Time tracking seems to be hot right now. As of several months ago (or so), I didn’t know of any legit standalone web based time trackers. Since then, I’ve reviewed 14 Dayz and Harvest, heard about FreshBooks’ investment into a more feature filled time tracking system, and now have come across Toggl. Toggl is another online time tracking solution.
Straight off the bat, Toggl does not seem as intuitive or polished as 14 Dayz or Harvest. The AJAX interface is much slower and to be quite honest, there appeared to be a couple of bugs or perhaps serious usability issues. For example, when I tried adding a new Customer, an error was thrown stating it already existed. Similarly, the only way I can initially add time is by starting the timer and then editing a hh:mm:ss format, meaning if I needed to add in .5 hours (for example), I need to do so as 00:30:00 for the system to accept it. That’s incredibly annoying plus who needs to keep track of seconds anyway?
Toggl does do something a bit different in managing time via “Workspaces” – but I’m not exactly sure why I’d need multiple workspaces. They promise to allow unilimited projects and unlimited users in Workspaces indefinitely for the free service. At the moment, Premium Toggl features do not seem available and neither are pricing figures.
All in all, in light of how this space is heating up, I fear Toggl is going to have to make significant improvements if it is going to considered a legitimate contender. One last note, it seems Toggl is not supposed to officially launch until August 1st but I obviously got in just fine.
