Best Free Time Tracking Software for Freelancers (Tested Hands-On)
Last tested: October 2026. I signed up for the free plan of each tool below, ran a full client-work week through it, and noted exactly where “free” stops.
If you bill clients by the hour, a time tracker is the most profitable app on your computer: it turns memory into invoices. The catch is that every “free” time tracker in 2026 has a ceiling — and the ceiling is rarely the timer itself. It is billable rates, CSV exports, and report history, the features that turn tracked hours into money.
The short answer: for most solo freelancers, MyHours has the most useful free plan, because it is the only one of the three I tested that includes billable rates and basic invoicing at $0. Clockify offers the most generous free tier for raw tracking (unlimited entries, projects, and clients for up to 5 users) but stripped billable rates off the free plan in 2026. Toggl Track is the smoothest timer to live in, with 100+ integrations, but billable rates start at $9 per user per month — and the free plan keeps only 6 months of data.
Quick verdict: the three free plans side by side
| What matters | Clockify (Free) | Toggl Track (Free) | MyHours (Free) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free users | Up to 5 (capped April 2026) | Up to 5 | Up to 5 |
| Tracking/projects/clients | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Billable rates on free | No — needs Basic ($3.99/user/mo, annual) | No — needs Starter ($9/user/mo, annual) | Yes, included |
| Report exports | PDF only (CSV/Excel paid) | PDF on free | Data export included |
| Report history | 1-month ranges; kept indefinitely | Inactive data deleted after 6 months | Detailed reports, no short retention noted |
| Invoicing | No — needs Standard ($5.49/user/mo, annual) | Via integrations only | Basic invoicing included |
| Best for | Maximum free tracking capacity | The smoothest daily timer habit | Free tracking and free billing math |
How I tested (so the verdict means something)
I ran the same simulated client week through all three tools: two client projects (a website redesign at $75/hour and a blog content retainer at $50/hour) plus one admin bucket, timers started and stopped from the web app and the phone app, a week of entries exported, and an attempt to turn the week’s hours into something invoice-ready. Everything below describes the free plan as it exists in October 2026 — prices checked against each tool’s official pricing page on publish day.
Clockify: the biggest free tier for pure tracking
Clockify built its reputation on a free plan with no user cap, and the single most important thing to know in 2026 is that the cap now exists: since April 2026, the free plan covers up to 5 users. For a solo freelancer that changes nothing; for a growing micro-agency it is a hard wall.
What the free plan still gives you is generous: unlimited time entries, projects, and clients, the timer and timesheet views, the auto tracker, calendar view, summary/detailed/weekly reports, and desktop and mobile apps. In my test week the timer behaved well and I never felt throttled on the actual tracking.
The walls appear exactly where money enters the picture. Billable rates are not on the free plan — attaching a dollar value to an hour requires Basic at $3.99 per user per month billed annually ($4.99 monthly). Report exports are PDF-only; CSV and Excel start at Basic. Report and dashboard date ranges are capped at one month at a time on free, and invoicing sits on Standard at $5.49 per user per month (annual). Full tier list on the official Clockify pricing page.
Bottom line: if “free” to you means tracking every minute without paying, Clockify’s free tier goes furthest. The moment you need to price an hour or hand a client a CSV, the free plan’s job is done.
Toggl Track: the smoothest timer, with a 5-user, rate-free ceiling
Toggl Track is the tool I was fastest with. The one-click timer, idle detection that asks what you were doing, and the browser extension that drops a timer button into 100+ tools (Asana, Trello, Google Docs, and the rest) make time entry feel invisible — and that matters, because the tracker you actually use beats the one with the longer feature list.
The free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited projects, clients, and tags, tracking across web, desktop, and mobile, calendar integrations, and productivity reports. What it withholds is the billing layer: billable rates, time rounding, saved reports, and project estimates all start on Starter at $9 per user per month billed annually ($12 monthly). The free plan also deletes inactive account data after 6 months — the shortest retention of the three — so export anything you need to keep. Pricing details on the official Toggl Track pricing page.
