When searching for the best time-tracking software, it is important to not only consider what it offers and how much it costs but also look at the features that set it apart from others. We all know that not all time trackers are created equal. Therefore, it’s important to stack up and determine which among the contenders is worthy enough to be given a try.
We must not forget to consider our personal feelings. What you ultimately choose may either increase your team’s productivity or not – either way, it will change you whether you like it or not.
Time Doctor is one of the most popular apps in today’s productivity market. It has both teams and single users in a stupor for its task- and time-monitoring capabilities. Is it the same app that has captivated us? This comprehensive review will help you find out.
For those of you who prefer a more visual experience, here is a video review from Frank on his YouTube channel Franklin Rivera. To get a comprehensive overview of Time Doctor, you may still want to check out our article below.
A Closer Look at Time Doctor Free Time Doctor
Time Doctor is a time tracking and project-monitoring tool that’s best suited to small and large businesses, freelancers, remote teams, and freelance workers. The tool’s range of features and tools is designed to assist teammates and individuals in improving their productivity by 22% on average.
Time Doctor was launched in 2012, a little over a decade ago. It has gradually gained a large audience and is now a well-known time management tool for companies, no matter how established or new to the field. The client portal feature has made it a favorite among freelancers, who frequently work for multiple clients.
Time Doctor has amassed a user base of over 250,000 businesses throughout its history. Apple, Ericsson and the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Verizon and Boost Media are just a few of the many companies that have used Time Doctor for employee and time management issues.
Some of the features Time Doctor has been renowned for are its robust time and activity tracking functions and advanced capabilities, such as setting reminders for when to start and stop the timer. These features alone may be enough for the platform to position itself way ahead of other time management apps. However, it is unable to do so because of its lack of consistency in user useability.
Despite this, we believe that Time Doctor has the potential to be a wonderful addition to any individual or team looking to expand their productivity levels. Keep reading to know more about what else this one-of-a-kind platform has to offer and how well each of them works! Free Time Doctor
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The pros
- Time Doctor is best recognized for its excellent, easy-to-use time and activity management tools and functions.
- It includes standout features such as pinpoint-accurate reporting, idle alerts, and automatic reminders.
- Its accessible and comprehensive client portal makes freelancer-client interactions a convenient experience.
- It offers a smooth and sizable list of integrations with third-party platforms.
The Cons
- Its messy user interface makes navigating through the platform quite different for most users, especially first-timers. Free Time Doctor
- Its mobile apps are not as flexible as its web and desktop counterparts, despite their potential.
- It does not allow for smooth switching between web-based client apps and desktop apps, particularly if you are both the administrator or the user.
- Only the web extension or desktop app can access the time tracking function.
Plans and Pricing
Let’s first discuss the plans and their cost. Time Doctor currently offers three paid subscription tiers, each with a distinctive set of features and tools that become more advanced and packed as the cost increases.
The pricing will also increase according to the number of users added to one team. Let’s take a look at the three plans available on the Time Doctor platform.
- Basic – $70/user per year or $7/user per month
The Basic tier of Time Doctor includes access to core platform features such as task and project management and time and activity tracking. It also allows unlimited screenshots. You can only access them if the web extension or desktop application is downloaded. You can only store one month of data.
- Standard – $100/user annually or $10/user monthly
Standard plans allow you to access advanced features such as tracking your team’s apps and URLs, the payroll tool, reporting and 60 additional integrations with third-party applications. The Standard plan also has a new time limit for its customer support hotline, which is now limited to three days instead of 24 hours.
- Premium – $200/user annually or $20/user monthly Free Time Doctor
The Premium tier is the most complete yet out of the three. Those subscribed to it are given access to all of what Time Doctor has to offer – on top of the core tools, they can also explore the client portal, take video screen recordings, and receive VIP-style support.
Paying annually will get a complimentary charge for the first 2 months. Time Doctor doesn’t offer a free plan. However, each of the three plans offers a limited 14 day trial that allows you to try it out and decide if it is the right tool for you.
> > Click Here to Try Time Doctor Now < <
The User Interface
Despite being filled to the brim with robust time and activity management tools, Time Doctor may be highly notorious for its clunky and poorly-designed take on the user interface and experience. In most cases, going through the platform can be such a hassle – it’s even much harder if you explore its dashboard and features for the first time.
