The best time tracking software for small business in 2026 is Clockify for the cheapest full-featured paid plans, TimeCamp for a free plan with unlimited users, Toggl for teams that want tracking and planning together, Harvest for agencies that invoice from tracked time, QuickBooks Time for hourly staff paid through QuickBooks, Hubstaff for remote teams that want activity data, Timely for automatic tracking, and Everhour for teams that track inside their project tool. Most small businesses need one of three jobs done: bill clients, pay hourly staff, or see where time goes. Pick for the job, then compare price. Prices below are as of October 2026.
Time tracking is the rare software purchase where the free plans are genuinely useful. The paid tiers matter once you need approvals, invoicing, overtime or more than a handful of users.
How we compared
We checked each tool's free plan and its user limit, the entry paid price and billing basis, which plan adds invoicing, timesheet approvals and attendance or overtime tracking, and whether it monitors activity (screenshots, apps and URLs). Prices were checked on each vendor's own pricing page on October 12, 2026.
At a glance
| Tool | Best for | Free plan | Entry paid price (as of October 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clockify | Lowest-cost paid features | Up to 5 users | Basic $3.99/seat/month yearly ($4.99 monthly) |
| TimeCamp | Free plan for a whole team | Unlimited users | Starter $3.99/user/month yearly ($5.49 monthly) |
| Toggl | Tracking plus planning | Up to 3 users | Starter $9/user/month yearly ($12 monthly) |
| Harvest | Invoicing from tracked time | 1 seat, 2 projects | Teams from $9/seat/month yearly ($11 monthly) |
| QuickBooks Time | Hourly staff and QuickBooks payroll | 30-day trial | Time Premium $20/month base + $10/user/month |
| Hubstaff | Remote teams, activity data | Free plan | Starter $4.99/seat/month yearly ($7 monthly) |
| Timely | Automatic time capture | Free trial | Starter $9/user/month yearly ($11 monthly) |
| Everhour | Tracking inside project tools | Up to 5 seats | Team $8.50/seat/month yearly ($10 monthly) |
The 8 best time tracking software tools
1. Clockify – the cheapest full-featured paid plans
Clockify is free for up to 5 users with unlimited tracking, a timer, timesheets and reports (the Free plan's report range is one month). Basic is $3.99 per seat per month billed annually ($4.99 monthly). Standard is $5.49 ($6.99 monthly) and adds time off, invoicing, timesheet approval, attendance and overtime, and a QuickBooks integration. Pro is $7.99 ($9.99) and Enterprise $11.99 ($14.99). Every active or invited user takes a paid seat.
Who it's for: small teams that want approvals and invoicing for under $6 a seat. Limits: the free plan stops at 5 users, and owners and admins count as seats.
2. TimeCamp – free for unlimited users
TimeCamp has a Free forever plan with unlimited users and projects, timesheets and web, desktop and mobile apps. Starter is $3.99 per user per month billed annually ($5.49 month-to-month) and adds attendance, time off, overtime tracking and invoicing. Premium is $6.99 ($9.99) and adds billable time, budgets and app and website tracking; Ultimate is $9.99 ($13.99) and adds timesheet approvals, expenses, labour costs and screenshots. Its AI Time Tracker is billed separately by token usage, which TimeCamp estimates at about $6 per user per month.
Who it's for: teams that want everyone tracking for free before paying. Limits: timesheet approvals sit on Ultimate, and watch the AI usage charges.
3. Toggl – tracking and planning together
Toggl now sells one plan set combining time tracking with project planning; its pricing page says existing Toggl Track and Toggl Plan accounts remain supported. Free covers up to 3 users with manual and real-time timers, calendar integrations and simple planning. Starter is $9 per user per month billed annually ($12 monthly) and adds billable rates, team reports and capacity basics such as PTO. Premium is $16 ($24 monthly) and adds labour costs, profitability reports and fixed-fee projects.
Who it's for: service teams that plan work and track it in the same place. Limits: the free plan is small, and paid seats cost more than Clockify or TimeCamp.
4. Harvest – invoicing from tracked time
Harvest is built around turning hours into invoices. Free is 1 seat and 2 projects with time tracking, invoicing and expenses. Teams starts from $9 per seat per month billed annually ($108 per seat a year) or $11 monthly, with unlimited seats, team reporting, capacity tracking, and Stripe, QuickBooks Online and Xero integrations. Enterprise starts from $14 ($17.50 monthly) and adds timesheet approvals, profitability reporting and SAML SSO. Harvest says extra invoices, projects, clients and tasks beyond the base rate are billed on usage.
Who it's for: agencies, consultants and studios that bill by the hour. Limits: timesheet approvals need Enterprise, and usage-based extras make the bill harder to predict.
5. QuickBooks Time – hourly staff and payroll
QuickBooks Time is aimed at paying hourly and field staff. Time Premium is a $20 monthly base fee plus $10 per user per month, and Time Elite is $40 plus $12 per user; the base fee includes 1 admin. Intuit runs a 50% discount on the base fee for the first 3 months, which doesn't apply to per-user fees, and offers a 30-day free trial. Its Workforce plans bundle time tracking with full-service payroll.
Who it's for: businesses already running payroll in QuickBooks. Limits: the base fee adds $20 or $40 a month before you pay for a single user.
