Toggl Track is one of the best known time trackers around, and it earns that reputation. The timer is fast, the reports are clean, and the apps feel polished. Plenty of freelancers and teams use it happily for years.
Still, people search for Toggl alternatives every day, and the reasons tend to fall into a few clear groups. Some are tired of starting and stopping timers by hand. Some hit the 5 user limit on the free plan and do not want to pay per seat every month. Some need invoicing, which Toggl does not offer. And some would rather keep their work data on their own machine instead of a vendor’s cloud.
This guide covers 9 alternatives, grouped by the reason you might be leaving. For each one you get what it does well, where it falls short, and who it fits.
Why Look for a Toggl Alternative?
Four complaints come up again and again:
- Manual timers. Toggl depends on you remembering to press start. Forget for an afternoon and your timesheet has a hole you now have to reconstruct from memory.
- Subscription pricing. The free plan covers up to 5 users. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month and reach $20 per user per month on Premium. For a small team that adds up every single month.
- No invoicing. Toggl tracks time but does not turn it into an invoice. Freelancers who bill clients need a second tool for that.
- Cloud-only data. Your tracked hours live on Toggl’s servers. If you track client work under an NDA, or just dislike the idea of a log of everything you do sitting in someone else’s cloud, that matters.
Match your main complaint to the sections below and you can skip most of the list.
Quick Comparison: Toggl Alternatives at a Glance
| Tool | Tracking style | Platform | Pricing model | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chronoid | Automatic | macOS | One-time purchase | Private automatic tracking on Mac |
| Timely | Automatic (AI) | Web, desktop, mobile | Subscription | Teams that want AI timesheets |
| RescueTime | Automatic | Desktop, mobile | Subscription | Personal focus habits |
| Clockify | Manual timers | Web, desktop, mobile | Free / subscription | Teams on a budget |
| My Hours | Manual timers | Web, mobile | Free / subscription | Freelancers with simple needs |
| TimeCamp | Manual + auto keywords | Web, desktop, mobile | Free / subscription | Budget teams needing detail |
| Harvest | Manual timers | Web, desktop, mobile | Subscription | Time tracking plus invoicing |
| Kimai | Manual timers | Self-hosted web | Free (open source) | Teams that want their own server |
| Super Productivity | Manual + to-dos | Desktop, web | Free (open source) | Solo devs who live in to-do lists |
If You Want Automatic Tracking Instead of Timers
1. Chronoid
Chronoid is a native macOS time tracker that records your work on its own. It captures which apps, websites, and documents you spend time in, including AI coding sessions, without you touching a timer. Full disclosure: Chronoid is our app, so read this pick with that in mind.
Everything stays 100% local on your Mac. There is no account and no server holding your activity log, which makes it an easy sell for NDA client work. You also get a built-in Pomodoro timer, a website blocker, and an AI chat that answers questions about your own time data.
Pros: fully automatic, private by design, one-time purchase instead of a subscription, 7-day free trial.
Cons: macOS only, no team timesheets or invoicing.
Best for: freelancers and developers on a Mac who want their hours captured without effort. See how it compares head to head on the Chronoid vs Toggl page.
2. Timely
Timely records your activity in the background and then uses AI to draft timesheet entries, which you approve before they count. That approval step makes it popular with agencies that need accurate client hours but cannot get everyone to run timers.
Pros: automatic capture with human review, strong team planning features, good reports.
Cons: subscription priced per user, activity data lives in the cloud.
Best for: teams that want automation but need shared timesheets and budgets.
3. RescueTime
RescueTime watches how you spend time on your devices and scores it against your goals. It is aimed less at billing clients and more at understanding your own habits, with focus sessions and distraction reports.
Pros: runs itself, good habit and focus reporting, long track record.
Cons: not built for client billing, subscription only.
Best for: individuals who care about focus more than timesheets. For more tools in this category, see our guide to automatic time tracking software.
If You Want a Better Free Plan
4. Clockify
Clockify is the default answer when the Toggl free plan runs out of seats. Core time tracking stays free for teams of any size, and the paid Standard plan at $6.99 per user per month adds invoicing, approvals, and scheduling that Toggl either lacks or reserves for its $20 Premium tier.
