23 Best Employee Time Tracking Software for Small Businesses
Alexandra Martin
21 min
November 6, 2024
Employee time tracking software is used by many top-performing small businesses and companies that focus on employee productivity and efficiency. When employees track their work time, you know what tasks they are working on. You can make better estimates, prevent bottlenecks, and accurately bill your clients. A free version means you can test it unlimitedly before deciding which suits you best.
If you’re wondering what software should be used to track employee hours, we’ve written this post for your managers, team leaders, and business owners.
In this article, we’ve gathered, carefully analyzed, and tested the best employee time-tracking software of 2023. Out of the 23 tools we reviewed, 13 are free of charge, like yours truly:
Paymo – best free time tracking software for small teams of up to 20 people
TimeCamp – a simple attendance tracker for your employees
Clockify – an employee monitoring tool with GPS tracking
Everhour (max. five users) – an employee monitoring tool with screenshots
Toggl Track (max. five users) – an intuitive time tracker with color-coded entries
connecteam (max. ten users) – employee attendance with digital geofencing
homebase (one location) – the best solution for hourly work
TrackingTime (max. three users) – a colorful employee time tracker with a modern design
Tick (one project) – a basic time tracker mainly for Mac users
Everhour, Hubstaff, Toggl Track, TrackingTime, etc., are also free but with limitations, which is not bad if you want to test the tool yourself before you adopt it for your team. Paymo will remove the user limitation this coming month, so give it a test run.
We try to update this list as often as possible. However, please double-check whether their free plan is still in effect if pricing plans change after publishing this article.
Criteria in review
Strong time tracking capabilities: native time trackers, automatic time tracking, timesheets, active timers, idle detection, etc.
Business needs: does your business need project management capabilities, robust reporting features, or even employee monitoring?
Team-oriented: is the app suitable for teams? Do employees find it helpful? This question is rhetorical since we’ll allow you to decide for yourself.
Pricing. Is it affordable for your team or business?
Before we start the review, we need to state our case against employee monitoring. We hate surveillance tactics, spyware, or hidden processes infringing employee privacy. We believe in psychological safety, dignity, trust, and the right to privacy: respect and empathy.
You shouldn’t police your employees but empower them using the right tools and a safe company culture. We know how important trust is to every team, distributed or not, and the digital tools you use should foster it.
The benefits of time tracking cannot be dismissed, from accurate estimates and billing to proof of work, efficiency, productivity, and other insights. However, we don’t encourage incentivizing employee time tracking or using pure time metrics for performance review without a qualitative assessment of your employees’ performance.
Time tracking helps create healthy work rhythms and cadences, ensure a healthy work-life balance, and get to do significant and profound work that furthers your career or bolsters your goals.
Without further ado, let’s inspect some of the best employee time-tracking software that is free of charge.
native automatic time tracker for stress-free work
Pricing: Low
93
of 100
Pros
robust project management tool with time tracking at its core
multiple ways to track time, including Pomodoro
reliable automatic time tracking
active timers
100% data privacy on tracked time
bolsters employee trust
Cons
it lacks timesheet approval for managers
it has fewer integrations than its competitors
Paymo is one of the best employee time-tracking software for small businesses and teams of up to 20 people. It’s excellent value for money, incorporating much-needed functionalities for any small and medium business to thrive. Paymo has native automatic time tracking, project management, resource scheduling, and invoicing and integrates with Google, Zapier, and Slack, to name a few.
Best for: small businesses in need of employee time tracking, timesheet reporting, project management, profitability measurement, and billing for their clients.
Paymo is modern and intuitive agency time-tracking software for project-based businesses. It helps your team manage projects throughout their lifecycle. Plan and schedule your projects, collaborate with your team, share files, track time, and ensure you stay on budget.
Would employees find Paymo helpful?
What makes it appealing is that you can track time in your way: either manually, through the web timer, adding time in bulk, or logging time through a dedicated desktop app, Paymo Track, which automatically tracks time as employees are doing their work diligently. User data is stored locally on their devices; they have total privacy and complete control over what gets logged. The Pomodoro technique is also available for fans who want to timebox their efforts.
