TimeCamp vs Clockify: Which Is Better for Free Team Time Tracking in 2026?

Clockify is better for free team time tracking if your team has five people or fewer: its free plan includes timers, timesheets, an auto tracker, reports and apps. TimeCamp wins once you pass five, since its free-forever plan allows unlimited users. Dayflow, our product, is a free Mac app for one person's automatic timeline, not a team tool.

TimeCamp gives an unlimited number of people a free workspace, while Clockify caps its free plan at five users but documents more inside it, including an auto tracker, reports and apps. For free team time tracking, the deciding question is whether your team fits under five seats.

Disclosure: we make Dayflow, which appears below as a third option. It is a free, open-source Mac app that records the screen at one frame every 10 seconds and has AI write the day into a timeline. It is not a team tool, and this article says so where it matters. Everything about TimeCamp and Clockify comes from each vendor’s own pages as checked on October 4, 2026, and Dayflow details come from its published facts for version 2.2.0. The method is a comparison of vendor documentation on that date. For a Mac-specific look at Clockify, see our Clockify for Mac comparison.

Quick comparison

Tool	Best for	How it tracks	Price	Platforms
TimeCamp	Free teams larger than five, and teams that may later want invoicing, attendance and budgets	Desktop app tracks apps and websites automatically and assigns time by keyword, plus timers, timesheets and an optional AI Time Tracker	Free forever with unlimited users; paid from $3.99 per user/month billed annually	Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android
Clockify	Teams of up to five who want a well-stocked free plan	Timer, timesheet, calendar and kiosk entry, plus an auto tracker in the desktop app	Free for up to 5 users; paid from $3.99 per seat/month billed annually	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Dayflow (ours)	One Mac user who wants an automatic record of the workday	Captures the screen at one frame every 10 seconds; AI writes a timeline	$0, MIT licensed; optional Pro at $20 a month	macOS 14 or later

Key takeaways

• Team size decides it. Clockify’s free workspace holds five people. TimeCamp’s free plan allows unlimited users. Above five, TimeCamp is the only one of the two that stays at $0.
• Clockify documents its free plan in detail. Timer, timesheets, auto tracker, calendar, reports and apps are all listed. TimeCamp does not itemize its free-plan limits in the vendor documentation used here, so verify before rollout.
• Paid features land on different tiers. TimeCamp puts invoicing on its cheapest paid plan. Clockify puts timesheet approvals lower than TimeCamp does.
• Only TimeCamp has AI. Its AI Time Tracker fills timesheets from activity but is billed by token usage on top of the plan.
• Dayflow is not a team tracker. It has no team reports, invoicing, payroll approvals or website blocking. It fits one person on a Mac.

What TimeCamp does better

It stays free as the team grows. The single biggest point for this job: TimeCamp’s Free plan is described as free forever with unlimited users. A team of 12 or 30 can start on it without a per-seat bill. The catch is that the free plan’s feature limits are not itemized in the documentation this article relied on, so check TimeCamp’s pricing page to see exactly what the free tier includes.

Automatic tracking is central to how it works. TimeCamp’s desktop app records which apps and websites people use and assigns that time to projects by keyword, alongside manual timers and timesheets. That makes it closer to an automatic tracker than a stopwatch. One caution: the pricing page lists app and website tracking from the Premium plan ($6.99 per user per month billed annually, or $9.99 month-to-month), and that detail came from a summarized read of the page, so confirm it before assuming the free plan includes it.

Invoicing comes cheaper. Invoicing, attendance and time-off management start on Starter at $3.99 per user per month billed annually. On Clockify, invoicing starts a tier higher.

It offers AI-assisted timesheets. The AI Time Tracker, part of what TimeCamp calls its Time Intelligence Center, suggests timesheet entries from recorded activity. It is billed separately by tokens. TimeCamp estimates about $6 per user per month and gives $10 in trial credits.

It has a self-hosted path. On Enterprise (priced on request), TimeCamp offers self-hosted deployment and private cloud. For organizations that cannot put time data on a vendor’s servers, that is a real option Clockify does not list.

Budgets and planning sit lower in the price ladder. Budgets, billable time and resource planning arrive at Premium. Screenshots (optional and admin-enabled), timesheet approvals and expenses arrive at Ultimate. If screenshots worry your team, our piece on time tracking without surveillance covers the trade-offs.

