- Ten time trackers compared
- Billing hours or watching activity?
- Trackers built around billing and project limits
- Automatic trackers that fill the timesheet in
- Open-source and free options
- Workforce-monitoring tools
- Every TimeCamp alternative, A to Z
- My advice on choosing a billable-hours tracker
- Moving your timesheets and rates across
- Frequently asked questions
The best TimeCamp alternative depends on whether you need billable hours or staff monitoring. Freelancers and agencies who invoice by the hour want a billing-first tracker with project alerts. Teams that want hours recorded automatically look at automatic trackers, and managers wanting activity data look at workforce-monitoring tools. Here are ten options, unranked.
Billable hours are only useful if they turn into invoices and tell you when a project is running over.
TimeCamp ties time tracking to project profitability, billing and alerts when a project nears its limit. The alternatives below split three ways: billing-first trackers, automatic trackers that record what you do on your computer, and workforce-monitoring tools that report on staff activity. There's also an open-source and free corner. The ten tools are in no particular order.
Ten time trackers compared
| Tool | Approach | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| ActivTrak | Workforce analytics | Seeing how work happens across teams and tools |
| DeskTime | Automatic time tracking | Remote team hours, apps and projects |
| Everhour | Time tracking inside project tools | Project limits with threshold alerts |
| Kimai | Open-source time tracker | Self-hosting or cloud, your choice |
| Lucen Track | Time tracking in Microsoft 365 | Teams who work inside Microsoft 365 |
| My Hours | Project and task time tracking | Client reports with hourly rates and invoices |
| Paymo | Time tracking with project management | Tracking, delivering and invoicing client projects |
| RescueTime | Automatic tracker and focus tool | Individuals who want focus help as well |
| Tick | Straightforward time tracking | Keeping projects within planned hours |
| Time Doctor | Workforce visibility platform | Leaders of distributed teams checking logged hours |
Billing hours or watching activity?
Decide this before you look at features. A timer a person starts and stops asks very little of your staff. Automatic tracking and monitoring record what people do on their computers, which raises consent and privacy questions a timesheet doesn't. Staff consent and notice rules vary by country, so check the regulator or an adviser in your country before you switch any monitoring on.
Trackers built around billing and project limits
Paymo combines time tracking with project management, invoicing and payments, so the hours, the delivery and the invoice live together. Everhour embeds time tracking and billing inside tools such as Asana, ClickUp, Monday and Jira, and lets you set limits on projects with threshold alerts, which covers the same ground as TimeCamp's project alerts.
Tick is a small, independent tracker with mobile apps and a simple line: in a service business, hours are your inventory. Lucen Track works inside Microsoft 365, and it used to be called Timeneye, per its own page, so older lists still use the old name.
Automatic trackers that fill the timesheet in
RescueTime records your time automatically and adds a focus tool, which helps freelancers who forget to start a timer. DeskTime tracks a remote team's hours, apps and project time automatically. Both record activity, so the consent point above applies, even if you only use the data for invoices.
Open-source and free options
Kimai is an open-source tracker you can run in the cloud or host yourself, with user and invoice handling built in. My Hours names a free plan on its site and covers project and task tracking with shareable client reports, hourly rates and invoices. Both are worth a look if you bill by the hour but don't need project management attached.
Workforce-monitoring tools
The last two are less about billing and more about understanding how a team works. One calls itself work intelligence, showing how work happens across people, tools and AI. Time Doctor shows leaders what distributed teams are working on and checks the process behind logged hours. Tell your team what's recorded and why before you roll either out; the consent point applies here most of all.
For wider comparisons, see my time tracking software roundup, plus Harvest alternatives for invoicing-led trackers and Hubstaff alternatives for monitoring tools.
Every TimeCamp alternative, A to Z
ActivTrak
Best for: Larger organisations wanting workforce analytics on how work gets done across people, tools and AI, which goes well beyond a timesheet.
DeskTime
Best for: Managers of remote teams wanting automatic tracking of hours, apps and project time, which the vendor pitches as office-style visibility without constant check-ins.
Everhour
Best for: Teams working in Asana, ClickUp, Monday or Jira who want time tracking and billing embedded there, with project limits and threshold alerts, per the vendor.
Kimai
Best for: Freelancers, agencies and companies wanting an open-source tracker with user and invoice handling that they can run in the cloud or host themselves.
Lucen Track
Best for: Microsoft 365 teams who want time tracked inside the tools they already use, with the vendor's line that hours you work become hours you bill.
My Hours
Best for: Consultants sharing time reports with clients, setting hourly rates and raising invoices from tracked project and task time, with a free plan named on the vendor's site.
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Paymo
Best for: Agencies that want to track time and tasks, manage the project and invoice the client from one place, as the vendor puts it.
RescueTime
Best for: Freelancers and individuals who want automatic time tracking and timesheets together with a focus tool, which the vendor combines in one app.
Tick
Best for: Service firms tracking hours against project plans with mobile apps, from an independent vendor whose line is that hours are your inventory.
Time Doctor
Best for: Leaders of distributed teams who want to see what people are working on and check the process behind logged hours, with AI answers drawn from team data.
My advice on choosing a billable-hours tracker
If you bill by the hour, choose the tracker your team will start and stop without being chased, then make sure it turns hours into an invoice and warns you when a project runs over. That's most of the value. Monitoring is a separate decision with its own people questions, so don't take it on by accident because a billing tool came with activity tracking switched on.
Moving your timesheets and rates across
- Export your clients, projects and tasks, and recreate that structure first.
- Set hourly rates per client or project before anyone logs time.
- Import a few weeks of past entries and check the reports match your old ones.
- Rebuild any alerts for projects nearing their limit.
- Run both trackers for one billing period, then switch off the old one.
Running both for a single billing period catches missing rates and wrongly mapped projects before they reach a client's invoice.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Timeneye still available?
It now trades under a new name, per its own page, and it's in this list. Older articles still use the old name.
Which time trackers monitor employee activity?
The automatic trackers and the workforce-monitoring tools record activity on computers. Billing-first trackers rely on timers and timesheets.
Do I need my staff's consent to track their time?
Rules vary by country and by what you record. Check with the regulator or an adviser in your country, and tell staff what's tracked.
Can I track time inside my project tool?
Yes. One tool in the list embeds tracking in common project tools, and another works inside Microsoft 365.
Are there free time trackers?
Some name a free plan and one is open source. Check each vendor's site for what the free option includes.
Is this list of time trackers ranked?
No. The tools are in no particular order and grouped by approach.