Paymo’s desktop time tracker
All the time records are automatically recorded in a standard timesheet, so admins and project managers receive all the necessary insights to run a team effectively.
Note: You can even bill clients, thanks to Paymo’s native invoicing module, which turns timesheet data into an invoice at the click of a button. This is a step from using an invoice generator, a simple online tool. It’s cheap as it cuts down on the need for accounting services and is professional.
Another great feature is the Active Timers, which allows you to see who’s tracking time for which task and for how long already at the same time. This is a more discrete way to check with your team instead of using random screenshots or intentional shoulder peeking.
Note: Paymo launched a useful project profitability feature two years ago in 2022, calculating your internal costs against billed hours. Suppose you’re not sure how to calculate it. In that case, you don’t even have to—this project profitability analysis is an excellent example of how tracking your time is crucial to accurate profit estimates.
‘Active Computer Usage’ and ‘Total time between computer turn on/off’ can be misleading in terms of job done
slow and clumsy UI
inconsistent automatic time-tracking
buggy start/stop button
TimeCamp is a time tracker tool that monitors productivity and desktop activities, does attendance tracking, and integrates with other apps. The downside is that you need to pay for TimeCamp Planner (formerly HeySpace) to manage tasks, projects, or anything related to project management. There is a free plan for up to 5 users that integrates with TimeCamp, so that might work out if you don’t mind using two products.
Tip: Mark your calendar for deep work and learn how to manage a project with this simple-to-follow guide.
Tracking time is as simple as a few clicks, even for its manual stopwatch, and you can easily edit or copy entries. There’s also an automatic timer for which certain keywords can be set, connecting your employees’ time entries with relevant tasks.
All these you can do in Paymo—and more, such as detecting idle time, adding time in bulk, or switching to Pomodoro Mode for all your employees who thrive on this technique.
Would employees find TimeCamp helpful?
Besides geofencing tracking multiple locations, TimeCamp does attendance tracking, meaning it will signal whether employees are working remotely, are on paid leave, working in-office, or simply not working that day through a simple punch-in-and-out dashboard.
I find it curious that they track data such as “Active Computer Usage” and “Total time between computer turn on/off” since people might have different work patterns or might use their personal devices for work—which can render that data useless.
Employee tracker with geofencing
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: Chrome, Microsoft Edge
Time Clock Kiosk available for download
Pricing
Free plan available.
Starter: $3.99/user/mo.
Basic: $7.99/user/mo.
Pro: $10.99/user/mo (most popular).
Enterprise plan available.
For a detailed review of TimeCamp, read this subsection covering TimeCamp’s features.
customization options and flexibility for various work setups
user-friendly interface
Cons
weak Internet connection issues
limited functionalities regarding time tracking and advanced PM
synchronization issues on Android
Clockify is a time-tracking solution for managers and business owners to manage schedules, approve employee timesheets, create invoices, track expenses, and control budgets and hourly rates.
As for time tracking, there’s a simple start-and-stop timer to track work hours. You may also edit hours manually and mark them as billable. A “Force Timer” feature won’t allow your employees to edit or enter time manually.
Would employees find Clockify helpful?
There’s a Time Kiosk that can make it easy for employees to tap in and out of work and break time, aggregating the time logged during that work day or shift. There’s a GPS tracking capability to display your team’s location while on the clock and employee monitoring through screenshots—that’s one every five minutes.
Some users complained of inaccurate reporting, deeming it “borderline useless, at best incredibly confusing,” while others noted that “sometimes the program is a bit slow and unresponsive.” Also, If only the UI didn’t look outdated—let’s just say the interface needs a facelift.
However, Clockify is constantly being updated. In August 2024, Clockify introduced multiple timesheet templates, task expenses, attendance report updates, group search functionality, and a global “Week start” setting. In September, they added auto tracker grouping and budget forecasting features.
Employee monitor
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox
Time Clock Kiosk available for any device.
