Mindful Suite

The Best Time Tracking Apps

Have you ever gotten to the end of a long workday and thought, "What did I even do today?" Your to-do list is still a mile long, you felt busy from dawn till dusk, but the tangible progress feels… missing. You bounced from emails to meetings to that "quick five-minute task" that secretly ate an hour. It feels like your time just evaporated.

That's the exact frustration time tracking apps were born to solve. They move beyond the messy legal pads and forgotten sticky notes of the past, giving you a crystal-clear picture of where every single minute goes. Whether you're a freelancer trying to build a fair invoice, a manager trying to keep a project on budget, or just someone hoping to reclaim your focus, there's a perfect tool waiting for you.

Dedicated Time Trackers

These apps are the specialists. They focus on tracking time and do it beautifully, offering clean, simple, and reliable solutions for individuals and teams who just need to get the job done.

Toggl Track

  • Overview: Toggl Track is a fan-favorite for a reason: it makes tracking time almost ridiculously simple. With its famous one-click timer, starting, stopping, and switching between tasks feels effortless. It’s a wonderfully versatile tool for freelancers and teams alike.
  • Key Features: One-click timer, multi-platform support (desktop, web, mobile), detailed reports, browser integrations.
  • Pros: Extremely user-friendly, a generous free plan that's perfect for getting started, and it works seamlessly across all your devices.
  • Cons: The most powerful reporting and team features are kept for the paid plans.
  • Pricing: Offers a robust free plan for up to 5 users. Paid tiers add more features for growing teams.

Clockify

  • Overview: Clockify's claim to fame is a game-changer: it’s a completely free time tracker for unlimited users and projects. This makes it an absolute knockout for startups, non-profits, or any team that needs powerful features without the price tag.
  • Key Features: Unlimited time tracking, projects, and users; timesheet and reporting features; calendar view; kiosk mode for clocking in.
  • Pros: 100% free for all core features, making it incredibly generous for teams of any size.
  • Cons: The interface can feel a bit crowded compared to simpler tools; features like scheduling require a paid upgrade.
  • Pricing: The core product is free forever. You can optionally upgrade to paid plans for more advanced administrative features.

My Hours

  • Overview: My Hours finds that sweet spot between simple design and powerful functionality. It’s a fantastic tool for organizing projects, tracking your hours, and pulling together insightful reports that make client billing a breeze.
  • Key Features: Real-time tracker, manual timesheets, project-based tracking, detailed reports, billing and invoicing.
  • Pros: The free plan includes unlimited projects and team members, all wrapped in a clean, easy-to-navigate interface.
  • Cons: Its mobile app is perfectly functional but lacks the polish of some of its competitors.
  • Pricing: A great free plan is available. The Pro plan adds helpful features like invoicing and workflow approvals.

ATracker

  • Overview: ATracker is a vibrant, mobile-first app designed for individuals who want to understand their daily habits. It turns your time into colorful bar and pie charts, giving you an at-a-glance picture of your day with almost zero setup required.
  • Key Features: One-tap start/stop timer, customizable task categories with fun icons, visual reports, data export.
  • Pros: Super easy to set up and use, perfect for tracking personal routines and goals, and highly customizable.
  • Cons: It’s built for personal productivity, not for team collaboration or client billing.
  • Pricing: Comes with a free version with some limitations. A one-time purchase unlocks everything.

Time Tracking with Invoicing

For anyone whose time literally equals money, these apps are essential. They brilliantly connect the dots between the hours you work and the invoices you send, making sure you get paid for every last minute.

Harvest

  • Overview: Harvest is a true classic in the time tracking world, celebrated for how effortlessly it helps businesses turn tracked hours into paid invoices. It’s the go-to choice for freelancers, creative agencies, and consultants who need reliability and polish.
  • Key Features: Time and expense tracking, project budgeting, powerful reporting, streamlined invoicing and online payments.
  • Pros: Top-notch invoicing capabilities and it plays nicely with dozens of other tools you already use, like Asana and QuickBooks.
  • Cons: The free plan is quite limited, allowing for only one person and two projects.
  • Pricing: A free plan is available to try it out. The Pro plan unlocks unlimited projects and clients.

Paymo

  • Overview: Paymo is more than just a time tracker; it's a full-on work management platform. It combines task management, time tracking, and invoicing into a single, cohesive package. It's an ideal hub for teams who want to manage a project's entire lifecycle in one place.
  • Key Features: Time tracking (with a handy desktop widget), task management, Kanban boards, invoicing, expense tracking.
  • Pros: An all-in-one solution that offers great value for the sheer number of features included.
  • Cons: It might feel a bit complex if all you really need is a simple timer.
  • Pricing: Offers a free plan for personal use, with paid plans available for growing teams.

