The 8 Best Time Tracking Apps for Small Agencies on Macs in 2026

For most small agencies on Macs, Harvest is the safest pick because it turns tracked hours into invoices and team reports. Clockify wins if you want a free plan for up to 5 users. Timely wins if staff forget to start timers. Hubstaff fits only if you need screenshots as proof of work. Dayflow, our app, is single-user and ranks last for agencies.

This ranking is for agencies of roughly 2 to 30 people where most of the team works on Macs: design studios, dev shops, marketing and content agencies, small consultancies. The job you are hiring a tracker for is specific. You need every billable hour captured, attached to the right client and project, approved by someone, and turned into an invoice or a profitability report without a Friday afternoon of reconstruction. You also need staff to actually use it, which means it has to be quick on a Mac and not feel like spyware.

Disclosure: Dayflow is our product. It ranks last here, and that is deliberate. Dayflow is a single-user app that records one person’s screen and writes their day into a timeline. It does not win the two criteria that matter most to an agency, invoicing and team reporting, because it has neither. If you are a solo person looking for a personal time tracker for Mac, that broader ranking is a better fit than this one.

Quick comparison

Tool	Best for	How it tracks	Price
Harvest	Invoicing clients from tracked hours	One-click timers, timesheets, calendar	Teams: $9/seat/month billed annually, $11 billed monthly
Toggl	Tracking plus capacity planning, no screenshots	Timers, timesheets, calendar, background tracking in desktop app	Starter: $9/user/month billed annually, $12 billed monthly
Clockify	Free or low-cost tracking for a whole team	Timer, timesheet, calendar, kiosk, desktop auto tracker	Free up to 5 users; Standard $5.49/seat/month billed annually
Timely	Automatic team timesheets drafted by AI	Background Memory tracker, AI-drafted entries	Starter: $9/user/month billed yearly, $11 billed monthly

Quick picks by use case

Best overall for agencies: Harvest. It goes from timer to invoice to QuickBooks or Xero without extra tools. Teams costs $9 per seat per month billed annually, or $11 billed monthly.

Best free: Clockify. The Free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited tracking and reports. Invoicing and approvals start on Standard at $5.49 per seat per month billed annually.

Best for planning and capacity: Toggl. Project timelines, tasks and capacity sit next to time tracking. Free for up to 3 users. Starter is $9 per user per month billed annually.

Best automatic capture: Timely. AI drafts each person’s timesheet from a private background timeline. Starter is $9 per user per month billed yearly, capped at 5 users.

Best for privacy-sensitive automatic tracking: Memtime. Raw activity data stays on each device. Basic is $14 per user per month billed annually.

Best budget pick with invoicing: TMetric. Client invoicing, billable rates and budgets on Professional at $5.83 per seat per month billed annually.

Best for proof of work from contractors: Hubstaff. Screenshots and activity levels. Starter is $4.99 per seat per month billed annually, 2-seat minimum.

Best personal memory aid: Dayflow. $0 and MIT licensed, for one person on one Mac. Not a team tool.

How we compared them

The weights below reflect what a small agency loses money on: unbilled hours, slow invoicing and trackers that staff stop using.

• Billing and invoicing (25%). High scores turn approved hours into client invoices or sync cleanly to accounting. Low scores leave you exporting spreadsheets.
• Team reporting and approvals (20%). High scores give a manager per-client, per-project and per-person views with timesheet approval. Low scores are single-user or report only on yourself.
• Capture completeness (20%). High scores catch time people forget to log, through automatic capture or drafted entries. Low scores depend entirely on someone remembering to press start.
• Cost for a 5 to 15 person team (15%). High scores have a usable free tier or low per-seat price with billing features included. Low scores put basics behind expensive tiers or seat minimums.
• Staff trust and privacy (10%). High scores avoid screenshots or keep raw activity private to the person. Low scores default to monitoring that can sour a small team.
• Mac fit (10%). High scores have a confirmed native Mac app. Low scores leave Mac support unconfirmed or web-only.

