In searching for the ideal time-tracking software, you must not only look into what it is and how much it can offer but also the aspects that make it stand out from the rest. We all know that not all time trackers are created equal. It’s crucial to compare and decide which of the competitors is worth a shot.
Of course, we mustn’t forget to look into the aspect of personal feelings as well. The final decision you make will affect your personal feelings and impact the productivity of your team.
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. But has it caught us the same way? Read this comprehensive review to 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 How Time Doctor vs Time Machine
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. Its lineup of tools and features aims to help teammates and individuals improve their productivity by an average of 22%.
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. It has also become a hit among freelancers who often work for multiple clients thanks to its convenient client portal feature.
Time Doctor has accumulated a user base that exceeds 250,000 over its 20-year history. Among those who’ve used the service for time and employee management matters include Apple, Ericsson, Better Business Bureau (BBB), Verizon, Boost Media, and Thrive Market.
Time Doctor is well-known for its time and activity tracking functions, as well as advanced capabilities such setting reminders to remind you when the timer should be started and stopped. 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.
We believe Time Doctor can be a great addition to any team or individual looking to increase their productivity. Keep reading to know more about what else this one-of-a-kind platform has to offer and how well each of them works! How Time Doctor vs Time Machine
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The pros
- Time Doctor is most well-known for its easy-to-use, time- and activity management tools and functions.
- It includes standout features such as pinpoint-accurate reporting, idle alerts, and automatic reminders.
- The user-friendly and extensive client portal makes it easy for freelancers to interact with clients.
- It allows for a large and seamless integration with third-party platforms.
The Cons
- The platform’s confusing user interface makes navigation difficult for many users, particularly first-timers. How Time Doctor vs Time Machine
- Its mobile apps are not as flexible as its web and desktop counterparts, despite their potential.
- It doesn’t offer smooth switching between the web-based client and desktop apps, especially if you’re both the administrator and the user.
- You can only access the time tracking feature if you download and install the desktop app or web extension.
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 check out the following three available plans in the Time Doctor platform.
- Basic – $70/user annually or $7/user monthly
Time Doctor’s Basic tier includes access to the platform’s core features, such as time and activity tracking, task and project management, and 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. It also sees upgraded time limitations to its customer support hotline – from three days to 24 hours.
- Premium – $200/user annually or $20/user monthly How Time Doctor vs Time Machine
The premium tier offers the most comprehensive of all three. Subscribers to the Premium tier have access to all the Time Doctor features. They can explore the client portal and take screen recordings.
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.
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The User Interface
Time Doctor is a robust tool for managing time and activities. However, it’s well-known for its awkward and poorly designed user interface. It can be a pain to navigate the platform. This is especially true if you are just starting to explore the dashboard and other features.
For instance, many who’ve used Time Doctor have found issues accessing its range of functions. They’ve complained about the lack of in-app centralization, which would have saved a lot of time and effort. Until now, users can only access the time tracking feature through the desktop app or web extension. The website version only has project management, reporting, as well as other admin features. With that in mind, switching between the two portals is more frequent – you usually wouldn’t see this on other time management platforms.
Time Doctor users also need to be helped with the overall design and look. 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 don’t even mind the UI issues at all, while others have learned to adjust quickly to it over time. How Time Doctor vs Time Machine
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 understands that a clean workboard can easily 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. You may want to see who is working on the task or project right 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! How Time Doctor vs Time Machine
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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. Despite not being available in the web dashboard, its capabilities are surprisingly well-versed enough to make it stand independently. It’s easy to use – simply add the task to which you are assigned and then click the start button to track your progress. It’s that simple!
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. This includes the reminders feature, where the software automatically reminds you when to start or stop your work hours. Another function is the “idle time” function. This allows users to convert the time they’ve been off work into work hours and then reassign it.
The timer will stop the tracking if there is no user activity after a few minutes. 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. You can also pause the timer if you need to take a break from work. Time Doctor allows you to create time intervals between daily tasks if you feel you need some space.
Time Doctor may be able to track your work hours and progress online, but did you know that it could do the same offline, too? Like some time monitoring apps such as Hubstaff, which have this function, Time Doctor can record your activity and the hours you spend on your task even without the presence of an internet connection. How Time Doctor vs Time Machine
Monitoring Website and App Usage
Time Doctor monitors more than just hours spent on a desktop. It also tracks websites visited and keystrokes made while you work. If the platform sees that the mouse cursor or keyboard hasn’t moved for longer, it will pause instantly and stay that way until you do something with it.
