Toggl vs Timely vs actiTIME: compared in depth (2026)

Toggl vs Timely vs actiTIME: compared in depth [2026]

Toggl Track and Timely are both popular time trackers that lean away from employee monitoring. No screenshots, no keystroke logging, no productivity scores. Both have added some form of automatic time capture to reduce the manual burden of logging hours. And both are used by professional services teams, agencies, and consultancies that need accurate time records without intrusive surveillance.

But the two tools take opposite positions on how automatic time tracking should work — and that difference shapes everything else about the experience. This article breaks down where each tool wins, where it falls short, and when actiTIME makes more sense than either.

Toggl vs Timely: the short answer

Pick Toggl Track if you want a tool that’s primarily manual with optional auto-tracking, a free plan that supports up to five users, and strong coverage across invoicing, reporting, and integrations. The Timeline feature records desktop activity for you to review and convert — it’s a useful reference without taking over your workflow.

Pick Timely if your team hates manual time entry and you want AI to handle the whole process. Timely’s Memory feature records every app, meeting, document, and website visit in the background and drafts complete timesheets automatically. There’s no free plan, and the Starter tier caps out at five users and 20 projects — but for teams where time tracking adoption is the core problem, Timely solves it in a way Toggl doesn’t.

Pick actiTIME if you need project profitability, budget tracking, and leave management at a price that doesn’t require a Premium-tier subscription, and you’d prefer a tool where time tracking feeds directly into financial reporting. There’s no auto-tracking, but for teams that care more about outcomes than about how hours get logged, actiTIME is worth comparing directly.

Toggl Track vs Timely vs actiTIME: at a glance

What is Toggl Track?

Toggl Track launched in 2006 and has become one of the most recognized names in time tracking, particularly among freelancers, designers, and small professional teams. It sits inside the broader Toggl suite — alongside Toggl Plan for scheduling and Toggl Hire for recruitment — but functions as a standalone product with its own user base and pricing.

The core experience is manual: start a timer, describe what you’re working on, stop it when you’re done. The Timeline feature, available from the Starter plan, adds passive desktop recording — it logs which apps and websites you use and lets you review that history when filling out your timesheet. It’s opt-in and user-controlled. The free plan supports up to five users with invoicing, basic reporting, and 100-plus integrations through the browser extension — one of the most useful free tiers in the category.

What is Timely?

Timely was founded in 2013 with a specific thesis: time tracking should be automatic. The tool’s Memory feature records all digital activity in the background — every app opened, document edited, website visited, meeting attended, and location visited. An AI layer then processes that data and drafts complete time entries, which users review and submit. The idea is that the logging burden disappears entirely.

Timely’s anti-surveillance positioning is worth understanding: only the individual user can see their own Memory data. Managers see submitted time entries, not raw activity logs. The company describes this as a strict privacy boundary. That said, Memory does record personal activity on work devices, which some users find uncomfortable regardless of who has access. Timely has no free plan; pricing starts at $9/user/month annual, capped at five users and 20 projects on the Starter tier.

See also: 8 Best Timely Alternatives in 2026: Full Guide

What is actiTIME?

actiTIME has been in use for more than 20 years, is deployed in 130-plus countries, and has collected over 1,000 five-star reviews. Like Toggl and Timely, it avoids employee monitoring entirely — no screenshots, no activity recording, no location data. Time tracking is manual by design: a weekly timesheet and a calendar view where users log hours against tasks.

Where actiTIME differs from both competitors is the financial layer built on top of time tracking. Every paid version includes cost of work reporting, project profitability, budget tracking (time-based, cost-based, and billing-based), leave management with PTO accrual, and invoicing — all at $5/user/month with no feature tiers. A permanent free version supports three users. A self-hosted version is available for a one-time per-user fee of $120.

Time tracking: manual vs automatic vs AI-generated

This is the central difference between Toggl and Timely, and it’s worth being direct about what each approach actually involves.

Toggl Track

The default experience is manual: open the timer, describe the task, start it. The web app, desktop apps (Windows and Mac), and mobile apps all offer the same basic workflow. A calendar view in the web app lets you block time visually, and Google and Outlook calendars can be synced so scheduled meetings appear as draft entries.

The Timeline feature, available from the Starter plan at $8.10/user/month annual, records which desktop apps and websites you use. This data is visible only to you. When you’re filling out your timesheet, you can open the Timeline as a reference and drag entries into your tracked time. It’s additive — the Timeline doesn’t submit anything on your behalf. Idle detection notes when you’ve stepped away and asks whether to keep or discard that time. Auto-tracking of calendar events and keyword-based automation are also available on Starter.

Timely

Timely’s Memory feature records your full digital day — every app opened, every document, every website, every meeting, every location. This runs in the background without any interaction. The AI layer then takes that history and proposes a complete timesheet: it suggests how long you spent on each project based on the recorded activity, fills in descriptions, and assigns time to the right clients or projects.

