Kimai vs Toggl: Which Is Better for Tracking Time Across Projects in 2026?

Pick Kimai if you want free, open-source project tracking you can self-host, with user, customer and project rates and built-in invoicing, or a low-cost cloud plan hosted in Germany. Pick Toggl if you want native apps on Mac, Windows and phones, a free plan for up to 3 users, and team reports. Dayflow, our Mac app, helps you remember what you worked on. It is not a billing tool.

Kimai and Toggl both log time against projects with timers, so the real split is ownership versus convenience. Kimai is free, open-source software you can run on your own server, while Toggl (formerly Toggl Track) is a closed cloud service with native apps on every major platform and more built-in team planning.

Disclosure: Dayflow is our product. It is a free, MIT-licensed Mac app that records your screen at one frame every 10 seconds and has AI write your day into a readable timeline. It shows up below as a third option with a different job, not as a drop-in replacement for either. This article compares vendor documentation as checked on October 4, 2026, and Dayflow details reflect version 2.2.0. Nothing here comes from benchmarks or hands-on trials. For a longer look at Toggl on a Mac specifically, see our Toggl for Mac comparison.

Quick comparison

Tool	Best for	How it tracks	Price	Platforms
Kimai	Freelancers and companies that want to own their project time data	Manual timers, multi-timer, punch-in punch-out mode, tags	Free self-hosted; Cloud from €2.99 per user per month billed annually	Web (self-hosted or Kimai Cloud)
Toggl (formerly Toggl Track)	Freelancers and teams that need billing, profitability and capacity data	Manual and real-time timers, timesheets, calendar integrations; background tracking listed for the desktop app	Free for up to 3 users; Starter from $9 per user per month billed annually	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Dayflow (ours)	Remembering what you actually worked on, on a Mac	Screen frame every 10 seconds, AI-written timeline	$0; optional Pro at $20 a month	macOS 14 or later

Key takeaways

• Kimai is the pick if you want to self-host. It is open source under AGPL 3, runs on your own server, and its cloud plan is hosted in Germany.
• Toggl is the pick if you want native apps. It lists apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android plus browser extensions, while Kimai is listed as a web app.
• For billing clients, Kimai lists invoicing with templates. Toggl lists billable rates on paid plans, but invoicing was not on the pages checked.
• Toggl has more for teams: capacity planning, team reports, and timesheet approvals plus profitability reports on Premium.
• Both rely on you starting the timer. Dayflow fills a different gap, recording what happened on your Mac so you can reconstruct project time later. It has no invoicing, payroll approvals or team reports.

What Kimai does better

You can own the whole thing

Kimai’s self-hosted edition is free and open source under AGPL 3, with the source on GitHub and Docker images for deployment. If your company already runs servers, you can host your time records next to everything else and never send them to a third party.

The cost is setup. Kimai lists the requirements as a web server, PHP 8.2 or newer, and MariaDB or MySQL. That is routine for a developer and a real hurdle for a solo designer who has never touched a server.

Invoicing is part of the product

Kimai lists invoicing with configurable templates, data exports and a JSON API. Rates can be set per user, per customer and per project, which suits work across several clients. A senior person on a fixed-fee client and a junior on an hourly one can both bill correctly from the same system.

Cheap, EU-hosted cloud if you don’t want a server

Kimai Cloud starts at €2.99 per user per month on annual billing. The vendor says it is hosted in Germany and GDPR compliant, and the company is based in Austria. For European freelancers and agencies that care where client data lives, that is a concrete point in its favor.

Enterprise login and wide language support

Kimai lists SAML and LDAP login, two-factor authentication, over 30 translations and a plugin marketplace. On Kimai Cloud, SSO sits on the Professional plan, along with working hour accounts, expenses and custom fields.

Flexible timer modes

Kimai supports several timers at once and a punch-in punch-out mode. The first helps if you bill overlapping work. The second suits staff who clock a shift rather than tasks.

