Clockora — Staff Timesheet & Time Tracker (PHP + MySQL, Self-Hosted) vs. renting SaaS
Self-hosted staff timesheet — hours by project, exact totals, approvals. No invoicing.
The subscription math
Clockora — Staff Timesheet & Time Tracker (PHP + MySQL, Self-Hosted) — yours
$69.00
one-time · self-hosted · your data, your server
Buy once
TimeCamp — rented
Starter $3.99 per user/month billed annually, $5.49 month-to-month; Premium $6.99 annually, $9.99 monthly; Ultimate $9.99 annually, $13.99 monthly; a free tier exists. The AI tracker adds usage on top — the page estimates "about $6 per user/month" of tokens [1]
Break-even: 6 months
of TimeCamp equals the one-time price.
Assumption: The entry paid tier on the annual commitment for three seats ($3.99 x 3), the same basis as the Clockify row. The month-to-month price is 38% higher and is recorded in the text rather than averaged away. The AI feature is metered separately in tokens, which the vendor estimates at about $6 per user a month — a second meter on top of the seat. Clockora is $69 once, for the whole team, with no token bill behind it.
How their pricing grows:
TimeCamp meters per user per month AND meters its AI tracker separately in tokens, so the seat price is not the whole bill.
“estimated token usage is about $6 per user/month” — read 2026-09-03
What TimeCamp does that we don't:
TimeCamp runs the wider time business — billing rates, invoicing, project profitability and an AI tracker that suggests entries.
Stay with TimeCamp if you want automatic tracking, billing rates and profitability reporting as a service. Clockora is the timesheet a payroll run needs — hours by project, exact totals, approvals — bought once, on your own server, and it deliberately does no invoicing.
Hubstaff — rented
Starter $4.99, Grow $7.50, Team $10, Enterprise $25.00 — per seat, each marked "annual" in the page's own structured data, with the FAQ confirming "hubstaff's team plan, which costs $10 per seat per month". The rendered plan cards are drawn client-side and show nothing to a fetcher [2]
Break-even: 5 months
of Hubstaff equals the one-time price.
Assumption: The entry paid tier for three seats ($4.99 x 3), the same basis as the other rows on this product. The figures come from the vendor's OWN embedded Offer data, which its FAQ then confirms in prose for the Team plan — two places on one page agreeing, which is more than most pricing pages give a reader. Clockora is $69 once, for the whole team.
How their pricing grows:
Hubstaff meters per seat and prorates mid-period additions — its FAQ works the example itself, charging a seat added in July for July through December.
“hubstaff's team plan, which costs $10 per seat per month” — read 2026-09-03
What Hubstaff does that we don't:
Hubstaff is a workforce-monitoring platform as much as a timesheet: activity levels, screenshots and GPS job sites that clock crews in and out.
Stay with Hubstaff if you want monitoring, GPS and payroll attached to the tracking. Clockora records hours by project with approvals and nothing else — no screenshots, no location, no monitoring of anybody — bought once for the whole team.
Toggl Track — rented
Free $0 "for a limited number of users"; Starter $9 per seat a month; Premium $14 per seat a month for the FIRST YEAR of an annual plan, "then renews at $18 per license per month"; Enterprise "custom pricing. turnkey solution" [3]
Break-even: 3 months
of Toggl Track equals the one-time price.
Assumption: Stored at the entry PAID tier for three seats ($9 x 3), matching the Clockify and Harvest rows on this product. Worth reading twice: the Premium headline of $14 is a first-year rate that the vendor's own footnote renews at $18 — a 29% step-up in year two, printed on the page rather than hidden. Clockora is $69 once, for every member of staff, with no year two.
How their pricing grows:
Toggl meters per seat and steps the price UP after year one: the headline Premium figure is an introductory rate, not the ongoing one.
“$14 per license per month applies to your first year of premium annual, then renews at $18 per license per month” — read 2026-09-03
What Toggl Track does that we don't:
Toggl Track keeps a genuinely free tier for a small team and runs the wider tracking suite — customisable reports, project progress, single sign-on and integrations into the tools the work already lives in.
Stay with Toggl if you need the desktop and mobile trackers, the integrations catalogue or SSO. Clockora is the timesheet itself — hours by project, exact totals and approvals — bought once for the whole team, and it deliberately does no invoicing.
Clockify — rented
Paid seats $3.99 / $5.49 / $7.99 / $11.99 per seat/month billed annually (higher billed monthly); the $12.99 line is the CAKE.com Bundle (Clockify Enterprise + Plaky + Pumble), not a Clockify seat tier; free tier capped at 5 users [4]
Break-even: 6 months
of Clockify equals the one-time price.
