Clockify For Freelancers – My Review (is it really free?)
By Domenico Trimboli
15 MIN READING TIME
TLDR
- Clockify has a solid free plan for personal use, and some interesting low-cost plans
- Clockify is built for teams, not freelancers, which shows (more details below)
- If you want to streamline time sheet creation and invoicing, there are better tools
- For a complete solution including expense tracking, you will pay $10/month
Are you looking for a time tracking solution for your freelance business?
If you are, then you have probably come across Clockify. Their team did a fantastic job at advertising Clockify as the best free time tracker for freelancers and employees alike.
But is it true that a free app can do what others charge at least $10 per month to do?
We are going to find out…
Clockify Review for Freelancers
Clockify is the self-proclaimed ‘most popular free time tracker for teams’. They are a giant in the space, used by millions of people to track their working hours.
After trying their app, I can tell you that it works, and it works pretty well. Clockify is super simple, and has virtually no learning curve. You log in, create a client, create a project and click play to start time tracking.
The only problem?
That’s basically it. Clockify is not a complete solution for freelancers, and even just the basic features you’ll need for your freelancing (invoicing + expense tracking) will require a $10/month plan.
Not that there is anything wrong with that – I respect that they have a business. Yet, at $10 per month there may be better option for you to consider.
- FreshBooks often runs promotions (one is active right now) to get their solution at $9.99 for 4 months – basically the same price, for a much more complete product
- At just $11 per month more, Bonsai offers a complete solution – CRM, task management, invoicing, payment and expenses tracking and a lot more
Time Tracker
Time tracking is the core of Clockify, and it works pretty well
Free Plan
If you want to track the time you spend on unbillable tasks, Clockify is perfect
Breakdown
Time sheets can be broken down into clients, projects and tasks.
Clockify Pros
Clockify Cons
serious plans Start at $10/month
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The best free plan on the market…
Clockify’s proposition is simple – they are the best free time trackers for freelancers, employees, everyone. And then, if you want more, they also offer paid plans.
It makes sense that as a freelancer, some of the features you need are not included in the free plan.
These are invoice creation and expense tracking.
This is fairly common for free plans (I also mentioned it in my Toggl review), but doesn’t prevent Clockify from having the best free plan I have explored.
In fact, most time tracking apps don’t offer any free plan at all, and those that do all have pretty serious limitations.
Toggl, which has the second-best free plan, does not allow you to apply any rate to the time sheets you create on your free plan, which is a fairly hard limit.
Also, with the Clockify free plan you can access the tool’s weekly view (above), which a lot of tools don’t even offer on a paid plan.
… But average paid plans
And yet, while the paid plan is solid, to make the most of Clockify you need to upgrade to a paid plan. In this scenario, you basically have 2 options:
- Standard plan ($6.99, billed monthly), that gives you access to the invoicing feature
- Pro plan ($9.99, billed monthly), that also gives you access to expense tracking
The paid plans are ok. Nothing wrong with them, but nothing worth mentioning. They are, basically, the same as others. They offer some features that you might find helpful, such as time sheet approvals and an integration with QuickBooks.
Since Clockify is not designed with freelancers in mind, it lacks some features that other solutions offer, such as recurring invoices for retainers. This, and other minor issues, makes me suggest that, if you have a budget of circa $10 per month, Toggl is a better solution for your needs.
The verdict – would I recommend Clockify?
Would I recommend Clockify?
If you are just starting out in your freelance journey and you have no budget, or you want to spend your money for other things, then yes. Get a free plan and use it till you can afford something better.
If you can afford to spend a few more dollars per month – btw, you should… you are running a business, and you should invest in it – there are two main alternatives that can save you much more time and help you run a more efficient freelance business.
FreshBooks is a time tracking and invoicing tool that’s absolutely perfect for freelancers. It can easily save you hours of admin work every month, that you can use to find new clients, learn new skills or even just chill. You deserve it!
Bonsai is a more complete solution for beginners and veterans alike. They offer a client relationship management solution that will really help you to grow your freelancing, a time tracker and time sheet manager that works perfectly, and better invoicing features than Clockify.
