Best Time Tracking Software for Agencies in 2026
For most agencies the output is time. Every hour your team spends with a client is either billed, taken from a retainer, or simply vanishes into the ether, unbilled. The right time tracking software for agencies converts those hours into data you can bill from, price from, and staff from.
The problem is that “time tracking” has become a catchall for very different tools. Some are just timers. Some are complete agency management platforms with budgets and resource planning. Others auto-track time and show managers how work actually gets done on a remote team.
This guide compares the 8 best time tracking tools for marketing agencies in 2026. We pulled up-to-date pricing information from each vendor’s own pricing page so you can match the tool to the way your agency bills and operates.
Our top picks at a glance:
- Modge: best for time tracking, productivity analytics and client profitability
- Harvest: best for simple time tracking and invoicing
- Productive: best all-in-one agency management platform
- Toggl Track: best for teams that want the easiest timer
- Clockify: best free plan and budget pricing
- Everhour: best for tracking time inside project management tools
- Hubstaff: best for remote teams that need monitoring and payroll
- Timely: best for AI-assisted automatic timesheets
What to Look for in Time Tracking Software for Agencies
Agencies have different needs than freelancers working alone or an internal team. Before you compare tools, evaluate each one against these six criteria.
Low-friction tracking. When logging time is a chore, people forget and guesstimate at the end of the week. Look for automatic tracking, desktop apps and integrations with the tools your team already uses.
Billable rates and invoicing. You should be able to set rates per client, project or person and create invoices from approved hours without exporting spreadsheets.
Profitability reporting. Hours alone are not very meaningful. The tool should compare what you bill against what each hour costs you, especially on fixed-fee and retainer work.
Timesheet approvals. Managers need to review and lock hours before they appear on a client invoice or payroll.
Capacity and scheduling. Knowing who is overbooked and who has room helps you take on new work without burning out your team.
Pricing as you scale. Check per-seat costs, seat minimums and which features sit behind higher tiers. A cheap entry plan can cost a lot if you need approvals or profitability reports.
Best Time Tracking Software for Agencies: Quick Comparison
Prices are per seat per month on annual billing unless noted, as listed on each vendor’s pricing page in October 2026.
| Tool | Best for | Free plan | Paid plans from | Free trial |
| Modge | Time tracking, productivity analytics, client profitability | No | $4 | 14 days |
| Harvest | Simple time tracking and invoicing | 1 seat, 2 projects | $9 | 30 days |
| Productive | All-in-one agency management | No | $10 (3-seat minimum) | 14 days |
| Toggl Track | Easiest manual timer | Up to 5 users | $9 | Yes |
| Clockify | Free plan and low cost | Up to 5 users | $3.99 | 7 days (Pro) |
| Everhour | Tracking inside PM tools | Up to 5 seats | $8.50 (5-seat minimum) | 14 days |
| Hubstaff | Remote team monitoring and payroll | No | $4.99 (2-seat minimum) | 14 days |
| Timely | AI-assisted automatic timesheets | No | $11 | 14 days |
The 8 Best Time Tracking Tools for Agencies in 2026
Modge – Best for Time Tracking, Productivity Analytics, and Client Profitability
Modge brings automatic time tracking, workforce analytics, and client billing into one platform, making it a practical choice for digital marketing agencies juggling several clients and remote teams.
It runs as a lightweight desktop app on macOS and Windows, automatically tracking working hours, app and website usage, and team activity. Managers can review everything through a web dashboard. There’s no mobile app, so it’s better suited to office and remote knowledge-work teams than field staff.
One feature agencies will appreciate is productivity classification by role. Three hours on TikTok can count as productive for a social media manager but not for a developer, and Modge lets you set those rules per job title instead of applying one standard to everyone.
If you want to see more than billable hours, the Premium plan adds profitability reports that compare revenue with labor costs for each client and project. That makes it easier to spot which accounts have healthy margins and where the hours spent on a fixed-fee retainer might be eating into profits.
Core features include activity timelines and optional screenshots. Higher-tier plans add custom team permissions, project budgets, scheduling, and client billing through Stripe.
Pricing
- Basic: $5/seat/month (4$ billed annually) — workforce monitoring, AI productivity scoring, timesheets, and payroll.
- Pro: $7/seat/month (5.5$ billed annually) — more configurability, scheduling, leave, and client billing via Stripe
- Premium: $9/seat/month (7$ billed annually) — advanced insights, profitability, analytics, burnout-risk, and mouse-jiggler detection.
- Enterprise: custom pricing.
Modge offers a 14-day free trial with full feature access.
