Toggl Track vs TradesTimer
What Toggl Track is
A polished, manual time-tracking tool designed for freelancers and agencies to manage tasks and projects via one-tap timers and detailed reporting.
Best for: Freelancers, agencies, and desk-based professionals who need precise, manual control over task durations and project-oriented reporting.
Pricing at a glance
$9 Free and paid plans
Free for up to 5 users (manual timers); Starter roughly $9/user/mo billed annually. Pricing changes — verify.
Verified 2026-06-08
$0 Free — full app
Toggl Track strengths
- Highly polished user interface and reporting capabilities
- Easy-to-use one-tap timers for manual task tracking
Considerations for self-employed tradespeople
- Requires manual interaction to start and stop timers while transitioning between job sites
- Lacks automatic detection of travel distance between locations for mileage logs
Experiences with Toggl Track
These quotes come from public discussions about Toggl Track. Each quote links to its source.
Toggl is great because I can set up some automated rules to start/stop the timer, and it keeps a log of what I had open which is useful if I forget to start/stop the timer manually.
Even people who love Toggl build a safety net for forgetting. On a jobsite there are no browser tabs to reconstruct from — but there is location, which is what TradesTimer uses.
Manual edits are easy if you forget to start a timer … Starts getting pricey if you want more features. IMO, $9 per month, when I just want insights and billable rates is just too much.
'Easy manual edits' means you're still reconstructing your day from memory — the exact chore automatic tracking removes.
Why I built a Toggl Track alternative
Toggl's one-tap timer is about as low-friction as deliberate tracking gets — and it still loses to a tradesman's morning. I kept hours in notebooks for years working for contractors; the discipline is the hard part, not the tool. You don't forget to write in the notebook at your desk. You forget on the ladder.
Toggl's own ecosystem admits this: autotracking rules, calendar backfill, editable entries — all safety nets for the forgotten timer. TradesTimer just removes the timer. Your stops and drives are logged from location, on-device, and the billable summary is free.
What TradesTimer does differently
- Automatically reconstructs the workday and travel trips using background GPS
- Generates an automatic mileage log for tax purposes without manual entry
Which app fits your needs?
Toggl Track is a superior manual tracker for desk-based project management and agency reporting. For solo tradespeople on the move, TradesTimer provides a hands-free alternative by automatically logging jobsite stops and travel mileage via GPS.
Page last verified 2026-06-08. If Toggl Track has changed pricing or features since then contact us at [email protected] to request a correction.
Free time tracking
Record stops and trips, review your hours, and export reports without a subscription.
- Automatic stop and trip recording
- Unlimited stops, drives, and days
- Review and edit stops and trips
- Rounded billable hours, exported as text or CSV
- Travel log with estimated distances
- 7-day summary view
- History stored on your phone
Control your location history
TradesTimer stores your history on your phone. Address lookups send coordinates to an address provider. You choose where to share your hours and travel exports.
See the privacy policy for details about address lookups, exports, and other data use.