An online timesheet app replaces the paper sheet or spreadsheet your team fills in each week with something that works in a browser and on a phone, adds up the hours for you, and sends them for approval. Picking one comes down to fit more than features: an app built to pay hourly staff correctly is a poor choice for billing clients by the project, and the reverse is just as true.
This guide covers what to look for in a timesheet app, what switching from spreadsheets actually saves, and eight apps worth comparing, with pricing checked on each vendor’s site on October 12, 2026.
What is an online timesheet app?
An online timesheet app is software where employees record the hours they work, usually against projects, tasks, or clients, and submit them for a manager to approve. Because the timesheets live online, hours entered on a phone at a client site show up in the same place as hours entered on a laptop in the office, and managers can review, approve, and export them without collecting files.
When the main users are staff logging hours for payroll, people often call it an employee timesheet app. It overlaps with two other kinds of tools. A time clock records when someone starts and stops work, which suits hourly shift staff. A time tracker records how long each activity takes, often with a timer. Most employee timesheet apps and timesheets apps now do some of both, but each leans one way, and that lean matters more than the feature list when you choose.
How to choose an online timesheet app
Whether you are buying an employee timesheet app for payroll or a project timesheet for billing, four questions narrow the field quickly.
Start with what the hours are for
- Payroll and overtime. If you pay hourly staff, you need accurate totals, overtime calculation, leave, and an approval step before payroll runs. A clock in, clock out app or a weekly timesheet with overtime rules fits best.
- Client billing. If you bill by the hour, look for billable and nonbillable hours, billing rates, and invoices generated from approved time.
- Project cost and progress. If you need to know whether projects stay on budget, look for time logged against tasks, estimates compared with actual hours, and cost reports.
- Attendance. If the question is whether people turned up, you want a time clock with location checks or a kiosk, not a project timesheet.
Check how your team actually works
- Desk or field. Teams away from a desk need a mobile app that is quick to use; office teams often prefer a weekly grid in the browser.
- Timer or weekly entry. Some people track with a running timer, others fill in the week on Friday. Good apps support both.
- Approvals and locking. Check whether managers can approve or reject timesheets and lock approved weeks so nobody edits them after payroll or invoicing.
- Where the data goes next. Check the export formats and integrations with your payroll, accounting, or project tools before you buy.
Do the price math for your team size
Most timesheet apps charge per user per month, and several have free tiers whose user limits vary from 1 to unlimited. Check two things: what the free tier leaves out (often approvals, invoicing, or integrations), and whether the price you see is for annual billing. On the apps below, monthly billing costs roughly 20% to 40% more than annual.
What a timesheet app saves: an example
The direct saving is the time a manager spends chasing, checking, and retyping timesheets. Here is an illustrative calculation for a team of 15 that currently uses spreadsheets.
At 10 minutes per timesheet the admin cost rises to about $5,000 a year, while the app still costs $900. The bigger savings are harder to count: hours that never get billed because nobody logged them, and overtime that gets paid without anyone noticing it until the quarter ends.
Choosing a timesheet app for a small business
Small businesses usually buy a business timesheet app to fix one of three problems, and the problem decides the feature set.
- Too much admin. If payroll and invoicing eat a day every month, look for approvals, overtime and leave calculated automatically, and invoices generated from tracked time.
- Projects running over. If fixed price work keeps costing more than quoted, look for estimates on tasks and a report comparing estimated with actual hours, so the next quote is based on real data.
- Not knowing where time goes. If the team is busy but output is flat, look for time logged against tasks and simple reports by project and person.
