Using a Free Work Time Tracker: Are the Limitations Worth It

Useful business tools such as a work time tracker are becoming more and more popular all throughout the business world. And it’s not just business owners and managers in huge global corporations that are starting to realize its potential for optimizing time management, improving efficiency and ensuring compliance with some of the work policies. Today, an increasing number of small companies and even freelancers are making this tool a part of their standard business management strategy.

Having this trend in mind, it doesn’t come as a surprise that you can often come across free time control software versions alongside the paid plans. They might be a bit less sophisticated and have some limitations, but it’s a huge budget saving nevertheless. So, is it worth considering as a long-term solution?

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the most common limitations that free work time tracker solutions tend to have as well as the situations in which it makes sense to accept these sacrifices and when you should go with a fully functional paid version instead.

Number of Employees and Scalability

One of the most frequent limitations of implementing an employee time tracking software open source or freemium version is the maximum number of users that it supports. Many systems only offer free tools for just one user and very rarely for more than five.

So, if you happen to have a large or even a medium-size business, a free work time tracker won’t do, at least not if you want a collective view of everyone in your company, which is the whole point of this system in most cases.

But what if you do have just a couple of people working for you? In this case, the next thing you need to think about is scalability. Sure, you have four employees and a remote employee time tracking free version is enough to accommodate all of them for now, but you should still consider the possibility of expanding your team in the future.

Your company might outgrow the system very soon and then you’ll need to upgrade to a paid version anyway. So even if you decide to get a freemium plan for the time being, make sure that that’s indeed the software you’d like to use once you start paying for it as well. This way, you’ll save yourself the trouble of looking for a time tracking solution all over again.

The only situation when the small number of users isn’t such a big obstacle is if you’re a freelancer and you plan to use work time tracker for your own individual needs.

Features

There are a number of different ways in which time reporting software free version’s features are limited. The first, and the most common one is the number and versatility of functionalities that you have at your disposal.

While you’ll typically get most of the basic features, such as the ability to track time on tasks, you’ll probably find that many of the advanced project management, billing and other tracking functionalities are disabled. So, if you’re looking for a detailed, well-rounded solution that will offer a lot of various insights about how your employees work, a free solution might not be enough.

Another way that you might be limited is the scope of certain functionalities. In other words, even if you do manage to find free time tracking software with screen capture, you might find yourself limited to just several screenshots a month. This isn’t optimal unless you don’t mind being extremely frugal when using these features.

Customer Support

Finally, one more highly common catch about free work time tracker software is the fact that some of them don’t include priority customer support. What this means is that you’ll have to rely on contact forms, support tickets, and help centers to get assistance in solving a potential technical problem with the software. Which is fine if don’t mind waiting and your business operations don’t hinge on using the time tracking system.

If, on the other hand, you need a constant inflow of data in order to get an accurate picture of your employees’ performance, you might find it necessary to be able to contact tech support immediately and get help as soon as possible.

Conclusion

Implementing a free version of your chosen work time tracker might seem like a great idea which will save you a lot of money, but it’s actually not that convenient in the long run, especially for large and growing teams who need a variety of features and timely support. On the other hand, if you’re a freelancer who plans on using the system to optimize your own workload and time management, than this course of action may be a good way to keep you on the budget.