RescueTime is an automatic time-tracking and focused-work tool that tracks and analyzes how you spend time.
It blocks distractions, provides insights into digital habits, and helps freelancers and teams identify and minimize unproductive time.
However, RescueTime does not work for everyone. Some people look for alternatives because they need more or different features to help them manage their time better.
We looked at the key features, pros and cons, and pricing of the best time tracking apps and created this list of ten top RescueTime alternatives.
In this article, you’ll be able to compare each of these tools in depth.
10 of the best alternatives to RescueTime
Here’s our list of best RescueTime alternatives with the main use case for each tool:
- Toggl Track: Best for accurate time tracking and detailed time reporting
- Time Doctor: Best for tracking employee activity
- Harvest: Best for time billing
- Hubstaff: Best for monitoring remote teams
- TimeCamp: Best for productivity analysis
- Timely: Best for AI-powered time tracking
- Clockify: Best all-in-one productivity tracker
- ManicTime: Best for automatic time tracking
- DeskTime: Best for moderate activity surveillance
- Everhour: Best all-in-one time management tool
Now, let’s dive in.
1. Toggl Track
Price: Starts at $10/month
Toggl Track is GDPR-compliant time tracking software that tracks time on multiple devices and helps you understand where your time goes and how to be more efficient.
Toggl Track is intuitive and easy to use by anyone, regardless of their technical background.
What we like
- With Toggl Track, you can track how much time you spend on each task or project, which helps keep focus and improve productivity.
Toggl Track also provides fully customizable charts and dashboards with detailed time insights on team productivity and project efficiency.
What’s missing
- Toggl Track doesn’t block distracting websites or apps.
Best for
Toggl Track is best for creative teams that want to track time accurately, gain detailed insights into how they spend work hours, and manage their time more efficiently.
Top features
- Time billing: Organize client projects and tasks, track time spent on them, and bill clients accurately based on the billable hours tracked.
- Project tracking: Keep an eye on your project’s progress with estimated vs. actual time spent, budget forecasting, and billable vs. non-billable hours reports.
- Mobile time tracking: Toggl Track’s mobile app is available for Android and iOS devices. It’s easy to use and syncs with the web and desktop versions for seamless time tracking.
- Calendar view: See daily or weekly time entries on a calendar in Toggl Track’s web app.
- Time tracking reminders: Send automated notifications to team members who haven’t tracked enough time.
- Timesheet reports: Generates summary, detailed, or weekly timesheet reports for reporting time or processing payroll.
- Analytics: Create custom charts and dashboards and get real-time insights into the progress of your teams, projects, and resources.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Toggl Plan, Outlook Email & Calendar, and Jira. Toggl Track also integrates with over 100+ to-do apps, documentation, communication, and project management tools.
Pricing
Toggl Track offers four pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Solo users who need a time tracker with an intuitive interface |
| Starter | $10 per user per month | Teams with basic time tracking needs |
| Premium | $20 per user per month | Teams who need online and offline functionality for tracking time and profitability |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Enterprise teams |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
Top Tip: All Toggl Track plans have a free, 30-day trial of Toggl Track Premium.
2. Time Doctor
Price: Starts at $7/month
Time Doctor is an employee time and productivity tracker that monitors activity, minimizes distractions, and improves time management.
What we like
- With Time Doctor, you can track and view time spent on tasks, projects, and clients. The tool sends distraction alerts and idle time reminders to keep you focused and productive.
Time Doctor also tracks online and offline time on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices to ensure accurate time records.
What’s missing
- Time Doctor’s detailed monitoring features, like screenshots and silent tracking, can raise employee privacy concerns and impact trust.
Best for
Time Doctor is best for remote teams who want to track employee activity in detail and improve productivity and performance.
Top features
- Automated time tracking: Track time automatically without manual input on multiple devices.
- Offline tracking: Time Doctor tracks every working minute, even without an internet connection.
- Interactive and silent app: While users can control the interactive time tracking app, the silent app can’t be paused, and it tracks all activity when the computer is on.
- Productivity insights: Get activity summary reports, see hours tracked, and timeline reports to analyze team productivity.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Asana, FreshBooks, and Slack.
Pricing
Time Doctor offers three pricing options:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $7 per user per month | Individual users with minimal time tracking needs |
| Standard | $10 per user per month | Teams with more complex time-tracking needs |
| Premium | $20 per user per month | Large teams who need advanced time-tracking features |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
3. Harvest
Price: Starts at $12/month
Harvest is a time tracker that improves your entire billing workflow. It tracks billable hours, turns tracked time into invoices, and collects client payments.
