Review of 5 Time Tracking Apps

Everyone knows about the famous saying ‘’Time is money,” and while it might sound silly at times, it is true – our time is precious and each minute we spend working has a value. Keeping a decent record of the time you spend working on your tasks helps you improve your business and have great business results at the end of the day. Back in the days, it was nearly impossible to keep a track of employee hours, but today, it is a bit easier. For instance, many time tracking applications out there that are designed to help you schedule your hours, track hours worked, analyze your efficiency, and track your tasks.

5 Time-Tracking Apps

Time Doctor
TopTracker
Harvest
Toggl
Hours

Whether you are a freelancer, a company or you simply have a team of workers whose hours you wish to track, time tracking applications should be a real lifesaver and make your business grow in no time. The best time tracking applications should allow you to sync with multiple devices as well as allow you to create backups and restore your data. If you already have an idea about what type of a time tracking application you wish to get, make sure it can also be integrated with time-saving tools such as management software, payment processing and so on.

What Should You Look for In Time-Tracking Applications?

With so many time tracking applications out there, it may not be easy picking the perfect one. However, here are things you should look for when finding the perfect time tracking application for your needs:

Affordability
Good Customer Support
Invoicing Features
Monitoring Tools
Reports
Payroll Features
Project Management Features
Reliable Security
Integrations
User Permissions
Open API
Manual Time Entries
Time Tracker
Budgeting Tools
Timesheets
Mobile Applications
Ease of Use

What are the Benefits of Using Time-Tracking Applications?

Once you start using a good time-tracking application, you will notice the many great benefits it brings to you and your business. Here are a few benefits everyone notices upon starting to use a good time-tracking application.

Time Tracking Applications Help You Bill Your Clients Accurately

Knowing how much time you spend on a project not only helps you to adjust your rates for the future, it also provides your clients with a good insight into how much effort and time you put into a project you were given to work on. Many freelancers out there use time-tracking applications to account for their work routine minute by minute and price fairly their completed work.

Time Tracking Applications Increase Your Productivity

It may be no surprise that time tracking applications can increase your productivity as well! When you have your goals clear, you naturally focus a lot easier than when you feel unorganized and confused about when to start and when to finish. Those who use time tracking applications manage to accomplish more than those who do not.

Time Tracking Applications are Good for Employers, Employees, and Just About Everyone

Time tracking applications work well for everyone who is invested in their business. Many employees use time tracking applications to show off their achievements and demonstrate how well they can do in a given period of time. Time tracking applications can also help you pick out the employees who would be perfect for a certain task thanks to their efficiency and quality of work.

Time Tracking Applications Make Your Employees and Coworkers A Lot More Honest

Time tracking applications ensure employees are always honest with their time use. When people use time tracking applications, there is often no way for them to misrepresent their hours or contradict it at all. Many time tracking applications have been designed to take screenshots of the employees’ screens while they work. These screenshots will display how much time was wasted scrolling through social media and time not being used in working as is it supposed to.

Time Tracking Applications Help You Organize Yourself Better

Once you know how much time you need to spend on a certain task, next get a similar task where you already have an estimate of how it will go and how long it should take. Knowing this type of information allows you to create improved project deadlines and will help you determine the time you need to spend on other projects—even those that are completely different.

A Review of 5 Time Tracking Apps

Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a one-time tracking application used for individuals who wish to stay on task and have full control over their working hours. Currently, there are over 83,000 subscribers at Time Doctor and some of them are Apple, Ericsson, Cineplex, The Home Depot, and many others. Even Apple employees use Time Doctor to keep a track of their time, so it is obvious to say this time tracking application has it all. Link here Time Doctor

To use Time Doctor is simple considering it features only two main elements you need to understand to make it work properly. Simply consider this what you need and a must-have!

1. The first element of Time Doctor is the application you can download and use to track your time. Upon starting your task/project/work, you type in the name of the task you are currently working on and start the timer. Upon finishing working on your task, open the application once again and click on the next task in the queue. Time Doctor is rather simple to use thanks to its advanced and simple design and is also designed to work behind the scenes. This means Time Doctor will track the time you spend on other applications as well as all of the websites you visit. To make things even better, Time Doctor can also keep a track of the time you seem to be wasting by going through social media homepage and endlessly scrolling down instead of focusing on your task at hand.

2. The second element of the Time Doctor application is its online portal. This portal allows you to view reports, alter your account/profile details, make manual adjustments to your time and delete/view all of the screenshots that were once made on your account.

Time Doctor is also an amazing choice for project managers as it allows them to create permanent tasks and keep a decent track on how much time their employees spend on the tasks they were given. This gives project managers and employers a better insight into how their business operates and helps them make it even more efficient. Another great feature Time Doctor offers is the payroll feature and function to set schedules for your employees.

