Best employee time tracking apps in 2024

Clockify’s free forever plan provides a lot of useful features such as a start and stop timer, timesheets, kiosk and idle detection. It is the best for its cost-effective time-tracking options. It is available on mobile and desktop devices.

Clockify is a compliance-friendly app as it is designed to fall within the legal guidelines established by the US Department of Labor (DOL) and the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) regarding timekeeping and labor management rules. It is also in line with the European Union’s working time directive.

Though the freeware is serviceable, Clockify’s premium plans let you upload time entries, track employee time-off, send email reminders to punch out and use GPS tracking. Clockify also offers more than 80 integrations. Because of the quality of its free plan and the flexible nature of its premium subscriptions, Clockify should be a good fit for most businesses, small and large alike.

Paymo aims to be an all-in-one resource for tracking work time, managing projects and invoicing clients. Though the free plan limits you to five clients and 10 projects, the premium plans remove limits, letting you handle as many clients and projects as needed.

Paymo lets you adjust how you view projects depending on your service plan. Switch between task, calendar, Kanban and Gantt charts views. We think the ability to adjust how you view projects makes it easier to visually understand your tasks and company projects in different ways without being limited to just a “to-do” list.

Paymo is also very useful for businesses needing to hold project-related data in a single space, with plans offering up to 500 GB of space. Paymo is available to use on desktop and mobile devices alike.

TrackingTime offers a few useful free features, such as time and task tracking or basic reporting. But to get the most out of this service, you should consider signing up for at least the Pro plan. By upgrading, you can invoice, schedule time entries, perform audits for time cards and timesheets and better control team productivity.

If you have contractors, you should consider the Freelancer plan, which includes an AutoTrack tool that automates the employee time tracking process. It is ideal for employers who prefer a real-time, hands-off approach to monitoring employee working hours and employees who want to focus entirely on their work without worrying that they forgot to start or stop tracking their hours.

TrackingTime integrates with over 50 popular apps, including Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. It also has a guaranteed SLA of 99.9%, provided you sign up for the Business plan. It is the highest tier, but it might be worth the upgrade as it includes customized automation, integrations and a custom GDPR Data Processing Addendum.

TimeCamp’s app is for more than employee time tracking. Depending on the service plan, it can be best suited for effective budgeting, project management or maintaining security and transparency. TimeCamp’s free plan offers essential time tracking features, including timesheets, a kiosk, idle time tracking and geofencing. You can also easily import users and projects through CSV without upgrading to a paid plan.

If you sign up for one of TimeCamp’s paid subscription tiers, you can access invoicing, time-off management, scheduled email reports and a wide array of tools essential to monitoring employee hours and productivity. TimeCamp functions on mobile, desktop and Apple Watch. It also has a Chrome browser extension that links up with over 80 popular tools and API and Trello powerup capabilities across all service plans.

TimeCamp is an excellent option for integration-related features as it connects to top popular applications beginning with the free plan. If you upgrade, you can enjoy unlimited integration synchronizations for larger companies that need to link projects to dozens of tools.

Deputy offers a range of time tracking and scheduling tools. For instance, you can create and load scheduling templates through its website and mobile app. Deputy also offers a team engagement tracker called “ShiftPulse,” which lets employees share their thoughts and offers a proactive way for managers to encourage and guide team members.

While Deputy provides many of the standard time and task tracking tools, ShiftPulse helps to set it apart. Often, time tracking apps can feel a bit invasive and one-sided. However, this tool does offer a means of checking on employee concerns and moods throughout the day, with management being able to react positively.

QuickBooks Time supports timesheets, invoicing and letting employees clock in and out on-site. While it works well for companies with teams working in the office, it is also a helpful time-tracking app for businesses with employees who work remotely.

For instance, the GPS tracking tool keeps mobile employees accountable by determining distance from the work site and how many miles they travel when on the clock. Meanwhile, the “see who’s working” feature lets you know who is active and inactive regardless of where they may be physically located.

A 2023 Pew Research study suggests that nearly a third of Americans who can work from home will do so all the time. With so many Americans opting to telecommute or work hybrid jobs, apps like QuickBooks Time are essential employee time tracking apps for monitoring productivity levels within and outside of the office.

ClockShark makes it very easy for managers to take a hands-on approach to employee hour and task tracking. It offers “drag and drop” scheduling and the ability for managers to assign roles and permissions. ClockShark also lets you decide who can access and edit timesheets. By upgrading to the Pro plan, you can manage PTO and offer employees customized questionnaires as they clock out.

While some time tracking apps limit your scope to a few contractors or a single team, ClockShark offers controls for multiple offices and departments. Companies with bilingual or Spanish-speaking employees will appreciate the built-in language support.

My Hours is a straightforward app providing effective employee time tracking features across two service plans: Free and Pro. With the Free plan, you can use a timer for daily time monitoring or timesheets for weekly tracking. Daily tracking reminders are also available, but only on the mobile app.

Upgrading to the Pro plan allows you to bulk edit or delete logs, create client invoices and approve workflow. The Pro plan also provides extensive billing features and more advanced reporting capabilities.

My Hours is perhaps the most budget-friendly option we reviewed, as it has a single paid tier that doesn’t exceed $9 per month. It is an excellent option for individuals, freelancers and small business teams hoping for a cost-effective way to manage employee hours, keep an eye on expenses and remain productive.

With Toggl, you are not only able to track employee hours in real-time, but the app lets you sync tracking across devices. For instance, you can begin monitoring work hours or idle time on a desktop computer and keep up with details on a smartphone or tablet.

If you need a simple, no-cost timer, Toggl has a Pomodoro timer and personal time-tracking reminders. The paid plans offer more advanced tools such as timesheet approvals, auditing and team time tracking email reminders. Freeware gives exportable reports, though you must upgrade to export XLS sheets or specify report parameters.

Harvest offers automatic invoicing and the ability to start and stop time tracking with a single click. You can monitor employee hours, watch out for budgets and keep track of costs across every project. You can also attach photos of any receipts you might have. Harvest also offers a free plan for customers.

By creating reports for things ranging from team capacity to cost breakdowns, you will have an accurate idea of where time and money get spent and avoid losing funds and worker productivity to incorrect insights. However, there is no auto-stop for the timer, and some customers note that it can have a laggy mobile interface.