Best Clockify Alternatives in 2026: 5 Honest Picks
If you're weighing Clockify alternatives in 2026, the reason is usually the same one: the free plan got narrower. In April, CAKE.com — Clockify's parent company — announced changes to the Free plan that rolled out around mid-June, and the headline is that the previously unlimited free team is now capped at five users, with billable rates, invoicing, and CSV/Excel export moved up to paid plans. Clockify is still a well-built tool, and for five-or-fewer users who only need to record hours, its free tier remains a solid $0 option. But if the change took away a workflow you relied on, it's a fair moment to see what else is out there.
This is an even-handed look at where to go instead. None of the options below is a perfect Clockify clone — each trades something — so the honest answer is that the right pick depends on which part of Clockify you actually lost. Below: a quick recap of what changed, the four things that separate a real alternative to Clockify from a lateral move, a side-by-side table of five tools, and a fair note on where each one wins. For the full detail on the change itself, see Clockify's free plan changes explained.
What changed on Clockify's free plan
Two things moved. The free team went from unlimited headcount to 5 active users — the owner plus the first four invitees. And several features that used to be free shifted to paid: billable rates, invoicing, shared reports, project estimates, kiosk mode, and CSV/Excel export. The free API was also tightened to roughly 30 requests per hour. What did not change is worth repeating: Free still costs $0 with no time limit and no credit card, and it keeps unlimited time tracking and unlimited projects and tasks for up to five users. CAKE.com said the move was driven by the cost of running global infrastructure for unlimited free users, and that as a bootstrapped company it is focusing on paid customers.
So if you billed clients out of Clockify's free tier — marking time billable, then exporting a CSV or generating an invoice — that's the workflow that now needs a paid plan. Invoicing requires the Standard plan ($5.49 per user per month on annual billing), and billable rates require at least Basic ($3.99). That gap is the specific thing most people searching for a Clockify free plan alternative are trying to fill.
What to look for in a Clockify alternative
Before the list, it helps to name what you're optimizing for. Four things separate a genuine replacement from a sideways step.
- A free tier that still covers your team size. If headcount is why you're here, check the user cap, not just the price. Some free plans stop lower than Clockify's new five; one is uncapped.
- Invoicing, if that's what you lost. This is the big one. Most trackers — Clockify included now — gate invoicing behind paid plans. Only one tool below includes it on a $0 plan.
- How time gets captured. A manual timer, an activity log you review, or fully automatic capture. Clockify is a manual timer at heart, so if forgotten timers were part of your frustration, a like-for-like manual tool won't fix that.
- Pricing shape. A flat per-seat plan is predictable; usage-based pricing can be cheaper at small scale but harder to forecast as your client and invoice counts grow.
The best Clockify alternatives in 2026, compared
Treat the table as a map, not a quote. Prices and plan limits move often, so confirm the current numbers on each vendor's own pricing page before you commit.
Details as of June 2026 — verify on each vendor's own pricing page: Clockify, Toggl, Harvest, TimeCamp.
| Tool | Free plan | Invoicing | How it tracks | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toggl Track | Up to 5 users, $0 | Paid only (billable rates) | Autotracker + manual timer | Generous free tracking and reporting |
| Harvest | 1 seat, 2 projects, $0 | Included, even on free | Manual timer | Keeping invoicing on a $0 plan |
| TimeCamp | Unlimited users, $0 | Paid (Starter, from $3.99) | Automatic desktop activity | Free tracking for a larger team |
| My Hours | Up to 5 users, $0 | Paid only | Manual timer | Simple, low-cost solo tracking |
| BillNotch | 14-day trial, no card | Native PDF + CSV | Automatic active-window + AI | Capture and invoicing in one, flat pricing |
Toggl Track is the most generous free tier still standing. Its free plan covers up to five users at $0 with no time limit, unlimited tracking, unlimited projects, and an autotracker on its desktop apps that records activity in the background for you to review. It's a mature, well-designed product with deep reporting. The catch for billers: Toggl doesn't generate invoices, and billable rates sit on the paid Starter plan ($9 per user per month annually, $10 monthly), with Premium at $18. So if invoicing is what you lost on Clockify, Toggl won't restore it — but for clean tracking and reporting on a free tier, it's a strong pick. Here's BillNotch vs Toggl, and Toggl vs Clockify for the direct comparison.