What Toggl does better

Native apps everywhere

Toggl (formerly Toggl Track) lists a web app, Mac and Windows desktop apps, iOS and Android apps, and browser extensions. If you switch between a MacBook, a phone on the train and a browser on a client’s machine, the timer follows you. Data syncs across all of them through Toggl’s cloud.

Some background tracking on the desktop

Toggl is primarily a timer tool, but it also lists automated background tracking and a timeline in the desktop app. That gives you something to look back at when you forgot to press start. Toggl states it does not take screenshots or record keystrokes, which some teams will see as a plus for privacy.

Planning and team data built in

Toggl now presents itself as one product that combines time tracking with planning, and it describes the older Toggl Track and Toggl Plan as legacy products for existing users. It lists project timelines, tasks and capacity management. Premium adds timesheet approvals, profitability reports, and Jira and Asana integrations. For an agency trying to see which projects make money, this is more than Kimai lists on its pages.

A free plan with no server

Toggl’s Free plan covers up to 3 users with timers, focus mode, calendar integrations, tasks and boards. You can start tracking projects in a few minutes without installing PHP on anything.

AI features

Toggl lists Toggl AI for natural-language questions about workspace data and admin tasks, an MCP server, and an AI Task Creator. Kimai states no AI features on the pages checked.

Head-to-head table

Capability	Kimai	Toggl (formerly Toggl Track)	Dayflow (ours)
Automatic capture	None; no automatic app or website tracking	Background tracking and timeline listed for the desktop app; mainly timer-based	Yes, a screen frame every 10 seconds
Timers	Yes, including multiple timers and punch-in punch-out	Yes, manual and real-time timers plus timesheets	Built around automatic recording rather than timers
Invoicing and rates	Invoicing with templates; user, customer and project rates	Billable rates on paid plans; invoicing not listed on pages checked, see the vendor’s pricing page	No invoicing
Team reports	Not specified on pages checked; see the vendor’s pricing page	Yes; approvals and profitability on Premium	No team reports
Website blocking	Not listed by the vendor	Not listed by the vendor (focus mode is listed)	No
AI features	None stated	Toggl AI, MCP server, AI Task Creator	AI writes your day into a timeline
Data location	Your own server, or Kimai Cloud in Germany	Vendor’s cloud, synced across apps	Recordings and timeline on your Mac; analysis local or off-device depending on mode
Free tier	Self-hosted edition is free	Free plan for up to 3 users	$0 app
Platforms	Web (self-hosted or Kimai Cloud)	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, browser extensions	macOS 14 or later
Open source	Yes, AGPL 3	No	Yes, MIT

Pricing compared: how much do Kimai and Toggl cost per year?

Plan	Listed price	One person, per year
Kimai self-hosted	Free	€0 for the software, plus your own server
Kimai Cloud Standard	€2.99 per user per month annual, €3.99 monthly	€35.88 annual, €47.88 paying monthly
Kimai Cloud Professional	€3.99 per user per month annual, €4.99 monthly	€47.88 annual, €59.88 paying monthly
Toggl Free	$0, up to 3 users	$0
Toggl Starter	$9 per user per month annual, $12 monthly	$108 annual, $144 paying monthly
Toggl Premium	$16 per user per month annual, $24 monthly	$192 annual, $288 paying monthly
Toggl Enterprise	Contact vendor	See the vendor’s pricing page
Dayflow (ours)	$0; Pro $20 a month	$0, or $240 with Pro

For one person tracking hours across client projects, the cheapest option that fits is either Kimai self-hosted at €0 for the software or Toggl Free at $0. The difference shows up once you need billable rates. Kimai lists user, customer and project rates as part of its tracking, so a solo freelancer on Kimai Cloud Standard pays €35.88 a year on annual billing. Toggl puts billable rates on paid plans, so the same person on Toggl Starter pays $108 a year billed annually, or $144 paying monthly. Kimai’s cloud prices are in euros and exclude taxes. Kimai says annual billing saves 20%, and Toggl labels its annual tab as saving 33.3%.

