Toggl vs WakaTime

Toggl

• Agencies and consultancies that bill clients by the hour
• Teams that want time tracking and capacity planning in one tool
• Freelancers and teams of up to 3 who can stay on the free plan
• Employers who want time data without screenshots or keystroke logging

WakaTime

• Developers who want coding time logged automatically by project and language
• Engineering teams measuring adoption and cost of AI coding tools
• Freelance developers who bill from time spent in the editor

Toggl

• The free plan stops at 3 users, and billable rates and team-level reports start on Starter.
• Timesheet approvals, profitability reports, the Jira and Asana integrations and SSO need Premium.
• Monthly billing costs more: $12 instead of $9 per user on Starter and $24 instead of $16 on Premium.
• Desktop apps are listed for Windows and macOS; none is listed for Linux.

WakaTime

• The free dashboard shows only the last week of history; the complete history needs Premium.
• Tracking depends on editor plugins, browser extensions or the desktop app, so it centers on computer work.
• The Team plan covers up to 100 developers; larger organizations are pointed to Business.
• SSO, OIDC and SCIM provisioning are limited to the Business plan.

Toggl

Timers and manual entries

Start a timer, log hours afterwards or fill in a week at a time. Idle detection prompts you when the timer is running but the device has gone quiet.

Automated tracking

Toggl can record which apps and sites you used and lay them out on a private timeline. You decide which of them become time entries.

Focus mode and Pomodoro

Timed work sprints with a Pomodoro timer, plus reminders when logged time is under or over a threshold you set.

Billing and profitability

Billable rates by workspace, member or project start on Starter. Premium adds labor costs, fixed fee projects and reports on revenue, cost and margin.

Capacity and project planning

Tasks sit on boards, lists, timelines and calendars with estimates against tracked time. Utilization and workload reports account for time off and working hours.

Toggl AI

Ask in plain language about hours logged or projects over estimate, or have it log time and create tasks. An MCP server and CLI connect Toggl to Claude, Cursor or Codex.

WakaTime

Automatic coding time

Editor plugins send heartbeat events while you work, so time is logged by project, language and file with no timer to start. File contents stay on your computer; file paths are sent.

Plugins for 100+ editors

Open source plugins cover VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Vim, Neovim, Xcode and more, with browser extensions and a desktop app that tracks time in any other app.

AI coding insights

Premium and team plans report AI adoption, per-model usage and estimated spend, and compare AI-generated with human-written code across tools such as Claude Code, Cursor and Copilot.

Goals and leaderboards

Set programming goals (1 on Free, 3 on Basic, unlimited on Premium) and compare coding time on the public leaderboard or on private ones.

Reports and history

Coding reports arrive weekly on Free and daily from Basic. Premium opens the complete history, export of stats and invoices generated from code stats.

Team dashboards

Team and Business plans add shared dashboards, commit and pull request insights and exportable team reports. Only developers shown on dashboards need a paid seat.

Toggl

• Free$0

  Up to 3 users. Timers, focus mode, calendar integrations, tasks and boards with estimates, and personal-level insights.

• Starter$9

  per user / month, billed annually ($12 billed monthly)

  Billable rates, team-level productivity and revenue reports, timeline views, milestones, and capacity basics such as PTO and public holidays.

• Premium$16

  per user / month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly)

  Labor cost and profitability reports, fixed fee projects, project dashboards, timesheet approvals, Jira and Asana integrations, and SSO.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Everything in Premium plus personalized onboarding, a dedicated customer success manager, custom roles and custom solutions.

WakaTime

• Free$0

  1 week of dashboard history, unlimited projects, shareable project charts, weekly coding reports and 1 programming goal.

• Basic$8.25

  per month, billed yearly ($99); $9 billed monthly

  2 weeks of dashboard history, daily and weekly coding reports, basic integrations, 3 goals and private leaderboards for 5 devs.

• Premium$12.83

  per month, billed yearly ($153.96); $14 billed monthly

  Complete coding history, AI adoption and spend insights, unlimited goals, premium integrations, stats export and invoices from code stats.

• Team$19.25

  per dev / month, billed yearly ($231); $21 billed monthly

  Up to 100 developers. Team dashboards, team-wide AI adoption and estimated spend, commit and pull request insights, and exportable reports.

• Business$22

  per dev / month, billed yearly ($264); $24 billed monthly

  For 100 to 1,000 developers. Adds SSO, OIDC and SCIM provisioning, guided onboarding, custom integrations and priority support.

Toggl

• Annual discount

  Up to 33.3% off with annual billing

  The pricing page labels annual billing "Save 33.3%" and "4 months free". Premium is $16 per user a month annually against $24 monthly; Starter is $9 against $12, a 25% saving.

WakaTime

• Annual discount

  About 8% off with yearly billing

  Yearly plans are billed at 11 times the monthly price: Basic is $99 a year ($8.25 a month) against $9 monthly, and Premium is $153.96 a year against $14 monthly.

• Education

  Student discount available

  The pricing FAQ says a student discount is available. The page with its terms requires signing in, so the amount is not recorded here.