10 Best Time Tracking Software for Developers [2024 Comparison]

Freelance developers and development teams often find it difficult to track their time efficiently and bill clients accurately. This may lead to poor project time management, failed projects, and revenue loss. 

Time tracking software for developers can help overcome these challenges with automatic trackers, billing, and reporting features. 

But which one to choose when there are so many options available?

In this article, we’ll explore an in-depth review of the best time tracking tools for developers, with key features, pros and cons, integrations, and pricing. 

Disclaimer: The information below is accurate as of March 25, 2024.

What is the best time tracking software for developers?

Here’s a list of our top software developers can use to track time:

• Toggl Track: Best for accurate time tracking and billing and detailed reporting
• TimeCamp: Best for time tracking and employee productivity monitoring
• Harvest: Best for simple time tracking, billing, and payment collection
• Hubstaff: Best for managing and monitoring remote employees and teams
• Timely: Best AI-based automated time tracking
• ClickTime: Best for project-based teams
• DeskTime: Best for automatic time tracking and employee monitoring
• Timeular: Best for non-intrusive time tracking and time management
• Time Doctor: Best for managing workforce and monitoring performance
• Apploye: Best for time tracking and billing with many features 

1. Toggl Track

Price: Starts at $10/month

Toggl Track is a simple and powerful time tracking, reporting, and billing tool. 

It helps developers track billable time accurately and privately, generate in-depth time reports, and improve productivity. 

What we like

• Toggl Track integrates seamlessly with Jira, allowing developers to track time on Jira issues within Toggl Track. You can import project data and tasks from Jira to Toggl Track and streamline project management and time tracking through Jira Sync.
  Also, Toggl Track’s desktop apps for Mac, Windows, and Linux work offline and track time in List and Calendar view. These desktop apps also have reminders, a Pomodoro timer, and autotracker features. 

What’s missing

• Toggl Track doesn’t have employee surveillance or payment collection features. 

Best for

Toggl Track is best for software development teams that want an easy-to-use time tracker and powerful time reporting tool that integrates seamlessly with Jira. 

Sign up for a free Toggl Track account now

Top features

• The Timeline feature available on desktop apps records computer activity automatically to ensure every billable minute is tracked. 
• Using the task timer, you can track time spent on tasks for granular time tracking. 
• Create project budgets and task-based estimates, track progress, and receive email alerts when projects reach a certain limit with project time estimates and alert features. 
• Seamlessly integrate your Jira data into Toggl Track to effectively track the time spent on each Jira issue directly within Toggl Track’s interface. 
• Toggl Track’s Project Dashboard shows forecasts for project completion based on estimates and hours tracked. 
• Create invoices from your tracked billable time and send them to clients in PDF format. 

Tool integrations 

Integrations include Jira, GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, FogBugz, YouTrack, and 100+ other popular apps. 

Pricing

Toggl Track offers four pricing plans:

Plan	Cost	Best for
Free	$0	Solo users who need a time tracker with an intuitive interface
Starter	$10 per user per month	Teams with basic time tracking needs
Premium	$20 per user per month	Teams who need online and offline functionality for tracking time and profitability
Enterprise	Custom pricing	Enterprise teams

Visit the pricing page for more information.

2. TimeCamp

Price: Starts at $3.99/month

TimeCamp is time tracking software that tracks billable time and monitors employee activity with screenshots and website-tracking features. 

What we like

• TimeCamp’s free forever plan has many features, like keyword-based time tracking on multiple devices, weekly timesheets, time reports, and unlimited projects.
  Also, you can track time in more than 80 third-party apps with the browser plugin. 

What’s missing

• With employee surveillance features like screenshots and website tracking, TimeCamp may invade employee privacy. 

Best for

TimeCamp is best for development teams that want a time tracker with a generous free plan and employee monitoring features. 

