App integrations: Some apps do a good job of inserting small timer buttons into Web apps like Google Docs or connecting to other apps for invoicing.But that's only if it is an optional feature that results in easy single-button tracking (as with Toggl) and not the cause of a lot of prompts and interruptions (as with Paydirt). Automatic time tracking: Having an app or browser extension watch for certain keywords in applications or windows can be a handy backstop against forgetting to track your time.Offering a choice between editing duration (“55 minutes”) and start/stop times (“12:05–1:00 p.m.”) was better than requiring one method or the other. Being able to edit entries from a browser button or a menu bar drop-down was best. Editing time entries: The best apps in our assessments didn’t make correcting time feel like punishment.Good apps provide shortcuts to easy tracking, like letting you click once to start a previous timer again, rather than making you pick and assign projects and tasks to each session. Apps that limit time entries to existing projects and tasks require more setup, and in our testing they were less convenient. The best ones allow you to create new projects in the moment, which we liked.
The best tracking apps allow you to keep the data you generated in portable formats.
Some apps limit the features or scope of their trial software in a way that makes it hard to tell if it’s right for you.
A free trial or limited free plan: You should be able to use the software for at least one workweek with every feature enabled, to see how it logs your work and fits into your routine.You shouldn’t be locked out of a tracking system because it only works with certain operating systems, phones, or browser extensions. Support for more than one computer platform or browser: People switch computers and platforms, sometimes of their own accord or sometimes when they switch jobs.Plenty of freelancers may have similar computer-free tasks, and a good time tracker should be able to adapt to those occasions. Even though my job as a Wirecutter writer is mostly about working at a computer, I’m sometimes building standing desks, cutting up piles of cardboard boxes, donating goods to nonprofits, or doing other work tasks not involving a screen.
But we made sure that our picks would still work for offline tasks, whether you time them with a phone app or post-fill a timesheet with the app. Most of the apps we tested are aimed at those who work from a computer-writing, designing, programming, Web-based tasks, and the like. And we focused on solo practitioners instead of teams. By “freelancer,” we mean anyone who works for a client that is not their full-time employer, in nearly any field.
We wanted to find the software that best allows someone to track their hours so they can then bill for them. We researched, interviewed, and tested for this guide with a freelancer’s mind-set.