Both have 30-day trials on their paid cloud plans. Self-hosting Kimai costs no license fee, but hosting and upkeep are on you. If you are pricing your own time against those hours, the real hourly rate calculator shows what an hour of server maintenance actually costs you.

When to choose Kimai

• You or your company can run a PHP and MySQL or MariaDB server and want your time data on your own infrastructure.
• You bill several clients at different rates and want invoicing with templates in the same tool.
• You are in Europe and want a cloud option hosted in Germany at a low per-user price.
• You need SAML or LDAP login, or a language other than English for your team.
• You want open-source software you can audit, extend with plugins or connect through the JSON API.
• You mostly work at a desk in a browser and don’t need a native phone app.

When to choose Toggl

• You want to start in minutes without hosting anything.
• You track time from a Mac, a Windows PC and a phone, and want the same timer on all of them.
• You run a team and need capacity planning, team reports, timesheet approvals or profitability reports.
• Your projects live in Jira or Asana and you are willing to pay for Premium to connect them.
• You want some background tracking in the desktop app as a safety net for forgotten timers.
• You want AI tools that answer questions about your workspace data.

Where both fall short: what if you forget to start the timer?

Kimai and Toggl share a basic design. You define a project, then you tell the tool when you are working on it. The record is only as good as your timer habit.

Kimai has no automatic tracking at all. Toggl’s desktop app lists background tracking and a timeline, but the product is primarily timer and manual entry rather than a full record. On a day of context switches between three clients, Slack and email, the hours you forget to log are the hours that never get billed or explained.

The second gap is memory. A time entry says “Client A, 2h 15m”. It does not say what you actually did, which file you edited or why the task ran long. That detail matters when you write a status update, defend an invoice or try to estimate the next job.

Dayflow covers this gap on a Mac. It records a screen frame every 10 seconds and has AI write the day into a readable timeline, so you can see what you worked on after the fact. You can then copy hours into Kimai or Toggl, and export a date range as Markdown from Settings, as described in our guide to exporting your work history. There is more on that workflow in building a Mac timesheet without manual entry and remembering what you worked on.

There are trade-offs. Dayflow’s AI summaries can miss or misinterpret work, so check them before you bill from them. Full screen recordings and the timeline stay on your Mac. With Local AI, screenshot analysis also stays on-device through Ollama or LM Studio. If you choose your own cloud provider or Dayflow Pro, selected screenshots go off-device. Under the privacy policy, Pro deletes screenshots after processing and may retain Activity Data for sync. The details are on local and cloud processing.

If you are weighing other tools that work without a timer, our guide to Mac time trackers covers the wider set.

Where Dayflow is the wrong pick

Dayflow is the wrong choice in several common situations.

• You need to invoice clients. Dayflow has no invoicing. Kimai lists invoicing with templates and per-customer rates, so Kimai wins here.
• You run a team. Dayflow has no team reports and no payroll approvals. Toggl lists team reports, capacity planning, and on Premium, timesheet approvals and profitability reports. Toggl wins.
• Anyone on the team uses Windows or a phone. Dayflow runs only on macOS 14 or later. Toggl lists Windows, iOS and Android apps.
• You want project timers with billable rates. Dayflow is built around an automatic recording of your screen, not timers and rates. Kimai or Toggl Starter fits this job.
• You want time data on your own server. Dayflow keeps recordings on each Mac, not on a shared server. Self-hosted Kimai is built for this.
• You want website blocking. Dayflow has none. Neither Kimai nor Toggl lists it either, so you need a separate blocker.
• You don’t want your screen recorded at all. Toggl states it takes no screenshots and records no keystrokes, and Kimai is entirely manual.

Dayflow works best as a companion to a timer tool, not as its replacement.

The bottom line: is Kimai or Toggl better for tracking time across projects?