Pricing
No free plan available.
Basic: $4.99/user/mo.
Standard: $6.99/user/mo.
Pro: $9.99/user/mo (most popular).
Enterprise 14.99/user/mo.
Check out this subsection for a more extended conversation on Clockify and its time-tracking features.
advanced PM features, like project budgeting and invoicing
it integrates with various PM tools
Cons
constraints concerning time tracking at a task level
pages can be slow to load
issues with the Chrome widget
invasive monitoring tool due to screenshots
As soon as you land on their homepage, Everhour positions itself as an in-house and remote employee time-tracking software built for teams. And for good reasons. It connects with several task and project management tools, pulling all projects and tasks into the platform so you can forget about data migration.
Indeed, when working remotely and full-time, not just a side gig, you need an easy tool to help you track time.
What I liked were the project budgeting options. Each user has a unique rate/project, so senior and junior employees can be paid in direct proportion to their level of skills and contributions.
At the same time, the project budget can be reset daily/weekly/monthly, which is an excellent addition if you run retainer projects as part of your business.
Would employees find Everhour helpful?
Besides its attendance tracker, Everhour has an employee monitoring capability via screenshots (taken randomly every 10 minutes), for which your employees will have to install its native screenshot recording app.
Where Everhour excels, though, is team availability. You can set a weekly capacity for each team member and compare their time logs against their schedules on a visual timeline. Available hours will appear in green, breaks/leave days in gray, and overtime in red.
The tool also comes with a native invoicing module, although a bit light if you ask me compared to other bespoke solutions.
Note: In my experience, keeping track of your time and getting paid for it has been a breeze starting these 2020s. Plus, almost all invoicing tools are free, regardless of whether you’re a small business or a freelancer. If you’d like, read our selection of the best invoicing software for small businesses we’ve managed to test and review.
Clock app
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS (beta)
Plugins: Chrome
Screenshot app: Windows, Mac.
Pricing:
Free plan available for up to 5 users.
Lite – $6/user/mo (min. two users).
Team – $10/user/mo (min. five users).
All in all, it’s best for teams who want visibility across workloads. For more info, read this subsection covering Everhour.
Split into two products, Project Time Tracking, and Time Clock, Beebole can be a reliable timesheet solution. Administrators can access a team overview to check project status, team performance, and overtime in one glance. Beebole’s approval flow allows project managers and admins to bulk review, approve timesheets, request changes, and lock time entries.
Tip: If you plan to or want to become a project manager but don’t know how to learn or what to study first, get started by reading this guide. Here’s another guide if you’re interested in learning more about project management methodologies and types of work styles.
Besides its ease of use for employees and administrators, Beebole offers highly customizable and powerful reporting on employee time, budget, margin, and profit. Build the exact report you and your team need, or use one of the custom KPI dashboards Beebole offers to unlock powerful business intelligence insights.
Would employees find Beebole useful?
Beebole can be set up for employees to clock in and out or to track time for clients, projects, and sub-projects using a one-click timer or manual entry. Time tracking can be done on both desktop and the free mobile app, with or without an Internet connection.
It’s also easy to log attendance, vacations, and leaves of absence. Some users may complain of a lack of customization or a steeper learning curve, but overall, they like the simple time tracker that does its job.
Time tracking app
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Pricing:
No free plan available.
Paid: $6.99/user/month.
Volume discounts and 10% off for NGOs and educational institutions.
Beebole is great for employee time clocking or project time tracking, which comes with flexible reporting. For a more detailed analysis, read this subsection of Beebole.
an intuitive time tracker with color-coded entries
Pricing: High
83
of 100
Pros
intuitive interface
comprehensive reporting
compatible with various workflows and IT environments
unintrusive time tracking
Cons
limited time tracking functionalities, especially in the free tier
it lacks advanced PM features
some users dislike the color palette
time sync issues
Toggl Track is an easy-to-use solution for teams needing flexible project time-tracking. Indeed, I found it easy to onboard and add my first project and tasks.
