Best Time Tracking Software for Marketing Agencies

Website: https://toggl.com

Best for: Client billing with a simple one-click timer

Starting price: $9 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: One-click timer with 100 plus integrations; clean billable rate reports

Cons: Timesheet approvals and profitability reports need Premium at $16 per user

Toggl Track is the timer most agencies reach for first, because it stays out of the way. A one-click timer runs in the browser, on desktop, or on mobile, and entries sync into projects, clients, and tags. Billable rates and project estimates sit on the Starter plan at $9 per user per month on annual billing, so a small agency can quote a job, track against the estimate, and export the numbers for an invoice without a second tool. The free plan covers up to 3 users, which fits a tiny agency, while Starter adds team reports and revenue views. Premium at $16 per user per month adds timesheet approvals, labor cost and profitability reports, fixed-fee projects, project dashboards, and single sign-on. There is no invoicing or scheduling inside Toggl Track, and no screenshot monitoring, which many agencies count as a plus. It suits teams that bill by the hour and want a clean, fast timer.

Website: https://clockify.me

Best for: Budget agencies that need unlimited projects

Starting price: $3.99 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free plan covers 5 users with unlimited projects and tracking; very low entry price

Cons: Screenshots, GPS, and activity monitoring wait for Pro at $7.99 per user

Clockify is the low-cost way to give a whole agency a shared timer and a single source of truth for hours. The free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited projects, clients, and tracking, and the Basic plan at $3.99 per user per month on annual billing adds admin controls, a time audit, and bulk editing. Standard at $5.49 adds invoicing, time off, and timesheet approvals, which covers the billing workflow for many small firms. The trade-off is that anything that looks like monitoring costs more. Screenshots, GPS tracking, and activity monitoring start on Pro at $7.99, and the Enterprise plan at $11.99 adds data region choice and single sign-on. Clockify integrates with a wide range of project tools, and its reports break hours down by client, project, and person. For an agency that trusts its people and wants hours, not surveillance, the lower tiers are enough.

Website: https://everhour.com

Best for: Agencies already living in Asana or Trello

Starting price: $5 per user/month

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Timer lives inside Asana, Trello, Jira, and GitHub; budgets and invoicing included

Cons: Free plan has no project management integrations; priced plans carry a seat minimum

Everhour is a time tracking layer that sits inside the project tools an agency already uses. Instead of asking people to open a second app, it adds a timer and time reports to Asana, Trello, Jira, Basecamp, and GitHub boards. The free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited time tracking, projects, and reports, but it leaves out the project management integrations that make Everhour worth buying. Lite at $5 per user per month adds those integrations, plus budgets, invoicing, reminders, and billable rates. Team at $8.50 adds time approval, scheduling, expenses, time cards, and API access, and it works inside every integration. Everhour has no screenshot monitoring, so it suits agencies that want hours tied to tasks without watching screens. The main limit is scope: it is a tracker, not a scheduler or a capacity planner.

Website: https://www.timedoctor.com

Best for: Distraction alerts and productivity analytics

Starting price: $6.67 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Distraction alerts and web and app usage reports; payroll and scheduling on Standard

Cons: No free plan; Basic lacks integrations, payroll, and web and app tracking

Time Doctor takes the most active approach to productivity of the tools in this list. When someone opens a site a manager has flagged as non-work, a pop-up alert tells them to get back to work. Basic at $6.67 per user per month on annual billing covers time tracking, screenshots, projects, and tasks. Standard at $11.67 adds web and app usage reports, attendance, payroll, and more than 60 integrations, while Premium at $16.70 adds video screen recording and AI benchmarks. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, so an agency must commit after the trial ends. Premium features are also sold as add-ons on lower plans at about $3 per user per month each, which can cost more than simply moving up a tier. Time Doctor fits agencies whose clients ask for evidence of work and that are open about monitoring, and it is the wrong choice for a team that sees monitoring as a trust problem.

