Toggl Review 2024: Best Time Tracking Software?

In a world where time is money, solid time-tracking software can make all the difference in how productive and successful you are in your business!

With so many options on the market, choosing the best one for your needs can be overwhelming. That’s where Toggl comes in.

As we dive into this Toggl review, we’ll explore whether Toggl is truly the best time-tracking software available. From its user-friendly interface to its advanced features, we’ll break down everything you need to know to decide whether Toggl is right for you. 

So, sit back, relax, and let’s discover if Toggl is the time-tracking solution you’ve been searching for.

Toggl Pros & Cons

Before diving into a time-tracking tool, it’s important to see if Toggl’s strengths and a few potential drawbacks align with what you need.

Toggl Pros

• Simplicity at its finest: Toggl makes it incredibly easy to track your time. With one click, you’re on your way, allowing you to focus on your work instead of fiddling with complicated software.
• Unleash your productivity: Toggl’s insights into how you spend your time are eye-opening. This data helps you pinpoint where those hours disappear and streamline your work habits for more efficiency.
• Flexible for any work style: Whether you’re a freelancer juggling projects or part of a team, Toggl adapts seamlessly to your workflow.

Toggl Cons

• Feature overload (for some): If you crave supreme simplicity, the sheer number of features Toggl offers could create a slight learning curve initially.
• Sometimes, more detail is better: While Toggl provides reports, power users wishing to drill down into highly granular time-use data may find it slightly limiting.
• Price adds up: For big teams, the cost of Toggl’s premium features can scale quickly.

Quick Verdict – Is Toggl Worth the Money?

After dedicating numerous hours to using Toggl, here’s a straightforward, no-fluff assessment to guide your decision:

Yes, Toggl is worth checking out. Its ability to streamline time management and enhance productivity makes optimizing their work or personal projects valuable.

Toggl’s biggest strength is its ease of use. Start tracking with one click and get instant insights into where your time goes. This simplicity saves you more time than you think!

You might worry about the price tag, but consider the time and energy Toggl saves you in the long run. Better focus and more efficient workflow are worth their weight in gold.

If you need highly detailed, customizable reports down to the second, Toggl is not the most powerful tool available.

Toggl’s free plan gives you a great taste of its power. Try it out now and see how it transforms your workdays!

Who is Toggl for?

You’ll love Toggl if:

• You crave simplicity: You want to track your time with minimal hassle and get straight to work. Toggl makes it a breeze, letting you focus on the task, not the timekeeping.
• You want to boost your productivity: You suspect there are time leaks in your day, but you’re not sure where. Toggl’s reports pinpoint those distractions and help you streamline your workflow.
• You value flexibility: Whether you’re tracking solo projects, collaborating on team tasks, or running a whole business, Toggl adapts seamlessly.

You won’t love Toggl Track if:

• You need ultra-granular reporting: Toggl provides solid insights. However, if you need to analyze time down to the second highly specialized purpose, niche tools are better suited for that.
• You’re on a very tight budget: While Toggl has a free plan, its more advanced features come at a price. If cost is an important concern, simpler free alternatives do exist.
• You need heavy-duty project management: Toggl isn’t meant to replace full-fledged project management software. It shines as a time-tracking app but lacks some team collaboration tools found in specialized platforms.

What is Toggl?

Toggl is your go-to digital assistant for tracking how you spend your time. Designed with simplicity at its core, it helps you gain insight into your work habits, bill clients accurately, and manage team projects efficiently.

What is the key benefit of having Toggl?

The biggest perk is clarity. Toggl gives you a crystal-clear picture of how you spend your time so you can stop feeling overwhelmed and optimize your days. 

Showing you exactly where your hours are going empowers you to make informed decisions about allocating your time better, ultimately boosting productivity and work-life balance.

How does Toggl work?

Upon signing up, Toggl Track offers a straightforward interface that lets you track your time with a simple click. You can categorize these time entries by project, client, or task, making it easy to see how your time is allocated. Additionally, Toggl generates detailed reports, allowing you to analyze your productivity patterns over time.

How is it different from competitors?

Toggl’s focus is on simplicity and ease of use. While other trackers can feel overwhelming with endless features, Toggl Track gets you up and running quickly so you can focus on your actual work. Plus, Toggl’s robust reporting tools are second to none, offering insights that help individuals, teams, and businesses refine their productivity strategies. Where many competitors offer basic time tracking, Toggl stands out by turning time data into a roadmap for personal and professional growth.

