How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Toggl Track and Clockify time work for billing and reports, both free for individuals.
- TickTick pairs tasks with a Pomodoro timer, free, with Premium at about $35.99 a year.
- Forest turns focus sessions into trees you lose by leaving early, a one time purchase.
- Time Timer shows time as a shrinking red disc, the visual standard for kids and classrooms.
- Seconds builds multi stage interval timers for training, free to start.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Toggl Track | Timing billable work simply | Free | Yes |
 Clockify | Free team time tracking | Free | Yes |
 TickTick | Tasks plus a focus timer | Free | Yes |
 Forest | Staying off your phone while it counts | See website | No |
 Time Timer | Visual time for kids and focus | See website | No |
 Be Focused | The classic Pomodoro cycle | Free | Yes |
 Seconds | Interval timers for training | Free | Yes |
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The best timer apps in 2026
#1Toggl Track
Best for: Timing billable work simply4.6/5 on
G2 (1,589 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit toggl.com
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Toggl Track answers the freelancer's question: where did my hours actually go. One button starts the clock on a client or project, one stops it, and the week's truth assembles itself into reports that make invoicing a five minute job instead of an archaeology project. Its free tier is honestly sufficient for solo workers, which is why it became the default name in this space.
Its discipline is honesty about what it is. Toggl will not run your study sessions, your intervals or your pasta. It is a work recorder with a timer's face. If your need is a record, of billable time, of a team's allocation, of your own attention across projects, it is the best in this guide and the free version will carry most readers for years.
What we like- One tap start and stop timing that syncs across phone, desktop and web, free for individuals and small teams at the level most people need, reports turn timed hours into invoices and evidence of where the week went, reminders catch the timer you forgot to start, and the forgotten running timer gets flagged too, the friendliest design in time tracking, a category not famous for charm
Watch out for- It tracks work time, so it is the wrong tool for a kitchen countdown or a gym interval, paid tiers arrive when teams need billable rates, permissions and audits, a running timer you forget overnight will greet you with a 14 hour entry to fix, no Pomodoro structure built in
- Focus users should look below
#2Clockify
Best for: Free team time tracking4.5/5 on
G2 (204 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit clockify.me
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Clockify's proposition is Toggl's, priced for teams: track everyone's time, forever, free, and sell the management extras later. For a small agency or a growing business, that arithmetic is decisive; per seat pricing punishes exactly the headcount a young company is proud of. Its timer is as simple as the job requires and its reports answer the payroll and client questions that justify tracking at all.
Choose between the top two on shape, not features. Toggl feels lighter for the individual; Clockify scales to the team without a bill arriving per person. Both export your data, both run everywhere, and both beat the spreadsheet timer they replace by the second week.
What we like- A genuinely free time tracker for unlimited users, the offer that made its name against per seat rivals, timer, timesheet and calendar views cover how different people prefer to log, reports and project tracking are included free at a level others charge for, paid tiers add scheduling, invoicing and GPS for field teams when a business grows into them
Watch out for- The free generosity means the interface carries more business machinery than a solo user needs, it is a tracker, not a focus or interval timer, mobile app polish trails Toggl slightly in most comparisons, advanced features are spread across several paid tiers to decode
#3TickTick
Best for: Tasks plus a focus timer4.5/5 on
G2 (113 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit ticktick.com
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
TickTick's insight is that a focus timer floating free of your tasks is only half useful. Its Pomodoro starts from the task itself: this essay, twenty five minutes, counted, logged, and added to the day's honest total. Students and knowledge workers who live in their to do list get a focus system without adopting a second app, and the statistics quietly show which tasks eat the hours they were allotted.
At free it is a fine timer with tasks attached; Premium, around $35.99 a year, turns it into a complete personal system with calendar integration and habits. If you already love your task app, this is redundant. If you have never found one, TickTick's combination is the strongest single download in this guide.
What we like- A full task manager with a built in Pomodoro timer, so focus sessions attach to the actual task they serve, free tier covers tasks and basic pomo timing, with Premium at about $35.99 a year adding calendars and habits, white noise and statistics make the focus mode a small system, not just a countdown, habit tracking beside the timer suits study and routine building
Watch out for- The timer is one feature in a large app, so pure timer seekers carry extra furniture, advanced pomo statistics sit behind Premium, its focus tools are gentler than Forest's phone blocking approach, if your problem is willpower alone, some users find two apps, tasks elsewhere, simpler than one that does everything
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Forest is the timer as a conscience. Set twenty five minutes, plant the seed, and understand that checking a social feed will kill the tree on your screen. It sounds like a gimmick until the first time you put the phone down to spare a cartoon pine. Multiply that moment by a study term and Forest has carried more students through exams than many serious systems.
Its honesty is its limit: it guards one device with a metaphor, nothing more. Paired with a task list that knows what the session is for, TickTick's territory, it completes the focus stack for phone addicted workers. The one time store price is the other pleasure here; focus, bought outright, in a subscription world.
What we like- Focus sessions grow a virtual tree that withers if you leave the app, a small, surprisingly powerful guilt engine, sessions plant a garden over weeks, making your focus history visible and oddly precious, the makers partner to plant real trees from user activity, a wholesome bonus, a one time purchase in the app stores rather than another subscription
Watch out for- Its price sits in the app stores and varies, so check the live figure, it defends focus on the phone itself
- Laptop distractions are outside its fence, determined users can whitelist their way out of any session, the tree mechanic delights most and irritates a minority intensely
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Time Timer exists because numbers lie to some brains. "Ten minutes left" is abstract; a red wedge visibly shrinking is a fact a young child, a person with ADHD or a speaker watching a session clock can act on. Teachers built its reputation in classrooms over decades, and the app carries the same disc onto the phone and tablet your family already owns.