What we like
- Harvest turns your billable time tracked and expenses into accurate invoices. Through its integrations with Stripe and PayPal, Harvest lets you accept client payments online.
What’s missing
- Harvest doesn’t track time automatically, and it doesn’t have custom reports.
Best for
Harvest is best for teams who need to track billable hours, streamline invoicing and expense tracking, and speed up client payments.
Top features
- Browser, desktop, and mobile time tracking: Track time on multiple platforms and keep time records accurate.
- Billable and non-billable tasks: Add and track billable and non-billable work activities.
- Time and cost reports: See how your team spends work hours, visualize project progress, and track internal costs.
- Invoicing and client payments: Harvest lets you create invoices from timesheets, invoice clients for expenses, and collect payments online.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Google Calendar, PayPal, and QuickBooks.
Pricing
Harvest offers two pricing options:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Freelancers who need to track their time for client billing |
| Pro | $12 per user per month | Teams and startups who need to understand where their time goes and monitor profitability |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
4. Hubstaff
Price: Starts at $7/month
Hubstaff is a time tracking, workforce management, and employee monitoring app that tracks time, activity, GPS locations, work breaks, and attendance.
What we like
- With Hubstaff, you can manage time off, track attendance and overtime, and schedule employee work. These workforce management features and Hubstaff’s payment capabilities simplify and speed up payroll.
What’s missing
- With surveillance features like employee screenshots and app tracking, Hubstaff can potentially create team mistrust and anxiety.
Best for
Hubstaff is best for freelancers or remote teams who want to track time accurately and monitor work hours with surveillance features.
Top features
- Multi-platform time tracking: Track time for specific clients, projects, or tasks via mobile apps, tablets, or browser extensions.
- Automated timesheets: The tool automatically turns your time entries into accurate timesheets.
- Employee surveillance: Monitor employee activity with screenshots every ten minutes and track app and website activity for proof of work.
- Idle time detection: Hubstaff knows when you go idle and sends you idle time notifications.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Asana, GitHub, and Wrike.
Pricing
Hubstaff offers five pricing options:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | For individual use |
| Starter | $7 per user per month | Small businesses who need a basic time-tracking solution |
| Grow | $9 per user per month | Teams who need more complex time-tracking and time management features |
| Team | $12 per user per month | Teams with advanced time-tracking needs |
| Enterprise | Contact Hubstaff for prices, starting at $25 per user per month | Enterprise companies |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
5. TimeCamp
Price: Starts at $3.99/month
TimeCamp is a time and productivity tracking tool that facilitates accurate time tracking, monitors employee productivity, and provides detailed time usage insights.
What we like
- TimeCamp has strong time tracking capabilities. It can track time online and offline on mobile, desktop, or via browser extensions. It also detects idle time, generates weekly timesheets, tracks attendance and overtime, and creates insightful time reports.
What’s missing
- TimeCamp takes screenshots of employees’ computers. It may capture sensitive personal information like private messages or personal details, which may feel intrusive to some team members.
Best for
TimeCamp is best for teams who want to track and manage their time efficiently and monitor employee activity to improve productivity.
Top features
- Keyword-based time tracking: TimeCamp automatically records time based on predefined keywords in documents or apps.
- Task timer: TimeCamp has a start-stop timer for individual tasks, so you know exactly how much each task takes.
- Project import: Automatically import all your work from your project management tool into TimeCamp.
- Employee monitoring: Take employee screenshots and track app and URL activity to gain insights into productivity and potential inefficiencies.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Google Docs, Microsoft Teams, and Google Calendar.
Pricing
TimeCamp offers five pricing options:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Individual users with minimal time tracking needs |
| Starter | $3.99 per user per month | Teams with more complex time-tracking needs |
| Premium | $6.99 per user per month | Large teams that need advanced time-tracking features |
| Ultimate | $10.99 per user per month | Multiple teams |
| Enterprise | Contact TimeCamp | Enterprise teams |
Visit the pricing page for more information
6. Timely
Price: Starts at $11/month
Timely is a time tracking app that uses AI to track time and generate timesheets and in-depth time tracking reports.
What we like
- Timely automatically and non-intrusively tracks time and generates accurate daily timesheets. Employees can control which tracked time data they want to share and which remains private.
What’s missing
- Timely doesn’t have a free plan or invoicing features.
Best for
RescueTime is best for teams who need an AI-powered time tracking app to streamline their time tracking and reduce manual input.
