Reviews of the best time tracking software for small business tend to mix three different jobs. Pick the job first or you will compare the wrong tools.
| The job | Who uses it | What matters | Free options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billable hours | Freelancers, agencies, consultants | Projects, clients, rates, invoices from time | Kimai, solidtime |
| Hourly staff time clock | Shops, clinics, crews | Clock in/out, shifts, payroll export | Check ERP/HR modules |
| Personal productivity | Individuals | Tags, timeline, simplicity | Traggo, TimeTagger |
Most of the free self-hosted trackers are built for the first and third jobs. A full employee time clock with shifts and GPS is more common in paid products.
How billable time becomes money
If you track 12 hours for a client at a rate of 40 per hour, the invoice line is 480. Small gaps add up: forgetting 2 hours a week at the same rate is 80 a week, over 4,000 a year, lost. That is why a tracker that makes entry painless pays for itself.
Free time trackers compared
- Kimai (Billable hours and invoices): A widely used open source time tracker. It records time per customer, project and activity and can create invoices from tracked time. 5,077 stars · AGPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
- solidtime (Modern time tracker for teams): A newer open source time tracker with a modern interface and strong community interest. Good for agencies and freelancers. 9,007 stars · AGPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
- Traggo (Tag-based personal tracking): A lightweight Go app that tracks time using tags instead of fixed projects. Great for individuals. 1,640 stars · GPL-3.0 · repo updated Sep 2026
- TimeTagger (Simple visual timeline): A minimal time tracker with a visual interface, easy to run and use for individuals and small teams. 1,799 stars · GPL-3.0 · repo updated Sep 2026
- Ever Gauzy (Time tracking inside a business platform): Ever Gauzy combines time tracking with CRM, HR and project features for remote teams. 8,381 stars · AGPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
- ERPNext (Timesheets linked to projects): ERPNext records timesheets against projects and tasks, useful if you bill project work through the same system. 40,232 stars · GPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
| Tool | Best for | License | Stack | Stars | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kimai | Billable hours and invoices | AGPL-3.0 | PHP (Symfony) | 5,077 | Oct 2026 |
| solidtime | Modern time tracker for teams | AGPL-3.0 | PHP (Laravel) | 9,007 | Oct 2026 |
| Traggo | Tag-based personal tracking | GPL-3.0 | Go | 1,640 | Sep 2026 |
| TimeTagger | Simple visual timeline | GPL-3.0 | Python | 1,799 | Sep 2026 |
| Ever Gauzy | Time tracking inside a business platform | AGPL-3.0 | TypeScript | 8,381 | Oct 2026 |
| ERPNext | Timesheets linked to projects | GPL-3.0 | Python (Frappe), MariaDB | 40,232 | Oct 2026 |
Stars and dates are a snapshot from 16 October 2026. They show project activity, not quality.
Be careful with monitoring
Some tools track screenshots or keystrokes. Even where legal, secretly monitoring staff harms trust, and laws on employee monitoring differ by country. Tell your team what is tracked and why, and prefer simple hours-and-project tracking.
Getting your team to use it
- Keep the project list short and meaningful.
- Make the timer one click away.
- Review reports together weekly, so the data feels useful.
- Connect it to invoicing, see our invoicing guide.
Tool-by-tool notes
Kimai
Billable hours and invoices. A widely used open source time tracker. It records time per customer, project and activity and can create invoices from tracked time.
5,077 stars · AGPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
GitHub · Website
solidtime
Modern time tracker for teams. A newer open source time tracker with a modern interface and strong community interest. Good for agencies and freelancers.
9,007 stars · AGPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
GitHub · Website
Traggo
Tag-based personal tracking. A lightweight Go app that tracks time using tags instead of fixed projects. Great for individuals.
1,640 stars · GPL-3.0 · repo updated Sep 2026
GitHub · Website
TimeTagger
Simple visual timeline. A minimal time tracker with a visual interface, easy to run and use for individuals and small teams.
1,799 stars · GPL-3.0 · repo updated Sep 2026
GitHub · Website
Ever Gauzy
Time tracking inside a business platform. Ever Gauzy combines time tracking with CRM, HR and project features for remote teams.
8,381 stars · AGPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
Our guide to Ever Gauzy · GitHub · Website
ERPNext
Timesheets linked to projects. ERPNext records timesheets against projects and tasks, useful if you bill project work through the same system.
40,232 stars · GPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
Our guide to ERPNext · GitHub · Website
Set billing rates the simple way
Start from the annual income you need, add overheads, and divide by the hours you can realistically bill. Most people bill far fewer hours than they work, because admin, sales and breaks are unbilled. Be conservative about billable hours and your rate will be more honest.
Example: a three-person consultancy
An illustrative example, not a real company.
Three consultants bill clients by the hour and often forget to log time until the end of the month, losing hours.
They install Kimai, create a project per client and set hourly rates. A browser timer sits in each person's tab. At month end, the invoice for each client is generated from tracked time, and a weekly report shows who is over or under budget.
The first month they recover several hours that would have been unbilled.
Mistakes that cost small businesses time
- Too many projects and activities, so nobody tracks.
- Tracking without telling staff how data is used.
- Not linking time to invoices.
- Judging people on hours instead of results.
- Letting entries pile up until Friday.
Self-hosted vs paid: the honest trade-off
Paid trackers add polished mobile apps, idle detection and payroll integrations. Self-hosted trackers are strong for billable hours and keep data on your server. Choose by how your team works rather than feature counts.
Kimai and solidtime are web apps that need a server. A VPS or hosting plan from Hostinger fits most small teams, subject to the project requirements.
Need a server to host it?
Self-hosting a CRM needs a server. PHP and MySQL apps can often run on ordinary web hosting, while Docker, Node, Python or Java apps usually need a VPS. Check each project's requirements first. Hostinger offers both shared web hosting and VPS plans.
Affiliate disclosure: this is an affiliate link. If you buy through it we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. CRMs are listed independently of any hosting partner. Learn more.