As a developer, you likely face tight deadlines and pressure to deliver projects that meet specifications. With so many moving parts, it is easy to lose track of time, leading to costly mistakes, scope creep, and projects that fall short of expectations. Effective project management and time tracking can help you avoid these pitfalls. Time tracking software for developers automates the process of tracking time to alleviate the burden of monitoring an activity that can disrupt workflow. In this article, we explore the benefits of time tracking software for developers and review the features to look for when choosing the best solution for your needs.
One solution that stands out is TimeTackle’s automatic time tracking software. Seamlessly integrating with tools developers already use, TimeTackle eliminates the manual processes to track time and helps developers automatically capture the time spent on different tasks and projects for accurate reporting and analysis.
Understanding Time Tracking For Developers
Time tracking is a secret weapon in developers’ arsenals. Every line of code, bug fix, or debugging session contributes to a project’s success. Understanding where time goes can make all the difference for developers working solo, as part of a team, or on a large-scale software project. Time tracking tools are the silent heroes helping developers stay efficient and productive.
What Is Time Tracking Software for Developers?
Time tracking software for developers is like a behind-the-scenes assistant quietly recording your time on different tasks. These tools can:
- Monitor work on specific projects
- Log time automatically while you code
- Help you understand patterns in your productivity
For developers, tools like TimeTackle, Clockify, and Timely are popular choices because they’re flexible, easy to integrate, and tailored to tech workflows.
Time tracking tools for developers aren’t just about punching the clock. They’re about gathering actionable insights. You can better allocate your time and optimize your workload by seeing how long you spend on debugging, coding new features, or attending meetings.
Why Automation Is Key
Let’s face it: manually tracking time is a chore, and most developers would rather focus on solving problems than filling out timesheets. That’s where automation shines. Many time tracking tools integrate directly with developer tools like GitHub, GitLab, or IDEs like Visual Studio Code, allowing time to be logged automatically as you push commits or work on tasks.
- Idle Detection: Forgot to pause the timer when you stepped away? Automation ensures your logs stay accurate.
- Real-Time Syncing: Track time across multiple devices seamlessly, whether you’re coding on a desktop or reviewing tasks on mobile.
- Background Tracking: Tools like Timely use AI to monitor your activities discreetly so you can focus on coding while it tracks the details.
Use Cases for Developers
Here’s how time tracking fits into a developer’s day-to-day:
- Code Sprints: Monitor time spent on specific user stories, bugs, or features to align with sprint goals.
- Debugging Sessions: Identify how long bug fixes take to improve estimates in future projects.
- Team Collaboration: Sync-tracked time with project management tools like Jira or Asana to keep everyone on the same page.
- Freelancing or Contract Work: Create detailed invoices with logged hours, categorized by client or task type.
- Personal Growth: Use reports to reflect on your productivity and find ways to improve your coding habits.
Time Tracking Is an Investment
For developers, time tracking tools are more than just utilities. They enable better work-life balance, enhanced efficiency, and smarter project management. With automation, seamless integrations, and actionable insights, these tools take the guesswork out of time management.
Why Time Tracking Software For Developers Is Beneficial
Enhancing Project Profitability with Time Tracking Software
Time tracking software for developers is an essential tool for boosting profitability on current projects while providing insights for future client work. By keeping tabs on how long you spend on each task, you can easily see if you are staying on budget, if certain tasks are taking longer than expected and need re-quoted, or if oncoming projects need a higher estimate. This not only helps you work more efficiently but also enables you to provide clients with accurate expectations for their projects.
Reducing the Time Spent on Timesheet Management
Developers can spend up to 3-5% of their billable hours on timesheet-related administration. This is time that could be better spent on actual client work. Time tracking software helps reduce the time spent on timesheet management by automatically tracking how long you spend on different tasks and projects. Instead of manually adding up time, you can use the accurate data to create invoices and update clients on progress. This means you get paid faster and aren’t undercharging for your work.
Integrating With Your Favorite Software
Developer time-tracking software can also help streamline your backend processes by integrating with other apps. For example, instead of using 10 different billing services, time tracking software, like Tackle, directly connects with tax providers like Xero and Freshbooks. That way, you never have to add payments and expenses to your accounting software manually. This saves you admin time and free you to do the work and wow your clients.