For tracking time across projects, the choice comes down to who runs the software.

Choose Kimai if you want to own your data, bill several clients at different rates, and handle invoicing in one open-source tool. Self-hosting costs nothing in license fees, and Kimai Cloud is €35.88 a year for one person on annual Standard billing.

Choose Toggl (formerly Toggl Track) if you want native apps on every device, a free plan for up to 3 users, and team planning and reporting that Kimai does not list. Billable rates start at $108 a year for one person on annual Starter billing.

Neither tool records what you did when the timer was off. If that is your real problem on a Mac, Dayflow (ours, $0, MIT licensed) can sit next to either one and give you a timeline to fill your timesheet from. Details are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kimai really free?

The self-hosted version of Kimai is free and open source under the AGPL 3 license. You still need a web server with PHP 8.2 or newer and MariaDB or MySQL to run it. Kimai Cloud is paid after a 30-day free trial. Cloud Standard is €2.99 per user per month on annual billing or €3.99 on monthly billing, before taxes.

Does Toggl have a free plan for one person?

Yes. Toggl describes its Free plan as free forever for up to 3 users. It includes timers, focus mode, calendar integrations, tasks and boards. Billable rates need a paid plan. Starter is $9 per user per month billed annually or $12 billed monthly. Paid plans come with a 30-day trial.

Can Kimai track time automatically?

No. Kimai lists no automatic app or website tracking. You track time manually in the web app, using single timers, multiple timers running at once, or punch-in and punch-out mode, with tags and rates attached to each entry. If you forget to start a timer, the entry has to be added by hand afterward.

Does Toggl track time automatically on a Mac?

Partly. Toggl lists automated background tracking and a timeline in its desktop app, but the product is built mainly around manual and real-time timers, timesheets and calendar integrations. Toggl states that it does not take screenshots or record keystrokes. If you want a full automatic record of your screen time, that is a different kind of tool.

Which is better for invoicing clients, Kimai or Toggl?

Kimai lists invoicing with configurable templates, plus data exports and a JSON API. Toggl lists billable rates and profitability reports on paid plans, but invoicing was not listed on the vendor pages checked, so see Toggl's pricing page before relying on it. Dayflow has no invoicing at all, so for billing clients from tracked hours, Kimai is the stronger pick of the three.

Is Dayflow better than Toggl for tracking a team's time?

No. Toggl is the better choice for teams. It offers team reports, billable rates, project planning with capacity management, and on Premium, timesheet approvals and profitability reports. Dayflow has no team reports, payroll approvals or invoicing, and it only runs on macOS 14 or later. A mixed Mac and Windows team should use Toggl.

Where is my data stored with Kimai and Toggl?

With self-hosted Kimai, your data sits on your own server. Kimai Cloud is hosted in Germany and is GDPR compliant, according to the vendor. Toggl is a cloud web service whose data syncs across its web, desktop and mobile apps. If you need time records on infrastructure you control, Kimai is the only one of the two that allows it.

Is Toggl open source like Kimai?

No. Toggl is closed-source software. Kimai is open source under AGPL 3, with Docker images for self-hosting, a plugin marketplace and over 30 translations. Dayflow, our Mac app, is also open source, under the MIT license. Open source matters if you want to audit the code, self-host, or keep using the software regardless of vendor pricing changes.

Can I use Dayflow alongside Kimai or Toggl?

Yes, as a separate step. Dayflow records your Mac screen at one frame every 10 seconds and has AI write a readable timeline. You can export a date range as Markdown from Settings, then use it to fill in or correct your Kimai or Toggl entries. AI summaries can miss or misread work, so check them before billing.

Does Kimai have a Mac app?

Kimai's vendor pages list it as a web app, either self-hosted or on Kimai Cloud. Mobile or desktop apps were not confirmed on the pages checked, so see the vendor's site for current options. Toggl, by contrast, lists native apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, plus browser extensions.