Remote employee time tracking apps streamline the administrative burden for employees and employers. Employers can track remote workers by projects and tasks, and employees can clock in and out and manage their time from anywhere.
According to Market Research Future, the U.S. economy loses 50 million hours in productivity, or $7.4 billion daily, due to unrecorded work activities. It can be especially challenging now with so many remote workers, hybrid work arrangements, and distributed workforces. The same applies to service workers who are out of sight of employers.
While there has to be a certain level of trust with remote teams, remote employee time tracking apps provide added confidence that workers are doing their jobs and working productively.
In this article, we’ll look at the most popular time tracking apps and discuss their key features, pros and cons, and pricing. Let’s start with our top picks across different categories.
If you don’t have the time to read through our research, jump down to our quick comparison table.
Our Top Picks
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Best all-in-one remote employee time tracking app
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Good for companies with billable hours
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Good for employee monitoring
Why trust us?
Our team of unbiased software reviewers follows strict editorial guidelines, and our methodology is clear and open to everyone.
See our complete methodology
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Tools considered
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Tools reviewed
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Best tools
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What to Look For in a Remote Employee Time Tracking App
When looking for a solution to remote workers’ time tracking issues, there are several key features to consider.
- Mobility: Employees should be able to manage their time from any connected device, regardless of where they are working.
- Employee time clock: Remote employee time tracking apps should allow you to track and monitor employee work hours. Look for a remote employee time tracking app that lets you view employees on a dashboard, team calendar, and by shift.
- Online timesheets: You want a time tracking app that streamlines the timesheet process to simplify payroll management. This should include automated timesheet to payroll conversion.
- Manage PTO requests: Your remote employee time tracking app should allow you to easily manage absences or PTO requests. Not all time tracking apps allow you to manage PTO requests, although it’s a core feature of Connecteam’s software.
- Employee scheduling: You should be able to schedule shifts online, assign shifts in one click, and easily oversee shift-related tasks. Drag-and-drop scheduling significantly simplifies the task, especially when making changes.
- Task management: The software should sync with job scheduling to maximize accuracy and allow you to track hours against tasks and projects.
- Geolocation tools: For remote workers assigned to job sites, geolocation tracking can confirm your employees are at their designated locations.
- Compliance: Employee time tracking can also ensure employees comply with work rules and labor laws by tracking hours against preset limits and alerting them in cases of noncompliance.
- Knowledge base: A knowledge base provides a central location to store and access key organizational documents, including policies, employee handbooks, forms, and onboarding information.
We chose Connecteam as the best all-in-one remote employee time tracking app for 2024 because it includes all these features and more.
The 6 Best Remote Employee Time Tracking Apps of 2024
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Connecteam — Best all-in-one remote employee time tracking app
Key Features
Automated time sheets and payroll
Task assignment and management
Daily time limits, auto clock-out, and overtime management
Pros
Eliminates multiple tracking, scheduling, and task assignment apps
Syncs with job scheduler automatically
Flat-fee pricing rather than per-user fees
Affordable alternative to other remote time tracking apps
Cons
It may not be the best fit for companies with less than five employees
Connecteam is the choice all-in-one solution for remote employee time tracking. It allows you to schedule shifts, track work hours for remote employees, send automatic reminders, and simplify communications. The platform works on desktop and mobile platforms, so employees can use it wherever they are working as long as they have an internet connection.
Ease of Use
Users praise the intuitive interface that makes it easy to learn and simple to use. For example, the app’s navigation makes it easy to find exactly what you need without searching through menus or sub-menus. Also, employers can manage all employee information from one dashboard in real time.
Task Assignment
You can see the status of employee tasks and assign new tasks directly from the dashboard, reducing the need for emails or phone calls.
No Buddy Punching
Connecteam’s solution eliminates “buddy punching“, where other employees clock in for their colleagues. It recognizes individual users and can track geolocation to ensure remote employees are where they are supposed to be when clocking in or out.
Enhanced Communication
Employees stay up-to-date through in-app messaging and notifications. Team members can attach files and documentation for sharing and collaborating. You can also track engagement and response rates.
Additionally, employees can complete reports, forms, checklists, and requests in the app. This streamlines workflows and confirms key milestones are met.
Employee Scheduling
Connecteam makes it easy to schedule employees for shifts and days, including recurring shifts.
HR Management
Another great team management feature helps train “deskless” employees by creating customizable documentation, courses, and quizzes to evaluate their knowledge.
Connecteam also offers a free for life plan – Try Connecteam here!
Pricing
Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users
14-day free trial, no credit card required
Start your free trial -
Harvest — Good for companies with billable hours
Key Features
- Time sheet tracking and management
- Project tracking
- Customizable report
- Tracks billable and nonbillable hours
Pros
- Accommodates multiple billing rates
- Allows for offline time tracking
Cons
- Does not provide real-time dashboards
- Does not manage absences or time off
Harvest allows employees to tie time sheets to individual tasks for tracking billable and nonbillable hours. Employers can also track hours against a financial budget and count down the time left to complete a task.