Time can be tracked in multiple ways, from manually adding time entries to using the timer directly in the web tab where you’re working with the help of the Chrome or Firefox extension. There’s also Toggl Track Timeline meant to automate some of that time tracking by assigning time entries to tasks.
Also, one feature that stands out is its powerful reporting with pie charts to help users visualize their time spent.
Would employees find Toggl Track useful?
Users find Toggl Track easy to use and unintrusive, with simple reminders throughout the workday to track their time. Overall, users of Toggl Track find it an intuitive app that does its job. Also, it’s fresh and updated. In September 2024, Toggl Track introduced changes to the Timer page, showing only active workspace data, and added an Audit Log feature for Premium and Enterprise subscribers, enhancing data transparency and management capabilities.
If employees only find the color scheme problematic, namely the complicated color system to classify projects or clients (especially for reports or invoices), but condone time sync issues and don’t complain about close monitoring, then it’s safe to say that it’s an app worth considering.
time tracking mishaps, such as double entries when timekeeping and billing
awkward timekeeping and editing invoices
limited mobile app functionalities
If you’ve been in the productivity space long enough, you will stumble upon Harvest. It’s a time-tracking tool with a Team Overview for managers to keep an eye on who’s working on what and who’s overworked, ensuring employees aren’t burnt out.
As for managing your team, Forecast, their sister company, builds itself on top of the current app to help you schedule resources in advance – although it’s sold separately. Harvest also integrates with several tools, including project management software.
Would employees find Harvest useful?
This versatile employee time-tracking software is excellent for businesses requiring a stricter work discipline, partly due to the automatic reminders that nudge team members to clock in. But also, there’s a timesheet approval system through which project managers review and approve time entries, thus preventing potential errors.
This is not to say that the software is not intuitive. On the contrary, the team overview comes with analytics to see which projects take most of their efforts and whether they’re working on the right ones—I’m talking about the billable vs. non-billable time breakdown.
All in all, Harvest is a simple time-tracking software for those who value insight.
RescueTime is a personal time and productivity tracking software that provides self-working analytics to evaluate one’s work and motivate them to be on the right track. It can be used as a personal productivity tracker and a team performance analyzer. In a nutshell, RescueTime helps you understand where your time goes each day to optimize your energy and regain control of your day.
Would employees find RescueTime useful?
RescueTime helps employees understand how they spend their time, block distractions, and focus on the work they want to get done. This time management and analytics tool can be handy for employees of a small company since it limits monitoring—so, no screenshots or GPS tracking—yet it promotes accountability by tracking the time spent on different applications, documents, and websites, providing users with an accurate picture of their day. From what I’ve seen, RescueTime provides privacy options allowing users to control what gets tracked, ensuring that sensitive or personal information remains private.
Time clock app
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: Chrome, Firefox
Desktop apps: Windows, macOS
Pricing
Free plan available.
Premium: $12/user/month.
RescueTime is, by excellence, a time-tracking app, so don’t expect robust project management features, cost tracking, invoicing, etc. Read this subsection of RescueTime for a detailed explanation of its time-tracking features.
surveillance features like screenshots, URL and app tracking, keystroke & mouse click tracking
glitchy GPS and location tracking
limited PM functionality
Hubstaff is, by excellence, an employee monitoring software with time-tracking capabilities that allows managers and business owners to manage their employees closely.
By close monitoring features, I mean screenshots, URL and app tracking, keystroke and mouse click tracking, scheduling, GPS and location monitoring, idle time, etc. The whole gamut of surveillance features. Hubstaff tracks hours worked by employees and monitors their productivity, which is measured by keystrokes and mouse clicks.
Would employees find Hubstaff useful?
Hubstaff is suitable for those teams who want to see what everyone is working on, and that’s done with screenshots and activity rates.
Hubstaff’s employee monitoring randomly takes up to three screenshots every 10 minutes. Plus, Hubstaff calculates activity levels based on the percentage of keyboard and mouse strokes over time.
