7 Best RescueTime Alternatives You Need to Know About

If you’re looking for a time management or productivity tool, you may consider RescueTime.

While this software solution has many great features, it has several drawbacks. Here are some of the disadvantages customers mention:

•  “I dislike that you can’t customize things without lots of tedium in the categories and other areas.” 
• “Update frequency seems high, and sometimes the update pop-up is intrusive.”
•  “Re-categorizing activities is somewhat convoluted. Honestly, I’ve had to bookmark the page so I can get to it quickly.”
• “Lack of detail in reporting. RescueTime is not a replacement for an automatic time tracking app for contractors.”  

You use your time tracking software every day. It’s one of your most used software tools, so choose one that works for your unique team. You’re in the right place if you’re looking for the best RescueTime alternative. 

What are the best RescueTime alternatives?

Tool	Starting Price	Key Features
Hubstaff	$7 per user/month	Workforce management Automatic time tracking softwareTask management Productivity insightsReporting and analytics Payroll automation
Toggl	$10 per user/month	Time tracking Detailed reportingCalendar integrationTeam dashboard
Harvest	$12 per seat/month	Time and expense trackingInvoicingIntegration with toolsReports and analysis
Time Doctor	$7 per user/month	Time trackingWeb & app usage monitoringOffline time trackingClient login access
QuickBooks Time	$20/month + $8 per user per month	Employee time trackingGPS location trackingScheduling and shift planningIntegration with QuickBooks
ZoomShift	$2.50 per user/month	Employee schedulingTime clockAvailability and time off managementPayroll reporting
TimeCamp	$3.99 per user/month	Automatic time trackingProject management tool Productivity analysisIntegration capabilities

1. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is an all-in-one workforce management tool that helps you efficiently track employee time and productivity. Use it to automate tasks so that you can spend more time on productive work.

Hubstaff specializes in boosting employee productivity through smart automation. Built-in features like payroll automation, invoicing, employee scheduling, and project budgets take a lot of tedious tasks off your plate.

The time tracking features are productivity-focused, too. You can see time spent on projects and tasks, plus your employee’s productivity level during that time. That data helps you spot issues that are slowing down work.

Optional employee monitoring features like URL tracking and periodic screenshots make it easy for managers to help identify bottlenecks and potential problems. Monitoring features are easy to customize with individual user controls. For example, you can blur screenshots for your HR team to protect potentially sensitive information or turn them off.

GPS geofencing helps field services companies manage payroll. Instead of using timesheets, the app automatically starts tracking the time when an employee arrives and stops when they leave the Job site.

With the Insights add-on, businesses gain actionable workforce insights to help guide their team’s productivity. 

Hubstaff integrates with various popular business solutions, including Asana, Jira, Trello, QuickBooks, Salesforce, and Zendesk.

Hubstaff works great for remote teams and field services companies. It’s also valuable for in-office teams that need a reliable way to automate their timesheets and track employee productivity.

Pricing

Hubstaff offers a free plan for a single user. It includes time tracking, timesheets, and limited payment features. 

If you need more users and features, you can opt for one of the paid plans — all of which support unlimited users:

• Starter: $7 per user/month
• Grow: $9 per user/month
• Team: $12 per user/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing is available upon request

For more features, check out the additional add-ons.

• Insights: $2 per user/month
• Tasks: $3 per user/month
• Data retention: $2 per user/month
• More screenshots: $3 per user/month

There’s also a free 14-day trial to check out the software and see if it fits your needs correctly. 

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2. Toggl

Toggl offers cloud-based time tracking for both desktop and mobile. The basic features are straightforward. You can track your time by starting and stopping the timer or manually entering it later. Generate reports and graphs that export easily to Excel for more detail.

Advanced features like the labor cost vs profit comparison are more valuable for teams. Simplicity is key. You won’t spend hours digging through menus to set up things as you want.

Toggl integrates with several popular software solutions, including Asana, Evernote, and Zapier.

Toggl is best suited for companies that need straightforward time tracking across multiple devices. It’s great for lower-tech teams that might push back against new software.

Pricing

• Free: Free 
• Starter: $10 per user/month
• Premium: $20 per user/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing available 

3. Harvest

Harvest is another excellent RescueTime alternative. In addition to time tracking, it offers team management, invoicing, and payment features.

Managers can use Harvest to handle employee timesheets and expense reports. For users who do client work, you can send invoices with automatic payment reminders. Several available integrations allow you to link your time tracking and task-management solutions.

The intuitive user interface is self-explanatory, so training your team is quick and easy. You don’t need to download anything to get started. Your employees can log in from their browser and let their time tracking run in an open tab.

Harvest is an excellent option for freelancers who bill hourly. It also works well for teams who need easy-to-use timesheet software.

