solidtime vs Clockify: Which Is Better for a Small Team on a Budget in 2026?

For a small team on a budget, Clockify is the better default. Its Free plan covers a workspace of up to 5 users with timers, timesheets, an auto tracker and reports at $0. solidtime wins if you want open source, EU-hosted cloud or free self-hosting. Its free cloud plan is limited to 1 user, and team features start at €8 per user per month billed annually.

Clockify gives a team of up to five people a free cloud workspace with timers, timesheets, an auto tracker and reports. solidtime’s free cloud plan covers one person, so its case for a budget team rests on being open source. You can self-host it for €0 or pay for its EU-hosted cloud.

A disclosure: Dayflow, which appears below as a third option, is our product. It is a free, open-source Mac app that captures one screen frame every 10 seconds and has AI write your day into a timeline. It is not a team time tracker, and this article says where that matters. The method is a comparison of each vendor’s own pricing and product pages, as checked on October 4, 2026. If you are mainly weighing Clockify on a Mac, we also cover that setup in Clockify for Mac.

Quick comparison

Tool	Best for	How it tracks	Price	Platforms
Clockify	Teams of up to 5 that want to pay $0, or teams that need invoicing, approvals and payroll data	Timer, timesheet, calendar and kiosk entry; auto tracker in the desktop app	Free for up to 5 users; paid plans from $3.99 per seat/month billed annually	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions
solidtime	Teams that want open source, EU-hosted cloud or self-hosting	Timer, calendar and weekly timesheet; desktop activity tracking kept on the device until logged	Free for 1 user (cloud); self-hosted €0; Professional €8 per user/month billed annually, excl. VAT	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux
Dayflow (ours)	One Mac user who wants a record of the day without timers	Screen frame every 10 seconds, AI-written timeline	$0, MIT licensed; optional Pro at $20 a month	Mac (macOS 14 or later)

Key takeaways

• Clockify is the cheapest cloud option for a team of five or fewer. Its Free plan covers up to 5 users. solidtime’s free cloud plan covers 1 user.
• solidtime is the only one of the two you can run on your own servers. It is AGPL v3 licensed and the self-hosted version is €0.
• Invoicing costs money on both. Clockify puts it on Standard and above. solidtime puts it on Professional in the cloud, and on a paid Business license if self-hosted.
• Clockify covers more ground. It has mobile apps, kiosk clock-in, time off, approvals, and on Pro, scheduling, expenses and GPS tracking.
• Neither lists AI features. Both depend on people turning activity into time entries. Dayflow covers that gap for one Mac user, not for a team.

What Clockify does better

A free plan that actually fits a small team. Clockify’s Free card says “for up to 5 users.” Its FAQ says you can invite up to 4 people for free. Both describe the same 5-person workspace: you plus four. That plan includes unlimited tracking, the timer, timesheets, the auto tracker, calendar, reports and apps. For a team that only needs to see where the hours went, that can be the whole bill.

More ways to enter time. Clockify supports timers, timesheets, a calendar view and a kiosk mode for shared clock-in. It also has an auto tracker in the desktop app. It runs on web, Mac, Windows and Linux, with iOS and Android apps and browser extensions. If one person tracks from a phone on site and another from a Linux laptop, Clockify covers both.

A cheap first paid tier, and room above it. Basic starts at $3.99 per seat per month billed annually ($4.99 monthly). Invoicing, time off and approval workflows start at Standard, at $5.49 per seat per month billed annually ($6.99 monthly). Pro adds scheduling, forecasting, expenses, GPS tracking and activity monitoring. Enterprise adds SSO and audit logs. A team can stay on Free for a long time and step up one tier when it needs a specific feature.

A trial you can use before paying. Clockify offers 7 days of Pro features with no credit card required.

A choice of hosting region. Data lives in Clockify’s cloud. You can pick the EU (Germany), the UK, the USA or Australia.

What solidtime does better

It is open source, and you can host it yourself. solidtime is licensed AGPL v3, and the source is public on GitHub. The self-hosted Open Source plan is listed at €0 forever. For a team with someone comfortable running a server, that removes the per-seat bill entirely. It also keeps the time data on infrastructure you control. Hosting costs are yours, and the vendor pages do not estimate them.