Top features
- Memory tracker: Timely’s Memory app tracks everything you work on and remembers how long each activity takes.
- Billable time tracking: Track paid hours and bill clients accurately.
- AI timesheets: Timely uses AI to create timesheets based on tracked time automatically.
- Reporting: Timely generates many reports like snapshot, high-level, or live reports with insightful time analytics data.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Google Calendar, Slack, and Google Docs.
Pricing
Timely offers four paid plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $11 per user per month | Freelancers and small teams |
| Premium | $20 per user per month | Midsize teams |
| Unlimited | $28 per user per month | Midsize and large teams |
| Unlimited+ | Contact for more pricing | Large teams |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
7. Clockify
Price: Starts at $4.99/month
Clockify is an all-in-one time and productivity tracking app that tracks employee activity and generates detailed time insights.
What we like
- As a comprehensive tool, Clockify does many things. It has multi-platform time tracking, timesheet and time off management, scheduling, and expense tracking features.
What’s missing
- Clockify takes random screenshots from the desktop app every five minutes when the timer is on. This feature can make employees feel uncomfortable and anxious.
Best for
Clockify is best for teams looking for an all-in-one time tracking and productivity app with employee monitoring features.
Top features
- Mobile time tracking: In addition to tracking time via browser extensions, Clockify also tracks time on mobile devices.
- Timesheet approvals: Managers can review, approve, or reject employee timesheets from Clockify.
- Kiosk: Employees can clock in and out from a shared device at physical locations.
- Calendar view: See tracked daily tasks at a glance in a calendar view and identify work habits.
- Surveillance features: Clockify monitors activity and productivity with GPS tracking and screenshots.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Asana, Todoist, and Google Calendar.
Pricing
Clockify offers five pricing options:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free forever | $0 | Solo users who need a basic time tracking tool |
| Basic | $4.99 per user per month | Solo users who need time audits and historical rates |
| Standard | $6.99 per user per month | Small teams with more complex time-tracking needs |
| Pro | $9.99 per user per month | Teams who need to optimize productivity with GPS tracking and screenshots |
| Enterprise | $14.99 per user per month | Teams with complex client projects that require advanced time-tracking and expense tracking features |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
8. ManicTime
Price: Starts at $9/month
ManicTime is an automatic time tracking and time management tool that tracks computer activity and provides detailed time and productivity reports.
What we like
- ManicTime’s on-premise installation lets you install the app directly on your own servers, which gives you more control over data privacy and security.
What’s missing
- Since ManicTime automatically tracks all computer activity, it can capture sensitive or personal information. This can feel intrusive and make some users uncomfortable.
Best for
ManicTime is best for teams and freelancers who want to track time automatically and get insightful reports from tracked time data.
Top features
- Automatic time tracking: ManicTime automatically records the time spent on apps, websites, and documents without any manual input.
- Offline tracking: ManicTime operates locally on your computer, which means it works without an internet connection.
- Screenshots: The tool takes screenshots of all apps you use once every 60 seconds. You can customize ManicTime to only take screenshots of specific apps and restrict others.
- On-premise installation: You can install this software on your local servers for increased security.
- Detailed reports: Get daily overviews of employee activity, see overtime reports, or gather productivity insights.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Jira, GitHub, and Zapier.
Pricing
ManicTime has two main types of plans. It has a one-time purchase license that costs $67 for a single user and Cloud subscriptions with monthly or yearly payment options. The licensing is per user, with the option to install and run the software on multiple computers.
ManicTime offers two Cloud subscription pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | $9 per user per month | Teams who need time tracking without screenshots |
| Ultimate | $11 per user per month | Teams who need to track time with random screenshots |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
9. DeskTime
Price: Starts at $7/month
DeskTime is a time tracking app that tracks time automatically or lets you manually add time entries and has surveillance features like screenshots and activity tracking.
What we like
- DeskTime’s private time feature lets employees stop the timer when they check personal emails or social media.
What’s missing
- DeskTime is an online time tracker, which means you can’t use its timer while offline. This limits its time tracking capabilities.
Best for
DeskTime is best for teams who want an online time tracking app that takes employee screenshots and tracks app and website activity.
Top features
- Web timer: Track time via browser extensions without installing the DeskTime app on your computer.
- Mobile time tracking: Available on iOS and Android devices, DeskTime’s mobile app tracks time on the go.
- Calendar time: Record time spent on non-billable tasks like meetings with DeskTime’s calendar integrations.
