Time Tracking

No installer, no IT ticket, no waiting. Online time tracking means you open a browser, log in, and start recording hours. Kimai delivers exactly that — as an open-source solution that works as well in the cloud as it does on your own server.

Why online time tracking wins

Installed software ties you to a specific machine. Online time tracking frees you from that constraint. Your laptop at home, the office desktop, a tablet on a job site, your phone on the train — same login, same data, same experience everywhere.

For distributed teams, this isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s table stakes. When your colleagues sit in different cities, time zones, or living rooms, the time tracking tool needs to follow them — not the other way around.

Who benefits from online time tracking?

Startups want to grow fast, not build IT infrastructure. An online time tracker like Kimai is ready in five minutes. Create an account, invite the team, go. It scales with you — from 3 founders to 300 employees without switching tools.

Remote and hybrid teams depend on tools that work regardless of location. Kimai runs in the browser and needs no VPN or local installation. Whether your developer is in a coworking space in Lisbon or a home office in Toronto, time tracking travels with them.

Multi-location companies benefit from a single source of truth. All offices log into the same system, headquarters sees the full picture. No Excel files via email, no manual consolidation at month-end.

Freelancers and solo businesses need time tracking without overhead. Kimai online means no server costs, no administration, no distraction from the actual work.

Kimai Cloud: online time tracking in under 5 minutes

The fastest path to Kimai goes through the cloud. Sign up, your instance is created, start tracking. No credit card for the trial, no feature walls during the test period. You get the full Kimai — every feature included.

What sets Kimai Cloud apart: it runs on European servers and meets GDPR requirements. Your time tracking data stays in Europe, not scattered across global data centers.

And if you decide to move to your own server someday? No problem. Kimai Cloud creates regular backups that you can download and import into a self-hosted installation. The reverse path — from self-hosted to cloud — works too. We can migrate your data.

What good online time tracking looks like

Not all online time trackers are created equal. Basic tools give you a start/stop button and a few charts — that’s it. Kimai goes further.

Project assignment is standard: every time entry is linked to a customer and project. At month-end, you know exactly how many hours went to which engagement.

Roles and permissions make sure everyone sees what they should. Team members track their own time, team leads see their team, management sees the big picture.

Exports and invoicing close the loop: recorded hours become PDF reports, Excel exports, or invoices sent directly to clients.

API and integrations connect Kimai with your existing tools. Accounting software, project management, HR systems — Kimai plays well with others.

Open source and online: not a contradiction

Some people assume open-source software means you have to install and maintain it yourself. With Kimai, that’s not the case. The cloud version is the same open-source code as the self-hosted version — same features, same transparency.

The difference: in the cloud, the Kimai team handles updates, backups, and uptime. You handle your business. And if you ever want to verify what’s running under the hood, the source code is on GitHub.

Start tracking, stop planning

Online time tracking with Kimai is straightforward enough that the hardest part is reading this page. Try it yourself — free, no commitment, no installation required.