client time for free. Its auto-tracking feature simplifies the time-tracking process, thus helping businesses save time and improve productivity.
Features
- Auto-Tracking: Clockdiary automatically logs work activities, thereby reducing the need for manual time entry and ensuring accurate records.
- Project and Client Tracking: Easily manage and monitor time spent on various clients and projects, with the ability to track progress and billable/non-billable hours.
- Comprehensive Reports: Generate comprehensive daily, weekly, and monthly reports that provides insights into time usage, project performance, and team productivity.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Free for up to 25 users | Limited offline functionality |
| Seamless switching between tasks to manage different projects or clients. | Some features are locked behind premium plans |
| Customizable reports that can be exported in PDF, CSV, or Excel formats. | Requires an initial setup for customization |
Available on: Windows, web browsers, macOS, and iOS. Coming soon in Android devices.
Who Clockdiary Isn’t Suitable for
- Businesses requiring complex project management tools.
Pricing
| Plan | Features | Price |
| Free for up to 25 users | Time tracking, timesheet management, team collaboration | $0 |
| Professional Plan | Additional features like knowledge base access and onboarding assistance | $1.99 per user per month |
| Enterprise Plan | Customizable features | Custom-tailored pricing |
Best Time-Tracking App for Integrating with Project Management Tool: HourStack
HourStack stands out for its seamless integration with popular project management tools like Trello, Asana, Microsoft Teams, and more. This makes it a great time-tracking software or app, whatever you may call it, for CEOs, managers, team leaders, and freelancers who want to streamline time tracking within their existing workflows. It lets business owners track time dynamically, helping teams stay on top of their tasks and client projects without missing a beat.
Features
- Time Tracking: HourStacks’s time-tracking feature allows you to log time manually or automatically and thus keep track of employee work hours in real-time.
- Visual Time Blocking: Drag-and-drop interface for scheduling tasks and allocating time blocks visually.
- WorkSpace and Team Features: HourStack is packed with several team management features, including its unique workspaces. This allows users to compile everything concerning a specific team or client into one workspace, from projects to exports.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| The calendar feature simplifies processes | No mobile app |
| More straightforward to assign and organize tasks | Too much expensive |
| Supports real-time collaboration | Lack of customization |
Available on: Web Browsers
Who HourStack Isn’t Suitable For:
- Businesses looking for advanced accounting or invoicing features.
- Teams requiring complex project management tools with extensive reporting capabilities should refrain from using this time-tracking app.
Pricing
| Plan | Features | Price |
| Personal | For a single-member workspace. Provides features like time tracking, scheduling, and task management. | $12 per month |
| Team | Includes extra team-related functions such as member and team management, scheduling, and customizable workspace roles. | $15 per user per month |
Best Free Time Tracking App: Toggl Track
Toggl Track is a top-rated time-tracking app known for its simplicity and effectiveness. It features a dynamic time tracker to track client time for free. If you are looking for a cost-effective solution to manage time and boost productivity, this might just be the right app for you.
Features
- Time Billing: With Toggl Track, you will never miss a billable hour again. This time-tracking app allows you to approve your staff members’ timesheets and monitor their billable hours via real-time tracking.
- Time Reporting: You can manually fetch your productivity reports or ask Toggl to send customized reports to your email inbox on a predetermined schedule. Since the reports are shareable, you can easily share them with your clients.
- Project Tracking: While primarily a time tracker, Toggl also has some basic project management dashboard capabilities. It allows you to plug in your tasks and sub-projects and assign tasks to team members on the same platform.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Comprehensive Time Tracking | There are offline sync issues |
| Customizable Reports | Juggling multiple complex projects can be daunting |
| Impressive integrations with popular solutions like Slack, Trelo, Jira, and ClickUp. | Poor customer service |
Available for: Windows, Android, macOS, iOS, and a browser extension for Chrome.
Who Toggl Track Isn’t Suitable for:
- Businesses needing advanced features like invoicing and expense tracking.
- Larger teams that require more complex project management tools.