Reasons I Recommend Toggl to Everyone

#1) It’s the antidote to “busy”

You know those days when you feel like you got nothing done or your team is unproductive despite working all hours? Toggl Track changed that for me.

It’s not about squeezing more into your day but being smart with your time. Toggl Track’s reports make those ‘time leaks’ glaringly obvious. Suddenly, cutting mindless social media scrolling to gain an extra productive hour isn’t hard at all!

#2) Frees up mental space

Have you ever found yourself mid-task, worrying if you’re giving a project enough time or if you’re forgetting something? Toggl puts that to rest.

That mental energy is better used for actual work. Because I’m tracking my time and my team’s time, I trust the process and can focus entirely on the task at hand.

#3) It evolves with you

I started using Toggl Track as a freelancer juggling client work. The simplicity was perfect, and even though my business has grown, Toggl has grown with me.

 The more advanced features for reporting and team tracking came in handy as my needs changed. It’s a tool that adapts rather than one you constantly outgrow.

What You Might Not Like About Toggl

#1) It won’t do everything for you

Toggl Track is fantastic at revealing where your time goes. But changing your habits is still up to you. If you expect magical productivity after installing it, you might be disappointed. The real power comes from analyzing Toggl’s reports and taking deliberate steps to improve your workflow.

#2) The price tag can add up

While the free plan is excellent, the monthly costs escalate if you need advanced features or have a big team. There are simpler (and cheaper) timekeeping alternatives for solo users on a budget. Toggl’s value lies in its insights, so it’s worth considering if the cost aligns with the boost in productivity you expect.

Toggl Pricing

Free

• The perfect starting point if you’re a freelancer or a small team (up to 5 people).
• You get all the unlimited time tracking and reporting features to get a handle on how you spend your days.

Paid Plan

• Start at $10 per person per month (Starter plan) and go up from there (Premium, Enterprise).
• Paid tiers unlock more powerful features like:
• Detailed reporting and analysis
• Team management tools
• Project forecasts and budgeting features

The free plan is great if you’re just dipping your toes into time tracking or working solo. As your needs and team grow, the paid plans offer tools to scale with you.

Toggl: Key Features Breakdown

Let’s break down the key features of Toggl Track and delve into the details of each feature:

Time Tracking

Time tracking in Toggl Track is the foundational feature that allows you to start and stop recording time with a single click or tap, regardless of your device. You can categorize time entries by clients, unlimited projects, and tasks, making it seamless to allocate your hours accurately and efficiently. The feature is also designed to capture every billable minute, ensuring no effort goes unrecorded or unaccounted for.

The distinguishing factor here is the seamless integration with many other tools and platforms like Google and Outlook Calendars. This means not switching between apps or disrupting your workflow to log hours. It’s about enhancing productivity, not hindering it. The ability to sync with project management tools, calendars, and even directly within browser extensions positions this feature as a cut above the rest.

Before Toggl Track, I had only a vague idea of how long specific tasks would take. I often underestimated the time required for projects or got sidetracked by less important activities. 

With Toggl, I gained clarity on my actual work habits. It helped me prioritize tasks more effectively and identify areas where I could improve my efficiency. It felt like gaining an extra layer of insight into my productivity, empowering me to make smarter decisions about allocating my time each day.

Project Management Software

Toggl offers a streamlined way to manage projects, especially when time tracking is your primary need. You can create projects, assign tasks (to yourself or team members), and get a visual timeline of deadlines and progress.

Toggl Track doesn’t try to replace full-blown project management software.  Its strength lies in its integration with time tracking. You can see exactly how much time goes into each and where bottlenecks might be, and you get a more accurate sense of project profitability.

If you’re used to complex project management tools, Toggl might feel basic at first. However,  I found Toggl’s approach incredibly helpful for projects where my focus was on understanding resource allocation and time usage.

Team Management

Toggl’s team tools help you coordinate with others while keeping time tracking at the forefront. You can:

• Add team members to projects and assign tasks
• See what everyone is working on in real-time
• Generate reports for individual team members or the entire team

Not all time trackers are built with teams in mind. Toggl Track strikes a nice balance between individual tracking and getting a clear picture of your team’s workload.

As my business grew, adding a few collaborators or team members became easy with Toggl. The ability to see who was working on what (and for how long) removed so much back-and-forth communication. It also made onboarding new team members seamless, as they understood the time expectations from the get-go.

Reporting

Toggl turns your tracked time into insightful reports. You can see breakdowns of your hours by project, client, task, or team member. There’s a good level of customization for filtering data to get the exact insights you need.

