Making the wrong hiring decision can cost thousands of dollars. Do it wrong, and you’ll lose more than money and time, though. You’ll have to start the hiring process all over again, hoping that someone amazing comes along.

But there is a better way — investing in the right methods for screening candidates.

We’re going to walk you through not one but eleven different ways to screen candidates, from a cover letter to a skills assessment and all the way to paid job trials — each of them with its pros and cons.

Let’s find out the top ways to get the best possible job candidates in the market.

Introduction to 11 popular methods for screening candidates

Method	Screening Objective	Pros	Cons
CV Screening	Evaluate candidates’ experience, qualifications, and career progression.	– Quick overview of candidates’ history. – Easy to compare between candidates.	– Can be biased (e.g., due to names). – Doesn’t assess soft skills or fit.
Cover Letters	Gauge motivation, communication skills, and cultural fit.	– Can reveal a candidate’s passion/motivation. – Shows writing skills.	– Time-consuming to read. – Can be generic or deceptive.
Phone Screening	Preliminary assessment of skills, fit, and motivation.	– Efficient. – Immediate feedback.	– Limited depth. – Doesn’t assess non-verbal cues.
Skills Assessments	Test specific abilities relevant to the job.	– Objective measure of skills. – Can tailor to specific job needs.	– Can be stressful for candidates. – May not reflect real-world scenarios.
Video Interviews	Evaluate interpersonal skills, fit, and deeper insights into CV details.	– More personal than phone. – Saves time/travel costs.	– Technical issues. – Can be impersonal compared to in-person.
ATS Screening	Automated initial scan for relevant keywords and qualifications in CVs.	– Efficient for large volumes. – Reduces manual work.	– Can overlook qualified candidates. – Impersonal.
Reference & Background Checks	Confirm accuracy of CV, gauge reputation, and assess past behaviors/performance.	Confirm accuracy of CV, gauge reputation, and assess past behaviors/performance.	– Can be time-consuming. – Limited by honesty of references.
Social Media Screening	Gauge cultural fit, personal interests, and potential red flags.	– Provides informal insights. – Reveals potential cultural fit.	– Privacy concerns. – Can be misleading or out of context.
Take-home Assignments	Assess practical skills and problem-solving in a more relaxed setting.	– Reflects real-world tasks. – Allows for creativity.	– Time-consuming for candidates. – Risks of plagiarism.
– Real-world assessment. – Fair compensation for the candidate’s time.	Engage candidates while testing skills in a simulated environment.	– Engaging & interactive. – Can test a variety of skills.	– Can be seen as gimmicky. – Might not be suitable for all roles.
Paid Trial Projects	Evaluate a candidate’s skills and fit in real-time, on-the-job scenarios.	– Real-world assessment. – Fair compensation for candidate’s time.	– Requires investment. – May raise expectations for permanent positions.

What is candidate screening?

Candidate screening is the process of evaluating job applicants and reviewing their information about skills and qualifications, for the purpose of finding candidates that meet your job requirements.

There are numerous ways to screen candidates, depending on your goals and available time and resources. We’re going to show you 11 that will make your hiring decisions easier and help you hire great talent.

What should you look for when screening candidates?

The candidate screening process should give you enough information to make a good hiring decision. Given that screening is often the first step in the hiring process, you should be able to quickly go through a pile of different data points in a short time frame.

These are the items you should watch out for:

1. Relevant experience. Prior experience in a given role, niche, and industry. The candidate should have a certain number of years in the right background, doing a similar type of work to the role you are looking to fill.
2. The required skills. Besides the experience, job candidates should have the hard and soft skills needed to do a job well.
3. Educational background. The job candidates should have a certain level of education or different types of certificates that give them a solid foundation for their work.
4. Cultural fit. The best job candidates not only know how to do the job and have the right experience but also fit into your team in terms of core values and culture.
5. Career progression. How have the job applicants progressed through their careers so far? Do they have the potential to progress if you hire them?
6. Achievements and results. What kind of results have they achieved in their previous roles, and do they have any proof to show for it?
7. Job tenure. How long have the candidates stayed in each of their previous roles? Some hiring managers prefer not to hire job hoppers.
8. Fit with the job requirements. Does the candidate tick all the boxes in the job description, and can you objectively predict that they will perform well in the role you’re hiring for?
9. References and recommendations. Do they have references from previous roles that could vouch for them and their good performance?
10. Gaps in employment. Are there any periods where the candidates did not work, and what were the reasons for it?
11. Personal presentation. How does the candidate present themselves during the screening process? This entails their resume, phone screening, video interviews, writing skills, and more.
12. Location and relocation. Where is the candidate located? Are they willing to relocate for the right offer and if it is a requirement?
13. Salary expectations. Does the candidate’s ideal salary match what you can offer for the position?
14. Eligibility and legal criteria. Can the candidate legally work in your country or area of residence? Do they need special permits or visas, or are there any other obstacles to their employment?
15. Communication skills. How does the candidate articulate their thoughts in writing, on video, and in person?

This might sound like a lot of things to watch out for during the candidate screening process, but these are the foundations of making a great hire based on solid proof.

What is pre-screening or initial screening of applicants?

Pre-screening is what happens before the actual screening process. Before you sit down to have a conversation with the job applicants, you need to verify if they have what it takes to do the job well and if they tick all the boxes.

Pre-screening is usually automated, as opposed to the process of screening candidates, which can (but does not have to) be manual in nature.

Why is candidate screening important?

The candidate screening process is crucial for a successful hiring process. When you screen candidates, you ensure that the information they provided is accurate and that they meet all of your screening criteria. But let’s get into more specific details.

Efficient hiring process. The average job ad gets around 118 job applicants. If you hire remotely, multiply that number by at least 3. Candidate screening helps you go from 118 to a handful of the very best candidates in a short time, so you can make better use of your time.

Quality assurance. Hiring mistakes are very costly, and a proper screening process ensures that only the very best job applicants make it through to the final rounds.

Cultural fit. You can screen job candidates for cultural fit, too, and find out if they align with your core values, mission, and vision.

Cost savings. The total cost of hiring a new employee can go up to $16,000. If you make a mistake in your hiring process, that’s a lot of money down the drain. Proper candidate screening helps save money.

Shorter time to hire. When you screen candidates at the beginning of the hiring process, you can fill positions more quickly as you can find out if they meet the requirements early on.

Legal compliance. Discriminating against certain parts of the population is not just immoral but also illegal and could lead you to hire bad candidates just because of an unconscious bias. Screening applicants ensures that you have a fair and unbiased hiring process.

Better employee retention. When you hire the right candidates, they stick around for longer. Good candidate screening ensures that your employees are there for the long haul.

Protection against fraud. Make sure that job applicants are who they say they are by comparing their resumes and real-world skills.

Improved onboarding. As you screen job candidates, you’ll get more familiar with their strengths and weaknesses, and you can prepare a better, more personalized onboarding strategy.

Improved employer branding. You can become known as a company that respects its job applicants and ensures that the hiring process is quick, respectful, and effortless for everyone involved.

#1 – CV or Resume screening

CV screening or resume screening is the process of going through candidate resumes and making sure that their qualifications and skills match your job requirements. You typically have to do this manually by reading the resumes one by one.

That’s rather time-consuming, which is why many businesses automate it. Instead of hiring managers, apps like ATS can “read” your candidates’ resumes to pick up on keywords.

Recruiters like this traditional method because it has been around for a while, and they’re familiar with it. However, it is time-consuming and inefficient, and in many cases, candidates tend to fabricate their experiences and skills.

In fact, screening a resume can be compared to judging a book by its cover. A recent survey found that at least 78% of applicants lie on job applications and resumes. It’s virtually impossible to gauge a candidate’s technical fit based on their CV alone.

Likewise, candidates aren’t typically fans of resumes. They take a long time to prepare, and they need to be personalized for each job opening. Also, they don’t accurately reflect the actual skills the applicant has.

#2 – Cover letters

Cover letters are (outdated) written documents where candidates have to explain their motivation for applying, as well as why they’re a good fit for the role. Most businesses require them along with a resume — a double whammy for applicants who need to spend hours preparing both.

Recruiters like cover letters because they give candidates space to talk about themselves and their motivations. In combination with resumes, they can tell you a lot about a candidate and whether they meet your screening criteria.

However, cover letters aren’t a favorite for hiring managers because they only show the candidates’ writing skills. And must we even mention how candidates feel about cover letters? In 2024, don’t expect any candidate to get excited about having to write yet another cover letter.

In recent years, many businesses have stepped away from using cover letters to screen candidates. The reason is simple — the cons outweigh the pros for everyone involved.

#3 – Phone screening

With this method of screening candidates, you call them on their phone to verify their information and ask further questions about their skills and qualifications. It’s easy for both the applicants and the hiring managers, and with the right script, it can be pretty effective.

Hiring managers are in favor of phone screening as it’s a quick way to screen job applicants before inviting them to show up on video or in person. At the same time, they are not ideal because you miss out on many cues, such as non-verbal communication and body language.

Candidates are okay with this method, too — provided the calls are scheduled and short. However, phone calls don’t allow them to fully show their skills.

#4 – Skills assessments

Skills tests are short tests that have questions or tasks that the candidates need to solve to show they have the right skills for the job. Modern skills tests allow for a super quick way of screening applicants, as they can be done in less than 15 minutes. After this, both sides find out if they’re a great fit for each other.

From the hiring side, skills tests are a great way to screen job applicants. They are much faster than reviewing resumes, and the hiring manager can see if candidates have the job-specific skills to do the actual job. On the downside, some candidates can cheat on these skills tests.

For applicants, it’s one of the most efficient screening methods, as they can do the skills tests in 15 minutes and immediately get feedback about their results.

#5 – Video interviews

Video calls are a superb replacement for in-person interviews, as they allow more flexibility and are ideal for remote roles.

Hiring managers think that video interviews are convenient as they facilitate the hiring process, as they can talk to multiple candidates in a short time frame. However, they’re best when used in combination with other screening methods. After all, some candidates are just great at interviewing but not other things (like the important on-the-job things they need to be good at).

Candidates think that video interviews are a great way to show off their communication skills and present themselves in the best light possible. However, they may not give them opportunities to show their real-world skills in the interview process.

BONUS – Asynchronous video interviews

Take the power of video interview and x10 it — that’s what you get with a One-Way Video Interview. The ultimate way to screen job applicants early on in the process is to invite them to take part in a pre-recorded video Q&A on their skills, experiences, and knowledge.

What’s the point? Async video interviews serve as an additional screening method early in the recruitment process. Both recruiter and applicant commit a minimum amount of time and effort to confirm technical and cultural fit before engaging in a deeper conversation.

Upgrading your candidate screening process with asynchronous interviews could help your team spend less time in poor later-stage interviews and keep hiring managers happy.

#6 – ATS screening

ATS or applicant tracking systems are apps similar to CRMs that store all the information about candidates during the hiring process. They take resumes and other associated info and run them through algorithms to find the best applicants quickly. For example, they can analyze work experiences (years, positions, etc.) or identify keywords the candidates used in their qualifications and skills.

Most hiring experts are in favor of applicant tracking systems as they are quick and easy to use, especially compared to reviewing resumes manually. However, they may cause you to lose valuable candidates just because they did not use the right keywords or the right resume format.

This is the same reason why the typical applicant is not in favor of an applicant tracking system. While they do speed up the candidate selection process, they also pose a risk. Many suitable candidates get disqualified because of technicalities.

#7 – Reference and background checks

In this part of the screening process, the hiring team calls up previous employers and asks them about a specific employee and their performance. The aim is to find out if the information they provided is accurate and, even more so, to learn more about their soft skills. A background check is similar but may include checking for criminal history, drug screening, and more.

For businesses, this is a good way to screen candidates, as previous employers can provide useful information to stop you from making the wrong hire. Reference checking can be completely free, provided that the person in the previous company can talk about an employee who worked there.

On the other hand, background checks can get pretty expensive. Also, in many cases, it’s illegal to do them before you officially make an offer to the candidate.

#8 – Social media screening

You can screen candidates by taking a look at their social media profiles and finding relevant information. Most of the time, you’re looking for a strong online presence, especially if you’re hiring for marketing roles. However, you can also look for inappropriate behavior and reasons why (not) to hire someone.

For hiring managers, this method of screening potential candidates can be effective — for the right roles. However, there are dangers involved as it might not be fully legal, depending on where you are located.

Many candidates are also not in favor of using social media as a way to do screening, as they see it as an invasion of privacy.

#9 – Take-home assignments

The shortlisted candidates can get an assignment they can do at home and in their free time. Once you’re past the interview stage, you can give your best candidates a small test task to do and determine if they have the skills and not just a good resume.

Most hiring managers will state that take-home tasks are one of the best methods to screen potential employees as they can determine how they do the job and how well they stick to deadlines.

For candidates, this is a recruiting method that allows them to see what real-world situations would be like in a specific role. It is more time-intensive compared to interviews, but then again, it is reserved for only the best talent from your entire applicant pool.

#10 – Gamified job simulations

You can give the candidates a feeling like they’re working alongside you from the comfort of their own homes. Present them with a scenario and give them a practical problem to solve as a part of their recruiting process.

For example, you can give potential developers a small coding task to figure out what went wrong with a few lines of code or to create new code from scratch. Of course, the task should be relevant to your specific job role and company.

This can be a great addition to other screening tools for hiring managers. It takes a bit more time to set up and monitor, but it can provide valuable insights while boosting the candidate experience.

For candidates, this is a fun way to do work and learn more about the company simultaneously. However, it requires a bigger time investment than a skills assessment or face-to-face interviews.

#11 – Paid trial projects

When you’ve rounded up the very best candidates, you can give one or more of them a chance to work on a paid trial project.

This can be a project where they work within your team, like we do here at Toggl. The best candidates work alongside us for a few days so we can see if we’re a good fit, both in terms of skills and culture.

It can also be a paid test project where the candidate can complete a task or project for a certain fee. The most important thing for this screening technique is for the task to be meaningful and resemble what they would do if hired.

Companies love this approach because it allows them to screen candidates and see how they perform in real time. However, it can also be a pretty complex and expensive way to learn more about a candidate’s capabilities.

On the flip side, candidates are generally in favor of this method. However, if they need to do a paid trial project alongside your team while they already work at another job, it can make scheduling difficult.

What are the best candidate screening methods?

For some, screening interviews work well; for others, screening resumes may be the key to an amazing selection process.

Regardless of which screening method you choose, it’s best to combine multiple methods for maximum effect. This way, you can offer an amazing candidate experience and be sure that you’re making the best possible choice of a job applicant.

Hubstaff and Toggl are top contenders in the time tracking and productivity software space. Our team used them side-by-side for two weeks to see how they differ in core features, user experience, and approach to privacy. Here’s what we found: 

Hubstaff is great for contractors or companies with employees working remotely or on physical job sites. It focuses more on productivity management than time tracking and works well for freelancers and small teams thanks to its pay-as-you-use pricing model. 

However, its primary audience is companies that want an over-the-shoulder view of employees’ work because it offers GPS-based location tracking, screenshots, app and URL usage tracking, and mouse and keyboard tracking.

These features make it controversial for employee privacy and put it firmly in the category of surveillance tools, which may foster distrust and negatively impact team culture in the long run.

In the opposite corner is Toggl Track, a productivity platform focused on privacy, trust, growth, and performance.

It doesn’t have any employee monitoring features because its philosophy is to equip teams with tools to increase trust and transparency and build a culture of time tracking for growth. The idea is to help everybody seamlessly track time and equip decision-makers with the most advanced time analysis tools — allowing them to make informed decisions and increase productivity, work-life balance, and profitability.

Toggl Track is a great free option for freelancers and small teams and an affordable option for small businesses. It shines the most when used by large companies with big teams, where the analytics insights can have the biggest impact.

We compared Hubstaff vs. Toggl Track in the following areas:

• Pricing
• Time Tracking
• Analytics and Insights
• Team Management
• Employee Surveillance & Privacy

We’ll review each in depth in the article, but first, here’s a summary of our findings!

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Comparison Summary

What is Hubstaff?

“All-in-one team productivity tracker” 🏃‍♂️🎯

Hubstaff was created in 2012 by Dave Nevogt and Jared Brown after they hired freelancers and needed a better way to track and manage their time. They wanted a platform that helps entrepreneurs and freelancers focus on business strategies rather than operational tasks. 

Hubstaff is an all-in-one time tracking, project management, payroll, and employee monitoring software that helps users track time spent on tasks and projects in real time. It provides several types of reports, helping users make data-driven decisions and improve efficiency.

The productivity insights help foster healthy competition among employees with the leaderboard and achievement badges. Hubstaff supports employee monitoring, offering a GPS location tracker, screenshotting, mouse and keyboard activity tracking, and app and URL usage data. 

It’s best for companies that require industrial efficiency from their employees, especially those working on physical job sites. However, its employee monitoring tools are a turn-off for teams that value privacy and trust-based work culture.

What is Toggl Track?

“Analytics-driven growth and productivity” 📊

Alari Aho and Krister Haav created Toggl Track in 2006 after having difficulty figuring out how much time they spent on each client. Realizing its potential, and with positive feedback from their clients, they added Toggl Plan and Toggl Hire to the portfolio. They made the software available to teams of all sizes, from independent consultants to large development teams.

Toggl has a philosophy of time tracking for self-reflection and career growth. That’s why it uses automation, reminders, and robust integrations to make time tracking more accessible to everyone. This way, employees view time tracking as less of a chore and more of a vital business operation. However, Toggl is more than a time tracker. Its true power lies in the Analytics feature, which helps managers discover productivity issues and develop a healthy environment for constructive conversations, mentorship, and support.

Toggl Track is perfect for companies that agree with Toggl’s core values — respect for employee privacy and ownership of work. Moreover, no other platform on the market provides decision-makers with tools to spot inefficiency and improve it as much as Toggl Track.

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Time Tracking

In a nutshell, Toggl Track is easier to use and offers better automated time tracking and project management than Hubstaff.

User Experience: Toggl’s time tracking interface is more modern and intuitive than Hubstaff’s.

Hubstaff doesn’t provide a dedicated timer menu. Instead, it uses a floating timer widget that can appear in any menu and obstruct other UI elements.

While using the app, we experienced random crashes, poor performance, and problems with some buttons. Furthermore, navigating the UI was unintuitive compared to Toggl. There is a dashboard for quick access to some features, but we found it easier to navigate using the side panel.

In contrast, Toggl’s UI looks more inviting, with vibrant colors, modern fonts, and tooltips that make navigation a breeze. Unlike Hubstaff, it provides tags, allowing you to group otherwise unrelated projects, clients, and time entries.

Toggl Track lets you choose your preferred timer view:

• List View: a day-by-day view that shows logged time and allows bulk edits of entries.
• Timeline View: shows entries for the whole week or a single day; drag-and-drop editing.

Another useful feature in Toggl Track is the Keyboard Shortcuts, which streamline navigation and simplify workflow. Hubstaff doesn’t provide keyboard shortcuts on the web app. Moreover, its desktop app only provides shortcuts for starting and stopping the timer. 

Toggl’s Keyboard Shortcut

Automated Time Tracking: Hubstaff offers location-based time tracking, while Toggl’s desktop app has a dedicated Autotracker

Hubstaff uses geofencing to automate time tracking if you have the Locations add-on.

It automatically clocks your employees in and out using real-time GPS location. This way, they don’t have to worry about starting or stopping the timer. It also tracks their physical location, which is vital for companies with on-site operators but raises concerns about privacy and micromanagement.

Meanwhile, Toggl Track’s Desktop App lets you set up an Autotracker.

It automatically records your website and app usage and only stores this data locally. You can copy this data to create time entries when you want to log time. This ensures only the data you choose to log is visible to your teammates.

This feature exists purely to make time tracking more seamless, that’s why the user has full control over it.

They can choose between two settings:

• automatically start and stop timers based on the time of day (1),
• automatically start and stop timers when an active window is in focus (2). 

You can create as many auto-tracking rules as you want and set reminders for when you forget to start or stop timers.

In addition, the desktop app has a fully-featured Pomodoro Timer with a built-in countdown timer. The Pomodoro can automatically start the timer for focus sessions and breaks, and it lets you choose from six focus sounds. Hubstaff does not offer this feature. 

Project Management: Toggl Track provides better project customization and workflow than Hubstaff

Hubstaff makes you select a project before starting or stopping the timer and saving the entry. Unlike Toggl, you can’t create a project from the timer menu.

Instead, you must navigate to the Project Management tab to set up a project. This means you can’t use it as a stopwatch for simple tasks, forcing you to litter your workspace with throwaway projects.

Meanwhile, Toggl Track isn’t tied to a project for saving time entries. 

This feature makes it a great time tracker for tasks unrelated to a specific project. Furthermore, if you need to associate an entry to a project later on, it allows you to do so even after saving the entries.

It also allows you to control the timer for individual tasks directly from the Projects menu.

Toggl Track lets you set projects as templates and use the same settings when creating a new project. It also allows you to set the project budget as an hourly billing rate or a fixed fee. Plus, you can set a time estimate and a recurring period for the project. Hubstaff does not offer such project settings.

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Analytics & Insights

In a nutshell, Both platforms offer Reports and Insights, but Toggl includes powerful Analytics with customizable Dashboards and Charts.

Toggl Track provides customizable dashboards and reports, while Hubstaff doesn’t

Toggl Track’s new Analytics tool is a flexible and customizable method of visualizing time tracking data and other insights. Not only does it help managers with billing clients and processing payroll, it’s also designed to:

• improve team efficiency,
• manage resource demand better,
• and improve project profitability and efficiency.

It lets you create custom Dashboards and customize the charts displayed on them. This way, you can analyze the data you need and visualize it using charts that you can easily understand. 

Dashboards comprise one or more charts and an optional Totals Widget that shows a summary of all tracked data. You can add different types of charts, such as:

• Tables
• Bar charts
• Pivot tables
• Line graphs
• Donut charts

Toggl Track also lets you create custom charts to visualize time tracking data. Using custom filters, you can set the date range and group the time tracking data.

Hubstaff doesn’t offer such an advanced analytics tool. Instead, it uses non-interactive reports, pre-made for the user. It provides report filters that offer some flexibility but are nowhere as robust as Toggl Track’s custom reports.

Both platforms provide periodic Reports, but Hubstaff offers more report types

Hubstaff and Toggl Track provide weekly, and summary reports about projects, tasks, and time entries, which can be filtered by:

• task,
• team,
• client,
• and project.