Automatic Time Tracking Keeps Accurate Records of Developer Work
Manual time tracking can be beneficial if you work in small bursts and are good at remembering your start and finish times. Using software that runs automatically in the background means that everything you do is tracked, not just what you remember to track. This ensures you get paid fairly for your work.
Improved Timesheets for Billing Clients
Developer time tracking isn’t one size fits all. One minute you might be testing and the next you might be researching. Due to the nature of your development work, it can be difficult to set accurate expectations for your clients in advance! That’s why using software that creates accurate timesheets is so essential. It gives an overview of exactly what you are billing clients for so there is no confusion when it comes time to pay.
Time Tracking Software Lets You Focus On Your Work
Time tracking software restores your focus. If you manually track tasks, you must remember to turn the tracker on and note everything you are doing. With automatic software, the app simply runs in the background and allows you to keep working without interruptions. It also keeps track of your billable hours so that you don’t have to!
Simplifying Communication and Reporting
Tracking your projects gives you quantitative data to communicate with. Time tracking for teams can give an accurate overview of how you price your services, whether your manager needs to set more realistic timelines, and what budget I should recommend for similar projects. Having data like this at your fingertips makes you easier to work with (and easier to recommend to new clients!).
Security and Peace of Mind
Data breaches have exposed over six million records worldwide, making secure databases more essential than ever. In an era of frequent data breaches, safeguarding sensitive information is paramount. Modern time tracking platforms employ robust encryption and secure cloud storage, ensuring your data remains protected. This security brings peace of mind, allowing developers to focus on what matters most.
Key Features to Look for in Time Tracking Software
Not all time tracking software is created equal. Developers should look for tools that offer:
- Seamless calendar integration with platforms like Google and Outlook.
- Automatic time capture to minimize manual logging.
- Flexible reporting options for tracking team and project performance.
- AI-powered automation for tagging and categorizing time effectively.
- Robust security measures to protect sensitive data.
Streamline Time Tracking with Tackle
Tackle revolutionizes time tracking through seamless calendar integration, eliminating the need for manual logging. Our platform automatically captures and categorizes your time, providing actionable insights through intuitive dashboards and reports. We’ve built everything you need into one seamless package:
- A smart tagging system that works your way
- AI-powered automation to handle the tedious stuff
- Flexible reporting tools to track what matters
- Intelligent time capture right in your browser
Trusted by teams at Roblox, Deel, and Lightspeed Ventures, Tackle helps executives, team leaders, and customer-facing professionals understand and optimize their time allocation.
- Simply connect your Google or Outlook calendar
- Set up custom tags and automations
- Gain valuable insights into how your team spends their time
Whether you’re tracking strategic initiatives, measuring team efficiency, or ensuring resource optimization, Tackle transforms time tracking from a chore into a powerful decision-making tool. Start using our automatic time tracking software for free with one-click today!
Related Reading
- Best Time Tracking Software for Small Business
- How to Track Employee Hours
- Agency Time Tracking Software
13 Best Time Tracking Software For Developers
1. TimeTackle: The Automatic Time Tracking Software for Developers
Tackle revolutionizes time tracking through seamless calendar integration, eliminating the need for manual logging. Our platform automatically captures and categorizes your time, providing actionable insights through intuitive dashboards and reports. We’ve built everything you need into one seamless package:
- A smart tagging system that works your way
- AI-powered automation to handle the tedious stuff
- Flexible reporting tools to track what matters
- Intelligent time capture right in your browser
Trusted by teams at Roblox, Deel, and Lightspeed Ventures, Tackle helps executives, team leaders, and customer-facing professionals understand and optimize their time allocation.
- Simply connect your Google or Outlook calendar
- Set up custom tags and automations
- Gain valuable insights into how your team spends their time
Whether you’re tracking strategic initiatives, measuring team efficiency, or ensuring resource optimization, Tackle transforms time tracking from a chore into a powerful decision-making tool. Start using our automatic time tracking software for free with one-click today!
2. Harvest: The Time Tracker That Improves Billing
Harvest time-tracking software aims to streamline the billing process and create accurate timesheets. It helps agencies generate reports, bill clients, and track project budgets from a single interface.
Key features
- Simple timesheet reports.
- Harvest analyzes your time tracking data, with hourly and daily budgets to track a project’s progress.
- Run reports on billable and nonbillable times for specific staff, tasks, clients, and projects.
- You’ll have a deep understanding of your current work, and historical records to help make your next project even better.
