The best time management software offers effective ways for organizing and managing your workflow and personal time. Their time management tools help you track specific ways to use the time during the day in the most productive way.
Take advantage of a time management to identify problematic areas and deal with them before they become serious issues in the long run.
Top 13 Time Management Software
- Rescue Time - The best time management software
- Remember the Milk - Best free task manager
- Toggl - Best addition to the existing time management tools
- Trello - The most visual way for teams to collaborate on project
- ClockIt - Great for startups
- Hubstaff - Best stuff monitoring software with GPS
- Time Champ - Connects with Jira, Trello, Azure DevOps
- Todoist - Best for personal time management features
- Harvest - Best software for billing
- Asana - Free small team SaaS organizer
- Scoro - All-in-one business management software
- Noko - Lightweight and simple time management software
- Apploye - 100+ features
Effective time management begins with a clear definition of how much time is actually spent on tasks, as well as an analysis of how effective the management is. Any decent time management program features a time tracker, communication platform, project and task organizer along with tools for planning. The majority of such software offers a team management system for calculating the time spent on a project.
1. Rescue Time - Our Choice
- Cross-platform, with free version/trial
- Blocks distracting sites
- Ability to configure task-based alerts
- Tracks offline activity
- Safe background mode
- Limited free plan
Verdict: This web tool is similar to an automatic performance tracker that provides analytics of computer activity, letting you work more productively and efficiently. It measures and stores in the cloud the time spent on various software/websites, starting recording as soon as you switch between websites.
Its online time management tools let you pause and resume time tracking, set up alarm notifications when you have spent a lot of time on a website from the blacklist/social network. The software has distraction blocking and effective reporting tools to indicate goal completion, project time, as well as reasons for “stealing” time. It is quite feature-rich and can set goals by providing the user with feedback, such as alerts when daily goals have been achieved.
2. Remember The Milk
- Cross-platform and free
- Linking tasks to subtasks
- Ability to attach Dropbox, Google Drive files
- Offline mode or web application
- Lists for shared use
- Limited free version
Verdict: It is an online time management software and virtual task manager designed to help you remember, encourage you to solve and delegate items from your to-do list. Remember the Milk lets you manage your time by creating to-do lists with a variety of functions, such as adding tasks and subtasks, as well as getting reminders about these tasks. If you work with many different devices, it allows you to sync all devices to simplify time management: smartphone, PC, Gmail, Outlook.
The system distinguishes between personal and business tasks, but you can go further with a to-do list. Smart lists are created based on special criteria that you defined earlier – they are updated automatically as soon as something changes in your tasks. This software will help you manage your tasks easily and remind you of them wherever you are.
3. Toggl
- Cross-platform, free version/trial
- Browser, background or offline mode
- Intuitive visual design
- Project/tasks and team management functions
- Online/offline time tracking
- No support for invoicing
- Business analytics is paid only
Verdict: This comprehensive cloud-based time tracking and scheduling solution for small and large business teams and freelancers integrates with dozens of project management systems and productivity tools (Trello, Scoro or Asana) and billing.
Toggl includes excellent time-saving features and takes a simplified approach to time management with tracking reminders and downtime detection enabled. It is the best time management software as an alternative to timesheets for working time spent on different projects.
You can export data to Excel for simplicity, receive email reports with updates that are easy to share with team members or clients to increase transparency, and create progress reports as time-use graphs to see team performance. Toggl makes it easier to break down hours worked by project, client or task.
4. Trello
- Easy task management on the Board
- Ability to share images and files
- Organizes lists by date or priority
- Commenting and collaboration
- Free for personal use
- Limitations of the free plan
- More suitable for the Kanban method
Verdict: This well-known project management software visualizes the tasks, letting you create flashcards for tasks that need to be completed. Each card moves around the Trello Board, which is typically divided into such columns as To Do, In Progress and Completed. Trello is suitable for the process of managing short and fast everyday tasks. Being invented by Toyota, it has now been followed by many startups in software development companies.
As tasks are being completed, the cards progress and move around the Board, giving managers a simple overview of the project’s progress. This lets you create projects, tasks, communicate centrally with the team and plan deadlines. You can create an unlimited number of tasks via Trello and share files via one of the best daily planner apps. Collaboration is made easier by means of commenting and sharing features.
5. ClockIt
- Classic clocking in & out options and time-tracking
- Readable reports to study directly from a manager dashboard
- Mobile app
- Slack integration
- Features image capturing
- Lacks installation wizard or something like “easy start”
Verdict: ClockIt is a great tool for scheduling and tracking time across multiple projects or clients. Here you will find many handy templates instead of dragging and dropping. These templates are also applicable to the schedules of individual workers. You can set the frequency of a schedule – make it permanent or create another one when you need it.
Clocking in is available in several options – web and mobile application, via Slack, clock kiosk or biometric time. In addition to the fact that the shifts are clocked in & out extremely convenient here, it is also easy to record the time it took for a particular job. For the most accurate clocking in, take advantage of geofence setting, location fixing via a mobile app, or IP access restriction via a web app.
6. Hubstaff
- Time tracking with screenshots
- Billing clients for projects
- Sends custom reports to clients
- Employee benefits
- Ability to find and control money leaks
- Limited free version
- Performance evaluation isn’t always objective
Verdict: Hubstaff is currently used by thousands of businesses that seek to maximize the productivity of their workforce. It is an optimized solution for organizations that wish to track the time spent at work and on tasks. Hubstaff helps you track the work and leisure time spent by remote and field team employees on various websites and desktop applications.
