u/EffectiveLet2117

I've been freelancing for three years and I'm so tired of the "charge per project not per hour" advice. Yeah cool in theory but half my clients want to see time breakdowns anyway, and scope creep is real.

If I quote flat rate and the project balloons I either eat the loss or have an awkward conversation.

I built a tool mostly because I was fed up switching between Toggl, my CRM, and invoicing software. The floating timer that stays on top while I work in other apps was a game changer for me.

Now I actually remember to stop timers and my invoices pull straight from logged hours.

Am I the only one who thinks hourly is still the most honest way to bill for certain types of work? Or am I just not confident enough to go full value-based pricing?

I used to obsess over tracking every minute like it made me more professional.

Clients don't care that I logged 2.3 hours on Tuesday.

They care that the work got done and the invoice makes sense.

The only time tracking that matters is what directly turns into money,either proving value to clients or catching scope creep before it kills your margin.

Everything else is just performative busy work.

I built Tympi because I got tired of tools that felt like middle management software.
Now I track what matters, auto-stop reminders keep me honest, and invoices generate straight from logs without the ceremony.

That's it.

Anyone else feel like most productivity tools are built for people who manage others, not people who actually do the work?

I've been freelancing for 7 years now. For the longest time, I charged clients per output, a fixed rate based on gut feel and rough estimates. It worked… until I started questioning whether those numbers actually justify the real effort and time needed to finish the tasks.

So I started to track everything, not to bill hourly, but to back up the fixed rate that I quote. If I'm saying a blog post costs $50, I want to know how long it takes, how much research and editing happens, and where time goes.

If you're in the same situation and looking for a free time tracking software to use, here are the five I tested, so you don't have to:

Toggl Track

What I Like:

• Interface is beautiful and intuitive
• Calendar view is handy for visualizing time blocks
• Manual edits are easy if you forget to start a timer
• Integrates with pretty much everything

What I Don't Like:

• Limited reporting on free plan
• Some minor bugs
• Starts getting pricey if you want more features

Toggl feels great to use. But once I needed more insights or reporting, I hit the paywall. $9/month just for insights and billable rates felt hard to justify. Also ran into a few bugs on mobile.

Clockify

What I Like:

• Very generous free plan
• Easy to break down tasks within projects
• Includes pomodoro mode
• Great integrations

What I Don't Like:

• Mobile app was buggy
• Syncing took longer than expected
• UI is functional, but not smooth

Reliable and flexible, but the mobile experience gave me a headache. A solid fallback if you work mostly on desktop.

My Hours

What I Like:

• Unlimited client tasks on the free plan
• Good for tracking billable vs non-billable work
• Project notes, rates, and export reports included

What I Don't Like:

• UI feels outdated
• Setup was frustrating
• Reports weren't as clean or visual as others

Feels the most "freelancer-oriented" in theory, but not always in execution. If you're patient with structure and don't care about aesthetics, it'll serve you well.

Tympi

What I Like:

• Free plan covers everything I actually needed
• Fast to set up, I was tracking within minutes
• Project and task breakdowns are simple but effective
• Reports are clean and easy to export
• Smooth across devices

What I Don't Like:

• Newer tool, so fewer integrations than the big names
• Smaller community, less third-party content if you get stuck

I stumbled across Tympi late into my testing and honestly wish I'd found it sooner. It's not as well-known as the others, but for solo freelancers who just want straightforward tracking without hitting a paywall every five minutes, it quietly does the job better than most. Nothing flashy, it just works.

Harvest

What I Like:

• Built-in invoicing
• Budget tracking per project
• Timer reminders
• Simple layout

What I Don't Like:

• Sync between desktop and mobile felt clunky
• Lacks modern features like GPS or automation
• Feels like it hasn't evolved in years

Like that reliable tool from 2015 that still works but hasn't kept up. Great for basics, but I wanted more flexibility and a better multi-device experience.

TL;DR

Started tracking time to back up my fixed-rate quotes, tested five free tools, and each one had trade-offs. The one that ended up sticking for me was actually the least hyped. All happy to share more on what worked and what didn't for my workflow.

Hope this helps! If you've come across any newer tools doing something interesting, I'd love to hear, always looking for something better.