Buy it for the person who needs time made visible, and it is worth every cent of its modest store price. Everyone else is served free above. Its presence here is a reminder that the best timer is the one its user can read at a glance, and for a significant minority of users, that reader is a disc, not digits.
What we like- Time shown as a red disc that disappears, so a child or a neurodivergent user sees time passing without reading numbers, the app version of the classroom standard used by teachers and therapists for decades, no sound required
- The visual countdown works silently in meetings and study halls, simple enough for a five year old to set and read unaided
Watch out for- One job, done perfectly, with none of the logging or interval features around it, the app is a paid download priced in the app stores, families comparing free timers should know the physical clocks are its main business, its calm design offers no gamification to compete for an older child's attention
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Be Focused is the purist's Pomodoro: name the task, set the target intervals, and let the cycle, work, break, work, break, long break, carry the day. It has served Apple users for years precisely because it refuses to become a project manager, a social network or a subscription with a timer attached. What you see is the technique, kept.
Its free tier settles whether Pomodoro suits your brain, which is a real question; some people bloom inside 25 minute boxes and others suffocate. A week of Be Focused answers it for nothing. If the method clicks, its Pro upgrade and a paper notebook will outperform most productivity systems sold at a hundred times the price.
What we like- The Pomodoro technique done properly: work intervals, breaks, targets per task, on a clean Apple focused design, free with ads or a one time style Pro upgrade, depending on platform listing, tracks completed intervals per task, so your day shows its focused total honestly, customizable interval lengths for people whose work bends the classic 25 minutes
Watch out for- Apple ecosystem centred
- Android users should take TickTick instead, it times focus sessions but does not block the distractions competing with them, free version advertising sits inside a focus tool, an irony Pro removes, statistics are lighter than the work trackers for anyone billing the pomodoros
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Seconds is the interval specialist. Training time is not one countdown but a scored sequence, and Seconds lets you compose it once, name every segment, assign sounds and spoken names, then run it forever. Coaches programme a whole class from it; solo lifters run their rest periods and EMOM clocks from it; physiotherapists time exercise and rest for rehab patients with it.
If your timing need wears gym clothes, nothing above this entry competes, and the free version proves it on your next session. The Pro upgrade is the rare in app purchase regulars describe as obviously worth it, because a saved library of your exact workouts is personal equipment by then, like your own belt or shoes.
What we like- Builds complex interval sequences: warm up, work, rest, rounds, each named and announced aloud, the standard for circuit training, Tabata, EMOM and boxing rounds among gym timers, free version covers building and running timers, with Pro adding unlimited saved timers and sharing, spoken cues and big displays work across a gym, not just across a desk
Watch out for- Training only: it will not bill a client or grow you a tree, the free tier limits how many custom timers you can save, interface density reflects its power
- A simple countdown seeker should stay with the phone's clock, its best features assume a phone propped where you can hear it over gym noise
How we chose
Timer apps were sorted by the second job they do beyond counting: recording work, structuring focus, visualizing time or sequencing intervals. A timer that only counts was excluded, because the clock built into every phone already does that free and well. We favoured free tiers a person can live in, stated where prices sit in app stores rather than inventing figures, and covered the main use families so a reader can match the app to the job in one pass.
Match the timer to the job
Ask what happens when the timer ends. If a report should exist, you need Toggl or Clockify. If you should have stayed off your phone, Forest or TickTick. If a child should feel the time, Time Timer. If the next interval should begin, Seconds. If the answer is merely a sound, close this article and use the clock you own; the best timer app for a boiled egg was installed at the factory.
Then give the chosen app a fair week in the real job. Timers become habits or home screen archaeology within days, and the signal is unmistakable: you either reach for it without thinking by Friday, or you do not. Everything in this guide is free enough to run that experiment honestly.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free timer app?
For work, Toggl Track or Clockify, both free at individual scale. For focus, TickTick's free tier or Be Focused on Apple devices. For intervals, Seconds' free version. The built in phone clock remains the best free single countdown.
How does a Pomodoro timer actually help?
It converts an amorphous afternoon into a contract: twenty five minutes on one task, then a break you have earned. The technique's value is the start line and the finish line, not the number. Apps like Be Focused and TickTick add the target setting and the honest log that make the contract stick.
Can a timer app really stop me using my phone?
Only by raising the price of distraction. Forest's withering tree works because people dislike breaking a visible streak of effort, not because it can lock a determined adult out. Pair it with the phone's own focus modes for the strongest fence, and keep the phone in another room for the deepest work.
What timer do teachers use for children?
The Time Timer, in physical form on classroom walls and as the app here. Its disappearing red disc lets young children and neurodivergent learners see time rather than decode it, and it works silently, which is why schools standardized on it.
Do I need a separate timer for workouts?
If your training has rounds, rests or intervals, yes: Seconds or a similar interval timer announces each segment so you never watch a clock mid set. A plain countdown forces you to rebuild the sequence manually every session, which is friction exactly where motivation is thinnest.
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Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.