Time tracking software is actually the second generation of timesheet programs or applications that is used in many industries to keep track of time spent on various tasks. It is employed by professionals, for salaried employees and virtual assistants to produce an appropriate bill by the hour. Time sheet is a traditional paper based method of recording time spent whereas time tracking is an advanced electronic version. A time recording program basically automates the process of recording what activities and for what time it is performed on a PC or laptop. The basic idea is to get an accurate picture of the time spent on various applications and websites. Today’s time trackers can generate statistics, vector graphs by evaluating your onscreen activity such as documents, applications, website usage and games.
1. Timetrack
Founded in 2009, TimeTrack is a free download available on various platforms aiming at helping productive individuals and businesses manage their time better. Their philosophy is, “simple is better” and the intuitive interface, two click tracking, offline and online mode, portability are testament to this fact. With a quick learning curve, this is a simple solution to track how you spend your time. It is perfect for first time users of any time tracking software.
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- Pros: Simple and intuitive interface makes for easy usage and quick learning, wide platform integration
- Cons: Too simple for high level collaborative work
- OS: Windows 8, Windows 7 (32bit and 64bit), Windows NT/98/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/Server
2. Grindstone
Grindstone, a solution from Epiforge software, brings hardware accelerated time tracking to your desktop and Windows platform. Unfortunately, at present it does not cater to Linux or the Mac OS but in future will definitely see integration over all platforms. This solution incorporates high level time tracking measures that harness the power of Microsoft SQL Server CE, user defined columns, tasks, reminders and even vector graphs with multiple language compatibility. The latest edition, Grindstone 3 introduces many new features such as statistics, multi-user tracking and more.
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- Pros: Simple, exhaustive and free to download, visually stunning, secure and multi-language support.
- Cons: Uses a lot of system memory, at times sluggish and isn’t supported on Mac or Linux OS.
- OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
3. Manic Time
A relatively new software in the realm of time tracking, this simple and easy to use program requires just two inputs to produce a line vector graph detailing how you spent your time on individual tasks or jobs. Manic Time isn’t like other visually stunning but complex time tracking solutions. It has a rather simplified interface that takes in time slot details, tracks your computer activeness and reproduces data to track. This data can then be extrapolated into a CSV table or browsed in the native Manic Time interface.]
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- Download Manic Time
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- Pros: Needs very little input to produce data sheets and output, simplest among all time tracking solutions.
- Cons: Only available on the Windows platform, uses local memory and exports only to csv format.
- OS: Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit, XP, Vista
4. Rescue Time
Rescue Time, as the name suggests, is more about time tracking to figure out where you are going wrong and how you can improve your efficiency. This online/system resident app measures, monitors and records your computer usage, detailing application, browser and other uses on your OS, providing you a weekly summary via email. It lets you make, keep and track goals too, how close you get to achieving them, time taken and other details.
- Our Rating:
- Download Rescue Time
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- Pros: Simple to Use, very few details to deal with.
- Cons: All your confidential app based, system based data required for its operation is stored on their servers.
- OS: Windows 7, Windows XP, and Windows Vista
5. Rachota
A solution from NetBeans, the popular IDE and developer’s platform creator, Rachota is a free open source time keeping app that is ultra-portable and simple. It packs a lot of interesting features such as report creation, diagrammatic representation, invoicing and more while providing you basic time keeping options. Being a Java program, it can be run on any platform, Mac, Windows, Android and more. But what makes this an awesome tool is its user configurability.
- Our Rating:
- Download Rachota
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- Pros: Get quickly acclimatized with its simple user interface and easy to learn features.
- Cons: Java based application may make it a little complicated for a few users, needs a little fine tuning at first.
- OS: This requires Java. Works on pretty much all Windows environment
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Great list of time tracking software!
Actually I love RescueTime in the list, that’s the software I’ve used several years ago.
But when they had no updates for Linux I decided to switch and try different software and glad I got a copy of Time Doctor from a friend. It can be installed in almost all platforms today and it has efficient time tracking and screenshot/reporting features – which I liked most.
Thank you for the list.
I actually use nutcache because it is integrated with an invoicing platform so it maked my life easier.
Also nutcache is free and mutli users without any limitation.