Pricing

• Harvest: Free plan
• Harvest Pro: $12 per seat/month 

4. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a time tracking solution with lots of monitoring options.

Their interface is a little clunky, and some users find the initial setup confusing. Even so, it has some valuable features.

Time Doctor focuses heavily on employee monitoring. It takes automatic screenshots for employers to review. Distraction alerts pop up whenever the user sits idle or spends too long on a non-work website.

You’ll also get all the time tracking features you expect from a time tracker. Use it to fill out timesheets and handle payroll, as with most of the solutions listed here.

Integrations include popular software like Asana, Evernote, Freshbooks, Jira, and Monday.

Because of their strong focus on monitoring, Time Doctor is best suited for organizations that take a hands-on management approach. Teams uncomfortable with a lot of manager oversight should consider a different option.

Pricing

• Basic: $7 per user/month 
• Standard: $10 per user/month 
• Premium: $20 per user/month 

5. QuickBooks Time

QuickBooks Time, formerly known as TSheets, is a robust time tracking solution offering a different focus than RescueTime. While RescueTime is aimed at helping individuals understand and optimize their productivity, QuickBooks Time caters to the needs of businesses that require detailed employee time tracking and scheduling. 

This platform is handy for companies with hourly workers or those who manage remote teams, providing tools to accurately track time for payroll, billing, and job costing.

QuickBooks Time stands out with features like real-time GPS tracking, which allows businesses to monitor the location of their mobile workforce to ensure that employees are at the right place at the right time. 

Additionally, it offers an intuitive interface for clocking in and out, scheduling shifts, and managing overtime, which can be accessed via mobile devices, making it highly accessible for teams on the go. 

The platform also integrates seamlessly with various payroll and accounting systems, including QuickBooks, which significantly simplifies the payroll process by automating time data synchronization. This integration ensures accuracy and can help reduce the administrative burden associated with manual timekeeping and payroll processing.

Pricing

• Premium: $20/month + $8 per user per month
• Elite: $40/month + $10 per user per month

6. ZoomShift

ZoomShift specializes in scheduling and time tracking for shift work. It can help you manage time-off requests, availability, overtime, and shift conflicts.

The scheduling features are excellent. You can post your schedule online, email it, or text it to your employees. Employees can quickly request scheduling changes. Instead of juggling scheduling conflicts alone, you can easily manage everything in one place.

ZoomShift helps address some of the more common payroll issues in shift work. You can block early clock-ins and prevent employees from logging unapproved overtime so you don’t blow your payroll budget. If you’re concerned about accountability, you can automatically remind employees that their shift starts soon.

Employees can pick up open shifts, set availability preferences, request time off, and even swap shifts with each other just by logging in. That takes a lot of administrative work off your plate. ZoomShift works online; you can also download the Android or iOS app.

ZoomShift is designed for retailers, bars & restaurants, and other businesses with shift-based scheduling. It’s an excellent solution if you need to manage coverage and handle payroll for a team that works a different schedule every week.

Pricing

• Essentials: Free
• Starter: $2.50 per user/month
• Premium: $5 per user/month

7. TimeCamp

TimeCamp is a versatile time tracking tool that serves as an effective alternative to RescueTime, particularly for teams and individuals looking to gain deeper insights into their productivity and work habits.  

Unlike RescueTime, which focuses primarily on automatic tracking of time spent on apps and websites, TimeCamp offers a broader range of features, including manual and automatic time entries, project management software functionalities, and detailed invoicing. 

This makes it especially useful for freelancers, consultants, and project-based teams who need to keep precise tabs on how much time they dedicate to specific tasks or projects.

One of the critical advantages of TimeCamp is its integration capabilities. It can seamlessly integrate with various project management tools like Trello, Asana, and JIRA, as well as with productivity software such as Google Calendar and Slack. 

This connectivity enables users to automate time tracking within their existing workflows, reducing the overhead of switching between apps and boosting efficiency. 

Pricing

• Free plan: Free forever
• Starter: $3.99 per user/month
• Premium: $6.99 per user/month
• Ultimate: $9.99 per user/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing available 

Frequently asked questions 

Is there a free version of RescueTime?

Yes, RescueTime does offer a free version called RescueTime Lite. This version provides basic tracking features that allow users to monitor the time spent on various applications and websites. It gives an overview of your digital habits, helping you understand how you spend your time online. 

How much does RescueTime cost?

RescueTime offers a premium version with more detailed insights and tools to help users increase productivity and manage their time more effectively. Plans start at $6.50/month. 

What is RescueTime used for?

RescueTime is used to track and analyze time spent on electronic devices. It runs in the background on your computer and mobile devices to track your time on various applications and websites. The goal is to provide insights into your daily habits and productivity. 

Over to you

Have you tried any of the solutions we listed? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below!

This post was originally published in January 2016 and was updated on May 5, 2024.