Best Time Tracking for Freelancers and Consultants

A team buys time tracking to see where hours go. A freelancer buys it to get paid: every tracked hour should end up, at the right rate, on an invoice the client accepts. That narrows the choice to two questions: does the free plan carry billable rates and invoicing, and if not, what is the cheapest plan that does. The prices and plan limits below were read on the three vendors' pricing pages on October 28, 2026. Nothing here comes from a hands-on trial.

For whom: a solo consultant, designer, developer, bookkeeper or coach who bills by the hour or tracks hours against a fixed fee. Not for: a small agency with employees on payroll; see time tracking for agencies instead.

What a single freelancer gets on each plan

Our pick

Harvest Free, then Clockify Standard. A freelancer with one or two ongoing clients can run the whole loop, timer to sent invoice, on Harvest Free without paying anything. The two-project ceiling is real, though: a third client or a separate retainer means a paid plan. At that point Clockify Standard does the same loop for less than Harvest Teams: $5.49 against $9 a month on annual billing, with unlimited projects.

• Stay on Harvest Teams if you already invoice from Harvest and your clients are used to its invoices; the price gap is small next to the cost of changing how you bill.
• Pick Toggl Track Free if your client work is billed on a fixed fee or invoiced from accounting software, and you only want accurate timed reports to check that the fee holds. Its free plan covers that for one person.

Three habits that matter more than the app

1. Set the rate on the project, not in your head. Whatever the tool, an hour without a project and a rate is an hour nobody bills.
2. Round consistently and say so. If you bill in tenths or quarters of an hour, state it in your engagement letter; see time rounding and corrections.
3. Send the report with the invoice. Clients question totals, not line items they can see.

If cost is the only question, compare every plan in what time tracking software costs; if a client asks what the tracker records on your machine, see what time trackers record.