The practical effect is that you don’t need to start or stop timers. You review the AI’s suggestions at the end of the day or week, approve what’s accurate, adjust what isn’t, and submit. For teams where time tracking adoption is the main problem — people forgetting to log, underreporting hours, or resisting the habit — Timely’s approach removes most of the friction.

The privacy dynamic is specific: your Memory data is only ever visible to you. Your manager sees only the time entries you choose to submit. Timely publishes a formal anti-surveillance policy around this. The trade-off is that Memory records personal browsing and app usage on work devices, which some users find uncomfortable even with the privacy controls in place. Whether that’s acceptable depends on individual and team preferences.

actiTIME

Manual time entry through a weekly timesheet and a calendar view, with no background recording. Users log hours against specific tasks, with start and stop times where needed. Leave time and worked hours appear in the same view. A Chrome extension adds one-click timers from web-based project tools. The approach is based on trusted, voluntary input — no passive data is collected at any point.

Timely is the clear choice if AI-generated timesheets are what you need. Toggl’s Timeline is a useful reference for manual entry. actiTIME is the right fit if you want no passive recording whatsoever.

Project management and budgets

Both tools have project budget tracking, but they unlock at different price points — and Timely includes more on its entry tier.

Toggl Track

Unlimited projects and clients on all plans, including free. Project tasks, time estimates with alerts, and project templates are available from the Starter plan at $8.10/user/month annual. Fixed fee project tracking — where you monitor budget burn against a flat fee rather than hourly billing — requires Premium at $18/user/month annual. Profitability reporting also sits behind Premium. There’s no recurring project type or project forecasting at any paid tier.

Timely

Project budgets, billable rates, internal cost rates, and fixed fee project support are available on all paid plans, including the Starter tier at $9/user/month annual. Budget milestone alerts notify you as a project approaches its limit. The mark-as-billed feature tracks invoiced time separately. Multiple currencies are supported across all plans. For teams that need project financial controls without committing to a Premium subscription, Timely’s entry tier covers more ground than Toggl’s.

The Starter plan limit of 20 projects is a real constraint for agencies or consultancies running many client engagements simultaneously. Teams with more than 20 active projects need the Premium tier at $16/user/month annual.

actiTIME

Three budget types on all paid versions at $5/user/month: time-based budgets that compare invested hours to estimates, cost budgets that track hours against internal pay rates, and billing budgets that monitor client invoicing totals. All three feed into a profit and loss report that breaks down by customer, project, or task. Estimated-versus-actual comparisons, overage alerts, and fixed fee project tracking come standard. No upgrade needed.

Timely includes more project financial controls at the entry tier than Toggl does. actiTIME goes furthest with three budget types and profit-and-loss reporting, all at a lower per-user cost than either competitor.

Invoicing and billing

Toggl Track

Invoice generation is available on all plans, including the free one. Free-plan invoices include a Toggl logo on the PDF; paid plans remove it. Invoices pull from tracked billable time and export to PDF. There’s no built-in payment collection — clients receive the invoice and pay through whatever external method you use. QuickBooks Online integration (invoices only) is available from the Premium plan. For teams that need payment collection inside the same tool, Toggl doesn’t provide it.

Timely

Invoice generation is listed as a feature across all paid plans. Time entries marked as billable feed into invoices directly. Like Toggl, there’s no payment collection via Stripe or PayPal inside Timely. The mark-as-billed status keeps invoiced time separate from unbilled time, which is useful for ongoing client relationships where you invoice in regular cycles.

actiTIME

Invoicing is included on all paid versions. It generates invoices from tracked time using billing rates set at the work type level, and syncs with QuickBooks Online. The invoicing data feeds directly into project profitability reports, so billed amounts and profit margins are tracked in the same system. Like Toggl and Timely, there’s no built-in payment collection.

Toggl wins on invoicing flexibility: it’s available on the free plan and doesn’t require a paid subscription. Timely’s invoicing is solid but locked behind a paid tier. actiTIME connects invoicing most tightly to profitability reporting.

Reporting

Toggl Track

Summary and detailed reports are available on all plans. From the Starter tier, team-level and billing reports unlock, along with revenue analysis that shows billable amounts alongside tracked time. Premium adds profitability reporting, custom reports with advanced filtering and OR logic, utilization reports, and scheduled report delivery via email. Toggl’s shareable report links let you send a live report view to a client without requiring them to have a Toggl account — a useful transparency feature available across all plans.

Timely

All paid plans include entry history, snapshot reports, high-level summaries, and report exports. The high-level reports include project profitability data, since billable and cost rates feed into all plans. Premium and Unlimited plans add live reports that update in real time as team members log hours, and branded reports with your company logo. There’s no scheduled report delivery in Timely. Shareable report links are not a documented feature.

actiTIME

Over 17 report types on all paid versions at $5/user/month. The financial reports are the most distinctive: a profit and loss report by customer, project, or task; a cost of work report that maps hours to individual pay rates including overtime and leave; a billing summary showing what clients owe; and an estimated-versus-actual comparison. Leave time, PTO balances, and overtime are all reportable, which neither Toggl nor Timely supports.