Hubstaff’s Time and activities report

Toggl Track’s Reports feature provides more filters, such as billable hours, tags, and descriptions. The Detailed Report shows each team member’s time entries, tasks, and projects in detail. Unlike Hubstaff, it allows you to round off time entries and edit them in place. 

Toggl Track’s Detailed Report

Both platforms let you schedule sending reports to your mail as PDF and CSV. This way, you and your stakeholders can stay updated on your projects without constantly logging into the platform.

Toggl Track’s reports only show the time each team member spends on projects and the amount owed, while Hubstaff provides several other report types, such as:

• Work Sessions — shows start and stop times for team members
• Apps & URLS — see all apps and URLs team members visit while working
• Payments — amount given to team members over a set period
• Client Budgets — the amount of client budgets spent
• Shift Attendance —  completed, late, and missed shifts for all team members

Hubstaff’s report types

It’s worth noting that some of these reports are only available on higher plans, so you may need to upgrade your account to access them.

Toggl Track provides insights on profitability, while Hubstaff provides insights on employee activities

Hubstaff monitors and collects data on employee activities, such as apps and URLs visited, idle hours, daily focus, and work time targets. This way, employers can detect fake activity like auto clickers and keyboard mimics.

It also includes a leaderboard that shows the best-performing employees based on productivity. It shows each team member’s tracked time, activity, productivity, and earned achievements. 

Unlike Hubstaff, which doesn’t trust employees and measures productivity by tracking their activities, Toggl Track is trust-based and prefers to measure productivity by employee and project profitability.

To that end, Toggl’s Insights feature provides four types of insights based on time tracking data and billable hours:

• Data trends
• Project profitability
• Employee profitability
• Comparative analysis

The Data Trends insight shows the total and daily average of working hours spent on each project, allowing managers to compare time allocation between multiple projects.

Toggl Track plots a timeline of your earnings and labor costs based on your team’s billable hours and displays the results on the Project Profitability dashboard. It also shows your workspace’s profit/loss margins for each project and client.

The Employee Profitability graph is quite similar, but it shows the loss/earnings margin for employees in your organization.

Lastly, the Comparative insights menu lets you compare the time tracked between any two weeks. It shows the hours logged for each day of the week in a head-to-head line graph, helping managers assess productivity over a set period.

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Team Management

In a nutshell, Hubstaff offers built-in Payroll and Workforce Management tools, while Toggl relies on the Toggl Plan suite and third-party platforms.

Employee Scheduling: Both platforms offer employee scheduling, but Hubstaff has built-in support for task sprints

Hubstaff’s Schedules feature allows you to create shifts, and manage time off and holidays. When making a schedule for a team member, you can assign tasks, set the duration, and choose the minimum working hours. It also lets you set a recurring duration for shifts and time zones for remote workers.

The Calendar menu shows all employee schedules, with filters for holidays, time off, shifts, and members. Selecting a specific member highlights all their events and schedules on the timeline.

Toggl Plan also offers employee schedules with a drag-and-drop interface for project timelines, allowing you to visualize work times, availability, and workload.

It uses a seamless two-way integration with Toggl Track, allowing you to start the timer from Plan and watch the tracked time sync up on the project timeline. 

Payroll Tracker: Hubstaff provides a built-in payroll tracker, while Toggl relies on third-party integrations for payroll

The Hubstaff Pay add-on lets you add your credit card information and choose which team members you wish to include in automatic payments. You can also use other payment processors, such as Wise, PayPal, and Payoneer.

When setting up automatic payments, you can configure exactly how you want to pay each employee, such as:

• Member — the team member you want to add to your payroll
• Pay Period — Weekly, Twice weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly, or None (for manual payments)
• Require timesheet approval — timesheet must be approved before running automatic payments
• Pay Type — hourly or fixed payments
• Pay Rate — the rate for the team member
• Bill Rate — the rate you can bill your client
• Email — team member’s payment email

Toggl doesn’t provide built-in payment processing but lets you set billable rates flexibly. You can set billable rates for:

• Workspace (most general)
• Workspace member
• Project
• Project member
• Task (most granular)

More granular rates always override general ones, allowing for precise billing control.

Once the billable rates and labor costs are set, Toggl Track generates invoices and calculates the amount owed to each employee based on the total tracked time. With just a few clicks, you can also export invoices as PDF and payroll data. 

Moreover, it has over 100 integrations, including Xero and Margn. This allows you to easily import payroll payment processing functionalities into the platform, creating a seamless workflow.

Daily Standups: Toggl uses recurring tasks for stand-ups

The Hubstaff Tasks project management software provides a stand-up feature to create daily or weekly stand-up meetings. You can set follow-up questions that team members can use to give updates on their work.

When submitting a status update for a stand-up meeting, Hubstaff can automatically answer the follow-up questions based on your tracked time, completed tasks, and to-dos.

Toggl Plan uses Tasks and Reminders to achieve similar functionality. It doesn’t provide a dedicated stand-up feature but lets you set up recurring tasks and send reminders to all relevant team members. And you’d have to handle follow-up questions outside the platform. 

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Employee Surveillance & Privacy

In a nutshell, Hubstaff offers employee monitoring tools like GPS tracking and screenshots, while Toggl has a no-surveillance policy.

Hubstaff can track employees’ device activities

The Hubstaff desktop app can take up to three random screenshots of employees’ screens every 10 minutes. With the More Screenshots add-on, it can capture up to 10 screenshots every 10 minutes.

While it doesn’t record keyboard data, Hubstaff can track mouse and keyboard activity. It listens for mouse and keyboard movement every second and generates an activity level for each employee.

It also tracks all apps and URLs visited during work hours, measuring the total time spent on each and the number of times they are used.

Hubstaff offers GPS-based location tracking

Hubstaff’s mobile app uses GPS data to track your current employees’ locations and their previous routes. It also displays time stamps showing where they were at specific times on the route.

Unlike the desktop app, which only records device activity when the user is tracking time, the mobile app constantly tracks location, even when the timer isn’t running. This occurs when the phone is set as a primary device, and the manager sets location tracking to “Always.”

Hubstaff lets you set up job sites, which are designated physical locations where your employees can track time. Also known as geofencing, this feature automatically starts recording time when users enter the job site and stops recording when they leave.

Toggl is intentionally anti-surveillance and doesn’t offer location tracking or screen recording.

Toggl Track values trust and a sense of ownership over work. That’s why it doesn’t believe in employee surveillance. It started as an in-house time tracker, where micromanagement and employee monitoring have never been part of its work culture. As such, it doesn’t track location, mouse activity, keystrokes, screen, or webcams.

Furthermore, employee surveillance generates a lot of noise, which dilutes the usefulness of the tracking data. That’s because people will find ways around anything they don’t like doing. Toggl Track instead focuses on providing insights into improving workspace productivity and profitability.

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Pricing

In a nutshell, Hubstaff has a simple model with key features locked behind paid add-ons, while Toggl has a straightforward pricing plan with no hidden costs.

Hubstaff is free for one user, while Toggl is free for up to five users

Hubstaff offers a free lifetime plan with a time tracker, timesheet, activity levels, and project clients. It also offers limited versions of reports, screenshots, and payment.

Toggl Track’s free plan offers unlimited time tracking, projects, and clients, making it an excellent option for freelancers and small teams of up to five users.

Hubstaff offers four subscription plans with paid add-ons

In addition to the free plan, Hubstaff offers four subscription plans that unlock more features and include some add-ons by default.

It uses a pay-as-you-use model to access advanced tools without upgrading your plan. For example, the Starter plan can use the Insights and Locations add-ons, which cost $2/user/month and $4/user/month, respectively.

Toggl Track’s plans are slightly more expensive, requiring a Toggl Plan subscription to provide the same value

Toggl designed each plan to cater to a specific audience. This way, you know what exactly to go for based on your team size and business requirements:

• Starter — for individuals and small teams needing analytics and task management tools
• Premium — for managers who must keep their large teams agile and synchronized
• Enterprise — same features as Premium with tailored solutions for complex organizations

Toggl Track alone does not offer the same range of features as Hubstaff and is missing vital tools like payroll and workforce management. To get these features, you must purchase a Toggl Plan subscription, which costs $9 per user/month for the Team plan and $15 per user/month for the Business plan.

Hubstaff vs Toggl: Pros and Cons

In a nutshell, Hubstaff is better for contractors who need employee monitoring and geofencing, while Toggl Track is best for large teams who want to increase profitability.

Final Verdict: Hubstaff vs Toggl Track

In a nutshell, Toggl Track is best for large knowledge-based service teams, while Hubstaff is best for on-site contractors or companies that want employee monitoring tools.

If you’ve paid close attention to the comparison, you’d notice that Toggl takes the lead in most categories. That’s because its tools are more powerful, easy to use, and user-centric. Moreover, it focuses more on measuring productivity by work output rather than work input. 

But that’s not to say that Hubstaff isn’t a great tool. It simply appeals to a different audience — teams that expect utmost diligence and maximum efficiency from their members.

Use Hubstaff if:

• You want to monitor employee location and device activities
• You’re a contractor with employees who work at physical job sites
• You want an all-in-one time tracking and workforce management platform

Use Toggl Track if:

• You need powerful Analytics to help you improve productivity
• You value privacy and a trust-based work culture
• You need a hassle-free automatic time tracker

Click here to get started with Toggl Track!

Clockify and Harvest are among the best time tracking apps out there but they’re designed for completely different teams and use cases.

Harvest’s time and expense tracking, invoicing, and payment features make it perfect for freelancers and lean businesses who want an all-in-one solution to manage client projects or contractors. However, as your business expands, you’ll realize that its toolset and price don’t support larger scales (especially after it’s massive price hikes), and its basic reports don’t provide good insights to improve productivity. 

Meanwhile, Clockify is ideal for small teams and businesses tracking time, generating reports, and invoicing clients. It lets you closely monitor employee movement and activities with GPS tracking and a screenshot recorder. While some managers love these features, they may cause tension and employee distrust, negatively impacting company culture. Its reporting features are also quite basic.

Since Clockify and Harvest don’t have a comprehensive blend of reporting features, we included Toggl Track as an alternative to Harvest and Clockify for each of the categories.

Comparison Summary: Clockify vs Harvest

What is Clockify?

“Stay lean. Move fast. See everything.”🏃‍♂️🔭

Clockify lets you track time and generate invoices across all projects. It also has dashboards and reports to help you understand where most of your time is spent.

Managers who prefer to monitor and keep tabs on their employees regularly would love its employee surveillance features — GPS tracking for employees’ location and screenshot capture for their screen activity.

These features make Clockify the ideal tool for small teams that want a simple time tracker to visualize their time distribution and productivity. It also caters to organizations that expect industrial efficiency from their employees.

What is Harvest?

“Time tracking and more.” ⏲️➕

Harvest has a simple and minimalist interface for tracking time and expenses, reporting, and invoicing. It has a timer and timesheet for individual and bulk time entries.

A key feature is its invoicing toolset, which lets you generate invoices, send them to clients, and accept direct payments. Its basic reports also help you track billable hours and expenses.

This makes it ideal for freelancers and lean businesses that need a lightweight tool for time tracking, invoicing, and payment acceptance.

What is Toggl Track?

“Empower your employees, improve your performance.” 📈

Toggl Track is an intuitive and reliable time tracking app that works across web, desktop, mobile, and browser extensions, making it easy for employees to adopt in their daily routines.

It has comprehensive Reporting tools for uncovering bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your workflows. This serves as the basis for engaging in constructive conversations, identifying opportunities for training and mentorship, and making strategic decisions to optimize team and project outputs.

Toggl Track is the perfect solution for small teams, agencies, and businesses who want to maximize productivity and profitability while promoting a culture of growth and mutual trust.

Clockify vs Harvest: Time Tracking

In a nutshell, Harvest has basic web, mobile, and desktop apps, Clockify steps it up with its desktop app, and Toggl Track is the most reliable for time tracking across all platforms.

Harvest and Clockify have timers and timesheets for manual and automatic time entries

Harvest lets you track time manually or with a timer. Select your project and task, add notes, and hit the timer to begin. Instead of starting the time, you can add a time duration and save. 

You can also switch to the week view to manually fill in a timesheet for the entire week. 

Tracking time in Clockify is simple. Describe what you’re about to work on, choose the project it belongs to, add tags if needed, turn the billable tag on or off, and start the timer. 

Like Harvest, Clockify lets you manually enter individual time entries or add them in bulk in a timesheet.

For the sake of comparison, let us also look at Toggl Track. At a glance, Toggl Track’s time tracking process is similar to Clockify’s: 

• It lets you track time on web, mobile, and desktop apps.
• It allows manual time entries and timer logs.
• And it offers a browser extension.

But, unlike Clockify, Toggl Track enables you to track time automatically.

The desktop app features the Autotracker, which locally keeps track of your time based on your activities. The Autotracker data is stored locally on your computer and isn’t visible to anyone until you save it into Toggl Track. It’s purely for your convenience.

If you’re new to it, it gives you a tour to help you familiarize yourself with its interface and start tracking time.

Toggl Track’s timer works offline. So, if you start tracking time and the internet goes down, the timer continues running, and you can stop it when done like usual. 

This prevents the time entry and billing inaccuracies that can occur with Clockify and Harvest during outages. Once you’re back online, Toggl Track syncs your time entries to the cloud.

Harvest displays daily time entries, and Clockify shows a weekly overview

Harvest’s “Day” view lets you see your daily time entries and the total hours logged. However, to view entries for other days, you need to manually switch between them, which can be tedious if you need an overview of your weekly or daily time totals.

Unlike Clockify and Toggl Track, you cannot group multiple time entries in a single, collapsible row. This makes your time entries long and cluttered. Seeing your total time on a task is also challenging if you track it with multiple entries.

Clockify shows you all of your time entries for the current week on a single page, organized by day. It also calculates your daily and weekly hours, making it easy to assess your productivity and workload capacity.

Toggl Track’s display of time entries is similar to Clockify’s, but Toggl Track takes it a step further. The line bar at the top of your time entries gives you a visual overview of tasks that take up most of your time, allowing you to make any necessary adjustments for the upcoming week.

You can also switch from the List View to the daily and weekly Calendar View to add and view time entries. This view lets you identify patterns during your day, like your most busy periods and free time. 

Harvest’s desktop and mobile apps are basic, while Clockify’s and Toggl’s are feature-rich

Like Clockify and Toggl Track, Harvest has a desktop app, a mobile app, and a browser extension for accessing key features on the go. You can track time, add expenses, run reports, and view invoices.

Meanwhile, Clockify and Toggl Track’s desktop and mobile apps are packed with extra features to make time tracking easier and more efficient:

• Set default project (desktop): Automatically select your default project when you start a timer without project details.
• Reminders (desktop): Add a reminder to track time on specific days and times.
• Automatic start and stop (desktop): Start your timer automatically based on triggers like day, time, and open desktop apps. You can also automatically stop the timer when your device sleeps or shuts down.
• Activity tracking: Automatically records every web or desktop app you use for more than, let’s say, 10 seconds.
• Idle detection (desktop): This feature shows how long you’ve been inactive and lets you decide whether to keep or discard the time entry.
• Offline mode (desktop and mobile): Track time without an internet connection.

While Clockify’s apps and extensions have keyboard shortcuts and a Pomodoro timer, they’re more easily accessible and intuitive in Toggl Track.

In addition to default keyboard shortcuts, Toggl Track lets you add custom ones to start and stop the timer for tasks you often do. 

Plus, its Pomodoro Timer is accessible across its mobile apps, desktop apps, and browser extensions, helping to boost focus and productivity.

Clockify vs Harvest: Project Administration

In a nutshell, Harvest has limited flexibility for team and project management, Clockify is a bit more flexible, and Toggl Track gives you the most options to support complex business structures.

Harvest lets you add time entries in timesheets for approvals, and Clockify allows you to disable timesheets

Harvest’s and Clockify’s timesheets work the same — allowing you to add multiple time entries manually. This feature helps log time for repetitive tasks within a project.

However, it can be annoying when time tracked using the timer doesn’t automatically transfer to the timesheet. You have to input it again, increasing the chances of errors manually.

Unlike Harvest, Clockify lets you minimize these errors. How? Disabling the time tracker or timesheet lets your team focus on a one-time entry mode.

Clockify and Harvest let you send reminders to your team to submit their timesheets for approval. After they submit their timesheets, you can either approve them or reject them for re-submission.

Instead of relying on manual entry, Toggl Track lets you set up Timesheet Reports. This feature automatically generates weekly timesheets from your team’s time entries.

Like Harvest and Clockify, you can set up reminders to alert team members to submit their timesheets for approval. Since these are already generated, all they need to do is review, edit, and submit. 

Harvest gives you one workspace to manage teams and projects, Clockify allows multiple workspaces

Harvest only provides one workspace to manage your teams and projects, which is enough for most freelancers and small businesses. Meanwhile, Clockify lets you create multiple workspaces if you need to manage multiple departments in your business separately.    

A user in a Harvest or Clockify workspace can have any of the following levels of access:

• Member: This role allows users to track time and expenses and view personal reports. 
• Manager: Users in this role have additional power to view and approve timesheets, set billable rates, run reports, and manage invoices of projects assigned to them.
• Administrator: They control the entire workspace, including inviting new members and assigning roles.

On the other hand, with Toggl Track, you can set up multiple Organizations and Workspaces in your account. This helps manage multiple businesses or service offerings under one account. 

A user invited to a workspace (under a specific organization) is assigned to one of six user roles:

• Member,
• Project manager,
• Project lead,
• Team lead,
• Workspace admin,
• and Organization admin.

These granular role assignments ensure effective team collaboration and management across different projects.

Unlike Harvest, managers and admins in Toggl Track and Clockify have access rights to streamline time tracking.

For example, they can set up reminders for employees to track time. The rules for the reminder could look like this: “If team members tracked less than 40 hours by the end of the Week, send them a reminder.”

The Reminders feature eliminates the need to monitor time entries and manually send reminder emails.

They can also set time entry restrictions to streamline how and when to log time. And if needed, conduct audits to spot time entries that:

• Aren’t assigned to a project,
• Aren’t assigned to a task,
• Or don’t fall within a specific time duration

Clockify vs Harvest: Billing and Invoicing

In a nutshell, Clockify and Toggl Track let you set up billable rates and generate invoices, while Harvest makes it easy to accept payments.

Harvest has three types of billable rates, but Clockify and Toggl Track have more

Harvest, similar to Clockify and Toggl Track, lets you set up non-billable, fixed-fee, and billable rates for each project. But Harvest only enables you to set up three types of billable rates, which is more than enough for most freelancers and small businesses:

• Project billable rate
• Person billable rate
• Task billable rate

You can also set a project budget and opt for email alerts if spending exceeds a certain percentage of the budget. Alerts allow you to make necessary resource adjustments and ensure projects stay within budget.

Toggl Track lets you set up four types of billable rates:

• Workspace rate
• Workspace member rate
• Project rate
• Project member rate

These rates take priority from the bottom up. So, if you add a project member rate for a project, it overrides the project, workspace member, and workspace rates. If you don’t specify project member, project, and workspace member rates, the workspace rate is used for billing.

Like Harvest, managers and admins can set up budget alerts to keep project finances in check.

Clockify’s billing system works similarly to Toggl Track and, like Harvest, allows you to mark expenses as billable. However, these settings aren’t organized under one page, making it confusing to set up and manage.

Clockify lets you send invoices directly to clients via email, and Harvest lets you accept invoice payments

Toggl Track’s Invoices are based on billable hours, and you can generate them with a few clicks. Filter your time reports for a specific project (or client), activate the billable tag, and create an invoice.

You can edit or delete time entries on the invoice, add new entries (like expenses and discounts), and set a currency. You can customize invoices with an ID, due date, payment terms, addresses, and taxes. Export them to your accounting software to accept payments and manage payroll when ready.

With Clockify, you can generate invoices from billable hours and expenses. You can add notes, apply taxes, and include discounts. 

Unlike Toggl Track, which only shows a list of your invoices, Clockify makes it easier to manage them with tags like unsent, sent, paid, and void. You can export invoices as a CSV or Excel file or email them directly to your clients as a PDF file.

Harvest has all the invoicing features in Clockify, Toggl Track, and more. You can:

• set invoices as one-time or recurring,
• accept payments from clients via PayPal or Stripe,
• and schedule reminder emails when invoice payments are late.

These features are helpful for freelancers and small businesses who want to manage billing and invoicing on one platform. However, agencies and medium-to-large businesses will still need dedicated accounting software to manage more complex financial operations.

Clockify vs Harvest: Reporting and Analytics

In a nutshell, Harvest focuses on basic time and expense reports, Clockify has dashboards and reports, but Toggl Track’s reporting is more robust, provides better insights, and is customizable.

Harvest only lets you track time and expense reports

Harvest’s reports compile your time and expense entries, making it easy to share them with clients. You can filter reports by periods, clients, projects, tasks, and team members and export them as CSV, PDF, or Excel files.

Clockify’s time reports have multiple views and filters

Clockify and Toggl Track’s reporting tools have three main views to help you analyze time entries:

• Summary: Visual reports of your organization’s total tracked time
• Detailed: List of all the time entries recorded in your organization
• Weekly: List of time entries for each week, grouped by user and project

You can filter these reports by team, client, project, task, tag, status, and description. Unlike Harvest, you can share reports with others (internal and external) via a public link. Alternatively, export them as PDF, CSV, and Excel files.

Clockify’s dashboards are rigid, while Toggl Track’s reports can be customized to suit your needs

Clockify and Toggl Track have dashboards for:

• Regular users to visualize their time entries
• Managers to see entries for their projects and team members
• Aadmins for complete visibility over all projects

Clockify’s dashboards are rigid and non-interactive. Plus, you can’t export or share them with key team stakeholders.

Meanwhile, Toggl Track’s Analytics dashboards are fully customizable and shareable. You can create any number of dashboards with tables, pivot tables, bar charts, donut charts, and line graphs, arrange them in your preferred layout, and apply relevant filters. 

This way, you see exactly what’s needed to keep a pulse on team productivity, project progress, and efficiency.

Toggl Track stands out with its Insights feature for optimizing resource allocation and profitability

Toggl Track’s Insights feature helps managers analyze extensive time data to adjust resources for better productivity and profitability. 

For example, the “Data trends” view provides a visual comparison summary of total hours spent across multiple teams, projects, and clients.

The “Project profitability” view also plots your project earnings against your labor costs. This makes it easy to analyze the profitability of each client and project within a specific timeframe.

The “Employee profitability” graph also shows each employee’s costs and earnings for your business, making it easy to spot top performers and under-utilized employees. This could contribute to strategic actions like training, promotions, and resource reallocations.

