Toggl vs Timely: Which Time Tracking Tool is Better?

As a freelancer, startup founder, or even busy professional working a 9-5 job with side projects, your time is your most valuable resource.

Staying on top of how you spend each hour of the day allows you to maximize your productivity, appropriately bill clients, and gain insights that can help scale your work over time. 

While manual time tracking with notebooks or spreadsheets works for some, dedicated time tracking software offers robust features that make the process much more effortless. Two leading options are Toggl and Timely, both loved by thousands for their intuitive interfaces and reporting. In this review, I’ll examine the key features and pricing of Toggl and Timely in depth to help you determine which timeboxing and time-tracking tool is best for boosting your productivity and business.

Brief Overview: Toggl vs Timely

First, I’ll give you a quick overview of Toggl and Timely:

Toggl

Toggl Track is a popular time-tracking tool known for its flexibility and ease of use. With a click, you can start and stop timers, track time across projects, and gain valuable insights into how you spend your workday.

Key Selling Points:

• Simple, straightforward time-tracking
• Integrates with your favorite AI-powered project management tools
• Offers Pomodoro technique timer for focused work sessions
• Available as browser extensions, desktop, and mobile apps

Timely

Timely takes a different approach, automatically capturing everything you work on throughout the day and your daily plans. Thus, you can get an accurate picture of your work patterns without manually starting and stopping timers.

Key Selling Points:

• Effortlessly track time with zero manual input
• Advanced insights into where your time goes
• It helps you plan for more productive days
• Offers AI-powered time tagging for accurate reporting

Quick Verdict: Toggl vs Timely

Toggl shines with its user-friendly interface, making it easy to start, pause, and log work hours across multiple devices. The tool’s robust reporting features allow for a deep dive into productivity insights, helping you identify areas for improvement or celebrate wins.

Extensive integrations further underscored its versatility, enabling a seamless fit into nearly any workflow.

By capturing your activities in real-time, Timely ensures that every minute of your work is accounted for without requiring active input from you. This not only saves you time but also provides a more accurate reflection of your workday.

With its AI-powered categorization and comprehensive dashboards, Timely offers a futuristic approach to managing your projects and personal efficiency.

Product Overview: Toggl vs Timely

What is it?

Toggl Track is a straightforward time-tracking tool that puts you in the driver’s seat. With a click, you can start and stop timers, track time across multiple projects, and see where your hours go.

Timely offers automatic time tracking. It quietly works in the background, recording every desktop app and website you use to give you an accurate picture of your workday.

Who is it for?

Toggl is perfect if you prefer hands-on control over your time tracking and enjoy analyzing how you spend your time across different tasks and projects. It’s ideal for freelancers, consultants, and teams looking for flexibility and simplicity in their time management tools.

Timely, on the other hand, is for those who’d rather spend less time on timesheets and more time on actual work. Timely is tailored for you if you often forget to start or stop a timer or want a comprehensive view of your productivity without manual effort.

What makes it special?

Toggl Track stands out because of its user-friendly interface and the ability to track time across devices seamlessly. Whether at your desk or on the go, Toggl ensures that every minute is accounted for. Its robust reporting features also allow for deep dives into your productivity patterns.

Timely differentiates itself with its cutting-edge automatic time-tracking feature. By capturing everything you do in real-time, it provides a detailed record of your workday without any manual input. This automation, combined with intelligent categorization and a privacy-first approach, makes Timely a forward-thinking choice for time management.

What does it do?

Toggl lets you track time with a simple click, offering powerful insights through detailed reports. You can easily categorize time entries, collaborate with team members, and integrate with other tools to streamline your workflow.

Timely automates tracking time from the moment you start your day. It uses AI to categorize activities and offers a comprehensive dashboard to review your productivity and project progress. It’s designed to give you a complete picture of your workday with minimal effort on your part.

Quick Comparison: Timely vs Toggl

Key Features	Toggl	Timely
#1) Pricing	Winner
#2) Free Plan	Winner
#3) Design & Functionality	Tie	Tie
#4) Time Tracking Tools	Winner
#5) Project Management Tools		Winner
#6) Team Management	Winner
#7) Reporting	Winner
#8) Productivity Tools		Winner
#9) Integrations	Tie	Tie
#10) AI & Automation		Winner
Overall	Winner

Feature Comparison: Toggl vs Timely

Let’s compare the features of these time-tracking software so you can make the right decision for you and your business.