Activity tracking that stays on the device. The solidtime desktop app runs on macOS, Windows and Linux. It tracks which app and document is in focus, with idle detection. The vendor says that activity stays on the device until the user turns it into a time entry. For a team that wants help remembering what people worked on, without managers seeing raw activity, that is a meaningful design choice. We wrote more about that tradeoff in time tracking without surveillance. This feature is included in the free Solo plan.

EU-hosted cloud by default. If you use solidtime’s cloud rather than self-hosting, the vendor describes it as EU-hosted and GDPR-friendly.

Agency features in one paid tier. Professional includes billable rates, invoicing, estimates, PDF and shareable reports, and team support. It costs €8 per user per month billed annually or €9 billed monthly, excluding VAT. Clockify spreads comparable features across several tiers. solidtime puts them together.

Imports from Clockify. solidtime lists Clockify among its import sources. A team that starts on Clockify’s free plan has a path out later.

Head-to-head table

Capability	Clockify	solidtime	Dayflow (ours)
Automatic capture	Auto tracker in the desktop app; activity monitoring on Pro	Desktop app tracks focused app and document, kept local until logged	Screen frame every 10 seconds, written into a timeline by AI
Manual timers and timesheets	Timer, timesheet, calendar, kiosk	Timer, calendar, weekly timesheet	No
Invoicing	Standard plan and above	Professional (cloud) or paid Business license (self-hosted)	No
Team reports	Reports on the Free plan, up to 5 users	Team support on Professional	No
Website blocking	Not listed	Not listed	No
AI summaries	None listed	None stated	Yes, AI-written timeline of your day
Data location	Cloud, choice of EU (Germany), UK, USA or Australia	EU-hosted cloud or self-hosted	Recordings and timeline on your Mac; analysis local or cloud, your choice
Free tier	Up to 5 users	1 user (cloud); self-hosted €0	Full app at $0
Platforms	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux	Mac, macOS 14 or later
Open source	No	Yes, AGPL v3	Yes, MIT

Pricing compared: which is cheaper for a small team?

Plan	Price	What it adds for a small team
Clockify Free	$0, up to 5 users	Unlimited tracking, timer, timesheet, auto tracker, calendar, reports, apps
Clockify Basic	$3.99 per seat/month billed annually, or $4.99 monthly	See the vendor’s pricing page for the Basic feature list
Clockify Standard	$5.49 per seat/month billed annually, or $6.99 monthly	Invoicing, time off, approvals
Clockify Pro	$7.99 per seat/month billed annually, or $9.99 monthly	Scheduling, forecasting, expenses, GPS tracking, activity monitoring
Clockify Enterprise	$11.99 per seat/month billed annually, or $14.99 monthly	SSO, audit logs
CAKE.com Bundle	$12.99 per seat/month billed annually, or $15.99 monthly	See the vendor’s pricing page
solidtime Solo (cloud)	Free, 1 user	Clients, projects, tags, tasks, timesheets, desktop activity tracking, reporting
solidtime Professional (cloud)	€8 per user/month billed annually, or €9 monthly, excl. VAT	Team support, billable rates, invoicing, estimates
solidtime Open Source (self-hosted)	€0 forever	Run it on your own servers
solidtime Business (on-premise)	From €49/year; €199/year shown for one organization with 5 users, excl. VAT	Needed for self-hosted invoicing
solidtime Enterprise (on-premise)	Custom	See the vendor’s pricing page
Dayflow	$0; optional Pro at $20 a month	Pro manages cloud AI analysis; no team features on either

Here is what one person costs per year on the cheapest plan that fits the job.

Tracking time only. On Clockify Free, each person costs $0 in a workspace of five or fewer. On solidtime’s cloud, a team needs Professional at €8 a month billed annually, which is €96 per person per year, excluding VAT. Self-hosting solidtime costs €0 in license fees, plus whatever your server costs.