What Clockify does better

Its free plan is clearly spelled out. Clockify lists what five people get for $0: unlimited tracking, the timer, timesheets, the desktop auto tracker, calendar entry, reports and apps. You know what you are rolling out before anyone installs it. The one wrinkle is wording: the Free card says “for up to 5 users,” while the FAQ says you can invite up to 4 people. Both describe a five-person workspace, with the owner as the fifth.

More ways to log time. Timer, timesheet, calendar and kiosk entry are all documented. Kiosk clock-in suits a shared device at a front desk or job site, which TimeCamp’s documentation does not mention.

Browser extensions. Clockify lists browser extensions among its platforms, so people can start timers from inside web apps without switching windows.

Approvals cost less. Time-off and approval workflows start on Standard at $5.49 per seat per month billed annually. TimeCamp’s timesheet approvals sit on Ultimate at $9.99 per user per month billed annually.

Hosting region choice on standard cloud. Clockify offers data hosting in the EU (Germany), the UK, the USA or Australia. TimeCamp is vendor-hosted cloud unless you go to Enterprise for self-hosting or private cloud.

A known trial. Clockify gives 7 days of Pro features with no credit card required. TimeCamp offers a free trial on paid plans, but its length was not stated on the pages read.

Field and operations features. Scheduling, forecasting, expenses and GPS tracking arrive on Pro, and SSO and audit logs on Enterprise. Teams that need attendance and payroll data are the audience Clockify says it builds for. If you are weighing Clockify against another timer-first tool, our Toggl vs Clockify comparison covers that matchup.

Head-to-head table

Capability	TimeCamp	Clockify	Dayflow (ours)
Automatic capture	Desktop app tracks apps and websites, assigns time by keyword (listed from Premium)	Auto tracker in desktop app, on the Free plan; activity monitoring on Pro	Screen captured at one frame every 10 seconds, all day
Timers and timesheets	Manual timers and timesheets	Timer, timesheet, calendar and kiosk entry	No timers; AI writes the timeline
Invoicing	Starter and above	Standard and above	None
Team reports and approvals	Timesheet approvals on Ultimate; for report features by plan, see the vendor’s pricing page	Reports on Free; approvals on Standard and above	None
Website blocking	Not listed	Not listed	None
AI summaries	AI Time Tracker fills timesheets, billed by tokens	None listed	AI writes a daily timeline via local AI, your own provider or Pro
Data location	Vendor cloud; self-hosted or private cloud on Enterprise	Vendor cloud in EU (Germany), UK, USA or Australia	Recordings and timeline on your Mac; analysis on-device or in the cloud depending on mode
Free tier	Free forever, unlimited users	Free for up to 5 users	$0, full app
Platforms	Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions	macOS 14 or later
Open source	No	No	Yes, MIT

Pricing compared: what does a team actually pay?

Tier	TimeCamp	Clockify	Dayflow (ours)
Free	$0, free forever, unlimited users	$0, up to 5 users	$0, MIT licensed
Entry paid	Starter: $3.99 per user/month billed annually, or $5.49 month-to-month	Basic: $3.99 per seat/month billed annually, or $4.99 billed monthly	Pro: $20 a month
Middle	Premium: $6.99 annually, or $9.99 month-to-month	Standard: $5.49 annually, or $6.99 monthly	-
Upper	Ultimate: $9.99 annually, or $13.99 month-to-month	Pro: $7.99 annually, or $9.99 monthly	-
Top	Enterprise: on request	Enterprise: $11.99 annually, or $14.99 monthly; CAKE.com Bundle: $12.99 annually, or $15.99 monthly	-
AI	Token-billed; vendor estimate about $6 per user/month, $10 trial credits	None listed	Local AI or your own provider on the free app; managed cloud analysis on Pro
Trial	Offered on paid plans; length not stated, see the vendor’s pricing page	7 days of Pro, no credit card	-

For the job in the title, the cheapest plan that fits is the free one on both, and the bill is $0 as long as the team stays within the limits. The numbers diverge at the sixth person. On Clockify, a sixth user means paying for seats: Basic billed annually is $47.88 per seat per year ($3.99 × 12), or $59.88 per seat per year billed monthly, for every seat you move over. On TimeCamp, the same six people can stay on the Free plan at $0, subject to whatever feature limits its pricing page lists.

