Kimai - Open Source time-tracker Kimai
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Best open source

Clockify alternative

Kimai is the #1 open-source time-tracking alternative for Clockify. Learn how Kimai measures up to Clockify, so you can choose the right solution for your business.

Kimai vs Clockify: Which time tracking software fits your team best in 2026?

Kimai is the #1 open-source time-tracking solution designed for teams and businesses seeking flexibility and control over their time tracking infrastructure. Discover why more than 7000 companies worldwide trust Kimai for their time tracking needs and find out how it compares to Clockify’s offerings. Whether you’re evaluating a new time tracking app, analyzing Clockify pricing options, or planning a Clockify migration, Kimai provides a compelling alternative with superior features and cost savings.

Choosing the right time tracking software can make a huge difference in productivity, transparency, and billing accuracy of a freelancer, an agency, or a business owner managing a big team.

Reporting feature

When selecting a time tracking tool, most users consider:

  • Features: Does it cover everything from tracking and reporting to invoicing and project management?
  • Price: Is it affordable (or even free) for the size of your team?
  • Flexibility: Can it adapt to your current workflow, integrations, and tech stack?
  • Accessibility: Does it support both desktop and mobile platforms, and can it be self-hosted or cloud-based?
  • Scalability: Will it still fit your needs as your business grows?

The year 2026 also brings focus on data privacy, automation, and team transparency in time management tools. At the same time the market offers a range of solutions for every use case, from solopreneurs to large enterprise teams, and you can always find the solution that best fits your needs.

Let’s explore the best time tracking tools for 2026 and see how Kimai compares with Toggl Track — two popular choices among professionals and successful teams worldwide.

Kimai features most used

Not all time tracking tools are created equal. The best solutions for agencies offer a specialized set of features to streamline your workflows.

Features

JSON API

Featuring an extensive JSON API for reading and writing data, so external apps and custom tools can communicate with Kimai.

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Customer Portal

Share client and project statistics and timesheets with anyone using a secret URL, optionally password protected.

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Teams

Teams connects users into logical groups, like departments. Limit access to data by assigning customers and projects to your teams.

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SAML

Log in and register users with SAML via your existing SSO identity provider, like Google Workspace, Authentik or Azure Active Directory.

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Invoicing

Configurable invoice templates, options for entry grouping, configurable invoice numbers, and multiple formats like PDF and DOCX.

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Reports and analyses

Analysis of recorded times by users, customers, projects, activities, tags, time periods and more.

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Clockify is a time tracker and timesheet app that lets you track work hours across projects.

They offer different regions for storing data (USA, AU, EU, UK) only in their Pro and Enterprise plan.

Migrating from Clockify to Kimai

Switching from Clockify to Kimai is not a complex task anymore. We understand that your historical data matters, which is why we’ve built a robust CSV importer that lets you effortlessly transfer your time tracking records from Clockify to Kimai.

Export your data from Clockify in CSV format and use the Kimai importer to load all your projects, clients, and time entries in minutes. You’ll retain complete control over your data while gaining access to a more flexible and affordable time-tracking platform.

For detailed instructions, please refer to our importer documentation.

What users say about Kimai

At Kimai, we've designed our time tracking platform to meet the needs of agencies, teams, and freelancers. Our intuitive interface and powerful features help companies like yours work smarter and more profitably. You can now “listen” to the reviews of the real users.

Kimai has been a fantastic discovery. I reviewed several other time trackers, and frankly, none of them compared. Kimai just felt better right away. It’s easy to set up and use, with a clean design and just the right balance between features and simplicity, and the self-hosting option is a huge plus.

Highly recommended and big thumbs up from me!

Amir
Developer

We have been using KIMAI for many years, previously self-hosted at an internet provider, and for some time now in the cloud. The data model fits our business field perfectly, in which we bill certain projects based on effort and others at a fixed price (budgeted). Both billing models are supported by KIMAI. For budgeted projects, we keep track of the respective consumption of time and costs in relation to the budget (burndown). For time-and-materials projects, we export all billable hours along with the stored hourly rates monthly or quarterly as a basis for the invoices, which we create with another invoicing/accounting software.