Each tool was compared from its vendor’s own pricing and product pages on 2026-10-04 (Dayflow against its 2.2.0 release facts). No benchmark was run, and the scores are judgments.

The 8 best time tracking apps for small agencies, ranked

1. Harvest

Harvest is a timer and timesheet app built around getting tracked hours onto an invoice. Staff start a one-click timer, fill in a daily or weekly timesheet, or pull entries from a connected calendar. There are native Mac and Windows apps, web, mobile and browser extensions.

For an agency, the value is what happens after the hours are in. Harvest lists invoicing from tracked time with online payments, expense tracking, team reporting, and accounting integrations such as QuickBooks and Xero. Timesheet approvals and profitability reporting sit on Enterprise.

Pricing: the Free plan is $0 forever but limited to 1 seat and 2 projects, so it is a way to try the workflow, not run an agency. Teams is $9 per seat per month billed annually ($108 per seat a year) or $11 billed monthly. Enterprise is $14 billed annually ($168 per seat a year) or $17.50 billed monthly. Enterprise Plus is custom. The trial is 30 days with no card.

The honest limit: Harvest lists no automatic activity capture and no AI features, so its numbers depend on your team’s timer habits. The site footer shows it is now owned by Bending Spoons.

Pick it if invoicing clients from tracked hours is the main job and your team will run timers.

2. Toggl (formerly Toggl Track)

Toggl is a timer-first tracker that now combines time tracking with project planning in one product (Toggl for Mac compared). Capture comes from manual and real-time timers, timesheets and calendar integrations, and the vendor also lists background tracking with a timeline in the desktop app. Toggl states it does not take screenshots or record keystrokes, which helps when you ask staff to install it.

Agency features include billable rates and team reports on paid plans, project timelines, tasks and capacity management, and on Premium, timesheet approvals, profitability reports and Jira and Asana integrations. Toggl AI answers natural-language questions about workspace data and handles admin tasks, and there is an MCP server and an AI Task Creator.

Pricing: Free for up to 3 users. Starter is $9 per user per month billed annually or $12 billed monthly. Premium is $16 billed annually or $24 billed monthly. Enterprise is contact vendor. Paid plans have a 30-day trial.

The honest limit: billable rates require a paid plan, so the free tier is not a billing setup, and approvals and profitability need Premium. It is still primarily timer and manual entry.

Pick it if you want hours and team capacity in the same place, without screenshots.

3. Clockify

Clockify is the cheapest way to put a whole small team on one tracker (Clockify for Mac compared). It captures time through a timer, timesheets, calendar and kiosk entry, plus an auto tracker in the desktop app. It runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, web, mobile and browser extensions.

The Free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited tracking, timer, timesheet, auto tracker, calendar, reports and apps. (The FAQ says you can invite up to 4 people, which is the same 5-person workspace.) Invoicing, time off and approvals start on Standard. Pro adds scheduling, forecasting, expenses, GPS tracking and activity monitoring. Clockify lets you host data in the EU (Germany), UK, USA or Australia, which is useful when a client asks where their project data sits.

Pricing per seat per month: Basic $3.99 billed annually or $4.99 monthly, Standard $5.49 or $6.99, Pro $7.99 or $9.99, Enterprise $11.99 or $14.99, CAKE.com Bundle $12.99 or $15.99. The trial is 7 days of Pro, no card.

The honest limit: no AI features are listed, it is primarily timer based, and the features an agency wants are spread across tiers.

Pick it if you need team tracking for $0 now and cheap invoicing later.

4. Timely

Timely is an automatic tracker that drafts timesheets for each person (Timely alternative compared). Its Memory tracker records work in the background across web and desktop apps into a private timeline, and AI drafts timesheet entries for the user to approve. A manual timer is included.