Users complained about how this close monitoring is mentally taxing and even denting their overall performance since tracking keystrokes and clicks might not reflect productivity, especially when various factors, from a slower internet connection to work away from keyboard, might skew said “activity and productivity levels.”
My Hours offers essential task management, an advanced time-tracking module, invoicing, and cool-looking reports. Profitability is another neat feature, and it’s a core part of their unique selling proposition: to run profitable projects from start to finish. Honestly, the interface looks a bit outdated compared to the competition. It’s not necessarily the most intuitive either, but it does its job.
One feature that some would find helpful is the import data, which allows you to easily import clients, projects, tasks, and time entries from Excel. Only two integrations are available (Quickbooks and Zapier), but those with coding skills can use their public API to create their integrations.
In 2024, MyHours added custom IDs for users and projects, allowed admins to let normal users create tasks, introduced a setting to disable billable switch, and enabled non-billable tasks on billable projects.
Would employees find MyHours useful?
MyHours looks and feels like a timesheet-style task management tool, and it provides a simple and easy way to track time spent on different projects and tasks. Managers can generate detailed reports that provide insights into employee productivity and time usage, helping employees understand their work habits and identify areas for improvement. It’s worth noting that there’s no employee monitoring, such as screenshots or URL tracking.
Connecteam offers a full range of features such as scheduling, task management, time clock, and other work management features. In addition, there’s an employee messaging system—direct messages, chats, voice calls, bulletin boards, social feeds—to help employees and teams communicate easily.
Would employees find connecteam useful?
Employees will find it easy to clock in and out right from their smartphones, and their entries will sync with the job scheduler, leaving little room for inaccuracies. Depending on the nature of the business, connecteam can be useful or not. As a manager, you’ll get notifications when employees clock in late or not at all, and you can set up a digital geofence to ensure employees clock in/out on-site. If employees are out on the field, you’ll get complete visibility of your employees on the go, during work hours, or if commuting.
Time clock app
Web: Windows, Mac
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: n/a
Desktop apps: Windows, macOS
Pricing
Free plan available (up to 10 users)
Basic: $29/month for the first 30 users (+$0.5/user/month for each extra user)
Advanced: $49/month for the first 30 users (+$1.5/user/month for each extra user)
Expert: $99/month for the first 30 users (+$3/user/month for each extra user)
time tracking can be hijacked, e.g., clocking in early
occasional glitches and bugs
not your traditional PM tool
Homebase is an employee management software with time-tracking capabilities focused on employee scheduling, time clocks, payroll, HR, and more. It is designed for teams working in shifts, flexible hours, or for managers who need to manage people hourly, such as bookings and appointments. Their customers are in hospitality, beauty & wellness, medical & veterinary, caregiving, etc.
Would employees find Homebase useful?
Homebase is an excellent tool for shift management with GPS-enabled time tracking. There’s also a reporting feature with milestones and performance metrics, such as on-time arrivals vs. tardies, shifts worked, missed breaks, and a team roster where managers can keep employee data—think birthdays and anniversaries—and team contributions.
It’s safe to say employees find homebase helpful due to the nature of their work, especially as there’s an in-app messenger and a feedback system. Plus, employees can manage their finances directly in the app—for example, access some of their earnings before payday.
Employee time clock
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: n/a
Desktop apps: Windows, macOS, Linux
Pricing
Free plan available for one location.
Essentials: $24.95/location/mo.
Plus: $59.95/location/mo.
All-in-one: $99.95/location/mo.
All plans include time tracking and allow unlimited employees.
a colorful employee time tracker with a modern design
Pricing: Average
76
of 100
Pros
in-depth reporting
ease of use and uncomplicated interface
highly customizable
integrations with popular apps
Cons
inaccuracy and failures in tracking time
it lacks advanced PM features
TrackingTime is a time-tracking software that helps companies manage their projects, track working times, and measure productivity. Its interface is user-friendly, has a modern feel, and allows customization – users may personalize how they want to see the stats of time spent at work with 100+ colors, e.g., different ones for each client project or task.
Would employees find TrackingTime useful?