Top features

• TimeCamp captures every working minute automatically with keyword-based time tracking features. 
• Create invoices from time tracked, add your expenses, and bill clients accurately. 
• See your time data insights in summary or detailed reports, generate people reports to track productivity, or access budgeting reports to analyze profitability. 
• Monitor employee activity and productive and unproductive hours with screenshots, website, and app tracking features. 

Tool integrations 

Integrations include Jira, BitBucket, Azure DevOps, and more. 

Pricing

TimeCamp offers four pricing options: 

Plan	Cost	Best for
Free	$0	Individual users with minimal time tracking needs
Starter	$3.99 per user per month	Unlimited users and complex time-tracking needs
Premium	$6.99 per user per month	Large teams that need advanced time-tracking features
Ultimate	$10.99 per user per month	Multiple teams
Enterprise	Custom	Large companies needing advanced features like self-hosting and custom integrations

Visit the pricing page for more information.

3. Harvest

Price: Starts at $12/month

Harvest is an easy-to-use time tracking, invoicing, and billing software that simplifies client billing, monitors budgets and expenses, and collects client payments. 

What we like

• Harvest’s end-to-end approach to time tracking, billing, and payments means you can track billable time, create and send client invoices, and receive secure client payments without leaving the app. 

What’s missing

• Harvest doesn’t come with employee surveillance features, and it doesn’t track time automatically. It also lacks custom reporting features. 

Best for

Harvest is best for developers and development teams that want to track billable hours, invoice clients, and collect payments within a single app. 

Top features

• Track paid client work, set billable rates for projects and team members, and track project budgets for accurate invoicing and payroll. 
• Add project expenses with receipts, mark them as billable, and add them to client invoices.
• Harvest’s invoice management features let you turn tracked time into customizable invoices, make them recurring, and generate invoice reports.
• Clients can pay you online and securely through Stripe and PayPal integrations.

Tool integrations 

Integrations include Jira, Zendesk, Google Calendar, and more. 

Pricing

Harvest offers two pricing options:

Plan	Cost	Best for
Free	$0	Freelancers who need to track their time for client billing
Pro	$12 per user per month	Teams and startups who need to understand where their time goes and monitor profitability

Visit the pricing page for more information.

4. Hubstaff

Price: Starts at $7/month

Hubstaff is a time tracking and workload management tool for developers that monitors employee activity and helps teams improve productivity. 

What we like

• Hubstaff helps development teams analyze and improve productivity with accurate time tracking insights and productivity trends.
  Time and activity reports show detailed data on total work hours and app and website activity to help managers identify unproductive habits and monitor performance. 

What’s missing

• Hubstaff may lower team trust and employee morale as an employee monitoring app. Also, with no calendar integrations, Hubstaff doesn’t track billable time spent in meetings.

Best for

Hubstaff is best for software development teams who want to track billable time and improve productivity with surveillance features. 

Top features

• Track billable and non-billable time on the web, desktop, or mobile apps using the timer or add time entries manually. 
• Monitor project and client progress by setting budgets for each billable task. 
• See team member activity rates, timesheets, and productivity percentages with time and activity reports, or use Hubstaff’s dashboard to visualize your team’s productivity quickly.
• Bill clients accurately by turning time tracked into invoices and sharing them directly from Hubstaff for faster processing. 

Tool integrations 

Integrations include GitHub, GitLab, Jira, and more.

Pricing

Hubstaff offers five pricing options:

Plan	Cost	Best for
Free	$0	For individual use
Starter	$7 per user/month	Teams who need basic time-tracking solution
Grow	$9 per user/month	Teams who need more complex time-tracking and time-management features
Team	$12 per user/month	Teams with advanced time-tracking needs
Enterprise	Contact Hubstaff for prices	Enterprise companies

Visit the pricing page for more information.

5. Timely

Price: Starts at $11/month

Timely is an automatic and non-invasive time tracker for developers with AI-powered features that reduce manual admin work and capture every billable minute. 

