12 Best Time Tracking Software for Small Business in 2026, Compared

Clockify is the cheapest way into proper time tracking, and the free plan is the reason it leads this list. Up to 5 users get unlimited time tracking, projects, tasks, timesheets and reports without paying anything, and the paid Basic plan starts at $3.99 per user per month billed annually. That is less than half the price of Toggl Track's Starter plan for the same headcount, and the gap grows with every seat you add.

The trade-off is depth. Invoicing, timesheet approvals and time off wait for Standard at $5.49 billed annually, while screenshots, GPS and scheduling need Pro at $7.99. Some reviewers also report unreliable mobile syncing, so test the phone app with your real team before committing. For a small business that wants honest hours at the lowest price, though, Clockify is the default starting point.

Toggl Track earns second place because the timer itself is the product: one click starts it, one click stops it, and the entry syncs across the web, desktop apps and mobile. The free plan covers up to 3 users with manual and real-time timers, calendar integrations and simple planning, which is enough for a freelancer or a tiny team. Starter at $9 per user per month billed annually adds billable rates, project estimates and team reports.

What sets Toggl Track apart is what it refuses to do: no screenshots, no keystroke logging, no location tracking and no webcam monitoring, stated plainly on its own pricing page. That matters when staff have to trust the tool. The gaps are invoicing, which Toggl Track does not do, and profitability reports and approvals, which wait for Premium at $16 billed annually.

Harvest is the pick for small businesses that sell hours, because it closes the loop between tracking and getting paid. Track time against a project, and Harvest turns it into a professional invoice with expenses attached, then syncs payments with QuickBooks, Xero and Stripe. Teams at $9 per user per month billed annually covers unlimited seats with team reporting and accounting integrations, and project budget alerts warn you before hours run over.

Read the pricing carefully before you buy. Since the 2026 restructure, the seat price is only the base: extra invoices, projects, clients and tasks can add usage fees that Harvest does not publish per unit, and Forecast scheduling costs $5 per person per month extra. The free plan covers one seat and two projects. For a consultancy invoicing from tracked time, the invoice quality still justifies the price.

Everhour is built for teams that already live in a project tool. Its browser extension puts timer controls directly inside Asana, Trello, Jira, ClickUp, Monday.com, Basecamp and GitHub, so time gets logged where the work happens. The free plan covers up to 5 users, and Lite at $5 per user per month billed annually adds clients, billable rates, budgets, invoicing and an API.

The catch is scope. Everhour shines as a layer on top of project software and feels thinner on its own, Lite caps at 10 users, and the Team plan at $8.50 billed annually carries a 5-seat minimum. There is no screenshot or activity monitoring either. If your team already runs its work in Asana or Jira, Everhour is the most natural tracker in this list; if it does not, look at Clockify or Toggl Track first.

TrackingTime blends a calendar, a task list and a timesheet into one view, which suits small teams that plan the week visually. Drag work onto the calendar, track time against it, and the same screen shows time off, estimates and project views. The free plan costs nothing, Starter is $4.50 per user per month billed annually, and Pro at $5.75 billed annually adds billing rates, invoicing and calendar sync.

The limits are modest. Approvals, lock rules, billing rates and CSV exports all sit on paid plans, and there is no screenshot or activity monitoring for managers who want proof of work. It also has the smallest review base here, with 235 G2 reviews, so there is less public feedback to lean on. For a small team that wants tasks and time in one cheap tool, TrackingTime is hard to beat.

Hubstaff is the monitoring option for remote teams that need proof of work, not just hours. Starter at $4.99 per user per month billed annually includes time tracking, activity levels, 500 screenshots a month and client invoicing, which is the lowest monitoring price in this list. With 2,297 G2 reviews behind it, Hubstaff is also the most reviewed monitoring tool here, so its rough edges are documented.

Budget for the add-ons: the headline price is rarely the final one. Tasks, Insights and Locations cost extra per seat, GPS tracking waits for the Team plan, and every plan needs 2 seats, with no free plan behind the trial. If your remote team needs to see what the hours produced, Hubstaff earns its place; if trust is already high, Toggl Track costs less and asks less of staff.

