Being productive in 2023 is a constant uphill battle. There are more distractions than ever before, and if you happen to work online, you’re just a few clicks away from a YouTube binge or shopping for a new pair of sneakers.
To make your life easier and more productive, you may have tried a number of hacks, tips and tricks. Today, we’ll show you one thing that’s seemingly simple but can have great effects: time-tracking extensions for Chrome.
If you already track your time, you’ll find these amazing. If not - it’s a great time to get started. Pun intended.
Why extensions for Chrome?
Apps such as Timely already exist for various platforms, including mobile, laptops, PCs, and everything else with a screen. So why bother adding a time-tracking extension to Chrome?
It’s easy to use
There’s no need to open a new app and hit the start button on your timer. You can just click on your Chrome extension and start the timer immediately. The same goes for pausing, stopping, completing a task, and more.
You’re already there
If you’re like me, a lot of your work is done online. This very article comes to life in Google Docs, later going through a few different apps, all in Google Chrome. Since you’re using the app for work, it’s only natural to have time-tracking apps in Chrome as well.
It’s your default browser
At the moment of writing, 65% of all people who go online use Google Chrome as their default browser. There’s a high chance your favorite time-tracking app already has a Chrome extension too.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look through the best time-tracking extensions for Google Chrome.
Timely
If you need a fast, reliable, and affordable way to track time while using Google Chrome, Timely’s Memory for Chrome Extension is your best friend.
Load up Timely, and you’ll be able to see not only individual tasks and the time spent on them but also the total time spent on certain work websites. That way, you can discover that your team maybe spend too much time in Jira or not enough in ClickUp.
You can designate certain apps to be different from others. For example, you can set Figma to have all the time in the app designated as billable hours. Everything that you do in the Chrome extension gets immediately added to your Timely dashboard.
This means all the details, including the total time spent on a certain website, as well as specific pages. You can go to your dashboard and get an overview of your Chrome activity and then decide whether you want to add a website or a page to your Timely time sheet.
What makes Timely stand out is our strict policy against surveillance so you can rest assured that no one except you can see what you’re doing on your device and which websites you’re visiting.
There is a free trial available, and paid plans start at $9 per user per month. You’ll have everything you need to start tracking time at work or outside of it - with one click.
Harvest
Harvest is one of the biggest names in the time tracking game, and for a good reason. It’s simple and easy to use, one of the many reasons for its millions of daily users.
The Chrome extension lets you start and stop tracking time directly from your browser, and that’s about it. There are no sophisticated time-tracking features that you’ll see pop up in many of the competitors, which we’ll mention soon. You can (but don’t have to) add the time tracked in Chrome to your timesheet.
The true power of Harvest comes with its integrations, where you have a really wide choice of apps. Some of them include Slack, Basecamp, Quickbooks, Xero, Stripe, Paypal, Zapier, and many, many others.
The forever free plan gets you access to one seat and two projects. To access unlimited projects and time tracking, you must upgrade to the only paid plan. At $10.80 per user per month, it’s the most expensive tool on this list. Considering the lackluster Chrome integrations and the feature selection, you may want to look elsewhere for your time-tracking needs.
Toggl Track
Toggl Track is one of the oldest time-tracking apps on the market, with several benefits. It has quite a following (over 300k users of the Chrome extension alone), and it’s deeply rooted in the online app ecosystem.
This translates to more than 100 different integrations with apps such as Todoist, Jira, Slack, Asana, and many, many others. You can use the extension to continue tracking time from an existing task in Toggl or start a completely new project in a matter of clicks.
One thing that you have to give to Toggl is that they are fully against any form of surveillance and tracking in the workplace. This means no software that tracks your activity and no one looking through screenshots of your device.
There is a forever-free plan that lets you track unlimited time and tasks, so you may never need to upgrade if you don’t need many functionalities beyond the basics. Paid plans start at $9 per user per month.
Hubstaff
Originally built as a time tracking platform, Hubstaff grew over time and even launched a marketplace where you can find jobs and look for full-time or part-time employment. At the moment of writing, it has over 500k users, tracking time across different devices.
The integration is easy to set up, and you can start and stop tracking your time in one click. Standout features include 40+ integrations with popular project management and communication tools as well as the ability to create invoices and bills for your work directly from Hubstaff time sheets.
One thing we don’t like is that Hubstaff lets you monitor your employees through the app they install on their preferred device. This means that with Hubstaff, your employer can see your activity, which websites you visited, and for how long. On top of that, the app takes screenshots of your screen randomly as you work.
Hubstaff plans start at $7 per user per month, and there is a free 14-day trial available as well.
actiTIME
Tracking time is just one part of the actiTIME offer. Like many other tools in this segment, they started as a time-tracking app and branched into other features. You can use this tool to manage your team projects, invoice your customers and clients for billable hours, create time-tracking reports, and more.
Tracking time from this extension in Chrome is super easy. If you’re already using the tool, it will list your most recent tasks as a starting point. Just choose one, click on it and start tracking time from your browser. If you need to adjust your tracked time later, you can do so from your dashboard.
actiTIME offers a free 30-day trial, and there is even a forever free plan, but with limited functionality. It’s for 1-3 users in a team only, and the Chrome extension does not come included. Paid plans start at $6 per user per month.
Clockify
One of the newer players in the market, Clockify quickly found an audience thanks to its ease of use and a good mix of features for such a young app. Install the app, agree to the terms and conditions, and you’re ready to start tracking time directly from Chrome.
There’s a shortcut on your keyboard to start running Clockify immediately if you’re not a fan of looking for the extension button. You can also start tracking your time once you select a piece of text and right-click on it, which comes in useful if you do a lot of reading. The app can be used to set reminders and run a Pomodoro timer as well.
It currently integrates with 50+ apps, which makes it a good competitor for the remainder of this list.
There is also a forever-free plan, but it only comes with the most basic features. To get the Chrome extension, you must sign up for a paid plan. Those are priced very competitively and start at $3.99 per user per month.
Elorus
This app is often mentioned as one of the better time-tracking solutions out there, but in reality, it has only the basic features. You can use the Chrome extension to start and stop tracking from your browser, and that’s about it.
Using Elorus’ time tracking capabilities gives you a few options. You can track your time from the app and oversee how your team spends their time at work. It’s also possible to set reminders and get timesheets and reports about your and your team’s work. On the integration front, Elorus is pretty weak as it has only three of them — Asana, Jira, and Trello.
All of that comes at a competitive price of $7 per user per month. There is a forever-free plan too, but you need to register with your credit card to get started.
PomoDone
Named after the famous Pomodoro time tracking method, this app was initially designed to help anyone master the art of focused time blocks. Nowadays, PomoDone lets anyone track their time from any app they want, and the Chrome extension is just one of the ways to get started.
If you waste a lot of time online, this could be a great choice. On top of the usual features, you also get the ability to set up PomoDone and block certain websites from your browsers while you are tracking time. Just load up the URL in the settings, and that website is on the blacklist.
There are currently 16 integrations available, including Trello, Asana, Todoist, ClickUp, and others. There are various ways to track time, and besides a standard and a Pomodoro timer, you can also use a countdown timer.
Pomodone is also pretty affordable, as the basic plan is just $2 per user per month. To get all the integrations and access to your time tracking logs, you’ll need to opt for the pricier plan at $3.50 per user per month.
Wrapping up
Tracking time has gone a long way — from being a tedious activity to something as easy as liking an Instagram post. Thanks to these time-tracking extensions for Chrome, you can increase your productivity in just a few clicks.
If you’re looking for a way to track your time without hassle, why not try Timely? You can use it in Chrome, as well as easily track time across different devices and platforms.