In addition to what I consider a very practical data model and the logical structure, the cloud solution is also very well designed in terms of look and feel, modern and intuitive to use. I find everything where I expect it to be. Numerous small features, such as hiding columns or the filter options, make work easier. In addition, a great deal is configurable, so I am not forced to adapt my processes to KIMAI; instead, I can adapt KIMAI to my needs.

Support responds very quickly. I have also been able to submit several suggestions that were actually implemented promptly. I have not yet experienced such implementation strength with any other provider of cloud solutions.

Out of conviction and free of charge, I have shown KIMAI to befriended business partners from completely different industries, recommended it to them, and supported them in setting it up.

From my point of view, an absolute recommendation, very professional and well thought out. You can tell from the software its maturity and from the manufacturer the experience in this field.

J. Setzer
bizzworxx data expert

As a freelancer, time keeping is really important. Kimai makes it a breeze doing so. Thanks to the API I can automatically start and stop timings when arriving/leaving my customers' premises. And best of all, it’s from Europe! :-) Thanks for making such a nice software !

Steven Broos
Steven Broos
BITS

We have been using Kimai for two years now to track the time spent on each phase of our projects and to bill our clients for the hours worked. The software is comprehensive, intuitive, and fully meets our needs. In addition to this, Kevin has always been helpful and attentive to our needs!

Alessandro Pollastri
Alessandro Pollastri
Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII

I was testing Kimai several years ago and then I decided to move to different time tracking tools and the last time I was mostly working with Clockify and now I found Kimai back and I’m very impressed how the software is working, How fast it is. And I also really like a lot the approach to host the software on my own so that we keep our confidential data in our own systems. The software is easy to use, it’s fast, and I get all the features that I need, and the possibility to discuss on GitHub also helps a lot to find fast solutions. Thank you very much for your very good work and let’s work together for the future.

Niels Przybilla
Niels Przybilla
SF-Solutions

At this point, I would like to say a big thank you to Kimai. Any queries you may have are answered promptly, politely and competently. For us as a small provider of social services, it's great that we can use such a professional programme as a basic version free of charge. Even if paid modules are added, it’s a good feeling to know that the money is going to a dedicated, small software company. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 ❤️

Rüdiger
Integrament

As a non-profit organization, when it comes to digital tools, we care not only about costs but also about transparency, data privacy, and long-term independence. Kimai won us over with its open-source approach, the fair non-profit pricing, and the fast, personal support.

Florian
All We Shape gGmbH

We have been using Kimai for time tracking at Pulse of Europe for quite some time now and are extremely satisfied with the experience.

As a non-profit, pro-European citizens’ movement, we coordinate a wide range of projects, campaigns and activities involving both staff members and volunteers. Having a reliable and transparent time-tracking solution is therefore essential for our daily work.

What particularly impresses us about Kimai is its simple and intuitive user experience. Working hours can be recorded quickly and easily, while projects and tasks can be clearly categorised and flexibly filtered. This allows us to maintain an overview even across multiple teams, projects and responsibilities.

Kimai helps us make our internal processes more transparent and efficient – both in our day-to-day operations and when evaluating project-related working hours.

For organisations and teams looking for a powerful yet user-friendly time-tracking solution, we can wholeheartedly recommend Kimai.

Hendrik Michel, PoE
Hendrik Michel, PoE
Pulse of Europe e.V.

We started using self-hosted Kimai - and it works perfectly! We especially like integration with Google Workspace, which is very convenient.

Karol Antczak
Trusted Software Services

We have been enthusiastic users of Kimai for many years. Initially only for our own documentation purposes, but now also for recording working hours in the company. Instead of using expensive service providers, we were able to use Kimai, the Kiosk plugin and the plugin for working hours to create our own low-cost version, which now works reliably. Many thanks to Kevin, the creative mind in the background, who always provides the right solutions. We are completely satisfied with Kimai.

Jörg
DHF Media GmbH

All your time-tracking needs in one platform

Time is money, and tracking it effectively has become a necessity for project-based teams. Kimai is a powerful time-tracker that's been the favorite of many businesses worldwide. But how does it stack up against Clockify? Dive into this comprehensive comparison to find out why businesses are choosing Kimai over Clockify

See the difference

Compare Kimai vs. Clockify: choose the options that make the most sense for your business.

