Toggl Alternatives: When You Want Time Tracking Inside Your Task Board
Toggl Track is one of the best-known time trackers for a reason: a clean timer, good reports, and apps on every platform. Its one structural limitation is also its design choice — it's a tracker, not a task manager. Your tasks live somewhere else, and every timer entry has to be named and matched to them. If that double entry is what bothers you, here are the alternatives.
- Toggl Track is great when you need detailed reports and invoicing-friendly exports.
- It's less ideal when your team already works from a task board and hates double entry.
- Alternatives fall into two groups: boards with built-in timers (Teamflows, ClickUp, Jira) and other standalone trackers (Clockify, Harvest).
- For small teams that want the timer on the task card at no cost, Teamflows is the simplest option.
Two kinds of alternatives
| Type | Examples | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Board with built-in timer | Teamflows, ClickUp, Jira | No double entry; time attached to the exact task | Fewer billing and reporting features |
| Standalone tracker | Clockify, Harvest, Toggl Track | Rich reports, invoicing, integrations | Tasks and timers live in separate tools |
Boards with built-in timers
Teamflows
A kanban board where every card has a start/pause timer. The running timer is visible on the board, so teammates see what's being worked on right now. Roles, comments, push notifications, a team activity log and a personal Eisenhower matrix. Free, with no limits on members. iPhone and web.
Best for: small teams that want estimates and visibility, not invoicing.
ClickUp
A broad work platform with a native timer on tasks, timesheets and reports. Powerful, with a steeper learning curve.
Jira
Native work logs on issues, widely used by software teams. Heavier for non-technical teams.
Standalone trackers
Clockify
A tracker with a generous free tier, timesheets and reports. Similar model to Toggl.
Harvest
Time tracking combined with invoicing and expenses — popular with agencies that bill hourly.
How to decide
- Do you invoice by the hour? Standalone trackers with invoicing (Harvest, Toggl, Clockify) fit best.
- Do you mainly want better estimates and visibility? A board with a built-in timer avoids double entry.
- Is your team small and budget-conscious? Check free-tier seat limits; Teamflows has none.
See kanban board with time tracking for how a board-first setup works.
Frequently asked questions
What is a free alternative to Toggl?
Clockify offers a generous free tier as a standalone tracker. Teamflows is fully free and puts the timer inside your task board.
Can I track time directly on kanban cards?
Yes, in tools with built-in timers such as Teamflows, ClickUp and Jira.
Is a built-in timer accurate enough?
For planning and estimates, yes. For client invoicing with approvals and exports, a dedicated tracker may be more convenient.
Can I use Toggl with my existing board?
Yes — Toggl integrates with many tools via browser extensions. The trade-off is maintaining two tools.
We build Teamflows — a free kanban board with a timer inside every task — and use it every day at the Digital Plus studio to run dozens of client projects. Our guides come from that practice. Questions or corrections: mail@dp8.kz