Time Doctor is the straightforward monitoring choice for distributed teams: screenshots and offline tracking come with every plan, and Basic starts at $6.67 per user per month billed annually. There is no seat minimum and no confusing add-on maze at the entry level, which makes the first invoice easy to predict. The 14-day trial opens all tiers, so a small team can test the full feature set before paying.

Most teams will not stay on Basic, and that is the honest catch. Web and app tracking, attendance, payroll and integrations all wait for Standard at $11.67 billed annually, and extras such as Benchmarks AI cost $3 per user per month on top. There is no free plan either. Buy Time Doctor when you need to validate hours before payroll; buy Hubstaff when screenshots alone will do.

DeskTime removes the timer entirely: install the desktop app and it records apps, websites and documents automatically, then scores the day into productive and unproductive time. Employees can switch on Private Time for breaks and review their own data, which softens the surveillance feel. Pro costs $6.42 per user per month billed annually, and annual billing saves roughly a month a year.

Two things to check before you commit. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and screenshots, API access and shift scheduling all wait for Premium at $9.17 billed annually. Prices also exclude VAT, so European buyers pay more than the headline rate. For office and hybrid teams that want hours captured without anyone remembering to start a timer, DeskTime is the most automatic tool in this list.

Timely is for teams whose timesheets never get filled in, because its Memory tracker records work in the background and AI drafts each person's timesheet for approval. Nobody else sees the raw activity, so the automation does not feel like surveillance, and a manual timer is included for work the tracker misses. Starter costs $9 per user per month billed annually and carries the highest G2 score in this list, 4.8 out of 5.

The Starter plan has a hard ceiling: 5 users and 20 projects, so a sixth person forces the jump to Premium at $16 billed annually. There is no free plan and no invoicing, so billing still needs another tool. For a small agency whose staff forget timers, Timely recovers billable hours that would otherwise vanish; for larger teams, price Premium from the start.

actiTIME takes a different approach from the rest of this list: one plan, one price, every feature. Approvals, billing and cost rates, budgets, invoicing, leave management and custom workflows all come with the Online plan at $6 per user per month billed annually, dropping to $5 from 41 users. Free covers up to 3 users; self-hosted costs $120 per user once.

Hours are logged against customers, projects and tasks, with a cost rate on each person and a billing rate on each type of work, so the same entry feeds both an invoice and a margin figure. The trade-offs are a free plan that leaves out estimates and budgets, and no GPS tracking for field teams. For a small firm that prices work by the hour, actiTIME ties time to money more directly than any tool here.

Paymo is the all-in-one for small creative studios: projects, tasks, time tracking, estimates, expenses and invoicing live in the same app, so a job moves from estimate to invoice without an export step. The free plan gives one user unlimited time tracking and unlimited invoices, and Solo at $5.90 per user per month adds flat-rate and retainer projects with Kanban and calendar views.

Watch the price after month three. Solo is an introductory $5.90 that rises to $9.90, Plus is $10.90 rising to $15.90, and Solo caps at 1 user, 3 clients and 5 projects, so real teams start on Plus. Gantt charts, approvals and scheduling wait for Pro at $16.90. For a studio that wants one app for the whole job, Paymo still undercuts buying the pieces separately.

Insightful, formerly Workpuls, is workforce analytics rather than a simple timer: it shows how work time is actually spent across apps, websites and projects, with screenshots and a real-time overview of the whole team. You pay per monitored device, not for admins or managers who only view the dashboard, and Workforce Analytics starts at $8 per user per month billed annually.

The trial is the shortest here at 7 days, and there is no free plan, so evaluate fast. Monitoring this thorough also needs a clear conversation with staff before rollout, and security and QA add-ons run an extra $0.50 to $4 per seat per month. For a manager who needs visibility into a remote team's working day, Insightful answers questions a timer alone cannot.