This addresses the biggest agency leak: hours nobody logged. Timely states timelines are private and only approved entries are shared, so a manager sees timesheets, not a minute-by-minute record. AI also categorizes time. Premium and above add team and budget management plus project management and accounting integrations. Unlimited adds capacity reporting and overtime tracking.

Pricing per user per month: Starter $9 billed yearly or $11 monthly (max 5 users, 20 projects), Premium $16 or $20 (max 50 users), Unlimited $22 or $28, Enterprise custom. A Tasks add-on is listed from as little as $5 per person. There is no free tier and the trial is 14 days.

The honest limit: the pages we read did not confirm which desktop operating systems Timely supports, so verify Mac support during the trial. No invoicing is listed, and Starter’s 20-project cap is tight for an agency with many clients.

Pick it if missed hours cost you more than the per-seat price.

5. TMetric

TMetric is a low-cost timer-based tracker aimed at client-facing teams (TMetric alternative compared). People start and stop a timer or add manual entries, and a timer button appears inside 50+ web apps. The Business plan adds app and site monitoring, activity levels and optional screenshots.

For agencies, Professional is the plan that matters: client invoicing, billable rates and project budgets. Business adds a time off module, team timesheets and Jira, Redmine and ClickUp integrations. TMetric runs on web, Windows, Mac, Linux, mobile and browser extensions. It is developed by Devart.

Pricing: Free for up to 2 seats with unlimited time tracking, clients and projects, exportable reports and API access. Professional is $5.83 per seat per month billed annually or $7 monthly. Business is $7.50 billed annually or $9 monthly. Enterprise is custom. The trial is 14 days, extendable by 7.

The honest limit: the free plan stops at 2 seats and keeps only 7 days of activity data, invoicing requires a paid plan, and it lists no AI features. Capture still depends on timers unless you move to Business monitoring.

Pick it if you want Harvest-style invoicing at a lower per-seat price and can live with a plainer product.

6. Memtime

Memtime is an automatic tracker that keeps raw activity on each person’s computer (Memtime alternative compared). It records time in every program, document, email, call, meeting and browser tab, shows it as a timeline, and the user turns that into time entries. The vendor states recorded activity data is stored exclusively on the device and is not uploaded.

That design suits agencies with privacy-conscious staff or clients: people get a full memory of their day, and only the entries they create get shared. Connect and above sync entries to 100+ project and billing tools. Premium adds call system integrations plus SSO, SAML and SCIM. Built-in project management and custom reports are listed.

Pricing per user per month: Basic $14 billed annually, $18 quarterly or $12 two-yearly. Connect $21, $26 or $18. Premium $29, $35 or $23. Enterprise is custom for 50+ seats. There is no monthly billing option and no free tier. The 14-day trial needs no payment details and does not convert.

The honest limit: it is the most expensive per seat here, integrations with your project or billing tool need Connect, invoicing is not listed, no AI features are listed, and there is no mobile app.

Pick it if you want automatic capture without raw activity ever leaving staff machines.

7. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is an employee monitoring and time tracking tool for managers. Staff start and stop a timer in the desktop or mobile app, and Hubstaff records activity levels, screenshots, apps and URLs, with GPS tracking for field teams. Tracked data is uploaded for managers to review.

For agencies working with contractors or virtual assistants, that proof-of-work trail is the point. Hubstaff also lists payments, payroll and invoices, project budgets, scheduling and 35+ integrations. An AI-powered unusual activity detection feature is part of the Insights add-on.

Pricing per seat per month: Starter $4.99 billed annually or $7 monthly, Grow $7.50 or $9, Team $10 or $12, all with a 2-seat minimum. Enterprise is $25 billed annually. Add-ons such as Insights, Tasks and Silent app start at $2.5 per seat per month. There is no free tier, a 14-day trial with no card and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The honest limit: screenshots and activity scores can damage trust on a small salaried team, and several features cost extra on lower plans. Capture is still timer-started.