This is where Toggl shines. The reports are visually clear and easy to understand, which is crucial. Raw time-tracking data is useless if you can’t quickly make sense of it.

Toggl’s reporting is what changed my habits. Seeing my time ‘leaks’ in black and white was a wake-up call. It motivated me to make changes, and as I improved, the reports helped track that progress, too. Toggl reports have also made client billing and justifying my rates much easier.

Integrations

Toggl Track timer connects with a ton of other tools you likely already use. This includes things like:

• Project management tools (Asana, Trello, etc.)
• Calendars (Google Calendar, Outlook)
• Web app browsers (Toggl button for starting timers directly on websites)

Integrations make your life easier! Instead of juggling multiple web and desktop apps, Toggl’s smooth connections allow you to begin and track time from within the tools you already use. This keeps everything centralized and saves a surprising amount of time switching between apps.

The browser extension is my favorite. Clicking a button and tracking time directly on websites where I work (like my email inbox or writing apps) has been a game-changer. It makes tracking time practically subconscious!

FAQs about Toggl Track

Is Toggl easy to use?

Absolutely. Toggl Track stands out for its intuitive design and ease of use. It offers apps across all major platforms, ensuring you can effortlessly track time no matter where or what device you use. This simplicity is often highlighted as a key benefit, making it accessible for everyone, regardless of tech savviness.

What if I need help using Toggl?

Toggl has excellent priority support resources.  They offer a comprehensive knowledge base, email support, and an active community for answering your questions.

Is my data secure with Toggl?

Yes, Toggl Track takes data security seriously.  You can find details on their security practices.

Does Toggl work on my devices?

Most likely! Toggl has apps for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android. It also offers browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox for seamless integration into your web workflow.

Final Verdict – to Subscribe to Toggl or Not to Subscribe to Toggl?

After reviewing the details and gathering varied feedback, the recommendation is clear: Toggl is a great investment. This decision is grounded in its core robust functionality, ease of use, and valuable insights into time management it provides.

Here’s why:

• Simplicity at its best: You’ll track your time within minutes, not hours, of learning complex software.
• Time-management transformation: Toggl’s reports are eye-opening, helping you pinpoint time leaks and optimize your days for maximum productivity.
• Flexible for growth: Whether you’re flying solo or scaling your team, Toggl has plans to match.

Yes, the price tag can add up for larger teams, and dedicated project management tools might offer more complex features. However, Toggl excels at insightful time tracking.

Ready to take control of your time? Start with Toggl’s free plan and experience the difference.

Looking for alternatives? Stay tuned. The next section of this Toggl Track review will explore other time-tracking solutions that could better align with your specific needs or preferences, ensuring you find the perfect fit for your workflow.

Toggl Alternatives

If $10 per person per month is too much for you to stomach right now or you need a different solution, you might like one of these alternatives.

#1) Timely

When comparing Timely to other time-tracking solutions, you’ll first notice its unique approach to time management. Unlike traditional trackers, which rely heavily on manual input, Timely and all its other tools automatically track and capture your work in real-time. This means less worrying about starting and stopping timers and more focus on the work.

Timely’s AI-driven time tracking can be a game-changer for those who find manual time entry tedious or forget to track their time. It’s particularly well-suited for busy professionals and teams looking for a more hands-off approach to time management. However, this sophistication comes at a price, potentially making it a pricier option than others like Toggl Track.

#2) Harvest

Harvest distinguishes itself with its strong emphasis on invoicing, expense tracking, and time tracking capabilities. This makes it not just a tool for measuring productivity but also a comprehensive solution for managing the financial aspects of projects. For teams and freelancers who juggle multiple clients or fixed-fee projects with varying billing requirements, Harvest offers a level of convenience that some more straightforward time trackers do not.

While Harvest provides detailed time tracking tools, it shines by integrating these time logs directly into invoicing and budgeting features. This integration streamlines workflows, reducing the need for additional financial management software. However, the added complexity might be unnecessary for those primarily focused on time tracking without the need for extensive invoicing features.

#3) Clockify

Clockify sets itself apart by offering a forever-free plan, making it an attractive option for individuals and teams working with a tight budget. This plan includes unlimited users and projects, which is rare among time-tracking solutions. While it may lack some advanced features in premium options, it effectively covers all the basics of time tracking.

One of the big differences between Clockify and other tools is its generous free tier, designed for individual freelancers and teams who need simple yet effective time tracking without financial commitment. This can make Clockify a superior option for startups and small businesthat are ses mindful of operating costs.