#1) Pricing

Toggl’s pricing begins at $10 per month for each person on the Starter Plan, aimed at small teams looking for efficient, low-overhead time tracking solutions. This plan offers a cost-effective entry point for teams eager to enhance their productivity without significant financial commitment.

Timely’s pricing also targets the Starter Plan tier, priced slightly higher at $11 monthly for each individual. This plan is designed to streamline your timesheet completion process and promises an opportunity to bill for additional hours, emphasizing billing efficiency and financial optimization.

Comparing the two, Toggl appears slightly more accessible due to its lower price point, which is particularly appealing for teams or individuals mindful of budget constraints. However, Timely’s focus on timesheet efficiency and the potential to recover more billable hours could justify its marginally higher cost for those prioritizing billing optimization.

Verdict: For individuals or teams strictly comparing costs, Toggl has the edge with its marginally lower pricing for the starter tier. 

#2) Free Plan

Toggl understands that sometimes you need to try before you buy. Their free plan gives you a taste of their core time tracking and reporting features—perfect if you’re a freelancer or have a small team of up to five members.

Timely takes a different approach, offering a 14-day free trial. This lets you try out all their features before making a decision.

If you’re on a tight budget and only need basic tracking, Toggl’s free plan is the way to go. But, if you want the full experience before committing to a paid plan, Timely’s free trial might be more your style.

Verdict: Toggl stands out as the better choice for the free plan due to its ongoing no-cost offering for teams of up to 5 members. This makes it ideal for freelancers and small teams looking for a cost-effective time management solution.

#3) Design & Functionality

Toggl boasts a clean, intuitive design that makes time tracking hassle-free. From the moment you start using it, you’ll find it incredibly easy to navigate through its features, whether logging hours, viewing reports, or setting up projects. 

On the other hand, Timely offers a visually rich interface that tracks time in an elegant and informative way. The automatic time-tracking feature seamlessly integrates into its design, providing detailed insights into how you spend your day without requiring manual input. 

Which is better? This comes down to your personal preference. If you like a hands-on approach and want a simple, streamlined interface, Toggl is your winner. Timely automated tracking is a good fit if you let the software do the heavy lifting.

Verdict: For design and functionality, it’s a toss-up – the best tool depends on your work style.

#4) Time Tracking Tools

Toggl’s time tracking tools are incredibly user-friendly and versatile. They make it easy for you to start, pause, and stop tracking as your work demands. With a single click, you can capture your time across various tasks and projects, ensuring that every minute of your effort is accounted for accurately. The tool’s real-time tracking ability allows you to monitor your progress throughout the day, adjusting as needed to stay on track.

Timely, in contrast, offers an automated approach to time tracking. Instead of manual clicks, it automatically records your activities throughout the day, using intelligent software to categorize time into different projects and tasks. This approach provides a hands-off experience, where you focus on your work while Timely takes care of the tracking.

When comparing the two, if you prefer to control your time tracking and enjoy the flexibility to tailor your real-time monitoring, Toggl provides a better toolkit. Its straightforward design and powerful functionality ensure that you stay in charge of your time, making it an invaluable asset for personal productivity and team efficiency.

Verdict: Toggl stands out with its intuitive interface and robust features for time-tracking tools. It gives you the autonomy and flexibility to track your time your way.

#5) Project Management Tools

Toggl’s project management tools are intuitive and flexible, designed to streamline your workflow. They allow you to set up projects, assign tasks, and monitor progress in a user-friendly environment. You can easily track time spent on each project or task, making it simpler to manage your workload and meet your deadlines.

Timely, in contrast, integrates its time-tracking capabilities with project management features, offering a more automated approach. You can view the time spent on each project automatically, which helps allocate resources and evaluate project performance without the need for manual time entry, ensuring a more efficient management process.

When assessing which tool provides better project management capabilities, it comes down to your preference for manual control or automation. Toggl offers straightforward, effective project tracking that you steer, while Timely gives you an automated overview of project timelines and resources used.

Verdict: For project management tools, if you prefer automation and integrated time tracking to streamline project oversight, Timely stands out as the go-to option, providing a comprehensive, efficient solution for managing your projects.

#6) Team Management

Toggl excels at managing teams. It allows you to set up different groups, assign tasks, and monitor each team member’s progress individually. This feature is incredibly handy for keeping everyone on track and ensuring project progress as planned.

In contrast, Timely focuses on automating time tracking for teams, reducing the manual entry work. It offers insights into how everyone’s time is spent, making it easier to spot inefficiencies and redistribute workloads accordingly. Its elegant dashboard provides a clear overview of your team’s performance.