Often, it’s hard to tell whether someone seems productive until you find out what they’ve been doing. If they’ve been focusing on their tasks, that’s a sigh of relief. It’s not the same story if they have been procrastinating and going to other platforms to distract from what they should be doing. No matter if you’re strict or relaxed with it, Time Doctor allows users to check which kinds of websites or applications their fellow teammates have used during work hours and how long they’ve glued their eyes to them.
Time Doctor has a number of monitoring features that allow admins to easily see if employees are wasting their time or attending to a task. This feature can be used to identify if the URL or application name, and the status it is in, are some of the many. 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.
- Unproductive, if it otherwise serves zero purposes and, therefore, a time-waster
- Neutral, if it’s neither considered productive nor unproductive.
These statuses can be assigned to any app or website and can be set to be restricted to a single 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. How Time Doctor vs Time Machine
Screen Recordings and Activity Screenshots
We told you earlier about Time Doctor’s ability to track your activity and time in the background, while posting it to the web dashboard for administrators to view. Its built-in screenshot capabilities are there for this reason.
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. If they please, they may also opt to select any of their teammates who should be allowed access to this feature.
As a measure of user productivity, each image includes additional information about the mouse cursor activity and keystroke activity. While those subscribed to Time Doctor’s Basic and Standard plans have access to unlimited screenshots, Premium users get the upper hand with the inclusion of video screen recording. The platform captures three minutes of actual work activity, instead of just taking photos of the monitor.
Rarely, a team member or project manager may be exposed to privacy breaches due to serious circumstances. To protect their safety, they might be permitted to delete screen recordings or screenshots within the Time Doctor platform. However, this will likely result in the deduction of work hours listed on the day of recording.
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Productivity Reporting & Analysis
Time Doctor allows users to view, edit, save, share, or print from its selection of pre-built reports. Each report contains the data and insights that the software has collected during the user’s work hours. All of these reports are presented in decent visuals or summaries. Reports can be provided as a means to help users determine which of the implemented time management and productivity habits have been working and which need improvement.
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. On the other hand, the Poor Time Use report plots out how long you’ve sat around on sites that have been flagged as 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.
Other types of reports include the Timeline report, which displays all your tracked hours in chronological order, primarily divided into the colors yellow for manual time recording and green for automatic; the Project and Tasks report, where hours spent on assigned tasks and/or projects are broken down in full detail; and the Activity Summary in which your total work hours and the full percentages derived from a combination of all other reports are laid out for you and your admin to see. How Time Doctor vs Time Machine
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
If there’s one thing about Time Doctor that dedicated freelancers or solopreneurs can’t get enough of, it’s the ability to share the progress of their tasks with their clients, even if they are not exactly their teammates or don’t share 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. You can turn on payroll deep within the settings of your web dashboard and your team will be automatically 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. You can ask employees to send their salaries 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 software is available for download on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux OS computers. At the same time, its recent web extension is offered exclusively 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.
Time Doctor 2 is the latest version. It has almost the exact same functionality as the older version. The only differences that set the two apart are that 1) TD2 is only compatible with Android devices, and 2) you won’t get to explore other features aside from time tracking – a noteworthy downgrade from TD Classic.
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Time Doctor: How safe and secure is it?
At this point, you’re questioning whether or not Time Doctor is worth trusting as a time management service. It is possible that its surveillance tools may keep track of your activities, even if you temporarily pause your timer to take a 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. It’s 100% not spyware material, so you’re in good hands.
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 also takes extreme security measures to make sure that no account is easily hacked. 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: Do you use Time Doctor?
Time Doctor provides a steady user base of professional teams and freelancers with the benefits of a simple, straightforward task management space and the charms of an advanced-level time tracker, creating a harmonious balance between the two.
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.
Overall, we ultimately believe that Time Doctor has what it takes to stand on its feet, despite not offering the same easy accessibility as other apps do. Besides, every time management platform shines uniquely, right?
FAQ How Time Doctor vs Time Machine
How can I approach Time Doctor’s customer service team?
Time Doctor’s customer service hotline can be approached either through 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?
YouTube videos and how to articles by independent creators can be found. However, Time Doctor offers its users an alternative via its dedicated help center. Here, most of the information is provided by the team behind Time Doctor.
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. If you are done with the trial period, you can bring it up again to purchase a Time Doctor subscription.
Is Time Doctor HIPAA-compliant?
Yes. Time Doctor adheres to the standards and rules of the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The platform is technically flexible enough to be used in a wide range of industries and niches. However, it can also be useful for healthcare teams.