Toggl Productivity App Review

Toggl
4.3
4.3 of 5 stars 1 review
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  • Features
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  • Support
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Pros

  • Free forever plan
  • Easy time-tracking across multiple platforms
  • Robust productivity reminders
  • Good reporting tools
  • Easy to set up and use
  • Plenty of third-party integrations
  • Good customer support

Cons

  • No invoicing tool
  • Mobile apps not as functional as the desktop version

ABOUT

Toggl is a cloud-based time-tracking application. It is a simple, user-friendly software that, due to its multi-platform approach, allows businesses to track time from anywhere and for anything. The application started as an in-house time-tracking tool designed by Alari Aho and Krister Haav. In 2006, both were running an ERP software development company in Tallinn, Estonia, and needed to track the time taken to complete tasks and projects so they could bill their clients.

Tired of maintaining complicated Excel sheets for this purpose, they turned to the time-tracking software available at the time. However, they found those to be too complicated for their small business. While most others would have gone back to the Excel sheets, Aho and Haav decided to design a time-tracking application that would suit their business instead. Though they launched it in 2006, the entrepreneurs treated this little in-house production as a side project.

Then came the financial crash of 2008, which resulted in the company losing a lot of clients. Having lost their primary source of business, they had to thrust their supporting act into the lead role. They allocated more of their time and resources into developing Toggl into a world-class application. Even though this was a forced hand, it turned out to be a winning one, as the software quickly grew to become a popular one. At present, it is being used by over 80,000 businesses worldwide.

Who Is Toggl For?

The software can be used by companies of all shapes and sizes, from freelancers to SMBs and enterprise-level corporations. This is primarily due to its robust feature set and affordable pricing structure that excludes no one. Toggl runs on a freemium business model. This approach has made it a popular application among solo entrepreneurs and start-ups who are looking to stretch their dollar. When it comes to the features, it is an excellent tool for companies looking for a stand-alone time-tracking application, no matter what industry they are from. Toggl’s client list includes some big names such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and Booking.com.

PRICING

Apart from a free plan, Toggl has three paid plans. These can be billed monthly or annually, with the annual subscribers getting a 10% discount. In addition, all paid plans get the first month off. This essentially acts as the software’s free trial too. The company’s free plan is a free-forever plan. However, it only allows you to add up to 5 users. With the paid plans, you can add as many users as your business requires. Importantly, you do not need to sign any contracts, and so you can switch between or cancel your plan any time you want.

Here is a comparative look at Toggl’s pricing plans:

Plans

Free

Starter

Premium

Enterprise

Price

$0

$9/User

$18/User

Contact

Users

Up to 5

Unlimited

Unlimited

Unlimited

Time Tracking

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Timeline

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Auto tracker

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Idle Detection

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Offline Mode

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Billable rates

Yes

Yes

Yes

Time Audits

Yes

Yes

Scheduled Reports

Yes

Yes

Email Reminders

Yes

Yes

Projects & Clients

Unlimited

Unlimited

Unlimited

Unlimited

Project Time Estimates

Yes

Yes

Yes

Task Tracking

Yes

Yes

Yes

Team Access Levels

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Locked Timesheets

Yes

Yes

Priority Support

Yes

Onboarding Training & Assistance

Yes

Custom Features

Yes

FEATURES​

  1. Time Tracking
  2. Productivity Management
  3. Timesheets
  4. Team Management
  5. Project Management
  6. Reports

1. Time Tracking

At the heart of Toggl’s features is its user-friendly timer, which is located prominently on the top right corner of the screen as a bright-green play button. You can log into the application and simply hit the hard-to-miss play button to start tracking time. Alongside the timer are buttons that let you easily assign the time being tracked to a new or ongoing project, add relevant tags to it, and define it as billable or non-billable.