Assumption: TAIL2 2026-09-07: the page renders EUROS to a European reader — same numerals, different symbol — while its OWN structured data declares "priceCurrency": "USD", so the dollars here are the vendor's denomination and the euro is our geography. Up to 5 users the free tier wins outright; from the 6th the per-seat meter starts and never stops, and a 20-person team pays back Clockora in about four weeks. Figure shown for 3 seats on Basic.
How their pricing grows:
Clockify charges per seat, and every active or invited team member — owners, admins, managers, and members alike — occupies one billed seat.
“Every active or invited user listed on your Team page occupies one paid seat.” — read 2026-08-11
What Clockify does that we don't:
Clockify offers a genuinely free tier that lets a small team track unlimited time and invite a few people at no cost.
If you need built-in invoicing or billable rates, stay where you are — Clockora records hours only and handles no invoicing, billing rates, or money of any kind.
Harvest — rented
Free plan (1 seat, 2 projects); Teams from $9/seat/month ($108/seat billed annually) or $11/seat/month month-to-month; Enterprise from $14/seat/month ($168/seat annually) or $17.50 monthly. The switch is labelled "20% off" [5]
Break-even: 3 months
of Harvest equals the one-time price.
Assumption: Per-seat; figure for 3 seats on the base paid tier, on ANNUAL billing, which is the state the page opens in. Both states were walked on 2026-09-07: annual $9/$14, monthly $11/$17.50 — so the discount is real, and the earlier note ($108/12 = $9, "the same rate") had compared the annual price with itself. The switch says 20%: exact on Enterprise ($17.50 x 0.8 = $14), 18.2% on Teams. Clockora buys once for any headcount.
How their pricing grows:
Harvest bills per seat on its Teams and Enterprise plans, and the bill grows further as the account's invoices, projects, clients, and tasks increase.
“As your team grows, additional invoices, projects, clients, and tasks are billed based on what you use, so you're never overpaying.” — read 2026-08-11
What Harvest does that we don't:
Harvest ships with accounting and payment integrations into Stripe, QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Deel.
If you need built-in invoicing and payment integrations, stay where you are — Clockora records hours only and handles no invoicing, billing rates, or money of any kind.
Savings calculator
SaaS figures use the cited plan price above (see the sources below); per-seat plans scale by the seat count from the same cited price. This is arithmetic, not a quote.
Why owning beats renting here
- One payment. No per-month, per-seat, or per-location fees — the license is perpetual.
- Your data stays on your server. Customer records never live in someone else's cloud.
- No plan ceilings. Records, users, and usage are limited by your hosting, not a pricing tier.
- It keeps working if the vendor doesn't. Self-hosted software can't be sunset out from under you.
Fair trade-offs: you host it, you back it up, and updates are yours to apply — see the product page for honest limitations.
Sources
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TimeCamp — price checked 2026-09-03 —
source
“starter time & billing $3.99 /mo $ 3.99 per user billed annually or $5.49 month-to-month ... premium profit & productivity $6.99 /mo ... ultimate analytics & collaboration $9.99 /mo ... estimated token usage is about $6 per user/month”
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Hubstaff — price checked 2026-09-03 —
source
“"name": "starter", "url": "https://hubstaff.com/pricing", "pricecurrency": "usd", "price": "4.99" ... "name": "grow", "url": "https://hubstaff.com/pricing", "pricecurrency": "usd", "price": "7.50" ... "name": "team", "url": "https://hubstaff.com/pricing", "pricecurrency": "usd", "price": "10" ... hu”
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Toggl Track — price checked 2026-09-03 —
source
“free for a limited number of users ... $9per license per month ... $14 per license per month applies to your first year of premium annual, then renews at $18 per license per month ... custom pricing. turnkey solution”
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Clockify — price checked 2026-09-03 —
source
“US$3.99 / 5.49 / 7.99 / 11.99 / 12.99 per seat /month billed annually (or US$4.99 / 6.99 / 9.99 / 14.99 / 15.99 if billed monthly); free plan "Up to 5 users" (verified 2026-09-03)”
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Harvest — price checked 2026-09-03 —
source
“starting from $9 seat/month - $108 per seat, billed annually ... starting from $14seat/month - $168 per seat, billed annually”
Competitor prices change — always confirm on the linked page. We only print figures we could verify on the date shown.