- Invoicing, payments, and expense tracking, all from within the app.
Integration
Harvest integrates with more apps than any other time tracker we tested. These range from accounting to project management to the payment process to Slack (yes, even Slack).
Budget Alerts
This feature is such a no-brainer (we use it all the time), it amazes me that more time tracking apps don’t have something like it. How many times have you gone over budget on a client project? If you’re like me, then the answer is almost every time! Harvest budget alerts prevent that from happening.
When you hit a certain percentage of the allotted hours for a project (say 25%, 50%, or 75%), Harvest will send you an alert so you can recalibrate and stay within budget.
Price: Harvest costs $12 for the first user and $10 for each additional user.
3. Hours: The Mobile Time Tracker
Hours was born out of a popular iOS time tracking app. They focus on tracking time as it happens with timers to help your team get the most accurate view of where they are spending their time. Two things that make is stand out are:
- Excellent iOS app
- Beautiful UI
Key Features
- Hours mobile-first focus means that it needs to include some of the more advanced features.
- Hours doesn’t have budget tracking, though you do get access to reports.
- Hours does have the ability to add freelancers to teams, but they are still given visibility into your other clients and projects.
Price: $8/user/month
4. Productive: Best for Team Organization
Productive is a powerful time-tracking tool that helps individuals and teams stay organized and focused. It also offers:
- Detailed task management
- Time tracking
- Team collaboration tools
- Automatic invoicing to free up your time for other things
Key Features
- Track time on each task to analyze where team members and managers can improve efficiency.
- Reporting and insights provide data about team productivity and identify areas for improvement.
- Collaboration tools allow you to share documents, leave comments, and communicate in real time.
- Integrations with platforms such as Slack, Trello, and Asana unify your existing workflow.
Pricing
Essential: $11/month per user
Professional: $28/month per user
Enterprise: Contact for pricing
Ultimate: Contact for pricing
5. Wrike: The Project Management Tool with Time Tracking
Wrike is a popular project management software helps agencies and teams manage deadlines and streamline workflows. It includes:
- Detailed time tracking
- Real-time communication
- Task-tracking functions
- Automatic project reporting
Key Features
- Time-tracking allows users to log how much time they spend on tasks and projects, providing managers with insights into their performance.
- Dozens of pre-built project templates for software development, marketing campaigns, and more.
- Collaboration tools include file sharing, real-time commenting, and @mentions to help teams work together and accomplish more.
- Integrations with popular tools like Slack, Salesforce, Google Drive, and Microsoft Teams
Pricing
Free
Team: $9.80/month per user
Business: $24.80/month per user
Enterprise: Contact for pricing
Pinnacle: Contact for pricing
6. RescueTime: The Time Tracking Tool for Focus
RescueTime is a straightforward time-tracking tool for freelancers and other professionals.
- Tracks time spent on tasks
- Generates detailed reports
- Can block distracting websites to improve productivity and focus
Key Features
- Time-tracking tool provides detailed reports on how employees spend their time on computer and mobile devices.
- Goal-setting functions let employees and managers set goals for how they want to spend their time and track progress accordingly.
- Website blocking allows teams to block specific websites during working hours to increase productivity and reduce distractions.
- Integrations with Slack, Google Calendar, and Outlook facilitate uninterrupted collaboration and a unified workflow.
Price
RescueTime Lite: Free
RescueTime: $12/month per user
7. Timeneye: The Time Tracker for Architects and Engineers
Timeneye is a prominent architecture time tracking software catering to small and medium-sized teams, spanning from solo entrepreneurs to groups of up to 100 members. With a focus on simplicity and effectiveness, Timeneye offers a range of features tailored to ensure accurate time tracking, streamlined task management, and insightful reporting.
Key Features
- Billing & invoicing: Timeneye facilitates accurate billing by allowing users to create client-specific subsections and track time spent on each client project. The platform offers seamless export options, enabling users to generate PDF summaries for convenient client invoicing.
- Reporting: Timeneye’s reporting capabilities empower architects and engineers to create detailed reports, offering valuable insights into business operations and performance metrics.
- Integrations: From project management platforms like ClickUp to productivity tools like Google Docs and Asana, Timeneye offers extensive integration options for enhanced workflow efficiency.
- Project management: Timeneye’s core features include robust project management, which allows users to set project budgets, monitor expenses, and track project progress in real time. The platform’s Project Status section provides a comprehensive overview of ongoing projects, enabling users to ensure adherence to budgets and deadlines.
