Best European Time Tracking Tools With a Free Plan (2026)

A European time tracking tool with a free plan is a timesheet or timer application from a company established in Europe that can be used without payment and without a trial deadline, within a limit on users, usage or features.

How we rank these tools — 4-step process
  1. 1
    European ownership, verified

    The company is headquartered and incorporated in the EU, EEA, the UK, Switzerland or Israel, and processes customer data in Europe or Israel. A US parent company disqualifies a tool from this page regardless of where its servers are.

  2. 2
    Category fit and hands-on review

    What the tool actually does, who it suits, and where it falls short — checked against the vendor’s own documentation, changelog and pricing page rather than its marketing copy.

  3. 3
    Compliance and pricing check

    GDPR posture, hosting location and the prices quoted on this page are verified against the vendor’s public pricing before publication, and re-checked when we revisit the category.

  4. 4
    Position on this page

    Placement on this page can be paid, and that can affect the order tools appear in. It never buys a listing: a tool that fails the checks above is not here at any price, and payment does not change the shortcomings we write about. A vendor can ask us to correct a factual error — not to remove a criticism.

Vendors can pay for visibility on this page. It never changes what an entry says about a product, including the criticism, and we earn nothing when you click through to a vendor. Vendors can pay for more visibility, higher up on the review pages; it never affects whether a tool is listed. Editorial policy

Editor Sebastiaan Smits

Published Last reviewed How we review

Key takeaways

  • Hourtick gives every feature and unlimited people to every workspace for free, and charges $29 per workspace per month only when usage passes 500 MB.
  • TimeCamp states a free tier for unlimited users on the basics, with billing features sitting behind its paid tiers.
  • Toggl has a free tier and no surveillance features, so it records hours without screenshots, keystroke logging or activity scoring.
  • Beebole caps its free plan at five users and starts its paid Essential plan at $9 per user per month on annual billing.
  • Kimai is the only open source tool here, free to self-host under the AGPL with no seat limit, with a paid hosted version in Germany.

Time tracking is the category where a free plan is most tempting, because a timer is cheap to build and the paid steps are small.

Five European tools state a free option on their own pages in this directory, and this ranking orders them by how much of the product stays free: whole feature set first, then unlimited users, then capped teams, then self-hosting. Only five qualify, so the list is short on purpose, and the free limits of two tools are not published numerically on our pages.

5 European time tracking software tools compared

PositionToolEstablishedEntry priceBest for
#1 Hourtick Denmark Free: $0 forever, unlimited people, every feature, 500 MB of usage per workspace per month. Pro: $29 per workspace per month, 5 GB of usage per month, extra usage $10 per GB per month. Both plans include unlimited people and all features; plans differ only in monthly usage. Prices are in US dollars, exclude taxes, billed monthly in advance through Stripe. Invoicing through your own Stripe account carries a 0 % Hourtick fee. A whole team tracking hours without any feature locked
#2 TimeCamp Poland Free tier + per user, per month Small firms combining time, attendance and billing
#3 Toggl Estonia Free tier + per user, per month Agencies billing hours without employee monitoring
#4 Beebole Belgium Free for up to 5 users; Essential from $9/user/month (annual) or $10 monthly; Advanced from $18/user/month (annual) or $20 monthly; discounts for nonprofits, education and teams above 50 users Agencies of up to five needing resource planning free
#5 Kimai Austria Free self-hosted + paid cloud Teams that want timesheets on their own server

The 5 tools reviewed

#1 Hourtick

Copenhagen, Denmark Free: $0 forever, unlimited people, every feature, 500 MB of usage per workspace per month. Pro: $29 per workspace per month, 5 GB of usage per month, extra usage $10 per GB per month. Both plans include unlimited people and all features; plans differ only in monthly usage. Prices are in US dollars, exclude taxes, billed monthly in advance through Stripe. Invoicing through your own Stripe account carries a 0 % Hourtick fee. Free plan, no time limit