Many users of Time Doctor, for instance, have had difficulty accessing the various functions. Many users have complained about the inability to centralize their data within the app, which would have saved them a lot of time. Users can access the time tracking feature via the web extension or desktop app. The website version only has project management, reporting, as well as other admin features. This is why switching between the portals is easier – it’s not possible to do this with other time management platforms.
Another obstacle Time Doctor users need help with is the general look and design. Save for the desktop app, and the website-based dashboard sure does lack a few key intuitive features which would have made for a more convenient user experience. The diversity of data graphs needed for reporting is also a must. Sure, the bar graphs are awesome, but what about the circles graphs? Pie graphs, as well? Line graphs, perhaps?
Time Doctor’s interface and design are already a problem. We’ll be reviewing that in a moment! However, despite their combined lackluster appeal, they’re not strong enough to fully soil the experience of tracking work activity, which the platform was designed for in the first place. Some users aren’t bothered by the UI problems, while others adjust to it quickly. Free Time Doctor
There is still hope that Time Doctor’s UX and UI issues could be fixed in the near future. But for now, those new to the platform will have to go through a rather steep learning curve before getting used to its inner workings.
Time Doctor: Key Features
Now, let’s dive deeper into some of the features and tools you may want to explore if you log in to the Time Doctor platform.
Project and Data Management
Time Doctor’s project management capabilities allow individuals and administrators to create tasks and group them in a matter of seconds. Admins may also utilize this feature to assign their employees tasks to offload and maximize their teams’ productivity. Although you can set up standalone tasks, you may group them if you’d like into larger projects to keep things tidy and organized – a great idea for big companies whose stability relies on numerous departments beneath them.
Time Doctor knows that a clear workboard is a great way to get things done. Administrators can limit access to certain tasks and projects by limiting their visibility to a particular employee or group of employees in the organization. Do you want to check out who’s working on the task or project now? You may monitor their progress through the dashboard by checking how long they’ve been working, among other things.
Time Doctor is unlike other time management tools. Users can create permanent trackable tasks that they can easily edit, delete, or modify without the need to add one each day. Those who work around repetitive tasks will no longer need to face this burden every time – all they need to do is change them to permanent status! Free Time Doctor
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Alerts and Time Tracking
As already established, Time Doctor’s signature time-tracking tool can only be accessed through either its desktop application or Chrome web extension. Although it is not available through the web dashboard, its capabilities can be used independently. It’s quite straightforward – just add in the task you’re assigned to work on and click the timer’s start button to track your progress. It’s simple as that!
As the timer plays out throughout your task, all your actions and activity will be recorded in the background. They will then be logged and saved to the web dashboard, where admins may use this to check on their employees’ progress on the go. If you’re working solo, you may go through it in the same manner.
Time Doctor’s time tracking tool is unique in that it allows users to set up their own setup until they are happy enough to work. The software also has a reminders function that reminds you when it is time to start and stop work. Another is the “idle time” function, in which users can convert the duration in which they haven’t been working and reassign it to work hours.
If no sign of user activity is detected after a few moments, the timer will automatically bring it to a stop. If you ever spot something like this and you’ve gone to attend to other things beforehand, you may manually click the play button to resume tracking. Similarly, you may also pause it if you want to time out from work. If you need space to take a proper break and don’t want to resume or stop the timer on your own, Time Doctor lets you incorporate time intervals between your daily tasks.
While Time Doctor can track your progress and work hours online, did you know it could also do this offline? Time Doctor, like other time-monitoring apps like Hubstaff, can track your activities and record the hours spent on your task, even without an internet connection. Free Time Doctor
Monitoring Website and App Usage
It’s not just the amount of hours that Time Doctor is keen on monitoring, as it also applies to the other desktop apps you’ve visited, the websites you’ve explored, and even the keystrokes and mouse movements you’ve made as you work. The platform will immediately pause if it detects that your mouse cursor or keyboard is still stationary for longer than a set time and it will stay there until you do something.
It’s often difficult to determine if someone is productive until you know what they have been doing. It’s an easy relief to hear if they are focusing on their tasks. It’s not the same story if they have been procrastinating and going to other platforms to distract from what they should be doing. Time Doctor lets you check out which websites and applications your colleagues have used during work hours, as well as how long they’ve been looking at them.
Among Time Doctor’s set of robust monitoring capabilities, there is a feature in which admins can easily spot if their employees have either been wasting time or attending to a task by the website URL or application name and the status given to it. Admins or managers, specifically, may take this chance to set the productivity rating of each platform to any of the three ranks:
- Productive, if it serves a team/project’s purpose as a key driver to its tasks.
