Tyme vs Timing: Which Is Better for Freelancers on a Mac in 2026?

For most freelancers on a Mac, Timing is the better pick if you want an automatic record of billable hours with billing status and rounded reports, from $9 a month billed annually. Tyme wins if you track from an iPhone or Apple Watch, log expenses and mileage, or want the lower price at $59.99 a year. Dayflow, our free app, is for remembering your day, not billing.

Tyme is a timer you start and stop on your Mac, iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, with geofences that can clock you in when you arrive somewhere. Timing runs in the background on one Mac and records which apps, websites and documents you used, so a record exists even when you forgot to press start.

Disclosure: we make Dayflow, a free, open-source Mac app that also records your day automatically, and it shows up below as a third option. It is not an invoicing tool, so for most billing jobs one of these two fits better. This comparison is based on each vendor’s own documentation and pricing pages as read on October 4, 2026. For Timing against Dayflow in more depth, see our Timing alternative page, and for a wider field, our roundup of the best time tracker for Mac options.

Quick comparison

Tool	Best for	How it tracks	Price	Platforms
Tyme	Freelancers who bill from timers and work away from the desk	Manual timers from the app, shortcuts or Apple Watch, plus geofence clock in and out	$4.99/month billed annually ($59.99/year) or $6.99/month billed monthly	Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Web (beta)
Timing	Freelancers who want an automatic record of billable hours on a Mac	Automatic capture of apps, websites and documents, plus manual entries	From $9/month billed annually or $11/month billed monthly (Professional)	Mac
Dayflow (ours)	Remembering and reviewing what you did, at no cost	One screen frame every 10 seconds, AI writes a timeline	$0 (MIT license), optional Pro at $20/month	Mac (macOS 14+)

Key takeaways

• Timing captures your Mac activity automatically, down to URLs and Mail threads. Tyme only knows what you time, or where you are if you use geofences.
• Tyme covers more devices: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and a web login in beta. Timing is Mac only, with iOS activity import listed.
• Tyme is cheaper. Its annual plan is $59.99 a year against $108 a year for Timing Professional billed annually.
• Timing has more built for billing review: billing status tracking, report rounding and AI suggestions for time entries. Tyme has expense and mileage tracking that Timing does not list.
• Dayflow is free and open source but has no invoicing, billable reports or team features. It is a memory tool, not a billing tool.

What does Tyme do better than Timing?

It follows you off the Mac. Tyme runs on Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, with a web login in beta. If you start a timer at a client’s office, on a call from your phone or from your wrist, Tyme has an app for that. Timing is a Mac app, and its other-device story is limited to importing iOS activity and call tracking.

Location-based clock in. Tyme can clock you in and out using geofences and record breaks automatically. For a freelancer who works on site, such as a photographer, consultant or tradesperson who also bills from a Mac, that is a kind of automatic tracking Timing does not list.

Expenses and mileage. Tyme tracks expenses and mileage alongside hours. If your invoices include travel or materials, keeping them in the same app as your time saves a second tool.

Invoicing plugins. Tyme lists plugins for GrandTotal, Lexware and sevdesk. If you already invoice through one of those, Tyme slots into a workflow you have.

Team mode. Tyme has a team mode with admin and member roles, priced per user. A freelancer who occasionally brings in a subcontractor can add them without changing tools.

Price. At $59.99 a year on the annual plan, Tyme costs less than any Timing plan.

AI through MCP. Tyme lists an MCP Server for connecting AI assistants. It does not describe built-in AI features, so the AI side depends on the assistant you bring.

What does Timing do better than Tyme?

Nothing to remember. Timing records time automatically across apps, websites and documents, down to specific URLs and Mail threads. The common freelancer failure is not mis-tracking a task, it is forgetting to start the timer at all. With Timing, the activity is recorded either way, and you assign it to a client or project afterward. If you have ever rebuilt a timesheet from memory, our piece on a Mac timesheet without manual entry covers that problem.

Billing-focused reporting. Timing lists billing status tracking and customizable reports with report rounding. Marking which hours you have already invoiced and rounding to your billing increment are the two chores that eat the end of the month.

AI on every plan. Timing includes AI activity summaries and AI integration via MCP on all plans, plus AI-powered suggestions for time entries. That last one matters for freelancers: suggestions turn raw activity into entries you can review instead of type.

Integrations for specific kinds of work. Depending on plan, Timing offers two-way sync with ClickUp, Linear and Clio, a GrandTotal invoicing integration, scripting, a Web API and Zapier. Clio is a legal practice tool, and Timing names legal professionals among its audience, alongside developers and freelancers.

Local by default. Timing states that tracked times are stored locally and never leave your Mac unless you opt into sync. All plans list Sync and Cloud Backup if you want it. Tyme says its plans sync across devices, but the pages read do not say where that data is stored.

A longer, card-free trial. Timing’s trial runs 30 days with no credit card required. Tyme’s is 14 days.

