The software development industry is growing rapidly across the world. As businesses look to scale, managers are using various productivity tools to improve staff performance. An excellent example of this is time tracking apps, which are particularly suited to development firms.

In this article, we’ll explore 7 of the best time trackers for software developers. We’ll also cover what you should look for in a time tracker for developers to speed up the growth of your business.

The 7 best time trackers for software developers

Let’s jump into our main topic straight away and explore the best time trackers for software developers. We’ll start with an excellent option: WebWork Time Tracker.

1. WebWork Time Tracker

WebWork Time Tracker is the perfect app for software development. Its wide range of functionality, like availability for Linux, helps developers perform their best in several ways. Let’s divide them into three categories and explore the tracker’s features in depth.

Time Tracking

Time tracking is one of WebWork’s most popular features. After all, it’s in the name of the app. WebWork offers lots of functionality that can help you get the most from your team’s tracked time data—like billable hours. With this feature and built-in payroll, you’ll simplify compensation calculations to pay staff or bill clients for man-hours accurately.

WebWork is also the best time tracker for software developers thanks to its Linux support. The Linux time tracker makes the app perfect for programmers who chose the OS as their go-to development environment—which is most of them.

Monitoring and Reporting

Besides tracking time, WebWork can help you monitor many other important metrics in your company. These include employee productivity, work-life balance, and project and task progress. The app can even help you ensure the accuracy of your data with app and website usage and screenshot tracking. After the tracker has collected its data, you can view it all in more than 15 detailed reports—making it easy to find what you’re looking for.

Workforce Management

WebWork can also help you streamline your business management with several dedicated features. These include leave management, holiday reminders, onboarding statuses, shift scheduling, and more. Additionally, features like Project Budgeting and Expense Tracking will help you manage finances efficiently to avoid overspending.

Key Features:

• Available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS
• App & website usage, activity level, and screenshot tracking
• More than a dozen detailed reports with exporting functionality

WebWork Time Tracker pricing:

• Pro – $3.99 per user/month
• Plus – $6.39 per user/month
• Premium – $9.59 per user/month

2. Toggl Track

Togg Track is a popular yet flawed time tracker. While lots of teams across the world use it to boost their productivity, it is not the best option available on the market. Toggl offers a free tier, but, the features included in it are limited. Its paid tiers, meanwhile, are pricier than some competing options.

Key Features:

• Automated time tracking
• Timesheet reports
• Invoicing

Toggl Track pricing:

• Free – Free for up to 5 users
• Starter – $9 per user/month
• Premium – $18 per user/month
• Enterprise – Custom

3. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is another popular yet flawed time tracker. It has achieved its market share through a wide, yet substandard set of functionality. Starting at $4.99 per user per month, Hubstaff is also not as affordable as some other trackers, like WebWork. But, it is more accessible than the paid tiers of several popular solutions, such as Toggl Track.

Key Features:

• Online payroll
• Employee timesheets
• GPS time tracking

Hubstaff pricing:

• Starter – $4.99/seat/month
• Grow – $7.50/seat/month
• Team – $10/seat/month
• Enterprise – $25/seat/month

4. Time Doctor

While Time Doctor claims to help companies enhance productivity, it isn’t the ideal solution for all teams. Functionality-wise it is also not the best on the market if you compare it with other time trackers. Moreover, it’s quite pricey with a starting price of $5.90 per user/month.

Key Features:

• Workforce analytics
• Employee monitoring
• Time tracking

Time Doctor pricing:

• Starter – $4.99/seat/month
• Grow – $7.50/seat/month
• Team – $10/seat/month
• Enterprise – $25/seat/month

5. Clockify

While well-known in the market, Clockify’s functionality can leave quite a bit to be desired. The app does offer a competitive collection of pricing models but there are much better options out there. If you want to get as many features as trackers like WebWork offer, you’ll have to get one of Clockify’s expensive tiers to get as many features as other trackers.

Key Features:

• Timesheets
• Reports
• Kiosk app

Clockify pricing:

• Free – Free for unlimited users
• Basic – $3.99 per seat/month
• Standard – $5.49 per seat/month
• Pro – $7.99 per seat/month
• Enterprise – $11.99 per seat/month
• Cake.com Bundle – $12.99 per seat/month

6. Jibble

While Jibble is a popular time tracking software, it is not the best for software developers. For example, one of its biggest downsides is that it’s not available on Linux. The operating system is the preferred development environment of many programmers worldwide, making Jibble a subpar option.

Key Features:

• Timesheet app
• Attendance tracker with NFC, RFID, and facial recognition
• Payroll hours tracker

Jibble pricing:

• Free – Free for unlimited users
• Premium – $2.49 per user/month
• Ultimate – $4.99 per user/month
• Enterprise – $6.99 per user/month

7. TMetric

TMetric is another time tracker that has become popular because it can be had for free. It has a list of subpar features, with many of them—like their five different browser extensions—feeling like they’re there for marketing reasons, not because people use them.

Key Features:

• Team management
• Task management
• A wide variety of integrations

TMetric pricing:

• Free – Free for up to 5 users
• Professional – $50 per user/year
• Business – $70 per user/year

What should you look for in time trackers for software developers?

Choosing the right time tracker for your business is important. You must know what will benefit your team and what features you might not use that often. Before closing off this article, let’s explore this topic in detail.

Support for multiple platforms

Support for many platforms is quite important for software companies. Lots of developers use and develop for several platforms at once, including less popular ones like Linux. Being able to track time and productivity on such operating systems will let you collect more data from your workspace. You can do this with one of the best time trackers for software developers, like WebWork. Your data will then be more accurate, enabling you to make data-driven decisions more effectively.

Lots of tracking features

Continuing on the topic of collecting data, you should look for a time tracker with as much tracking functionality as possible. As mentioned before, this will allow you to get a better understanding of lots of things at your business. You can then use data like app & website usage, activity levels, and periodic screenshots to speed up progress on your projects. The best time trackers for software developers can even allow you to enhance employee retention.

Detailed reporting

Detailed reports will help your management team understand how employees spend their work time. Having a set of reports is especially vital for time tracking apps that offer lots of data collection functionality. Because of this, you should look for apps that can display information in a variety of forms, like WebWork.

Integrations with development tools

Integrating productivity apps with your team’s development tools can simplify your processes. This will help your staff spend more time on things that matter by automating management tasks. You should look for time trackers for software developers that can work with major development platforms like GitHub. WebWork is one of the best time trackers for software developers in this regard, as it offers Integrations with other similar services like BitBucket.

Closing thoughts

Finding the right time tracker is important for teams in all industries. But, it is especially vital to use the best time trackers for software developers. These professionals have unique requirements for productivity apps, which many offerings cannot meet. Using the wrong tracker can result in ineffective tracking and inaccurate data. The right solution, meanwhile, will help your business speed up its growth, both in the short and long term.