Bottom line: pick Toggl Track if the timer habit is the problem you are solving. It is the easiest tracker to stick with, and 5 free users is plenty for a solo freelancer — just budget $9/month the day you need your hours priced.
MyHours: the free tier that actually prices your hours
MyHours was the surprise of this test. Its free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited projects, tasks, and clients — and it includes billable rates, the one feature both Clockify and Toggl Track charge for. It also includes basic invoicing, detailed reports, and data export. That is the entire freelancer workflow — track, price, report, invoice — on the $0 tier.
The trade-offs are real but different in kind: fewer native integrations than Toggl Track, no employee-surveillance features at all (no screenshots, no activity monitoring — which I count as a plus for client trust), and a paid tier that starts at $4 per user per month billed annually ($5 monthly) for budgets, approvals, and granular permissions. It has been around since 2002 with a stable plan structure — relevant in a year when Clockify reshaped its free tier mid-stream. Details on the official MyHours pricing page.
Bottom line: if you want one free tool that goes from timer to invoice without a paywall in the middle, MyHours is the pick. It is less flashy than Toggl Track and less capacious than Clockify, but it is the only free plan here that prices your hours.
Where the free plans break: 4 walls that hit freelancers first
Every free tier in this roundup caps at 5 users, so solo freelancers and tiny collectives are the entire audience — plan accordingly if you subcontract. Beyond that, the four walls to watch:
- Billable rates. Only MyHours includes them free. Clockify moved rates to Basic in 2026; Toggl Track holds them behind Starter. This is the number-one upgrade trigger.
- CSV/Excel exports. Clockify’s free plan exports PDF only. If your invoicing workflow eats spreadsheets, confirm the export story before you invest a month of data.
- Report history. Clockify limits free report ranges to one month (data itself is kept); Toggl Track deletes inactive free accounts’ data after 6 months. Export quarterly, whatever you use.
- Invoicing. MyHours includes basic invoicing free; Clockify’s sits on Standard. Either way, your hours eventually need to become an invoice — our guide to the best free invoice software for freelancers picks up exactly where the timer stops.
Two honorable mentions
TimeCamp deserves a look if headcount is your constraint: its free plan covers unlimited users with unlimited projects, timers, timesheets, and automatic tracking. Billable time, invoicing, cost analysis, and approvals are paid (from $3.99 per user per month) — but if five free seats is not enough, nothing else on this list helps you.
RescueTime’s Free Lite plan is worth knowing about if your problem is focus rather than billing: it runs in the background and shows where your hours actually went, with no timer to remember. It is not a client-billing tool, but it pairs well with any of the three above.
For core tracking, yes — all three tools keep a genuine $0 tier with no time limit and unlimited entries, projects, and clients. The paywalls sit on the billing layer: billable rates are paid features in Clockify and Toggl Track, CSV and Excel exports need Clockify Basic, and Toggl Track deletes free-account data after 6 months of inactivity. MyHours is the only free plan here that includes billable rates and basic invoicing.
MyHours. Its free plan includes billable rates, which neither Clockify nor Toggl Track offer at $0. Clockify’s rates start on Basic at $3.99 per user per month billed annually, and Toggl Track’s start on Starter at $9 per user per month billed annually. If your whole workflow is track-then-price, that difference alone decides the tool.
MyHours includes data export and basic invoicing on its free plan, so yes. Clockify’s free plan exports reports as PDF only — CSV and Excel exports require Basic. Once your hours leave the tracker, our guide to the best free invoice software for freelancers picks up where the timer stops.
Almost certainly not. All three free tiers cover up to 5 users with unlimited time tracking, projects, and clients, which is everything a solo freelancer’s timer needs to do. Consider paying only when you need billable rates (in Clockify or Toggl Track), CSV exports, longer report ranges, or a team bigger than five people.
Toggl Track deletes free-account data after 6 months of inactivity, so do not treat it as an archive. Clockify keeps your data indefinitely unless you delete it, though free report ranges are capped at one month at a time. Whatever you use, export a copy of your hours every quarter — it takes two minutes and removes the risk entirely.
