- Clockify: Best overall
- TimeCamp: Best for remote teams
- Toggl Track: Best for very small teams
- Paymo: Best for invoicing
- My Hours: Best for freelancers
- Deputy: Best for scheduling employees
- TrackingTime: Best for visual time tracking
Updated: May 6, 2024, 12:14pm
If you are new to time tracking for employees or have been doing it manually until now, free time tracking apps can be a good way to understand how these apps work without burning a hole in your pocket. However, with a number of time tracking apps on the market, all with varying feature sets and pricing, choosing the right solution can be a challenge. So to help make the decision easier, we found the seven best time tracking apps for small businesses.
The Best Free Time Tracking Apps of 2024
Summary: The Best Free Time Tracking App of 2024
Company | Forbes Advisor Rating | Starting Price | Number of users | Apps | LEARN MORE | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Clockify | 5.0 | Free; $3.99 per user per month (billed annually) | Unlimited | Web app for Edge, Chrome and Firefox; Desktop apps for Linux, Mac and Windows; Mobile app for iOS and Android | Learn More | Read Forbes' Review | |||
TimeCamp | 4.5 | Free; $2.99 per user per month (billed monthly) | Unlimited | Desktop apps for Ubuntu, Mac and Windows; Mobile app for iOS and Android | Learn More | Via partner site | |||
Toggl Track | 4.4 | Free; $9 per user per month (billed annually) | Yes, for 30 days | Web; Desktop apps for Linux, Mac and Windows; Mobile app for iOS and Android | Learn More | Via partner site | |||
Paymo | 4.4 | Free; $5.90 per user per month (billed annually) | Yes, for 15 days | Desktop apps for Linux, Mac and Windows; Mobile app for iOS and Android | Learn More | Via partner site | |||
My Hours | 4.3 | Free; $8 per user per month (billed annually) | Unlimited | Web-only | Learn More | Via partner site | |||
Deputy | 4.3 | Free; $4.90 per user per month (billed monthly) | Unlimited | Mobile app for iOS and Android | Learn More | Via partner site | |||
TrackingTime | 3.8 | Free; $5.75 per user per month (billed annually) | Up to three | Web app for Chrome, Firefox and Safari; Desktop app for Mac and Windows; Mobile app for iOS and Android | Learn More | Via partner site |
Methodology
Forbes Advisor performs a qualitative analysis of apps to evaluate them on multiple parameters and give them a rating based on a five-star system. To find the best time tracking software in 2024, we evaluated 15-plus apps on 25 different parameters in these categories:
- Pricing: All details listed here are for free plans but as your business grows, you would like to go for paid tiers to get more from the app. Hence, we compared the apps on the basis of their starting price tier.
- General features: We checked if the apps included the general features, such as mobile app, invoicing, scheduling, clock-in/clock-out, alerts, time assignment and multiple billing rates are you needed an add-on to use these features. The scoring also accounted for the fact that some apps did not support a few of these features at all.
- Additional features: We know that if the time tracking app has the basic general features, it is sufficient to meet your requirement. But it is always good to have additional features that make business operations easier. We scored the apps on the basis of what additional features they had, such as payroll integration, types of reports and templates, real-time project dashboards, billable and nonbillable hours tracking.
- Ratings and reviews: To ensure that our evaluation included what other users thought about the app, we included app ratings and reviews from popular sites, such as G2 and Capterra.
- Expert score: To take the overall review process to the next level, we asked experts to score these apps on these benchmarks—number of critical features in free plan, value for money, popularity and ease of use.
How To Choose a Free Time Tracking App
Choosing the right time tracking app can get frustrating with so many similar apps available in the market. Here are a few pointers to guide you in your search. Evaluate all the apps you are considering on these parameters to choose the best one for your team:
- Ease of use: To ensure widespread adoption and success of the app in your organization, you must evaluate how easy it is to use the app.
- Time tracking and reporting: A good time tracking app must be able to track different parameters, including clock in/clock out timing, time of, billable and nonbillable hours. It must also provide robust reporting on these parameters, which can then be used to assess the productivity and impact of each employee.
- Team management capabilities: You must also check if the app allows you to assign supervisors who can check and approve timesheets, assign tasks, track time off, schedule projects and more. All from within the app. If add-ons are required, are they cheap and easy to integrate?
- Pricing: As your business grows, you will want to sign up for paid tiers that provide more features for growing teams. It is better to check the features available in paid tiers so that you do not need to move apps when the time is ripe to pay for a suitable time tracking app.
- Available integrations: The time tracking app will not operate in isolation. It must integrate into the workflows you are already using. It is important to see what are the platforms with which it can integrate. This is especially necessary to check since you are choosing a free plan.
- Customer support: Most time tracking apps are straightforward to install and use but if you or your team members get stuck, you need to turn to customer support. Before choosing a time tracking app, check the different ways in which customer support is available. Do they have training videos? Are there forums where you can get your problems solved? Is a customer support executive available for stepping in if the problem gets especially challenging?
Benefits of Time Tracking App
Some benefits of free time tracking apps for businesses of all sizes include:
- Tracking number of hours worked by employees
- Billing clients accurately
- Communicating project progress clearly
- Maintaining transparency
- Identifying time sinks and improving productivity
- Proactively identifying project delays
Does your business need a time tracking app?
Whatever the size of your business, if you want to make informed and data-based decisions about pricing your products/projects, planning your day or scheduling your entire team, you need a time tracking app.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the best free time tracking app?
Depending upon your business needs, you can choose an excellent free time tracking from the many available in the market. According to Forbes Advisor evaluation, here are the seven best:
- Clockify: Best overall
- TimeCamp: Best for remote teams
- Toggl Track: Best for very small teams
- Paymo: Best for invoicing
- My Hours: Best for freelancers
- Deputy: Best for scheduling employees
- TrackingTime: Best for visual time tracking
How can I track my time for free?
You can track your time for free using any free time tracking apps, such as Clockify, Toggl Track, TimeCamp, Tracking Time, Deputy or Paymo, that are available in the market. All these apps provide basic time tracking and reporting features but each has some additional features too. Be sure to research which one suits your requirements the most.
Is Clockify a free app?
Clockify is a full-featured time tracking app whose free plan allows you to add unlimited users, projects and tasks. Clockify even made it to Forbes Advisor Best Time Tracking App.
Are time tracking apps secure?
As with most types of software, the best time tracking apps offer many levels of security. When choosing this type of software, you want to look for security features, such as two-factor authentication (2FA) or multifactor authentication (MFA), the monitoring of user activities, data encryption, privacy protection, documentation that shows frequent security updates and patches and intrusion detection. Read our guide to learn about the different risks and best practices to protect yourself and your employees.