Pick it if you pay contractors by the hour and need evidence of the work.

8. Dayflow

Dayflow is our free, open-source Mac app. It records the screen at one frame every 10 seconds and has AI write the day into a readable timeline, so nobody starts a timer. Full screen recordings and the timeline are stored on the Mac.

Analysis runs one of three ways: a local model through Ollama or LM Studio keeps screenshot analysis on-device, your own cloud provider processes selected screenshots, or Dayflow Pro manages cloud analysis and, under the privacy policy, deletes screenshots after processing. The local and cloud processing page covers the trade-offs.

At an agency, Dayflow fits one person: a founder or designer who wants to reconstruct what they did for which client before filling in the team tracker. You can export a date range as Markdown from Settings.

Pricing: $0, MIT licensed, with an optional Pro plan at $20 a month. Mac only, macOS 14 or later.

The honest limit: no team reports, no invoicing, no payroll approvals, and no Windows or mobile apps. AI summaries can miss or misinterpret work, so check them before sharing.

Pick it if you want a private personal record next to your agency’s real tracker.

Full comparison table

Tool	Price	Automatic capture	AI summaries	Where data lives	Open source	Platforms
Harvest	Free (1 seat, 2 projects); Teams $9/seat/month billed annually	No, timers, timesheets, calendar	None listed	Cloud	No	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Toggl	Free up to 3 users; Starter $9/user/month billed annually	Background tracking and timeline in desktop app listed	Toggl AI answers questions about workspace data	Cloud	No	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Clockify	Free up to 5 users; Basic $3.99/seat/month billed annually	Auto tracker in desktop app; activity monitoring on Pro	None listed	Cloud, hosting in EU, UK, USA or Australia	No	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Timely	No free tier; Starter $9/user/month billed yearly	Yes, Memory tracker	AI-drafted timesheets and categorization	Cloud, timelines private	No	Web, desktop app (OS not confirmed), iOS, Android
TMetric	Free up to 2 seats; Professional $5.83/seat/month billed annually	App and site monitoring on Business	None listed	Cloud	No	Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Memtime	No free tier; Basic $14/user/month billed annually	Yes, every program, document and tab	None listed	Activity data local; synced entries leave device	No	Mac, Windows, Linux
Hubstaff	No free tier; Starter $4.99/seat/month billed annually	Activity levels, screenshots, app and URL tracking	AI unusual activity detection (Insights add-on)	Cloud	No	Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome, web
Dayflow	$0; Pro $20/month	Yes, one frame every 10 seconds	AI-written daily timeline	Recordings and timeline on your Mac	Yes, MIT	macOS 14+

Do agencies need automatic tracking, or are timers enough?

Timers work when the work comes in clean blocks: a two-hour design session, a scheduled client call. They fail on the work agencies do most, which is switching. A five-minute Slack thread for one client, a quick fix for another, an email that turns into a half hour of research. Nobody restarts a timer for each of those, and that time either goes unbilled or gets guessed at on Friday.

There are three ways to handle it:

• Timers plus discipline. Harvest, Toggl, Clockify and TMetric. Cheapest and simplest. Works if your team is small and consistent, or if you bill fixed fees and only need rough hours for profitability.
• Automatic capture that drafts entries. Timely drafts timesheets with AI, and Memtime shows a timeline you convert into entries. Each person still reviews, but they review a record instead of relying on memory. Our explainer on what an automatic time tracker is goes deeper.
• A hybrid. Keep the team on a timer tool for billing and let individuals who struggle to remember their day use a personal recorder. This is where Dayflow fits, and where Toggl’s background timeline and Clockify’s auto tracker can also help without adding a tool.

Before choosing, put a number on the leak. The real hourly rate calculator shows what unbilled time does to your effective rate, which tells you whether Timely’s or Memtime’s per-seat premium pays for itself.

Should a small agency use screenshot monitoring?