Second, the software has a Chrome and Firefox add-on called ‘Toggl Button’ that lets you track time without logging into the application. You can use it to track time spent on other applications without having to leave your browser. In addition, the button integrates with plenty of popular third-party applications to make this process an easier one. All you need to do is drag-and-drop the Toggl Button into the application to start tracking time on it.

Third, with the Toggl Desktop application, you can track time even when you are offline. This feature is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. Like the web application, you can save the time tracked to an ongoing project or create an entirely new one from the desktop. Further, you can assign a descriptive tag to it, making it easier for you to identify what you are spending your time most on.

Finally, Toggl allows you to manually enter time into the application, which is especially beneficial for businesses that need to track tasks that don’t require a computer. It is also a safety-net option if you have forgotten to turn on the timer (even with the multiple choices available). The manual time tracking option, however, is not available on the Chrome extension. No matter what time-tracking alternative you use, the software automatically syncs the data between these platforms so you can switch between them whenever necessary.

2. Productivity Management

Toggl has several features that can help you manage your time more efficiently. For one, you can configure the software to detect inactivity. Once configured, the system notifies you automatically if you have been idle for more than a set number of minutes. This is a fail-safe mechanism for times when you fail to turn off your timer. When you receive an idle-notification pop-up, you can choose to discard the idle time, add it to your ongoing timer, or even create an entirely new time entry for it.

Toggl has a feature called ‘Pomodoro mode’ which allows you to define work intervals and introduce break cycles into your workday. You can set your work intervals such that the software notifies you when it’s time to take a break with a pop-up and sound notification. This can help you ensure an excellent work-rest balance, which in turn increases employee productivity. Helpfully, this mode can also be used to remind employees when break time is up.

Other productivity tools include the software’s AutoTracker and Timeline features. The AutoTracker feature can be set up to remind you to track time when you open an important app. In addition, you can also associate tags and projects with the AutoTracker tab. This way, every time you start working on an associated app, tag, or project, the software alerts you to start tracking time if you haven’t already done so. Toggl’s timeline feature records your online and offline activity to give an overview of your day in 15-minute intervals. The feature is so efficient that it records any website or app you have been on for more than 10 seconds. This feature not only can help you plug the gaps in your timesheets but also help you identify where you are wasting time.

3. Timesheets

Aside from being able to differentiate billable work from unpaid hours, Toggle also allows you to set four different billable rates, which helps you track your billables with ease. You can change the prices according to your clients, employees, projects, and workspaces. Besides, you can assign different hourly rates to your employees in several different currencies as well. Toggl considers all these different rates to generate error-free timesheets that can be exported with a few clicks. Importantly, managers can lock timesheets to prevent employees from back-dating time entries. This feature, however, is only available to managers on the Premium and Enterprise plans.

4. Team Management

By default, Toggl has three access levels: Regular users, project managers, and admins. Each comes with different user permissions and privileges. Further, you can club employees together to create user groups, which is a time-saving feature that allows you to set up projects faster. Instead of adding individual employees one by one, you can just add a user group to a project to get the ball rolling. What’s more, managers and admins can set up time targets for individual employees or for their team to achieve as a whole. Helpfully, the software automatically sends employees who are falling behind in their time-tracking duties an email notification of the fact. Managers also get a team dashboard that gives them a birds’-eye, a 9-day overview of what their team members have been doing along with in-depth time-tracking data on each.

5. Project Management

Toggl’s boasts of basic but efficient project time-tracking features. You can set up as many projects as you want. With each project, you can set a name, color-code it differently for easier distinction, assign it to a client, and add team members to it.

Importantly, the software also allows you to create sub-projects or tasks within a project. You can assign these tasks to different employees, set time estimates for them, and track their progress as well. Notably, you can set up project templates complete with tasks, employees, time estimates, and billable rates beforehand, which is a nice time-saving feature for businesses that do a lot of similar projects. The software’s project dashboard gives managers an overview of their ongoing projects so they can see which ones are on track and which ones are lagging.