Head-to-head table

Capability	Tyme	Timing	Dayflow (ours)
Automatic capture	No app or window capture listed; geofence clock in and out	Yes, apps, websites, documents, URLs and Mail threads	Yes, one screen frame every 10 seconds
Manual timers	Yes, app, shortcuts, Apple Watch	Manual time entries listed	No
Invoicing	Via plugins such as GrandTotal, Lexware, sevdesk	Billing status tracking, GrandTotal integration (plan dependent)	No
Team reports	Team mode with admin and member roles	Shared projects on the Connect plan	No
Website blocking	Not listed	Not listed	No
AI summaries	No built-in AI described; MCP Server listed	AI activity summaries, MCP, AI time entry suggestions	AI writes the day into a timeline
Data location	Cloud sync across devices; backend not described	Local, with optional sync	Recordings and timeline on your Mac; analysis local or cloud by mode
Free tier	None (14-day trial)	None (30-day trial, no card)	Free app, $0
Platforms	Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Web (beta)	Mac	Mac (macOS 14+)
Open source	No	No	Yes, MIT

Pricing compared

Plan	Billed annually	Billed monthly	Yearly cost, annual billing	Yearly cost, monthly billing
Tyme	$4.99/month per user ($59.99/year)	$6.99/month per user	$59.99	$83.88
Timing Professional	$9/month	$11/month	$108	$132
Timing Expert	$11/month	$14/month	$132	$168
Timing Connect	$16/user/month	$20/user/month	$192 per user	$240 per user
Dayflow (free)	$0	$0	$0	$0
Dayflow Pro	See pricing	$20/month	See pricing	$240

For one freelancer, the cheapest plan that does the job is Tyme’s annual plan at $59.99 a year, or Timing Professional at $108 a year billed annually. The gap is $48.01 a year. Paying monthly widens it: $83.88 for Tyme against $132 for Timing Professional.

Two caveats before you pick on price. Timing Professional covers one Mac and has limited web app access, and several of Timing’s integrations, including GrandTotal, depend on the plan, so the integration you need may push you to Expert. Both vendors render prices with JavaScript, the figures here were read with a US locale, and Timing notes prices may vary by region or tax. Tyme’s page shows “Save 28%” for annual billing and Timing’s shows “Annual SAVE 18%”.

Either price is small next to one unbilled hour. If you want to see what untracked time costs you, the real hourly rate calculator does that math with your own numbers.

When should a freelancer choose Tyme?

Pick Tyme if:

• You start and stop work away from the Mac, from an iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch.
• You work on site and want geofences to clock you in and out.
• Your invoices include expenses or mileage.
• You already invoice through GrandTotal, Lexware or sevdesk.
• You sometimes bring in help and want admin and member roles.
• You want the lowest yearly cost of the two and are fine with a 14-day trial.

Tyme assumes you are disciplined about timers, or that your work happens in places a geofence can recognize. If you mostly sit at one desk and switch between clients many times a day, that assumption gets expensive.

When should a freelancer choose Timing?

Pick Timing if:

• Your billable work happens on one Mac, and you forget to start timers.
• You want a record of apps, websites, documents and Mail threads to back up your hours.
• You need billing status tracking and rounded reports at the end of the month.
• You work in ClickUp, Linear or Clio and want two-way sync (plan dependent).
• You prefer data stored locally unless you opt into sync.
• You want AI suggestions that turn recorded activity into time entries.

Timing is the closer match for a desk-bound freelancer who bills by the hour. Our Timing vs Rize comparison covers how it stacks up against another automatic tracker if you are still shopping in that category.

Where do both fall short?

Neither is free or open source. Both are subscriptions with no free tier. If you want to try automatic tracking on your own time without a trial clock running, or you want code you can read, neither fits.

Neither shows you the work itself. Tyme knows what you timed. Timing knows which app, URL or document was in front of you, which is a lot. What neither describes is a readable account of what you were actually doing on screen, written as a narrative of the day. That is the gap when a client asks “what did you do on the 14th?” and the honest answer lives in what was on your screen, not in an app name.

Dayflow covers both gaps, and only those. It is $0 and MIT licensed, records one frame every 10 seconds, and has AI write the day into a timeline you can read. Full recordings and the timeline are stored on your Mac. You choose how screenshots are analyzed: Local AI through Ollama or LM Studio keeps analysis on-device, your own cloud provider receives selected screenshots under its own terms, or Dayflow Pro manages cloud analysis and, under our privacy policy, deletes screenshots after processing while it may retain activity data for sync. The details are on our local and cloud processing page. You can export a date range as Markdown from Settings, covered in export your work history.

What Dayflow does not cover is the billing half of the job. It has no invoices, no billing status, no rounding and no team reports. A freelancer who wants both can run Dayflow as the memory and Tyme or Timing as the ledger. Our guide to how to remember what you worked on shows the memory side, and the full list of time tracking apps for freelancers on Mac covers the ledger side.

