Kimai - Open Source time-tracker Kimai
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Best open source

toggl track alternative

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

Kimai vs toggl track: 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 toggl track’s offerings. Whether you’re evaluating a new time tracking app, analyzing toggl track pricing options, or planning a toggl track 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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Toggl Track: {make-sure-it’s}-free time tracking

Toggl Track is one of the most well-known names in the time tracking category. It offers individuals and small teams a user-friendly interface and quick setup. However, its pricing structure can become restrictive as your team grows.

Pros of Toggl:

  • Simple, minimalist interface
  • Cloud-based system — no setup or hosting needed
  • Integrations with many project management tools

Cons of Toggl:

  • The free plan limited to five users (according to Toggle Track’s official website as of October 2025)
  • Advanced reporting, team management, and billing features require paid plans starting from 9 Euro per user monthly
  • No self-hosted option available — data stored on Toggl’s servers

Toggl Track is a solid entry-level tool, but as soon as your team scales, you might hit feature walls or sharp price increases that make open-source alternatives like Kimai more attractive.

Kimai vs. Toggl quick comparison

Feature Kimai (On-Premise) Toggl Track
Pricing Free Free (limited), Paid from ~€9/user/month
Hosting Self-hosted Cloud only
Users Unlimited Up to 5 (free plan)
Invoicing ✅ Built-in ❌ Only with integrations
Customization High (plugins, API) Limited
Data privacy Full control (self-hosted) Managed by Toggl

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for a time tracking solution that grows with you, Kimai is more than just a Toggl alternative — it’s a complete open-source ecosystem for time management, reporting, and invoicing.

✅ No user limits
✅ No subscription fees
✅ No compromises on privacy or flexibility

👉 Start with Kimai Cloud or On-Premise version, both for free — and see why teams around the world are choosing Kimai.

Migration from toggl to Kimai

If you are currently using toggl, but looking for a GDPR-compliant or just a cheaper alternative, then Kimai might be the right tool for you.

Kimai has an CSV importer, that allows to transfer your toggl data. All you have to do is export the data like this:

Exporting timesheet with toggl track

Please read the importer documentation to find out more.

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.

I have been using Kimai for several years. First in a company as part of a project team. Later, when I started my own business on the side, I was looking for a simple time tracking tool and returned to Kimai. First self-installed, then in the cloud. For 3 euros in operating expenses per month, as a small part-time entrepreneur, I get exactly what I need: fast tracking, an overview of outstanding items, and lightning-fast billing with a clean timesheet. But even for huge projects with a large number of people, it remains clear, comprehensible, and easy for everyone to use. And the support, in the person of Kevin, responds quickly and comprehensively to everything you need. Many thanks for that!

Christoph van Bracht
Christoph van Bracht
van Bracht | Haus & EDV

We are an IT service provider and need to record our times for documentation and billing purposes.

We have already ‘struggled’ with various systems for recording and creating service reports / billing.

We finally found a good solution 3 years ago with Kimai. The highlights for us:

  • Speed When recording, searching, invoicing

  • Flexibility We can customise Kimai, the data can be exported. Our own invoice layout etc. is easily possible.

  • Cost Unbeatable value for money compared to other solutions.

We are so convinced by the product that we also use it with customers to replace Excel nonsense etc.

Kimai is a software solution that is fun to use.

Josef Wagner
WTS-IT GmbH

A user-friendly and reliable time-tracking tool that exceeds our expectations. It offers excellent value for the price, and the support team responds quickly, competently, and courteously.

Nicole S.
Gesellschaft Schweizerisch-Tibetische Freundschaft

The system addresses our time tracking needs with an easy-to-use interface, which has been a major pain point with other providers. We run it in-house on our existing Docker infrastructure, helping us minimize costs. The ability to host it ourselves is something that many other solutions lack, and it’s been a deal-breaker for us in the past.

Jonas Sander
Jonas Sander
Graphic Robotics

Kimai is a super web platform for keeping tracks of our daily work, the interface is clean and very useful, just easy, couple clicks and data, and that is done. we have used since 5 years ago, and the reports are easy to run. only 1 time i have to support a ticket, because we forgot the password!. thanks for all the work here!

Mathias
Mathias
Cenas

Kimai combines usability and high data protection standards - a rare find in project management tools. Easy to setup and use right away, with many options for adapting it to specific needs and processes. One tip for first-users: Projects have to be set up in Administration in order to be able to start time tracking - so far that’s the only thing that got me searching.

Great work!

Meredith
Project Manager

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

Kimai has worked perfectly for CodeWeavers. We spent a great deal of energy comparing timesheet solutions, from proprietary to open source. None of the proprietary solutions had the functionality and simplicity of Kimai. Because it’s open source, we can confidently rely on it for years and years to come. Finally, we have hired Kevin to help us customize Kimai for our needs. His work has been fantastic. As a result, we have a professional solution, custom tailored to our needs, for far less than we were prepared to spend on one of the proprietary solutions.

Jeremy White
Jeremy White
CodeWeavers

We have been using Kimai for 7 years now and are completely satisfied. The product itself is great, the price is right and the support is simply fantastic. We can only recommend it to anyone who values quality and good service.

Rene Glaubert
Rene Glaubert
bg-consulting GmbH

It is a great app, I will say I am not using it yet all its future, but to track my working hours it is working like magic. Customer service is also helpful and fast-responding, I recommend it to any new freelancer, because of its suitable price!. Thank you

Wafa

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 toggl track? Dive into this comprehensive comparison to find out why businesses are choosing Kimai over toggl track

See the difference

Compare Kimai vs. toggl track: 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

toggl track

  • 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 toggl track 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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