For financial depth, actiTIME leads. For operational reporting and flexibility, Toggl Premium is the strongest. Timely’s live reports on Premium are a useful real-time feature that neither competitor offers.

Team management and approvals

Toggl Track

Timesheet approvals are available from the Starter plan at $8.10/user/month annual. This includes required fields enforcement (ensuring time entries have descriptions, projects, or tags before submission), locked entries to prevent retroactive edits, team reminders for insufficient hours, and an audit log of time entry changes. Advanced access roles — Project Lead and Team Lead — unlock on Premium. SSO requires Premium.

Timely

Timely uses time entry states to manage the approval flow: entries move through states (draft, submitted, approved) before being locked. Team leads are available on Premium and Unlimited plans. There’s no stated equivalent of Toggl’s audit log or required field enforcement. Workspace capacity and individual capacity views are available across all paid plans, which gives managers a workload picture without drilling into individual time entries.

actiTIME

Timesheet approvals are included on all paid versions. Leave management, PTO accrual rules, sick day tracking, overtime handling, per-employee PTO balances, a company holiday calendar, and blackout days are all standard. No equivalent exists in either Toggl or Timely at any tier. For teams where attendance and absence management matter alongside project time, actiTIME is the only tool here that handles both.

Toggl wins on team management features at the Starter tier (approvals, required fields, audit log — all at $8.10). actiTIME wins on breadth by adding leave management that neither competitor offers. Timely’s approval flow works but is less documented and more limited.

Integrations

Toggl Track

The browser extension is Toggl’s integration advantage: it adds a timer button to 100-plus web-based tools and is available on all plans, including free. This covers project management tools (Asana, Trello, Basecamp), issue trackers (GitHub, GitLab), CRMs, and others. Native Jira sync and Salesforce sync are available on Premium. Google and Outlook calendar integration is built in across all plans. Zapier is available on all paid plans. The API opens up from Premium with higher rate limits.

Timely

Over 40 native integrations including Linear, Asana, ClickUp, monday.com, Trello, Jira, GitHub, Gmail, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Calendar, and Outlook. Zapier and a full API are available. QuickBooks Online is included. Timely’s Jira integration is native and available on all paid plans, which is an advantage over Toggl where Jira sync requires Premium. The integration breadth is narrower than Toggl’s 100-plus extension connections but covers most team environments.

actiTIME

Zapier (2,000-plus apps), REST API, QuickBooks Online sync, and a Chrome extension for common web tools. Narrower native list, but the Zapier connection and API handle most custom workflows.

Pricing comparison

Toggl Track pricing

Prices verified from toggl.com/track/pricing/ (June 2026). Annual billing saves 10% vs monthly.

See also: Toggl Pricing Review 2026

Timely pricing

Prices verified from timely.com/pricing (June 2026). Annual savings noted per plan.

Note: A Tasks add-on is available for $5+ per person across any Timely plan.

actiTIME pricing

Cost comparison: 10-person team needing profitability reporting

Timely’s Starter tier includes basic profitability data, but caps out at 5 users — so a 10-person team needs Premium ($1,920/year). actiTIME gives full financial reporting and leave management for $600/year for the same team.

Final verdict: Toggl Track vs Timely vs actiTIME

Toggl Track and Timely are well-matched in price and target audience, but they solve different problems. Toggl is built for teams that want a clean, trusted time tracker with optional auto-tracking as a reference. Timely is built for teams where time tracking doesn’t happen at all without automation — and its Memory AI delivers on that promise more thoroughly than any other tool here.

If time tracking adoption is the problem — if your team underreports, forgets, or resists logging hours — Timely is the honest recommendation. The privacy trade-off (Memory records all device activity) is worth understanding before you commit, but Timely’s user-only access policy is a genuine safeguard. If your team can handle manual entry and wants more financial reporting for less money, Toggl’s free plan or Starter tier covers most needs. Toggl’s compliance features (approvals, required fields, audit log) at Starter are genuinely ahead of Timely’s equivalent.

Both tools lock their deepest financial reporting behind Premium tiers, and neither one handles leave management. actiTIME resolves both gaps at $5/user/month — with profit-and-loss reports, PTO accrual, leave balances, and cost of work reporting available from the first paid tier and a self-hosted option for teams that want to own their data outright.

Go with Toggl Track if you want a free plan that actually works, broader integration coverage, manual time tracking with optional desktop auto-capture, and compliance features (approvals, audit log) without paying for Premium.

Go with Timely if your team won’t track time manually, you need AI to generate timesheets from full digital activity records, and you’re willing to pay $9/user/month annual for a Starter tier that includes budgets and billable rates.

Go with actiTIME if project profitability, cost of work, leave management, and budget tracking matter more than auto-tracking, and you want all of that at $5/user/month with no tier upgrades — or a one-time self-hosted license.

Resources

Toggl Track pricing (verified June 2026): toggl.com/track/pricing
Timely pricing (verified June 2026): timelyapp.com/pricing
actiTIME pricing (verified June 2026): actitime.com/pricing