Website: https://desktime.com

Best for: Automatic tracking with no timers to start

Starting price: $6.42 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Fully automatic tracking from the moment a computer starts; private time option for staff

Cons: No free plan; screenshots and shift scheduling need Premium at $9.17 per user

DeskTime records apps, websites, and documents automatically from the moment a computer switches on, then sorts that activity into productive and unproductive categories. Nobody has to remember to start a timer, which removes the most common source of missing hours in an agency. Pro at $6.42 per user per month on annual billing includes automatic tracking, productivity calculations, project tracking, and an absence calendar, while Premium at $9.17 adds screenshots, integrations and API access, and shift scheduling. Staff can switch on private time to pause tracking and review their own data, which softens the monitoring side of the tool. There is no permanent free plan, only a 14-day trial, and there is no built-in invoicing, so billing still needs a second step. Prices exclude VAT, which matters for buyers in the European Union. DeskTime fits agencies that want passive, always-on time data across a hybrid team.

Website: https://productive.io

Best for: Agency profitability, budgets, and capacity

Starting price: $10 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Budgets, profitability, and capacity planning built for agencies; strong reporting

Cons: No permanent free plan; a 3-seat minimum applies on priced plans

Productive is built for agencies, and it shows in the way it connects time to money. Essential at $10 per user per month on annual billing covers time tracking, project budgets, invoicing, and reporting, with a 3-seat minimum. Professional at $25 adds capacity planning, profitability reports, custom fields, and advanced permissions, which is where a growing agency sees which clients actually make money. There is a 14-day trial and no permanent free plan. The point of Productive is the margin view: hours, rates, and costs roll into profitability by client, project, and person, so a manager can see a retainer slipping before the month ends. It also covers sales pipelines and resource scheduling, which makes it a fuller agency system than a simple timer. Productive suits agencies of 10 to 100 people that want one place for budgets, capacity, and billing, and it is more than a small team needs.

Website: https://www.scoro.com

Best for: Full agency operations from quote to invoice

Starting price: $26 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Quotes, projects, time, and invoicing in one system; strong utilisation reporting

Cons: The highest entry price in this list; a 5-seat minimum applies on Essential

Scoro is the most complete agency system in this list, covering quotes, projects, time tracking, billing, and reporting in one place. Essential at $26 per user per month on annual billing, with a 5-seat minimum, covers project management, time tracking, invoicing, and dashboards. Higher tiers add capacity planning, advanced reporting, and integrations with accounting tools. There is a 14-day trial and no permanent free plan. The strength is the end-to-end view: a quote becomes a project, hours land against the budget, and the invoice follows from the same numbers, with utilisation reports showing who has room for more work. That depth comes at a price, and a small agency may find Scoro heavy before it has the volume to justify it. Scoro suits agencies that want one system for the whole operation and are ready to pay for it.

Website: https://www.teamwork.com

Best for: Client projects with time tracking and invoicing

Starting price: $9.99 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (30 days)

Pros: Time tracking, milestones, and invoicing built in; client-facing project views

Cons: No permanent free plan; the interface is less visual than monday.com or Asana

Teamwork is built for teams that deliver client work, and agency delivery is exactly that kind of work. Basics at $9.99 per user per month on annual billing covers unlimited projects, milestones, task lists, and time tracking, with client users able to view their own projects. Accelerate at $24.99 adds portfolios, workload, project templates, and profitability reports, which helps an agency lead see which clients consume the most hours. Time tracking sits inside the project, so a team can see how much effort each campaign or retainer actually takes, and invoicing follows from the same data. There is no permanent free plan, only a 30-day trial, which is a real difference from most tools here. Teamwork suits agencies that bill for delivery and want hours tied to clients, with a calm interface that clients can follow without training.

Website: https://www.accelo.com

Best for: Retainers, projects, and service operations

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: No

Pros: Retainer management with automatic ticket and time capture; strong service reporting

Cons: Quote-only pricing hides the real cost until a sales call; no free plan or trial

Accelo is built for professional service firms that run on retainers, and it treats a retainer as the central object. Hours, tickets, and tasks attach to a retainer automatically, so an agency can see burn against the retainer in real time and bill the overage without manual reconciliation. Projects, sales, and reporting sit in the same system, which suits an agency that sells ongoing service rather than one-off campaigns. Pricing is quote only, with no published rates and no free plan or trial, so a team must talk to sales before it knows the cost. That is a real drawback next to tools with transparent prices, and it means Accelo is hard to compare on a spreadsheet. The depth is the trade-off: retainer tracking, automatic time capture from email and calendar, and utilisation reporting are stronger here than in a general tracker. Accelo suits larger agencies that run retainers at scale.