But that’s not all. The “Comparative” view lets you compare the total number of work hours logged between any two weeks. This helps managers analyze productivity fluctuations across projects and teams and make decisions that streamline operations and boost efficiency.

Clockify vs Harvest: Pricing

In a nutshell, Harvest has one paid plan for freelancers and lean businesses, Clockify’s starter plans are cheaper, and Toggl Track offers the best value for money.

Harvest’s free plan is limited to one user, Toggl Track’s free plan is limited to five users, while Clockify allows unlimited users

Clockify‘s free plan offers basic time tracking for unlimited projects and users. You can set billable rates. However, you cannot track billable expenses or generate invoices.

Harvest lets you add unlimited clients and send unlimited invoices on its free plan. However, it restricts you to just one user and two active projects. Plus, you won’t be able to customize your workspace with your company logo, attach files to invoices, or integrate with QuickBooks Online, Deel, and Asana.

Toggl Track‘s free plan supports unlimited time tracking, clients, and reporting for up to five team members across all platforms — web, mobile, desktop app, and browser extensions. This makes it a good fit for freelancers, small teams, and businesses looking for a budget-friendly time tracking app.

Clockify’s starter plans are cheaper

Harvest has two paid paid plans. The cheaper one is called Pro, and it unlocks all the features:

Premium is slightly more expensive at $14 per user per month. This gives you even more features, such as:

• Profitability reporting
• Timesheet approvals
• Activity log
• Custom reports and exports
• SAML-based SSO
• Custom onboarding support for teams with more than 50 seats

Clockify’s pricing starts with a Basic plan, which is very affordable, but most users find that it’s not very different from its free plan. Meanwhile, the Standard plan is ideal for small teams who want to manage timesheet approvals and invoicing. The remaining higher plans unlock employee surveillance features for managers who want to monitor employee activities closely.

Toggl Track’s pricing starts with a Starter plan. It provides the most value for small teams who need an intuitive and comprehensive time tracking and reporting solution to understand how their time is spent and bill clients. On the other hand, the Premium and Enterprise plans provide managers with unique insights to boost team productivity and project profitability.

Clockify vs Harvest: Pros & Cons

Final Verdict: Clockify vs Harvest

Harvest is a good choice for freelancers who need time-tracking software with built-in payment features. However, it has basic reporting tools, and the cost might be better for smaller teams.

Use Harvest if:

• You’re a freelancer
• You want to track time, send invoices, and accept payments in one platform.
• You only need basic time and expense reporting tools

On the other hand, Clockify is the perfect choice for small teams who want a time tracking tool on a budget and managers who want to pay more for employee surveillance features.

Use Clockify if:

• You’re a small business
• You want an affordable time tracking app
• You don’t trust employees and want to closely monitor their activities.

Meanwhile, Toggl Track’s intuitive time tracking interface and powerful reporting tools allow managers to boost employee adoption while gaining insights to maximize profitability. 

Use Toggl Track if:

• You need a reliable and accurate time tracking tool for your business.
• You want to boost employee adoption with a user-friendly tool that values their privacy and builds trust.
• You need powerful insights to optimize productivity and profitability.

Click here to get started with Toggl Track!

Everhour and Toggl Track are time management tools with features that boost team performance and improve productivity. However, after comparing them side-by-side, we realized each approaches things differently.

Everhour is a time tracking app that integrates with third-party project management platforms. It comes with a native project timeline and resource planning tools, customizable reports, and employee monitoring features like screenshots.

Everhour is an excellent option for strict employers because it gives an over-the-shoulder perspective of every employee’s activity. However, some employers believe surveillance erodes trust and may negatively impact team culture.

On the other hand, Toggl Track is known for its anti-surveillance policy. Privacy is deep-rooted in its philosophy, so it doesn’t support screenshots or other employee monitoring features.  

Toggl Track’s strengths lay in its intuitive time tracking with the Timeline feature, timer mode, and manual time entry, which help everyone track time effortlessly. The goal is to reveal work habits, assess performance, and boost productivity, rather than micromanage.

This, combined with advanced Reports, Analytics, and Insights, makes Toggl a powerful tool for managers and decision-makers who want to improve work-life balance, productivity, and profitability in a trust-based environment. 

To better understand the differences between Everhour vs Toggl Track, we will take a closer look at how they stack up in the following areas: 

• Time tracking 
• Project and team management 
• Analytics, reporting, and insights
• Employee monitoring
• Pricing 

The comparison summary below also touches on billing hours, invoices, integrations, and user experience. Our goal is to give you a solid picture of each tool’s strengths and weaknesses so you can choose the right one. 

Before we go in-depth, here’s a quick summary of our findings:

Comparison Summary: Everhour vs Toggl Track

What is Everhour?

“Time tracking software with hassle-free integrations”👩‍💻

Everhour is a team-oriented time tracking software launched in 2015 by Weavora Consulting LLC, a web development company from Belarus. It was founded on the idea that people need an easy and intuitive time tracking app, and too many features disrupt that balance. 

That might be why the software is so heavy on integrating and fitting smoothly into the workflows of the most popular project management tools in a way that users feel like Everhour is a built-in function.

Everhour is equipped with a Resource Planner for assigning tasks, Reports for creating custom dashboards, and a Team page to monitor team members’ work day. However, its best feature remains its ability to natively integrate with Trello, Asana, Basecamp, Pivotal, GitHub, ClickUp, and Jira. 

Overall, Everhour is an excellent time tracking tool for small and large teams needing a streamlined solution that works seamlessly with their existing project management toolkit. 

What is Toggl Track?

“An all-in-one time expert” 🕙👨‍💻

Toggl was created in 2006 by Alari Aho and Krister Haav as a time tracking tool. They later expanded their selection to two more tools: Toggl Plan and Toggl Hire, and the time tracking software was renamed Toggl Track.

Toggl Track embodies a philosophy of time tracking for self-reflection and career growth. Therefore, it prioritizes ease of use, giving users the flexibility to design their time tracking workflows however they want.

Toggl’s key features include an Insights hub to spot data trends and time sinks, an Autotracker to automate the time tracking process, an Analytics hub to visualize data with custom dashboards, and an Organization hub for tracking projects and managing teams. 

Overall, Toggl Track works best for freelancers who want a free time tracking solution or teams of any size that need a seamless time tracking tool for team-wide adoption. Its ideal use case is in large teams because of the powerful analytics features that help boost productivity and profitability.

Everhour vs Toggl: Time Tracking

In a nutshell, Toggl’s time tracking toolset is more robust than Everhour’s. It offers more ways to track time and prioritizes ease of use.

Everhour works best with its clock-in and clock-out timer, while Toggl’s Timeline feature makes time tracking effortless. 

Everhour’s Time Clock App is built around a clock-in and clock-out feature that employees can use to record their work hours without logging time on specific tasks.

It works with a simple start/stop button and a task hub that admins can use to assign time to tasks. 

The Time Clock App also supports screenshots and provides a Timecard page managers can use to edit and adjust reported time entries. 

On the other hand, Toggl Track’s Timer Mode also offers a clock-in and clock-out functionality with a start/stop timer that employees can use to keep track of their day. 

However, Toggl really shines with its Timeline feature, which lets you automatically record your computer activity—every website and program you view for over 10 seconds—without taking intrusive screenshots. 

Instead of screenshots, Toggl’s Activity Timeline shows you a graph of your recorded work with vertical lines that represent a recorded Timeline for a period, and bars underneath showing the time entries you logged. 

All recorded activities are saved locally on your computer and are not shared with anyone unless you decide to use them as time entries on Toggl Track.

Moving to views, Everhour complements the time tracking process with its List, Timesheets, and Screenshot views. Plus, a Timeline hub for project management offering Kanban boards and multiple widgets. 

Toggl, on the other hand, supports extra visualizations like Activity Timelines, Calendar View, weekly and daily project breakdowns, and a List View that supports bulk editing. There’s also a Focus Mode option on Toggl’s web app for time tracking without clutter.  

Both tools allow users to manually add and edit time entries, offer browser extensions, and support Google Calendar integration. However, they differ in how they track time with a few features.

Along with the previously mentioned, there are many other ways to track time on Toggl Track, which include:

• an Outlook and Google calendar import option for creating or starting time entries based on calendar events,
• a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox to track time in your favorite web tools wherever you are on the web,
• an in-app Pomodoro Timer (more on this in the next section),
• and Manual Mode for manual time entry. 

And similar to Toggl, additional ways to track time on Everhour include: 

• an integration with Outlook, iCloud, and Google Calendar to sync events as time entries,
• a browser extension to natively embed time tracking controls inside other tools,
• a web-based Pomodoro timer,
• and manual time entries. 

There are a handful of subtle differences between these time tracking apps. 

Everhour, for one, allows you to add a note to its Timer, which helps project managers and team members share relevant info about the time entry. 

Meanwhile, Toggl’s unique Timer additions include the “Split time entries” and “Add to favorite” features, which help organize the time entries. 

Toggl provides an Autotracker with customizable auto-tracking rules. Everhour isn’t as big on automation. 

Toggl takes time management a step further by offering an auto tracker to automate the time tracking process. 

The Autotracker allows users to set auto-tracking rules with specific triggers, eliminating the need to use the start/stop button each time they want to track activities. 

Everhour, on the other hand, doesn’t offer a flexible automation sequence and doesn’t support auto-tracking rules. 

Automation that is available on Everhour happens on each user’s profile page. 

Users can set automation preferences to automate clock-ins and clock-outs based on the following criteria:

• “Active”: when the computer is on,
• “Idle”: when the computer is turned on, but there has been no activity for some time,
• and “Locked”: when your computer is locked, turned off, or goes into sleep mode. 

Everhour vs Toggl: Team and Project Management 

In a nutshell, Everhour is a great choice for managers who want to plan and monitor how team members spend time, while Toggl Track is a better choice for tracking employee work hours and project profitability and it leaves project planning to Toggl Plan.

Everhour’s Team page helps managers monitor employees’ processes, while Toggl’s Organization hub helps admins manage how team members spend time. 

Everhour’s Team page comprises features that can help busy managers eliminate the chore of team management. It shows admins their team’s process so they can adjust the composition of each member as needed. 

Some core features include: 

• a Timers page that highlights what your team is working on,
• a Timesheet page that provides a structured picture of a member’s tracked time for a week, 
• a Timecard page displaying when a user started their workday, had breaks, and finished their work, 
• and a Time Off page showing vacations, sick leaves, and other PTO types.

On the other hand, team management in Toggl Track revolves around its Organization hub. 

This hub provides data on all the Groups and Workspaces within your organization, allowing you to effectively oversee your teams. 

From each user’s worked hours and billable rate to time entries and subscriptions, it helps busy admins stay on top of team members’ activities. 

Toggl’s Organization Hub also serves as a one-stop for admins who want to grant team members seamless access to the data they need to do their best work. 

Everhour offers a Timeline and Resource Planner that admins can use to build project roadmaps and track each employee’s capacity.

Everhour’s Timeline feature allows admins to build project roadmaps and manage team members’ workloads by providing a detailed calendar of all past and future team assignments. 

Within Everhour’s Timeline hub, you can: 

• create assignments,
• group time entries by Member and Project,
• navigate between days, weeks, and months, 
• and apply different filters to enable planned time.

There’s also a Resource Planner page that highlights who is busy, overworked, or free to take on new projects, so you can speedily create new assignments for team members. 

The Resource Planner also gives admins a vivid picture of how much time was originally planned for a particular project or client budget compared to the actual time spent.

Toggl’s Project Dashboard offers insights admins can use to predict timelines and budgets, track progress, and spot potential bottlenecks.

Unlike Everhour’s Timeline and Resource Planner features, which focus on helping busy managers plan work, Toggl’s Project Dashboard helps data-savvy admins track project performance and assess profitability.

It has multiple filters that busy admins can use to get a bird’s-eye view of where their team is spending time, so they can reshuffle work as needed. 

And for all the decision-makers in need of detailed performance data, clicking on any project on your Project Dashboard will lead you to the Forecasting chart. 

This chart provides trendline graphs and historical insights on billable and non-billable tasks and projects so admins can make better cost projections, efficiently allocate resources, and set realistic budgets. 

Everhour supports automatic data synchronization for selected task management tools, while Toggl Track aids with a dedicated task management product. 

Everhour and Toggl Track natively integrate with task management tools like Trello, Asana, Basecamp, Pivotal, GitHub, ClickUp, and JIRA. 

The key difference is that Everhour goes a bit further with integration by providing more advanced options for certain task management tools. 

For example, Everhour integrates with project management tools like Asana, Jira, and Basecamp, like it’s a built-in function, allowing admins to log or edit time entries manually within these third-party tools.

Toggl Track, on the other hand, integrates with these tools but not as a built-in function that might fully support manual edits across tools. 

That’s because Toggl has its dedicated product for task management: Toggl Plan. 

It’s a simple, visual way for admins and managers to balance team capacity and manage tasks — priced at $9/user/mo. Toggl Plan automatically integrates with your Toggl Track workspace and offers every project and resource planning functionality you’ll find in Everhour and more.

Everhour vs Toggl: Reports, Insights, and Analytics

In a nutshell, Toggl and Everhour both allow custom reports but Toggl Track offers better productivity and profitability insights.

Toggl Track offers Reports and Insights features that give admins a deeper view of what is driving team and project profitability.

Toggl’s Reports house summaries, detailed analyses, and weekly overviews of workspace activities. 

• The Summary Report comprises colorful charts and multiple filters admins can use to create one-click reports to visualize employee productivity and timesheets. 
• The Detailed Report shows each team member’s detailed time log, allowing admins to bulk edit, export, and print.  
• The Weekly Report gives admins an overview of the time tracked during one specific week.

In addition to the Reports feature, Toggl offers an Insights feature, designed to inform admins about data trends and the profitability of each project.

The Insights allow admins to filter for data such as project profitability, including income vs expense reports, and estimated vs actual comparisons.

Everhour offers a Report hub with multiple layouts and columns you can customize to track metrics and insights tailored to your needs.  

Unlike Toggl, Everhour’s Report hub doesn’t support one-click summaries. And there’s no such feature as Insights that would help admins get a comprehensive view of the team’s profitability. 

However, Everhour does offer a Home page with summary dashboards that aggregate and allow admins to see key team metrics quickly. The page consists of 6 widgets. 

Then there’s also the Report hub, built around layouts, filters, groups, conditions, and drag-and-drop columns. You can tweak the data layout to create editable report dashboards displaying quantitative metrics with insights tailored to your needs.

Some of the key metrics you can track and generate custom reports on include: 

• budget remains,
• estimated profits,
• expense tracking, 
• labor cost, 
• complexity,
• and invoiced time.

Everhour’s Report hub also supports automatic synchronization with all integrated projects and tasks, guaranteeing real-time updates. The generated reports are downloadable as PDF, CSV, or Excel files.  

Toggl also has an Analytics feature similar to Everhour’s Report hub, but it takes timesheet reporting a step further with its Timesheet Approval feature. 

Custom reports can also be created on Toggl. You just need to visit the Analytics hub. 

Toggl’s Analytics feature comprises a combination of customizable charts and detailed dashboards you can create using those charts. Like Everhour’s custom reports, Toggl’s Analytics feature allows admins to build custom dashboards showing real-time insights into team progress, projects, and resources.

Then there’s Toggl’s Timesheet Approval feature, which helps admins set up an approval workflow for team members. The feature makes it effortless for admins to check team members’ tracked time for approval or rejection, guaranteeing the validity of billed invoices. 

Everhour vs Toggl: Employee Monitoring

In a nutshell, Everhour takes screenshots of employees’ work activities, meanwhile, Toggl has a strict no-surveillance policy.

Everhour records employees’ screen activities and takes screenshots. 

Everhour has a Screenshots feature that lets admins monitor page visits and other team members’ activities to prove they are working on a task for which they report hours.

To authorize access to the Screenshot feature, you’d have to download Everhour’s desktop app and use the API on your profile page.

Each screenshot Everhour takes shows the exact time it was taken according to the users’ time format, allowing admins to track employees who are stalling on tasks. 

However, some employees may view this approach as a privacy issue. It can lead to micromanagement and a lack of trust among team members.

Toggl is anti-surveillance and doesn’t support screenshots. 

Toggl doesn’t support employee surveillance because it originated as an in-house time tracker in a work culture built to foster trust. So, any feature that can eventually lead to micromanagement is a no-go. 

It doesn’t monitor location, keystrokes, screen, or employee webcams on the premise that while employee surveillance might provide a lot of information on an employee’s work ethic, it also generates a lot of noise, which dilutes the usefulness of the data. 

Instead, Toggl provides useful insights for improving workspace productivity and profitability. 

It also provides a Timeline feature that allows users to record their computer activity without taking intrusive screenshots. The data is entirely private to them until they want to upload it as time entries to their Toggl Track workspace. 

Everhour vs Toggl: Pricing

In a nutshell, Both tools’ paid plans start at $10/user/mo, but Toggl provides a better bargain because it offers more plans with more features.

Both tools offer free plans that accommodate up to five users, but Toggl Track takes the lead with its 30-day trial period. 

Everhour’s free plan can help keep track of unlimited projects and give you an at-a-glance overview of team members’ performance with its custom reports. It also allows integration with multiple websites and supports a 14-day trial period on its paid plans. 

Toggl’s free plan, on the other hand, is just as robust as Everhour but has more features. Free users can enjoy an in-app Pomodoro Timer and inactive data storage for up to six months. Also, new users can opt for a 30-day trial period to try out all the premium features. 

But like Everhour, Toggl Track’s free plan is limited to a maximum of five users. 

Everhour’s one-size-fits-all paid plan is suitable for freelancers and mid-size businesses.

Everhour’s single plan for Teams is priced at $10/user/mo. The Teams plan’s core features include: 

• automatic and manual time tracking, 
• project and task management features,
• native integrations, 
• summary emails, 
• custom access level management,
• time audits, 
• expenses and invoices, 
• detailed custom reports,
• Zapier and Jira sync, and more.

Everhour doesn’t have a custom or enterprise plan for large businesses. However, opting for the yearly plan grants you a 15% discount. 

Toggl has a more flexible paid plan structure that is suitable for diverse creative needs. 

Unlike Everhour, Toggl offers three paid plans. 

Its Starter plan is the most affordable, priced at $9/user/mo. This plan serves freelancers and small teams that want to track billable rates, need pre-populated project templates, or require Outlook calendar integration. 

Next up is the Premium plan, priced at $18/user/mo. It’s a powerful option for agencies, medium-sized businesses, and large companies that want to create fixed-fee projects, audit time logs, schedule reports via email, or track team labor costs. 

And lastly, the Enterprise plan is a suitable choice for larger companies that need to manage multiple workspaces under one organization. Get in touch with Toggl’s team for pricing. 

Toggl’s paid plans come with a 10% discount on yearly subscriptions. 

Everhour vs Toggl: Pros and Cons

Final Verdict: Everhour vs Toggl Track

In a nutshell, Everhour has an advantage as a built-in time tracker for your favorite project management tool, meanwhile, Toggl works best as a standalone time tracking solution for improving productivity.

Overall, both tools can help you track project progress and budget, separate billable and non-billable hours to create accurate invoices and manage remote teams. However, at their core, they differ in their use cases and the audience they serve. 

Toggl is an ideal choice for freelancers looking for an all-in-one time management solution, as well as large and small teams that value employee privacy and want to maximize profits. Everhour, on the other hand, works best for mid-sized and small businesses that want to plan work and monitor employee performance closely. 

Use Everhour if:

• You are managing a small or mid-size team. 
• You use project management tools like Asana, Jira, and Basecamp and want a time tracker that integrates like a built-in functionality. 
• You prioritize screen monitoring and want a tool that can help record employees’ screen activities. 

Use Toggl Track if:

• You are a freelancer or an admin managing a large team or multiple departments.
• You want a tool that can help automate the time tracking process and allow you to do more in less time.
• You want an all-in-one time tracking solution offering detailed insight into what’s driving profitability and what isn’t.

Click here to get started with Toggl Track!

Note: Still looking for the best time tracker for individual or organization-wide needs? We also compared Clockify vs Toggl Track, Harvest vs Toggl, Timely vs Toggl, and several other employee time tracking software. 

Recruitment strategies are evolving faster than ever, leaving behind the days when social media felt revolutionary (oh my, how time flies).

Today, social recruiting is just one piece of the puzzle in a much larger, more dynamic toolkit. To stay ahead, businesses need to think beyond the familiar and tap into innovative approaches to attract and secure top talent.

This article takes a forward-looking approach, guiding you through what makes a recruitment strategy impactful, showcasing standout examples, and revealing 13 cutting-edge strategies designed to help your business thrive in 2026.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• A recruitment strategy is a plan of action outlining how the company will acquire talent, including what methods and tools you can use to achieve a pre-determined goal.
• A fully-formed recruitment strategy is based on a specific goal. For example, if your goal is to improve diversity and inclusion, you’ll detail which recruitment methods and tools meet this goal, such as skills-based hiring.
• There are many recruitment strategies out there, but some of the most effective examples include building a strong employer brand and talent pool, optimizing your sourcing strategies and social recruiting, and putting diversity first.

What is a recruitment strategy?

A recruitment strategy is a well-defined hiring plan that outlines the approach an organization chooses to attract, evaluate, and hire people to fill their open positions. Your strategy will include actions you’ll take at any step of the hiring process. For example, you could develop a recruiting strategy to boost candidate applications or create one to improve employee retention.

To choose the best recruiting strategy, a company should first identify its strengths and weaknesses — aka the parts of the recruitment funnel that are working well vs. those requiring improvement — and understand how the hiring process fits into these big-picture goals.

A good example of a recruitment strategy

An effective recruitment strategy should include all the tools, tactics, and goals required to bring in the best talent to drive business growth.

Let’s look at a practical example, like campus hiring. An organization with a clear growth plan and a specific profile of an employee for hard-to-fill roles might choose to create a recruiting strategy based on acquiring talent early in their career. Why? Well, it’s a relatively easy market to target!

Alternatively, a leading tech company looking to nurture diversity and foster greater innovation could adopt a “Hackathon Hiring” approach. By hosting coding competitions open to a global audience, the company could identify exceptional talent from various backgrounds while showcasing the company’s commitment to diversity and innovation.

Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was — and still is — the most important thing we do.

Marc Benioff, Chairman, Founder and CEO of Salesforce

3 things to consider before developing a hiring strategy

To reiterate, a good recruiting strategy includes all the necessary details on how you plan to achieve a set goal. So, before you can start developing any kind of strategy, it’s important to keep these three things in mind.