What we like

• Although Timely is an automatic time tracker that records all activity in the background, it’s a non-intrusive tool. All data recorded is 100% private to each team member, and they choose what they want to share. 

What’s missing

• Timely doesn’t support invoicing, client payments, or expense tracking. 

Best for

Timely is best for development teams looking for an automatic and private time tracker with AI-powered features. 

Top features

• Timely’s Memory Tracker records all your activities automatically and uses AI technology to draft automatic timesheets. You can review each time entry and decide what you want to share on your public timesheets. 
• Visualize tasks in a timeline view, drag and drop them to plan easily and efficiently, and add task time entries. This task planning feature helps development teams meet deadlines and stay on track. 
• Get real-time insights into employee work hours and billable time tracked and access monthly project and budget spent reports to analyze productivity and performance. 
• With Timely’s anomaly detection features, you can spot issues like employee burnout, weekend time logs, and unbalanced workloads. 

Tool integrations 

Integrations include Jira, GitHub, Zoom, and more. 

Pricing

Timely offers four pricing options:

Plan	Cost	Best for
Starter	$11 per user/month	Individuals and teams who need basic automated time tracking
Premium	$20 per user/month	Teams who need more complex time tracking and project management features
Unlimited	$28 per user/month	Teams with advanced time-tracking and employee scheduling needs
Unlimited +	Contact Timely for prices	Enterprise companies that also need Team capacity management features

Visit the pricing page for more information.

6. ClickTime

Price: Starts at $15/month

ClickTime is a time tracking app for project-based development companies. 

It tracks billable work, overtime, and productivity and helps development teams manage resources, expenses, and time off.

What we like

• ClickTime is a feature-rich tool.
  It has multi-platform time tracking, detailed productivity reporting, resource management and planning, financial insights, expense tracking, and time off management features. 

What’s missing

• ClickTime lacks invoice management features, and it doesn’t have a free plan. 

Best for

ClickTime is best for development teams searching for a comprehensive time tracking tool to help with team management and productivity. 

Top features

• Configure billable rates at task, project, or employee level to keep your invoices and cost reports accurate. 
• Get automated timesheets based on your tracked time, and review and approve them with just a few clicks. 
• With more than 70 prebuilt reports on project budgeting, timesheet management, employee utilization, and billable hours, you get in-depth data on performance and profitability. 
• Minimize non-billable time and improve project performance with resource planning features like real-time employee availability, budget indicators, capacity planning, and employee billing goals. 

Tool integrations 

Integrations include Jira, Slack, Trello, and more. 

Pricing

ClickTime offers four paid plans:

Plan	Cost	Best for
Starter	$15 per user/ month	Freelancers and small teams
Team	$19 per user/ month	Midsize teams
Premier	$31 per user/ month	Midsize and large teams
Enterprise	Contact for more pricing	Enterprise teams

Visit the pricing page for more information.

7. DeskTime

Price: Starts at $7/month

DeskTime is automatic time tracking software that helps development companies monitor employee productivity with surveillance features. 

It tracks activity, generates productivity reports, and lets managers schedule tasks to maximize productivity and efficiency. 

What we like

• DeskTime tracks time automatically and records all employee activity to provide managers with productivity percentages, statistics, team member comparisons, and potential areas of improvement. 

Also, it has a private time feature that employees can use to stop the timer when they want to check personal emails or their social media accounts. This makes DeskTime’s employee surveillance features less invasive. 

What’s missing

• You can’t track time offline with DeskTime, which limits its time tracking capabilities. 

Best for

DeskTime is best for development teams that want an automatic time tracking app that monitors employee activity and productivity. 

Top features

• DeskTime automatically tracks billable time on the desktop app or lets you manually add time entries. 
• Allocate and manage resources realistically with DeskTime’s absence calendar that provides full visibility over who’s available and who has days off. 
• Identify productivity bottlenecks by analyzing your team’s work habits and productivity levels with DeskTime’s detailed productivity data reports. 
• Monitor remote development teams’ activity with random screenshots and URL and app tracking. 

