"We Scored owntime Against Toggl. Here Is the Honest Result."

#Why a scorecard

I am going to do something that is genuinely bad marketing and I want to explain why I am doing it anyway.

I sat down with the full feature list for Toggl Track, the tier most small agencies would use, and scored owntime against every item. Have, partial, building now, roadmap, or won't build. The result is a document that shows, in honest detail, where owntime loses.

I am publishing it because the people who are the right fit for owntime are the people who can look at this list, see the losses, and decide the wins matter more. And the people who are the wrong fit are the people who can look at this list and save themselves a trial.

This is not a gotcha. There is no winner at the bottom. There is just a breakdown you can use.

#The categories

The ~60 features break into groups. Here is how owntime scores in each.

Time tracking: roughly even

Real-time timer, manual entries, calendar view, timesheet view, idle detection, Pomodoro, reminders, goals, tags, autocomplete. Most of these exist in owntime. Some are partial. Calendar view, for example, is partially there. The timer experience is comparable. If you are choosing based on "can I track time accurately," this is a tie.

Billing and money: owntime wins

Invoices, billable rates, time rounding, estimates to invoice, expenses with receipts, recurring invoice templates, credit notes, partial payments. This is the category owntime was built for. The invoice builder is the strongest part of the app. Toggl can invoice, but mostly through integrations and paid tiers. If billing is the job, owntime does more of it natively.

Data and ownership: owntime wins

Local file, no account, no telemetry, offline operation, full data portability, local backups, your-own-cloud mirror. Toggl stores your data on their servers. That is the model. If you want to hold your own data, owntime is the only option on this list.

Teams and collaboration: Toggl wins

Live multi-user editing, team dashboard, admin console, roles and permissions, approvals, shared entries, team goals. owntime does not do these. Each person keeps their own file. A six-person studio has six files. If your team workflow depends on a shared live view, Toggl is the better tool and owntime is not close.

Platform: roughly even, different gaps

Toggl has a phone app. owntime does not. owntime is a native Mac app. Toggl's Mac app is Electron. Both have web access, though Toggl's is the primary experience and owntime's is the updates feed. Neither is the clear winner. It depends on whether you prioritize phone tracking or a native Mac experience.

Integrations: Toggl wins

A hundred-plus integrations. owntime has three it intends to do well: QuickBooks or Xero CSV mapping, a Slack webhook, and calendar. If your workflow depends on a dozen integrations, Toggl wins. If it does not, owntime's lack of integrations is not a loss.

Forecasting and scheduling: Toggl wins, owntime will not build it

Resource forecasting, scheduling, Harvest Forecast-style views. These are on owntime's anti-roadmap. They require a server. A server requires a subscription. The whole product exists to avoid that trade. If you need forecasting, use a tool that has it.

#The honest summary

owntime wins on the things that happen on one person's desk: tracking time, building invoices, owning the data. It loses on the things that happen across a team: live dashboards, shared views, forecasting, mobile.

If your work is primarily solo or small-agency, the wins cover most of what you do. If your work is primarily team-coordinated, the losses cover most of what you do. Neither tool is better. They are built for different shapes of work.

#How to use this

Do not take my scoring at face value. Take the list of ~60 features and mark the ones you actually use. Not the ones that sound nice. The ones you opened last week.

If the features you use are mostly in the "owntime wins" columns, this tool is worth a trial. If they are mostly in the "Toggl wins" columns, Toggl is the honest choice, and I would rather you use the right tool than use mine.

That is the whole scorecard. Bad marketing. Useful information.

Read the full feature breakdown · Try owntime free for 14 days · See the honest comparison

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