#1. Recruitment goals

This can be a short-term objective, like onboarding 10 new hires before the end of the year, or a longer-term goal, like improving your employer branding across the US market.

Just remember that goals should be specific, measurable, and aligned with the company’s long-term vision. And with the goals set, you’ll want to agree on the right recruitment metrics to monitor the progress.

#2. Recruiting process

When considering the specific steps you’ll take in your recruiting process, from job posting to onboarding, it’s essential to keep your recruitment goals in mind.

For example, if the goal is to onboard quickly, you’ll need a recruitment process that’s fast and efficient. Or, if the goal is to increase diversity, you’ll need to focus on inclusive best practices to achieve this goal, right down to the language used in your job ads.

For instance, at Toggl, we aim to find the best candidates while maintaining a great candidate experience. This is what our recruitment process for most of our products or roles looks like:

1. A 15-minute skills test to evaluate candidates‘ core skills quickly
2. When we hire for customer-facing roles, we use video intros for additional screening
3. A short homework assignment to identify the most qualified candidates
4. An interview with the hiring manager to confirm cultural alignment
5. A paid test week to get proof of competence and conduct peer interviews

We track metrics like best candidate sources, percentage of candidates over the test threshold, applicant satisfaction scores, drop-off rates, and speed to hire to identify areas of improvement in our recruiting process.

#3. Recruitment tools

Recruitment tools like Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), skills assessments, and automation software have become an essential part of the recruiting process because they help to:

• Streamline the hiring process
• Save hiring teams significant time and money
• Improve the candidate experience
• Reduce the risk of mis-hires

But to know which tool is right for you, you’ll need to refer back to your chosen recruitment goals and interview process to help you decide. For example, skills testing is an excellent tool to speed up candidate screening but would need to be combined with an efficient selection process if the goal is to hire more efficiently.

13 best recruitment strategies to find qualified candidates

Now we understand what recruiting strategies are and the main things to consider when developing one, let’s dive into our pick of the best recruiting strategies and tactics, and why they work in 2025.

1. Work on your employer brand

Employer branding plays a major role in attracting, hiring, and retaining great talent. In fact, 81% of organizations have taken action to improve their employer brand in the last 12 months, signaling its impact on hiring success and employee satisfaction.

Your employer brand is what makes people want to work with you and for you. Think about companies like Apple, Patagonia, Nike, and Netflix. Each has a clear mission, identity, and tone of voice that helps them stand out as industry leaders — as well as a compelling employee value proposition.

Granted, they’ve been around for a while now. But even newer companies stand to gain from strategic employer branding.

Take Revolut, for example. The global finance app went from series A funding to raising a whopping $800M in series E in the space of just five years. To reflect their incredible journey and mission, they created a unique campaign under “never settle” to attract potential candidates to their brand.

How can you implement this recruitment strategy? 

Start by identifying which areas of your employer brand need work. Everything from your job ads to writing creative job descriptions to the perceived company culture falls under your employer brand — so you’ll need to investigate thoroughly to decide what needs work.

You’ll also need to engage with other departments, such as marketing and communications, to build a brand candidates want to work for.

Key employer branding elements to focus on include:

• EVP: The promise you make to potential candidates in return for their commitment to your company. Promises like “Create a world where anyone can belong anywhere” from AirBnB help to crystalize your brand’s value proposition.
• Careers page: A major opportunity to showcase your employer brand with videos, testimonials, and information on the hiring process.
• Recruitment marketing materials: Refers to all the touchpoints and ways in which you market your company to candidates long before they’re even ready to fill out an application.
• Employee ambassadorship: Another powerful tool when marketing your company brand, as brand ambassadors are perceived as more credible than corporate marketing messages.
• Job postings/ads: Actually your last chance to convince prospective candidates to apply.

Create a desirable employer brand, and we promise you that attracting great candidates becomes a whole lot easier!

2. Polish your ideal candidate profiles

Creating an ideal candidate profile for every role is far from a waste of time. Just as marketers develop customer personas to target their efforts, a candidate profile can become an invaluable hiring tool used to:

• Create better job descriptions
• Improve sourcing strategies
• Lead to a better quality of hire

How can you implement this recruitment strategy? 

Don’t let your ICPs gather dust! For them to work, you need to continually review and refresh them for every new role by following these seven steps.

3. Optimize your candidate sourcing process

Sourcing is the first stage of your talent acquisition process and refers to all your combined efforts to find and attract potential applicants to your company and/or a specific role. That includes how you target both active and passive applicants.

Given that 85% of the workforce doesn’t even scan job boards, optimizing this stage of the recruitment process can bring big rewards.

How can you implement this recruitment strategy? 

Start by conducting a review of your sourcing methods and cross-check your current strategy with other creative candidate sourcing ideas. For example:

• Use external recruiters or headhunters
• Try new channels for job postings and advertising
• Open up your vacancy to remote hires
• Subcontract employees for a temporary project or position, like a maternity cover
• Incentivize more employee referrals
• Tap into your database of past applications

4. Attract passive candidates

According to research, only 35% of employees are not interested in looking for a new job next year. 41% are actively seeking new employment, and 24% were “unsure,” indicating they’re in the passive market and could be swayed by the right opportunity if it came along.

Given that passive candidates aren’t actively looking for new roles, it’s important to realize you aren’t going to engage with them on job boards. Instead, you need to adopt a long-term talent acquisition philosophy to ensure you get seen by passive talent long before they’re looking for a new role. This way, when they are eventually on the market, they’ll think of you!

How can you implement this recruitment strategy? 

There are many ways to get the attention of passive candidates, for example:

• Create a strong employer brand: As we saw before, employer branding is one of the most powerful ways to get the attention of passive candidates.
• Gamify your application process with skills tests: We’ve seen first-hand how effective skills testing can be in capturing the attention of passive talent.
• Be seen on social media: Whatever space you’re in, your company’s social media profiles can be used as tools to convert your passive followers into active candidates.

5. Put diversity first

Finally, what we’ve all known has been proven. Diversity and inclusion in the workplace not only helps to level the playing field for minority groups, but it also carries many real business benefits.

• Companies in the top quartile for diversity representation have a 39% greater likelihood of financial outperformance than companies in the bottom percentile.
• Diverse teams are 87% better at making decisions
• Companies that welcome diversity are 1.7x more innovative

Given those stats, and in this day and age, you really shouldn’t need any more convincing about putting diversity first.

How can you implement this recruitment strategy? 

Global pharmaceutical company and top-ranking employer Novartis is a leading example of putting diversity first. Of course, being a large company with big responsibilities, its diversity initiatives have grown to the point of needing a Chief Diversity & Culture Officer.

But even long before your company’s culture gets to that level, there are still many things you can do:

• Pay close attention to job postings and descriptions to check for inclusive language
• Try blind hiring and anonymous applications
• Remove bias with skills tests and unconscious bias awareness initiatives
• Switch up the job boards you use and try including niche job boards that specialize in a particular sector, field, or skill set

6. Create a talent pool

One of the biggest challenges in recruitment is often sourcing suitable candidates with the skills and experience you need. One way to tackle this problem is to build a high-quality talent pool and keep a list of vetted candidates on standby.

However, a great talent pool isn’t just a list of names and phone numbers. A properly curated talent pool provides rich information on each potential candidate, including their: 

• Experience
• Hard & soft skills
• Attributes
• Career goals
• Cultural fit to your organization
• Suitable roles

If you’re going to implement any long-term recruitment strategies, building a talent pool is one we’d definitely recommend. Not only will it boost your speed to hire, but it will also reduce costs and keep the best candidates engaged with your business.

How can you implement this recruitment strategy? 

The first step is to acknowledge all the different methods that can contribute to your talent pool.

For example:

• Candidate sourcing campaigns
• Leads from career events
• Recruitment software keeps track of all applicants (including unsuccessful applicants that may be suited to a different or future role)
• Community
• Passive candidates
• Candidate profiles on platforms like LinkedIn, Github, and UpWork

The second step is to start exploring different strategies and best practices for creating and maintaining a robust talent pool.

For example:

• Sorting and segmentation: To extract the most value from your existing talent pool and remain organized when growing it, you’ll need to segment by attributes like job function, skills, experience level, location, and interests.
• Nurturing and engagement: It’s not enough to simply collect and sort candidate details; you need to stay connected with candidates in your talent pool through things like social media, events, and outreach.
• Personalization: Your segmentation will prove invaluable when recruiting from your talent pool, but it’s also essential to personalize your communications to build and maintain that relationship.

7. Develop an employee referral program

Employee referral programs aren’t new, but getting them right is still tricky. Asking your current employees to refer great people from their network is an effective way to connect with outstanding talent. And what makes this recruitment strategy so sought-after is that it’s free.

Employee referrals are one of the best recruitment strategies because:

• Referred candidates have lower turnover rates
• They’re better quality hires
• They help reduce your time to hire
• They’re cost-effective for sourcing

How can you implement this recruitment strategy? 

The trick with employee referral programs is to strike a balance between incentivization and quality. You want your staff to actively refer people from their network but not their low-quality connections.

But the good news is that building employee referral programs is quick, low-cost, and delivers qualified candidates fast! No wonder it’s one of the favorite recruitment strategies among technical recruiters.

8. Nail your social media recruiting efforts

The rise of digital technology and social media has fundamentally changed the way candidates and recruiters interact. Digital hiring strategies and social media help recruiters find, engage with, and acquire the best talent on the market.

Here are some stats to back this up:

• 79% of job seekers have used social media in their job search in the last year.
• ‍On LinkedIn alone, 9,000 candidates apply, and 7 candidates are hired every minute.
• Candidate application rates increase 34% when the job postings include a video. LinkedIn also reveals that video views are up 36% year on year.

The fully remote workflow automation company Zapier is a great example of social recruiting in practice. The company uses innovative ways to engage and connect with its target audiences and prospective job candidates.

For example, during the summer, the company posted the results from its first “no-meeting week,” during which 80% of the team achieved their goals and gave others a meaningful look into the company culture.

How can you implement this recruitment strategy? 

To get started with social recruiting, consider the following:

1. Choose the social media platforms most relevant to your audience and recruitment goals
2. Post frequently sharing news and insights into job openings, job fairs, networking events, company milestones, product updates, contests, what it’s like to work at your company, etc
3. Engage with followers and potential candidates by responding to their questions and comments
4. Encourage employee referrals and engagement by current employees
5. Measure and track how your social recruiting efforts perform in order to adjust and optimize your social recruiting strategy

9. Connect with graduates

Graduates are the future, literally. For many roles, graduates are just a graduation away from clicking apply. In fact, many graduates are encouraged to secure their places up to a year before they even finish their courses, and this represents a candidate pool that shouldn’t be ignored.

Here are just some of the reasons why you should consider creating a recruiting strategy targeting graduates:

• They cost less as graduates start their careers
• They’re motivated to keep learning, with 94% of graduates surveyed citing work as an avenue for building their skills
• They have excellent knowledge of the latest digital tech and software to help your business thrive
• They bring fresh perspectives from their learning experience

How can you implement this recruitment strategy? 

4 ways you can connect with graduates include:

• Social media: Using creative, bespoke recruiting campaigns to target university students, like this creative ad campaign from Amey below.
• Job fairs and careers days: Attending multiple events for employers hosted at universities
• Your benefits package: Another way to hook graduates is by making a better offer than your competitors and including perks like gym memberships or flexible hours that make all the difference
• Candidate experience: Recruiting in this space is highly competitive, and another way to differentiate your brand is through the candidate experience.

10. Attend or host industry events

In an increasingly remote world, there is a lot of value in attending in-person events. Company and industry events can raise your profile within your industry, bring value to your network, and position your business as an exciting and innovative place to work.

From a recruitment perspective, events are a great way to synergize with several other recruitment strategies. They raise your employer brand, plant the seed with passive candidates, and are an opportunity to build a talent pool.

How can you implement this recruitment strategy? 

Start with Hootsuite’s awesome guide on how to host your own virtual events. These ideas offer a quick, easy, and low-cost way to start boosting your business profile and meet future candidates.

If you’re in tech, this could be a hackathon. For the arts industry, try hosting an exhibition. Or, if you’re in marketing, go to a conference.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t hold remote events. Something as simple as hosting a webinar on an industry hot topic or a virtual job fair is still a powerful way to bring people together.

11. Create an internship program

Last but not least, one of the most effective recruitment strategies that has never fallen out of fashion in the world of talent acquisition is the implementation of internship programs. Statistics show that candidates who complete internships are 85% more likely to secure a full-time job after graduation.

These programs offer hiring managers a unique opportunity to identify and nurture promising talent within their organizations by allowing both employers and candidates to assess their compatibility before making long-term commitments.

This strategy works exceptionally well because it provides an extended evaluation period and serves as an effective talent pipeline.

How can you implement this recruitment strategy?

For a successful internship program, start by doing research to:

• Identify which departments or teams should have an internship program
• Define the objectives and goals of the program for the team, individuals, and wider organization, as well as the terms and compensation they will receive to attract interns to your program
• Promote your internships through various channels, such as career fairs and universities, as well as your careers page and social media.
• Refine your program by gathering and incorporating feedback
• Measure and assess the success of your program by tracking key metrics such as intern satisfaction, the number of interns who were offered full-time roles, and subsequent retention rates

12. Provide a safe workspace free of political discussions

Global political events such as the US election and war in the Middle East appear to be spilling over into the workplace, causing discomfort for employees. A recent Politics at Work report finds that:

• 75% of employees are considering leaving their jobs due to political discussions at work
• 60% believe political discussions should be banned at work altogether
• 66% have lied about their political views to fit in with their colleagues
• 94% of entry-level colleagues are more likely to lie about their political beliefs, compared to 44% of senior managers

Potential applicants, especially those seeking junior roles or even those who have experienced the fallout of political discussions in their previous workplace, need reassurance you’re offering a safe space free from potential conflict.

How can you implement this recruitment strategy?

Admittedly, it’s easier to publicize your anti-politics stance to an audience of existing employees rather than potential applicants. But there are steps you can take to reassure candidates of your company values, such as:

• Using your social platforms to highlight your company culture and the benefits of not discussing presidential candidates at work
• Using interviews to communicate how your commitment to a politics-free environment contributes to a harmonious workplace culture
• Highlighting your commitment to a respectful environment on your careers page, job descriptions, and recruitment marketing materials

13. Appeal to the hidden workforce

As much as 14 to 17% of the US workforce comprises hidden talent, packed with skills, but whose resumes are often overlooked in favor of more traditional candidates. These hidden workers may include:

• Neurodiverse employees
• Workers forced into retirement who would relish the opportunity to return to work
• Caregivers who have left the workforce to support their dependents
• Ex-inmates struggling to find an employer willing to give them a second chance
• Veterans who haven’t yet found a civilian role
• Menopausal employees who have been forced out of work due to their age or symptoms
• People with long-term physical or mental health problems

These candidates may never have been employed or may have been forced out of the workplace due to their situation. Whatever their individual circumstances, they have limitless skills to offer an employer.

How can you implement this recruitment strategy?

To tap into this hidden talent pool, consider implementing these steps:

• Partner with organizations that specialize in helping individuals from these groups to find employment
• Review your recruitment processes and job descriptions for language or requirements that may deter these candidates from applying
• Offer flexible working arrangements, such as part-time or remote work options
• Implement a returnship program for caregivers or retirees looking to re-enter the workforce to demonstrate your commitment to supporting employees at all stages of their careers
• Follow up with candidates who have requested recruitment accommodations to understand how you can support them throughout the hiring process
• Assert your commitment toward skills-based hiring, and how you plan to use skills assessments to find the best person for the job.

The labor market never sits still, so every year, we’re challenged with new recruitment trends. While it might feel exhausting trying to keep up, understanding what’s happening on the market (and why) is the only way to improve your hiring strategy. 

From gaping skills gaps to shifting employee preferences regarding remote and hybrid work, let’s first recap the impact of top hiring trends of the past few years on today’s market — then analyze what’s on the agenda for 2025.

Key shifts in the recruitment market in 2024

2024 was a year of recalibration in the labor market.

Amid economic uncertainty, layoffs in the tech sector persisted, with companies restructuring to focus on profitability. Companies like Tesla, Microsoft, Amazon, TikTok, Snap, and Google all made cuts, with the industry losing around 130,000 people across 457 companies.

A similar story exists in the financial services sector, where the top 12 investment banks slashed 100 front-line dealmakers in Q1 of 2024 alone.

You’d imagine, then, that the talent market would be filled with highly skilled people, ready to slide into place at other organizations. In the case of bankers, this appears to be the case. Eric Li, research director at Coalition Greenwich, explains:

Investment banks remain laser-focused on costs. What we’ve seen is that while the big banks are cutting, smaller boutiques and other investment banks are picking them up. Around 60 of those who lost their jobs have found new roles elsewhere. It’s a great chance for them to pick up talent that would otherwise be too expensive to hire.

However, many other industries report that skill shortages have made it challenging to find the caliber of candidate they need to fill their open vacancies. SHRM’s Talent Trends report reveals that over three in four organizations have had difficulty recruiting for full-time regular positions. Highly skilled medical positions and skilled trades have been the most difficult-to-fill positions in 2024.

One in four organizations indicate full-time regular positions filled in the past 12 months demanded new skills. Organizational growth (55%) and evolving technology (51%) are the primary drivers of these new skill requirements. However, three out of four organizations report facing moderate to significant challenges in finding candidates with the necessary skills.

Talking of skills challenges, SHRM also finds that 37% of candidates don’t have the required technical skills, 30% lack adequate soft skills, and 18% don’t even have the basic skills needed to join their organization.

At the same time, some traditional hiring incentives are being scaled back. For example, the percentage of organizations offering flexible work arrangements has reduced by 16% in 2024 compared to 2022. Improvements to compensation packets, including salary and employee benefits, also fell by 16%. These declines highlight a move away from some of the more generous pandemic-era recruitment strategies, even as the need for top talent remains.

So, what do companies have up their sleeve to deal with these gaps in their organizational lineup?

Top recruitment trends to expect in 2025

Effectively, last year’s recruiting trends serve as a springboard for the new developments in the market. So, here’s what we expect to see through 2025.

1. The evolution of AI adoption

Hirers and job seekers have moved beyond the excitement of artificial intelligence’s arrival and are now experiencing it as a mainstay of the recruitment process. Some 57% of applicants relied on OpenAI during the application process in 2024 (which is hardly surprising) either to speed up or refine their applications.

Professional resume writers, job coaches, and other online tools have been around for decades. AI is just another version of the same. So, well-trained HR managers are well aware that the resumes they’re reviewing may not have been written by the candidates (and that’s one reason why Toggl eliminated resume screening long ago). 

The lesson here? To hire top talent in the age of AI, you need to adapt your recruiting process. 

Instead of giving candidates problems ChatGPT can solve, try testing their skills with open-ended homework assignments or soft skills assessments. Modern assessment tools include anti-cheating and anti-AI protection, which also prevents candidates from using apps during tests. 

In a world where everybody is using AI to boost productivity and improve efficiency, it might seem “wrong” to prevent candidates from using AI to help them apply for your job listings. However, doing so allows you to assess the candidates’ actual skills and personality traits rather than evaluate how well they can use ChatGPT to look up the right answers. 

It’s not all about preventing AI usage, though. Hiring teams are also exploring ways to use AI for good in the hiring process. For example, T-Mobile relies on an AI-powered tool to remove biased, non-inclusive language from job descriptions.

New HR technology, powered by advanced algorithms, can help hiring teams:

• Streamline repetitive, manual tasks such as interview coordination and scheduling, ad publishing to multiple job boards, satisfaction survey management, new hire onboarding, employee payroll management, and more.  
• Create automated communication channels to both strengthen employer branding and improve candidate experience. Thanks to natural language processing (NLP), chatbots can easily provide candidates with updates on their application status, answer questions about company culture, and handle a ton of other recruitment marketing activities.  
• Automate document processing.  Artificial intelligence can document cross-checks and information lookups at cruising speed with high accuracy. Streamline candidate identification and document checks with new KYC tools. Save time with AI-generated summaries of new regulatory or compliance documents.
• Get more data for decision-making. Whether you’re doing workforce planning for the new year or trying to evaluate your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) metrics, AI can crunch the numbers. Thanks to predictive analytics, you can also look into the future and model the volume of future applicants or estimate talent attrition using historical data.
• Build bigger talent pools. Leverage AI to cross-check past candidates’ or current employees’ skills and match them with new job opportunities. Personalize outreach to potential prospects on social media and across job boards to get more people into your recruitment funnel. 

AI already has ample practical use cases in recruiting, and we expect more talent leaders to embrace it by 2025.

Practical tips for making better use of AI in recruitment

• Learn about the different types of AI. Machine learning, predictive analytics, generative AI, and robotic process automation (RPA) — each of these technologies is better suited for specific tasks in a recruiting process. For example, Generative AI excels in content generation, while predictive analytics helps with advanced forecasting and modeling.
• Brainstorm use cases. Identify the most time-consuming, error-prone, and manual elements of your talent acquisition process. Brainstorm with hiring managers how different AI products can address the inefficiencies. 
• Start with pilot projects. Select several test use cases. For example, test different AI apps for recruitment marketing tasks or employer branding activities (e.g., job ad copy generation or personalized nurturing sequences for candidates in your pipeline). Set clear success criteria for each and measure the impact to estimate ROI. 

2. Increased commitment to skills-based hiring

As the cost and time-to-hire increase, every new employee becomes a critical hire. The increased emphasis on talent quality will require companies to tighten the recruitment process. Hiring managers will be eager to vet job seekers more rigorously and at a wider scale with the help of skills-based hiring. 

For 78% of HR professionals, SHRM reports that pre-employment assessments, which test skills, knowledge, and abilities, have improved the quality of their organization’s hires. 80% of recruiting pros claim to be committed to creating a more diverse workforce, and a skills focus is central to this initiative. Note: A skills focus increases talent pools by 10x, according to LinkedIn.

That’s because skills-based recruiting moves away from basing hiring decisions on gut feelings toward actual data on candidates’ competency. You can practice collaborative hiring by giving each manager the power to select people with the skills they need. 

Practical tips for implementing skills-based hiring in 2025

• Conduct a job task analysis to better understand the role’s competencies. Shift the focus from degree or work experience requirements to the skills, qualifications, and aptitudes of an ideal hire.
• Determine the optimal use cases for pre-employment tests. Use basic skill tests to quickly check if applicants have the skills needed. Then, apply a combination of different interviewing methods and take-home assignments (case studies, coding challenges, language tests, time-boxed competency assessments) to find the perfect skill matches.
• Drop questions about the candidate’s background to eliminate interviewer bias. Instead, ask more behavioral and problem-solving questions to understand how a candidate thinks and acts rather than what shaped them personally and professionally. By combining structured interviews with pre-employment tests, you can get a more comprehensive picture of a candidate’s skill set and team fit. 

