TMetric vs Clockify: Which Is Better for Budget Team Tracking in 2026?

For a team of five or fewer that only needs to log hours, Clockify wins because its free plan covers a 5-person workspace while TMetric's free plan stops at 2 seats. For paid client work, Clockify Standard ($5.49/seat/month annually) undercuts TMetric Professional ($5.83), but TMetric includes project budgets at that tier and offers a longer trial. Dayflow suits a single Mac user, not a team.

Clockify gives a team of up to five people a free shared workspace, while TMetric gives you two free seats. Once you pay, TMetric puts invoicing, billable rates and project budgets on one plan, Professional, while Clockify spreads its features across more tiers that start cheaper and go higher.

Disclosure: we make Dayflow, a free, open-source Mac app that shows up below as a third option. It is a personal tool, not a team tracker, and this article says where it loses. Everything here comes from each vendor’s own documentation, checked on October 4, 2026. We also keep longer pages on TMetric alternatives and Clockify on the Mac.

Quick comparison

Tool	Best for	How it tracks	Price	Platforms
TMetric	Small client-facing teams that want budgets and invoicing on one paid tier	Start and stop timer, manual entries, a timer button in 50+ web apps. App and site monitoring on Business	Free for up to 2 seats. Paid from $5.83/seat/month billed annually ($7 monthly)	Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Clockify	Teams of up to 5 that want to pay nothing, or larger teams that need approvals, scheduling or a choice of hosting region	Timer, timesheet, calendar, kiosk entry, auto tracker in the desktop app. Activity monitoring on Pro	Free for up to 5 users. Paid from $3.99/seat/month billed annually ($4.99 monthly)	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Dayflow (ours)	One person on a Mac who wants a record of the day without timers	Records the screen at one frame every 10 seconds, then AI writes a timeline	$0 (MIT). Optional Pro at $20/month	Mac only (macOS 14+)

Key takeaways

• If your team is five people or fewer and you only need to log hours, Clockify’s free plan covers you. TMetric’s free plan does not.
• If you bill clients, Clockify Standard ($5.49 per seat a month billed annually) is slightly cheaper than TMetric Professional ($5.83). TMetric Professional lists project budgets at that price.
• For activity monitoring, TMetric Business ($7.50 billed annually) costs less per seat than Clockify Pro ($7.99 billed annually).
• Clockify documents a choice of hosting region (EU, UK, USA or Australia). TMetric does not, in the documentation we checked.
• Neither lists AI features. Dayflow does AI timelines for one Mac user but has no team reports, invoicing or payroll approvals.

What TMetric does better

Budgets and invoicing on one plan

TMetric’s Professional plan lists client invoicing, billable rates and project budgets together. That is the core of budget team tracking: know what a project is allowed to cost, log time against it, and bill the client. You get all three for $5.83 per seat a month billed annually, or $7 billed monthly.

Clockify’s vendor positioning mentions budgeting, but the documentation we checked does not say which Clockify plan includes project budgets. If budgets are the deciding feature, see the vendor’s pricing page at Clockify before you compare tiers.

A longer trial

TMetric’s trial runs 14 days and can be extended by 7 more. Clockify gives 7 days of Pro features. If you want a full billing cycle of real project data before a team commits, TMetric gives you more room.

Timers where the work happens

TMetric adds a timer button inside 50+ web apps. For a team that lives in browser tools, that cuts down on the “I forgot to start the timer” problem, since the button sits next to the task.

A cheaper monitoring tier

If you want activity data, TMetric Business is $7.50 per seat a month billed annually, or $9 monthly. It adds app and site monitoring, activity levels, optional screenshots, a time off module, team timesheets, and integrations with Jira, Redmine and ClickUp. Clockify’s activity monitoring sits on Pro, at $7.99 billed annually or $9.99 monthly.

A useful free plan for two

TMetric’s Free plan includes unlimited time tracking, unlimited clients and projects, exportable reports and API access. For a two-person shop that wants to pull hours into its own spreadsheet or script, the API on the free plan matters. The catch is 7 days of activity data storage.

What Clockify does better

A free plan that fits a small team

Clockify’s Free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited tracking, timer, timesheet, auto tracker, calendar, reports and apps. The pricing page says “for up to 5 users”, while the FAQ says you can invite up to 4 people. Both describe the same thing: a five-person workspace, you plus four. For a small team on a tight budget, that is the biggest difference in this comparison. TMetric stops at two.