TrackingTime allows users to set up multiple trackers, making tracking time for specific or general tasks and scheduling repeating events easy. There’s also automatic data sync with Calendar apps. TrackingTime supports Gmail, Outlook, Mail, and all the other major email clients for syncing due dates for tasks and projects.
One helpful feature is “Working On!,” where managers can see what tasks are being tracked from the activity tab to avoid unnecessary interruptions and empty time slots in the team’s schedule. One con is that there is no idle time detection, which users must manually edit.
From what I’ve tested, TrackingTime can be a useful tool for employees in a small company, providing them with an easy and efficient way to track their time and improve productivity. The multiple trackers, visual capabilities, and mobile access features make it convenient for employees to track their time from anywhere and ensure accurate billing.
it integrates with Basecamp and other popular apps
some reporting features available
Cons
glitches and failures in tracking time
limited functionalities in terms of time tracking and project management
unintuitive and unfriendly user interface
Tick is a time-tracking software that allows users to track their time against their budgets, offering basic task management features. It integrates with project management tools, like Basecamp or Trello, and with accounting software, like QuickBooks. As for its UX/UI, I’d say Tick needs a facelift and major improvements to catch up with the competition. All in all, it can be a valuable tool for time tracking, but it may have some limitations in terms of customization and features.
Would employees find Tick useful?
Tick is useful for users on the go thanks to Apple Watch integration and mobile versions for Android and iOS. Time tracking happens on a card level, where you have to select your project and task and then enter your time. You may leave multiple timers as you move between tasks. A macOS desktop app, Tick Mac App, can also run in the background to capture work in real-time.
However, Tick may not offer the level of customization that some users require; for example, some users may want to track time in different formats or with more detailed descriptions. While Tick offers time-tracking and reporting features, it may not have the same range of features as other time-tracking software. For example, it may not offer project management or team collaboration features.
Time tracking app
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: Chrome extension
Desktop apps: macOS
Apple Watch
Pricing
Free plan for one project
Basic: $19 per month for ten projects and unlimited users
Standard: $49 per month for 30 projects and unlimited users
Pro: $79 per month for 60 projects and unlimited users
Unlimited: $149 per month for unlimited projects and users
Paid alternatives worth trying
15. Timely
Timely is a powerful time-tracking solution for teams and businesses that need automated timesheets and cost tracking. Timely promises it’ll help users find time sinks, balance workloads, and get a detailed record of work done across the organization—all without the hassle of manual timesheet creation.
Timely is not affordable – for teams of at least three, the price per employee is either $20 or $28 per month—most of the tools in this article are half this price.
Would employees find Timely helpful?
An automatic time tracker, Memory App, is private to the user and has no screenshots or mouse tracking. Paymo shows the same care for privacy with its automatic time tracker, where data is stored locally and can be deleted at any time. Users have more psychological safety when their privacy is protected.
Time tracking app
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: Chrome
Desktop apps: Windows, macOS
Pricing
No free plan available.
Starter: $11/user/mo (max. three teams and 50 projects).
QuickBooksTime (it was T-Sheet before its acquisition in 2017) was added to Intuit’s offering of mostly bookkeeping and accounting software. It helps teams keep track of time and coordinate projects besides managing their expenses and invoices by integrating it with QuickBooks for payroll and invoicing.
Would employees find QuickBooks Time helpful?
What I’ve noted about QuickBooks is that it’s accounting software, first and foremost. However, they’d like to offer workforce management for their customer base, which is why their time-tracking capabilities and simple timesheet functionality revolve around employee monitoring. Take, for example, their GPS tracking, geofencing, and “Who’s working?” features.
Employee monitoring app
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: Chrome
Desktop apps: Windows, macOS
Pricing
No free plan available.
Premium: $20/mo (base fee) + $8/user/month for one admin
Elite: $40/mo (base fee) + $10/user/month for one admin
TimeDoctor is an employee time-tracking software that helps individuals and businesses improve productivity and understand how time is spent. It offers time tracking, productivity insights, and performance monitoring features.