Best for: A whole team tracking hours without any feature locked

  • Operating company. WeCode A/S
  • Jurisdiction. EU (Denmark)
  • Where the data sits. Application servers, PostgreSQL database and uploaded files in Frankfurt, Germany (Akamai Cloud); workspace admins can optionally choose US file storage
  • Source code. Closed source
  • Replaces. Harvest, Toggl, Clockify

Hourtick, from WeCode A/S in Copenhagen, takes a different approach to the free plan: every feature and an unlimited number of people are included at $0, and the only difference to the Pro plan is monthly usage. The free tier allows 500 MB of usage per workspace per month. Pro costs $29 per workspace per month with 5 GB, and extra usage is $10 per GB.

The product bundles a timer, a task board and team chat, and logs hours on the task itself. It records hours only, with no screenshots, keystroke logging, app tracking or location tracking. The servers are in Frankfurt on Akamai Cloud, a US-owned provider, and the data processing agreement relies on transfer mechanisms such as standard contractual clauses for US-owned subprocessors. There is no ISO 27001 certification stated and no euro pricing.

What Hourtick does well

  • Unlimited people and every feature on the free plan
  • Records hours only, with no screenshots or keystroke logging
  • Danish contracting entity with a data processing agreement

Where Hourtick falls short

  • Runs on US-owned Akamai Cloud, with several US-owned subprocessors
  • Prices in US dollars only and no certification stated

Standout feature. The free plan is limited by usage volume rather than by features or headcount.

Read the full Hourtick review Visit Hourtick

#2 TimeCamp

Wrocław, Poland Free tier + per user, per month Demo on request

Best for: Small firms combining time, attendance and billing

  • Operating company. TimeCamp
  • Jurisdiction. EU (Poland)
  • Source code. Closed source
  • Replaces. Harvest, Clockify, Hubstaff

TimeCamp, based in Wroclaw, Poland, has a free tier that the review describes as covering unlimited users on the basics. It combines manual timers with automatic capture of applications and websites, attendance with clock-in and leave management, billable rates and a long integration list. For a small company that would otherwise buy a timer, an attendance tool and a billing add-on separately, the free tier is a way to test all three in one account.

The warning is the automatic capture feature. It needs a clear legal basis under the GDPR and, in many countries, agreement from the works council, so it should be configured on purpose instead of left on. Billing features sit behind paid tiers, the attendance functions are less deep than a dedicated tool, and the interface is busier than Toggl. Paid prices are not stated on our page, so check the vendor site.

What TimeCamp does well

  • Free tier covers unlimited users on basic tracking
  • Time, attendance and billing in one product
  • Wide list of integrations with project, accounting and payroll tools

Where TimeCamp falls short

  • Automatic activity capture needs a legal basis and often works council agreement
  • Billing features are part of the paid tiers

Standout feature. Attendance and automatic capture next to the timer, all reachable from the free tier.

Read the full TimeCamp review Visit TimeCamp

#3 Toggl

Tallinn, Estonia Free tier + per user, per month Demo on request

Best for: Agencies billing hours without employee monitoring

  • Operating company. Toggl OÜ
  • Jurisdiction. EU (Estonia)
  • Where the data sits. EU data hosting with customer data stored in Belgium, available from the week of 19 October 2026 (the vendor says); DPA and sub-processor list published by the vendor
  • Source code. Closed source
  • Replaces. Harvest, Clockify, QuickBooks Time

Toggl Track is the timer from Toggl OÜ in Tallinn, Estonia, and our review calls its free tier genuinely usable. The product is a one-click timer on web, desktop, mobile and browser extension, with projects, clients, billable rates, budgets and reporting. Its position is deliberate: no screenshots, no keystroke logging and no activity scoring, which avoids works council friction before it starts.

Our directory does not record the exact limits of the free tier, so check the vendor before relying on it for a larger team. Customer data is stored in Belgium according to the vendor. The gaps are statutory: there are no legally required working time features and no DATEV export, and the reporting is capable rather than deep. Toggl tracks time and is not a project management tool.