- If it serves no purpose and is therefore inefficient, it will be a time-waster
- Neutral, if it’s neither considered productive nor unproductive.
These three productivity statuses are assigned to any website or app and can be adjusted to be limited to one user, group/team, or company. The ability to track website activity and customize productivity statuses per user makes it highly convenient for teams who work in jobs requiring a strong focus on specific tasks, like content writing, for instance. For what it’s worth, Time Doctor may be lucky this time to have this crucial function included, unlike other time-tracking software. Free Time Doctor
Screen Recordings and Activity Screenshots
Remember when we told you about Time Doctor being able to record your tracked time and activity in the background while they’re posting the data to the web dashboard for admins to see? This is why it has built-in snapshot capabilities.
Administrators can specify a time period for screen capture across their project/team. It could be set to 10 minutes, 30 or even 30 minutes. They can also choose to allow access to any of their colleagues if they wish.
Each image is equipped with additional information on the level of keystroke and mouse cursor activity as a way to determine user productivity. Premium subscribers have unlimited access to screenshots. Those who subscribe to Time Doctor’s Standard and Basic plans have unlimited access to screen shots. However, premium users can record video screens. Instead of taking pictures of the computer monitor, the platform records three minutes’ worth of work activity in action.
There may be rare instances in which someone from a project/team may be at risk of a breach of privacy caused by serious circumstances. If this happens, they may be allowed to delete screenshots or screen recordings within the Time Doctor platform for their safety. This will likely lead to the deducting of the work hours on the recording date.
> > Click Here to Try Time Doctor Now < <
Productivity Reporting and Analysis
Time Doctor lets users view, edit and save pre-built reports. Each contains data and insights collected by the software during their tracked work hours, all presented in the form of decent visuals and summaries. Users can request reports to determine which time management and productivity practices are working well and which ones need to be improved.
You have so much to journey through with Time Doctor’s report collection. The Web and App Usage report lets you see how much time you have spent on websites and apps that are considered productive. The Poor Time Use report shows how long you have sat on sites that have been flagged inappropriate for work. However, issues have arisen, especially from multi-screen work set-ups where one could jam to their favorite playlist on one screen while they get to their task on another. Poor Time Use includes the ability to open pop-up windows to block certain websites. This means that if someone goes to YouTube, they will be immediately reminded if they wish to continue or return to their task.
The Timeline report displays all of your hours tracked in chronological order. It is divided into two colors: yellow for manual time recording and blue for automatic. The Project and Tasks report shows hours spent on tasks and/or projects. Finally, the Activity Summary allows you and your admin to view your total work hours and all percentages from all reports. Free Time Doctor
Time Doctor’s reporting tools are impressive, but some users don’t like the process of creating them. First, most reports are formatted in a clunky way, which can impact how they’re exported. Second, Time Doctor only offers XSL or CSV. Some may be okay with this, while others will not like the lack of options for export files diversity.
White-labeling and Client Access
Time Doctor is the one thing that solopreneurs and freelancers love the most. They can share their progress with clients even though they don’t have a Time Doctor account.
If your job is to take commissions from a wide variety of clientele, you may be glad to know that the platform’s remarkable Client Portal feature lets you do exactly that!
You simply send in the link to the portal to a client of yours, and once they gain access to its dashboard, they may be able to take a good look at how long and how far you’ve worked, the tasks you were able to finish beforehand, and even the library of recorded screenshots and reports. You have complete control over what your clients see through the Client Portal, which results in smooth, tasteful interactions.
If you own and manage a well-established business – and have enough money to pull it off – you may also take advantage of Time Doctor’s white-labeling feature by integrating its tools with your own branding.
Payroll
Planning to pay your employees based on how much they’ve dedicated their time to their respective tasks? You can do that within the Time Doctor platform through its built-in payroll feature. Turn on payroll deep in the settings of the web dashboard, and your team’s timeline will automatically be billed. Your teammates may be paid based on their hours worked or on a fixed rate.
Time Doctor’s payroll tool supports every form of currency in existence. As for payment methods, you may ask your employees to have their salary sent through PayPal, Payoneer, or TransferWise. If you’re working for a larger company, you may export all the payroll info into a CSV file for purposes of batch payments (multiple payments are sent all at once).
