The best time tracking software for agencies, compared.
Time tracking is where most agencies discover whether they're actually profitable. The market is dominated by generic timers - Toggl, Harvest, Clockify - that work for any business and don't really know about agency workflows. There are agency-specific tools (Productive, FunctionPoint) and managed options (Forge). Here's a fair look at each.
How we picked
Each tool below is judged against the same four lenses. Pricing is the headline plan as of 2026 - always check the vendor for the current rate.
- Built for agencies, not generic professional services
- Real profitability per client/project - not just total hours
- Honest pricing - per-seat or flat, transparent
- Reduces friction enough that the team actually logs time
Toggl Track
Best for: Small agencies that want the simplest possible timer + reports
Pricing: Free tier; paid from $10/user/month
- Genuinely simple to start - low friction for the team
- Solid reporting and exports
- Generous free tier
- Generic - not shaped to agency workflows
- Profitability analysis is mostly DIY in spreadsheets
- Per-user pricing climbs with team size
Harvest
Best for: Established small agencies that want time + invoicing in one
Pricing: From $13.75/user/month, free for solo
- Time + invoicing + expenses in one product
- Mature, well-integrated billing flow
- Strong project budget tracking
- UI dated compared to newer competitors
- Less depth on resource planning
- Per-seat pricing
Clockify
Best for: Agencies on a tight budget that need basic time tracking
Pricing: Free tier; paid from $3.99/user/month
- Free tier covers a lot of agency basics
- Wide feature set on paid tiers
- Simple onboarding for the team
- Free tier limits get hit fast as you scale
- Generic - not shaped to agency workflows
- Reporting requires configuration
Hubstaff
Best for: Agencies tracking distributed or remote teams with monitoring
Pricing: From $4.99/user/month
- Time + activity monitoring + GPS
- Strong for remote-team agencies
- Includes payroll workflows
- Monitoring features can damage team trust if not introduced carefully
- Per-user pricing climbs with team size
- Heavier than needed for many agencies
Productive / FunctionPoint
Best for: Mid-size agencies wanting a single agency-management platform
Pricing: From ~$11-30/user/month, all-in suites
- Agency-specific (utilization, capacity, profitability built in)
- Single platform for time, projects, resourcing, billing
- Strong reporting for owners
- Complex setup - real implementation project
- Per-user pricing on top of an annual commitment
- More platform than a small agency typically needs
And where Forge fits in this list.
Forge is the option for agencies that want time tracking shaped to their actual clients, projects and roles - without configuring a platform or paying per seat. We build a time tracker around your work specifically, with logging that lives inside your existing workflow, daily nudges, and reporting on utilization and profitability built in. Flat per-agency pricing, no setup project, and the same tool can plug into a client portal and a status page next to it. If a generic timer feels too generic and a platform feels too heavy, Forge is the middle.
Common questions
What should agencies look for in time tracking software?
Low logging friction (so the team actually uses it), per-client and per-project profitability (not just total hours), and pricing that doesn't climb out of control with team size. For agencies specifically, utilization rate, billable hours and effective hourly rate are the key metrics to surface.
Toggl vs Harvest vs Clockify - which is best?
Toggl for the lowest friction. Harvest for time + invoicing in one. Clockify if budget is the constraint. All three are generic - they're not built for agency workflows specifically. For agency-specific reporting you'll usually need a spreadsheet on top or a different tool.
What's a fair price for agency time tracking?
For per-seat tools, $5-15/user/month is common - so 10 people costs $50-150/month. Flat per-agency products (like Forge) hold steady as you grow, which usually pays back once you're past about 8-10 people.
How do I get my team to actually log time?
Reframe it as a tool that helps them (fairer workloads, better scoping) rather than surveillance, remove the friction (logging inside the existing workflow, daily nudges), and have leadership track their own time too. The full playbook is in our time tracking guide.
Related on Forge
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