More price points

Clockify has six tiers: Free, Basic, Standard, Pro, Enterprise and a CAKE.com Bundle. Basic starts at $3.99 per seat a month billed annually, which is the cheapest paid entry point on either side. What Basic adds over Free is listed on Clockify’s pricing page. Invoicing, time off and approval workflows start at Standard, $5.49 billed annually or $6.99 monthly.

Approvals and payroll-adjacent features

For teams where a manager signs off on hours, Clockify lists approval workflows from Standard up. Pro adds scheduling, forecasting, expenses and GPS tracking. Kiosk clock-in is also on the list, which helps if some people share a device at a front desk or on site. The vendor positions Clockify for teams that need timekeeping, attendance, budgeting and payroll data.

A choice of where data lives

Clockify says it offers data hosting in the EU (Germany), the UK, the USA or Australia. If a client contract or company policy asks where time records are stored, that is a concrete answer. TMetric’s documentation describes cloud sync across its apps without a listed region choice.

A listed Enterprise price

Clockify Enterprise is $11.99 per seat a month billed annually, or $14.99 monthly, and adds SSO and audit logs. TMetric Enterprise is custom pricing, so you have to talk to sales to learn the number.

An auto tracker on the free plan

Clockify’s desktop app includes an auto tracker, and it is listed on the Free plan. TMetric’s automatic monitoring is on Business. For a team that wants some help remembering what they did without paying, Clockify gets there first.

Head-to-head table

Capability	TMetric	Clockify	Dayflow (ours)
Automatic capture	App and site monitoring, activity levels, optional screenshots (Business)	Auto tracker in desktop app (Free). Activity monitoring (Pro)	Records the screen at one frame every 10 seconds
Timers and manual entry	Timer, manual entries, timer button in 50+ web apps	Timer, timesheet, calendar, kiosk	No timers
Invoicing	Professional and up	Standard and up	No
Project budgets	Professional and up	See the vendor’s pricing page	No
Team reports and approvals	Team timesheets (Business)	Reports on Free. Approvals on Standard and up	No team reports or payroll approvals
Website blocking	Not listed	Not listed	No
AI summaries	None listed	None listed	AI writes a daily timeline
Data location	Cloud, synced across apps	Cloud, with hosting in EU (Germany), UK, USA or Australia	Recordings and timeline stored on your Mac. Analysis local, via your own provider, or via Pro
Free tier	Up to 2 seats	Up to 5 users	Full app at $0
Platforms	Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions	Mac only (macOS 14+)
Open source	No	No	Yes, MIT

Pricing compared: which is cheaper per seat?

Tool	Plan	Billed annually	Billed monthly	What it adds for budget teams
TMetric	Free	$0	$0	Up to 2 seats, reports, API
TMetric	Professional	$5.83/seat/month	$7/seat/month	Invoicing, billable rates, project budgets
TMetric	Business	$7.50/seat/month	$9/seat/month	Time off, team timesheets, monitoring, Jira/Redmine/ClickUp
TMetric	Enterprise	Custom	Custom	See the vendor’s pricing page
Clockify	Free	$0	$0	Up to 5 users, auto tracker, reports
Clockify	Basic	$3.99/seat/month	$4.99/seat/month	See the vendor’s pricing page
Clockify	Standard	$5.49/seat/month	$6.99/seat/month	Invoicing, time off, approvals
Clockify	Pro	$7.99/seat/month	$9.99/seat/month	Scheduling, forecasting, expenses, GPS, activity monitoring
Clockify	Enterprise	$11.99/seat/month	$14.99/seat/month	SSO, audit logs
Clockify	CAKE.com Bundle	$12.99/seat/month	$15.99/seat/month	See the vendor’s pricing page
Dayflow (ours)	Free	$0	$0	Personal timeline only
Dayflow (ours)	Pro	Not listed	$20/month	Dayflow-managed cloud analysis

Here is what one person pays per year on the cheapest plan that fits budget team tracking.

If the job is just logging hours on a team of five or fewer, Clockify costs $0. TMetric is $0 only for a team of two.