Price
Annual plan: $72 per user per year or $6 per user per month (billed annually)
Monthly plan: $7 per user per month (billed monthly)
Platform
- Windows
- Android
- Mac
- Linux
- iOS
- Web
8. Apploye: The Time Tracker for Monitoring Employees
Apploye offers developers and engineers a comprehensive time tracking, scheduling, and employee monitoring solution. It helps streamline workflow and scheduling management and enhance team productivity.
Key Features
- Schedules: Apploye provides Google Calendar-like scheduling for teams, enabling efficient task assignment and job scheduling to facilitate team coordination.
- Visual time data displays: With insightful reports presented visually, users can analyze time data effectively on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, gaining valuable insights into project progress and employee productivity.
- GPS tracking: Apploye’s GPS tracking functionality allows users to monitor employee locations during job assignments, ensuring accurate billable hours for payroll processing and enhancing accountability.
- Pomodoro timer: Incorporating the Pomodoro timer feature, Apploye helps boost employee productivity and focus by leveraging the popular time management technique.
Price
Standard: $2.5 per user/month
Elite: $3.5 per user/month
9. Hubstaff: The Time Tracker for Remote Teams
Hubstaff is an agency time tracking app tailored for remote teams. It features time tracking and work verification. The app allows you to manage tasks, projects, and budgets and set work hour limits. The dashboard provides insights into activity and productivity, while screenshots can be captured during time tracking based on your settings.
Key Features
- Easily monitor time spent on projects and tasks with start/stop timers for accurate hour recording. Employees can log their hours online, giving managers easy access for review and payroll processing.
- For informed decision-making, generate detailed reports to analyze work hours, productivity trends, and project performance. Available on web, desktop (Windows and Mac), and mobile (Android and iOS), allowing time tracking from anywhere.
- Managers can review and approve or reject timesheets, ensuring accuracy in payroll and project billing.
Price
Starter: $499/seat/month (minimum 2 seats)
Grow: $750/seat/month (minimum 2 seats)
Team: $1000/seat/month (minimum 2 seats)
Enterprise: $2500/seat/month (billed annually)
10. Toggl Track: The Simple Time Tracker
Toggl Track is a time tracking app designed to help users monitor their time usage. The software supports team collaboration, allowing managers to invite team members, monitor their time usage, and gain insights into overall team productivity.
Key Features
- Track time with a single click for any project or client, with options to add or adjust details later.
- Keep time tracking data synchronized with Salesforce and Jira.
- Update billing rates for accurate invoicing across different periods.
- Set budgets or fixed fees to monitor progress on fixed-price projects and client retainers.
Price
Free: $0 for up to 5 users
Starter: $9/user/month (annually) or $10 (monthly)
Premium: $18/user/month (annually) or $20 (monthly)
Enterprise: Custom pricing for unlimited users
11. Timely: The Automated Time Tracker
Timely is a powerful, automated time tracking software for developers designed to optimize productivity through discreet background operations. It captures time spent on various apps and websites, generating a complete daily log of activities. An intuitive drag-and-drop interface simplifies project management and provides valuable insights into productivity. Timely also supports invoicing and integrates with accounting software like QuickBooks.
Its advanced task management is an add-on, its high price may be prohibitive for smaller businesses, and it lacks payroll integration, making it less suitable for those seeking an all-in-one solution.
Key Features
- Uses AI to create timesheets and schedules without manual input.
- Offers a visual representation of employee workloads, tracking logged and planned time, highlighting unlogged hours and overtime.
- Features a suite that includes budget tracking, cost comparisons, and project organization with tags.
- Easily assign time to projects and customize billing rates. Supports invoicing and integrates easily with accounting tools like QuickBooks.
Price
Starter: $9/user/month (billed yearly): 20 projects & Max. 5 users
Premium: $16/user/month (billed yearly): Unlimited projects & Max. 50 users
Unlimited: $22/user/month (billed yearly): Unlimited projects & users
Enterprise: Custom pricing for unlimited users.
12. Time Doctor: The Employee Monitoring Software
Time Doctor makes it easy to track time with the click of a button accurately. You simply start the timer to start tracking your work time automatically. For Managers, Time Doctor will let you know when and what your team is working on. The visual reports dashboard shows tables and charts view of hours worked daily, weekly, and monthly and over a custom date range. The reports also show time usage stats based on time spent on various projects and tasks, daily timeline reports, poor time usage, GPS tracking and more.