For a team of salaried designers and developers, usually not. Hubstaff and TMetric’s Business plan offer screenshots and activity levels, and those features exist for a reason: contractors billed by the hour, offshore assistants, clients who demand proof. But on a ten-person team where everyone knows each other, screenshots tend to signal distrust, and people start optimizing for activity scores rather than output.

If you want better data without monitoring, look at tools that keep raw activity private to the person. Toggl states it takes no screenshots and records no keystrokes. Timely keeps timelines private and shares only approved entries. Memtime keeps activity data on the device. Dayflow stores recordings on the user’s Mac and is used by the person, not a manager. We cover the trade-off in time tracking without surveillance.

A reasonable rule: monitor where you pay for hours you cannot otherwise verify, and use private capture plus approved timesheets everywhere else.

Where Dayflow is the wrong pick

For almost every agency use case, honestly.

• You need to invoice clients from tracked time. Dayflow has no invoicing. Harvest wins, with TMetric Professional as the cheaper option.
• You need a manager view across the team. Dayflow has no team reports and no timesheet approvals. Toggl Premium or Harvest Enterprise give you approvals and profitability. Clockify Standard gives you approvals at a lower price.
• You want automatic capture for everyone. Dayflow is single-user. Timely is built for team-wide automatic timesheets, and Memtime if raw data must stay on each device.
• You need proof of work from contractors. Dayflow is not a monitoring tool. Hubstaff wins.
• Part of your team is on Windows, Linux or phones. Dayflow is Mac only, macOS 14 or later. Clockify covers Windows, Linux, iOS and Android as well as Mac.
• You run payroll from timesheets. Dayflow has no payroll features. Hubstaff lists payments and payroll.

Where Dayflow does help: as a personal backstop for one person who wants to fill in their timesheet from a record rather than memory. See filling a Mac timesheet without manual entry for that workflow.

How much do they cost?

Tool	Free plan	Paid plans (billed annually)	Billed monthly	Trial
Harvest	Free: 1 seat, 2 projects	Teams $9/seat; Enterprise $14/seat; Enterprise Plus custom	Teams $11; Enterprise $17.50	30 days, no card
Toggl	Free: up to 3 users	Starter $9/user; Premium $16/user; Enterprise contact vendor	Starter $12; Premium $24	30 days on paid plans
Clockify	Free: up to 5 users	Basic $3.99; Standard $5.49; Pro $7.99; Enterprise $11.99; CAKE.com Bundle $12.99 (per seat)	$4.99; $6.99; $9.99; $14.99; $15.99	7 days of Pro, no card
Timely	None	Starter $9 (max 5 users); Premium $16 (max 50); Unlimited $22; Enterprise custom (per user)	$11; $20; $28	14 days
TMetric	Free: up to 2 seats	Professional $5.83/seat; Business $7.50/seat; Enterprise custom	Professional $7; Business $9	14 days, +7 extension
Memtime	None	Basic $14; Connect $21; Premium $29 (per user); Enterprise custom, 50+ seats	No monthly option; quarterly $18, $26, $35	14 days, no payment info
Hubstaff	None	Starter $4.99; Grow $7.50; Team $10 (per seat, 2-seat min); Enterprise $25	Starter $7; Grow $9; Team $12	14 days, no card
Dayflow	$0, MIT licensed	Pro $20/month (see pricing)	Pro $20/month	Not applicable

The cheapest sensible setup for a team of up to 5 is Clockify Free, moving to Standard at $5.49 per seat per month billed annually once you need invoicing and approvals. If invoicing polish and accounting sync matter more than price, Harvest Teams at $9 per seat per month billed annually is the next step up.

The bottom line

Most small Mac agencies should start with Harvest, because it gets tracked hours onto invoices and into QuickBooks or Xero with the least setup. If budget is the constraint, Clockify’s free plan for up to 5 users is the best start, and Toggl suits teams that want capacity planning beside their hours. If unlogged time is your real problem, trial Timely, or Memtime if raw activity must stay on each machine, and reserve Hubstaff for contractors you need to verify. Dayflow belongs on an individual’s Mac as a personal record, not as the agency’s tracker. For solo use, see our ranking of Mac time trackers.