What Toggl does well

  • One-click timer with little friction on every platform
  • No surveillance features by design
  • Billable rates, budgets and estimates in the reports

Where Toggl falls short

  • No statutory working time features and no DATEV export
  • Free tier limits are not recorded on our page

Standout feature. A free timer that deliberately refuses to monitor the person using it.

Read the full Toggl review Visit Toggl

#4 Beebole

Brussels, Belgium Founded 2008 Free for up to 5 users; Essential from $9/user/month (annual) or $10 monthly; Advanced from $18/user/month (annual) or $20 monthly; discounts for nonprofits, education and teams above 50 users 30-day free trial, no credit card

Best for: Agencies of up to five needing resource planning free

  • Operating company. Beebole s.r.l.
  • Jurisdiction. EU (Belgium)
  • Source code. Closed source
  • Replaces. Harvest, Float, Toggl

Beebole, from Beebole s.r.l. in Brussels, publishes the clearest free limit of the commercial tools here: free for up to five users. That tier covers basic project tracking, resource planning and custom reports. Essential at $9 per user per month on annual billing (or $10 monthly) adds billing rates, multi-level approvals and multi-currency support, and Advanced at $18 per user per month (annual) adds cost tracking, expenses, budgets and custom roles.

The company has been independent since 2008 and states that it reached €1 million in annual revenue without outside investors. Its prices are in dollars, which is unusual for a Belgian vendor, and it offers no DATEV export. The interface is less polished than newer tools, and project budgets need the Advanced tier. A 30-day trial of the paid plans needs no card.

What Beebole does well

  • Free for up to five users, with resource planning included
  • Multi-currency billing and multi-level approvals on paid plans
  • Independent Belgian company since 2008

Where Beebole falls short

  • Prices in dollars and no DATEV export
  • Project budgets are limited to the Advanced tier

Standout feature. A published five-user free limit that already includes resource planning.

Read the full Beebole review Visit Beebole

#5 Kimai

Vienna, Austria Free self-hosted + paid cloud Demo on request

Best for: Teams that want timesheets on their own server

  • Operating company. Kimai
  • Jurisdiction. EU (Austria)
  • Source code. Closed source
  • Replaces. Harvest, Toggl, Clockify

Kimai is developed in Vienna as open source software under the AGPL, and it is free to run on your own server with no seat limit. The same application is sold as a hosted Kimai Cloud, hosted in Germany, so a team can start self-hosted and move later or the other way round. Features include customers, projects and activities with budgets and rates, invoicing, exports to CSV, XLSX and PDF, a REST API and a plugin ecosystem.

Free here means free of licence fees, not free of work. Somebody has to run a PHP application, install updates and manage backups, and some functionality sits in paid plugins.

The interface is plainer than the commercial trackers, and the team behind it is small. Our page lists the cloud as a paid product without giving a price, so the hosted route needs a quote check. Because the plan is self-hosting rather than a hosted free tier, Kimai is placed last.

What Kimai does well

  • Open source under the AGPL with no seat limit
  • Timesheet data stays on infrastructure you control
  • Hosted option in Germany for teams that prefer not to run it

Where Kimai falls short

  • You run, update and back up a PHP application yourself
  • Some features sit in paid plugins

Standout feature. The only tool here where the data location is entirely your own decision.

Read the full Kimai review Visit Kimai

Which limit on a free time tracker matters most?

The limit that changes behaviour is the one that hides data you need at invoicing time. Hourtick restricts usage volume, which a team of five barely touches in a month of hours. Beebole restricts users to five. TimeCamp holds billing features back for paid tiers, so a firm that invoices from the tracker finds that the free plan can record hours but cannot price them.

Check reports before checking users. The free plan of a time tracker is only useful if you can export or view the totals per client and per project without paying, because those totals are the reason the hours were recorded.

Is monitoring built into free plans, and should I switch it on?

Two of the tools here sit at opposite ends. Hourtick and Toggl record hours only, with no screenshots or keystroke logging. TimeCamp offers automatic capture of applications and websites, and its own review warns that this needs a legal basis and in many countries works council agreement.

