Best Online Time Tracking Apps
In the past couple of years, online time-tracking tools have become essential to managing productivity. These tools help individuals and businesses track time spent on tasks, projects, and activities, making it easier to manage time, improve productivity, and stay organized. It has become essential with the most significant number of people reportedly working remotely, often from another state or halfway around the world.
Apart from the obvious benefit of these tools tracking time, they can also increase productivity. A time tracker helps teams and individuals remain focused on their tasks and manage their time more effectively. It also helps users identify inefficiencies in their workflow and work to optimize it.
In addition, online time-tracking tools provide accurate records of the time spent on each task or project. The benefit for remote workers is that it helps them transparently and accurately show billable time to clients or accurately report their time to an employer, which is essential even if they work on their own time.
The tools also help individuals and teams better manage projects. Time tracking helps project managers identify bottlenecks, make informed decisions, and allocate resources better. Plus, valuable data and insights into how time is spent can help users make data-driven decisions and optimize their workflows accordingly.
So, now that you know all the benefits associated with online time-tracking apps, which ones are worth your time? Well, out of the dozens we’ve tested, there are a few we think are worthy of your consideration.
Scoro is comprehensive, and we should add a well-established work management solution combining time billing, various project management tools, and CRM features into one platform. The platform is designed to help businesses accurately manage their projects, clients, and finances efficiently, all in one place.
Key features of the app include:
- Automated reminders for every team member
- Invoice templates
- Recurring billing
- Task management
- To-do lists
- Notifications
- Reporting on work
- Sales performance
- Budgets
The apps also have collaboration features and can help streamline various operations. So, whether you work for a PR agency, run an advertising agency, or are a creative freelancer, the online time tracking tool can help replace all your existing tools. This will obviously save you money. Scoro also offers reporting on work, sales performance, budgets, and more.
Scoro makes it possible for users to email invoices to clients based on the hours worked and manage clients’ billing and communication history. However, what sets Scoro apart is its time billing, project management features, and CRM. The result is enhanced team collaboration and more simplified business management processes in one place.
Scoro costs only a few dollars a month, making it a highly affordable solution for anyone in the market for an online time-tracking app. The built-in bells and whistles have all been consolidated into one neatly packaged desktop app.
Hubstaff has, over the years, proven to be a valuable tool for tracking time spent on work and leisure activities, which makes it an excellent option for organizations seeking to track all time spent at work, not just working on tasks. There are hundreds of businesses that use Hubstaff to monitor remote workers and pay them based on the time worked.
A couple of notable features include:
- Tracking time spent on tasks with automatic screenshots.
- Monitoring time spent on websites and using desktop apps.
- Generating reports on team time utilization.
Hubstaff also allows billing clients for projects and emailing custom time reports back to them. Employers using the online app can also pay employees based on the time worked and analyze keyboard and mouse activity level data. This helps to verify if the time they are being billed for is legitimate.
However, what sets Hubstaff apart from all the others is its ability to track time spent on various websites and desktop applications. It can also monitor the time worked. The result is a more comprehensive view of the team, time management, usage and productivity.
Hubstaff is also a relatively affordable option, with the basic package allowing up to 10 users. However, businesses can upgrade their plan as needed.
Tick is a time-tracking application that seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks, allowing for efficient monitoring of the other team member’s time usage, and it makes billing clients super simple too.
Top features include running timers to track the time worked on tasks. It has mobile apps, and browser extensions, which work identically to each other. Business owners can also provide budget feedback based on timecards, and it integrates with QuickBooks, which makes sending invoices to clients simple. Plus, it is compatible with all three versions of Basecamp.
The unique feature setting Tick apart is its ability to track time and help hit project budgets for clients who value billing. Businesses that are already using QuickBooks can use Tick to streamline invoicing. If a client or another business requires proof of time spent on a project, producing it is also relatively simple.
Compared to other online time trackers on our list, Tick’s pricing is based on the number of open projects. It starts with ten projects and can go up to unlimited projects.
FreshBooks stands out as a highly reputable company dedicated to making accounting more accessible to everyone. The app does this by providing users with a range of tools, including expense tracking, auto invoicing, and time management option. FreshBooks makes it easy to automate billing tasks and free up time for other important activities, such as project work and meetings.
Some of the most noteworthy features of FreshBooks include:
- Easy billing integrated with time tracking
- Automatic import of expenses from bank accounts and other sources
- Bill clients’ credit cards automatically
- Easily capture expenses via the app’s mobile application
- Generating reports and billing history
What sets FreshBooks apart is its versatility as more than just a time-billing tool. The app’s expense tracking and management capabilities ensure accurate billing of all client-related expenses. Plus, despite its well-designed interface and ease of use, FreshBooks is also cost-effective, making it a top choice for small businesses and freelancers alike.