Harvest features project management tools that help track time on different projects and tasks to ensure employees are working efficiently and identify any productivity roadblocks. Companies can also create invoices in the app and send them to clients.
However, Harvest does not provide dashboards that allow companies to quickly track employees. This makes team management difficult and may affect employee accountability.
Pricing
$10.8/user/month Trial: Yes — 30-day Free Plan: Yes — Up to 1 seat & 2 projects
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Hubstaff — Good for employee monitoring
Key Features
- Time tracking for remote teams
- Project management tools
- Records screenshots and activity
- Lightweight app
Pros
- Depth of data for streamlining processes
- Intuitive interface
Cons
- Does not track activity in real time
- Turns off when idle even though employees may still be working
Hubstaff can capture periodic screenshots of the apps and websites employees use, so companies know what team members are doing on their computers. Organizations can also monitor their employee’s activity levels to check productivity and generate time sheets with automated reminders so that workers don’t forget to log their time.
The software automatically logs keyboard and mouse activity but not keystrokes. It measures the frequency of a user’s mouse and keyboard strikes.
However, Hubstaff does not track activity in real time. Additionally, many users cite problems with the app shutting off and not recording work time when they aren’t actively using their keyboards.
Pricing
Starts at $4.99/user/month, 2 users minimum Trial: Yes — 14-day Free Plan: Yes — For one user only
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Timely — Good for automated time tracking
Key Features
- Employee management
- Billing and invoicing
- Marketing automation
- Online booking
Pros
- Easy to use
- Memory app automatically records work
Cons
- Limited integration with other third-party platforms
- Does not offer advanced reporting tools
Timely allows users to automatically track employee time, including how much time they spend on each website or desktop app. This lets companies record daily time spent with documents, meetings, emails, websites, and calls in a private timeline. Companies can also track time on a team basis.
Organizations can keep up with schedules and review current activity with planning tools to shift tasks as priorities and deadlines change.
Remote workers like that Timely does not capture screenshots or keystrokes, but some employers consider this a negative as it doesn’t provide full visibility into how productive employees are. Employers also cite a lack of detailed reporting and limited integration options as negatives.
Pricing
Starts at $16/user/month, for 6-50 users Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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Clockify — Good for managing project teams
Key Features
- Time and expense tracking
- Project planning and scheduling
- Milestone tracking for projects
- Collaboration tools for agile projects
Pros
- Offers tools for cost-to-completion tracking
- Includes a Gantt-style timeline view
Cons
- Requires manual input for tracking time and tasks
- Administration may have a learning curve
Clockify also lets organizations apply work hours to specific projects to break projects into billable and nonbillable time, track expenses, and see allocations.
Clockify tracks attendance for payroll and accounting and helps manage workloads for teams, such as showing who is working on what projects and how much time they spend on each activity. Companies can also find any gaps or bottlenecks preventing task completion, assign tasks, and see who is available for work.
When configuring remote employee time tracking preferences, Clockify allows companies to set up a shared time clock kiosk for on-site employees to clock in and out. However, users say that these configurations can be tricky to understand.
One significant downside is the inability to automate time cards and clock-in and clock-out features. Instead, with Clockify, you’ll have to do them manually. Likewise, tracking hours against tasks also requires manual activity.
Pricing
Starts at $3.99/user/month Trial: Yes — For PRO features Free Plan: Yes
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Toggl Track — Good for tracking productivity by projects and tasks
Key Features
- Online and offline time tracking
- Tracks billable and nonbillable hours
- Time sheet management
- Tracking by projects and tasks
Pros
- Accommodates multiple billing rates
- You can't pause sessions
Cons
- Does not allow automated time capture
- Does not allow vacation or leave tracking
Toggl tracks employee time spent on individual tasks, making it easy to manage projects and teams. Administrators can filter, sort, or export data by user, project, or task. However, employees have to manually start and stop clocks in order to log work hours.
Employees like that Toggl has no included employee surveillance options, but this means it might not be the best solution for all employers since you can’t automate activity reports or screen grabs.
Toggl also includes reporting tools that help evaluate project health, project profitability, and resource capacity in real time. This enables project tracking against time budgets and financial budgets.
One missing feature is the inability to track vacation or leave time. There is also no easy way for employees to request time off.