Integrations with Third-Party Services
Time Doctor currently houses a decent yet heavy range of integrations with various third-party platforms, focusing on business, work, and productivity. Time Doctor has over 60 integrations to make it simple for you and your team to manage their work together in one interconnected ecosystem.
Such includes connections with project management platforms like Asana and Trello, payment services like PayPal, work messaging apps like Slack, and CRM platforms like Salesforce. On top of all this, a public API tool is made available for integrations with other apps beyond the given list – you may utilize this if you or your teammate know a thing or two about coding.
The Time Doctor Mobile App
Time Doctor’s desktop program is available to download and install on Windows PCs, Mac OS devices, and Linux OS computers. The latest web extension, however, is only available on Google Chrome. However, the time-tracking software also offers its users unlimited access through their smartphones: Time Doctor currently offers not one but two mobile app versions, both of which you can download on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
You may be able track your work hours and progress no matter where you are. The classic version of the app allows you to view all tasks in a project and track your team’s location through GPS. This is on top of the basic tools for time tracking and the limited dashboard settings.
The latest version – Time Doctor 2 – has more or less the same functionalities as the previous iteration. Only two differences distinguish the two versions: 1) TD2 can only be used on Android devices and 2) you won’t have access to other features other than time tracking – a notable downgrade from TD Classic.
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How Safe and Secure is Time Doctor?
You may be questioning whether Time Doctor is worth using as a time management tool. You may also wonder if its surveillance tools could keep track of your actions, even as you pause your timer momentarily to catch a quick break. Although the aspect of a 1984-esque work scenario may seem intimidating, we’re glad to tell you that your activities as the timer stops will not be tracked and saved to Time Doctor’s cloud-based database. You’re safe because it’s not spyware-like.
We’d like to reiterate that your work activity may be tracked through screenshots and recordings, and we’d also like to add that there is a webcam shot feature that project managers may use to see their teammates right in front of their eyes…
Ok, that might be a concern for some admins, especially if they are concerned about their privacy. But don’t worry, admins can disable screengrabs and webcam shots depending on how they feel.
Time Doctor assures that your likeness and activity will not be forced-shared in vain. The same sentiment can also be applied to payment information entered into the platform by yourself or your colleagues. These will then be automatically deleted after a while for privacy reasons.
Time Doctor further takes up drastic security measures to ensure that every user’s account isn’t easily breached. This includes strong password policies and 2FA protection. All data stored within the platform is protected by strong SSL encryption with maximum security. Time Doctor is cloud-based so you can expect your data to be regularly backed up. In the case of a power or internet outage, you may have them recovered shortly, so your progress won’t be lost.
The Bottom Line: Should You Use Time Doctor?
Time Doctor is a time management tool that can be used by freelancers and professional teams. It offers both the simplicity of a task management system and the sophistication of an advanced time tracker. This creates a harmonious balance between them.
While its line-up of dynamic features has admittedly left us in awe, the experience would have been significantly better if it weren’t for the disorienting UI and UX, lack of functionality and cohesiveness in the mobile apps, and, to an extent, undersupply of report graphics options. These issues alone may have prevented other users and us from fully enjoying it. Still, others don’t mind anyway because it works exceptionally in what it was originally designed to do – track time.
We believe Time Doctor is able to hold its own, even though it doesn’t offer the same ease of use as other apps. Besides, every time management platform shines uniquely, right?
FAQ Free Time Doctor
How can I approach Time Doctor’s customer service team?
You can contact Time Doctor’s customer support hotline via e-mail, or live chat. There is currently no phone support option provided. However, if you have an important matter and the best and only thing you think to solve this is through talking over the phone, you may leave behind your contact details and preferred call time through any of the available outlets. You will be notified by the hotline and can reach them any time.
Where else can I look for tutorials and tips on how to use Time Doctor?
Though there are YouTube videos and how-to articles from independent creators that have already discussed it in full detail, Time Doctor does offer its users an alternative through its dedicated help center, where most of the information included comes from the team behind the platform themselves.
To apply for a Time Doctor paid plan, do I need credit card information?
No, you won’t need to use your credit card to sign up for a limited 14-day trial. You can only bring it up once you finish the period and wish to commit to purchasing a Time Doctor subscription if you like.
Does Time Doctor comply with HIPAA?
Yes. Time Doctor adheres to the standards and rules of the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Even though it can technically be used for a vast range of niches, industries, and professions, the platform can be a solid addition to healthcare teams.