Freelancers, businesses and independent consultants benefit from neat time management. Time tracking is proved to increase productivity by 80% so that freelancers can do more in less time and increase their income. The list of benefits goes on and on, while the real question is: desktop trackers or web apps?
About a decade ago, most desktop products moved to the cloud and are currently available in browsers and mobile apps. Desktop software is considered outdated, but we couldn’t disagree more.
Advantages of Desktop Time Trackers
First of all, you have a choice in terms of security. With desktop apps, you can choose between self-hosted (on-premises) software and cloud desktop apps. Self-hosted apps store your data on your servers so that no sensitive information or intellectual property is going to leak.
Secondly, cloud desktop apps offer offline capabilities so that you can access them without an Internet connection. It is especially useful for those who prefer to go offline and remove any distractions in the workplace.
And finally, self-hosted options are usually cheaper from a long-term perspective. Self-hosted software requires a one-time purchase, while online apps offer paid subscriptions, so they cost you more in the long run.
So, desktop apps are still in high demand, but whether you need a self-hosted option or an online app depends on your needs and expectations.
In this article, we will have a sneak peek at the best desktop time trackers, both self-hosted and cloud.
Best Self-Hosted Desktop Time Trackers
Self-hosted options are best for corporate users that can’t use cloud solutions due to strict privacy and security policies. This software usually requires a one-time purchase, which makes it money-saving in the long run.
So, what self-hosted desktop time trackers are available on the market?
1. actiTIME
- Time tracking
- Time & cost budgets
- Workflow statuses
- Kanban view
- Custom fields
- Analytics & reports
- Mobile apps
Pricing: free (try free 30-day trial), paid plans start at $5 user/month
actiTIME is a flexible tool that meets all corporate needs. It is a multi-platform solution that allows you to track time, manage project scope, assign tasks, and analyze your business performance based on the collected data.
Online timesheet interface in actiTIME where every user can select task parameters
they want to see in their timesheets
It offers handy time tracking features to understand how much time users spend on day-to-day tasks and monitor payments based on overtime and leave time. Free mobile app and Chrome extension allow you to manage time from any device on the go.
Team managers can efficiently distribute the workload across users and projects, monitor performance, and improve workflow based on clear and compelling analytics.
Accounting managers can easily set up payroll calculations based on billable hours, overtime, and leave time and make sure that nothing will slip through the cracks.
Reports dashboard in actiTIME – set up real-time data widgets
and add report shortcuts for quick access
Business owners can get data-driven insights into all business processes and activities and see how costs and revenues stack up.
Profit/Loss reports in actiTIME that calculates leave and overtime costs
based on work and billing rates
Integrations: QuickBooks, GitHub, GitLab, API and Zapier integration with JIRA, Trello, and more.
Give actiTIME a try – it’s completely free and requires no credit card credentials. Start your free 30-day trial!
We reduced payroll processing to 45 minutes per week
actiTIME is very robust, integrated well into your business process, and most important, helps you focus on your business instead of monkeying around with technology. actiTIME has reduced our payroll processing from 4-6 hours per week to 45 minutes per week.
2. Clockify
Price: Starting at $1000 per month, billed annually.
Best for: Medium business and enterprises.
Overview: Clockify is an employee timesheet app where you can track projects, attendance, time off, expenses, profits, costs, and payroll.
On-Premises option offers a scalable system with an unlimited number of users and projects that you can host inside your organization or on rented private servers.
Other features include:
- SSO with Azure, Okta, LDAP, and others
- API integration
- Personal installation assistance and support
Integrations: Asana, Jira, Trello, Todoist, Basecamp and more.
3. Kickidler
Price: Starting at $3.06 a month per user.
Best for: Small and medium-sized business, enterprises.
Overview: Kickidler is advanced modern employee monitoring software. It includes an impressive set of tools that stimulate greater employee diligence. Time tracking, employee productivity analysis, efficiency trends, screening an unlimited number of monitors online, recording computer activity – these are just some of Kickidler’s useful functions.
This year Kickidler’s developers have worked on an update that’s been recently released. It’s called Autokick, and it helps make employee monitoring even more streamlined. Besides the above functions, the program has also acquired such features as automatic notifications and self-monitoring interface. Now this piece of software has the ability to notify an employee that they’ve been browsing the sites deemed unproductive by the employers for far too long. It also has the capacity to show employees their personal productivity statistics.
Autokick also lets employees turn Grabber (software agent) on and off, and that’s great when you’re using the program on a personal computer.