6. Reports

The software has three basic report types: summary reports, detailed reports, and weekly reports. The summary report allows you to see your total time tracked broken down into different activities. With detailed reports, as the name suggests, you get a comprehensive project-wise look at time tracked. Weekly reports give you a 7-day overview of tracked time. You can filter all reports by applying different date ranges, employees, clients, tags, descriptions, and billable or non-billable flags. Notably, Toggl allows you to schedule reports on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The software will automatically email these to you or members of your team at the set intervals.

INTEGRATIONS

With over 100 integrations, Toggl boasts of an overflowing integration department. These connections range from different project management apps to web development software and a whole lot in between. Also, the software has a public API as well as open-source projects that software developers can use to create custom integrations.

Here are some of Toggl’s important integrations:

  • Asana
  • Github
  • Basecamp
  • Google Drive
  • Jira
  • Trello
  • Zapier
  • WordPress
  • Slack
  • Salesforce
  • Zendesk
  • Xero
  • Wrike
  • Zoho Books

More About Toggl Productivity App

Set Up And Ease Of Use

It is ridiculously easy to start using Toggl. All you need to do is sign up using your email address, Google account, or Apple ID, and you can immediately start tracking time with the free plan. Even with the paid plans, except for a few additional payment details, it is not much different. Of course, to make full use of all the software has to offer, you will have to set up your workspaces, employees, and projects. Helpfully, if you already have this data set up elsewhere, the software allows you to import this information in bulk with just a few clicks.

Using Toggl is just as easy as setting it up. The user-friendly interface sports a clean and simple look with a vertical main menu on the left side of the screen. All the software’s features are available here. When you click on any feature, a horizontal menu appears atop the page that lets you access its different sub-features and tools. Given its simplicity and brevity of features, learning how to use Toggl, even at full capacity, constitutes an easy learning curve.

Device Compatibility

Desktop Browser App

Android App

iOS App

Windows Phone App

Apple Watch App

X

X

 

Even with a slightly different interface from that of its desktop version, Toggl’s mobile apps have the same ease of use and simplicity of features. So, you have the same bright green button to start tracking time, except that it is in the lower right corner of your screen now. Similarly, the main menu is an abbreviated one located horizontally across the bottom of the screen. Functionality-wise though, the mobile apps do not have the same range of capabilities that you would find with the desktop iteration. For example, while you can add time to an existing project, you cannot create a new one on the go. Similarly, you cannot use them to manage your clients or teams.

Customer Support

Toggl offers users 24/7 email and in-app chat support. The company’s reps are generally responsive, replying to queries on a first-come-first-serve basis, typically within a few hours. Subscribers of the Enterprise plan get priority support. In addition to these, the software’s knowledge base has a good repertoire of guides and articles that cover everything from basic time tracking to managing large workspaces.

Online Security

The software’s security measures are comprehensive and compliant with a host of security standards. These include ISO 27017 and ISO 27108 cloud security and privacy certifications along with payment card security attestations such as PCI DSS v3.1. In addition, the company has secure servers where data is backed up daily.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

  • Free forever plan
  • Easy time-tracking across multiple platforms
  • Robust productivity reminders
  • Good reporting tools
  • Easy to set up and use
  • Plenty of third-party integrations
  • Good customer support

CONS

  • No invoicing tool
  • Mobile apps not as functional as the desktop version

CONCLUSION

There’s no doubt about it, Toggl is a reliable time-tracking application. It performs this core functionality exceptionally well and with a minimum of fuss. That it allows you to do this no matter if you are online, offline, on your browser, or even on the move is what makes it such a robust and popular software. Also, the sync between its multiple platforms is fantastic, and using it with other applications is easy as well.
All in all, if you are in the market for an easy-to-use time-tracking app, Toggl should figure in your top 5 list. This is even with its obvious drawback of not having an invoicing tool, which, given its robust list of third-party connections, you should be able to find an integration for. If nothing else, you should certainly try out the software’s small but efficient set of features by taking advantage of its 30-day free trial.

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