Frequently asked questions

Is Harvest free for a small agency?

Not really. Harvest's Free plan is $0 forever, but it covers 1 seat and 2 projects, which suits a solo freelancer rather than a team. An agency needs the Teams plan at $9 per seat per month billed annually ($108 per seat a year) or $11 billed monthly. Harvest offers a 30-day trial with no credit card, so you can test invoicing with the whole team before paying.

What is the cheapest time tracker for a 5-person agency?

Clockify is the cheapest. Its Free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited tracking, timesheets, reports and apps. If you need invoicing and approvals, Clockify Standard costs $5.49 per seat per month billed annually or $6.99 billed monthly. TMetric is close behind, but its Free plan stops at 2 seats, and invoicing starts on Professional at $5.83 per seat per month billed annually.

Can I send invoices from Clockify's free plan?

No. Clockify lists invoicing, time off and approval workflows on Standard and above. The Free plan, for up to 5 users, includes the timer, timesheet, auto tracker, calendar, reports and apps, but not invoicing. Standard costs $5.49 per seat per month billed annually or $6.99 billed monthly. Clockify offers a 7-day trial of Pro features with no credit card required.

Does Toggl take screenshots of employees' screens?

No. Toggl states that it does not take screenshots or record keystrokes. It tracks through manual and real-time timers, timesheets and calendar integrations, and the vendor also lists background tracking with a timeline in the desktop app. That makes it easier to roll out to staff who would object to monitoring. Hubstaff, and TMetric's Business plan, are the options in this list that offer screenshots.

Which agency time tracker works without starting timers?

Timely and Memtime are the two team tools here built around automatic capture. Timely's Memory tracker records work in the background and AI drafts timesheet entries for each person to approve. Memtime records time in every program, document, email, meeting and browser tab, keeps that record on the device, and lets the user turn it into entries. Both have no free tier, and both offer 14-day trials.

Does Memtime upload my activity data to a server?

According to Memtime, no. The vendor states that automatically recorded activity data is stored exclusively on the user's device and is not uploaded to a server. Only the time entries a user creates and syncs leave the machine, and syncing to project and billing tools starts at the Connect plan, $21 per user per month billed annually. Memtime runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, with no mobile app.

Does Timely work on a Mac?

Timely lists a desktop app alongside its web, iOS and Android apps, but the pages we read on 2026-10-04 did not confirm which desktop operating systems it supports. Before rolling it out to a Mac-based agency, check with Timely directly or install it during the 14-day trial. There is no free tier. Starter costs $9 per user per month billed yearly, with a maximum of 5 users.

Does Hubstaff have a free plan?

No. Hubstaff has no free tier. Starter costs $4.99 per seat per month billed annually or $7 billed monthly, with a 2-seat minimum. Grow and Team also carry the 2-seat minimum, and Enterprise is $25 per seat per month billed annually. Hubstaff offers a 14-day trial with no credit card and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Several features, such as Insights, are paid add-ons on lower plans.

Is Dayflow a good time tracker for an agency team?

No. Dayflow is a single-user Mac app with no team reports, no invoicing and no payroll approvals, so it cannot replace an agency tracker. For billing a team's hours to clients, Harvest is the better choice, and Clockify is better if you want a free plan for up to 5 users. Dayflow fits as a personal record that helps one person remember what they worked on.

Is Dayflow free and open source?

Yes. Dayflow costs $0 and is MIT licensed, with an optional Pro plan at $20 a month that manages cloud analysis for you. It runs on macOS 14 or later only. Full screen recordings and the timeline are stored on your Mac. You can keep screenshot analysis on-device with a local model through Ollama or LM Studio, or send selected screenshots to a cloud provider you configure.