Additional Kickidler’s functions are PC remote control, keylogger, and violation control.
It’s also worth mentioning that the program supports all Windows, Mac and Linux distributions.
Integrations: Not available at the moment.
4. Virtual TimeClock
Price: Starts at $99 as a one-time payment.
Best for: Remote workers, consultants, small, medium and large business, enterprises.
Overview: Virtual TimeClock is a reliable desktop time tracker for those who’d like to settle in with a single time tracking solution and save up on monthly subscriptions. This tool is available as a one-time purchase for Mac and Windows.
Its basic plan includes one computer, three workers with payroll and overtime features supplied with PDF exportable timecards, and manual backups. Pro version supports an unlimited number of workers, automatic backups, timecard approvals, payroll integrations, leave, and breaks tracking. And the Network option offers multiple computers and unlimited workers, networked computers, and remote office access.
Integrations: Only payroll integrations with ADP, QuickBooks, Paychex and more.
5. Monitask
Price: unknown, contact their support team.
Best for: Medium business and enterprises
Overview: Monitask is a solution for tracking employee performance. It offers time and activity tracking, timesheets, custom reporting, and daily summary emails.
For more information, contact their support team.
Integrations: Zapier integration with JIRA, Trello, and more.
6. Cattr
Price: Free.
Best for: Small business, medium business, and enterprises.
Overview: Cattr is an open-source desktop time tracker with built-in screenshot capture and activity detection.
Its dashboard provides you with time usage insights. It shows your timeline, screenshots, and how much time you spent on particular tasks.
You can also gather reports of particular team members and export them in CSV, XLS, and PDF formats.
Integrations: Redmine and GitLab.
Best Cloud Desktop Time Trackers
The better half of the market offers cloud desktop time trackers. They offer easy data access from any device – your browser, mobile app, browser extensions and even physical trackers. Read on to learn about the best available cloud solutions.
7. Tick
Price: Free for one project with unlimited users and Basecamp integration.
Paid tiers start at $19 per month. 30-day trial period.
Best for: Small and medium business, universities, and enterprises.
Overview: Tick is tailored for teams and corporate project management needs.
Project managers can set up projects with tasks and time budgets and assign team members. Employees may use timers or enter time manually by picking a project, selecting the task, and entering the time spent. Flexible reports allow you to sort information by team members and projects for custom periods and export reports to QuickBooks or Excel.
Paid plans differ depending on the number of one-time and recurring projects. All plans include SSL for secure web pages, full reporting, RSS project tracking, desktop timers, unlimited people, clients, and tasks.
Integrations: Asana, Trello, Zapier, Basecamp and more.
8. Hubstaff
Price: Free for one user with time and activity tracking features, limited screenshots and payments.
Paid tiers start at $14 per 2 users per month. 14-day trial period.
Best for: Remote workers, small and medium business, enterprises.
Overview: Hubstaff is an automatic time tracker with productivity reporting and invoicing. It allows you to track time spent on applications and websites while taking occasional screenshots of individual users. It also offers offline time tracking, keyboard and mouse activity recording, weekly budgets, and daily attendance.
Its basic paid plan starts at $14 for two users. You may add more users for $7 per user per month. Unlike the Free plan, Basic plan offers unlimited screenshots, one integration, user settings, and 24-hour support.
The next tier is the Premium plan starting as $20 per 2 users per month. It includes unlimited teams, payments and integrations, app and URL tracking, scheduling and attendance, expense tracking, invoices and payrolls, client and project budgets, timesheet approvals, and weekly limits.
Integrations: Asana, Jira, Trello, GitHub and more.
9. ActiveCollab
Price: Starts at $7 per user per month. 90-day trial period.
Best for: Small and medium business.
Overview: ActiveCollab is a desktop time tracker available for Mac OS and Windows that is tailored for small and medium businesses.
Its paid plan contains all the essential project management features. It offers unlimited projects, budget and cost tracking, task dependencies, recurring tasks, client management, budget and cost tracking, and advanced reports.
Additional bundle for $3 per user per month includes workload management, availability, time estimates, timesheets, invoicing, profitability, online payment features, Quickbooks, and Xero integration.
Integrations: Asana, Basecamp, Trello, TimeCamp, HubStaff, Jira and more.
10. TimeDoctor
Price: Starts at $5 per user per month. 14-day trial period.
Best for: Freelancers, remote workers, small and medium business.
Overview: Time Doctor is a desktop time and activity tracker tailored for teams. It keeps track of user website and app activity and prompts users to get back to work if they stray away.