For a small team, pick the app people will actually fill in over the one with the longest feature list. Start on a free tier or trial with the whole team for two or three weeks before you commit.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free option and starting price |
|---|---|---|
| actiTIME | Project teams tracking hours, cost, and leave | Free version for up to 3 users; from $5 per user per month |
| Clockify | Small teams on a zero budget | Free for up to 5 users; from $3.99 per seat per month, billed annually |
| Toggl Track | Timer based tracking | Free for up to 3 users; from $9 per user per month, billed annually |
| Harvest | Billing clients from timesheets | Free for 1 seat and 2 projects; from $9 per seat per month, billed annually |
| TimeCamp | Large free teams | Free for unlimited users; from $3.99 per user per month, billed annually |
| Jibble | Hourly teams needing attendance checks | Free for unlimited users |
| My Hours | Simple project timesheets | Free for up to 5 users; from $4 per user per month, billed annually |
| Homebase | Shift based small businesses | Free for up to 10 employees; from $30 per location per month |
8 best online timesheet apps
1. actiTIME
Key features:
- Weekly timesheet and calendar view
- Approvals and locking
- Overtime and leave
- Cost and billing reports
actiTIME is an online timesheet app for project teams that need hours to answer financial questions as well as payroll ones. Employees fill in a weekly timesheet or a calendar view in the browser, or use the mobile app, and can add a comment to any time entry. Leave is logged in the same timesheet against leave types with PTO balances.
Managers approve or reject timesheets, then lock approved periods so entries cannot change after payroll or invoicing. Each person has separate regular, overtime, and leave cost rates, so reports show what the hours cost as well as how many there were. Reports cover estimated versus actual time, overtime, cost of work, billable amounts, and profit by customer or project, and export as CSV, HTML, or for some reports PDF.
Limitation: it has no GPS clock in or kiosk mode, so shift based hourly teams that need attendance checks are better served by Jibble or Homebase. Approvals and overtime are not part of the free version.
Pricing: free version for up to 3 users; paid version from $5 per user per month; free 30 day trial.
We can generate any report we need
One of the greatest features actiTIME offers is the customizable reporting. We can generate virtually any report we need, grouped in different ways and only for the people assigned to each project. And if the report is not there, well, it’s really easy to create a new one and save it for future use. Go for actiTIME! It’s simple, but also very powerful! You won’t regret the decision. The software + support combination makes actiTIME the best tracking solution in the market.
2. Clockify
Key features:
- Free unlimited tracking
- Timer and timesheet
- Reports
- Invoicing on Standard
Clockify has a free tier that allows unlimited time tracking for up to 5 users, with no trial period to run out. People can track with a timer or fill in a weekly timesheet, and managers get basic reports by project and person.
Paid tiers are inexpensive: Basic costs $3.99 per seat per month billed annually ($4.99 monthly), and Standard, which is where invoicing starts, costs $5.49 per seat per month billed annually ($6.99 monthly).
Limitation: once you pass 5 users, everyone needs a paid seat, and cost and profitability reporting is lighter than in tools built around project finances.
Pricing: free for up to 5 users; Basic $3.99, Standard $5.49, Pro $7.99 per seat per month, billed annually.
3. Toggl Track
Key features:
- Timer first tracking
- Client and project reports
- Billable rates on Starter
- Free tier for 3 users
Toggl Track suits teams that prefer starting a timer to filling in a grid at the end of the week. You start a timer, pick the client and project, and the entries roll up into reports by client, project, and person that are easy to share.
The free tier covers up to 3 users. Billable rates, which turn hours into amounts, start on Starter at $9 per user per month billed annually ($12 monthly), and Premium costs $16 per user per month billed annually. Teams that bill clients often pair it with separate invoicing software.
Limitation: it costs more per user than most apps here once you need billable rates, and invoicing is not part of its published feature set.
Pricing: free for up to 3 users; Starter $9 and Premium $16 per user per month, billed annually.
4. Harvest
Key features:
- Timesheets and timer
- Invoices from tracked time
- Expenses
- Payment integrations
Harvest is built around the path from a timesheet to a paid invoice. Team members log time with a timer or a weekly timesheet, and you generate invoices from the unbilled hours for a client. On paid tiers, invoices connect to Stripe, QuickBooks Online, and Xero so clients can pay online.
The free tier covers one seat and two projects, with invoicing included, which suits a freelancer more than a team. Teams move to the Teams tier at $9 per seat per month billed annually ($11 monthly), or Enterprise at $14.
Limitation: the free tier is effectively for one person, and the strengths are billing related rather than payroll, overtime, or leave.
Pricing: free for 1 seat and 2 projects; Teams $9 and Enterprise $14 per seat per month, billed annually.