Currently, Time Doctor can be integrated with 22 other applications out there, which is not large. One of them is Zapier. Zapier allows its subscribers to sync with hundreds of other applications. Time Doctor is a great choice for companies and small businesses who wish to keep track of how well their employees work. Time Doctor is also a great choice for any individual out there who wants to be accountable and more organized. A couple of advantages you get by choosing the Time Doctor application are:

Very affordable ($9.99/month/user). This price provides you with full features Time Doctor offers.
14-day Free Trial Period (no card required)
Easy to Use
Wasted Time Reports
Time spent on an individual task

TopTracker

TopTracker is a time tracking application developed for remote teams, individuals and freelancers who find their time to be precious and wish to track how well they spend it while they work. TopTracker was developed by Toptal, a network of freelance designers, finance experts, and developers. Luckily, you do not need to be a part of the Toptal network to use their application (TopTracker). Unlike many time tracking applications, TopTracker is completely free, it does not require you to be a part of any freelance platform, and it is very lightweight as an application as well. Link here – TopTracker

TopTracker allows you to track your time using the web application. However, they claim it is better to download the desktop application to use activity descriptions, webcam shots, screenshots, activity level tracking and much more. Unlike most time tracking applications, TopTracker does not have a mobile application for you to download. TopTracker also cannot be integrated with any other applications at all.

Once you get to use TopTracker, you might notice this application simply and always knows when you click something and when you do anything at your computer. This is simply because it is designed to record your keyboard and mouse clicks. It is important to note that TopTracker will not record anything you click on; it will not record what you type unless you want it to. TopTracker allows you to record screenshots and webcam shots, but only if you enable it yourself. Just like most time tracking applications, TopTracker was designed to be completely safe to use and will never upload anything unless you want to. A couple of advantages you get by choosing the TopTracker application are:

Great Customer Service
Allows you to work offline and sync your data online once you have the internet
Unlimited projects and clients completely free
Privacy features allow you to blur your screenshots as well as delete them

Harvest

If you are a freelancer who needs to track their time and invoice clients, Harvest might be the time tracking application you are looking for. While Harvest is considered a time tracking application, it also provides you with features for project management and invoicing. Harvest goes as far as allowing you to create project budgets, track the profitability of a project and even assign projects to your coworkers/team. Link here – Harvest

People who use Harvest openly spoke about dedicated reports for time tracking. Harvest not only tracks your time, but it also provides you with an amazing overview of how you use time and gives you detailed information about how your team or employees use their time.

Harvest is easily integrated with over 100 different applications and there is also an open API available for everyone as well.

Unlike Time Doctor, which provides you with very in-depth information about everything you do, Harvest is a little bit different. Harvest does not automatically track your time and the invoicing features it offers are rather limited as well. Harvest is simple to use; it is a great choice for anyone who does not feel the need to go into great detail. While it does offer expense-tracking features and contact management, they are all very basic. A couple of advantages you get by choosing the Harvest application are:

Free to use but with a limit to one user and only two projects
Pro plan is affordable and costs only $12/month/user
Easy to use
There are ways to get discounts
30-day Free Trial

Toggl

Toggl is currently one of the best-known time tracking applications on the market. It is the best choice for freelancers since 2006. And today, it shows off with 1.6 million registered users all around the globe. Toggl is designed to give its users the chance to track the time they spend on certain tasks and gives them a chance to do it via a mobile application, desktop application and even a Chrome extension, which is quite unusual for other time tracking applications out there. Just like most, Toggl offers basic time tracking features, manually enters time, views reports of your use of the time, adds billable rates and many other things. To make Toggl even more outstanding, it is also easily integrated with over 100 different applications. Some of these will allow you to track your time without even leaving your task to do it. Most integrations for Toggl include various tools such as project management, web development, content management and a lot more. Link here – Toggl

Just like Harvest, Toggl seems to be quite limited when it comes to automation features, there are no keystroke or GPS monitoring features. While Toggl might not be the most in-depth time tracking application, it is certainly good enough for businesses and people who do not want to get into too much detail on how their employees perform. Toggl is an amazing application for SMB’s, Freelancers and anyone who feels the need to track their billable hours.

A couple of advantages you get by choosing the Toggl application:

Easy to use
Offers a free plan for teams of five people or less
Great integrations
Tracks individual projects/tasks
30-day free trial
10% discount on plans when paying a year upfront

Hours

If you like to keep your time tracking simple, Hours is probably the simplest time tracking application out there. Hours do not offer any fancy advanced features as most time tracking applications do. It does not integrate with other applications and it is the best for individuals, freelancers, and very small teams. Link here – Hours

Hours offer basic time tracking ability and the reporting dashboard will always give you a great view on how you spent your time when you were working. Hours is completely free and will work great with iOS and Apple Watch, it is easy to switch between devices and timers on the go as it will always synchronize your data. Sadly, Hours is not available for Windows and any other platform but iOS or Mac. A couple of advantages you get by choosing the Hours application are:

Simplest time tracking application
Easy to use
Switch between tasks with only a simple click
Free for everyone
Affordable for the teams ($7.99/month/user)