Tracking time and invoicing. Clockify Standard at $5.49 billed annually is $65.88 per person per year. Billed monthly at $6.99, it is $83.88 per person per year. solidtime Professional billed annually is €96 per person per year, and billed monthly at €9 it is €108, both excluding VAT. For self-hosted invoicing, solidtime’s Business license is listed from €49 a year, with €199 a year shown for one organization with 5 users, before hosting. Multiply the per-person figures by your headcount for the team total.

One caution on the numbers: solidtime prices are in euros and exclude VAT, and Clockify prices are in dollars. Compare them in your own currency and tax situation. The real hourly rate calculator is useful for checking whether a paid tier earns its keep on billable work. If solidtime’s trial terms matter to you, see the vendor’s pricing page. It says “Free to get started” and “No credit card to start” but does not state a trial length.

When to choose Clockify: is the free plan enough for your team?

• Your team is five people or fewer and needs shared tracking and reports, but not invoices. Clockify Free costs nothing.
• Someone on the team tracks from an iPhone or Android phone, or you want kiosk clock-in on a shared device.
• You expect to need approvals, time off, scheduling, expenses or GPS tracking later, and want them in the same tool.
• Nobody on the team wants to run a server.
• You need data hosted in the UK, the USA or Australia rather than the EU.
• You want to try the paid features first. The 7-day Pro trial needs no card.

When to choose solidtime: is open source worth paying for?

• Open source is a requirement, or you want the option to fork, audit or self-host the tracker.
• You have someone who can run a server, and you would rather pay for hosting than per seat.
• EU hosting matters and you want it as the default, not a setting.
• Your team bills clients, wants billable rates, estimates and invoices in one tier, and is happy to pay €8 per user per month billed annually.
• You want automatic activity tracking that stays on each person’s machine until they choose to log it.
• You are on Clockify now and want to leave. solidtime imports from it.

Where both fall short: can either one write up your day?

Both tools are built on time entries. Someone starts a timer, fills in a timesheet, or turns tracked activity into an entry. The desktop helpers in each make that easier, but neither vendor lists any AI that writes up what you did. On a busy day, entries still come down to memory at 6 p.m. or on Friday afternoon.

The gap is a readable record of the work itself. “Fixed the export bug, reviewed two pull requests, answered the client about the March invoice” is different from “4.5 hours, Project X.” That record is what you need for a standup, a weekly update, or remembering what you worked on when someone asks three weeks later.

Dayflow, our product, covers that gap for one person on a Mac. It records a frame every 10 seconds and has AI write the day into a timeline. You can export a date range as Markdown from Settings and paste it into a timesheet or status report. We go through that workflow in filling a Mac timesheet without manual entry. It does not cover the gap for a team. There are no shared reports, and teammates on Windows or Linux cannot use it. AI summaries can also miss or misread work, so check them before sharing.

On data handling, Dayflow stores recordings and the timeline on your Mac. Analysis can run locally through Ollama or LM Studio. It can also go to a cloud provider you configure, or to Dayflow Pro, which deletes screenshots after processing under our privacy policy. The local and cloud processing page explains each mode. If you are weighing more options for personal use, our guide to Mac time trackers covers them.

Where Dayflow is the wrong pick: should a small team use it?

For the job in this article, a small team on a budget, Dayflow is usually the wrong main tool.

• You need one place where the whole team’s hours add up. Dayflow has no team reports. Clockify wins here, and its Free plan covers up to 5 users.
• You invoice clients from your tracked time. Dayflow has no invoicing. Clockify Standard or solidtime Professional wins, depending on whether you want Clockify’s tiered pricing or open source.
• You need approvals, time off or payroll data. Dayflow does none of this. Clockify Standard and above covers approvals and time off.
• Anyone on the team uses Windows, Linux or a phone. Dayflow is Mac only, macOS 14 or later. Clockify covers all of those. solidtime covers Windows and Linux.
• You want to self-host a shared tracker. Dayflow is open source but runs on one Mac. solidtime’s self-hosted version is the pick.
• You want to block distracting websites. Dayflow does not do that. Neither does either tool here, according to the vendor pages checked.