Pricing
Starts at $9/user/month Trial: Yes — 30-day Free Plan: Yes — For up to 5 users
Compare the Best Remote Employee Time Tracking Apps
| Topic |
Start for free
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| Reviews |
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| Pricing |
Starts at just $29/month for the first 30 users
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$10.8/user/month
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Starts at $4.99/user/month, 2 users minimum
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Starts at $16/user/month, for 6-50 users
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Starts at $3.99/user/month
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Starts at $9/user/month
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| Free Trial |
yes
14-day
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yes
30-day
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yes
14-day
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yes
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yes
For PRO features
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yes
30-day
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| Free Plan |
yes
Free Up to 10 users
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yes
Up to 1 seat & 2 projects
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yes
For one user only
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no
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yes
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yes
For up to 5 users
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| Use cases |
Best all-in-one remote employee time tracking app
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Good for companies with billable hours
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Good for employee monitoring
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Good for automated time tracking
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Good for managing project teams
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Good for tracking productivity by projects and tasks
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| Available on |
What Is Remote Employee Time Tracking?
With the move to remote teams and hybrid work arrangements, more employees than ever are working from home.
Remote employee time tracking software is a way for employers to track employee and team productivity and keep an eye on current projects. Remote work time tracking lets you monitor when employees clock in or out, take breaks, and how much time they spend at work.
How Do Remote Employee Time Tracking Apps Work?
Remote worker time trackers will automatically log the work hours of team members. Some remote worker time tracking tools will allow you to produce detailed reports on the time employees spend on each activity.
Generally, employee time tracking happens in the background. Workers clock in using the app, which captures work hours and sometimes screen grabs of employees’ activity to verify the remote employee’s time is valid. Workers may need to manually enter information about their projects and tasks. This is especially important for remote work done for clients billed per hour.
The Benefits of Remote Employee Time Tracking
A remote worker time tracking tool assures employers that their employees are working diligently and productively when out of the office. Time tracking apps also make it easier to manage and organize teams, especially when several team members are working remotely.
Accurate Work Hours
Employers can get an accurate picture of how many hours an employee worked and how they spent their time, whether they are hourly employees or salaried workers. This is especially important if you bill clients by the hour, so employers can accurately assess how long projects take.
Increase Productivity
Keeping an eye on employees who work from home with time tracking helps employers be more conscious of how employees spend their time. Employees who know they are being tracked tend to work more efficiently and productively.
Remote worker time tracking also helps employers identify any inefficiencies in workflow and better evaluate employee performance.
Manage Scope Creep
A time tracking app can also help you keep projects on schedule and avoid scope creep. With many remote work time tracker platforms, you can itemize each stage of a project to ensure employees complete each task and sub-task.
Reduce Administrative Workload
Remote employee time tracking apps can also help reduce the administrative workload for employees and employers. They can replace or reduce the time it takes for timesheet management, invoicing, and payroll processing.
How Much Do Remote Employee Time Tracking Apps Cost?
Small companies can find free options, although most have limited functionality. For companies with several employees, plans can start as low as $3.99 per user per month. Depending on the number of users you have, it may be a better bargain to choose a remote employee time tracking app like Connecteam that charges a flat fee.
For example, Connecteam is $29 per month for up to 30 users, with additional users at just $0.50 per person per month. The lowest-priced alternative would be about $120 monthly for the same number of users.
Here’s a breakdown of costs per the number of users.
Time Tracking Apps Price Comparison
| Vendor | Monthly Cost for 10 Users | Monthly Cost for 20 Users | Month Cost for 30 Users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connecteam | $29 | $29 | $29 |
| Harvest | $108 | $216 | $324 |
| Hubstaff | $58.30 | $116.60 | $174 |
| Timely | $90 | $180 | $270 |
| Clockify | $39.90 | $79.80 | $119.70 |
| Toggl | $90 | $180 | $270 |
FAQs
How do you track the productivity of remote workers?
A time tracking tool can monitor individual and team work hours so that employers know when remote employees are working and what they are working on.
Can employers legally track hours for remote employees with an app?
If employees are using equipment that you provide, you generally have the right to monitor and track everything done on it — whether it occurs in the workplace or for remote work. Some federal and state privacy laws may come into play in specific circumstances, so employers should check with legal counsel.
Is there a free way to track employee hours?
There are many different time tracking apps available with varying prices. Some of them might be completely free.
However, an app that lacks the features you need won’t do you any good, no matter how low the price is. With Connecteam, you get all the benefits of the best remote employee time tracking apps at a substantially lower price than others on the market.
The Bottom Line On Remote Employee Time Tracking App
The right time tracking app can streamline your timesheets and payroll process, help keep your employees working productively, and reduce your overall administrative burden.
Our top choice for remote employee time tracking is Connecteam, a great all-in-one app that handles all your time tracking needs. Connecteam has all the functionalities and features you need to accurately track hours for remote employees, including assigning hours to projects and itemizing workloads for client billing. Plus, Connecteam automates timesheets and payroll and syncs seamlessly with job scheduling.
Learn more about how Connecteam’s remote employee time tracking and all-in-one team management solution can help you streamline your business operations.