If the team also needs to invoice clients, the cheapest fit changes. TimeCamp Starter is $47.88 per user per year billed annually ($65.88 month-to-month). Clockify Standard is $65.88 per seat per year billed annually ($83.88 monthly). If you need timesheet approvals instead, Clockify Standard at $65.88 beats TimeCamp Ultimate at $119.88 per user per year. Adding TimeCamp’s AI Time Tracker at the vendor’s own estimate of about $6 per user per month adds roughly $72 per user per year.

For one person, Dayflow is $0 on the free app, or $240 a year on Pro. The free app does not include paid API usage if you connect your own cloud provider; that provider’s charges apply. To see what an hour of your time is worth before deciding how much to spend tracking it, try the real hourly rate calculator.

When to choose TimeCamp

• Your team has more than five people and the budget for tracking is zero.
• You want time to be recorded from app and website activity rather than from timers people forget to start, and you have confirmed which plan includes it.
• You expect to invoice clients soon and want the cheapest per-user plan with invoicing.
• You want AI to draft timesheets and accept token-based billing for it.
• Your organization may eventually need self-hosted deployment or a private cloud.

When to choose Clockify

• Your team is five people or fewer and you want a free plan whose features are clearly listed, including reports and an auto tracker.
• People prefer timers, timesheets or calendar entry, or you need kiosk clock-in on a shared device.
• You need approval workflows without paying for a top tier.
• You want to pick a hosting region (EU, UK, USA or Australia) without an Enterprise contract.
• You want to try paid features first: the 7-day Pro trial needs no credit card.

Where both fall short: what about remembering the work itself?

Both tools answer “how many hours went to which project.” Neither is built to answer “what did I actually do on Tuesday afternoon.” Timers record a label someone chose. TimeCamp’s activity tracking records app and website names and maps them to projects by keyword. Neither documents a readable account of the work: which document, what problem, what changed.

That gap matters for individuals more than for teams. A developer writing a standup, a consultant rebuilding a week of notes, or anyone who lost an afternoon and wants to know where it went needs a narrative, not a total.

This is the part Dayflow covers, and it is our product. Dayflow records the screen at one frame every 10 seconds and has AI write the day into a timeline you can read. Full recordings and the timeline stay on your Mac. With local AI through Ollama or LM Studio, screenshot analysis stays on-device; with your own cloud provider or Dayflow Pro, selected screenshots are processed off-device, and under the privacy policy Pro deletes screenshots after processing. The local and cloud processing page lays out each mode. You can export a date range as Markdown, which feeds things like automatic standup updates.

Dayflow does not replace either tool for a team. It has no shared workspace, no team reports and no invoicing, and AI summaries can miss or misread work, so check them before sharing. Some people run it next to Clockify or TimeCamp: the team tracker holds the billable hours, Dayflow holds the personal memory. If you are comparing personal options, our roundup of the best time tracker for Mac options covers the wider field, and the where does my week go calculator is a quick way to see the gap between planned and actual hours.

Where Dayflow is the wrong pick

For the job in the title, free team time tracking, Dayflow is the wrong pick almost every time.

• You need a shared team workspace. Clockify wins for up to five people; TimeCamp wins beyond that. Dayflow has no team reports or shared projects.
• You bill clients. TimeCamp Starter or Clockify Standard both include invoicing. Dayflow does not create invoices.
• You run payroll or approvals. Clockify Standard has approval workflows and TimeCamp Ultimate has timesheet approvals. Dayflow has neither.
• Your team uses Windows, Linux or phones. Both competitors cover Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. Dayflow runs only on macOS 14 or later.
• You want to block distracting websites. Neither TimeCamp nor Clockify lists blocking, and Dayflow does not do it either, so look for a dedicated blocker.
• You need hourly totals per project, today. Clockify’s timers and TimeCamp’s keyword rules produce that directly. Dayflow produces a narrative timeline, which you would still have to turn into a timesheet.

The bottom line: which should a free team pick?

If your team is five people or fewer, pick Clockify. Its free plan lists everything a small team needs to start: timers, timesheets, an auto tracker, calendar entry, reports and apps on every major platform. You will only pay when you need invoicing, approvals or a sixth seat.