Where Dayflow does fit is as a personal layer on top of a team tracker. Someone on a Mac can keep Clockify or solidtime for billing and use Dayflow to remember what filled the hours. The app is $0, and Pro is optional at $20 a month. Details are on our pricing page.

The bottom line

For most small teams counting every dollar, Clockify is the better pick. A workspace of up to five people gets timers, timesheets, an auto tracker and reports for $0. When you need invoicing, Standard costs $5.49 per seat per month billed annually.

solidtime is the better pick when open source, self-hosting or EU hosting is a firm requirement. It is also a good fit for an agency that wants billable rates, estimates and invoices in one tier at €8 per user per month billed annually. Its local-only desktop activity tracking is a real point in its favor if your team cares about privacy. Its free cloud plan, however, stops at one user.

Dayflow is ours, and it is not a team tracker. It suits the individual Mac user who wants an AI-written record of the day next to whichever team tool you choose.

Frequently asked questions

Is Clockify really free for a team of five?

Clockify's pricing page shows its Free plan as "for up to 5 users." Its FAQ says you can invite up to 4 people for free, which is the same 5-person workspace: you plus four. The Free plan includes unlimited tracking, the timer, timesheets, the auto tracker, calendar, reports and apps. Invoicing and approval workflows need a paid plan, starting with Standard.

Is solidtime free for teams?

The free Solo cloud plan is limited to 1 user. Team support, billable rates, invoicing and estimates on solidtime's cloud need the Professional plan, at €8 per user per month billed annually or €9 billed monthly, excluding VAT. The open source version is free to self-host. Invoicing on a self-hosted install needs a paid Business license, which the vendor lists from €49 a year.

Can I self-host Clockify?

Clockify is not open source, and the vendor pages checked for this article describe it as a cloud service. It does let you choose where your data is hosted: the EU (Germany), the UK, the USA or Australia. If running the tracker on your own servers is a requirement, solidtime is the option here. Its AGPL v3 source is public, and self-hosting the open source version costs €0.

Which is cheaper for a 5-person team that needs invoicing?

In the cloud, Clockify Standard costs $5.49 per seat per month billed annually, and solidtime Professional costs €8 per user per month billed annually, excluding VAT. For self-hosting, solidtime shows a Business license at €199 a year for one organization with 5 users, but you also pay for and run the server. Compare the figures in your own currency and tax situation before deciding.

Can I move from Clockify to solidtime later?

Yes. solidtime lists imports from Clockify among its features, so a team can start on Clockify's free plan and move if it later wants open source, self-hosting or EU-hosted cloud. Check what the import covers in solidtime's own documentation before you switch, especially for clients, projects and billable rates.

Do solidtime or Clockify have AI summaries?

Neither vendor lists AI features on the pages checked for this comparison. Both are built around time entries: timers, timesheets and calendar views, with desktop auto tracking as a helper. If you want an AI-written account of what you worked on during the day, that is a different kind of tool. Dayflow, our product, does this for one Mac user.

Should a small team use Dayflow instead of Clockify?

Usually not. If the team needs shared reports, billable hours, invoices or approvals, Clockify beats Dayflow, and its Free plan already covers up to 5 users. Dayflow is a single-user Mac app with no team reports, invoicing or payroll features. It fits as a personal add-on for someone who wants an automatic record of their day alongside the team's tracker.

Which works on phones, solidtime or Clockify?

Clockify lists iOS and Android apps, plus browser extensions, on top of web, Mac, Windows and Linux. solidtime lists web, Mac, Windows and Linux. Mobile apps for solidtime could not be confirmed from its vendor pages. If anyone on your team logs time from a phone or needs kiosk clock-in, Clockify is the safer pick.

Where is my data stored in solidtime and Clockify?

solidtime's cloud is described by the vendor as EU-hosted and GDPR-friendly, or you can self-host on your own servers. Its desktop activity tracking stays on the device until a user turns it into a time entry. Clockify is cloud-hosted, with a choice of the EU (Germany), the UK, the USA or Australia.