If the job includes invoicing clients, the cheapest fit is Clockify Standard at $65.88 per seat per year billed annually ($83.88 billed monthly), against TMetric Professional at $69.96 per seat per year billed annually ($84 billed monthly). Billed monthly, the two are nearly tied. Multiply the per-seat figure by your headcount to get the team total. If you bill by the hour, the real hourly rate calculator shows what that tracked time is actually worth.

If you need activity monitoring, TMetric Business is $90 per seat per year billed annually, against $95.88 for Clockify Pro.

Dayflow Pro is $20 a month, or $240 a year for one person. It is optional, and it does not add any team features.

When to choose TMetric

• You bill clients and want budgets, billable rates and invoices on one plan without working out which tier has which.
• You want to watch project budgets closely, since TMetric lists project budgets on Professional.
• Your team uses Jira, Redmine or ClickUp and wants those integrations on Business.
• You want activity monitoring and screenshots at the lower per-seat price.
• You want two to three weeks to trial paid features with real projects.
• You are a two-person team that wants free API access to pull hours into your own reports.

When to choose Clockify

• Your team is five people or fewer and you want to pay nothing for tracking and reports.
• You need manager approvals before hours count, or you feed hours into payroll.
• You need a specific hosting region: EU (Germany), UK, USA or Australia.
• Some people clock in at a shared kiosk, or you need GPS, scheduling, forecasting or expenses.
• You expect to grow into SSO and audit logs and want a published Enterprise price.
• You want the cheapest possible invoicing tier, by a few dollars per seat per year.

Where both fall short: what does neither tool tell you about your day?

Both tools are built around a person deciding to log time. Even with Clockify’s auto tracker or TMetric’s app and site monitoring, what you get back is hours against projects, and on higher tiers, activity data. Neither lists an AI feature that reads your day and writes down what you actually did.

That gap matters less to a team lead than to the person filling in the timesheet. At 6 p.m., “Project X, 3h 40m” is easy to enter but hard to remember accurately, and it does not tell you which of those hours went to the bug, the client call or the Slack thread that ate the afternoon.

Monitoring tiers also raise a different issue. Screenshots and activity levels collected by an employer are a management tool, not a memory aid. If your team cares about that line, our piece on time tracking without surveillance covers the tradeoffs.

Dayflow (ours), as a third option

Dayflow covers the personal half of this gap, for Mac users only. It records the screen at one frame every 10 seconds and has AI write the day into a readable timeline. Full recordings and the timeline are stored on your Mac. Analysis can run three ways:

• Local AI, with a supported model running on your Mac through Ollama or LM Studio, so screenshot analysis stays on-device.
• Your own provider, where selected screenshots go to the provider you configure and their charges and terms apply.
• Dayflow Pro, where Dayflow manages cloud analysis. Under the privacy policy, Pro deletes screenshots after processing and may retain Activity Data for sync.

The details are on local and cloud processing. You can export any date range as Markdown from Settings, which is handy for checking a timesheet. See building a Mac timesheet without manual entry for that workflow.

What Dayflow does not do is the team half. No shared workspace, no team reports, no budgets, no invoices, no payroll approvals, no website blocking. AI summaries can also miss or misread work, so check them before you share anything. Facts here reflect Dayflow 2.2.0. If you are weighing other personal options, our list of the best time tracker for Mac apps covers the wider field.

Where Dayflow is the wrong pick

For budget team tracking, Dayflow is the wrong pick most of the time. Be specific about which tool wins instead:

• A team of up to five that needs shared hours for free: Clockify. Its Free plan is a five-person workspace with reports. Dayflow has no shared workspace at all.
• Client billing with project budgets: TMetric Professional. Dayflow has no invoicing, billable rates or budgets.
• Approvals before hours go to payroll: Clockify Standard or above. Dayflow has no payroll approvals.
• Anyone on Windows, Linux or a phone: TMetric or Clockify, both of which cover Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. Dayflow runs only on macOS 14 or later.
• A data residency requirement for team records: Clockify, with hosting in the EU, UK, USA or Australia.
• Blocking distracting sites: neither TMetric nor Clockify lists it, and Dayflow does not do it either. Look elsewhere for that.

Dayflow fits when one person on a Mac wants an honest record of their own day, possibly alongside a team tracker.

