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In businesses large or small, it can be difficult to stay on top of everything that’s going on. Having a firm understanding of productivity and budgeting can spell the difference between success and failure. The best project management software with time tracking offers more than just time tracking in real time.
Automating time tracking can help reduce lost productivity and save a company more than $600,000 per year, according to a recent Journeyx study. It also helps speed up time card calculations (and reduce errors, compared to a paper-and-pen method).
Best Project Management Software With Time Tracking
- Teamwork – Best Overall
- Wrike – Best for Consultants
- Celoxis – Best for Customization
- Zoho Projects – Best for Small Budgets
- LiquidPlanner – Best for Plan Options
- ProofHub – Best for Flat Rates
- GanttPro – Best for Gantt Charts
Software
Price
Time reporting
Tracking in real-time
Enables manual to automatic tracking
Integration with other systems
Free to $22.50 per user per month with custom options
Reports on billable hours, overall time
Built-in online time tracking tool
Team members can log hours manually or use an automated timer
Simple, with a long list of apps to integrate with
Free to $24.80 per user per month, custom plans available
Timelog reports by user, date, task, and more
Task timers keep tabs on hours logged while working
Can modify time in a task’s description field
Compatible with most apps, including Github for bug tracking
$22.50 per user monthly for the cloud or a one-time fee of $450 for on-premise setup
Several dashboards for time reporting
Every task has a built-in timer
Timesheets available for entering time manually
Integrates well with popular apps like Google Calendar and features a powerful API
Free to $10 per user per month
Timesheet reports and Gantt charts
Enables manual and automatic tracking
Any time not automatically captured can be recorded later
An abundance of proprietary apps and third-party integrations
Free to $35 with options for high-volume pricing
Timesheets with cost codes for billable work can be exported
Built-in module for tracking time on different projects
Time not tracked in the module can be entered manually
Can use third-party app Zapier for integrations
Flat rate of $50 or $99 per month
Custom time reports of people and projects
Multiple timers available within Timesheets
Track time manually or using timers
Limited integration with Google, Microsoft, and other tools
$8.90 to $15 per user per month, custom options available
Time log reports with several variables
Real-time timers for keeping tabs on hours
Automatically track with timers or enter data later
Limited to Slack, API, Google Drive, and Jira Cloud
Teamwork: Best Overall Project Management Software With Time Tracking
Pricing: Free to $22.50 per user per month with custom options
Teamwork’s time tracking software makes it easy to decipher where project hours are being spent through a plethora of reporting tools. This software is uncomplicated and features an extensive range of project management and human resources tools. Teamwork is ideal for teams that handle billable client work because of its billing and invoicing capabilities.
Why we chose it: Teamwork is the best overall PM software with time tracking because it’s easy to use, has a beautiful design interface, and offers a comprehensive set of features. You can effortlessly track all time spent on a project across multiple tasks and members with Teamwork’s built-in online time tracker.
- Allows for time tracking in real-time
- Can set up multiple timers
- Integrates with many apps
- Several reporting capabilities
- No time tracking software available with the free plan
- Can’t make changes in offline mode
- Higher learning curve because of all the options available
Pricing:
Teamwork offers four pricing plans and a 30-day free trial for each plan:
- Free Forever: $0
- Deliver: $10/user per month (billed annually) or $12.50/user per month (billed monthly)
- Grow: $18/user per month (billed annually) or $22.50/user per month (billed monthly)
- Scale: Inquire for pricing
Teamwork’s time tracking software is second to none, allowing team members to track hours right within the tasks they are working on. Each user can have multiple active timers open for keeping tabs on hour tracking on several projects simultaneously. Several reporting tools quickly reveal hours spent on individual tasks to help with resource management.
Time management is not available with the free version, requiring you, as a project manager, to spend at least $10 per user per month to access these features. The entire gamut of project management tools only becomes available by paying $22.50 per user, or $18 when billed annually.
With a minimum requirement of three users to use paid versions of the project management software, it may not be cost-effective for startups to use Teamwork. That being said, Teamwork offers a lot of features for small businesses and scales well into medium-sized enterprises and beyond.
Teamwork allows you to create a more transparent process for your clients. Since Teamwork offers you a clear breakdown of how time is spent across client projects, you can provide your clients with better estimates, more accurate billing, and detailed task records.
You’ll also be able to optimize your time management with Teamwork’s insights and reporting. This gives you a better understanding of how long work really takes so you can better manage your organization’s resources.