Harvest is the one tool here that still includes invoicing on a $0 plan. The free tier is limited — one seat and two projects — but within those limits you get both time tracking and invoicing, which is exactly the combination Clockify just moved behind a paywall. Paid plans start at $9 per seat per month annually, but Harvest (acquired by Bending Spoons in 2025) now layers usage-based fees on top of the per-seat rate for things like extra invoices, projects, and clients, which makes a growing bill harder to forecast. If you want that detail, see the Harvest price increase explained. For a solo freelancer with a couple of clients, though, the free plan is a genuine like-for-like answer to lost free invoicing.
TimeCamp is the standout if team size is the problem. Its free plan includes unlimited users and unlimited projects — uncapped where Clockify now stops at five — and it offers automatic time tracking through a desktop app that records computer and app activity, including a Linux build. Invoicing isn't free, though: it starts on the lowest paid tier (Starter), around $3.99 per user per month annually, with mid and top tiers above that — confirm the current plan names and prices on TimeCamp's pricing page. That entry tier is also the cheapest paid invoicing in this group. If you need free tracking for more than five people, TimeCamp is the clearest fit.
My Hours is the simple, low-cost option. Its free plan covers up to five users with core tracking, unlimited projects and clients, and basic reporting — close in shape to Clockify's new free tier. Invoicing is paid-only, on Basic (from $4 per user per month annually) or Pro (from $8). It's a manual tracker without automatic capture, so it suits solo freelancers who want to log hours simply rather than have them recorded for them.
BillNotch — our own tool — takes the automatic route and folds billing in. Its desktop app runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux and records your active window automatically, with no timer to start; keyword rules, plus optional AI for the fuzzy cases, sort that activity into client projects, and billable status is inherited per project. The billable total then feeds a native PDF invoice or a CSV export, and a Revenue Leak Finder flags time you tracked but never billed. Pricing is flat — Pro is $9 per month for one seat, Team is $12 per seat per month — with a 14-day trial and no card. The honest caveat is on price: that's more than Clockify's $3.99 Basic, so BillNotch is not the budget pick. See BillNotch vs Clockify for the side-by-side.
Where BillNotch fits
It's worth being straight about the trade-off, because price is where Clockify wins. Clockify Basic is $3.99 and BillNotch Pro is $9; if sticker cost is the deciding factor, Clockify is cheaper, even after this change. BillNotch isn't trying to be the cheap option.
What it offers instead is a different shape of workflow, aimed squarely at the people who lost free invoicing. Three things set it apart from the others on this list. First, capture is automatic — the active window is recorded for you, the same passive approach as TimeCamp's activity tracker and Toggl's autotracker, rather than a stopwatch you have to remember to start. Second, that captured time is auto-sorted into billable client projects by rules and optional AI, which is the step Clockify's own free Auto tracker deliberately doesn't take — it logs activity privately for your review but doesn't categorize into client projects or turn it into an invoice. Third, invoicing is built in rather than a separate subscription, and the Revenue Leak Finder surfaces billable time that never made it onto an invoice. If billing was the part you lost, how to invoice from your time tracker walks through the end-to-end flow, and freelance billing software covers what to weigh before you buy.
On privacy, window titles can stay on the device, each device connects with an API key you issue and revoke, data is processed on EU servers, and it's never sold. The pricing is flat with no usage fees, so the number you sign up for is the number you pay — which is the other half of the case against Harvest's metered model. None of that makes BillNotch right for everyone. If you prefer the certainty of starting a timer yourself, a manual tool like Clockify or My Hours will feel more natural, and if budget is the hard constraint, Clockify or TimeCamp will stretch further. The full plan details are on the pricing page.
The bottom line
There's no single best Clockify replacement — only the best fit for the part of Clockify you actually lost. Sort yourself first. If headcount was the problem, TimeCamp's uncapped free plan is the clearest answer. If you lost free invoicing and want it back at $0, Harvest's free tier is the only one here that still includes it. If you mainly want clean free tracking and reporting, Toggl Track is the pick. If you want something simple and cheap, My Hours fits. And if you want automatic capture plus built-in invoicing in one tool — and you bill by the hour — that's the narrow case BillNotch is built for.
Whichever way you lean, the decision that outlasts any single feature is matching the tracking model and the pricing shape to how you actually work. To go deeper on the automatic-capture approach, see automatic time tracking software. And because plans keep shifting, confirm the current numbers on each vendor's own pricing page before you commit.