Clockify vs Zistemo (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, we pick Clockify: it is first in our ranking of time tracking apps, and it grades higher too, 3.2 against 2.2.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Clockify grades higher on value for money, the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Clockify
Team time tracker and timesheets with a free plan for 5 users
Zistemo
Project time tracking, attendance and invoicing in one app
Which one is for you
Pick Clockify if
- Fits if you're a team of up to 5 and want a free tracker with no limit on tracked time
- Works for companies that need timesheets, attendance and approvals for payroll
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you're staying free with a sixth person, or need reports longer than a month or in a format other than PDF
- Skip it if you want invoicing on the cheapest plan, as that starts on Standard at $5.49
- Not for you if you need scheduling, expenses, budgets or GPS tracking below Pro at $7.99 a seat
- Pricey if you only need single sign-on, which sits on Enterprise at $11.99 a seat
- Watch out: Clockify says it gives no refunds and no discount beyond 20% off for annual billing
Pick Zistemo if
- Fits if you are a small agency that tracks hours and sends the invoice from the same place
- Makes sense if your client data has to stay in Switzerland
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you work alone and want to pay little, since 1 user is $15 a month
- Tight if you will need more than 5 or 15 users, because extra users on Enterprise cost $5 each
- Not for you if you need timesheet approval without paying $75 a month for Enterprise
- Watch out: cancel and the account's data is deleted, so export first, and payment is PayPal or Visa or MasterCard only
How we grade them
| 3.2GPAClockifyVery good | 2.2GPAZistemoFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BBasic is $3.99 a seat a month billed annually, $4.99 monthly, which puts it in the cheaper quarter for time trackers rather than out on its own. Pro, with scheduling, expenses and GPS, is $7.99. Don't hold out for a deal: Clockify says 20% off for annual billing is the only one. | C$15 a month for 1 user ($158 a year), or $45 for 5 users, which is $9 a head. That's in the dearer part of what time trackers charge, and a solo user pays the full $15. |
| Free plan and trial | BFree for up to 5 users with no cap on tracked time, and the timer, timesheet, calendar, auto tracker and Pomodoro timer are all in it. A single user can stay on it. The catch is reports: a 1-month range, and PDF export only. | C14-day trial, no card needed, and nothing after that. There's no free plan. |
| Features | BA timer, a weekly timesheet, a calendar and an auto tracker that logs the apps and sites you were in, then a kiosk, invoicing, time off, approvals, scheduling, expenses and GPS as you climb the plans. Nothing in the job is missing, and nothing here is unusual either. | CTime, attendance, absences, tasks and invoices in one place. Gap: timesheet approval and the employee planner are Enterprise only. |
| Ease of use | B4.6 from about 4,400 App Store ratings. Start a timer, or type your hours into a timesheet. There's not much more to it than that. | CNo store rating on record. It's a web app where you set up clients, projects and leave rules before it's useful. |
| Platforms and integrations | AWeb, Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, Android and a browser extension. It hooks into Jira, Asana, Trello, QuickBooks, Xero and Zapier, and there's a public API. | BWeb plus iOS and Android, with QuickBooks, Asana, Jira, HubSpot and Slack. No desktop app. |
| Best for | free time tracking for a small team | time tracking and invoicing for a small team |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Clockify and Zistemo. How we grade
Price against what you get
Clockify starts at $3.99 a month for each person and scores 3.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Zistemo starts at $15 a month and scores 2.3.
Clockify scores higher and starts $11.01 a month lower. Of the other time tracking apps on the chart, none scores higher than Clockify for less, and 38 score higher than Zistemo for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Clockify also covers Pomodoro timer.
- Zistemo also covers tasks, expense tracking, time clock and time off.
At a glance
| Clockify | Zistemo | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $3.99 per seat / month, billed annually | $15 per month for 1 user, billed monthly ($158 per year) |
| Free plan | Free for up to 5 users: unlimited tracking, timer, timesheet, calendar, auto tracker, Pomodoro timer and the apps. Reports cover a range of up to 1 month and export as PDF only. | None |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial of all PRO features, no credit card required | 14-day free trial, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | CAKE.com Inc. | DAYquiri GmbH |
| Price read from | clockify.me | zistemo.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Clockify
- The free plan stops at 5 users, limits reports to a 1-month range and exports as PDF only.
- Invoicing, time off and approvals need Standard; scheduling, expenses, budgets and GPS tracking need Pro.
- Single sign-on, SCIM and the audit log are limited to Enterprise at $11.99 per seat / month.
- Clockify states it offers no discounts beyond 20% off for annual billing, and no refunds.
