A time tracker is software that records how long each person on your team spends on a project, a client, or a task. Those minutes roll into billable reports, payroll exports, and project budgets. The five tools below all do that.
What separates them is how the timer feels, whether invoicing lives in the same window, and whether the price holds past five users.
Most small businesses we have looked at lose between 4 and 7 percent of billable revenue to forgotten timers. On a USD 25,000 monthly book that is USD 1,000 to USD 1,750 of work the team did but never invoiced. That is the cost the software replaces, and it is the number to anchor your decision on.
Toggl Track wins for solo operators and small agencies that want a free tier with no seat tax. Harvest wins when the timer must feed invoices the same day. Clockify wins for budget-tight teams that need unlimited users on a free plan. Hubstaff and Timely round out the field for distributed teams and timer-averse staff.
Key facts: Toggl Track is free for up to 5 users with billable rates and project budgets. Harvest bundles invoicing in the same window as the timer. Clockify is free for unlimited users on a single workspace. All five export to payroll systems like Gusto and QuickBooks.
According to the 2024 Harvest small-business benchmark, teams that tracked billable hours recovered an average of 6.4 percent of revenue that had previously been lost to unbilled time. A 12-person agency on USD 18,000 of monthly billables can recover roughly USD 1,150 in the first quarter after rollout.
The honest traps: what time trackers do not put on the pricing page
Free tiers are not equal. Toggl Track and Clockify both run a free plan, but only Clockify keeps unlimited users on the free tier. Toggl caps free workspaces at five users, which sounds generous until your sixth contractor joins.
Per-user pricing compounds. A USD 9 per user per month tool becomes USD 540 per year for a five-person team, USD 1,080 for ten people, and USD 2,160 for twenty. Three-year contracts at USD 12 per user per month can quietly outrun the cost of a USD 30 per month flat-rate tool.
Integrations are often paywalled. Harvest, Toggl Track, and Hubstaff all charge extra for the payroll, accounting, or Jira sync you were told was included. Read the integrations page before you commit to a plan.
Mobile apps are not desktop apps. A tool that runs well on the web may force staff to start the timer from a browser tab every morning. Hubstaff and Clockify both ship real mobile apps; Toggl and Harvest rely on a lighter mobile companion.
GPS and screenshots are not optional on lower plans. Hubstaff downgrades GPS tracking on its cheapest tier. If you manage a remote team across multiple states, that detail will matter at contract time, not later.
Toggl Track: best for solo operators and small agencies on a real free tier
Toggl Track is the timer that grew up around agency workflows. You start a timer from a desktop widget, a web tab, or a phone, then assign the entry to a project and a client. Reports roll up billable hours by client, by project, or by team member, and the same entries push to QuickBooks Online or Gusto through a built-in integration.
Why it fits a small business: The free tier covers up to five users with billable rates, project budgets, and CSV export. The Starter plan at USD 9 per user per month adds time rounding, required fields, and the calendar view that prevents double-booking. Above ten users the math shifts toward Harvest because Toggl’s per-seat price compounds.
Skip Toggl Track if your team lives inside Jira or Linear. Toggl’s project sync is good but not deep. If you already pay for agency project management software, Toggl will feel like a second source of truth rather than the only one.
Harvest: best when invoicing matters as much as tracking
Harvest is two products in one window: a timer and an invoicing tool. You start a timer, assign the entry to a client, and Harvest converts the running total into a draft invoice when the week closes. The invoice email goes out from the same inbox, accepts card or PayPal, and reconciles back to the hours without a second spreadsheet.
Why it fits a small business: The free plan covers two users with unlimited projects. The Pro plan is USD 12 per user per month with no per-project add-on. The invoicing half replaces a USD 15 to USD 25 per month invoicing tool for agencies that already pay for one. Combined, Harvest can replace both line items on a small business software stack.
Skip Harvest if you need deep payroll integration. Harvest exports to Gusto and ADP, but the sync is shallow compared to Hubstaff or Rippling. If payroll runs in your time tracker, Harvest is the wrong choice.
Clockify: best for budget-tight teams with up to 25 staff
Clockify is the only tool on this list that keeps unlimited users on a free tier. The free plan covers unlimited users, unlimited projects, and unlimited time entries on a single workspace. The Standard plan at USD 5.49 per user per month adds time rounding, required fields, and the scheduling board that prevents over-allocation.