Harvest – Best for Simple Time Tracking and Invoicing
Harvest is one of the longest-running time trackers for agencies and consultancies, built around a simple workflow: track time, report on it, and invoice from it.
Team members log hours with a timer, daily or weekly timesheets, or calendar imports, and work can be set up as time-and-materials or fixed-fee projects with estimates. Invoicing and expense tracking are included on every plan, and integrations with Stripe, QuickBooks Online and Xero connect billing directly to your accounting.
What makes Harvest stand out is how quickly teams adopt it, plus a 30-day free trial that’s longer than most. The trade-offs show up as you grow: profitability reports and timesheet approvals require the Enterprise plan, paid plans add usage-based charges as invoices, projects, clients and tasks grow, and resource scheduling lives in a separate product, Harvest Forecast.
Harvest is built for agencies that bill by the hour and want fast, reliable invoicing without a lengthy setup.
Pricing
- Free: 1 seat and 2 projects.
- Teams: $9/seat/month (billed annually) or $11 monthly – timers, timesheets, invoicing, expenses and team capacity reporting.
- Enterprise: $14/seat/month (billed annually) or $17.50 monthly – adds profitability reports and timesheet approvals.
- Enterprise Plus: custom pricing.
Harvest offers a 30-day free trial.
Productive – Best All-in-One Agency Management Platform
Productive goes well beyond time tracking, combining time tracking, budgeting, resource planning, project management, invoicing and a sales CRM in one platform built specifically for agencies and consultancies.
Team members track time on web, desktop or mobile, with entries linked to tasks and budgets. AI time tracking fills timesheets from calendar events and past entries, and resource planning shows team availability and utilization. Because time flows straight into budgets, you can see whether a project is on track while it’s still running.
What makes Productive especially strong is retainer and project profitability, with recurring budgets, rate cards and billable time approvals on the Professional plan. Clients can be invited for free. It does take more setup than a standalone timer, there’s no free plan, and every plan has a 3-seat minimum.
Productive is built for agencies that want time, budgets, people and projects managed in one place.
Pricing
- Essential: $10/user/month (billed annually) or $12 monthly – time tracking, budgets and project management.
- Professional: $25/user/month (billed annually) or $29 monthly – adds recurring budgets, rate cards and billable time approvals.
- Ultimate: custom pricing.
Productive offers a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Toggl Track – Best for Teams That Want the Easiest Timer
Toggl Track is known for its clean interface and one-click timers, which make it easy to get a whole team tracking time consistently.
Timers run on web, desktop and mobile, and browser extensions let people start tracking inside the tools they already use. Billable rates and project estimates are available on Starter, while profitability and deeper reporting tools are included on Premium.
What makes Toggl Track appealing is how little friction it adds to the workday, along with a free plan for up to 5 users. The downsides are that profitability features sit on the higher Premium tier, and there are no built-in time-off or payroll features.
Toggl Track is built for agencies that want a timer their team will actually use.
Pricing
- Free: up to 5 users.
- Starter: $9/user/month (billed annually) or $10 monthly – billable rates and project estimates.
- Premium: $18/user/month (billed annually) or $20 monthly – adds profitability and reporting tools.
- Enterprise: custom pricing.
Toggl Track offers a free trial.
Clockify – Best Free Plan and Budget Pricing
Clockify offers one of the most generous free plans in the category and low prices as you scale, which makes it easy for agencies to start cheap and upgrade only when needed.
The free plan includes a timer, timesheet, calendar and auto tracker. Each paid tier unlocks a clear set of features, from invoicing, timesheet approvals and time off on Standard, to labor cost and profit, budgets, scheduling and activity monitoring on Pro.
What makes Clockify especially competitive is its low per-seat pricing across every tier. Keep in mind that invoicing starts at Standard, profitability starts at Pro, and the free plan limits reports to a one-month range.
Clockify is built for agencies that want to keep costs low and add features only as they grow.
Pricing
- Free: up to 5 users.
- Basic: $3.99/seat/month (billed annually) or $4.99 monthly.
- Standard: $5.49/seat/month (billed annually) or $6.99 monthly – invoicing, timesheet approvals and time off.
- Pro: $7.99/seat/month (billed annually) or $9.99 monthly – labor cost and profit, budgets, scheduling and activity monitoring.
- Enterprise: $11.99/seat/month (billed annually) or $14.99 monthly.
Clockify offers a 7-day free trial on the Pro plan.
Everhour – Best for Tracking Time Inside Project Management Tools
Everhour adds time tracking directly into the project management tools your team already uses, including Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Trello, Monday, Notion and Linear.