Treat every hour in a timesheet as employee data. If staff, not freelancers, will use the tool, decide the monitoring position with the works council or employee representatives before the pilot, because a free plan makes it easy to start without that conversation.

What about statutory working time recording?

Time tracking for client billing and time recording for labour law are different jobs. Toggl lists no statutory working time features and no DATEV export, Beebole has no DATEV export, and Hourtick does not offer the working time or DATEV features that clockodo or Zep have. If a German or Austrian employer must record daily working hours, a free billing timer will not be enough.

In that case use the free plan only for project hours, and look at the paid trackers in our time tracking category that are built around the legal obligation. Running both is common and cheap.

How should I think about self-hosting Kimai against a free hosted plan?

Self-hosting removes the vendor from the picture, so there is no processor agreement to negotiate and no export to arrange. It also adds a server to patch. A team with an existing hosting setup and someone who owns it can run Kimai at near zero cost, while a team without that person pays in time and risk.

A hosted free plan is faster to start but ties the data to the vendor and to its limits. Hourtick and Toggl are the quickest to adopt, and Kimai is the most independent. Pick on who will be responsible in month six, not on who is easiest in week one.

When should a team stop using the free plan?

Move to a paid plan when the free tier blocks the report you hand to a client or accountant, when more than five people need Beebole, or when Hourtick usage passes 500 MB and the $29 workspace fee becomes the honest price. Paid steps are small: Beebole Essential starts at $9 per user per month on annual billing, Hourtick Pro is $29 per workspace.

Stay on the free plan when it produces the totals you need and nobody is asking for approvals, budgets or working time evidence. A free tier that does one job reliably beats a paid tier chosen for features nobody switches on.

How we selected and ranked these 5 tools

Every tool on this page is in the European Purpose directory, which means the operating company is established in Europe and we have verified that from the company register or the vendor's own legal notice rather than from a marketing page. Tools headquartered outside Europe are not eligible, however good they are.

  1. Feature verification (weight: 40%). We check each capability against the vendor's own documentation and product pages, and record what the tool does rather than what the category is assumed to include.
  2. Ease of adoption (weight: 30%). Integrations, published API access, trial availability and how much configuration stands between signing and a usable result.
  3. Value and transparency (weight: 30%). Published pricing counts in a vendor's favour; quote-only pricing is recorded as quote-only rather than estimated. We weigh what a buyer gets for the entry price, not the headline feature count.
  4. Editorial review. Every page is researched and drafted with AI assistance, and the compliance and pricing claims are checked against the vendor's documentation before it is published under the founder's editorial responsibility. The three weights above decide the order; a position is a ranking against the other European tools in this category, not an absolute score.

Vendor-reported outcomes — ROI figures, margin uplift, time saved — are labelled as vendor claims wherever they appear on this page. We have not audited them, and neither has anyone else who quotes them. Read our full editorial process for how pages are re-verified.

Frequently asked questions

Hourtick includes unlimited people and every feature in its free plan, limited only by 500 MB of monthly usage per workspace. TimeCamp states unlimited users on the basics of its free tier, and Kimai has no seat limit when self-hosted.

Hourtick, TimeCamp, Toggl and Beebole state a free tier without a time limit. Kimai is free to self-host. Tools with only a 14-day trial, such as Zep or Timeghost, are left out of this list.

Hourtick states that it records hours only, with no screenshots, keystroke logging, app tracking or location tracking, and Toggl has no surveillance features by design. TimeCamp offers automatic capture of applications and websites, which needs a legal basis and often works council agreement.

Hourtick stores data in Frankfurt on Akamai Cloud, a US-owned provider. Toggl stores customer data in Belgium according to the vendor. Kimai Cloud is hosted in Germany, and a self-hosted Kimai sits wherever you run it. Our pages do not state data locations for TimeCamp and Beebole.

Only five European time trackers state a free plan on their own pages in this directory. We did not add trials or tools that list no free option to reach a larger number.

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