6. Hubstaff – remote teams and activity data
Hubstaff pairs time tracking with monitoring. Its Free plan includes time tracking, timesheets, activity levels, limited screenshots and limited reports. Starter is $4.99 per seat per month billed annually ($7 monthly), Grow $7.50 ($9), Team $10 ($12) with payments, scheduling and unlimited integrations, and Enterprise $25. Activity levels are based on mouse and keyboard use. Hubstaff charges per seat, but users who only view reports can take its free Project Viewer role.
Who it's for: remote and outsourced teams paid by the hour. Limits: screenshots and activity tracking can feel intrusive; tell staff what's tracked and check what your jurisdiction requires before turning them on.
7. Timely – automatic time capture
Timely records time spent in apps and websites and uses AI to categorise it into timesheets, so people stop reconstructing their day on Friday. Starter is $9 per user per month billed yearly ($11 monthly) for up to 5 users and 20 projects; Premium is $16 ($20) for up to 50 users with project tool and accounting integrations; Unlimited is $22 ($28) and adds capacity management and overtime and undertime reporting.
Who it's for: knowledge workers who forget to start timers. Limits: no free plan, and Starter's 5-user cap pushes most teams to Premium.
8. Everhour – tracking inside your project tool
Everhour adds a timer to tools such as Asana, ClickUp, Linear, Jira, Trello and Notion. Free covers up to 5 seats with limited features. Team is $8.50 per seat per month billed yearly ($10 monthly) and includes every feature, from budgeting and invoicing to SSO, but has a minimum of 5 seats.
Who it's for: teams that live in a project tool and want hours on the same task cards. Limits: the 5-seat minimum means a 2-person team pays for 5.
Got an idea? Build it now!
Just start with a simple prompt. No coding required: Greta.sh turns your idea into a working app in minutes.
Billing, payroll or visibility: decide the job first
Small businesses buy time tracking for three different reasons, and the right tool changes with each.
Billing clients. You need billable rates, project budgets and invoices. Harvest, Clockify Standard and Toggl Starter cover this; check which accounting tool each one syncs with.
Paying hourly staff. You need clock-ins, breaks, overtime and a clean export to payroll. QuickBooks Time, Clockify Standard and TimeCamp Starter list attendance and overtime features. Overtime and break rules depend on where your staff work, so set thresholds to match your local rules and have payroll confirm them. If you also build rotas, pair this with employee scheduling software. If your hourly staff are technicians sent out to customer jobs, compare against field service management software too.
Seeing where time goes. That's automatic capture (Timely) or activity monitoring (Hubstaff, TimeCamp Ultimate). Be honest with staff about what's recorded.
For an eight-person team at list prices billed annually, the entry plans look like this: TimeCamp Starter $31.92 a month, Hubstaff Starter $39.92, Clockify Standard $43.92, Everhour $68, Toggl Starter $72, Harvest Teams $72 before usage extras, and Timely Premium $128, since Starter caps at 5 users. QuickBooks Time Premium comes to $100 a month at its list price ($20 base plus 8 × $10).
When to build your own time tracker
Buy first. The tools above handle timers, mobile apps, idle detection and payroll exports that take real effort to rebuild. Building fits when time entries need to live inside another workflow, such as jobs on a site with your own codes, or approvals tied to a client contract. Greta.sh is an AI app builder that generates a web app with a database, logins and roles from a plain-English description. Pricing starts with a Free plan of 5 credits a day for building; deployment starts on Starter at $5 a month on the welcome offer (normally $20 a month).
The limits: it's a web app, not a native mobile app, and it isn't a payroll product. Desktop activity tracking, payroll sync and overtime rules are yours to define and maintain.
How to choose
If you bill clients, trial Harvest and Clockify. If you pay hourly staff through QuickBooks, start with QuickBooks Time; otherwise compare Clockify Standard and TimeCamp Starter. If your team forgets timers, try Timely. If you work in Asana or ClickUp all day, try Everhour. Reimbursable costs often travel with hours, so see our expense management software guide too.
Got an idea? Build it now!
Just start with a simple prompt. No coding required: Greta.sh turns your idea into a working app in minutes.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free time tracking software for small business?
TimeCamp's Free forever plan has unlimited users and projects. Clockify is free for up to 5 users with unlimited tracking, Everhour for up to 5 seats with limited features, Toggl for up to 3 users, and Harvest for 1 seat and 2 projects.
How much does time tracking software cost per user?
Entry paid plans in this list range from $3.99 per user per month billed annually (Clockify Basic and TimeCamp Starter) to $9 (Toggl Starter, Harvest Teams, Timely Starter). QuickBooks Time adds a monthly base fee of $20 on Time Premium on top of $10 per user.
Which time tracker is best for invoicing clients?
Harvest is built around invoicing from tracked time and integrates with Stripe, QuickBooks Online and Xero. Clockify Standard and TimeCamp Starter also include invoicing at a lower per-user price.
Which time tracking software tracks overtime?
Clockify Standard lists attendance and overtime, TimeCamp Starter lists overtime tracking, and Timely Unlimited reports overtime and undertime. Overtime rules vary by location, so configure the thresholds to match the rules that apply to your staff.
Do time trackers monitor employees?
Some do. Hubstaff tracks activity levels from mouse and keyboard use and can take screenshots, and TimeCamp's Ultimate plan includes screenshots. Timely records app and website use to build timesheets. Check local rules and tell staff what's tracked.
Track one real week first
Free plans make this easy to test. Put your team on your top two choices for a week, run one invoice or payroll export from each, and keep the tool whose numbers you didn't have to fix by hand.