With native integrations across 40+ tools, team members start timers on the tasks they’re already working on, which keeps entries accurate without switching apps. It also covers budgets with alerts, invoicing, expenses, resource scheduling and time-off tracking.
What makes Everhour stand out is that every feature is included on the paid plan, with no tier upsells. The catch is that integrations aren’t available on the free plan, and the paid plan has a 5-seat minimum.
Everhour is built for agencies whose teams live inside Asana, ClickUp or Jira.
Pricing
- Free: up to 5 seats, with limited features.
- Team: $8.50/seat/month (billed annually, 5-seat minimum) – all features, including integrations, budgets, invoicing and scheduling.
- Custom: quote for 50+ seats.
Everhour offers a 14-day free trial of all features.
Hubstaff – Best for Remote Teams That Need Monitoring and Payroll
Hubstaff combines time tracking with activity monitoring, which makes it a natural fit for agencies running remote or offshore teams.
Time and activity tracking are included on all plans, with optional screenshots and productivity monitoring. Higher tiers add workforce analytics, deeper reporting, and payroll and invoicing features.
What makes Hubstaff attractive is its low entry price and a mature product for distributed teams. However, paid plans have a 2-seat minimum, and several features are sold as add-ons, which raises the real cost.
Hubstaff is built for agencies that manage distributed teams and need visibility into how work gets done.
Pricing
- Starter: $4.99/seat/month (billed annually) – time and activity tracking.
- Grow: $7.50/seat/month (billed annually).
- Team: $10/seat/month (billed annually).
- Enterprise: $25/seat/month (billed annually).
Hubstaff offers a 14-day free trial.
Timely – Best for AI-Assisted Automatic Timesheets
Timely records time spent in apps, documents, meetings and websites in the background, then uses AI to turn that activity into timesheet entries.
Team members review AI-drafted timesheets instead of logging hours manually, and Timely integrates with calendars, project tools and accounting software. Project budgets and team management are available on Premium.
What makes Timely valuable is how much manual time entry it removes, especially for consultancies and agencies that bill by the hour but struggle to get people to log time. It does carry a higher per-user price than most tools on this list, and Starter is limited to 5 users and 20 projects.
Timely is built for agencies that want accurate timesheets without relying on people to remember their timers.
Pricing
- Starter: $11/user/month – up to 5 users and 20 projects.
- Premium: $20/user/month – adds project budgets and team management.
- Unlimited: $28/user/month.
- Enterprise: custom pricing.
Annual billing saves about 22%. Timely offers a 14-day free trial.
How to Choose the Right Time Tracker for Your Agency
Start with how your agency makes money, then pick the tool that measures it best.
- You bill hourly and want simple invoicing: Harvest or Toggl Track keep tracking fast and turn hours into invoices with little setup.
- You run retainers and fixed-fee projects: prioritize profitability reporting. Modge and Productive both show margin per client, so you can spot retainers that cost more than they earn.
- You manage remote or offshore teams: automatic tracking with activity insights matters most. Modge and Hubstaff are built for distributed teams.
- Your team lives in Asana, ClickUp or Jira: Everhour keeps tracking inside those tools.
- You need budgets, resourcing and projects in one place: Productive replaces several tools at once.
- You’re starting on a tight budget: Clockify’s free plan and low paid tiers are hard to beat.
Whatever you choose, run a free trial with a real client project for two weeks. Check how many hours get logged without reminders, and whether the reports answer the questions you actually ask in client and finance meetings.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best time tracking software for agencies?
It depends on your billing model. Modge is a strong all-round pick for agencies that want automatic tracking, productivity insights and client profitability in one low-cost platform. Harvest suits simple hourly billing, and Productive suits agencies that want full agency management.
Is there free time tracking software for agencies?
Yes. Clockify and Toggl Track are free for up to 5 users, Everhour is free for up to 5 seats with limited features, and Harvest has a free plan for 1 seat and 2 projects. Most agencies outgrow free plans once they need invoicing, approvals or profitability reports.
How do agencies track billable hours accurately?
The most reliable approach is to reduce manual entry. Automatic tracking, integrations with project tools and calendar imports capture time as work happens. Timesheet approvals then let managers review hours before they reach a client invoice.
Should agencies use automatic or manual time tracking?
Manual timers work well for small teams with strong habits. Automatic tracking fits larger or remote teams, where forgotten timers lead to lost billable hours. Tools like Modge and Timely track in the background, so hours get captured even when people forget.
How much does agency time tracking software cost?
Most tools in this guide cost between $4 and $25 per user per month on annual billing. Watch for seat minimums, usage-based fees and features locked to higher tiers, since these change the real cost more than the headline price.