The bottom line: which should a budget team pick?

If your team is five people or fewer and you only need to know where hours went, use Clockify’s free plan. Nothing in TMetric’s lineup matches it at $0 for that headcount.

If you bill clients, the price gap is small: $65.88 vs $69.96 per seat per year billed annually. Pick on features. Choose TMetric Professional if you want project budgets, billable rates and invoicing together, plus a longer trial. Choose Clockify Standard if you need approvals or a specific hosting region, or expect to need scheduling, GPS or SSO later.

If you need activity monitoring, TMetric Business costs less per seat than Clockify Pro. Talk to your team before you switch it on.

And if the person filling in the timesheet is on a Mac and keeps forgetting what they did, Dayflow can sit next to either tool as a free personal record. It will not run your team’s budget. You can read more on the product details page.

Frequently asked questions

Is Clockify really free for a team of five?

Yes, according to Clockify's pricing page, which lists the Free plan as "for up to 5 users" with unlimited tracking, timer, timesheet, auto tracker, calendar, reports and apps. Its FAQ phrases it as inviting up to 4 people, which describes the same 5-person workspace: you plus four others. Invoicing and approvals are not on the Free plan. They start at the paid Standard tier.

How many people can use TMetric for free?

TMetric's Free plan covers up to 2 seats. It includes unlimited time tracking, unlimited clients and projects, exportable reports and API access, but it keeps only 7 days of activity data storage. Invoicing needs a paid plan. A team of three or more needs Professional at $5.83 per seat a month billed annually, or $7 billed monthly, or a higher tier.

Which is cheaper for invoicing clients, TMetric or Clockify?

Clockify, by a small margin. Invoicing starts on Clockify Standard at $5.49 per seat a month billed annually, which is $65.88 per seat per year. On TMetric it starts on Professional at $5.83 per seat a month billed annually, or $69.96 per seat per year. TMetric's Professional plan also lists project budgets and billable rates, which can matter more than the price difference.

Do TMetric or Clockify monitor employee activity?

Both can, on higher plans. TMetric's Business plan adds app and site monitoring, activity levels and optional screenshots. Clockify lists activity monitoring on its Pro plan. Neither feature is on the free plans. Check each vendor's pricing page for exactly what is captured before turning these on, and tell your team what is being recorded.

Can I choose where Clockify or TMetric stores my team's data?

Clockify says it offers data hosting in the EU (Germany), the UK, the USA or Australia. TMetric describes its data as cloud based, syncing across its web, desktop and mobile apps, and does not list a choice of region in the documentation we checked. If your team has a data residency requirement, Clockify is the one with documented options.

Do TMetric or Clockify have AI features?

Neither vendor lists AI features on the pages we checked on October 4, 2026. Both are built around timers, timesheets and manual entries, with some automatic tracking: Clockify has an auto tracker in its desktop app, and TMetric's Business plan adds app and site monitoring. Neither lists AI-written summaries of what you worked on.

Is Dayflow a replacement for Clockify for a small team?

No. For a team, Clockify is the better tool. Dayflow has no team reports, invoicing, payroll approvals or shared workspace, and it runs only on Macs with macOS 14 or later. Clockify gives up to five people a free shared workspace across Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. Dayflow fits one person on a Mac who wants an automatic record of their own day.

Which has the longer free trial, TMetric or Clockify?

TMetric. Its trial runs 14 days and can be extended by 7 more. Clockify offers 7 days of Pro features with no credit card required. Both also have permanent free plans, so the trial mostly matters for testing paid features like invoicing, budgets, approvals or activity monitoring with real projects before committing a team.

Can I use Dayflow alongside Clockify or TMetric?

Yes, they do different jobs. Clockify or TMetric can hold the team's billable hours, budgets and invoices, while Dayflow keeps a personal AI-written timeline of your own Mac day. Dayflow can export a date range as Markdown from Settings, which you can use to check your timesheet. There is no direct integration between them in the documentation we checked.

Is Dayflow free?

Yes. Dayflow is $0 and MIT licensed. An optional Pro plan costs $20 a month and has Dayflow manage the cloud analysis. Without Pro, you can run a local model through Ollama or LM Studio so screenshot analysis stays on your Mac, or connect your own AI provider, whose charges and terms apply.