- Offline time: When employees add offline time requests, you can approve or decline them.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Trello, Basecamp, and Outlook Calendar.
Pricing
DeskTime offers four pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| DeskTime Lite | $0 | Solo users who need automatic time and app tracking |
| Pro | $7 per user per month | Teams who need to track time automatically and manually and calculate productivity. |
| Premium | $10 per user per month | Teams with more complex time-tracking and project scheduling needs |
| Enterprise | $20 per user per month | Enterprise teams |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
10. Everhour
Price: Starts at $10/month
Everhour is an all-in-one time tracking and time management software that helps teams track time accurately and manage their time more efficiently.
What we like
- Everhour’s task estimate feature lets users add and edit task time estimates directly within their project management software.
Estimating task durations can help allocate resources more efficiently, monitor progress accurately, and manage time better.
What’s missing
- Everhour has no task timer, so you can’t automatically track time spent on specific tasks. You can only add task time entries manually. Also, Everhour’s free version doesn’t have any billing features.
Best for
Everhour is best for teams that want an all-in-one time tracker that helps them keep track of and manage their time better.
Top features
- Timer and manual entry: Track time with Everhour’s one-click time or add time entries manually.
- Auto-stop timer: Everhour automatically stops your timer at the end of the day based on your work hours.
- Time log: See the history of time entries within a task or project or made by individual team members.
- Live dashboard: See at a glance what everyone is working on in real-time.
Tool integrations
Integrations include ClickUp, Jira, and Slack.
Pricing
Everhour offers two pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Solo users who need an intuitive and user-friendly time tracker |
| Team | $10 per user per month | Teams who need time and project tracking, task management, and project scheduling features |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
Why do people consider alternatives to RescueTime?
Let’s look at some of the reasons why people consider RescueTime alternatives:
- Lacks key features: RescueTime doesn’t have shift scheduling, billing, or invoicing features. It also doesn’t track project progress or billable hours.
- Mobile app issues: Some users say RescueTime doesn’t work well on mobile. Its mobile app often crashes and doesn’t have as many features as the desktop app.
- Limited integrations: RescueTime only integrates with Slack, Google Calendar, Outlook, and Office 365. It also provides integrations through Zapier, but that comes with extra costs.
- Data privacy concerns: For some people, RescueTime’s automatic time tracking feature might seem intrusive and raise data privacy and security concerns.
Best RescueTime alternatives: A quick comparison
Here’s a quick overview of our RescueTime alternatives:
| Tool | G2 Rating | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toggl Track | 4.6 | Accurate time tracking, powerful reporting, and profitability analysis | From $10/user/month |
| Time Doctor | 4.4 | Performance and employee monitoring | From $7/user/month |
| Harvest | 4.3 | Invoicing and payments | From $12/user/month |
| Hubstaff | 4.3 | Monitoring remote employees | From $7/user/month |
| TimeCamp | 4.7 | Activity and productivity tracking | From $3.99/user/month |
| Timely | 4.8 | Automatic and non-invasive time tracking | From $11/user/month |
| Clockify | 4.5 | Simple and powerful invoicing | From $4.99/user/month |
| ManicTime | 4.3 | Automatic time tracking with screenshots | From $9/user/month |
| DeskTime | 4.6 | Automatic time tracking and employee monitoring | From $7/user/month |
| Everhour | 4.7 | Task and time management | From $10/user/month |
RescueTime FAQs
Here are the most commonly asked questions about RescueTime.
What is RescueTime used for?
RescueTime is an automatic time tracker that helps teams and individuals improve productivity and manage time more efficiently.
How does RescueTime track time?
RescueTime automatically logs the time spent on apps or websites without requiring manual input. RescueTime also lets users manually add or edit time entries.
Can RescueTime block apps?
Yes, RescueTime has a feature to block distracting websites and apps. Users can customize the list of blocked sites and schedule focus sessions for high-priority tasks.
Looking for the right RescueTime alternative?
By now, you probably know a couple of RescueTime alternatives you like.
Sign up for a free trial to try them out.
You can start with Toggl Track by signing up for a free Toggl Track account.
You’ll also get to try a 30-day trial with full access to Toggl Track features that help you:
- Track time accurately and non-intrusively
- Get detailed time reports to improve productivity
- Organize tasks, projects, and clients and manage time better
Related articles
- Best Employee Time Tracking Software & Apps
- Best Time Management Tools
- How to Track Time In a Spreadsheet
Work tools to elevate your productivity – apps for incredibly simple time tracking and effective project planning.