3. Strong labor market optimism

Prepare for the labor market to open back up again in 2025. Although the current unemployment rate in the US is expected to remain around 4%, and a stable 6% in the EU, more opportunities will exist.

Over 80% of employers across tech, financial services, and healthcare plan to expand hiring in 2025, signaling renewed labor market optimism after two years of declines. Easing inflation and stabilizing interest rates are fueling employer confidence. 64% say macroeconomic conditions will support hiring in 2025.

Julia Pollak, ZipRecruiter’s Chief Economist

At the same time, EY reports 38% of employees are likely to quit in the next year due to poor pay and work-life balance.

For recruiting professionals, the above trends translate to a bigger talent pool…and bigger workloads, too. With an increased supply of candidates and an increase in open roles, there will be a heck of a lot of movement. Recruiters can expect to spend more time wading through hundreds of applications, pre-screening for hard skills, and scheduling rounds of interviews. 

And without a strong talent acquisition strategy, you risk getting some bad hires on board. 

Skills assessments can help hiring teams quickly find the most suitable candidates. Sadly, many job seekers lack essential hard and soft skills for the jobs they are after. That’s where proof of competence will become synonymous with recruiting top-level talent. 

Skills assessments can help hiring teams quickly whittle down the initial flood of applicants and highlight the most suitable candidates. AI for process automation, in turn, can help with secondary hiring processes (background checks, job offer management, onboarding, etc.), helping you reduce time-to-hire and boost productivity.

Practical tips for managing your candidate pipeline in 2025

• Refresh job descriptions with new skills to better reflect the kind of talent you’re seeking for vacant positions. 
• Be upfront about non-negotiable criteria. State if the role doesn’t support remote working or is strictly limited to candidates from a specific location. 
• Combine different pre-screening methods like resume checks, competency assessments, cognitive abilities, and aptitude tests (among others) to get more qualified candidates to the next stages. 
• Use cultural fit interviews and job simulations to secure both proof of competence and a strong team fit. 

4. Increased focus on closing skills gaps

Although the overall candidate supply is higher this year, skill shortages aren’t going away. Digital transformations, an aging workforce, a decreasing number of STEM graduates, and lower participation among women negatively affect today’s labor market.

Since 2015, the skill sets for jobs have changed by 25%, and that number is expected to be 65% by 2030. Yet, both existing employees and active job seekers are behind in developing new competencies. 

Modern-day jobs also require softer skills. As AI advances, businesses need to balance robotic output with human instincts, making interpersonal skills highly sought-after.

The most in-demand skills? Here they come:

1. Communication
2. Customer service
3. Leadership
4. Project management
5. Management
6. Analytics
7. Teamwork
8. Sales
9. Problem-solving
10. Research

Talent upskilling and reskilling will be a major recruiting trend in 2025.

To address the problem, HR leaders will need to first gain visibility into existing organizational skill gaps and evaluate the effects of tech disruption on the existing roles. 

Practical tips for addressing skills gaps in 2025

• Schedule a talent gap analysis to deconstruct the work your people already do and the skills they have (and lack) to perform their jobs better. Identifies areas for strategic recruitment, training, and development.   
• Introduce career coaching sessions. Improve employee engagement and talent retention by introducing new professional development plans for employees and walking them through different training programs available. 
• Offer a training budget. Instead of superimposing training from above, let employees choose any professional training, workshop, or conference they fancy. At Toggl, we give each employee €4K annually as part of our benefits program, and this helps us maintain a highly skilled workforce. 
• Launch an apprenticeship program. Expand your campus recruiting program with a digital apprenticeship — a fixed-duration program aimed at teaching fresh grads suitable hard skills.

5. Using contractors to plug operational gaps

Since 2020, business leaders have been increasingly turning to contingent, seasonal, or consultant employees to address skills gaps, better respond to changing market conditions, and maintain a competitive edge. 

In fact, Robert Half’s State of US Hiring report finds that 63% of companies plan to add contract professionals in the first half of 2025.

Contingent labor is expected to comprise 35% to 40% of the global workforce by 2025.

Gartner

This trend translates to extra workloads and complexities in compliance management for recruiting teams. Faster hiring cycles, proper worker classification, rapid onboarding (and offboarding) — a lot of grunt work is required to maintain a contingent workforce. 

To streamline external workforce management, create a set of processes, projects, or roles you want to fill in with contractors and map these to anticipate engagement duration. Determine: 

• Which roles have temporary or fluctuating demand?
• Which roles are need-driven? 
• Which roles require long-term support? 

Instead of standard job descriptions, highlight specific job tasks that contractors will need to complete (e.g., produce three blog posts per month) or processes you’d want them to handle (e.g., payroll management). 

Finally, don’t forget about compliance. Be upfront about any specific requirements you have — mandatory liability insurance, a valid professional license, the ability to perform on-site work, and so on. 

You will need to change your hiring strategy to recruit and onboard contractors. But the payoff of doing so is greater operational agility, faster hiring cycles, and easier access to in-demand skills. 

Practical tips for hiring contractors in 2025

• Understand the different service models. Some contractors do mostly deliverable-based, fixed-price gigs. Others prefer retainers, charge hourly for fractional engagements, or take a day rate for consulting work. Check if your current accounting setup can accommodate their proposed payment cycle and payment terms.
• Rely on social media recruiting. Contractors and freelancers don’t frequent popular career sites. Instead, they hang out in online communities and on social media. Prioritize LinkedIn and Twitter to build relationships with independent workers. 
• Offer fair compensation. Contractors save companies a lot of payroll costs since most taxes are passed on to them. This means few can (or will) afford to charge the same hourly rates as regular employees. Don’t lowball the proposed rates, and try to negotiate the scope of work instead if you have budgetary constraints.  

6. Employee engagement is in crisis mode

Over the past years, we’ve seen the Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, Quiet Firing, and Rage Applying. That’s hardly surprising, given that employee engagement has been sinking year-over-year.  

Evaluating employee engagement is a top priority for HR professionals in 2025.

Rising cost of living, salary freezes, forced returns to the offices — a lot of factors have made the global workforce less optimistic about the future. 

The latest recruiting trends, including increased reliance on contingent talent, accelerated adoption of AI, and the return of a recruiter’s market, are making people even more anxious about their job security. 

To patch things up in 2025, HR professionals will need to first evaluate the job satisfaction scores and then drill down to the causes of poor engagement. 

Collect feedback on all levels:

• Survey managers about their levels of happiness, motivation, and recognition, plus their perception of the team’s morale and satisfaction. 
• Ask lower-level employees to anonymously share feedback about their managers. Do they get enough recognition, timely feedback, and the ability to bring up new ideas? 

Compare the sentiments to better understand the gaps and overlaps in perception and determine the best course of action. 

Practical tips for improving employee engagement in 2025

• Coach your managers to lead better. Middle managers are responsible for 70% of the variance in employee engagement. Identify leaders with strong people skills (and likely higher team engagement scores!) that you already have and look to hire more people with similar skill sets for open roles. Invest in extra training for current staff to help them develop better soft skills, curb micro-management tendencies, and learn some new ways to empower and recognize their employees.  
• Advocate for employees’ ideas. Don’t just ask for feedback; act on it. Create a transparent system for accepting, evaluating, and executing employee ideas. Show that your company listens, cares, and implements suggestions from people at every level. 
• Double down on your remote and hybrid policies. 34% of businesses plan to extend their return to office policies to five days a week in 2025. But this doesn’t mesh well with employees who value a more flexible working model. 60% of employees would stay in a job they hate if it offered flexible hours, and 22% would quit their employer if it enforced an RTO mandate. If remote-first isn’t the right fit for your organization, consider the more flexible hybrid approach, which could be a gamechanger for your employee engagement levels.

7. Internal mobility is on the rise 

The recruiting landscape will remain dynamic, with people moving internally and even cross-border to keep progressing. And by offering this, employers can hang onto their top talent and avoid the expense of recruitment. KornFerry finds that 67% of internal employees would remain with their employer if they received adequate opportunities for upskilling and advancement.

As costs continue to soar into 2025, sourcing talent from within an organization can be a first step in saving expenses during the recruitment process. Hiring talent internally and promoting talent mobility schemes not only helps save on recruitment expenses like interviewing candidates and working through agencies but it also helps convey business confidence in existing employees’ skills while also providing current staff career growth and development opportunities.

Julia Braun, Chief HR Officer for software provider, SoftwareOne

A tough job market, combined with sinking employee engagement rates, means that businesses will likely be forced to keep flexibility on the agenda. However, these recruitment trends allow for hiring more diverse candidates, optimizing operating costs, and increasing corporate resilience.

When done right, a strong internal mobility strategy helps close the knowledge and skills gaps, improve employee engagement rates, and minimize the impact of local labor shortages on business operations.

Create a strong internal mobility strategy to boost employee engagement rates.

Practical tips for improving your talent mobility strategy in 2025

• Brainstorm new talent mobility opportunities. Instead of only moving talent geographically or vertically up the career ladder, consider alternative schemes: lateral moves to other teams or projects, job shadowing or mentorship to support cross-function mobility, and virtual “experience exchange” assignments. The current state of technology allows you to effectively combine in-person and virtual collaboration across functions. 
• Create a dedicated internal hiring process. Don’t force existing employees to go through the same process as any other job seeker. Streamline and simplify the application process by using competency assessments rather than resume pre-screening and peer interviews instead of culture pre-screeners with HR. 
• Mind compliance. Work-from-anywhere arrangements come with a new pane of tax, immigration, and employment law risks. New remote work-related tax rules may also emerge. Ensure that your policies remain in close sync with the current compliance regulations to avoid unnecessary risk exposure. 

8. Talent retention remains a top priority 

Telenet retention is an important part of workforce planning, and even more so in 2025 as the wave of resignations continues. 90% of organizations are concerned about retention, according to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report. They consider “offering learning opportunities” as the top retention strategy.

According to employee recognition platform Nectar, 29% of employees have quit a job within the first 90 days of starting. Clearly, HR teams need to focus more on improving the candidate experience and employee experience. 

To do better in 2025, focus on addressing the necessities. Poor compensation is the top reason for candidates seeking a role elsewhere, which makes sense given the economic climate.

But if cash bonuses and pay bumps will strain corporate cash flow, prioritize alternative options. To improve talent retention and engagement, career progression and work flexibility could also persuade your employees to stay, according to the Achievers Engagement and Retention report.

Practical tips for retaining top talent in 2025

• Refresh your succession plans. Look into creating new vertical and horizontal growth opportunities for experienced employees. Standardize performance reviews and industry benchmarks to make compensation offers more competitive. Use data-backed KPIs to clearly set performance expectations and recognize the best candidates for promotion. 
• Introduce better perks. 87% of employees would consider leaving a company that does not focus on their wellbeing, and perks are an important part of supporting them. With inflation rising, fewer people appreciate fancy gym memberships or having access to an in-office meditation room. Among the most in-demand employee retention perks for 2024 were lifestyle spending accounts that allow workers to spend a fixed monthly allowance on benefits meaningful to them. For example, health and well-being support, family care (sponsored daycare, elderly care), adoption assistance, catered food, and better work-from-home support.
• Improve the workplace ambiance. Mass layoffs, budget cuts, workplace automation — a lot of the latest recruitment trends make employees wary about their job security. Combined with a tougher leadership style, these factors dramatically reduce the employees’ comfort with taking risks and making mistakes without fear of negative consequences. Only 58% of workers feel psychologically safe at work and, by proxy, less engaged and productive. Measure how your company performs in the area of psychological safety and implement better practices like a “no-blame culture” and “fail fast-learn fast.”

Stay ahead of recruitment trends in 2025

From the growing importance of employee engagement to skills-based hiring, the latest recruiting trends for 2025 feel more like an evolution of effective HR practices than a revolution in hiring. And that’s a relief, right? Sure, but it’s definitely not a sign to kick back and relax because the job market will be anything but steady this year. 

Sync with new candidates and current employees’ expectations to avoid higher talent attrition. Empower your hiring team with AI tools that simplify and automate the recruitment process. Evaluate how contingency workforce and new talent mobility models can help you address skills gaps. 

If improving the quality and speed of hires is your priority for 2025, check out our skills-based hiring pipeline that helps screen, shortlist, and hire the most qualified people for the job. Get started for free!

When we manage time well, employees get more from their days. By tracking work hours, employees can accurately record their time spent on tasks and projects. This is a win for productivity and ensures employees are compensated correctly for their work.

While you might be able to achieve those wins by manually tracking time or using a simple time card calculator, timesheet apps make tracking work hours easier and more efficient. They automate the process of recording time, making it less tedious for employees and providing accurate data for employers. But where to start?

With over 20 years of experience, we know not all timesheet apps measure up. Some substitute intrusive surveillance for strategic time management, and others are tough to use.

Even so, there are plenty of outstanding timesheet software to help you make every second count. Here is our review of the top ten options for various types of businesses and use cases.

The best free timesheet apps

• Toggl Track for accurate time tracking for small to large enterprises
• When I Work for shift-based timesheet management
• Clockify for inexperienced companies that need flexibility
• Replicon for automated timesheet processing
• Harvest for streamlining invoicing
• My Hours for making project management simple
• ClickUp for managing complex projects and boosting productivity
• RescueTime for freelancers and smaller teams
• TimeCamp for quickly creating a timesheet system
• Hubstaff for large companies with complex time management needs

Timesheet vs. time tracking apps: What’s the difference?

Timesheets and time tracking apps record and manage time spent on tasks and projects, but they use different approaches.

We use time tracking apps to track the time spent on employee tasks in real-time. They’re usually automated and typically provide reporting tools to measure where time is spent, assisting productivity analysis and project management.

On the other hand, timesheet apps rely on manual time entries to document and approve employee hours. Most users rely on them for tasks like managing employee payroll and customer invoicing.

Some apps integrate both functions, using the time you’ve tracked to generate timesheets for various purposes, such as invoicing, payroll, etc.

What makes a time tracking app great?

We’ve been in the business of helping others accurately track time to focus on what matters most for a while now, and in our opinion, good timesheet apps include the key features below. You may not need all of them, but if a tool lacks core functionality, it’s probably best to keep looking.

🎈 Ease of use

Intuitive timesheet apps make it easy to set a time clock for every session. Employees and HR teams should be up to speed and accurately logging time in minutes, not days.

⏱️ Manual time entries

Some apps only support automatic time tracking. Background tracking is convenient, yes. But it’s good to have a manual option so people may adjust time entries themselves.

👷 Compliance with labor laws

The best timesheet tools are designed to comply with national and regional labor laws. Regulations apply to monitoring employees and non-compliance can result in legal trouble or fines, so this isn’t something you want to skimp on.

🧩 Approval workflows

Good timesheet software makes approving timesheets more efficient, reliable, and simple. It should be super easy for managers to check time off or irregular hours, ensuring accurate billing (and that employees receive the pay they deserve with minimal admin).

📄 Flexible reporting

Look for timesheet apps with the functionality to deliver detailed reports on the metrics that matte, such as working habits, team performance, and project tracking.

🔌 Integrations with critical apps

Most likely your time tracking tools complement payroll, productivity, and collaboration software. To get the most from timekeeping software, check available integrations. For instance, Toggl Track features over 100 integrations for common platforms and tools.

💻 Cross-platform deployment

Modern workforces use multiple devices and operating systems. A single team could work with iOS, Mac, Windows, or Android-hosted apps. The best timesheet tools cater to this, providing solutions for every situation.

How we ranked the best timesheet apps

Before providing you with a thorough breakdown of the best timesheet apps, it’s important to us that we share a bit about the base of our analysis.

Initially, we researched the best-rated timesheet apps based on user reviews. Public opinion isn’t everything, but it’s a good source of products that work for real-world users.

To obtain more concrete proof, we created a project in each app and punched our time in over the three weeks it took to create this article. Throughout the process, we noted our experience with each app based on the following criteria.

• Ease of Use: How easily your team can adapt to using the platform
• Supporting features: How well other features complement the timesheets  
• Integrations: How easily the tool integrates with your company’s tech stack
• Pricing: How likely you are to convince your boss to invest in the tool

We found every app on the market is designed to meet specific needs, while some excelled in all areas. That’s why we grouped them into three categories: best timesheet apps overall, best timesheet apps for specific needs, and best timesheet apps with employee surveillance.

The best free timesheet software at a glance

The apps below offer a complete timesheet solution with supporting features to enhance your business operations.

Toggl Track

• Best for overall performance
• Standout feature: The easy-to-use but powerful interface
• Free plan: For up to five users

When I Work

• Best for shift-based work
• Standout feature: Integration with retail or remote work devices
• Free plan: All plans are free for a limited period.

Clockify

• Best for flexibility
• Standout feature: The number and range of integrations
• Free plan: Unlimited users and time

Replicon

• Best for automation
• Standout feature: AI tools to analyze work time and automate approvals
• Free plan: For 14 days

Harvest

• Best for invoicing
• Standout feature: Payment integrations for clients and freelancers
• Free plan: Limited to one user and two projects

My Hours

• Best for simplicity
• Standout feature: User privacy safeguards
• Free plan: Limited to five users and unlimited projects

ClickUp

• Best for productivity
• Standout feature: Global timer for multiple locations or devices
• Free plan: Unlimited users and tasks. 100MB storage limit.

RescueTime

• Best for freelancers
• Standout feature: Integrations to help teams collaborate
• Free plan: 14-day free trial with Premium tier features

TimeCamp

• Best for getting started quickly
• Standout feature: The intuitive mobile app
• Free plan: Unlimited users and projects

HubStaff

• Best for larger companies
• Standout feature: Automated timesheet approval
• Free plan: 14-day free trial

The 10 best timesheet apps for small and large teams

Buckle up and get your pen out to take notes (yes, manual note-taking is still a thing 🙄), because the list below features everything you need to know about the best employee time tracking software in the business (in no particular order).

When I Work

📌 When I Work makes scheduling simple for shift-based businesses.

Managers can create and share daily or weekly timesheets with their teams and accurately track clock-in and departure times. One-click timesheet submissions also streamline payroll operations, which is ideal for hectic workplaces.

The scheduling interface is pure and user-friendly. You can group workers into teams or roles to fill every shift, while integrations with point-of-sale apps slot into busy retail businesses.

When I Work is less powerful as a data analysis tool, offering limited reports. Direct payroll integration is missing. There’s also a gulf between the basic plan and premium options. As there’s no permanent free version, you may need to upgrade, adding extra costs.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Very easy to use • Great for managing shift work • Good integrations with PoS devices	• Let down by poor reporting • No payroll integrations (users must purchase a separate payroll product) • Expensive at scale

Pricing and plans

• Essentials: From $1.50 per user/month. Unlimited users. Includes the scheduling app, templates, and messaging tools.
• Pro: From $3 per user/month. Adds reporting and extra customization options.
• Premium: From $5 per user/month. Includes API, single sign-on, and WebHooks.

*Users can try all of the above packages free for a limited period. If you like what you see you’ll need to purchase a subscription.

G2: 4.3 (287), Capterra: 4.5 (1,110)

Replicon

📌 Replicon uses AI and machine learning to automate traditional timesheet tasks, potentially saving time and improving consistency.

The app integrates with workflow tools like Jira and Slack, while algorithms work in the background, tracking how long employees spend on work-related tasks. Workers and managers approve AI-filled timesheets and correct any glaring errors.

AI may ring alarm bells about compliance, but Replicon has considered this. The pay rules library covers global labor regulations and details like PTO or sick pay. Instant updates also adjust to regulatory changes, keeping you compliant.

We did find some downsides. Replicon’s pricing system separates payroll and timesheet tools, making payment a bit confusing. AI invoicing is smooth, but it also lacks customization options we’d like to see.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Smart use of AI saves time • Flexible timesheet options for every location • Good range of integrations • Intelligent compliance tools	• AI tools lack flexibility • Expensive if you use all features • Invoicing is slightly below par

Pricing and plans

• Time & Attendance: From $6 per user/month
• Project time tracking: From $12 per user/month for full project management services
• PSA & PPM: From $29 per user/month for full enterprise automation features

*Replicon lets you try any product free for 14 days. After that, you’ll need to pay the full subscription fee.

G2: 4.3 (759), Capterra: 4.5 (526)

Toggl Track

📌 Toggl Track blends user-friendly time tracking and timesheet management in one package. Smart workflows cut out mundane tasks, allowing you to focus on boosting productivity. Timesheets also flow naturally into payroll processes from the first clock-in.

Our timesheet software integrates with over 100 popular tools, from Quickbooks or Xero to Asana and Slack. There’s a time entry solution for financial firms, graphic designers, software vendors—you name it.

You can also generate reports on how your teams use their time, export key data to Excel or CSV formats, and track working hours on iOS, Linux, Windows, MacOS, and Android platforms. Managers can even use access rights to collaborate with teams and individuals whenever they want.

Toggl Track also has a powerful (and unlimited) free plan. Small business users and team managers can track hours, set up multiple projects, and use simple reporting functions. And for advanced functionality, affordable higher tiers are just a click away.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Free plan has plenty of features • Easy to learn without in-depth expertise • Compatible with all major platforms • Beautiful visualizations and detailed reports	• The free plan has a five-user limit

Pricing and plans

• Free: Covers up to five users and offers unlimited tracking across all platforms. Google and Outlook integrations are included, along with six months of data storage.
• Starter: From $9 per user/month. Adds project management tools and extra project templates. There are no data storage limits.
• Premium: From $18 per user/month. Includes automated timesheet approvals, far more integrations, SSO, and API customization.
• Enterprise: Clients can manage multiple workspaces, while a dedicated Customer Success Manager provides priority support. Ask the Toggl Track team for customized pricing.

G2: 4.6 (1,570), Capterra: 4.7 (2,362)

Clockify

📌 Clockify is a flexible and customizable solution, allowing managers to create timesheets on a “build-as-you-go” model.

With Clockify, users can easily monitor freelance spending and work time, and use streamlined reporting functions to analyze performance.

Exporting options include PDF, Excel, and CSV (as you’d expect), You can also work offline on Excel sheets if that’s your style. There are no user limits, allowing easy scaling as needs change.

That’s great, but Clockify has some minor drawbacks. Collaboration features are relatively simple, potentially creating issues for larger teams. Reporting is easy to use but lacks the depth of other timesheet apps.