Pros: free for unlimited users, cheaper paid tiers than Toggl, broad feature set.
Cons: manual timers, the interface feels busier than Toggl’s, reports take more clicks.
Best for: teams that mostly need timers and timesheets without a per-seat bill. We compared its rivals in detail in our Clockify alternatives guide.
5. My Hours
My Hours keeps things simple: projects, tasks, timers, and clean reports, with a free plan generous enough for many freelancers. Paid plans add billing rates and invoicing at a low price.
Pros: easy to learn, useful free tier, affordable upgrades.
Cons: fewer integrations than the big names, manual tracking only.
Best for: freelancers who found Toggl more tool than they needed.
6. TimeCamp
TimeCamp sits between manual and automatic. You still use timers, but it can also assign time to projects based on keywords in the apps and sites you use. The free plan covers basic tracking for unlimited users.
Pros: keyword-based auto assignment, budget pricing, timesheet approvals.
Cons: setup takes tuning before the automation is accurate, design feels dated in places.
Best for: budget-minded teams that want some automation without changing tools completely.
If You Need Invoicing Built In
7. Harvest
Harvest is the classic pick for freelancers and agencies that bill by the hour. You track time against clients and projects, then turn those hours into an invoice inside the same tool, with payments handled through integrations.
Pros: invoicing and expenses built in, mature integrations, solid reports.
Cons: subscription per user, timers are still manual, free plan is limited to one seat and two projects.
Best for: anyone whose tracked hours end up on a client invoice every month.
If You Want to Own Your Data
8. Kimai
Kimai is open source time tracking you run on your own server. Teams get timesheets, rates, and exports, and the data never leaves infrastructure you control. There is no per-user fee, just your hosting.
Pros: free, self-hosted, active open source project, good for compliance-heavy teams.
Cons: you maintain the server, timers are manual, setup is technical.
Best for: teams with an admin willing to host their own tracker.
9. Super Productivity
Super Productivity is a free open source app that combines a to-do list with time tracking. You work from tasks, start a timer per task, and it nudges you to take breaks. Data can stay local.
Pros: free, open source, task-first workflow, no account required.
Cons: solo-oriented, no invoicing or team reports, manual timers.
Best for: developers who want their task list and their time log in one place.
How to Choose the Right Toggl Alternative
Start from the complaint that sent you searching:
- You forget timers. Go automatic: Chronoid on macOS for local private tracking, Timely for cloud teams, RescueTime for personal habits.
- Per-seat pricing stings. Clockify or TimeCamp keep teams free or cheap, and Chronoid replaces the subscription with a one-time purchase for individuals.
- You bill clients. Harvest handles the full track-to-invoice loop.
- Your data should stay yours. Kimai on your own server, or Chronoid where nothing leaves the machine at all.
Whatever you pick, run it alongside Toggl for a week before you switch. A time tracker only works if it fits how you actually work, and a short trial tells you more than any comparison table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Toggl free?
Toggl Track has a free plan for up to 5 users with unlimited projects. Some features, like CSV export, are reserved for paid plans, which start at $10 per user per month. Once a team grows past 5 people, every member needs a paid seat.
What is the best free Toggl alternative?
Clockify is the strongest free option for teams because core tracking is free for unlimited users. For solo use, My Hours and Super Productivity both offer capable free tiers, and Kimai is completely free if you can host it yourself.
What is the best automatic alternative to Toggl?
On macOS, Chronoid tracks apps, websites, and documents automatically and keeps all data on your machine. For cloud teams, Timely drafts AI timesheets from recorded activity. Both remove the start-and-stop timer habit that makes Toggl timesheets unreliable.
Is there a Toggl alternative without a subscription?
Yes. Chronoid is a one-time purchase after a 7-day free trial, so there is no monthly fee. Kimai and Super Productivity are open source and free, with Kimai requiring your own server.
What is the difference between Toggl and Clockify?
Both are manual timer trackers with free plans. Toggl caps free use at 5 users and focuses on speed and clean reporting. Clockify allows unlimited free users and includes invoicing, approvals, and scheduling on cheaper paid tiers, at the cost of a busier interface.
Cover photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash