The 6 best Visual Studio time tracking tools

Microsoft Visual Studio is one of the most popular software development platforms out there. It is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Despite its massive popularity in the software development world, the Visual Studio platform lacks a basic project management feature – native time tracking.

And companies and individuals using the platform may want to track time for various tasks and projects within it.

After all, tracking time within Visual Studio will help improve productivity and project management efficiency.

So how do you go about Visual Studio time tracking?

In this article, we’ll share six best time tracking solutions for Visual Studio IDE and three reasons you should use one.

Let’s get started.

6 best Visual Studio time tracking solutions

Together with Microsoft tools like VS Code (code editor), Azure DevOps, and the Visual Studio Code Extension feature, Visual Studio offers cutting-edge solutions to create apps for multiple devices and platforms.

But without native time-tracking, you and your team won’t be able to track the time spent on various Visual Studio activities. This could lead to poor time management and project delays and make it difficult for project managers to keep track of tasks.

Luckily, there are excellent third-party time tracking tools that you can use to monitor the time when working on your code in Visual Studio.

Here are our top 6 picks:

1. Time Doctor

time doctor - better for the organization

Time Doctor is an excellent time tracking and project management tool that can help streamline your Visual studio workflow. It’s also used by major companies, like Ericsson, as well as by smaller businesses, like Thrive Market, and freelancers to boost overall productivity.

Time Doctor’s standalone time tracking extension can account for every second you and your team spend developing apps and programs on Visual Studio. You’ll get complete visibility of the time spent on each task, individually and as a team.

What makes it more convenient is that you can also use it for other Microsoft tools and services like Visual Studio Online, Visual Studio Code (a source code editor), Azure DevOps, etc.

In fact, Time Doctor has a powerful Chrome extension that can easily integrate with Azure DevOps (formerly Visual Studio Team Services) — a code development, collaboration, and release management tool.

To top it all, users can leverage Time Doctor’s powerful functionalities on multiple platforms, such as:

Desktop app for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Mobile app for Android.
Google Chrome extension (for supported integrations).

Now let’s check out Time Doctor’s beneficial features in detail:

Key features

A. Flexible time tracking

Time Doctor features an interactive timer that lets you track time for Visual Studio activities using a start/stop timer. The timer button gives you better control over how and when you track time.

Here’s how the time tracker works:

Open Time Doctor and enter a task name.
Click ‘Start’ when you’re ready to begin your work session.
‘Stop’ the timer when you’re done or need a break.

Time Doctor also supports automatic time tracking to make the process more convenient. In this mode, the timer starts when the system turns on without any input from the user.

This advanced feature helps you focus on those intense coding sessions without needing to operate the timer manually.

B. Idle-time alerts

Developers may sometimes feel distracted and lose their focus. Time Doctor has a useful idle-time alert feature to minimize such unproductive patterns.

The tool tracks idle time as seconds/minutes where there’s no mouse or keyboard activity on the user’s computer.

After a specific period (set by the admin), users get a pop-up alert on their screen asking if they are still working. If the user doesn’t respond, the timer stops tracking time.

Note: Time Doctor only checks if the keyboard or mouse is in use and does not record any data.

C. Projects and tasks

You can easily add your Visual Studio projects and tasks in Time Doctor to track the time spent on them. The tool allows multiple people to track their time on a specific task or project.

In a team setting, project managers can assign multiple projects and tasks to the employee(s). This makes project tracking and task management easier as managers can add/edit tasks and review individual or team progress.

Here’s how it works:

Once you’ve downloaded the Time Doctor app and are signed in, go to Settings / Projects & Tasks.

Note: If you don’t see this option, go to Settings / Company settings and enable it.

Next, click the Add Project button on the left pane, enter a project name, and hit the + button to add the project to your list.
To add a task to a project, select a project and under the Tasks tab, click on Add Task to enter a name.
You can select the People tab in the selected project to add employees who should have access to the project and tasks under it.

D. Productivity ratings

Productivity ratings let you categorize websites and apps based on their relevance to your teams’ workflow and projects.

The categories are as follows:

Productive.
Unproductive.
Neutral.
Unrated.

You can also customize the ratings for specific teams and employees or globally. For example, set DevDocs as unproductive for the company but productive for your software development team.

E. Comprehensive reports

Time Doctor’s real-time detailed reports give vital productivity and time usage insights for all your team members. This reporting feature provides managers with data to make important decisions regarding clients and task management.

The reports include:

Hours tracked report: Check how many hours a programmer has worked per day, per week, or any other date range you select.
Projects and tasks report: See the total time spent on different VS projects and their tasks.
Activity summary report: View a detailed account of an employee’s activity, including active, unproductive, or mobile time over a period of time.
Timeline report: Shows the time a user spends on tasks and breaks through daily or weekly sub-reports.
Web and app usage time report: Track the time your team spends on different websites and applications.

F. Payroll

In addition to time tracking, Time Doctor offers powerful payroll management features for easily paying your employees directly from the app.

Whether you’re a freelance developer or a business owner, you can use the time data to calculate billable hours and accurately charge your clients. You can also set hourly rates for your freelance VS developers and add up their total work hours to avoid any miscalculations.

You can then integrate Time Doctor with a popular payment gateway, such as Gusto, ADP, Wise, etc., to pay your team based on pre-set hourly rates.

Moreover, you can also export your payroll data in multiple formats (CSV, XLS, PDF, etc.).

G. Powerful Chrome extension

Time Doctor has a powerful Chrome extension that integrates with over 60+ popular business tools, including a project management tool like Asana, Jira, Zoho Projects, etc.

This advanced feature allows you to use powerful time tracking functionality directly from the third-party tool’s interface, saving you time and effort in switching apps.

Pricing

Time Doctor offers a 14-day free trial (no credit card details required). The basic plan starts at $7/user per month and includes essential features like time tracking and activity tracking.

Customer ratings

G2: 4.4/5 (320+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.5/5 (460+ reviews)

Check out all of Time Doctor’s features here.