Team & Workforce Management

Built for the complexities of running a business, these apps handle everything from employee schedules and attendance to productivity monitoring, often including GPS tracking and payroll integrations.

Hubstaff

  • Overview: Hubstaff is a powerful platform for understanding how your team works, whether they’re in the office or across the globe. It combines time tracking with employee monitoring tools like optional screenshots and activity tracking to provide managers with deep insights.
  • Key Features: Time tracking, employee monitoring, payroll and invoicing, GPS tracking, project budgeting.
  • Pros: Delivers incredible insights into team productivity and is excellent for managing remote workforces.
  • Cons: The employee monitoring features can feel invasive if they aren't rolled out with transparency and trust.
  • Pricing: A limited free plan is available. Paid plans unlock more advanced features.

QuickBooks Time

  • Overview: Previously known as TSheets, QuickBooks Time is an absolute powerhouse for employee time tracking. Its flawless integration with QuickBooks for payroll makes it a no-brainer for any business already in the Intuit ecosystem.
  • Key Features: Mobile time tracking with GPS, employee scheduling, real-time reports, deep QuickBooks integration.
  • Pros: The best QuickBooks integration on the market, with powerful features for mobile teams.
  • Cons: Can be pricier than other options and is most valuable if you're already using QuickBooks.
  • Pricing: Subscription-based with a per-user monthly fee. A free trial is available.

Jibble

  • Overview: Jibble's mission is to make clocking in and out as simple as possible. It uses clever features like facial recognition and GPS tracking to ensure timesheets are accurate, whether your team is on-site, on the move, or at home.
  • Key Features: Mobile and kiosk clock-in, facial recognition, GPS tracking, detailed timesheets, overtime calculations.
  • Pros: The free plan is incredibly generous and is a perfect fit for many small businesses.
  • Cons: The interface isn't the most intuitive at first and may take some time to get used to.
  • Pricing: A 100% free plan is available. Paid plans add more advanced features and support.

Homebase

  • Overview: Homebase is the all-in-one command center for hourly teams, especially popular in retail and restaurants. It truly excels at making employee scheduling, time clocks, and team communication feel simple and streamlined.
  • Key Features: Employee scheduling, time clocks with GPS, team messaging, payroll preparation, hiring and onboarding tools.
  • Pros: Offers an excellent free plan for single-location businesses and is incredibly easy to use for scheduling.
  • Cons: More advanced HR and compliance features are locked behind higher-priced plans.
  • Pricing: A comprehensive free plan is available. Paid subscriptions add more tools for HR, compliance, and communication.

Automatic Time Trackers

Do you always forget to start a timer? These apps are for you. They work silently in the background, automatically capturing your digital activity to give you a complete, honest picture of your day without you having to lift a finger.

RescueTime

  • Overview: RescueTime is a classic in the automatic tracking space. It runs securely on your devices and generates detailed reports on how you're spending your time in different apps and on websites, helping you spot distractions and build better habits.
  • Key Features: Automatic time tracking, productivity scoring, goal setting, website and app blocking.
  • Pros: Gives you powerful, passive insights into your productivity patterns without any manual work.
  • Cons: Requires giving the app significant permissions to work its magic.
  • Pricing: The free plan offers basic tracking. A premium version unlocks advanced features like distraction blocking.

Timely

  • Overview: Timely wants to make time tracking completely invisible by using AI. It automatically records all your digital breadcrumbs—documents, websites, meetings, emails—and cleverly groups them into projects for you. Your only job is to review and approve its work.
  • Key Features: Automatic time tracking, AI-powered timesheets, project health tracking, cross-platform support.
  • Pros: Drastically cuts down the manual work of logging time and creates incredibly accurate timesheets.
  • Cons: The constant background tracking might feel intrusive to some users, and it's a subscription-only service.
  • Pricing: Subscription-based, but a free trial is typically available to test it out.

TimeCamp

  • Overview: TimeCamp is another powerful automatic tracker that watches your computer usage to help you bill clients accurately and measure project profitability. It also comes packed with a huge library of integrations to fit right into your current workflow.
  • Key Features: Automatic and manual time tracking, detailed reporting, invoicing, attendance tracking, numerous integrations.
  • Pros: Offers a generous free plan for solo users and has very powerful reporting features.
  • Cons: The user interface can feel a little less modern and intuitive than some of its rivals.
  • Pricing: A free solo plan is available. Team features require a paid subscription.

Project Management Tools with Time Tracking

For many teams, time tracking is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. These powerhouse platforms weave time tracking directly into their project management DNA, either natively or through seamless integrations.