It offers accurate time tracking for projects, clients or tasks, billing, and multi-platform support. As for activity monitoring, it provides detailed insights into which websites and apps you use and for how long. TimeDoctor supports offline mode and syncs the data when you restore the Internet connection.
Integrations: Asana, Trello, Todoist, Jira and more.
11. TMetric
Price: Free for five users, unlimited projects, and clients.
Paid tiers start at $5 per month — not worth it unless you need budgeting, invoicing, task management, activity tracking, and some sync features.
Best for: Freelancers, remote workers, consultants, small and medium business.
Overview: TMetric is a flexible desktop time tracker for teams and individual users.
Its free plan covers most of the time tracking needs such as timers, manual time entries, bulk edits, idle detection, websites, and apps activity tracking as well as offline mode. Additional features include exportable reports, user groups and permissions, API, and Zapier support.
Paid plans offer timesheet locking, branding, billing, time estimates, budgeting, and more. Integrations with QuickBooks, GitLab, Jira, and Redmine are available only for Business plan users.
Integrations: Asana, Trello, Todoist, Hubspot, Quickbooks, Salesforce, Jira and more.
12. Timeular
Price: Free for individual users.
Paid tiers start at $9 per month — not worth it unless you need advanced reporting and trends, team time tracking, data export, integrations, and priority support features.
Best for: Freelancers, remote workers, consultants, small and medium business.
Overview: Timeular is a desktop time tracker that supports Timeular Tracker – an 8-sided tracking dice with Bluetooth support that automatically tracks activities when flipped. The Tracker sits on the desk and acts as a visual prompt. All you need is to assign the sides in the app and flip the Tracker to switch between the tasks.
Basic app version with Tracker will cost you $89 as a one-time purchase. Tracker with Pro app plan is available on a subscription basis starting from $79 per month.
Timeular also offers a software-only option. Its basic plan is free for individual users and supports time tracking, reminders, notifications, and analytics. The Pro version provides team time tracking features, advanced charts, and trend analytics, data file exports, integrations, and priority support.
Integrations: Jira, Harvest, Toggl, Google Calendar, and Outlook Calendar.
13. Jibble
Price: Free for unlimited projects and clients.
Paid tiers start at €1.50 per user per month.
Best for: Freelancers, remote workers, consultants, small and medium business, universities, and enterprises.
Overview: Jibble is a multi-platform time tracker with desktop app support. What makes it stand out from the rest of the tools on the market is clock in & out with selfies, facial recognition, GPS & assigned locations features, and bot in Slack and Microsoft Teams.
It offers a free plan for unlimited users with offline mode support, overtime calculations, automated timesheets, online reports, and up to 2 months of historical data.
Attendance Pro plan for €1.50 per user per month offers activity tracking, user policies, approvals, and multiple user levels.
Finally, Desktop Pro plan for €3 per user per month allows you to track time on projects and clients, capture screenshots, keep track of productivity and engagement, and generate reports for projects and desktop activity.
Integrations: Slack and Microsoft Teams.
14. DeskTime
Price: Free for one user with time tracking and app tracking features.
Paid tiers start at $95 per month. 14-day trial period.
Best for: Freelancers, remote workers, small and medium business, and enterprises.
Overview: DeskTime is a desktop time tracker with free time tracking on the desktop or mobile app.
Freelancers and small teams will benefit from the Pro version that supports URL and app tracking, productivity calculation, idle time tracking, project time tracking with custom reports, and Pomodoro timer.
Premium version includes automatic screenshots, absence calendar, invoicing, company integrations, and offline time approvals.
Integrations: Trello, Basecamp, Jira, Asana, Outlook Calendar and Google Calendar.
Choose Time Tracking Tools Wisely
Desktop time trackers have lots of benefits. They are always there for you when you need to record work hours, assign work to your team, and keep track of productivity. Self-hosted time trackers are the best choice for teams with strict privacy and security policies. In contrast, cloud desktop time trackers make a large part of the market and offer solutions for freelancers, non-profits, companies, and enterprises.
If you still don’t know where to start, try actiTIME – time tracking software that meets the needs of individuals and businesses alike. With actiTIME, you’ll get a customizable and easy-to-navigate timesheet interface where users can track time, create tasks, review task progress and due dates, review peer comments and more. If you add user and work rates, you can get productivity and cost analytics in a few clicks.
actiTIME is a combination of functionality and a user-friendly interface that you can start using right away, without training. Give it a try – get your free 30-day trial (no credit card required).