In addition to Teamwork’s comprehensive time tracking software, it also offers Gantt charts, resource management, automations, and invoicing for client work. Teamwork is the best project management software with time tracking to use as a collaboration tool for your team. If you want to team up productively and optimize your projects, this software is an excellent solution.
Wrike: Best Time-Tracking PM Software for Consultants
Pricing: Free to $24.80 per user per month, custom plans available
Wrike is an industry-leading enterprise-level project management software that helps businesses accomplish their goals. Doubling as a collaboration platform, Wrike is a flexible hub that allows your team to work together seamlessly. This software offers many advanced features such as Project Risk Prediction, Document Processing, and Smart Replies.
Why we chose it: Wrike’s user roles allow you to limit what outside parties can see, making it a potent tool for consultants. Your agency teams will still benefit from time features if you can shell out for the Business Plan. Read the ultimate Wrike review here.
- Great for consulting
- Timers built into tasks
- Detailed time reporting
- Multiple integration options
- Steeper learning curve
- Options for time tracking are only available at the top tier
- Automation features difficult to implement
Pricing:
Wrike offers one free plan and three paid plans:
- Free: $0/user per month
- Professional: $9.80/user per month
- Business: $24.80/user per month
- Enterprise: Inquire for pricing
Wrike’s plans are well designed to scale with your business from the ground level with a free version for unlimited users. Unfortunately, Wrike doesn’t offer any free time tracking software and requires its Business Plan at $24.80 per user per month to obtain these features. With a minimum requirement of five users, Write isn’t friendly to startups.
At the Business level, Wrike offers a timer for all users except collaborators. Keeping outsiders away from your time management tools makes the platform a candidate for the best PM software for consultants.
Options for keeping track of time are located right within each task. Wrike’s iOS and Android apps share this functionality, making it stand out among in-house and remote teams alike. The Timelog section is set up for running reports based on the criteria you need.
Wrike allows you to showcase your team’s true value with its online employee time tracking software. With the software, your team can automatically log worked hours, create and lock timesheets, and focus on billable hours. This advanced software improves your task visibility and project processes to avoid delays and maximize productivity.
Celoxis: Best Project Management Software With Time Tracking for Customization
Pricing: $22.50 per user monthly for the cloud or a one-time fee of $450 for on-premise setup
Celoxis is a strong contender for the best project management software with time tracking because of the value it provides. This software is ideal for medium and large businesses that benefit from customizing their project management tools for optimal team collaboration and productivity.
Why we chose it: Celoxis features nearly unlimited customization opportunities for project managers to track time across ongoing work.
- A majority of the site can be customized
- Features a powerful API tool for custom apps
- Can invoice based on user or time code
- Robust resource management
- No free version
- Task analysis is limited to Gantt charts
- Interface can be heavy for smaller teams
Pricing:
Celoxis offers a cloud plan and an on premise plan that includes a physical server:
- Cloud: $25/user per month (billed monthly) or $22.50/user per month (billed annually)
- On Premise: $450/user billed once
Celoxis is somewhat unique in that it does not have a free plan. Instead, the project management software offers a $22.50 per user per month plan if you want to work off the cloud or a one-time $450 fee for setting up a physical server. Neither option speaks well to startups or some smaller businesses.
Looking beyond pricing, Celoxis has reliable time tracking software that gives others a run for their money. With a few clicks, you can add project budgets right alongside time tracking features for easy expense tracking.
Celoxis allows you to easily track time, costs, and billing with its integrated timesheets and expense module. The software features built-in timers, automatic reminders, multi-level approvals, and customizable policies.
Almost every facet of Celoxis is customizable, allowing you the opportunity to construct time management tools as you see fit. If you’re knowledgeable enough, you can build custom apps with the included API to get the most out of your project planning.
Zoho Projects: Best Time-Tracking PM Software for Small Budgets
Pricing: Free to $10 per user per month
Zoho Projects is balanced PM management software with time tracking that’s exceedingly useful for small and growing businesses that don’t have massive budgets. This software features all the crucial tools needed to effectively manage projects. These include timesheets, Gantt charts, and basic resource management tools.
Why we chose it: Zoho Project’s budget price point makes it easy to hit the ground running. Its clean user interface provides the means to manage projects and other tasks from one convenient location.
