Clockify's pitch is disarming: free time tracking for unlimited users, unlimited projects, forever. And it is real — as freemium goes, Clockify is one of the most generous products in software, which is why millions of teams start there.
The business model is the upsell path: the features that turn time tracking into billing — required fields, rounding, labor rates vs billable rates, invoicing, approval — spread across Basic ($4.99), Standard ($6.99), Pro ($9.99) and Enterprise ($14.99) per user per month. Freelancers who bill tend to end up paying after all. Timevault is $29 once, with the billing features in the box. Here is the honest breakdown.
What Clockify does well
Clockify's free tier deserves its reputation:
- Genuinely free unlimited tracking — users, projects and reports without a card on file.
- Apps for web, desktop and mobile, plus a browser extension.
- Kiosk mode, timesheets and team features that small companies use daily.
- A fair upgrade path — each paid tier is cheaper than most competitors' equivalents.
If free-forever basic tracking is all you need, Clockify is honestly hard to argue against — keep it.
Where the subscription model hurts
The friction appears the day you bill: time rounding lives on paid tiers, invoicing on Standard and up, and rate management deepens tier by tier. A freelancer on Standard pays ~$84/year — $252 over three years — and a small studio multiplies that by headcount. The free tier tracks time; the paid tiers are where it becomes money.
Clockify is also cloud-only: your hours, clients and rates live on their servers, rate-limited by their API, exportable in their formats. Nothing sinister — but for data this simple and this private, "someone else's computer plus a monthly fee per person" is a lot of structure for arithmetic your own machine could do.
Timevault: the pay-once alternative
Timevault is a $29, one-time purchase. Time tracking for freelancers who bill clients — timers, rates and reports you own. Timevault ships the billing tier as the only tier: hourly rates per project, billable flags, report-level 5/15-minute rounding that never mutates raw entries, overlap warnings, weekly timesheet editing, grouped reports with exact invoiceable totals, CSV export and printable client statements — with a timer that runs as server state and survives anything short of a power cut.
The source code is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/timevault-tracker — free to build and run yourself, forever. Buying the packaged version on Whop gets you the signed installer, 1-click setup and updates. Either way, there is no account, no telemetry and no renewal date.
Head to head
| Timevault | Clockify | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $29 once | Free core / $4.99–14.99/user/mo |
| Cost over 3 years | $29 | $0–540/user |
| Where your data lives | Your machine / your server | Their cloud only |
| Usage limits | None — unlimited use | Rounding, rates & invoicing gated by paid tiers |
| Works offline | Yes | Partial (apps cache) |
| Source code | MIT, on GitHub | Closed |
Who should stay with Clockify
Stay with Clockify if the free tier covers you — genuinely, it covers a lot — or if you need mobile apps, kiosk mode, or team management across many employees. Timevault is single-workspace and desktop/browser only.
Switch if you are a freelancer or small studio that bills: Timevault includes the rates, rounding and billable reporting Clockify meters out across tiers, keeps your client data in a SQLite file you own, and costs less than five months of one Standard seat.
Making the switch
Step 1 — Buy once on Whop. One-time $29 for the packaged Windows installer with everything pre-built.
Step 2 — Set up projects and rates. Clients, colors, billable flags and hourly rates — archive projects when engagements end.
Step 3 — Track, then invoice from the report. Run timers or enter time manually, open a report for the billing period, apply 15-minute rounding, and read the exact billable amount off the screen.
Common questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/timevault-tracker. $29 buys the packaged installer, 1-click setup and updates.
What happens to a running timer if my browser crashes?
Nothing — the timer is server state, not a browser widget. Reload the page an hour later and it's still counting from the original start.
Is there a mobile app or idle detection?
No — honestly. Toggl's native apps, idle detection and calendar integrations are real advantages if you track from your phone all day. Timevault is browser + desktop, aimed at people who work at a computer and bill for it.
The bottom line
Subscriptions make sense when a service does ongoing work for you — hosting, syncing, multi-region infrastructure, human labor. They make much less sense when the work happens on your own hardware and the monthly bill is just a toll booth. Timevault is our bet that for this job, most people are better served owning the tool: $29 once, three months of Toggl pays for Timevault outright — after that, every tracked hour is pure margin.
Timevault is part of OneTimeSuite — 56 desktop and self-hosted apps built on the same principle: your hardware does the work, so you should not pay rent on it. Every app is a one-time purchase with MIT-licensed source on GitHub, no accounts and no telemetry. Want everything at once? OneTimeSuite Complete bundles the whole suite for a single flat $997.
Try Timevault — $29, one time
Signed installer on Whop, or build it free from the MIT source. Your call.
Related comparisons: Toggl alternative — or browse the whole pay-once suite.