Timely vs Toggl Track
Side-by-side total cost of ownership: subscription fees, labor, hidden costs, and AI alternatives.
Published pricing
The subscription is only part of the cost.
| Timely | Toggl Track | |
|---|---|---|
| Published rate | $16/seat/mo | $9/seat/mo |
What the invoice doesn't show
Timely
Plan gates are hard user caps: Starter allows at most 5 users, Premium at most 50. The 6th hire forces every seat from $9 to $16/user annual (+78%); the 51st forces $16 to $22 (+38%). One hire reprices the whole team.
Starter also caps at 20 projects — agencies with many small clients outgrow it long before the 5-user limit bites.
Tasks — assigning and scheduling work — is an add-on 'for as little as $5 per person' on any plan, on top of the seat price.
The advertised yearly rates require a 12-month commitment; monthly billing is $11/$20/$28, up to 22% more.
Toggl Track
The headline Premium price is a first-year rate: '$14 per license per month applies to your first year of Premium annual, then renews at $18 per license per month' — a +29% jump printed in a footnote below the plan card.
The free plan's user limit is not published: the pricing page says only 'free for a limited number of users,' so teams cannot tell from the page when the paid cliff arrives.
The metrics that justify the tool for billing — profitability, labor cost, timesheet approvals, SSO — are all Premium; Starter tops out at revenue and billable-percent reporting.
Free workspaces with no new time entries for 6 months are deleted under the inactive-account policy, and API limits ladder steeply: 30 requests/hour on Free vs 240 on Starter and 600 on Premium.
What teams are switching to
Replacing Timely
Rize
Basic $9.99/mo annual ($12.99 monthly), Pro $23.99/mo, Max $39.99/mo
AI-native tracker: automatic app and website tracking with AI auto-categorization and tagging from the base tier, AI automations and MCP access on Pro. Honest caveat: it is a single-user desktop tool — SSO, SOC 2, and mobile live in its custom Enterprise tier, so it replaces the personal timesheet, not a team system of record.
Toggl Track
Free; Starter $9/seat/mo; Premium $14 first year then $18/seat/mo
The free plan carries calendar auto-tracking, keyword-triggered tracking, idle detection, and 100+ browser-extension integrations — automation that is rules-based rather than AI, but included at $0. Paid tiers add billable rates and reporting from $9/seat.
Solidtime
Solo free (cloud), Professional EUR 8/user/mo billed annually, self-hosted $0
Open-source time tracking (AGPL) with timers, timesheets, invoicing, and a self-host option that removes the per-seat meter entirely. The tool departing Harvest customers actually name in migration threads. Not AI-automatic — the savings story is open source and no usage fees.
Replacing Toggl Track
Rize
Basic $9.99/mo annual ($12.99 monthly), Pro $23.99/mo, Max $39.99/mo
AI-native tracker: automatic app and website tracking with AI auto-categorization and tagging from the base tier, AI automations and MCP access on Pro. Honest caveat: it is a single-user desktop tool — SSO, SOC 2, and mobile live in its custom Enterprise tier, so it replaces the personal timesheet, not a team system of record.
Clockify
Free; Basic $3.99, Standard $5.49, Pro $7.99, Enterprise $11.99 per seat/mo billed annually
The category's price floor: a free tier that includes the automatic tracker, and a paid ladder from $3.99/seat. Standard ($5.49/seat annual) covers invoicing and QuickBooks payroll/billing sync — the two features that usually justify far pricier incumbents.
Solidtime
Solo free (cloud), Professional EUR 8/user/mo billed annually, self-hosted $0
Open-source time tracking (AGPL) with timers, timesheets, invoicing, and a self-host option that removes the per-seat meter entirely. The tool departing Harvest customers actually name in migration threads. Not AI-automatic — the savings story is open source and no usage fees.
StackCut doesn't sell or recommend any of these tools. We show them for context. The decision is yours.
Total Cost of Ownership
Subscription fees plus labor and error costs, modeled at $50/hr loaded rate (BLS ECEC). Both vendors are costed at the same team size so the two columns can be compared directly.
| Cost Component | Timely | Toggl Track |
|---|---|---|
| Annual subscription | $1,920 | $1,080 |
| Labor cost | $9,000 | $9,000 |
| Error & rework cost | $3,000 | $3,000 |
| Total Cost of Ownership | $13,920/yr | $13,080/yr |
| Est. AI alternative | $1,940/yr | $1,940/yr |
Labor rate based on BLS ECEC June 2025 ($45.65/hr private industry total compensation, rounded to $50). Your actual numbers depend on team size, role mix, and usage. Run it with your own data.
Which one fits your team?
Both Timely and Toggl Track cost more than their published pricing suggests. The right choice depends on your team size and how you weigh each tool's trade-offs.
Timely starts at $16/seat/mo , but watch for Plan gates are hard user caps: Starter allows at most 5 users, Premium at most 50. The 6th hire forces every seat from $9 to $16/user annual (+78%); the 51st forces $16 to $22 (+38%). One hire reprices the whole team.
Toggl Track starts at $9/seat/mo , but watch for The headline Premium price is a first-year rate: '$14 per license per month applies to your first year of Premium annual, then renews at $18 per license per month' — a +29% jump printed in a footnote below the plan card.
An AI-native alternative may replace the workflow at a fraction of the TCO.
See all SaaS cost comparisonsBrowse alternatives for every tool
FAQ
Timely vs Toggl Track: quick answers
Is Timely or Toggl Track cheaper?
On total cost of ownership, Timely runs about $13,920/year (10-person team) versus $13,080/year for Toggl Track (10-person team) once labor and hidden costs are counted, not just the published subscription. Adjust the inputs to your own team to compare them directly.
What can replace Timely or Toggl Track?
Timely is often replaced by Rize and Toggl Track; Toggl Track by Rize and Clockify. StackCut shows the cost case for each AI-first alternative without taking referral fees.
What are the hidden costs of Timely and Toggl Track?
Timely: Plan gates are hard user caps: Starter allows at most 5 users, Premium at most 50. The 6th hire forces every seat from $9 to $16/user annual (+78%); the 51st forces $16 to $22 (+38%). One hire reprices the whole team. Toggl Track: The headline Premium price is a first-year rate: '$14 per license per month applies to your first year of Premium annual, then renews at $18 per license per month' — a +29% jump printed in a footnote below the plan card.
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