Would employees find TimeDoctor helpful?
The software provides productivity insights and analytics based on the tracked time, helping employees understand their work habits and identify areas for improvement, leading to better time management and increased efficiency. RescueTime also promotes accountability by providing employees with valuable knowledge about their strengths, weaknesses, and time utilization.
However, there’s also a degree of employee monitoring—managers can see what employees are doing in real time, whether idle time is tracked, how long they spend on “unproductive websites and apps,” and how much time was added manually. Any free time tracking app‘s simple hourly logging features should make time management effortless.
Insightful.io is recognized as a great employee monitoring solution and time-tracking app. The software offers a range of monitoring features, including automatic and manual time tracking, productivity labeling, web/app usage tracking, and productivity trends. The software allows tracking billable hours against team hourly rates, helping small businesses keep projects within budget and protect profits.
Would employees find Insightful.io helpful?
Insightful.io is more like a workforce analytics software with time-tracking abilities. Its productivity analysis ensures employees get up-to-date charts of their working style, which they can adjust for increased performance. With productivity tracking, employees understand how they allocate their time and identify areas for improvement.
At the same time, Insightful.io has intrusive monitoring features, like regular screenshots (up to 30/hour), time and attendance, and computer monitoring to spot abnormal usage patterns. The core issue with Insightful.io is that there’s a Stealth Mode, which automatically tracks activities in the background without the user’s knowledge or input—which is illegal within the European Union.
DeskTime is a time-tracking software with a focus on employee monitoring that’s been designed for teams and freelancers needing a little bit of project management as well. DeskTime has resource management features like shift scheduling, leave management, and bookings.
Would employees find DeskTime helpful?
DeskTime automatically tracks employee activity on apps, websites, and programs, categorizing them as productive or unproductive, giving them detailed reports and insights into employee productivity and time insights, and ranking their performance, aka “Productivity calculation.”
DeskTime’s automatic time tracking includes idle time, URL, and app tracking—everything from email subjects to document titles. Paid plans have a “Private time option,” which employees may toggle for off-the-clock computer use. Optionally, managers can keep an eye on their team via automatic screenshots.
Employee monitoring app
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: n/a
Desktop apps: Windows, macOS, Linux
Pricing
Free plan available for one user.
Pro: $7/user/month
Premium: $10/user/month
Enterprise: $20/user/month
20. Float
Float is a resource management platform that helps teams maximize their time by planning capacity and scheduling project work. With basic time tracking, Float is a power tool for capacity planning, forecasting, and scheduling.
From what I’ve tested, it provides reporting tools that allow managers to compare estimates with actual hours or combine logged time with future scheduled hours to predict budget consumption, which can be great for employees to understand their work habits and ensure productivity.
Would employees find Float helpful?
I wouldn’t say Float is the ultimate time-tracking tool, but it does the basics. It allows employees or team members to log hours in a single click or pre-fill timesheets based on a schedule, which makes it easy for business owners or managers to ensure accurate billing.
Float sends automated reminders via Slack, email, and mobile to ensure that employees log their hours on time, helping employees stay on top of their time tracking.
Time tracker
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: n/a
Desktop apps (beta): Windows, macOS
Pricing
No free plan available.
Starter: $7.50/user/month (max. 30 users)
Pro: $12.50/user/month
Enterprise plan available on demand
21. Replicon
Replicon is an all-in-one solution for project time tracking, time attendance, and professional services automation. Replicon’s online timesheets and cloud clock are an alternative to paper timesheets or punch cards. Replicon has partnered with several HR, accounting, and payroll software and features an open API that allows developers to integrate Replicon with their existing applications and software.
Would employees find Replicon helpful?
ZeroTime is a new feature offered by Replicon that provides AI-powered automatic time tracking for employees, designed to save time for employees by eliminating the need for manual time tracking and reducing the time spent on administrative tasks.
The tool automatically tracks employee activity and consolidates entries for the same type of work, with the help of AI, reducing the number of entries workers have to manage. Some users complained of inaccuracies and data jumps between tasks, however. Before submitting timesheets, employees have the flexibility to review their time entries.