If your team is larger than five and must stay free, pick TimeCamp. Unlimited users on a free-forever plan is the deciding fact, and its paid tiers make invoicing cheap and offer AI timesheets and self-hosting later. Confirm on its pricing page what the free plan includes, especially whether app and website tracking requires Premium.

Dayflow, our product, sits outside this choice. It is a free, MIT-licensed Mac app for one person who wants a private, automatic record of the day, and it pairs with either team tracker rather than replacing them.

Frequently asked questions

Is Clockify free for teams?

Yes, for small ones. Clockify's Free plan covers up to 5 users and includes unlimited tracking, the timer, timesheets, the desktop auto tracker, calendar, reports and apps. The pricing card says 'up to 5 users' while the FAQ says you can invite up to 4 people, which describes the same five-person workspace. A sixth person means moving to a paid plan, starting with Basic at $3.99 per seat per month billed annually.

Is TimeCamp really free for unlimited users?

TimeCamp describes its Free plan as free forever with unlimited users. What the free plan includes is not itemized in the vendor documentation this comparison used, so check TimeCamp's pricing page for feature limits before rolling it out. Paid plans start at Starter, $3.99 per user per month billed annually or $5.49 month-to-month, and add invoicing, attendance and time-off management.

Which free time tracker is better for a team of 10?

TimeCamp, on price alone. Its Free plan allows unlimited users, while Clockify's free workspace stops at 5 people, so a team of 10 on Clockify would need paid seats, starting with Basic at $3.99 per seat per month billed annually. Before committing, confirm on TimeCamp's pricing page that the free plan includes the features your team needs, because its free-tier limits are not itemized in the documentation used here.

Does Clockify's free plan include automatic time tracking?

Clockify lists an auto tracker in the desktop app as part of its Free plan, alongside the timer, timesheets, calendar entry and reports. Activity monitoring is a separate feature offered on the Pro plan, which costs $7.99 per seat per month billed annually or $9.99 billed monthly. Clockify is still primarily a timer and timesheet tool, so most entries start with someone logging time.

What does TimeCamp's AI Time Tracker cost?

TimeCamp's AI Time Tracker, part of its Time Intelligence Center, fills timesheets from activity and is billed separately by token usage. The vendor estimates the cost at about $6 per user per month and offers $10 in trial credits. That estimate works out to roughly $72 per user per year on top of the plan price. Clockify lists no AI features.

Which is cheaper for invoicing clients, TimeCamp or Clockify?

TimeCamp. Invoicing starts on its Starter plan at $3.99 per user per month billed annually, or $47.88 per user per year. Clockify puts invoicing on Standard at $5.49 per seat per month billed annually, or $65.88 per seat per year. Neither free plan includes invoicing on the documented feature lists, and Dayflow does not create invoices at all.

Can I choose where Clockify or TimeCamp stores my data?

Clockify offers cloud data hosting in the EU (Germany), the UK, the USA or Australia. TimeCamp is vendor-hosted cloud by default, with self-hosted deployment and private cloud offered on its Enterprise plan, which is priced on request. Dayflow stores recordings and its timeline on your Mac, and screenshot analysis stays on-device if you use local AI.

Is Dayflow a good free alternative to Clockify for a team?

No. For a team, Clockify or TimeCamp beats Dayflow. Dayflow is a single-user Mac app with no team reports, invoicing, payroll approvals or shared workspace. Clockify gives up to five people a free shared workspace with reports, and TimeCamp's free plan allows unlimited users. Dayflow fits one person on a Mac who wants an automatic, private record of the day.

Do TimeCamp and Clockify work on Mac?

Both do. TimeCamp lists Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. Clockify lists Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and browser extensions. That matters for mixed teams, since everyone can use the same tracker regardless of computer. Dayflow runs only on macOS 14 or later, so it cannot serve a team that includes Windows or Linux users.

Does TimeCamp or Clockify offer self-hosting?

TimeCamp offers self-hosted deployment and private cloud on its Enterprise plan, priced on request. Clockify does not list self-hosting, but it lets you pick cloud hosting in the EU (Germany), the UK, the USA or Australia. Neither is open source. Dayflow is MIT licensed and keeps recordings on your Mac, though it is a personal tool rather than a team server.