Time Doctor also integrates with many project management solutions and has a cool feature that gives you a friendly nudge when it detects that you might be distracted by a less productive task. With Time Doctor, you have deep insights to optimize your productivity.
Key Features
- Automated time tracking and breaks eliminate the need for manual updates and increase timesheet accuracy and compliance.
- Detailed employee monitoring features, such as keystroke logging, website monitoring, and screenshots, give managers an in-depth look at team members’ activities.
- Automated invoice creation using tracked time for each employee saves time and reduces the risk of human error.
- Integrations with dozens of platforms like WordPress, Slack, Sentry, Asana, Jira, Gusto, and Bitbucket help keep everyone and everything on the same page.
Price
- Basic: $7/month per user
- Standard: $10/month per user
- Premium: $20/month per user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
13. 7pace: Time Tracking for Developers
7pace time tracker is a cloud-based time tracking software, mainly developed to help software developers and organizations to:
- Manage projects
- User approval processes
- Activity tracking
- Attendance management, and many more
With the help of 7pace time tracking software, organizations can get an exact idea of work done, team members’ activities, and the time it took for the project to accomplish.
Key Features
- Access controls/permission
- Activity dashboard
- Approval workflow
- Automatic time capture
- Billable and non-billable hours
- Activity tracking
Related Reading
- Agency Time Tracking Software
- Time Tracking Software for Accountants
- Time Tracking Software for Architects
Choosing The Best Time Tracking Software For Developers
Developers thrive on efficiency, so a time tracking tool should streamline their day, not create more work. Look for software with intuitive start/stop timers and minimal setup. Adoption will suffer if it takes more time to track your work than to do it. Tools can reduce manual tracking like:
- Idle time detection
- Reminders to log time
- Integrations with development environments (like IDEs)
Developers often switch between laptops, desktops, and mobile devices. A tool that syncs effortlessly across platforms is a big win. Whether it’s live chat, tutorials, or forums, accessible customer support ensures a smooth learning curve for your team.
Features That Fit Developer Needs
Your time tracking tool should cater specifically to a developer’s workflow and the goals of your team or organization. Categorizing time by task, project, or client gives developers clarity on how their time is distributed.
For example, tagging “bug fixes” or “feature development” can provide actionable insights. Some tools integrate directly with version control systems (like GitHub) to automatically log activity based on commits.
- Clear, customizable reporting dashboards allow teams to track productivity trends, identify bottlenecks, and demonstrate progress to stakeholders.
- Developers might work in environments without internet access.
- Offline tracking that syncs data later is a must-have in these situations.
For development teams working on Agile or Scrum projects, tools that align with sprint tracking or story points can provide additional context for time logs.
Seamless Integration with Developer Tools
The best time tracking software should integrate with the tools developers already use to avoid disrupting their workflow. Integrations with GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket allow developers to automatically link tracked time to code commits. Look for compatibility with Jira, Trello, or Asana to sync tasks and track time effortlessly.
Some tools integrate with IDEs like Visual Studio Code or JetBrains, letting developers log time directly within their coding environment. As your tech stack evolves, a tool with a broad range of integrations ensures longevity and continued value.
Start Using Our Automatic Time Tracking Software for Free with One-click Today
Automatic time tracking software does exactly what its name suggests — it automatically tracks the time you spend on different tasks. Instead of manually starting and stopping timers, this software tracks time in the background as you work. It captures your activity, logs this information for you to review later, and even generates reports based on this data.
Automated Time Tracking for Coding Projects
This process eliminates the tediousness of time tracking and helps create more accurate records. For example, suppose you are working on a coding project. In that case, automatic time tracking software might log your time spent in different areas of the code repository and any time spent in related documents or communication tools. This helps you uncover helpful information about your time allocation and productivity to help you get back to work faster.
Customizable Time Tracking for Tailored Insights
You can also customize automatic time tracking software to fit your workflow. For instance, you can set up rules to create reports based on your coding tasks or activities in particular software programs. This further streamlines the time tracking process to help you seamlessly optimize your productivity and time management skills. Developers love automatic time tracking software because it helps remove the burdensome nature of traditional time tracking so they can focus on what they do best — coding.