I've been freelancing for a few years and got so sick of the plugin maze. Toggl for time, Stripe for invoices, some janky CRM, proposals in Google Docs. Every tool wanted $15/month and none of them talked to each other.

So I built Tympi - one app that does time tracking, invoicing, proposals, client management, all of it. No integrations to set up, no Zapier hacks. Just log your hours and generate an invoice from those exact logs. Done.

Honestly started as a personal tool because I kept forgetting to stop timers and billing clients wrong. Added a floating timer that sits on top of other apps and auto-warns you if something's been running too long.

I've been nomading for 3 years and every time tracker feels like it was designed by someone who's never actually billed clients. They're either too simple (just a basic timer) or way too complex with features I'll never use.

What kills me is having to use 4 different tools just to run my business. Timer for tracking, separate invoicing software, another tool for proposals, and something else for client communication.

Then I spend half my time copying data between them all.

I got so fed up I actually built my own solution called Tympi that does everything in one place.

But seriously, why is this so hard to find? Are other freelancers just accepting this fragmented workflow or am I missing something obvious?

Being self employed is already chaotic, so I’ve tried a few tools like Clockify, Toggl, and Harvest trying to keep my brain intact.

Clockify felt too basic. Toggl was clean but incomplete. Harvest was decent but felt too corporate for how I work.

Tried Tympi recently and it’s honestly the first one that feels made for solo freelancers.

Simple timer, automatic invoices, project tracking, and it stops me from accidentally tracking 7 hours while eating cereal 💀

Curious what everyone else is using right now because I know I can’t be the only one tired of juggling 5 apps just to run a business.

Every time I got a new lead it turned into chaos.

First I’m scrambling to add them to my CRM before I forget their info.

Then I’m rushing to Microsoft Word to build a proposal while the lead is still hot.

Export PDF.

Attach to email.

Write the message with ChatGPT,

then finally send it.

Then a few days later I realize I completely forgot to follow up.

I got tired of bouncing between 5 different tools just to close one client.

So I built Tympi.

Now I can add a contact, create a branded proposal, send it professionally, save everything, and set follow ups all in one place in under 60 seconds.

Oh and it’s free 😊

It started as a tool for myself because freelancing shouldn’t feel like administrative survival mode.

How many tools are you using for just these steps?

Every tool promises to “streamline your workflow,” but somehow I still end up spending Friday nights piecing together invoices from random timers, notes, and client messages.

The weird part is the software already has all the information.

It knows:
what project I worked on
how many hours I logged
what the client rate is
whether the work is done

But instead of finishing the process, it hands everything back to me like, “good luck.”

That’s why I’ve started caring less about features and more about workflow continuity.

The best tools are the ones where tracking time naturally turns into billing, updates, and client visibility without opening six tabs or rebuilding the same invoice every week.

Freelancers don’t really need more dashboards.

We need less admin work pretending to be productivity.

No joke.
Had a solid call.
Client sounded excited.

Said they’d review the proposal that night.
Then I got busy.

A few days turned into a week.
I forgot to follow up.

By the time I finally reached back out, they already hired someone else.

That pissed me off enough that while building Tympi, I added something that’s probably annoying on purpose:
You literally cannot save a lead unless you set a follow up date first.

No date = no save.

Then Tympi emails you the morning the follow up is due so you can’t pretend you “forgot.”
Because honestly, I think most freelancers lose clients from disorganization more than competition.

Would mandatory follow ups make you more productive or just annoy the hell out of you?

I tried Notion and it just got messy once things piled up.

Tried Voice Ninja too, but I’d forget to log stuff and it didn’t really connect to anything… so I still had to piece everything together later.

Lately trying Tympi and it’s been a bit simpler,

Mostly because tracking time and turning it into an invoice happens in the same place,

so I’m not rebuilding my work at the end of the week.

What are you using that actually holds up?

I just want to track my hours, but tools like Toggl, Clockify, Harvest, even Time Doctor turn it into dashboards, reports, and features I’ll never touch.

Most of them feel built for teams and managers, not freelancers. I don’t need productivity scores. I just want to see what I worked on, how long it took, and send an invoice.

Been trying Tympi lately and it feels way simpler. It sticks to clients and projects without all the extra noise.

Curious what others prefer. More features or just simple and done?