Why it fits a small business: A 15-person agency on the Standard plan pays USD 82 per month before taxes. The same crew on Toggl Starter or Harvest Pro pays USD 135 to USD 180 per month. Clockify also ships an in-house payroll module in beta on higher tiers, which removes a third subscription for shops that already run payroll in-house.
Skip Clockify if you need polished invoicing. Clockify invoicing exists but feels rougher than Harvest. If you bill clients weekly or run retainers that need clean statements, Harvest is the better fit.
Hubstaff: best for distributed teams that need GPS and productivity proof
Hubstaff is the tracker built for teams that do not share an office. The desktop app records time, captures periodic screenshots, and tracks app and URL activity. The mobile app adds GPS breadcrumbs that confirm a field technician arrived on site. Reports flag unusually low activity periods so managers can intervene before a missed deadline.
Why it fits a small business: The Starter plan is USD 7 per user per month with screenshots and basic reports. The Grow plan at USD 11 per user per month adds GPS, mobile time cards, and the integrations that push hours directly to QuickBooks Online, Gusto, ADP, and Rippling. For a 20-person distributed team Hubstaff is the deepest of the five.
Skip Hubstaff if your team is fully in-office. Screenshots and GPS add friction without value when everyone sits in the same room. Toggl or Clockify will feel lighter for the same spend.
Timely: best when managers want hours logged without anyone touching a timer
Timely runs in the background and reconstructs your day from calendar entries, email logs, and app activity. You start the workday, Timely creates draft entries as you go, and you adjust the entries at the end of the week before they push to the project report. The promise is that no one on the team has to remember to start a timer.
Why it fits a small business: For teams that forget timers entirely, Timely recovers the same billable hours as a manual tracker with less discipline overhead. The Memory app shows your day in a visual timeline so reconciliation feels like reviewing a calendar instead of editing rows in a spreadsheet.
Skip Timely if you need real-time visibility. Reports are draft until the user finalizes them. If your project manager needs live burn rates against a budget, Toggl, Harvest, or Hubstaff are the right shape.
How to roll out a time tracker in a small business without losing a week of productivity
- Pick one week in the current sprint. Do not roll out during a launch, a quarter-close, or any week with billable client deadlines. Mid-month on a normal week is the cleanest window.
- Import existing projects and clients first. Seed the workspace with the project names your team already recognizes. Empty workspaces make the tool feel optional and the rollout dies in week two.
- Make billable rates visible from day one. Every project entry needs a billable rate attached, even if the rate is a placeholder. Reports without rates are useless to the invoice step that pays for the tool.
- Define the rounding rule in the platform settings. Fifteen-minute rounding is the industry default. Setting it in the platform, not in staff habits, prevents the same five-minute drift that quietly erodes billable totals.
- Set a one-week review with each manager. The first week of entries is rough. A single one-on-one where the manager corrects the entries pays for itself by week three.
- Wire the timer to invoicing or payroll in week two, not week one. A timer with no downstream consumer feels like overhead. Wiring it to QuickBooks or Gusto makes the entries into something the team sees on the next bill or the next paycheck.
Final decision path
| Your situation | Best fit | Why | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under five people, want a real free tier | Toggl Track | Free for 5 users with billable rates and project budgets | Per-seat price climbs once you cross ten users |
| Invoicing must follow the timer the same day | Harvest | Two products in one window; same inbox sends the invoice | Payroll sync is shallow versus Hubstaff or Rippling |
| Budget matters more than polish, need unlimited users | Clockify | Unlimited users on the free tier; Standard at USD 5.49/user | Invoicing module is rougher than Harvest |
| Distributed team across multiple states | Hubstaff | GPS, screenshots, and activity proof at the Starter tier | Friction is overkill for fully in-office teams |
| Managers willing to reconcile drafts | Timely | Auto-reconstructs the day from calendar and app activity | Reports are draft until the user finalizes them |
If your team is under five people and you want a real free tier, pick Toggl Track. If invoicing is the next step after the timer, pick Harvest. If budget matters more than polish and you need unlimited users, pick Clockify. For distributed teams that need GPS plus activity proof, pick Hubstaff. For managers willing to reconcile drafts, pick Timely.
The wrong choice is the one you do not roll out. A live timer that the team uses beats a deeper tool that gathers dust by month three. Pick the smallest one that fits your workflow and only graduate to a heavier plan once the live tracker pays for itself in recovered billables.
Basis: pricing pages of Toggl Track, Harvest, Clockify, Hubstaff, and Timely accessed October 2026. We did not run hands-on tests; this is a desk comparison of public pricing and feature lists. Verify current pricing before you commit. Last updated: October 2026.