On the whole, Hubstaff is a decent monitoring and time tracking software. All the time that is tracked is then integrated into one central control panel, where you can easily set up planning, payroll, billing and reporting.
This software lets you manage your staff more fully with GPS monitoring features and real-time tracking capabilities. It syncs with numerous third-party applications (PayPal, Github, Basecamp).
7. Time Champ
- AI-based insights
- Mobile tracking
- Suspicious activity notifications
- Time off management
- User interface overload
- Limited mobile functionality
Verdict: Time Champ has significantly enhanced the time management capabilities of my firm, streamlining our processes and boosting overall productivity. The software's real-time reporting and detailed time tracking have provided valuable insights into how time is allocated across various projects.
One of the standout aspects of Time Champ is its ease of integration with other project management tools like Jira and Trello. This seamless connectivity has made it simpler to track time against specific tasks and projects, improving our workflow and project oversight.
8. Todoist
- Simple but effective project management
- Automatic reminders, progress visualization
- Ability to set daily/long-term goals
- Custom project templates
- Automatic backup of data
- Basic functions in the free version
- More suitable for personal tasks
Verdict: The essence of Todoist as a digital to do list app is to focus on small tasks that make large projects more successful in the long run. Its simple but effective and free time management tools let you set up recurring events and important one-time tasks and mark them after completion. There is a convenient option to add notes to any of the tasks.
Todoist helps you manage everything from one place: set goals, set priorities, organize tasks into groups and visualize progress. You will receive a schedule of tasks at the beginning of each day, including purchases, personal matters, errands and work. It is possible to add or edit them as you see fit and divide the workload between the team.
9. Harvest
- Ability to create estimates and invoices
- Integration with 100+ project management tools
- Real-time reports
- Bank-level security
- Applications for all devices and major platforms
- Focused on one main task
- No free version
Verdict: Thanks to a simple interface and an excellent billing feature-set, Harvest makes it easy to track time and bill clients by freelancers and small businesses in the service industry based on multiple projects. Using Harvest, you have the opportunity to identify a problem before it leads to over budget, which will let you make informed business decisions.
This platform integrates with other well-known best time management tools, such as Basecamp, Asana and Trello. Harvest takes project management data from these programs and integrates it into its own platform to provide visual reports that are intuitive and easy to understand. The platform is notable for payment, expense tracking and outstanding customer support.
10. Asana
- Ability to assign tasks to team members
- Organizes tasks on a timeline
- Notifications about project updates
- Dashboards for a quick overview
- Breaking down projects into small tasks
- Limited free version
Verdict: If you are a small team with not too complex projects, Asana is the best time management software for you. It helps leaders manage projects and teams in one tool. This universal platform combines project management, file storage and collaboration optimization. It eliminates the need for email communication, which isn’t related to another workflow.
In Asana, you can create your own projects, assign specific work to team members along with deadlines, as well as maintain internal communication. Besides, it is possible to monitor the progress of tasks using a simple visual project plan that lets you notice and prevent potential problems, gaps and overlaps. Of course, it lacks advanced time tracking features but you can use it in conjunction with Time Doctor to be in full control over the projects.
11. Scoro
- Budget planning based on previous experience
- Customizable reports, control panel, calendar
- Automation of invoices, transfer of hours to an invoice
- Extensive project, task and client management
- Reporting on work, sales and budgets
- No free version
- Certain features are charged extra
Verdict: It is a reliable project management software that focuses on time and team management tools. Scoro provides an easy way to view employee habits and performance, solving the problem of workplace and staff fragmentation. It offers all the necessary tools, including time tracking, invoicing, work reports, project and task management.
You can track the paid and actual time, and then transfer the corresponding data to the invoice for customers. Besides, it is possible to set up recurring invoices, scheduled invoices and email them to your customers. What is great about Scoro is the combination of time tracking, project management and CRM software. However, some features are charged additionally.
12. Noko (as Freckle)
- Easy project creation
- Comprehensive detailed reports
- Billing for working hours
- Categorization of people
- Mobile web app
- No free version
- Too simplistic
Verdict: It is a web-based time tracking tool that aims to reduce the amount of time you need to spend tracking your working hours. Noko’s mission is to make time tracking fast, easy and fun so that your team can do it with pleasure. After all, the more time you spend on tracking, the less time you can spend on completing work and managing your staff.
Freckle uses tags to track projects and transition between paid and unpaid tasks. It may be used by small and large businesses as a way to monitor, track and manage project budget, as well as paid and non-paid time. Its fun interface resembles a student planner app. It even offers an online billing solution.
13. Apploye
- Decent team monitoring function
- Comprehensible project time tracking feature
- Easy-to-use dashboard
- You can keep track of your employee's location
- Complicated screenshot feature
- PDF export function lags
Verdict: Apploye contains automatic and manual timers, a timesheet with an adjustable daily to monthly view, or any other criteria of choice you want to see. There is a time entry note, time off function and extra features like the Pomodoro break timer.
Apploye time tracker enables you to trace the progress of the project depending upon the time spent with customizable notifications settings. Apploye time tracking app captures screen every 10 minutes at random, which you can see as an owner or as an employee.
You can see the ratio between active and non-active hours in percentage terms as employees' productivity. You are able to set filters to see particular logging times for one particular project, task, or member.