Choosing the better tool for team management really boils down to what you value more: the hands-on control and task assignment capabilities of Toggl or the automated tracking and insightful overviews provided by Timely.

Verdict: Toggl takes the lead for detailed team oversight and task management.

#7) Reporting 

Toggl offers robust reporting features that allow you to examine your time usage in depth. You can create custom reports to see exactly what you need, whether for personal productivity insights or accurate billing. This flexibility makes it a powerful tool for anyone needing detailed time usage analysis.

Conversely, Timely provides automated reporting that tracks time and organizes it into beautiful, easy-to-understand reports. This automation saves you the hassle of manually compiling data, making it simpler to get a clear picture of where time is going without digging through details.

Regarding reporting, the choice between Toggl and Timely hinges on your preference for customization versus automation. If you enjoy tailoring every aspect of your reports, Toggl is your go-to. However, if you appreciate the efficiency and a hands-off approach, Timely’s automated reports are likely more your speed.

Verdict: Toggl is unmatched for customizable reporting, but Timely is the champion for effortless, automated insights.

#8) Productivity Tools

Toggl’s productivity tools are designed to be straightforward yet powerful. They allow you to track your time efficiently across different tasks and projects. With features like Pomodoro timers and idle detection, Toggl not only helps you monitor how you spend your time but also encourages you to work more effectively.

On the other hand, Timely takes productivity tools to the next level by leveraging automation to track your time. This means less manual entry and more accuracy in understanding how you allocate your efforts throughout the day. Timely’s AI-driven insights provide suggestions on optimizing your schedule and identifying patterns that could be affecting your productivity, offering you a comprehensive approach to improving your work habits.

If you’re looking for a solution that offers deeper insights into your habits with minimal effort on your part, Timely’s automated features could be more beneficial.

Verdict: Timely emerges as the better choice for productivity tools, especially if you value an automated system that provides in-depth insights to enhance efficiency without needing constant manual input.

#9) Integrations

Toggl plays nicely with a wide range of tools you likely already use. It integrates with project management platforms, calendars, and other productivity apps, ensuring your time data flows smoothly.

Timely also offers integrations but with a slightly smaller selection. It connects with popular tools, but the focus isn’t on a massive range of options.

Deciding which product has the better integration capability depends on what you need most. If you rely on a broad range of tools and need your time-tracking tool to connect with as many of them as possible, Toggl is likely your best choice. However, if you prioritize deep, seamless integration that automates time tracking within a smaller set of tools, Timely could be more beneficial for you.

Verdict: For extensive integration options, Toggl is the clear winner, but for deeper, more automated integrations, Timely stands out.

#10) AI & Automation

Toggl incorporates AI features to a certain extent, primarily in its ability to suggest time entries based on your habits and past inputs. This smart suggestion feature can save you time by predicting what you’re likely working on, making the time-tracking process and logging hours faster and more intuitive.

Timely, on the other hand, takes AI and automation to the next level. Its whole system minimizes manual entry by automatically tracking activities across your devices. The AI then categorizes this data into projects, offering you a detailed, hands-off report of how you’ve spent your day without you having to lift a finger.

When it comes down to which tool better leverages AI and automation, Timely clearly takes the lead. Its commitment to reducing manual time tracking through sophisticated AI integration offers a virtually effortless experience, allowing you to focus more on your work and less on managing the tool.

Verdict: For advanced AI and automation, Timely is the standout choice.

Final Thoughts on Toggl vs Timely

After comparing Toggl and Timely across various features, it’s clear that both tools offer unique advantages for time tracking.

Toggl excels with its broad integrations, customizable reporting, and flexible team management tools, catering to those who appreciate a hands-on approach to time tracking. On the other hand, Timely shines with its advanced AI and automation, making it ideal for anyone looking to minimize manual entry and focus more on their work.

From my review, if you value a comprehensive, adaptable tool that can seamlessly fit into almost any workflow, Toggl is the way to go. Its versatility and user-friendly interface make it suitable for freelancers, remote teams, and businesses alike who want to track where their time is going without getting bogged down by complexity.

Therefore, Toggl is the better choice for most people seeking an effective time-tracking solution. Its blend of powerful features and ease of use makes it stand out as the go-to tool for enhancing productivity and managing your time more efficiently.

Try Toggl for free today for a versatile and comprehensive time-tracking experience.