- Budget-friendly price points
- Clean and intuitive user interface
- Timesheets for locating bottlenecks
- Lacks depth of features
- Weak free plan
- Unreliable search function
Pricing:
Zoho Project offers one free plan two paid plans that come with a 10-day free trial:
- Free: $0 (up to three users)
- Premium: $5/user per month (up to 50 users)
- Enterprise: $10/user per month (no user limit)
While Zoho Projects doesn’t have free time tracking software, it offers the next best thing. Its large number of time management tools become available for just $5 per user per month. With all features unlocked at the $10 per user price point, Zoho Projects is one of the best cheap project management software options out there.
Zoho Projects lays project time tracking out in an intuitive interface that helps project managers see what they need at a glance. This timesheet is perfect for keeping track of potential bottlenecks that may slow things down in the future.
The employee time tracking software allows you to record every minute spent working on a task. This hassle-free time tracking is accomplished with timesheets and task timers. Each project is equipped with a timesheet where team members can log their task hours.
Employees can start task timers to log automatically, pause timers when they take breaks, and end the timer to create a new timesheet entry. Afterward, managers can review each timesheet entry and decide to approve or reject them.
Furthermore, you can integrate Zoho Books or Zoho Invoice to record your expenses, create a budget for your project, or turn your timesheets into invoices for payroll purposes and client billing.
Zoho Projects also offers comprehensive timesheet reports that display the exact time spent on each project and the time spent by each team member. Then, you can optimize your resources and improve productivity by comparing planned task hours with actual task hours. Overall, Zoho Projects provides transparency for you and your clients.
Although the free version is lackluster, it’s a great PM software for startups at its low price point. Larger companies may require additional features that other project management solutions have.
LiquidPlanner: Best PM Software With Time Tracking for Plan Options
Pricing: Free to $35 with options for high-volume pricing
LiquidPlanner is a powerful PM management software with time tracking that offers advanced and innovative features. Its predictive scheduling allows a project manager to save time on task management while providing options for task and employee time tracking.
Why we chose it: LiquidPlanner is the best project management software for plan options because it offers three distinct pricing plans for every type of enterprise.
- Predictive scheduling
- Timesheets with budget tools
- Wide range of plans available
- Automated module to track time
- Not a lot of integration tools
- Challenging to learn how to use
- The “search” function needs improvement
Pricing:
LiquidPlanner offers three pricing plans with a 14-day free trial:
- Essentials: $15/user per month (billed annually)
- Professional: $25/user per month (billed annually)
- Ultimate: $35/user per month (billed annually)
LiquidPlanner has several plans available, and even the free plan contains integrated time tracking capability. Project management features only grow as your company moves to the $15, $25, or $35 per user per month plans.
Predictive scheduling estimates when project work will finish based on a number of factors. Dates update automatically as those factors change, taking a lot of guesswork out of managing projects. The rest of LiquidPlanner is not simple PM software and can take a considerable amount of time to learn.
The free project management software version is nothing to scoff at, allowing for only three users, but perhaps a great entry point for startups. Each other plan allows for unlimited users, and LiquidPlanner even offers volume pricing for larger firms.
With a built-in project time tracker, project managers and users can see how long tasks are taking and adjust team members accordingly. Timesheet reports are available with included budget tracking software, but only at the higher-tier plans.
The time tracking tool is useful to figure out how long each task takes to complete and how much to bill your clients. Your clients and employees can turn on a time-tracking module and run it in their browser as they work. The recorded time is then attached to the task in the project and on a timesheet.
However, you will have to export the timesheet to a separate billing or invoice system since LiquidPlanner doesn’t include them.
ProofHub: Best PM Software with Time Tracking for Flat Rates
Pricing: Flat rate of $45 or $99 per month
ProofHub is a straightforward and reliable PM solution that charges a fixed price depending on how many members you have in your organization. This software enables enhanced team collaboration, organization, and project delivery. Along with its time tracking tools, it also offers discussion boards to bring all team and client communication to one central location.
Why we chose it: ProofHub’s monthly flat rate can put time tracking software into the hands of any size enterprise. The project management tools within allow for fast analysis across many projects.
- Unlimited projects and users for one flat rate
- Timesheets can be made private
- Custom time reporting
- Time estimates for project work
- Notifications can be overwhelming
- Limited customization options
- Calendar feature needs improvement
Pricing:
ProofHub offers flat-rate pricing depending on how many users you have:
- 1-5 users: $50/month (billed monthly) or $45/month (billed annually)
- 6-10 users: $100/month (billed monthly) or $90/month (billed annually)
- 11-50 users: $150/month (billed monthly) or $135/month (billed annually)
- 51+ users: Inquire for pricing
ProofHub brings time tracking software to businesses with one flat monthly rate. Limited features with employee time tracking are included in the base package of $50 per month. Upgrading to the Ultimate Plan at $99 per month includes several other tools such as advanced reporting and further customization.