ClickUp

  • Overview: ClickUp's ambitious goal is to be the "one app to replace them all," and it comes impressively close. This hyper-customizable platform includes a native global timer you can use on any task, making it a favorite for productivity hackers.
  • Key Features: Task management, multiple views (List, Board, Calendar, Gantt), goal tracking, docs, native time tracking.
  • Pros: Incredibly versatile and feature-rich, with well-integrated time tracking and a fantastic free plan.
  • Cons: The sheer number of features can create a steep learning curve for new users.
  • Pricing: The 'Free Forever' plan is very capable. Paid plans unlock more storage and advanced features.

monday.com

  • Overview: monday.com is a vibrant and flexible "Work OS" where teams can build custom workflows for just about anything. Time tracking is an integrated feature you can add to any project board, making it easy to see exactly how much effort is going into each task.
  • Key Features: Customizable project boards, multiple views, automations, dashboards, integrated time tracking.
  • Pros: Highly visual and intuitive, and extremely flexible for all kinds of different projects.
  • Cons: The native time tracking is fairly basic; you may need an integration for more advanced reporting.
  • Pricing: Offers a limited free plan for individuals. Paid plans are based on team size and feature sets.

Asana

  • Overview: Asana is a leader in project management, beloved for helping teams organize, track, and manage their work with clarity. While it doesn't have a built-in timer, it connects beautifully with top-tier trackers like Toggl Track, Harvest, and Everhour.
  • Key Features: Project and task management, timelines, portfolios, workflow automation, extensive integrations.
  • Pros: Exceptional for task and project management, with a clean and user-friendly interface.
  • Cons: You'll need to use and pay for a third-party integration for time tracking.
  • Pricing: A robust free plan is available for individuals and small teams. Paid plans offer more advanced features.

Jira

  • Overview: For software development and agile teams, Jira is the undisputed champion. It comes with native time tracking features baked right in, allowing teams to log hours against issues and epics to better estimate workloads and manage sprints.
  • Key Features: Agile boards (Scrum, Kanban), customizable workflows, bug and issue tracking, native time tracking.
  • Pros: Unmatched for software development workflows; it's powerful and endlessly customizable.
  • Cons: Can be overwhelmingly complex for non-technical teams.
  • Pricing: A free plan is available for up to 10 users. Standard and Premium plans are available for larger teams.

Everhour

  • Overview: Everhour isn't trying to replace your project manager; it's trying to make it better. It's a time tracker designed specifically to embed itself directly into tools like Asana, Trello, and ClickUp, so you can track time without ever leaving your workflow.
  • Key Features: Seamless integration with PM tools, project budgeting, invoicing, detailed reporting.
  • Pros: The absolute best choice if you love your current project management tool but want to add powerful time tracking to it.
  • Cons: It's designed to be used via integrations, so it doesn't have its own standalone mobile apps.
  • Pricing: Subscription-based, with plans for all team sizes and a free trial.

Productivity & Focus Timers

These apps aren't about billing clients; they're about helping you win the battle against distraction. They often use techniques like the Pomodoro method to help you work in short, intense bursts of focus.

Forest

  • Overview: Forest offers a wonderfully charming way to stay off your phone. You plant a virtual tree when you start a task, and it grows while you work. If you leave the app to scroll through social media, your poor tree withers. It’s a surprisingly effective and delightful motivator.
  • Key Features: Gamified focus timer, plant real trees with in-app currency, track your focused time.
  • Pros: Highly motivating and visually rewarding, and it genuinely encourages you to put your phone down.
  • Cons: It's more about tracking blocks of focused time than logging hours against specific projects.
  • Pricing: It's a paid app on iOS and free with ads on Android.

Focus Keeper

  • Overview: Focus Keeper is a simple, elegant app designed around the Pomodoro Technique. It helps you break your work into focused 25-minute sprints separated by short breaks, keeping your mind fresh and engaged.
  • Key Features: Simple Pomodoro timer, customizable focus and break lengths, minimalist interface.
  • Pros: Very easy to use and a perfect introduction to the Pomodoro Technique for beginners.
  • Cons: It's a dedicated timer, not a comprehensive time tracker for projects.
  • Pricing: A free version is available. A pro version unlocks more features and customization.

Unique Solutions

Looking for something that breaks the mold? This clever gadget turns time tracking from a digital chore into a physical, tactile action.

Timeular

  • Overview: Timeular offers a completely unique, hands-on approach. It's a physical 8-sided die that pairs with software. Assign a task to each side, and when you start working, just flip the die so that task is face-up. It's a fun and frictionless way to build a consistent tracking habit.
  • Key Features: Physical tracking device, automatic time tracking based on the die's orientation, software for reporting and analysis.
  • Pros: Makes time tracking feel effortless and even enjoyable, helping you build a solid habit.
  • Cons: It requires buying the physical device, which is an upfront investment.
  • Pricing: Requires the purchase of the Timeular Tracker die plus a software subscription.