Looking for the best freelancer time tracker?
Freelancing gives you the freedom to work on your own terms.
However, this freedom also brings many distractions. That’s why you must always keep a tab on your productivity and manage your work hours.
Additionally, time tracking is critical when you bill clients by the hour – as you’ll have to optimize your billable hours and maximize efficiency.
Fortunately, an excellent time tracker will help you manage and optimize all your freelance work.
In this article, we’ll highlight the top 10 freelancer time trackers that can help boost your workflow efficiency. We’ll also take a look at their key features and pricing.
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Let’s get started.
The 10 best freelancer time trackers
A freelancer time tracker is any software that allows freelancers to monitor their work hours when working with different clients or projects.
With these tools, you can:
- Become more efficient.
- Organize different projects.
- Bill clients accurately.
- Improve task management, etc.
There are many time tracking options available today to help you track time accurately.
So which software should you choose?
Let’s look at the top 10 freelancer time trackers that you can use today:
1. Time Doctor
Time Doctor is the ultimate productivity management tool for freelancers.
Used by solopreneurs, small businesses and large companies, Time Doctor helps you accurately track time and manage your productivity.
With several powerful features, from idle time tracking to payroll management, it reduces the need for any third-party application to help you manage your freelance work.
Key features
Here’s a quick look into some of Time Doctor’s key features:
A. Interactive time tracking
Time Doctor has an easy-to-use interface that lets you accurately track your freelance work hours.
To start time tracking, all you have to do is:
- Switch the time tracker to the manual mode.
- Enter the name of the task.
- Press the ‘Start’ button.
And you are good to go!
Time Doctor will now track your time in the background as you work comfortably throughout the day.
To stop time tracking, simply click on the ‘Stop’ button. You can do this when you have completed a task or want to take a break.
But that’s not all.
If you are a full-time freelancer, you can automate the time-tracking process.
Time Doctor will then track your time whenever your PC is switched on.
You don’t have to worry about forgetting to start the timer with this feature. You’ll be able to track all your billable hours accurately.
B. Create projects and tasks
To help you organize your billable hours per client, Time Doctor allows you to create projects.
You can create (and name) projects and tasks within the project folder.
You can then track:
- Total time that went into the project.
- Your productivity levels.
- Time spent on each task.
C. Detailed reports
You can also auto-generate detailed productivity reports to maximize your output.
The productivity reports include:
- Timeline report: Gain insights on the amount of time you spend on particular tasks and breaks.
- Project and tasks report: Determine how much time you spend on a particular task, project, or client.
- Web and app report: Analyze time spent on different apps and websites.
- Hours tracked: See how many hours you have tracked per day, week, month, etc.
- Activity summary report: Have a real-time summary of your active minutes and productive and unproductive time over any chosen period of time.
D. Powerful Chrome extension and integrations
Time Doctor also has a powerful Chrome extension that lets you track time directly from project management software like:
- Trello
- Asana
- Jira
- Zoho Projects
- And a lot more!
You can then manage all your projects in one centralized hub – rather than using a separate productivity app and a task management tool.
Time Doctor also has native integrations with several other tools like Monday.com, Office 365, Google Apps, and mroe.
E. Payroll management
Time Doctor eliminates the need for additional accounting software with its payroll and invoicing feature.
Using this feature, you can generate invoices instantly and send them to clients. You can also pay other freelancers you might have hired to finish some part of the project.
The feature allows you to:
- Select the clients you want to generate invoices for and the date range.
- Customize your invoice for currencies and add pay rates.
- Log your pay rates and select the payment method.
- Export data in XLS, CSV, or PDF format and send it to clients.
- Remember your pay rates, currencies, and payment methods for the next invoice.
Pros
- Easy to use interface for productivity tracking.
- Use both manual or automatic time tracking modes to track time.
- Powerful invoicing management system to bill clients.
- Track time without an internet connection.
- Track all the website pages you visit during work hours.
- Strict privacy and data security policies.
- Integrate with other tools like Asana, Zapier, Slack, etc.
- Customer support team that’s responsive and always at your service.
- Download the mobile app for Android devices and track time on the go.
Pricing
Time Doctor offers a 14-day free trial that doesn’t require any credit card details.
Paid plans start as low as $8/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.4/5 (150+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (300+ reviews)
2. Toggl Track
Available as both a web and mobile app, Toggl Track is a time tracking tool that allows you to monitor your work in real-time.
You can use both manual and automatic time tracking features to keep track of your work hours with this tool.
Read our comprehensive Toggl Track review.
Key features
- Detects idle time for a user.
- Allows you to set a Pomodoro timer.
- Alerts you when projects go over their estimated time.
- Offers work summary in PDF, CSV, and XLS files.
- Integrates with tools like Freshbooks, Asana, and Basecamp.
Pricing
Toggl Track offers a limited free plan. Its paid plans start at $9/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.5/5 (1000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (1000+ reviews)
3. Harvest
Harvest is a cloud-based time tracker app that lets you track multiple projects, the time you spent on them, and project expenses.
Freelancers can either enter a week’s worth of working hours into a timesheet in one go, or track time while tackling different tasks.
Check out our Toggl vs Harvest comparison.
Key features
- Set reminders to review and send timesheets to clients every week.
- Web-based project time and expense tracking.
- Create invoices from the billable hours you’ve tracked.
- Supports integrations with QuickBooks, Slack, and Google Calendar.
Pricing
Harvest has a limited free plan that allows you to track two projects for one user. Its paid plans start at $12/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.3/5 (600+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (300+ reviews)
4. Hubstaff
Hubstaff is another option if you’re looking for a freelancer time tracker with several features other than time tracking.