Zistemo
- Plans include a fixed number of users: 1, 5 and 15. Additional users on Enterprise cost $5 a month each.
- Timesheet approval and the employee planner are listed only on the Enterprise plan.
- Cancelling an account permanently deletes its data, so export first.
- Payment is by PayPal or Visa or MasterCard cards, as stated on the pricing page.
Key features
Clockify
- Timer, timesheet and calendar
- Start and stop a timer, enter hours by hand, fill in a weekly timesheet or block out time on a calendar that shows Outlook and Google Calendar events.
- Auto tracker
- Records the time you spend in apps, websites and documents on a timeline that only you can see, and lets you turn those records into time entries.
- Reports and rates
- Summary, detailed and weekly reports break down tracked time. Billable rates start on Basic, and labor cost and profit reports need Pro.
- Kiosk
- From Basic, staff can clock in with a PIN on a shared device. QR code sign-in is on Standard and photo capture on Pro. Kiosk-only seats start at $0.79 a month, billed annually.
- Invoicing, time off and approvals
- Standard adds invoices built from tracked time and expenses, time-off policies and balances, and manager approval and locking of timesheets.
- Scheduling and location
- Pro adds a scheduling timeline for assignments and capacity, project forecasting, expense recording and optional GPS tracking of visited job sites.
Zistemo
- Project time tracking
- Time tracker on the mobile app, plus monthly or weekly timesheets on the web app, with reminders and planned-versus-actual comparisons.
- Attendance time
- Clock-ins, breaks and overtime with automatic flextime balances, escalation rules and detailed time reports.
- Absence management
- Several leave types, bank holidays handled automatically, time-off requests and a department calendar.
- Invoices and estimates
- An invoice wizard turns tracked time into invoices, and web-based offers cover estimates. Clients can pay by PayPal or credit card.
- Tasks and planning
- Tasks with tags, attachments, checklists and dependencies, plus an employee planner and skill-based resource planning on Enterprise.
- Swiss data hosting
- The vendor says data is stored in a Swiss data center with automatic backups; trial data is kept 60 days after the trial ends.
Plans
Clockify
Free$0
Up to 5 users. Unlimited tracking, timer, timesheet, calendar, auto tracker, Pomodoro timer, team activity and reports.
Basic$3.99
per seat / month, billed annually ($4.99 billed monthly)
Adds billable rates, adding time for others, required fields, bulk edit, kiosk, time audit, project templates and customized exports.
Standard$5.49
per seat / month, billed annually ($6.99 billed monthly)
Adds time off, invoicing, timesheet approval and locking, attendance and overtime, the manager role, rounding and the QuickBooks integration.
Pro$7.99
per seat / month, billed annually ($9.99 billed monthly)
Adds scheduling, forecasting, expenses, labor cost and profit, budgets, custom fields, GPS tracking, activity monitoring and a choice of data region.
Enterprise$11.99
per seat / month, billed annually ($14.99 billed monthly)
Adds single sign-on, SCIM provisioning, a custom subdomain, account control and an audit log.
CAKE.com Bundle$12.99
per seat / month, billed annually ($15.99 billed monthly)
Enterprise Clockify together with the Pumble team chat and Plaky project management tools. Excludes Clockify data regions.
Zistemo
Starter$15
per month for 1 user, billed monthly ($158 billed yearly)
Unlimited invoices, estimates, clients, projects and expenses, time tracking by project, late payment reminders and 1 GB storage.
Pro$45
per month for up to 5 users, billed monthly ($475 billed yearly)
Starter extended to 5 users, with team timesheets, a live tracker, reminders, billable team rates and access levels. 2 GB storage.
Enterprise$75
per month for up to 15 users, billed monthly ($790 billed yearly)
Pro plus timesheet approval, team performance overview, an employee planner, skill-based resource planning and an own SQL database copy.
Ways to pay less
Clockify
- Annual discount
20% off with annual billing
Clockify's pricing page states 20% off all plans when a seat is prepaid for the year: Basic is $3.99 per seat a month annually against $4.99 monthly.
Zistemo
- Annual discount
Yearly billing costs less than 12 months
The pricing page has a Yearly toggle: for example $158 a year for Starter against $15 a month, and $475 against $45 for Pro.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Clockify or Zistemo?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Clockify starts at $3.99 per seat / month, billed annually, and Zistemo starts at $15 per month for 1 user, billed monthly ($158 per year). One is priced for each person and the other is not, so which costs less depends on how many of you use it.
Which has a free plan, Clockify or Zistemo?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Clockify has a free plan. Zistemo does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Clockify and Zistemo run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Clockify lists macOS, Windows and Linux apps and a browser extension. Both list a web app and iOS and Android apps. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.