· Tools · 2 min read
Top Time Tracking Apps for Remote Workers (2025)
If you bill by the hour, accurate time tracking is money. Here are the best apps to track your work without spying on yourself.
Remote work offers freedom, but it also creates a challenge: Accountability. Even if you don’t bill by the hour, knowing where your time goes is the first step to improving productivity. Here are the top tools for the job.
1. Toggl Track (The User Favorite)
Price: Free / $10/mo
Toggl is the gold standard for simple, effective time tracking.
why we love it:
- One-Click Timer: It stays out of your way.
- Pomodoro Built-in: You can set it to remind you to take breaks.
- Idle Detection: “You’ve been away from the computer for 20 mins, do you want to discard this time?” (Lifesaver).
Best For: Freelancers who want a frictionless experience.
2. Clockify (The Best Free Option)
Price: Free (Most features) / Paid upgrades
If you have a team and $0 budget, Clockify is the answer.
Why we love it:
- Truly Free: Unlimited users and projects on the free plan.
- Reports: Detailed visual breakdowns of your team’s time.
- Kiosk Mode: For companies that need a “punch-in” clock.
Best For: Small teams and budget-conscious startups.
3. Harvest (The Billing Specialist)
Price: Free (1 user) / $12/mo
Harvest isn’t just a tracker; it’s an invoicing machine.
Why we love it:
- Turn Time into Money: Instantly generate invoices from your tracked hours.
- Expense Tracking: Snap photos of receipts and track expenses in the same app.
- integrations: Works beautifully with QuickBooks and Xero.
Best For: Freelancers who bill hourly and hate manual invoicing.
4. RescueTime (The Automatic Auditor)
Price: Free / $12/mo
Forgot to turn on your timer? RescueTime runs in the background and tracks everything you do.
Why we love it:
- Zero Input: It categorizes your time automatically (e.g., 2 hours on “Communication” in Slack, 1 hour on “Social Media”).
- Focus Score: Gives you a daily productivity score.
- Website Blocking: The paid version can block distracting sites while you work.
Best For: People who want to audit their habits and improve focus.
5. Timely (The AI Tracker)
Price: Starting at $9/mo
Timely uses AI to guess what project you were working on based on the apps you used.
Why we love it:
- Memory Tracker: Reconstruct your timesheet at the end of the day based on its automatic logs.
- Privacy: Your data is private to you until you publish it to a timesheet.
Best For: Forgetful trackers who hate start/stop buttons.
Conclusion
- For Simplicity: Toggl.
- For Teams/Free: Clockify.
- For Billing: Harvest.
- For Self-Improvement: RescueTime.
Stop guessing where your day went. Install one of these today.