Clockify’s free trial previews paid features, with unlimited users and kiosk creation. But it’s just a preview. You’ll need Standard or Pro plans to benefit from invoicing and other timesheet-related services.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Timesheet software is easy to use and administer • Inexpensive • No user limits • Customization suits on-site and remote workers alike	• Not ideal for larger teams or complex organizations • Free and Basic plans lack invoicing • Reporting functionality is relatively simple

Pricing and plans

• Free: Enables unlimited users, the iOS and Android app, and unlimited kiosk creation.
• Basic: From $3.99 per user/month. Adds security features, templates, and enhanced exporting.
• Standard: From $5.49 per user/month. Includes invoicing, time off, and overtime management.
• Pro: From $7.99 per user/month. Features forecasting and scheduling tools, and employee expenses.
• Enterprise: From $11.99 per user/month. Adds extra customizations such as SSO and audit logs.

G2: 4.5 (170), Capterra: 4.7 (4,905)

Harvest

📌 Harvest is a lightweight and efficient timesheet management platform that scores highly thanks to its invoicing functions.

Automated tools simplify client billing, processing every employee’s timesheet quickly and consistently. PayPal and Stripe integrations help, although direct payroll services are lacking.

Recording billable hours and paying clients is a breeze, but Harvest falls on data analytics. Reports are simplistic and hard to manipulate, complicating life for project managers.

Then there’s the price. Harvest is not the cheapest timesheet app on this list. Users must also choose between a stripped-back free trial and the unlimited plan. As a result, it’s hard to be sure Harvest is the tool for you.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Slick invoicing • Simple and flexible timesheet interface • Useful history search • Intuitive mobile app	• Reporting is a little too simple • All-or-nothing payment tiers • Lacks payroll integrations

Pricing and plans

• Free plan: Provides all Harvest features but is limited to a single user and two projects.
• Harvest Pro: $10.80 per seat/month. There are no seat or project limits.

G2: 4.3 (806), Capterra: 4.6 (595)

My Hours

📌 My Hours is a lean but powerful way to track team hours and bill clients accurately. Managers assign project tasks before each team member gets a timesheet to customize and complete.

We found it easy to monitor budgets and send timesheets to payroll when testing My Hours. The client side is equally intuitive, giving you the information needed to approve payments and understand project progress.

Another neat touch is My Hours’ commitment to privacy—a timesheet solution with zero screen monitoring. It’s just basic time entry done well.

The My Hours tracking system struggles a little with integrations, though. Users can easily sync with Zapier, but link-ups like Asana or Trello require API customization., and not everyone has the skills to do that. The mobile app lacks functionality compared with the excellent web app.

Speed may be slower than average, and there’s a big jump between the free plan and the Pro package pricing. That might catch some users out.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Simple and easy to use • No surveillance • Clear presentation of relevant information for users and clients • Great for managing projects	• Sub-standard mobile app • Lacks integrations • No in-depth reporting

Pricing and plans

• Free: Covers up to five users for unlimited projects and clients. Provides simple time tracking and billing services.
• Pro: From $8 per user/mo. Adds invoice generation, audit logs, and budgeting tools.

G2: 4.6 (256), Capterra: 4.8 (974)

ClickUp

📌 Dubbed “one app to replace them all”, ClickUp is a holistic project management solution with timesheet features.

Users can assign tasks and create timers on almost any platform, while a Chrome web app simplifies everything. The global timer is an intelligent addition, allowing workers to skip between devices. Manual editing works well, and the dashboard makes it easy to track many clients at once.

There are over 1,000 integrations, plenty of automation tools, and detailed reporting functionality. Everything is geared towards managing team members and improving individual performance.

We found that creating timers was a little clunky, and the design makes it tough to see whether employees have the timer engaged.

ClickUp is also vague about tracking billable hours and avoiding idle time. There are few safeguards to assess employee performance, and it’s easy to imagine disputes about timesheet fraud. Even so, this is a solid timesheet package.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Great platform coverage • Intelligent timer design makes life easier for remote workers • Over 1,000 integrations • Even better within the ClickUp ecosystem • Free plan covers unlimited users and tasks	• Somewhat basic as a standalone timesheet tool • The free plan features storage limits • Simplistic productivity features

Pricing and plans

• Free: Limited to 100MB storage. Comes with other ClickUp tools without an opt-out option. Features unlimited tasks and members. There is no specific timesheet function.
• Unlimited: From $7 per user/month. Adds integrations and reporting tools but timesheet features are limited.
• Business: From $12 per user/month. Includes automated features, SSO, and full timesheet functionality.
• Enterprise: Prices are available on request. Comes with added customer support, APIs, full integrations, and compliance tools.

G2: 4.7 (9,831), Capterra: 4.6 (4,245)

RescueTime

📌 As the name suggests, RescueTime helps employees claw back wasted time and put their energies to good use.

This timesheet solution relies on automatically tracking app usage. This mode works well when most of your team works online. Offline work requires manual entry, so the promise of total automation is not exactly accurate.

RescueTime is also focused on individuals and small teams. The tracker delivers insights about how workers use their time and organize schedules. It’s not as effective at coordinating many clients or handling mountains of timesheets.

If you are working alone, it could be a good option. You can integrate RescueTime with Asana or Slack, creating notifications about clock-ins and idle time. The AI timesheet system also saves time for app-based work and covers multiple clients—great for freelancers.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Lightweight interface that’s easy to learn • Automated time management for digital tasks • Features to help freelancers focus	• Simple data reporting • Not suitable for larger teams

Pricing and plans

• Lite: Free forever. This is aimed at individuals and limits reporting and scheduling functions.
• Premium: From $12 per user/month or $78 per year. Aimed at teams, Premium adds focus sessions, history reports, and calendar integrations.
• Free Trial: RescueTime offers a 14-day free trial, including all Premium features.

G2: 4.1 (90), Capterra: 4.6 (139)

TimeCamp

📌 TimeCamp makes completing and approving timesheets easy. Employees can sign in with one-click timers, toggle daily or weekly schedule views, and copy tasks over multiple days to cover longer projects.

There are browser plug-ins, a well-designed mobile app, and the option of creating kiosks for busy teams. TimeCamp doesn’t offer as many integrations as competitors, but you can connect with Trello, GitHub, Quickbooks, and other essential apps.

Unfortunately, only Ultimate and Enterprise plans include timesheet approval, expenses, and billing rates. The free plan is much less powerful, offering only basic time recording. Even so, unlimited projects and users make it a generous package.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Timesheet tracking is easy to use and master • Many platforms and plug-ins to suit workflows	• Free plan lacks functionality • Few integrations • May suffer from errors and downtime

Pricing and plans

• Free plan: No time limit for unlimited projects and users. Lacks in-depth timesheet features but allows simple time tracking.
• Starter: From 2.99 per user/month. Adds features like invoicing, time off, and overtime.
• Premium: From $4.99 per user/month. Includes billable hours, budgeting, and website tracking.
• Ultimate: From $7.99 per user/month. Adds timesheet approvals, expenses, and full integrations.
• Enterprise: From $11.99 per user/month. Features priority customer support, private cloud hosting, and custom integrations.

G2: 4.7 (318), Capterra: 4.7 (598)

Hubstaff

📌 Almost everything on HubStaff’s employee time tracking platform is automated, removing the need for manual time card entry or typing daily hours.

Instead, users can automatically generate timesheets on Windows, Mac OS, Android, or iOS devices.

All the time tracking essentials you probably need are here, too. It’s easy to build weekly reports, record billable hours, and invoice clients. We also liked the automated timesheet approval system, including a locked time limit for making changes.

We were less keen on the real-time tracking. That could be useful, but tracking idle time feels intrusive. Even so, the whole package delivers for most companies. HubStaff helps you bill clients, manage time, and boost productivity.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
• Great mobile app and platform support • Automated workflows cut manual tasks	• Mainly a time tracking solution—timesheets feel like a secondary priority • No forever free plan, just a 14-day trial

Pricing and plans

• Starter: From $4.99 per user/month. Basic tracking and timesheet management. No integrations.
• Grow: From $7.50 per user/month. Allows one integration. Adds expenses and idle timeouts.
• Team: From $10 per user/month. Includes Insights and Tasks. Unlimited tracking and integrations.
• Enterprise: From $25 per user/month. Suitable for larger businesses. Adds location tracking, corporate apps, and compliance tools.

G2: 4.4 (1,040), Capterra: 4.6 (1,489)

So…what’s the best free timesheet app?

We’ve logged a lot of hours while seeking the best free timesheet app, but now it’s time for you to choose. Every product on our list is exceptional, but we think Toggl Track’s free plan is ahead of the curve.

Our free plan includes every feature needed to record employee time, bill clients, and improve productivity. With over 100 integrations, Toggl Track also fits any work environment.

Most of all, the interface is easy to learn and use. Within minutes, users can streamline chaotic time management processes and empower team members to make the most of every minute.

Our selections were based on hands-on experience. Yours should be, too. Create a free account and give Toggl Track a try today.

Our understanding of time spans thousands of years and multiple civilizations, yet getting the hang of it is still hard. You start your day with a clear action plan and oodles of energy, only to end it with a somehow longer to-do list and a lingering feeling of discontent about your performance. 

It’s not just you. Although our collective productivity levels have risen sharply in the 21st century, the faster pace and bigger volume of work also create more cognitive overload. 

To cope, you need to get back to the basics by figuring out how to marry your waking hours with the items stacked on your to-do list. That’s exactly what time management apps are for! 

What essential features should the best time management app have?

There’s no right or wrong approach to time management. While there are some scientifically-backed time management strategies, they don’t work well for every person or team. Our productivity styles change depending on the environment, type of task, or even time of the day (due to our personal circadian rhythms).  

You probably know what hinders your productivity streak—whether lack of clarity, procrastination, or a meeting-heavy day, leaving no time for deep work. 

Time management apps help you better understand where your focus lingers and how it impacts your progress with features like: 

• Real-time tracking: You’ll identify where you spend most of your energy and optimize efficiency by automating or implementing changes to your policy, like no-meeting Fridays.

• Reporting and analytics: You’ll better understand individual and team dynamics to make more realistic project plans, ensure accurate budget forecasting, and allocate resources more effectively. 

• Timesheet reports: You’ll estimate billable hours, process payroll, and ensure compliance with labor laws. 

• Integration with other business tools: You’ll sync time tracking with other systems to eliminate manual time entries and create richer app entries without manual copy-pasting. 

• Cross-platform support: You’ll access your software easily, whether working at your desk or in the field. 

• Great user experience: You’ll quickly feel at ease using your new time management app without it interfering with your workload.  

Overview of the best time management apps

Time management is a broad term, including time trackers, task managers, habit-building apps, website blockers, and more. Some products combine several features, while others do just one thing extremely well. When evaluating apps, we focused on: 

• Getting organized and staying on schedule 
• Building more productive habits 
• Promoting goal-setting and reducing stress 

To that end, we’ve sifted through a ton of personal recs, social media mentions, and user reviews. We’ve tested each top contender by using it throughout writing this article. In particular, we evaluated: 

• Ease of use: Overall user experience and adoption curve 
• Features: How the product gets you organized and productive 
• Analytics: What insights you can gain about your habits 
• Pricing: How much bang you get for your buck (or for free!) 

Below are the top tools that can be easily considered as the best time management apps on the market right now: 

Best time trackers 

	Toggl Track	EverHour	Timely
Best for	Effortless time logging across platforms, apps, projects, and tasks for personal and teamwork	Teams looking to embed time tracking into other digital workplace tools	Automatic time logging of digital desk work

Best task managers 

	Todoist	Akiflow	Routinery
Best for	Anyone looking for a to-do list app for work and play	Busy executives who want to commit time to the right tasks	Neurodiverse people who want to build a productive routine

Best distraction blockers 

	RescueTime	Freedom
Best for	Carving more room for focus work among other activities	Scheduling digital detox sessions during your day

An in-depth look at the best time management tools

1. Toggl Track

📌 Best for effortless time logging across platforms, apps, projects, and tasks for personal and teamwork.

A lot of popular project management apps let you track tasks but not the time your team members spend on each chore.

Toggl Track brings time tracking into every device, browser, and operating system (OS) workflow. It has over 100 native integrations with popular business apps like Google Calendar, Asana, Notion, Trello, Focused Work, and many more, plus an option to build custom connections with Zapier and Toggl Track API for custom connections (on every plan). 

You can power up the timer manually or launch automated tracking based on preset rules like time of day or upon the desktop app launch. The Timeline feature on the desktop app also automatically logs activity in each website and program you view for over 10 seconds. All timeline data on the desktop app is local to your computer—private and inaccessible to other team members or administrators.

Additionally, it supports time blocking, a time management feature that lets you block chunks of time for particular tasks. Linking Toggl Track with your Google Calendar makes it even more seamless because you can convert calendar events to time blocks. Use the built-in Pomodoro timer to remind you about breaks for a more productive streak. 

Analytics is another area in which Toggl Track excels. You can visualize your performance in custom dashboards using charts, tables, pivots, bar charts, donut charts, and more. You can also check your efficiency trends week over week to better understand your work habits. 

Toggl Track is the best time management app for businesses with trust-based cultures that want to empower people with productivity insights. It’s also a great choice for solos who want to improve their work habits and operational profitability by knowing how much time they spend on different activities. 

🌟 Standout features

• Accurate time-tracking on any device and in any app with 100+ native integrations and browser extensions. 

• Robust reporting features, providing productivity and profitability insights (templates include Revenue Sources, Client Billing, Project Progress, and more).

• Personal time tracking reminders and automatic time tracking triggers remind you to log hours for active tasks. 

• Team time monitoring against project time estimates and alerts about time overruns 

⚖️ Pros & cons

Pros	Cons
Lavish forever-free plan for solos and small teams that really ‘sells’ the product’s features	Detects idle time but doesn’t auto-switch off the web tracker after prolonged inactivity
Auto-tracker feature on desktop auto-logs your background activity without breaching your privacy	Automated time-tracking reminders are only available on a paid plan
Customizable analytics charts and project management templates to maximize the value of your data	Doesn’t offer shift scheduling or shift management features

💬 Why users love it

Toggl Track clocked over 1,500 glowing reviews on G2. 

Dominic King loves how Toggl Track “makes it simple to measure time spent on tasks and projects, establish numerous projects for each customer, add descriptions and tags, and run reports depending on those criteria”. 

For Felicity Cameron, a manager at a larger enterprise, Toggl Track is “beneficial for immediately determining where I spend the most of my time and how far I’ve progressed on each project. We utilized the app‘s data to re-evaluate when there were too many projects running concurrently, such as bringing on more partners or modifying my allotted hours”.

💰 Pricing 

Free Plan	Free Trial	Paid Plans
Unlimited, automated time-tracking	30 days	From €9/mo per user

2. EverHour

📌 Best for teams looking to embed time tracking into their digital workplace tools. 

Everhour is a time-tracking tool you can integrate into popular workspace software like Asana, ClickUp, and Github or use as a standalone app. In each case, the app will auto-track your time on tasks and log everything into a timesheet. 

The benefits? A birds-eye view of project coverage, employee schedules, and joint progress without switching apps. To boot, Everhour also lets you assign hourly rates to every team member for budgeting or easier customer billing. You can set max time limits per different projects, limit editing post-submission, and add other role-specific controls and permissions to streamline team management. 

On the downside, time sync and billing features are only available on a paid plan for a minimum of five users. The subscription costs can quickly add up if you’re working with many freelancers, as you’ll have to hook up each with a paid account to avoid manual data entry. 

Other than that, Everhour is a great choice for managers looking to gain extra insights into work capacity planning. 

🌟 Standout features

• Integration with 40+ popular business apps (Asana, Trello, Basecamp, Clickup, and more!) 
• Attractive team timesheets with clock-in, clock-out, breaks, overtime, and time auto-stop 
• Configure reusable report templates for time tracking, project milestones, tracking, and sprint reviews 
• Mark projects as billable, set a budget, custom task or team member rates, and overspending notifications  

⚖️ Pros & cons

Pros	Cons
Unlimited project, task, and time tracking on a free plan	No integrations available in the free plan
Seamless time and task sync across projects for easier billing	Mobile app only offers time tracking for shifts
Low adoption curve and attractive user interfaces	Pricing can get steep for teams that use a lot of external help

💬 Why users love it

“If you are an Asana user, get this tool. It will vastly simplify your life!” said Joel, a small business owner. By relying on this integration, Joel no longer has to manually copy-paste data between Asana and Xero to label billable hours and invoice clients properly.  

For Florian Menzel, who leads a technical team, analytics dashboards are the key selling point. “The various tables, charts, and other analytical visuals are making it easy to track who is working on what,” making project management a breeze. 

💰 Pricing 

Free Plan	Free Trial	Paid Plans
Covers 5 seats and all time-tracking functionality.	14 days	From $8.50/mo per user with a minimum of 5 seats.

3. RescueTime

📌 Best for preventing your wandering mind from seeking instant gratification instead of doing focused work. 

RescueTime combines time tracking with distraction blocking. By blocking certain apps or websites, you can plan focus sessions and exclude distracting activities. However, the app’s efficiency hinges on your ability to properly categorize different apps as time-killers. 

Unlike Toggl Track, RescueTime doesn’t have a web app. To start tracking activity, you’ll need to install a MacOS or Windows desktop app and a browser extension. An Android and iOS app is also available. The RescueTime browser extension updates every three minutes, but it takes a bit longer when you first install the product. 

The app uses a new Timesheet AI assistant to automatically label activities by application and categories. Organize all entries on a daily timeline to see how you spend your time. You can also organize all things manually to make an exportable timesheet. 

Generally, RescueTime caters more to individuals than teams requiring time tracking. It’s great at shutting down distracting apps and zooming your attention into your task list. However, the analytics feature is rather basic, without any admin view of aggregated user data or the ability to manage, export, or review user reports in the app. 

🌟 Standout features

• Customizable Focus Session lengths and settings, allowing you to block different types of apps and sites
• Desktop Assistant that provides at-a-glance information about your focus goals and workday plans
• Dedicated Meetings page, showing all the planned get-togethers from the connected calendar app (supports Google Calendar and Office 365/Outlook Calendar)
• Timesheets AI assistant organizes your time logs on a daily timeline and allocates time across projects 

⚖️ Pros & cons

Pros	Cons
Automatic start-up upon powering on the computer	Fewer integrations compared to other popular time-tracking apps.
Coaching insights for reclaiming your time and minimizing distractions	On the pricier side, given the number of offered features
Meeting alerts with a link to joining the call on supported platforms (Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams)	Doesn’t offer team functionality like admin report views.

💬 Why users love it

RescueTime scored some brownie points from Geoffrey Turner for “hosted Guided Focus Sessions” and “ease of use”. During a Guides Focus Session, you virtually co-work with other people in Pomodoro-styled sprints. 

Xavier Colomés also loves how frictionless RescueTime is: “It is zero [percent] annoying, as they only notify you of really relevant events”.

💰 Pricing 

Free Plan	Free Trial	Paid Plans
Available with limited project tracking and calendar sync	Two weeks	From $12/mo per user

4. Timely

📌 Best for automatically tracking all digital desk and knowledge work.

Timely leans fully into automated time tracking.

Once installed on your Windows, Apple, or Android device, the app starts clocking the minutes on different tasks. Thanks to the Memory feature, there’s no need to start or stop the timer. It detects all your background activity throughout the day—desktop app activity, website switching, and idle time. 

Using drag-and-drop features, you can organize all captured activities to create a timesheet. 

In terms of privacy, you can set rules to ignore certain activity tracking (e.g., exclude certain websites, apps, or document activity from automatic logging). Or you can change the page, app, or document title for specific activities. For example, to mask a sensitive document title from being saved in the cloud. 

Users say Timely is quite precise with automatic data capture, but some goofs do come along with the app mislabeling at task or going blank. On the pro side, the team just added a new notification feature to alert users about time sync issues, plus better activity capture for rapid tab switching (available in beta as of September 2024). 

Digital time tracking is Timely’s undeniable advantage, but it falls short of covering other workloads like field, manual, or non-desk labor. So it may not be the best choice for teams with more dynamic or on-the-go responsibilities like those in healthcare, engineering, logistics, or construction. 

🌟 Standout features

• Up-to-the-minute auto-generated employee timesheets covering all the digital activities for the day
• Robust in-app search for resurfacing specific tasks, documents, and websites you’ve worked on 
• Integrated Project dashboard, combining capacity and budget data for better resource allocation
• Custom tags for labeling all your workflows, tasks, projects, and all other activities. 

⚖️ Pros & cons

Pros	Cons
Simple, minimalistic app design with data-rich reporting views	Invoicing a third-party subscription to QuickBooks
Easy way to track internal cost rates for budgeting and manage billable hours	Doesn’t properly log incoming calls, messages, and web meetings on mobile phone
Frequent product updates, new feature releases, and bug fixes	Chrome only browser extension available

💬 Why users love it

Timely app gets a lot of praise for its sleek UX and easy learning curve. As Laurence Collings puts it: “I’ve never really bothered with productivity apps because the learning curve has been too much effort versus the potential gain—but this is one of the very few I’ve adopted, effortlessly, and so become a bit of an evangelist for.” 

Other users like Lana Potgieter have been thoroughly impressed with the Memory feature and granularity of time tracking: “Integrating the different spaces and tabs I use, and the amount of switching when working with clients was very effective! [It] shows multitasking, and I can see and allocate even short minute blocks of time to a project & client”.

💰Pricing 

Free Plan	Free Trial	Paid Plans
Not available	14 days	From $9/mo per user

5. Todoist

📌 Best for anyone looking for an affordable, collaborative upgrade from Notes app to-do lists for work and play. 

While not a time tracker, Todoist is arguably the best to-do list app for individuals and smaller teams (under 10 people) who don’t want to bother with more complex and expensive project management tools.

Accessible from any device—desktop, phone, or iPad—Todoist helps you make better use of your time by (auto) planning your schedule. The biggest boon of Todoist is natural language processing. You can describe tasks by typing things like: “Daily standup every Monday at 10 am starting Sep 20 ending Dec 20”, and the app will set up entries for you. Then, you can hash things out further by using priority levels, filters, labels, due dates, fixed or floating times, and more.

Todoist will auto-classify everything and organize your stack into respective projects. The Upcoming tab displays all your pending tasks for the week in a list or Kanban-style board view, and the Today tab shows what you must accomplish here and now. You can also check everything in a Calendar view. 

While Todoist doesn’t offer robust analytics, it allows you to track your daily and weekly productivity and stay motivated by setting weekly goals and earning Karma points. 