This project management software allows you to build reports on billable and non-billable time by team members. Your team can develop their own timesheets each week or switch between automated timers to track hours spent across different tasks.
There’s also a bird’s eye view for time data that allows for quick employee time tracking on one screen. Time estimates for projects help staff have a better understanding of how long projects should take to help deliver work in a timely fashion.
With ProofHub, you can bring all your time tracking data to one central location using its time management software. You can also export your timesheets and use them for payroll, estimation, time optimization, and client invoicing.
Like all PM software, ProofHub helps you organize your team and track the status of projects. It enables team collaboration and excels at optimizing projects that include visual materials. However, it doesn’t offer invoicing, budgeting, or resource management tools.
GanttPro: Best Time Tracking PM Software for Gantt Charts
Pricing: $8.90 to $15 per user per month, custom options available
If your organization utilizes Gantt charts and needs time tracking, GanttPro offers the perfect solution. GanttPro continues to add features and has been gradually improving since its release in 2015. This software offers seamless communication between your team members and is suited for organizations working on complex projects.
Why we chose it: GanttPro may be named for its Gantt charting capabilities but includes the ability for users to track time with a click.
- Timers are located within each task
- Excellent Gantt charts
- Priced well for companies of any size
- Can customize and export time reports
- Must buy licenses in increments of five
- Limited integrations
- Need to manually change task end dates
Pricing:
GanttPro offers three paid plans and no free plans:
- Individual: $15/user per month (billed annually)
- Team: $8.90/user per month (billed annually)
- Enterprise: Inquire for pricing
Gantt charting is GanttPro’s star player and incorporates the tools you’ll need to succeed. The project management software does not limit itself, providing other views for project managers who don’t want to see boxes all day.
In GanttPro, each task has a time tracking tool contained within. Multiple users can record hours logged, and a time log report allows you to gather this information together. You can further add dates and comments and export the data to your hard drive.
GanttPro’s time log report allows you to view all of your time tracking information from one convenient location. You can then customize the data with help of intuitive filters and grouping options.
The time tracking app offers a solo plan for $15 monthly if you’re a lone wolf. Otherwise, you’ll want to grab the team plan at $8.90 per person monthly. It’s worth noting that GanttPro requires you to buy licenses in multiples of five. There are no free versions available. This should scale well with most businesses, but you’ll be paying more than necessary unless your team size is a factor of five.
GanttPro is ideal for smaller teams looking for low-cost project management software with time tracking and comprehensive Gantt charts.
Methodology for the Best Project Management Software With Time Tracking
We considered a variety of factors to choose the best PM software with time tracking. Obviously, we focused on time tracking features, but there’s more to project management software than time tracking capability.
Time tracking software brings a lot to the table, so consider the features most valuable to your team. Look into a time tracking device, timesheets, integrations, reports, and billing. You should also consider how easy the software is to use and how much it costs, either monthly or annually.
User-Friendliness
Your users won’t be inclined to use clunky software that’s too much of a challenge to figure out. No one wants to spend non-billable time trying to turn on a timer or pull up a report. Easy-to-use software allows your team to continue being efficient and get back to the task at hand.
Costs and Fees
We’d be lying if we said costs and fees aren’t important when picking out project management software. Most software platforms charge per user, so prices can escalate quickly. They also tend to have different tiers that increase in features as your business grows. Ensure the plan you’re looking at meets your budget needs and has the time tracking software you’re looking for.
Will It Suit Your Team Size?
Some project management software requires a minimum amount of users and may not jive with startups. On the flip side, certain plans have a user cap, so plan accordingly.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Project Management Software With Time Tracking
Below are some of the most popular questions surrounding time management software.
Bottom Line on Project Management Software With Time Tracking
Time tracking software is an essential piece of project management if you’re looking to maximize your efficiency and your team’s. You’ll be able to monitor which projects your users are working on and see which areas are falling behind.
Larry is a finance graduate and entrepreneur who loves educating others on various business software through his own experiences. Larry loves to write about all topics, from fashion editorials to tax advice. On his days off, you can find him at a basketball court or gym working up a sweat.