Quick answer
Yes — Timevault is a one-time-purchase alternative to Toggl. It costs $79 once, while Toggl runs $10/user/mo — about $120 per year, every year. Self-hosted time tracking — one-click timers, hourly rates, weekly timesheets, billable reports. It is for people who want the job done on their own hardware without a renewal date — not for teams that live inside Toggl's ecosystem.
The verdict
Switch to Timevault if you are an individual or small team paying Toggl $10/user/mo for work your own machine can do. Eight months of Toggl pays for Timevault outright — after that, every tracked hour is pure margin.
Stay with Toggl if your workflow depends on its integrations, you need enterprise features (SSO, admin controls, SLAs), or your team is large enough that per-seat collaboration tooling is worth the bill. Timevault does not try to replicate those.
Head to head
| Timevault | Toggl | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $79 once | $10/user/month |
| Cost over 3 years | $79 | $360 |
| Your data lives | Your server / your PC | Their cloud |
| Billable rates & totals | Yes | Yes |
| Report rounding (5/15 min) | Yes | Paid tier |
| Overlap detection | Yes | No |
| Works offline | Yes | No |
| Source code | MIT, yours | Closed |
| 5-year cost | $79 | $600 |
Where Toggl still wins
- Ecosystem and integrations. Established tools accumulate years of third-party integrations, templates and add-ons. If your workflow is wired into Toggl's ecosystem, switching means rebuilding that plumbing — a real cost.
- Team and enterprise features. Shared workspaces, granular permissions, SSO, audit logs and a vendor to call when something breaks — that is what the higher subscription tiers actually buy, and a pay-once app does not come with it.
- Familiarity and hiring. Toggl is the name people already know. Onboarding a team onto a tool nobody has used before takes time the subscription never charges for.
Where Timevault wins
- Price, permanently. $79 once versus $120/yr for as long as you use it. There is no renewal, no seat count and no tier gate.
- One-click timer. Description, project, tags, Enter to start. The timer is server state — reload, close the tab, restart your browser, it keeps counting.
- Manual entries. Start + end times, or start + duration ("1:30", "1.5", "90m"). Stop, discard mistakes, or one-click continue any previous entry.
- Projects, clients & rates. Colors, billable flags and hourly rates per project. Archive finished projects without losing history.
The math
Eight months of Toggl pays for Timevault outright — after that, every tracked hour is pure margin.
- After 1 year: Timevault has cost you $79 total — Toggl has cost $120.
- After 3 years: Timevault is still $79 — the subscription is at $360.
- After 5 years: Timevault is still $79 — the subscription is at $600.
Common questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/timevault-tracker-mvp. $79 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.
Does rounding change my data?
Never — rounding is applied at report level only. Your raw entries stay exact, so you can re-run the same period at 5, 15 or no rounding.
Try Timevault — $79, one time
Or get Timevault plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.