For teamwork, you can share access to your projects with family and friends (even on a free plan). Collaborators can leave comments and get notified when tasks get completed. On a Team plan, you can also assign responsibilities, set more filter views, enjoy a calendar layout, store more project templates, and configure roles and permissions.  

Although Todoist does not have time tracking features, it can help you stay more organized by building an effective personal task management system. 

🌟 Standout features

• Turn any action item from 80+ apps (Google Calendar, email, Microsoft apps) into a task in several clicks 
• Add task descriptions, set reminders, and task filters using human language—and let AI assistant prioritize things from there 
• Supported on all major devices (iPhone, Android, wearables, email clients, and browsers) 
• Easily share projects and tasks with non-users via public and private links

⚖️ Pros & cons

Pros	Cons
Impeccable, cross-platform user experience with a focus on simplicity and efficiency.	Doesn’t support start dates that hide your tasks until their start date is due
Robust natural language processing for quick  task entry	Subtasks can show as regular tasks in some views
Curated database of swipeable templates for a quick start	No way to set task dependencies without installing an add-on app

💬 Why users love it

Todoist has a somewhat cult following online, especially on Reddit, where loads of long-term users applaud the app for its “really robust free plan,” “top tier natural language processing,” and “perfect balance between usability & options.”

Atlanta Community Food Bank team, in turn, loves Todoist because “collaboration and task delegation has become an easy pie and working on group projects has been rendered successful through sharing and attaching of task files and documents”. 

💰 Pricing 

Free Plan	Free Trial	Paid Plans
Covers 5 personal projects	Not available	Start from $4/mo per user

6. Akiflow

📌 Best for becoming more conscious of your workload and committing the time to the right tasks. 

Similar to Todoist, Akiflow sits more in the universe of productivity apps, rather than time trackers. The app’s features promote the idea of intentional productivity, coaching you to build a better schedule and direct attention to things that matter. 

Thanks to integrations with over 3,000 different apps, you can create new tasks by selecting any text or pasting a URL to the Akiflow inbox. From there, the app will help you build a better schedule by aggregating tasks, to-dos, and meetings into a daily to-do or weekly/monthly timeline. You can manually assign specific calendar time slots to every task to time-block or manually add planned work hours. 

The lack of integrated time-tracking or a timer means you need to be good at estimating the average task duration to properly assign time blocks and avoid overlaps. The AI assistant will help curb the chaos by organizing all entities by tags, projects, and folders. Plus, you can ask it to auto-assign your daily tasks and break down projects into manageable to-dos. 

Unlike many productivity apps, Akiflow doesn’t push you to cross one to-do after another to get that dopamine rush. Instead, it coaches you to direct your energy to action items that matter the most and provides room for reflection.

The Rituals feature encourages you to plan your days in advance, review your performance with basic analytics, and jot down areas for improvement—all helpful to reduce the next-day jitters and feeling of overwhelm after a stressful day. 

🌟 Standout features

• AI co-pilot helps with task prioritization and tagging on your timeline 
• Automated task imports from popular business products, plus dead simple new task creation using natural language and text pasting
• Drag and drop tasks to create color-coded time blocks and replan undone tasks in one click 
• Automatic conflict detection in scheduled meetings and overlapping events 

⚖️ Pros & cons

Pros	Cons
Seamless task creation and contextual task linking to build effective daily timelines	Mobile apps (iOS and Android) are being reworked due to performance issues.
Loads of automation to replan tasks, block recurrent time slots, and keep your timeline organized	No option to convert planned calendar events into tasks.
Share available time slots with others via a booking link, with options for single or recurring slots	No free plan is available, and the monthly plan costs $39/user, with a 44% discount if billed annually.

💬 Why users love it

Akiflow quickly won some brownie points with busy executives and team managers whose schedules are packed with high-stake action items. 

For Francesca Marano, Director of Engineering Learning and Growth at XWP, “Akiflow is Get Things Done on steroids. I can easily manage my to-do items, schedule them, or leave them in the Someday bucket if they are not tied to a deadline. I love that I can see my calendar and my to-do items on one screen so I can also evaluate how many calls I can add to my day based on the items in my backlog”.

Founder Simon Stafferton, in turn, loves Akiflow because “It truly helps me organize my day and feel more in control of my tasks and workload than ever before. It’s amazing how well-designed software can do this!”

💰 Pricing 

Free Plan	Free Trial	Paid Plans
Not available	7-day	From $19/mo per user

7. Freedom

📌 Best for going on a digital detox to break the habit of mindless scrolling.  

If your favorite flavour of procrastination is going deep into the digital rabbit hole, Freedom can help you quit this pattern by blocking every sweet distraction online.

Depending on how radical you want, you can block certain web, mobile, and desktop apps, websites, or even the entire Internet. Don’t worry; the self-ban is temporary, and you can always adjust the settings to your degree of digital comfort. 

You can schedule exclusion sessions for a custom time or set recurring sessions. Since it syncs across multiple platforms, your sessions apply to all your devices. Freedom also lets you create different blocklists depending on what you want.

For example, you can have a work list excluding all news or entertainment websites. The slight problem with Freedom (and other website blocking software) is many websites are dual purpose; for example, you can use LinkedIn to network or as a distraction. 

Unlike other time management tools on the list, Freedom doesn’t offer many other productivity features, even on the Team plan. 

🌟 Standout features

• Customizable, synchronized distraction blocking across websites, apps, and devices 
• Locked Mode prevents you from switching Freedom blocking for a set period 
• Session annotation and history help you analyze your work habits 
• In-app ambient noises are available to help you focus 

⚖️ Pros & cons

Pros	Cons
Airtight digital distraction blocking with no easy way to chicken out	Mono-feature product at a slightly high price point
Fast setup and easy app configuration	Very limited analytics for quantifying time savings
Schedule recurring deep work sessions in advance to maximize your productivity	Lacks integrations with other products to easily export data

💬 Why users love it

Educator Wil Davenport loves that Freedom does what it says on the tin: “blocks websites and apps that are distracting to me, across all devices and platforms, so I can stay focused. It does its job very well!”

Software engineer Abhishek A also enjoys how the app “provides many small-small important productivity features like “Focus Sounds” which are helpful background white noises.” 

💰 Pricing 

Free Plan	Free Trial	Paid Plans
Free browser extension with limited features available (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera)	7 days	From $3.30/mo or a one-time payment of $99.50 Team plans start from $99/mo for 10 to 100 members

8. Routinery

📌 Best for neurodiverse people who struggle to build and maintain a productive routine. 

Most time management and productivity apps don’t work well for neurodiverse folks who are easily susceptible to external stimuli distractions, have time perception difficulties, or struggle to switch between activities. 

Routinery champions an alternative time management technique rooted in behavioral science. Instead of shoehorning users into keeping up with the clock or smashing items on the to-do list, the app gently coaches them to create a Routine that works for them. 

Routines contain different items you can add in any order and assign for any duration. When you start a Routine, the app shows the first task alongside a countdown timer. It will buzz when you need to move to the next item. If you’re still on it, pause the task or add more time. 

Once you’re done, the next scheduled task will appear. You can start it, skip it, or pause it. If you’re stuck, the app will gently nudge you to continue with the current step. When creating a new routine, you can choose which days it affects (weekends vs. weekdays), its total duration, and the frequency of reminders.  

Routinely creates a clear task sequence and gradually builds up behavior chains between tasks to combat slog, distraction, and procrastination—the type of issues people with ADHD often face. While it’s not a business app, Routinery deserves a place on this list for its commitment to inclusion. 

🌟 Standout features

• Pre-made routines for morning, evening, productivity, and health with preset items
• Text pop-up notifications and voice-reminded to help you stay on track 
• In-built, self-activated Pomodoro timer to track your performance 
• Daily, weekly, and monthly reports on habit building with feedback 

⚖️ Pros & cons

Pros	Cons
Promotes positive, long-lasting behavioral changes via habit stacking	No web app or browser version available
Uncluttered, intuitive design that reduces time anxiety	Doesn’t address motivation problems beyond nudges
No feature bloating or user flow complexities	Some users report high battery usage

💬 Why users love it

Routinery is making rounds on ADHD subreddits, where users praise it for the ability to “add just enough extra structure/incentive to change and it’s just making everything easier!” and the option to “add a 1 min or 5 or 10-minute snooze if you’re not done yet (these two features are GLORIOUS and absent from the other apps.” 

In the Apple Store, reviewers rave about how the app helped “realize how much time everything will actually take and giving me an ETA of sorts that gets pushed back whenever I take longer on a task is just revolutionary for my severe lack of time concept”. 

💰 Pricing 

Free Plan	Free Trial	Paid Plans
Supports 2 free Routines	7 days	From $3.99/mo

How to choose the right time management tool

Choosing the right time management can be as hard as picking a new Netflix show to binge-watch—so many options, yet you end up scrolling for hours.

To make a shortlist, figure out your use case first. Do you need a tool for the team or personal productivity? Is it task estimation, prioritization, or resource management where you fall behind? Put this down as a simple statement:

“I want a time management app that helps [me /my team] to [address challenge X, Y, Z] so I can [get a desired result].” 

Look into an app that best addresses your biggest challenge with its core features. Then, evaluate whether it can also help with other hurdles. For example, if you want to better understand how much time goes into different team activities, an app with time-tracking features and a team analysis view is a good choice. 

Next, consider the app compatibility. You want a product that integrates with your current tech stack i.e., can exchange data with other tools like project management apps, invoicing, or HR software.

Similarly, pay attention to the supported platforms (operating systems, browsers, and devices). If your company has a mix of MacOS and Windows users, you’ll need an app that runs on both. And for non-desk work, you’d also need a companion mobile app. 

Common mistakes to avoid when selecting time management software

To save you even more time on product selection, our Customer Success team has some juicy tips: 

• Don’t go after the most feature-rich tool. Some productivity apps have a steep learning curve, and most people have zero time to waste learning new software just to track their time. Pick a tool that excels in one major area (e.g., time tracking or task management) plus integrates well with other business software. 

• Don’t pick a time tracker with employee monitoring features like keyboard stroke logs, screen recordings, or access to full browser history. Such a degree of invasiveness backfires. Morale and productivity drop, while quitting intention increases. Half of tech workers would leave their jobs if forced to use an app with video recording or facial recognition to track productivity. 

• Don’t ignore security and compliance requirements. Learn how the software company collects, stores, and secures the collected data. A breach on their end could mean your sensitive data ends up on the dark web. Ensure all necessary safeguards are in check to stay safe and compliant. 

Manage your time better with Toggl Track

If you struggle to understand where time slips and how to use it more effectively, Toggl Track may have the answers. 

Our time tracking platform transforms your ‘busy’ into task-based daily timelines, detailed weekly timesheets, capacity-based project estimates, and client invoices with billable hours. 

By combining automated and manual time tracking across 100 apps, we help busy solos and teams discover which high-value activities contribute to their goals the most (all while being hawkish about anti-surveillance and user data protection). 

Visualize how you spend your time in custom dashboards to zoom in on your performance, project profitability trends, and resource allocation effectiveness. 

Sign up for a free Toggl Track plan to get started.

Are your HR leaders increasingly worrying about organizational capability? We get it. Companies need to make the most of their employees’ talent and skills, especially as certain hiring budgets dwindle and resources become more precious.

Since every new hire has the potential to either close or widen the organizational skill gaps, one thing hiring managers can do is turn to the humble competency assessment to find talent for current and future jobs.

Competency-based assessments focus candidate selection on specific skills and abilities that actually matter on the job. A well-structured competency assessment can check for core technical skills and look at essential soft skills like teamwork or collaboration, helping your hiring team quickly identify ideal candidates.

Think it’s time to use competency assessments in your talent acquisition strategy? Here’s how.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• Competency assessments test for multiple skills and personal attributes. They’re based on the requirements of specific roles. A role-based competency model makes it easy to match the right candidates to the right positions.
• Competence testing is part of a company’s talent assessment strategy. Organizations need strategic workforce planning to avoid skill gaps. With the economy changing rapidly, anyone who lags behind will feel the effects quickly.
• There are different ways to test competencies. Options include skills testing, task-based mentoring, homework, competency-based interviews, feedback from peers, and even self-assessment. Companies usually employ a blend of methods to suit their recruitment process.

What is a competency assessment?

A competency assessment is an evaluation of an individual’s skills, experience, and specific competencies against job requirements and duties.

Assessments could include skills tests, interviews, homework assignments, and task-based testing. Regardless of the one you choose to use, the overall aim is to generate enough information to determine whether the individual matches the job requirements and can perform well in the role.

Competency assessments play a key role in various parts of the recruitment process:

• During the initial stages of the recruitment process, competency assessments filter the best-fit candidates from the thousands of applicants, helping you identify candidates who match the required skills and have the right personality traits to succeed.
  
• Internal competency assessments detect the existence of a skills gap. When competency assessments happen continuously, they help companies detect missing skills. If you use them correctly, you can use them to recruit new talent or plan training for existing workers.
  
• On an individual level, pre-employment testing helps identify an individual’s abilities and weaknesses. It reveals areas for personal development and helps an individual reskill to keep pace with technology or business practices.

Skills vs. competencies

A skill is the ability to carry out a function or task by putting learning into practice. This could be a technical skill, such as Python coding or writing Machine Learning algorithms, or it could be a soft skill, like giving presentations to external organizations. Skills tend to be transferrable and not connected to roles within an organization.

Competencies describe the ideal attributes of someone occupying a specific role and may include skills, knowledge, experience, or even personality traits. For example, problem-solving is a skill, while problem-solving while working as a civil engineer is a competency.

When used in the hiring process, a competency-based assessment can help put the right talent in the right roles. HR managers often turn to competency tests when conducting organization-wide talent gap analysis and workforce planning. Identifying skill gaps in time allows leaders to organize staff training programs to meet business future needs.

Businesses often use competency assessments outside of the hiring process to determine who to hire or promote. But as we will see, understanding competencies also requires the ability to assess and develop critical skills. So, in practice, skills and competencies are closely related.

The 3 main types of competencies

Core Competencies

Core competencies are behaviors or skills that every employee should have. They form the basis for a robust competency framework.

Example: At the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), core competencies include teamwork, flexible thinking, developing talent, client focus, and strategic networking.

Functional competencies

Functional competencies are skills linked to specific job requirements. Functional competencies vary with seniority and the complexity of a given role. Each job usually has 3-5 essential functional competencies.

Example: Functional competencies for a university IT manager could include network management, cybersecurity, managing cloud infrastructure, and applying educational IT.

Behavioral competencies

Behavioral competencies are soft skills that are connected to roles. Roles may require specific personality traits or cultural skills.

Example: Behavioral competencies for a corporate recruiter could include negotiation, communication skills, building relationships, and results-oriented working practices.

Competence vs. competency: What’s the difference?

Competence and competency are often used interchangeably, but they’re actually different concepts.

When we talk about competence, we usually mean general ability and intelligence. Competency is more precise. It relates to the ability to meet the core requirements of an individual’s role.

Imagine you are looking for a social media manager. We can agree that an “incompetent” person probably won’t be suited to the role. But even an intelligent person who lacks great communication skills may struggle to perform to the required level because they lack the right competencies.

In that sense, competency is like applied competence. In the social media example, you may need a “highly competent individual with the ability to communicate, a deep knowledge of social media, and a talent for marketing.”

Our imaginary employee would need to be competent in using Facebook, running marketing campaigns, and writing engaging content. Without those skills, they would not meet the competency criteria for their job.

What is a competency framework?

Competency frameworks set out the necessary skills for every role in an organization. They allow companies to plan competency testing strategies systematically. With the right framework in place, you should know exactly what skills every role requires—from junior assistants to executive managers.

Any organization with a mixture of technical, administrative, and managerial roles needs a competency framework.

Common elements of a competency model include:

• Soft skills that all workers should have
• Desirable soft skills for individual roles
• Technical skills for individual roles
• Strategic or management skills related to meeting corporate goals

A solid framework informs employees about how to develop their skills, clarifies career progression, and uses skill gap analysis to ensure that current and future jobs meet organizational goals.

The OECD is a good example of how to use frameworks. The international research body groups its role-based competency model into three families (executive leadership, research, and administration). These families contain numerous sub-groups containing competencies for every role.

Advantages and challenges of competency assessments in hiring

Advantages

• Equality: A competency test should be completely neutral (or as neutral as possible). Tests are the same for everyone and generate consistent information about whether staff members meet strategic objectives. This skills assessment data feeds into benchmarked decisions to build the perfect organizational skill set.
  
• Efficiency: Consistent benchmarking allows you to assess candidates or employees at scale. Customized competency tests take the stress out of workforce assessment. You can quickly determine reskilling requirements. You can also reduce the time to hire new employees.

• Relevancy: Competency assessments are focused on the tasks that workers actually carry out. Following a competency test, employees know what they need to learn to improve their productivity. Candidates get valuable insight into what their role could be like in the future.
  
• Strategy: Companies can combine a competency assessment system with its strategic skills framework. An organization without a plan to integrate new skills will quickly fall behind. Competency tests let you combine traditional job task analysis with deeper learning. You can discover candidates who really suit your organizational needs.

Challenges

• Lack of flexibility: Sometimes, competency testing can be too specific. This can result in boring tests with little scope for candidates to express themselves. And testing can even hide skill gaps. For instance, candidates could pass an ultra-specific competency test by accidentally guessing correctly.
  
• Internal alignment: Competency assessments must align with a shared understanding of business objectives. Testing competencies that are out of date or irrelevant is useless. Competency assessment data must serve actual business needs, not abstract ideas of a “good” candidate. That’s why job task analysis is essential before starting competence testing.

8 most popular competency assessment methods

Now, we know what competency assessments are and why they matter. But what techniques can you use in your competency assessment system? Here are eight of the most popular ways to use competency analysis as a business tool.

1. Test-based assessment

A job-specific skills assessment is one of the most effective screening methods. It lets you evaluate candidates by skill levels and instantly spot high-performers. You can often combine hard skills with soft skills into one competency assessment, filtering out candidates with just the right mix of skills, experience, and competence for the position. This way, you can spend your valuable time interviewing highly qualified people instead of wasting time with poor-fit applicants!

2. Observation-based assessment

Careful observation over time is one of the best ways to understand whether people are suited to a specific role.

Internships are a great example of how observation works as a competency test. Companies can use skills testing to identify interns with the right core competencies. Interns then have the chance to prove they have what it takes to succeed in real-world environments.

Task-based mentoring, also known as collaborative learning, is a fast, reliable way to determine whether a young professional has the potential to grow into their role. Simply pair high performers with your interns and observe how fast they learn on the job! This should also increase the likelihood of an intern progressing to full employment – saving the company time and money.

3. Interview-based assessment

Sometimes, managers can only learn about competencies in a face-to-face environment. Some people “test” well but don’t deliver in person. Avoid this scenario by matching skills tests with competency-based interviews.

As much as they might sound like it, competency-based interviews aren’t social calls. They compare answers from interviewees with competency criteria and generate valuable insights about a candidate’s soft skills. And there are some elements that they need to include:

• Ideal candidate profiles: Interviewers must know the profile of an ideal candidate. This should be linked to core competencies for the specific role.
• Targeted questions: Carefully planned questions test for skills like problem-solving, analytical thinking, and adaptability. Questions should provide information about how well the candidate meets the desired skills profile for the role.
• Candidate evaluation forms: These forms compare the candidate’s interview performance against competency criteria. They have a standard layout, allowing you to compare many candidates objectively.
• Candidate scorecards: Scorecards work alongside evaluation forms. Interviewers use them to rate how well interviewees meet core requirements.

4. Homework or project-based assessment

Homework assignments tend to be used after initial screening or skills testing but before an additional round of interviews. Recruiters isolate a pool of potential hires and assign take-home tasks to assess their real-world skills in context.

Candidates have a set amount of time to complete each task. Tasks usually involve more complex questions than standard skills tests, providing recruiters with more information about the candidate’s skill set.

Home assignments are also very diverse. Tasks could involve coding challenges, written tests, presentation planning, or making an improvised sales pitch. However, they must always assess the core competencies of the specific role, so careful task selection is vital.

5. Portfolio-based assessment

Portfolio-based competency assessment draws on work previously completed by candidates. Examples include graphic designers, creative directors, video producers, artists, musicians, app developers, and marketers. Portfolios tend to work best in positions where individuals need to show off their creativity.

If you use portfolios as a competency test, be clear about what candidates need to provide. Request examples of their work that relate to the role they’re applying for—not just their best work. The portfolio should show that the individual is well-suited to the role and ideally has relevant experience.

Also, don’t rely on portfolios alone. Combine examples of work with relevant skills testing and homework assignments. That way, you will screen out deceptive candidates and double-check for core competencies.

6. Assessment centers or test days

Assessment centers and test days handle large numbers of candidates at one time, making them a great option for assessing graduate recruits.

Companies can administer a standardized competency test for aptitude and core skills and then easily filter out poor-quality candidates. This is almost always better than choosing from a very similar stack of paper resumes.

However, assessment centers work less well when assessing competency for specialist roles. Roles can be unique, with a relatively small pool of potential candidates. Organizations need to follow high-volume testing with more focused competency testing.

7. Self-assessment

If you want to get a full picture of an individual’s competencies, it sometimes helps to ask the person who knows them best: themselves.

Recruiters can request self-assessments of a candidate’s achievements, skills, and abilities as part of the initial application phase. Focus these self-assessments around core competencies. That way, you force candidates to think about how well they are adapted to the role. And they have a chance to convince you about their passion and talent.

8. 360-degree feedback assessment

In a 360-degree feedback exercise, HR teams ask colleagues, managers, or even customers to assess how well an individual performs in their role. Feedback should be as broad as possible (hence the 360-degree reference).

Naturally, this assessment method is better suited for employee performance management or talent gap analysis than candidate screening. Participants fill out forms listing a series of core competencies. They rate how well the subject meets these competencies, and there may be written sections to provide more detailed feedback.

Submissions remain confidential, but the subject can see the results. This helps them plan their own development. Assessments also inform managers as they inform organizational plans, arrange training, or assess employee roles.

7 top benefits of using competency-based assessments

#1. Find the most qualified candidate

Competency assessments ensure that your talent acquisition strategies help you select candidates with essential skills, knowledge, and capabilities.

Competency tests help you quickly focus on candidates who are skilled and suitable for specific roles. You can reduce the number of interviews required and learn far more than resumes could ever provide.

#2. Identify company-wide skills gaps

Competency tests identify skills effectively at a time when global skills gaps are challenging recruiters like never before.