ZeroTime uses data collectors, apps that integrate with ZeroTime, to gather information on an employee’s activities throughout the day. At least ZeroTime doesn’t store any employee data across apps.
Employee time tracker
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: Chrome extension
Desktop apps: Windows, macOS
Pricing
No free plan available.
Time & Attendance: $6/user/month
Project Time Tracking: $12/user/month
PSA & PPM: $29/user/month
Deltek acquired Replicon in 2023, so stay tuned for its further development.
22. Timeular
Timeular is an all-in-one time tracking solution that helps individuals and teams track and increase their billable hours, improve estimations, and become more productive, thanks to their custom reports and insights. Timeular kicked off its context tracking (beta), automatically filling your timesheet with the apps and websites you’ve used throughout your work day.
Would employees find Timeular helpful?
Employees have multiple time tracking options, such as the classic stopwatch with a Quick Track, its mobile app, and automatic tracking.
Timeular has an exciting concept for time tracking: using a physical time-tracking device called ZEIº. The device is tangible, fitting in the palm of one’s hand, and it looks like a die (an 8-sided polygon) that users can personalize, connect, and use to keep track of their time.
Timeular’s time tracking gadget, ZEIº. It’s a tangible, tactile device that connects with Timeular and automatically switches between tasks as you flip sides.
By flipping the device, the timer starts tracking time for specific tasks. Some users find the setup of ZEIº “too much work,” especially if they forget to flip the device, and others found that the device poses connectivity issues and its battery gets quickly depleted.
Time tracking device
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: n/a
Desktop apps: Windows, macOS, Linux
Pricing
No free plan available.
Personal: €8/user/month
Personal Pro: €12/user/month
Team: €18/user/month
Custom pricing available for more than ten users
Timeular’s ZEIº Tracker costs €57.50 (excl. taxes) and works with any active subscription.
23. ClockShark
ClockShark is a comprehensive time-tracking tool that offers a range of features—GPS tracking, time attendance, and scheduling—to help businesses track employee hours, manage schedules, and improve productivity. All for the sake of accurate payrolls.
Would employees find ClockShark helpful?
ClockShark is an employee monitoring tool, so it makes sense that there’s GPS tracking to see the location of employees in real-time. ClockShark’s ‘Digital Time Stamping’ feature helps businesses calculate the effective working hours of employees and generate accurate payrolls for them at the end. It’s useful in project management and project planning industries like construction or architecture, focused on engineers and field-work professionals.
There’s also a Clock-In and Out for attendance tracking, especially in fields like hospitality or construction, and a scheduling feature. ClockShark is designed for field service and construction businesses with mobile time tracking, timesheets, location tracking, and geofencing in any environment.
Employee time tracking app
Web: Windows, Mac, Linux
Mobile: Android, iOS
Plugins: n/a
Desktop apps: Windows, macOS
Pricing
No free plan available
Standard: $20/mo base fee + $8/user/month
Pro: $40/mo base fee + $10/user/month
Final thoughts
Here’s a word of advice for all the managers reading this. As with any software, don’t dive in headfirst. Test a couple of tools first and see which one fits your current and future business needs. Luckily, Paymo offers a two-week free trial to experience the full-featured app without strings attached. Paymo is a robust project management software with time-tracking, employe timesheet, and invoicing.
Start tracking your employee work time right away.
Regardless of your chosen solution, you’ll get something much more valuable than just metrics: a stress-relieved environment where everyone can manage their time and express their genuine self—a true hallmark of a happy culture.
Drawing from a background in cognitive linguistics and armed with 10+ years of content writing experience, Alexandra Martin combines her expertise with a newfound interest in productivity and project management. In her spare time, she dabbles in all things creative.
Laurențiu Bancu
Editor
Laurențiu started his marketing journey over 18 years ago and now leads a marketing team. He has extensive experience in work and project management, and content strategy. When not working, he’s probably playing board games or binge-watching mini-series.