Where Dayflow is the wrong pick

Be clear about this before you install it:

• You need to send invoices. Dayflow does not create invoices. Timing, with billing status tracking and a GrandTotal integration, or Tyme, with GrandTotal, Lexware and sevdesk plugins, wins here.
• You need billable reports a client will accept. Timing’s customizable reports with rounding are built for that. Dayflow’s AI summaries can miss or misinterpret work, so check them before sharing.
• You track from your phone or watch. Dayflow is Mac only. Tyme runs on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
• You log expenses or mileage. Tyme does. Dayflow does not.
• You manage other people. Dayflow has no team reports or payroll approvals. Tyme’s team mode or Timing’s Connect plan fits better.
• You do not want your screen recorded at all. Tyme’s timers record nothing but the time you choose to track.
• You are on macOS older than 14. Dayflow requires macOS 14 or later.
• You want website blocking. Dayflow does not block sites, and neither Tyme nor Timing lists it.

The bottom line

If you bill hours from a single Mac and lose time to forgotten timers, Timing is the better tool for the job. It records your activity automatically, tracks what you have billed, rounds your reports, and keeps data local unless you opt into sync. It costs $108 a year on Professional billed annually, and you get 30 days to try it without a card.

If your work happens partly on your phone, wrist or on site, or your invoices carry expenses and mileage, Tyme is the better fit and the cheaper one at $59.99 a year. Just accept that its record is only as good as your timer habits or your geofences.

Dayflow, which is ours, sits beside both rather than replacing either. It is free, open source and good at telling you what your day actually held. It will not send an invoice, and for a freelancer that is usually the deciding question.

Frequently asked questions

Is Tyme or Timing better for freelancers?

It depends on how you work. Timing suits freelancers who sit at one Mac and want hours captured automatically, with billing status tracking and report rounding. Tyme suits freelancers who start timers from an iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, track expenses and mileage, or clock in by location. Tyme is also cheaper on its annual plan, at $59.99 a year against $108 for Timing Professional billed annually.

How much does Timing cost per year?

Timing Professional is $9 a month billed annually, or $108 a year, and $11 a month billed monthly. Expert is $11 a month billed annually or $14 billed monthly. Connect is $16 per user per month billed annually or $20 billed monthly. There is no free tier, but there is a 30-day trial with no credit card required. Prices were read with a US locale and may vary by region or tax.

How much does Tyme cost?

Tyme's annual plan is $4.99 a month per user, paid as $59.99 a year. The monthly plan is $6.99 a month per user, which comes to $83.88 over twelve months. The pricing page shows 'Save 28%' for annual billing. Tyme has no free tier, and it offers a 14-day trial. Prices were read in a browser with a US locale for one user.

Does Timing track time automatically on a Mac?

Yes. Timing records time automatically across apps, websites and documents on your Mac, down to specific URLs and Mail threads. You can also add manual time entries, and the vendor lists iOS activity import and call tracking. Its AI features include activity summaries and suggestions for time entries, so you assign recorded activity to clients and projects rather than starting a timer for every task.

Can Tyme track time automatically?

Not in the sense of recording which apps or windows you use. Tyme is timer based: you start and stop timers from the app, keyboard shortcuts or an Apple Watch. Its automatic piece is location based. Geofences can clock you in and out when you arrive at or leave a place, and breaks can be recorded automatically. If you want app and website capture on the Mac, Timing is the tool for that.

Can Tyme or Timing create invoices?

Both connect to invoicing rather than replacing a full accounting tool. Tyme lists invoicing plugins such as GrandTotal, Lexware and sevdesk. Timing lists billing status tracking, customizable reports with rounding, and a GrandTotal invoicing integration, though which plan includes it depends on the plan. Check each vendor's pricing page for the exact plan that includes the integration you rely on before you subscribe.

Should I use Dayflow instead of Tyme or Timing for client billing?

No. For client billing, Tyme or Timing beats Dayflow. Dayflow does not provide invoices, payroll approvals, billing status or rounded billable reports. Timing is the stronger choice if you want automatic capture tied to billing, and Tyme is better if you track from an iPhone or Apple Watch or need expenses and mileage. Dayflow is useful alongside them for remembering what you actually did.

Is there a free alternative to Timing for Mac?

Dayflow is free and MIT licensed, runs on macOS 14 or later, and records a screen frame every 10 seconds so AI can write your day into a timeline. It is not a billing replacement for Timing, since it has no invoices or billable reports. It fits if your main goal is seeing and remembering where your time went. An optional Pro plan costs $20 a month.

Where do Tyme and Timing store my data?

Timing states that tracked times are stored locally and never leave your Mac unless you opt into sync, and all its plans list Sync and Cloud Backup. Tyme says its plans include access across all your devices, always in sync, but the pages read do not say whether that runs through iCloud or the vendor's own cloud. Check Tyme's help pages if storage location matters to you.

Do Tyme and Timing have free trials?

Yes, both offer trials but no free plan. Tyme's trial is 14 days. Timing's trial is 30 days and does not require a credit card. Because neither has a free tier, it makes sense to use the trial on real client work for a full billing cycle, so you see whether the reports match how you actually invoice before paying for a year.