Similar to Scoro, Replicon is a comprehensive solution with a broad range of both project management and time-tracking tools. The TimeBill feature allows companies to track the time spent on a project and, when needed, bill their clients for completed projects.
Some of the app’s top features include:
- Time tracking software and timesheets
- Project And Task Management
- Project Budgeting And Expense Management
- Analytics showing Time Usage
- Different Billing Rates For Different Users
What sets Replicon apart is that it is built to fulfill the needs of large organizations that want to efficiently manage multiple employees’ time. The dashboard provides business owners or managers with a comprehensive overview of every minute spent on a task or project at hand.
Replicon TimeBill is a relatively low-priced online time-tracking tool. However, additional features like HR can be added for an extra fee each month.
Businesses using Xero or QuickBooks will find that integrating with eBillity can offer additional benefits. The relatively established online time-tracking tool enables users to record time from any device connected to the internet. It can then generate timesheets based on the work done.
The app’s top features include the following:
- Time tracking from any device.
- Timesheets with billing and payroll approval.
- Monitoring employee activity.
- Productivity reports.
- Tracking time worked for individual clients.
What’s particularly interesting about eBillity is its integration with Xero, which helps turn mundane timesheets into branded invoices that can be sent directly to your customers.
The only drawback for businesses with multiple employees is that they are charged per employee, and the price can soon add up, costing more than many of the other online time-tracking apps on our list. So, those considering it should start by checking out its pricing and factoring that into their budget.
Active Collab is a project and task management tool that seamlessly integrates time billing and tracking for creative projects. In addition to time tracking, it has features for team collaboration and real-time communication, making it an excellent all-in-one solution.
Top features include:
- The ability to create tasks with multiple users and deadlines.
- Filter tasks by users, dates, and labels.
- Comment on tasks and tag colleagues.
- Plan projects with a Gantt-like timeline.
- Collaborate using a shared team calendar.
- Track time and send invoices.
The best thing about Active Collab is that it helps enhances team collaboration, consequently making often mundane work more enjoyable. The ability for individual users to set custom themes for the platform and quick personalization is what sets it apart from others in this industry.
Zoho Invoice is a cloud-based invoicing software designed for small businesses and freelancers. The tool helps users create and send professional invoices, track time spent on tasks, and receive online payments from clients.
Now for those who think the name sounds familiar, it is because Zoho Invoice is part of the Zoho Online Office Suite, which offers a wide range of features to manage a business more effectively. The app offers insightful reporting on your work and automated payment reminders to help freelancers get paid faster.
Zoho Invoice’s Key Features Include:
- Track time spent on tasks
- Send invoices to customers (requires Zoho CRM integration)
- Automated payment reminders
- Insightful reporting on your work
- Online payments for faster invoicing
The best thing about Zoho Invoice is that if you already use Zoho for managing other business processes, this will fit right in and have no learning curve whatsoever. The seamless integration with other Zoho tools allows users to manage their business from one place.
However, those who aren’t part of the Zoho tools ecosystem will want to consider a different invoicing tool that isn’t tied to a larger business suite.
Freckle – or Noko, as it is sometimes called after rebranding – is a popular time-tracking and invoicing tool that helps individuals and teams easily track time spent on tasks and projects per employee. It comprises various features, including running timers, timesheets, project categorization, invoicing, and reporting.
Freckle mainly leverages the ability to tag areas helping differentiate between billable and non-billable tasks. This approach, in our experience, makes it a quick and easy process to add time entries. It comes with several apps, including a Mac timer app, iPhone app, and mobile web app, so users can track their time entries from any device.
Freckle is best known for its ridiculously easy-to-use interface. This makes it easy for anyone, even those with basic knowledge, to track time.
Top features include:
- Time tracking
- Timesheets (these can be exported)
- A dashboard with expenditures clearly indicated
- People and running reports are well categorized
- Invoicing and billing time
- Mac timer app, there is also one for iOS, and a web app
The next best thing apart from the interface is that it allows users to navigate tasks that are meant to be billed and those that aren’t. This makes billing clients immensely simple and transparent. Most important of all for small businesses is that Freckle does not cost a lot for the features it offers.
Final Word
There you have it, the best online time-tracking apps. While we tested numerous others that didn’t make the cut for various reasons, including being too expensive, buggy, or downright incompatible with certain operating systems. Also, a lack of support from relatively new startups meant they didn’t make it to our list.