owntime vs Toggl Track
Toggl’s free tier is genuinely good. The question isn’t features — it’s who owns the data when year four arrives.
If Toggl’s free plan covers you today, this page won’t pretend otherwise. Here’s the honest comparison, including the parts where Toggl wins.
| owntime | Toggl Track | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $99 once per person. No tiers. | Free tier; paid plans roughly $9–18/user/mo when you need billable rates, approvals, or reports. Check current tiers. |
| Data location | Local SQLite file on your disk | Toggl’s cloud; CSV export available |
| Invoicing | Built in: entries → grouped lines → PDF with tax and your terms | Not built in — pairs with FreshBooks etc. |
| Expenses | Yes, with receipt files, rides onto invoices | On paid tiers |
| Mobile apps | No phone app (deliberate) | Excellent iOS/Android apps, watch too |
| Offline tracking | Fully offline, always | Limited offline support |
| Teams | Solo/small studio by design | Strong team features, admin console |
| The exit | Copy one file. Done. | CSV export of projects and entries |
Where Toggl wins. Genuinely.
- Phone-first tracking. Starting a timer on your watch or phone beats walking back to a desk. We don’t have that.
- The free tier is real. For basic solo tracking with no invoicing needs, Toggl free costs nothing and works.
- Polish. Hundreds of people, years of refinement, a big integration catalog.
- Teams. Roles, workspaces, approvals. We refuse to build that; it’s the subscription engine.
Where the trade stops making sense
- You bill clients. Toggl tracks time; invoicing still means another tool and another fee.
- You crossed onto a paid plan. Two people × Premium × 12 months already passed $99 once.
- Your history lives somewhere you can’t open without an account.
- Any future repricing lands on you. It has before, in this exact category.
MIGRATION NOTE
Toggl exports read fine in our importer (Project, Duration, Description). Tags don’t map to clients — restructure happens once, on your side, then it’s done forever. First 10 migrations are free if you’d rather hand it over.