Pricing
| Plan | Features | Pricing |
| Free for up to 5 users | Unlimited time tracking, unlimited clients and tags, and exportable reports. | $0 |
| Starter | Additional features like billable reports, time rounding for reports, and project time estimates and alerts. | $9 per user per month |
| Premium | Advanced features like timesheet approvals, scheduling report emails, and project forecasts and analysis. | $18 per user per month |
Best Automated Time Tracking App for Teams: Timely
Timely is designed to automatically track work across apps, tasks, and meetings without manual input, making it an ideal solution for business owners looking to reduce time-tracking errors and improve team efficiency.
Features
- Automatic Time Tracking: This time-tracking app allows you to track time spent on websites, apps, and documents without manually starting or stopping timers.
- GPS Location: Timely can record users’ GPS locations
- Projects and Clients: Create multiple projects and clients that users can add to their time logs. You can view detailed progress and productivity reports for these projects and clients.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| AI-powered time tracking | Task management is available only as an add-on. |
| Multiple currency support | No 1-click timer |
| Branded reports for clients | No payroll integrations |
Available for: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
Who Timely Isn’t Suitable for:
- Businesses looking for a completely free dynamic time tracker
- Teams that require advanced invoicing features directly in the app.
Pricing
| Plan | Features | Price |
| Starter (Max 5 Users) | Automatic time tracking, AI timesheets, basic reporting | $11/user/month |
| Premium (Max 50 users) | Additional features like team management, budgeting, and cost management. | $20/user/month |
| Unlimited (No user limit) | Advanced features like capacity management and branded reporting. | $28/user/month |
Best Time Tracking App for Reducing Distractions: RescueTime
RescueTime is designed to help business owners and teams stay focused by tracking time spent on different activities and blocking distractions. It is an ideal time-tracking app for boosting productivity and minimizing interruptions.
Features
- Daily Focus Work Goal: Set specific, daily goals for focused work to ensure you can dedicate adequate time to high-priority tasks.
- Distraction Blocking: Keep away from unproductive activities and stay focused by blocking distractions, thereby ensuring you remain on task.
- Focus Sessions: Supercharge your focus with dedicated time blocks to concentrate on important tasks while minimizing distractions and boosting productivity.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Automatic time tracking | Lacks detailed reporting |
| Provides overall productive score | The mobile app does not have many features |
| Easy to limit unproductive activities | Limited API capabilities |
Available for: Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.
Who RescueTime Isn’t Suitable for:
- Businesses looking for detailed project or client-specific time tracking.
- Teams requiring advanced invoicing and client billing tools.
Pricing
| Plan | Features | Price |
| Free Plan | Real-time tracking, weekly reports, timely alerts | $0 |
| Premium Plan | Additional features like automatic project tracking and distraction blocking Focus Sessions. | $ 12 per month or $78 per year |
Integrate Clockdiary in Your Daily Business Operations for a Seamless Workflow
A good time-tracking app is one that seamlessly integrates into your workflow and helps you monitor productivity without creating unnecessary distractions.
Time-tracking apps like Clockdiary shine through in this aspect. Its automatic time-tracking features, intricate reporting, collaboration and team management, and integration with various productivity tools like Slack, Trello, and Google Calendar make it one of the most sought-after time-tracking apps for CEOs, managers, team leaders, and freelancers.
Not just that, its user-friendly interface and flexible pricing make it the ideal time-tracking software or app for any professional looking to streamline productivity and manage time effectively. Get in touch with us to incorporate this technological wizardry into your organization, and you will be good to go.
FAQs
AI time tracking is a way to record and monitor time spent working on a computer automatically. It employs AI algorithms to track time and can be helpful in a variety of tasks, such as tracking time, entering project time, reporting, and identifying productivity patterns.
Yes, Google does have a time tracker known as Time Insights. It allows you to view what time you spend on different colored events in your calendar.
Clockdiary is the best time-tracking app for tracking hours, allowing users to monitor tasks, manage projects, and optimize productivity effortlessly. With its dynamic time tracker and detailed reporting tools, Clockdiary provides real-time insights, thus helping professionals stay on top of deadlines and budgets.