Tool integrations 

Integrations include Jira, GitLab, Asana, and more. 

Pricing

DeskTime offers four pricing plans:

Plan	Cost	Best for
DeskTime Lite	$0	Solo users who need automatic time and app tracking
Pro	$7 per user per month	Teams who need to track time automatically and manually and calculate productivity.
Premium	$10 per user per month	Teams with more complex time-tracking and project-scheduling needs
Enterprise	$20 per user per month	Enterprise teams

Visit the pricing page for more information.

8. Timeular

Price: Starts at $9/month

Timeular is a time tracking and leave management tool that helps software teams improve time management with non-intrusive time tracking features. 

What we like

• Timeular has a physical tracker in the form of an eight-sided cube that team members can use to track time automatically. This device aims to make time tracking easier and more engaging. 

What’s missing

• Timeular doesn’t have invoice and expense management features. 

Best for

Timeular is best for remote development teams who need a non-invasive, automatic tool to track remote employee activity and productivity.  

Top features

• The Timeular Tracker is a physical device that developers can use to track time spent on different tasks with a simple flip. You can set activities for each side of the tracker, which integrates seamlessly with the Timeular app. 
• With its context tracking feature, Timeular records the apps and websites you use daily and adds them to your timesheets. This context data is private to each user, who chooses which time entries they want to share. 
• Bill clients accurately by tracking every billable activity, including client emails and phone calls.  
• See how your team spends work hours with detailed time reports on billable hours, performance trends, and total hours worked. 

Tool integrations 

Integrations include Jira, Slack, Public API, and more.  

Pricing

Timeular offers three pricing plans:

Plan	Cost	Best for
Personal	$9 per user	Solo users
Personal Pro	$14 per user	Freelancers with billing needs
Team	$19 per user	For teams of all sizes

Visit the pricing page for more information. 

9. Time Doctor

Price: Starts at $7/month

Time Doctor is a workforce analytics and performance monitoring platform that helps developers track billable time, get detailed time and productivity reports, and improve time management. 

What we like

• Time Doctor’s productivity analysis, workforce insights, and real-time dashboards offer clear visibility into team productivity and performance. 
  Team leads and managers can analyze attendance data, web and app usage, productivity percentages, and low-activity screencasts. 

What’s missing

• Time Doctor has a silent app that tracks all computer activity which can invade employee privacy. 

Best for

Time Doctor is best for freelance developers and remote development teams that need to track and monitor activity with screenshots and website tracking. 

Top features

• Time Doctor tracks time automatically to reduce manual input and lost billable time. 
• Track time on the web, mobile phone, or desktop app and capture every billable minute. 
• Monitor remote team members with screenshots and website tracking features and get detailed activity and productivity reports. 
• Use the team and user dashboards to quickly see team and user hours tracked, recent screencasts, and manually logged time. 

Tool integrations 

Integrations include Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Jira, and more. 

Pricing

Time Doctor offers three pricing options:

Plan	Cost	Best for
Basic	$7 per user per month	Individual users with minimal time tracking needs
Standard	$10 per user per month	Teams with more complex time-tracking needs
Premium	$20 per user per month	Large teams who need advanced time-tracking features

Visit the pricing page for more information.

10. Apploye

Price: Starts at $5/month

Apploye is a time tracker and billing tool with task management, invoicing, budgeting, employee monitoring, and payroll features. 

What we like

• Apploye is a feature-rich tool with affordable pricing plans. 
  For example, its Standard plan costs $5 per user per month and comes with a generous list of features, including timesheet approvals, project budget and billing, client profiles, multiple time reports, and payroll management. 

What’s missing

• Apploye doesn’t integrate with Jira, the most popular project management tool for developers. 

Best for

Apploye is best for development teams seeking an affordable time tracking tool with many features.  