Kimai
On-Premise

  • Open source software : 
  • Available on-premises : 
  • Available in the cloud : 
  • Server location :  Your choice
  • Max. customers :  Unlimited
  • Max. projects :  Unlimited
  • Max. activities :  Unlimited
  • JSON API : 
  • Invoicing : 
  • Data export : 
  • SAML : 
  • Support :  Forum (GitHub)
  • Backups : 
  • TLS Certificate :  Additional costs
  • Custom domain :  Additional costs
  • Automatic upgrades : 
  • Server maintenance : 
  • IP access restriction : 
  • Custom content :  Paid plugin
  • Audit trail logs :  Paid plugin
  • Custom fields :  Paid plugin
  • Expense management :  Paid plugin
  • Task planning :  Paid plugin
  • Translations :  Paid plugin
  • Working hours, vacation, sickness, public holidays :  Paid plugin
Install

Kimai
Cloud

  • Open source software : 
  • Available on-premises : 
  • Available in the cloud : 
  • Server location :  Hetzner Cloud
    Germany (Falkenstein)
  • Max. customers :  Unlimited
  • Max. projects :  Unlimited
  • Max. activities :  Unlimited
  • JSON API : 
  • Invoicing : 
  • Data export : 
  • SAML : 
  • Support :  Email, Forum
  • Backups :  Daily
  • TLS Certificate : 
  • Custom domain : 
  • Automatic upgrades : 
  • Server maintenance : 
  • IP access restriction : 
  • Custom content : 
  • Audit trail logs : 
  • Custom fields : 
  • Expense management : 
  • Task planning : 
  • Translations : 
  • Working hours, vacation, sickness, public holidays : 
Get started

Clockify

  • Open source software : 
  • Available on-premises : 
  • Available in the cloud : 
  • Server location :  USA
  • Max. customers :  Unlimited
  • Max. projects :  Unlimited
  • Max. activities :  Unlimited
  • JSON API : 
  • Invoicing : 
  • Data export : 
  • SAML : 
  • Support : 
  • Backups : 
  • TLS Certificate : 
  • Custom domain :  Additional costs
  • Automatic upgrades : 
  • Server maintenance : 
  • IP access restriction : 
  • Custom content : 
  • Audit trail logs : 
  • Custom fields : 
  • Expense management : 
  • Task planning : 
  • Translations : 
  • Working hours, vacation, sickness, public holidays : 
Open source software
Available on-premises
Available in the cloud
Server location
Your choice
Hetzner Cloud
Germany (Falkenstein)
USA
Max. customers
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Max. projects
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Max. activities
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
JSON API
Invoicing
Data export
SAML
Support
Forum (GitHub)
Email, Forum
Backups
Daily
TLS Certificate
Additional costs
Custom domain
Additional costs
Additional costs
Automatic upgrades
Server maintenance
IP access restriction
Custom content
Paid plugin
Audit trail logs
Paid plugin
Custom fields
Paid plugin
Expense management
Paid plugin
Task planning
Paid plugin
Translations
Paid plugin
Working hours, vacation, sickness, public holidays
Paid plugin

Please note that the above information were manually compiled on 2024-11-19 from the Clockify website. For the comparison, the best matching plans were chosen. Prices are subject to change. For the most current pricing, please visit the respective websites.

Kimai is open source

Kimai is #1 open-source time-tracking software, providing unparalleled transparency and flexibility. By choosing Kimai, you’re investing in a secure, cost-efficient solution with complete control over your data and the ability to customize it exactly as your team needs.

Self-host with complete control

Kimai offers a self-hosted edition that puts data privacy to the front. With on-premises deployment, you maintain complete control over your sensitive business information, ensure compliance with stringent data protection regulations, and achieve a level of security that's often challenging with cloud-only solutions. Plus, Kimai's API allows seamless integration with your existing tools and workflows.

EU-based data protection

If you decide to go with the cloud edition, you can be sure that your data is safe. With the headquarters located in Austria (EU), it is GDPR-compliant by default and all data is stored in Germany (Hetzner Cloud, Falkenstein). Learn more about our privacy-first approach

Conclusion

In today's digital age, data security is paramount. Kimai promises secure data protection and state-of-the-art encryption, ensuring that your business's sensitive information remains confidential.

Kimai offers a well-rounded solution that caters to a variety of workflows and use-cases for most project-based teams and companies. Its ease of use, integration capabilities, and commitment to data security and privacy make it a top choice for businesses seeking an efficient time-tracking software.

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