5. TimeCamp
Key features:
- Free for unlimited users
- Timesheets
- Automatic tracking
- Desktop and mobile apps
TimeCamp has one of the most generous free tiers for a timesheet app: timesheets, web, desktop, and mobile apps, and unlimited projects for unlimited users at no cost. It also offers an AI time tracker that records activity automatically for people who forget to log hours.
Invoicing starts on Starter at $3.99 per user per month billed annually ($5.49 monthly). Billable rates, though, only arrive on the Ultimate tier at $9.99 per user per month billed annually, so teams billing different rates for different work should budget for that tier.
Limitation: billable rates sit on the most expensive standard tier.
Pricing: free for unlimited users; Starter $3.99, Premium $6.99, Ultimate $9.99 per user per month, billed annually.
6. Jibble
Key features:
- Free for unlimited users
- Kiosk mode
- Face recognition and GPS
- Payroll ready timesheets
Jibble is a timesheet app that leans toward attendance. It is free for unlimited users, and employees can clock in from the mobile app, a shared kiosk, the web, a desktop app, a Chrome extension, Slack, or Microsoft Teams.
Clock ins can be verified with facial recognition, a selfie, GPS, geofencing, NFC, RFID, or a PIN, and the resulting timesheets cover regular hours, overtime, breaks, and paid time off ready for payroll. It suits hourly and field teams where proving attendance matters.
Limitation: its pricing page redirected to the homepage when we checked, so paid tier prices could not be verified, and project cost reporting is not its focus.
Pricing: free for unlimited users; paid tiers available.
7. My Hours
Key features:
- Project timesheets
- Timer and manual entry
- Reports
- Free for 5 users
My Hours is an online timesheet for teams that log time on projects and tasks and mostly need reports by project and person. Its free tier covers up to 5 users, which makes it a practical alternative to Clockify for a small team.
The Basic tier costs $4 per user per month billed annually ($5 monthly), and Pro costs $8 per user per month billed annually ($9 monthly), with a 14 day free trial.
Limitation: it focuses on project time, so attendance, overtime, and leave handling are lighter than in HR focused tools.
Pricing: free for up to 5 users; Basic $4 and Pro $8 per user per month, billed annually; 14 day free trial.
8. Homebase
Key features:
- Time clock and timesheets
- Scheduling
- Payroll
- Free for 10 employees
Homebase is built for small businesses with hourly shift staff. It combines the time clock and timesheets with scheduling and payroll, so managers can compare who was scheduled with who actually clocked in and send approved hours to payroll.
The Basic tier is free for up to 10 employees. Location based clock in on mobile starts on Essentials at $30 per location per month, with Plus at $70 and All in One at $120. Because pricing is per location rather than per person, it gets cheaper per employee as one location grows.
Limitation: it is designed for shift work, not for tracking time against projects or billing clients.
Pricing: free for up to 10 employees; Essentials $30, Plus $70, All in One $120 per location per month.
For a longer list, see our roundup of timesheet software and our checklist of must have features in a timesheets app.
FAQ
What’s the best timesheet app?
For a small team that wants something free, Clockify or My Hours (both free for up to 5 users). For hourly staff whose attendance needs checking, Jibble. For billing clients, Harvest. For project teams that need hours to show cost, overtime, and profit by project, actiTIME.
Is there a free timesheet app for employees?
Yes. Jibble and TimeCamp are free for unlimited users, and Clockify and My Hours are free for up to 5. In the US, employees who want to keep their own record of hours can use WorkWise, a free iOS and Android app from the Department of Labor that records regular hours, breaks, and overtime.
Is Google timesheet free?
Google does not offer a dedicated timesheet app, but you can build a free timesheet in Google Sheets. A spreadsheet works for a few people; once you need approvals, overtime rules, or reports across a team, a timesheet app saves more time than it costs. Our weekly timesheet template is a free place to start.
Conclusion
Choose a timesheet app by what the hours are for. Payroll for hourly staff points toward a time clock style app with attendance checks. Client billing points toward an app that turns timesheets into invoices. If you need to know what projects really cost, choose one that tracks time against tasks and puts a cost on every hour.
To see how actiTIME’s online timesheets handle approvals, overtime, leave, and project costs for your team, start a free trial.