Top features

• Track time online and offline on the web, mobile apps (Android and iOS), or desktop apps (Windows, macOS, and Linux). 
• Monitor remote employees with app and URL tracking, screenshots, and desktop monitoring features. 
• Manage and track task progress in the task timer dashboard. Track time spent on each task, get live updates on who’s working on which tasks and monitor task progress for on-site employees via the task timer app.  
• Apploye generates time and activity reports that show managers how productive or unproductive their employees are. These reports also include total time worked, activity percentages, and daily graph performance comparisons. 

Tool integrations 

Integrations include Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Slack, and Zapier. 

Pricing

Apploye offers two pricing options:

Plan	Cost	Best for
Standard	$5 per user per month	Teams who need basic time tracking, invoicing, and budgeting features
Elite	$7 per user per month	Remote teams who need screenshot monitoring, URL tracking, and app usage tracking

Visit the pricing page for more information.

Best developer time tracking software: Quick comparison

This is a quick overview of our top 10 developer time tracking software tools:

Tool	G2 Rating	Best for	Price
Tool	G2 Rating	Best for	Price
Toggl Track	4.6	Accurate time tracking, powerful reporting, and profitability analysis	From $10/user/month
TimeCamp	4.7	Affordable time billing software	From $3.99/user/month
Harvest	4.3	Best billable time tracking software with payments	From $12/user/month
Hubstaff	4.3	Monitoring remote employees	From $7/user/month
Timely	4.8	AI-powered automatic time tracking	From $11/user/month
ClickTime	4.6	Best project time tracking software	From $15/user/month
DeskTime	4.6	Automatic time tracking and employee monitoring	From $7/user/month
Timeular	4.5	Time tracking and leave management	From $9/user
Time Doctor	4.4	Performance and employee monitoring	From $7/user/month
Apploye	4.5	Affordable time tracking with many features	From $5/user/month

How do I choose the best time tracker for developers?

To choose the right time tracker for your needs, consider the following questions: 

• Ease of use and adoption: How steep is the learning curve for the tool, especially for developers who may prefer spending time on coding over administrative tasks?
• Reporting and analytics: Does the tool provide detailed analytics on time spent per project, task, or client, enabling better project management and billing decisions? Can it generate customizable reports that cater to the needs of both internal stakeholders and clients?
• Integration capabilities: How well does the tool integrate with version control systems like Git or CI/CD pipelines to automatically track time spent on commits, merges, or deployments? Is there an API for custom integrations with other tools and systems used by the development team?
• Data Security and Privacy: What measures does the tool implement to ensure the security and confidentiality of codebase access and client data? Is the tool compliant with relevant data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR for European clients)?
• Cost-effectiveness: How does the cost structure align with the size and scale of your development team or project needs? Are there any hidden costs for additional features, integrations, or data storage, that could affect the overall affordability?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Some frequent questions people ask about time tracking software for developers are:

How much does time tracking software for developers cost?

The cost of time tracking software for developers varies widely, from free versions with basic features to premium plans that can cost up to $20 per user per month. The pricing depends on features, number of users, and integration capabilities. 

What features should I look for in a time tracker for developers?

When searching for a time tracker, developers and development teams should look for features like:

• Automatic time tracking: Automatically record time spent on tasks and eliminate manual entry. 
• Integrations with software development tools: Connect with other tools developers use to streamline workflows. 
• Detailed reporting: Comprehensive reports to analyze productivity and bill clients accurately. 
• Customizable settings for different workflows and projects: Personalize the platform to adapt to specific project requirements and workflows. 

How do developers benefit from using time tracking software? 

Time tracking software helps developers:

• Gain insights into how they use time across projects
• Improve time management and productivity
• Bill clients accurately
• Boost overall performance

The bottom line 

Now that you know what each of these tools can do for you, it’s time to give some of them a try. 

Toggl Track is free to use for a month if you want to see in action how easy it is to set up and use. You’ll get full access to all of its features, like billable time tracking, detailed time and profitability reports, and more.

Sign up for a free Toggl Track account.

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