Clockify
Replaceable in one session with an AI coding agent.
Time tracking for teams. People start a timer or fill a timesheet against a project and a task, and the reports turn those hours into billable amounts, client invoices and a picture of where the week actually went.
Build me a small-team time tracker where a submitted week cannot be quietly changed. STACK - Astro with a Node adapter, SQLite via better-sqlite3 - Server-rendered HTML, no frontend framework THE MODEL - Users, clients, projects and time entries - An entry has start, stop, description, a billable flag and the project rate that applied THE TIMESHEET - A weekly grid per user, a cell holding the total for a project on a day, editable inline - The underlying entries visible on click, never hidden behind the total APPROVALS, WHICH IS THE WHOLE POINT - Submitting a week makes it read-only - An approver accepts or returns it with a note - Every transition appended to an approvals log with actor and UTC timestamp — never an in-place status flip BUDGETS - Per project, in hours or money, with a progress bar and a warning threshold REPORTS - By client, project and person, with billable and non-billable split - CSV export and a printable invoice summary ACCESS - A member sees only their own entries; an admin sees everything Include a seed script with a fortnight of plausible data, so the reports can be judged before real hours exist.
What you lose
- A free tier that already covers unlimited tracking for a small team, which makes the build hard to justify
- Apps for every platform, plus a browser extension and a kiosk mode
- Approval workflows and locked timesheets that a payroll process can rely on
- Attendance, time-off and scheduling features that surround the timer
- Somebody else's uptime on the system your invoicing depends on
If you would rather not build
- Toggl Track — the same category, priced per seat
- Harvest — heavier, invoicing-first alternative
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
Kimai
$0Time tracking with projects, rates, invoices and exports; runs on ordinary PHP hosting.
kimai/kimaifree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
86/100
Verdict yes at 86: the highest score in this batch after Carrd. Timers and timesheets are simple, and the approval log is the only interesting part. The honest caveat is that Clockify's free tier already does most of this.
History
tracked since 6 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Questions about Clockify
answered from the record above
Is Clockify free?
No — the plan we track is $4.99 a month. Basic, $4.99 per user per month on monthly billing ($3.99 billed annually). A free tier exists and covers a lot.
Can you replace Clockify by building your own?
YES. Replaceable in one session with an AI coding agent. Replacement score 86 out of 100, build time one session. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Clockify cost?
$4.99 a month on Basic — $59.88 a year. Recorded 6 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Clockify?
A free tier that already covers unlimited tracking for a small team, which makes the build hard to justify; Apps for every platform, plus a browser extension and a kiosk mode; Approval workflows and locked timesheets that a payroll process can rely on; Attendance, time-off and scheduling features that surround the timer; Somebody else's uptime on the system your invoicing depends on. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Clockify?
Yes: Kimai. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
Related entries
same category first, most replaced first
Invoice Generatorinvoice-generator.com⏱️ Time tracking & invoicing
HourStack
Kimai
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