The global skills gap is real. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), 50% of jobs worldwide will require reskilling by 2025. 70% of the skills predicted to be essential in 2025 did not appear in lists for 2015 or 2020. In that context, precise competency testing is going to be crucial.

Competency assessment helps you identify the best candidates, reducing the need for costly rehiring processes. It also lets you plug the skill gap by reskilling existing employees—a win-win situation.

#3. Predict future job performance

Competency assessments provide an accurate snapshot of how candidates will contribute to your business over the long run. Getting proof of competency early in the recruitment process enables the hiring team to pinpoint candidates who will succeed in the role, as competency is one of the most reliable predictors of future job performance.

Study after study has demonstrated that general cognitive ability combined with job-specific knowledge and skills play a significant role in predicting future performance on the job. You can make confident hiring decisions to fill current skills gaps and raise the bar of your team’s future performance by paying closer attention to your quality of hire.

#4. Understand employee career progression

Competency assessment detects gaps in an individual’s skills and can help them plan their career development. Managers can work with employees to understand their skill gaps, creating lifelong professional development plans to help their ongoing growth.

This approach forms part of a wider talent management strategy, using skills gap analysis to support a culture of continuous learning.

#5. Deliver rapid onboarding

Competency assessment makes it easy to assess the skills of new employees during the onboarding process.

Managers can then create individualized onboarding plans for each new hire. Plans can include training and mentoring, but employees can start in areas where they are already strong.

#6. Improve employee retention

Competency assessment helps companies retain employees and minimize employee turnover. According to the US Department of Labor, 44% of workers are looking to change roles, with many citing poor growth opportunities as a reason for compromising their career objectives.

Employees value employers who offer training programs to develop their skills and progress their careers. Competency testing lets them know where they stand and shows what individuals must do to improve their skills and move up the organizational hierarchy.

#7. Save money on the recruitment process

Competency testing reduces the cost of hiring by speeding up recruitment. Recruiters can spot the best candidates quickly, and fewer interviews are required. Skills-based hiring also reduces the risk of making a bad hire, requiring costly retraining or even a fresh recruitment process.

As an added bonus, competency testing finds candidates who are well-suited to their roles. They tend to work more productively and are less likely to leave due to low job satisfaction. So, over time, your recruitment needs will decrease.

4 ways to measure the effectiveness of a competency assessment

Competency assessment is a moving target. The skills that companies need constantly change. And assessments that worked last year may not be exactly right for today’s workforce. That’s why it’s vital to know how effective your competency assessments really are.

Monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is the best way to ensure your talent acquisition strategy is on the right track. With the right capability analytics, you can ensure that tests and other assessment methods actually measure the specific skills and competencies that matter.

When deciding on competency assessment metrics to track, consider:

• Employee Performance: How well do employees perform before and after competency-based training exercises? Does including competency tests in your hiring process help you onboard high-performers?
• Employee Satisfaction and Retention: Have job satisfaction and retention rates changed after introducing competency testing? Or has competency testing actually led to lower employee morale?
• Promotions: Are competency assessment measures leading to promotions and career development? Do you see a solid correlation between employees acing their competency assessment and getting promoted?
• Recruitment costs: How much money are you saving by using competency testing?

Hubstaff and Time Doctor are popular time tracking software. However, when we tried the tools, it became clear that they approach time tracking in different ways to cater to their target audiences. 

Hubstaff’s time tracking solution offers in-depth analytics and some employee productivity tracking features like geolocation tracking, so construction, logistics, and field service managers can easily track and optimize their workforce’s productivity.

On the other hand, Time Doctor depends heavily on employee monitoring software and distraction management tools to ensure agencies can oversee and optimize the work habits of their in-office and remote teams. 

However, such extensive employee monitoring methods, as seen in Time Doctor, may lead to a culture of distrust and an unhappy workforce. And, while Hubstaff is a bit less intrusive, its disadvantages over the Time Doctor are its addon-based pricing model that can balloon the cost, and its heavy emphasis on reporting features rather than the time tracking features on the web app.

To make up for these drawbacks, we decided to include Toggl Track into the mix. Its approach to time tracking is three-fold:

1. Encourage adoption with flexible time tracking tools across platforms — allowing users to adapt time tracking to their workflow, not the other way around. 
2. Equip decision-makers with industry-leading analytics, comprehensive reports, and valuable insights, so that when time tracking becomes effortless across the organization, they can use them to take their business to the next level.
3. Stay clear of employee monitoring software. Instead, it uses time data to build cultures of trust, transparency, feedback, and growth.

In this article, we compare Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track in the following areas:

• User Experience,
• Reporting & Analytics,
• Employee Privacy,
• Integrations,
• and Price.

But before we get into the details, let’s look at a quick overview!

Comparison Summary: Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track

What is Hubstaff?

“Optimize productivity at every step”🚶✅

In 2012, Dave Nevogt and Jared Brown started Hubstaff as a better way to track and analyze remote workforces by combining the best of employee monitoring features with in-depth analytics.

Hubstaff starts with a simple time tracking solution for employees to track time on the browser, desktop, and mobile app. The time data is uploaded to timesheets where managers can view and approve employee work hours. For a deeper understanding of employee work habits, managers have access to employee monitoring features like screenshot capture, URL tracking, and geolocation. But what sets Hubstaff apart are its comprehensive analytics features that use employee time and monitoring data to provide in-depth insights into company-wide and individual productivity, project costs, and payroll. 

Hubstaff is ideal for managers looking to monitor and optimize the productivity of off-site employees like delivery executives, remote customer support executives, and construction crews.

What is Time Doctor?

“Eliminate distractions to reach your goal”🧑‍💻🎯

Liam Martin and Rob Rawson founded Time Doctor in 2012 to empower employees to remain productive no matter where they are.

Its comprehensive employee productivity software eliminates distractions at every turn, starting with a time tracker, available on the desktop or mobile app. Meanwhile, the web app allows managers to optimize company-wide tracking settings, including automatic time tracking. They can also analyze employee work habits using monitoring software like screenshot capture, URL tracking, video recordings, and activity tracking. Managers can then use this data to implement distraction management techniques for improving productivity. For example, they can tag unproductive sites and send nudges, reminding employees to focus on work if they visit these sites.

Time Doctor is designed for agencies and businesses looking for a platform to track and optimize the work habits of their in-office and remote teams.    

What is Toggl Track?

“Empower employees, improve performance.”📈

Toggl was founded in 2006 by Alari Aho and Krister Haav as a full-fledged time tracking and productivity software to help your team become the best version of themselves. It was rebranded to Toggl Track after the launch of Toggl Plan and Toggl Hire. 

Its time tracking solution uses intuitive tools and automated time tracking features to easily populate time data in timesheets. The collected time data is used to fuel Toggl’s powerhouses — the Analytics and Insights features, which offer unique insights into employee work habits and productivity. Finally, Toggl offers a wide selection of third-party integrations to seamlessly integrate time tracking into your workflow. It does all this without depending on employee monitoring features, living up to its mantra of respecting an individual’s privacy and autonomy.   

Toggl Track is perfect for large teams and enterprises looking for a time tracking solution that equips decision-makers with in-depth insights. It’s an ideal solution for any company aiming to improve productivity and profitability while building a culture of growth, performance, and trust.

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: User Experience

In a nutshell, Toggl Track focuses on simplifying employee time tracking, Time Doctor does the same but uses intrusive tracking methods, and Hubstaff focuses on helping managers measure productivity.

Toggl Track and Hubstaff let you track time on the web app, while Time Doctor only tracks time using the desktop app.

Toggl Track syncs all activity across all its apps: web app, desktop app, mobile app, and browser extensions. However, they’re designed for different permission levels.  

The desktop app (shown below), mobile app, and Chrome extensions simplify time tracking for employees, using Reminders, Pomodoro Timer, and an Autotracker (more on these in the next section).

On the other hand, the web app adds to time tracking with management-specific timesheet and analytics features so managers can approve timesheets, understand employee productivity, and measure project profitability from a single platform.

Hubstaff offers time tracking options similar to Toggl Track, with the desktop app, mobile app, and Chrome extension. However, the web app focuses more on reporting than actual time tracking — so much so that the time tracker is relegated to a small corner on the top left side. 

The dashboard uses widgets to create custom layouts with business- or role-specific information. Though it offers much flexibility, setting up the dashboard to access this information takes time. 

Also, you’ll need to understand your processes well to prioritize the right data. This is something only experienced managers who understand the business thoroughly will be able to do.

Meanwhile, Time Doctor supports time tracking via its desktop and mobile app. It also supports a Chrome extension but it only works if you’ve already installed the desktop app. 

The web app is only meant for managers to analyze tracked time and optimize settings. Its dashboard is similar to Hubstaff’s, letting you select from different widgets to create a layout with custom data. However, you can’t reorganize the widgets to your convenience.

Time Doctor uses auto-tracking to monitor employees and Hubstaff also uses it to keep tabs on off-site workers, meanwhile, Toggl Track’s private Autotracker simplifies employee time tracking without any surveillance features.

Toggl Track improves the time tracking experience on its apps with two automation options:

• Timeline, which tracks and stores your computer activity privately, so you can easily fill in gaps in your timesheets when you’re ready to upload your time entries. The data is stored locally on your device so other users (like managers) won’t have access to it unless you add it to your timesheet. 

• Autotracker, which uses preset conditions (1) to automatically start the timer, for example, during work hours or when a specific app is opened. It’s useful when tracking time for tasks across different apps, like editing videos for a client on Premiere Pro or attending a meeting on Zoom.  

Unlike Hubstaff and Time Doctor, Toggl doesn’t depend on employee monitoring software to track time. Instead, it uses proven time management tools like Reminders, Idle Time Detection, and a Pomodoro Timer to help employees improve time management and productivity.

Like Toggl Track, Time Doctor also supports reminders and automatic time tracking, but they aren’t as comprehensive. For example, you can’t set time slots for time tracking automatically. It starts when you use the computer for the first time, starting at 5 am each day for as long as you’re signed into the app. 

So unless employees have a work laptop, your database will be filled with unnecessary tracking and time data, undermining the integrity of your productivity tracking data. Moreover, employees can’t delete the data themselves, severely impacting employee privacy.

Meanwhile, Hubstaff also supports automatic time tracking but uses geolocation to start and stop the timer. It’s great for in-office as well as off-site employees but doesn’t automatically highlight what the employee is working on. They’ll need to update that information manually. 

Managers can access real-time location data on their mobile apps. However, certain features are only available on specific device types. For example, the mobile map view is only available on iOS and not on Android. 

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Reports and Analytics

In a nutshell, Hubstaff and Time Doctor are concerned about optimizing employee input, while Toggl Track focuses on employee output.

Toggl Track offers three analytics dashboards to measure employee output.

Toggl Track provides three interactive analytics dashboards: Reports, Analytics, and Insights.

First, the Reports dashboard provides an overview of employee hours and earnings. You can use the filters to see which projects are over budget, where resources are needed, and how each employee contributes to the business’s bottom line.

Next, Analytics lets you create custom dashboards to visualize time data using line graphs, bar charts, donuts, and pivot tables. It’s ideal for building interactive reports for management to deep dive into employee work habits and projects.

Finally, we have the Insights dashboard. It lets you slice and dice time data to measure employee and project profitability, as well as associated trends across periods.

Hubstaff offers a wide array of detailed reports for faster analysis. 

Hubstaff’s predefined reports (1) offer a quick and easy way to compile and review performance data for employees and teams. They provide information on employee time and activity, work sessions, project budgets, and more. 

It also has an Insights feature similar to Toggl Track’s. However, the feature focuses more on employee productivity by tracking activity levels, app usage, and comparing them to organization averages. 

Nonetheless, his approach doesn’t give you the full picture because it only looks at employee input in the sense of how many hours they put in. It doesn’t consider the impact of the employee’s output, such as how the work contributes to revenue. 

For example, a top performer may take three hours to complete a task that usually takes two, and Hubstaff will tell you their performance is ‘below average’. Meanwhile, the reality could be that the task was for a high-paying client, significantly increasing the company’s revenue.

Time Doctor’s simple reports offer a fragmented view of your business. 

Time Doctor offers seven basic analytics reports:

• Activity Summary for insights into how employees spend their time by analyzing active and idle time data.
• Attendance Reports to organize information on employee attendance, absences, leaves, and punctuality.
• Hours Tracked Report to measure total hours spent by each employee to create accurate timesheets for payroll and invoicing.
• Projects & Tasks Report for a detailed breakdown of employee time spent on each project and task.
• Timeline Report for a breakdown of each employee’s day, including start and end times, tracked time, and inactive times. 
• Web & App Usage Report for details on time spent on websites and applications to understand remote work habits and process gaps.
• Unusual Activity Report tracks any unusual keyboard and mouse activity to identify hardware or software used to trick monitoring software.

At first glance, a wide selection of reports appears valuable. However, when using it, we realized it’s inefficient and offers a fragmented business overview. 

For example, Attendance Reports and Hours Tracked Reports are generated using time entries. However, they’re available separately only because they provide different insights: Attendance Reports focus on employee attendance, while Hours Tracked focuses on hours worked.  

Managers would better understand how employees spend their time if time and attendance data were compiled in one place — similar to the Toggl Track’s Reports feature below. 

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Employee Privacy

In a nutshell, Time Doctor and Hubstaff use employee monitoring software, while Toggl Track doesn’t believe in employee surveillance.

Hubstaff uses employee monitoring to optimize company-wide productivity, while Time Doctor tries to minimize individual unproductive habits.

Time Doctor’s policy seems to be that if employees are monitored, they’ll be more productive at work. 

This is justified with various employee surveillance tools like screenshots, URL tracking, and mouse and keyboard tracking. Screenshots can be blurred, offering some privacy, but managers have to turn on the feature. 

Also, managers can use URL tracking data to identify and tag ‘unproductive websites.’ If an employee visits any unproductive site, Time Doctor reminds them to focus on work. 

Finally, you have the “Unusual Activity Report”, which reports any unusual activity that may point to external software trying to imitate keyboard and mouse movement. Premium plan users also get access to video recordings so managers can review the activity from their own perspective. It may seem attractive initially, but using such measures can develop a no-trust culture within your organization. 

Hubstaff, on the other hand, isn’t as strict as Time Doctor. It focuses on three employee monitoring tools:

• Geolocation Tracking, which tracks employee movement based on preset locations. You can also use geofencing settings to automatically start and stop employee timers.
• App and URL Tracking, which tracks the websites and apps you’ve visited while the timer is running, and how much time you spent on each. 
• Screenshots feature, which captures and stores screenshots of your work. You can set it so screenshots are blurred, offering employees more privacy.

However, there is a ‘Private Mode’ available, which disables employee monitoring. But using the mode is still recorded in employee timesheets. It also informs the ‘Activity Tracking Overview’ dashboard, comparing employee productivity to company-wide benchmarks. 

Though the goal is to improve productivity, it also may create a competitive environment where employees and departments look to become the most productive, possibly leading to a toxic work environment and burnout. 

Toggl Track encourages employee autonomy and privacy in the workplace.

Toggl doesn’t believe in employee surveillance and micromanagement. Instead, it offers valuable insights to empower team members to bring out their best work, maximizing your profitability. We encourage this approach in both our workplace and our platform.

Toggl Track doesn’t monitor your employee’s location, keyboard activity, screen, or URLs. We know that although employee monitoring may generate a lot of data, not all of it is valuable. It may just make it hard for managers to drill down into what’s essential — the employee output. 

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Integrations

In a nutshell, Toggl Track has 100+ integrations, Time Doctor also syncs with various tools, and Hubstaff focuses more on native integrations. 

Toggl Track’s integrations offer unlimited flexibility.

Toggl Track supports integrations with 100+ apps and services, including calendars, email services, accounting tools, and project management tools. You can also build the whole Toggl ecosystem with Toggl Plan and Toggl Hire for a complete workforce management solution.

Apart from this, you can streamline work by linking with additional 3000+ apps via Zapier and Integrately connections, or use the Toggl API to develop your own. 

Hubstaff integrates directly with project management tools but offers limited functionality.

Hubstaff offers 30+ integrations, including CRM, accounting, payroll, and invoicing platforms. Its project management integrations with Asana and Trello let you track time directly on the project management app, but you need to sync the data with Hubstaff manually. 

Time Doctor has browser extensions that sync with third-party project management apps.

Time Doctor has 60+ integrations for project management, payments & invoicing, CRM, help desk, and communication platforms. It also offers browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. You can customize the data pulled from third-party apps, but this feature is currently only available for Monday.com users.

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Pricing

In a nutshell, Time Doctor’s paid plans don’t offer much value for money, Hubstaff has hidden charges baked into the pricing plans, while Toggl Track has transparent pricing plans that offer the most value for money. 

Time Doctor’s Standard plan offers great value for money, while its Basic and Premium plans miss the mark.

Time Doctor doesn’t have a free plan. Instead, it offers a 14-day free trial where you can test all its features, but after that you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan. 

The pricing plans start with the Basic plan at $7/mo/user, which sounds perfect for freelancers at first glance with its unlimited projects and activity tracking. 

But it doesn’t offer URL tracking to measure personal productivity. Also, you can’t send invoices or integrate with accounting software to manage time tracking and invoicing in one location. Freelancers have to manually export time data to their invoicing software, adding to their workload.

The Standard plan starts at $10/mo/user.

It includes everything from the Basic plan, 60 integrations, payroll features, and productivity ratings. It’s perfect for measuring employee productivity for businesses of all sizes. However, single sign-on (SSO) is only available as a paid add-on, and historical data can only be stored for up to six months. 

Meanwhile, the Premium plan is designed specifically for big corporations, starting at $20/mo/user.

It offers everything in the Standard plan with additional features like an executive dashboard, client login access, and a dedicated account manager.

But, these features may not really add value for corporations because:

1. SSO and automatic user provisioning are only available as paid add-ons.
2. The Executive dashboard reports on the Premium plan seem similar to those found in the Reports feature available with the Standard plan.
3. The Client login access would be really useful if Time Doctor would support invoicing — which it doesn’t. Clients are essentially logging in to view the time data only.

At the bottom line, if you choose the Premium plan, you’ll be paying an additional $10 per user for an account manager and not much more. 

Instead, it might be better for corporations to go for the Enterprise plan — Time Doctor’s custom solution with enterprise-grade security, private cloud, and dedicated customer success managers. Otherwise, opt for the Standard plan only if you’re trying to measure employee productivity for internal purposes. 

If you need a time tracking software with client-centric features like invoicing, we recommend Hubstaff or Toggl Track.

Hubstaff’s paid plans require at least two users, adding to the cost.

Hubstaff starts with a 14-day free trial, after which you’ll need to pick one of five plans depending on your business size.

The Free plan comes with unlimited time tracking, timesheets, and activity tracking while limiting other features like reports, payments, clients, and invoices. You also don’t have access to any integrations, making it more suitable for users looking to improve their personal productivity metrics. 

The Starter plan costs $7/mo/user but offers features similar to the Free plan.

It increases the limit on screenshots, tasks, and clients. Though perfect for freelancers, it doesn’t support integrations to connect the army of apps freelancers use to manage their business. It also has a two-user minimum.

The Grow plan ($9/mo/user) is perfect for small businesses and field teams. 

Like the Starter plan, you need at least two members, but it makes more sense here since you can also access Hubstaff Tasks to assign work to team members. However, you only get one integration and minimal payment options, limiting your business operations.

Next, the Team plan costs 12/mo/user with unlimited screenshots, tracking, integrations, and more. 

It even has workforce management tools like attendance tracking, leave management, and budgeting. You can use them with the Hubstaff Insights integration to track and improve your workforce efficiency and productivity.

Finally, you have the Enterprise plan at $25/mo/user. 

As the name suggests, it’s ideal for enterprises and corporations seeking a workplace management solution. It has everything from the Team plan and augments it with enterprise-level capabilities like direct bank deposits, HIPAA-compliant practices, SSO, and a corporate app.

It’s worth noting that the Starter, Grow, and Team plans have a two-seat minimum. This means its actual prices start at:

• $14/mo + $7/mo/additional user for the Starter plan,
• $18/mo + $9/mo/additional user for the Grow plan,
• and $24/mo + $12/mo/additional user for the Team plan.

Also, the Enterprise plan is only billed annually, which means you’ll need to pay $300/user upfront. 

Toggl Track costs more but offers the most value for money.

Toggl’s pricing plans also start with a Free plan perfect for freelancers or small teams of up to 5 users. It’s the most comprehensive free version of the three with unlimited time tracking, clients, and 100+ integrations to link with the freelancer’s existing toolset. 

Its paid plans start with the Starter plan at $10/mo/user, providing task management, time estimates, pre-populated project templates, and detailed reports for quickly analyzing time data. It’s designed to help small teams improve productivity without intrusive time tracking features.

Next, the Premium plan is $20/mo/user. It’s intended to help team managers implement agile practices with their growing teams using project forecasting, native Jira and Salesforce integrations, and labor cost tracking. 

Finally, the Enterprise plan offers tailored time tracking solutions at a custom price. It supports multiple workspaces under a single organization, making it perfect for large businesses with complex structures. You also get access to priority support and onboarding assistance.    

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Pros & Cons

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Final Verdict 

In a nutshell, Hubstaff is for monitoring off-site employees, Time Doctor is for optimizing remote employee work habits, and Toggl Track helps decision-makers improve employee output with valuable insights.

Hubstaff, Time Doctor, and Toggl Track approach time tracking very differently.

Hubstaff provides GPS tracking and comprehensive analytics to optimize the productivity of off-site employees like delivery executives, on-field workers, and construction crews. 

Meanwhile, Time Doctor offers extensive employee monitoring software and distraction management tools to ensure remote teams work at high productivity levels at all times.

Finally, Toggl Track pairs its time tracking features with valuable insights so large teams and enterprises can make informed decisions to improve productivity and profitability without relying on employee monitoring features.

Use Hubstaff if:

• You’re a construction or logistics business with an off-site workforce.
• You need geolocation to track employee time and location.
• You want comprehensive analytics to measure employee productivity.

Click here to get started with Hubstaff!

Use Time Doctor if:

• You’re an agency working primarily with virtual assistants, remote employees, and freelancers.
• You need payroll features integrated into your time tracking application.
• You want comprehensive monitoring features to account for employee work hours.

Click here to get started with Time Doctor!

Use Toggl Track if:

• You’re a large team or enterprise looking to create a work culture that values privacy and trust.
• You want an easy-to-use time tracking platform with powerful automated time tracking features.
• You want to use time data to help improve your business processes.

Click here to get started with Toggl Track!