The Hubstaff software includes detailed online timesheets, budget and hour tracking features for projects, etc. It’s available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS platforms.
Read our in-depth Hubstaff review.
Key features
- App and URL tracking to monitor your website and application usage.
- Generate accurate timesheets to send them to clients and create invoices.
- Capture activity levels of employees based on their mouse and keyboard usage.
- Send automatic payments using billable rates.
- Track time from anywhere with Android and iOS mobile apps.
Pricing
Hubstaff has a forever free version that offers limited features. Paid plans start from $7/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.5/5 (330+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (1100+reviews)
5. RescueTime
RescueTime is a time tracking tool that uses an automatic time tracking system.
It has personal productivity features that make it a useful tool for solo freelancers. RescueTime can also help you keep a tab on how you spend your entire workday.
Read more about RescueTime in our detailed article.
Key features
- Measure non-billable time like breaks, phone calls, and meetings.
- Track time spent on Android and iPhone devices.
- Classify time spent on specific apps as ‘productive’ or ‘distracting.’
- Create productivity goals.
Pricing
RescueTime’s free plan offers basic time tracking features. Paid plans start at $12/month per user.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4/5 (50+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (110+ reviews)
6. TimeCamp
TimeCamp is a freelancer time tracker that lets you keep track of your project’s billable hours.
The tool has a few project management features to help you organize all your projects and tasks in one place. You can keep projects within budgets and also optimize your workflow.
Key features
- Time tracking begins automatically when a particular keyword is detected on the browser window, web app window, etc.
- Get custom time tracking reports and share them as a PDF or XLS file.
- Track the project progress and detect possible delays.
- Automate timesheet approvals and reminders.
- Integrate with Zapier to track time using Google Sheets.
Pricing
TimeCamp offers a free version for solo freelancers. Paid plans start at $5.25/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.7/5 (150+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (500+ reviews)
7. Clockify
Clockify is a time tracking app that lets freelancers and contractors track billable hours and improve their productivity.
The software lets you separate billable time from the non-billable ones. You can then generate payroll using the billable hours in an instant.
Check out our Clockify vs Toggl comparison.
Key features
- Round-off time before sending your timesheet to the client.
- Get project progress alerts.
- Lock your timesheets after making changes.
- Use its Chrome or Firefox browser extensions to track time with a project management tool like Trello or Asana.
Pricing
Clockify offers a free version with basic time tracking features. Its paid plans start from $9.99 per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.5/5 (70+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (1400+ reviews)
8. ActivTrak
ActivTrak is a tracking tool that offers a centralized dashboard for time management.
You can use this dashboard to monitor productivity trends and goals across projects.
Read our detailed ActivTrak review.
Key features
- Keep track of your productive behaviors and create a productivity baseline.
- Get productivity pie charts for a quick review of your working hours.
- Set automated limits on unproductive breaks.
- Use a business intelligence style dashboard to track performance.
- Experiment with goals, test strategies, review results to minimize time wastage.
Pricing
ActivTrak offers a free plan for up to 3 users. Paid plans start at $7.2/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.5/5 (130+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (500+ reviews)
9. Everhour
Everhour is another time tracking software that runs smoothly with several project management tools.
Key features
- Track work-related expenses and add them to client invoices.
- Keep projects on budget with the budgeting feature.
- Sync your most recent data automatically.
- Use its API (Application Programming Interface) to integrate with other applications.
Pricing
Paid plans start at $10/user per month (minimum five users.) Everhour also offers a 14-day free trial.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.5/5 (90+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (250+ reviews)
10. TopTracker
TopTracker is a time tracker created by the freelancing platform Toptal. It uses a centralized dashboard to help you manage all your projects.
Key features
- Both online and offline time tracking modes.
- Hotkeys to quickly start, stop, and manage time tracking.
- Periodic screenshots to give clients proof of your work.
- Project dashboard that helps you track project status in real-time.
Pricing
TopTracker is available for free.
Customer ratings
- G2: N/A
- Capterra: N/A
Why should you use a freelancer time tracker?
Let’s take a quick look at why tracking time is essential for freelancers:
1. Increase productivity
When you track time, you can:
- Concentrate better on projects and tasks.
- Understand your time management style and work on optimizing it.
- Become vigilant about how you spend your time.
- Limit the number of hours you work and avoid burnout.
This way, you’ll gain better insights into how productive you are during the day and can take steps toward improving it.
2. Charge clients accurately
When you have a log of data to look back on, you can:
- Decide how much to charge your clients for new projects based on hours spent.
- Send clients time spent on each task to support your invoice rates.
- Automate the invoicing process and bill clients instantly.
- Show clients the profits they are getting from your company.
By maintaining accurate records, you can charge clients appropriately and keep them happy with your work.
3. Optimize business
Not only will you know how much time each task takes, but you’ll also see the time spent on unplanned activities (such as working on client feedback, making phone calls, etc.)
You can use this data to:
- Budget and optimize your time better.
- Figure out whether you are putting in enough work to stay profitable.
- Minimize hiccups and potential bottlenecks during the project execution processes.
Consequently, you can optimize your business workflows and increase your net profit.
Wrapping up
Time tracking can be extremely beneficial to any freelancer.
The tools mentioned in this list can track your time accurately, increase your efficiency, and help your freelance business flourish.
However, not every tool will be able to track time and offer various powerful features like Time Doctor.
Use Time Doctor to see how you spend your work hours, integrate with other work tools, and bill multiple clients quickly.
Sign up for Time Doctor’s 14-day free trial to see all the benefits of tracking time yourself!