DeskTime Pricing Explained: What You’re Really Paying For

Choosing a time tracking tool often comes down to finding the best value for your money. DeskTime is a popular choice for automatic time tracking, and if you’re considering paying for it, you might also be wondering how DeskTime pricing works. 

In this simple, no-fluff comparison, we’ll break down DeskTime pricing plans and what you actually get with each one. Then we’ll look at Flowace—what it costs, what it offers, and how the two stack up.

By the end, you’ll have a clear idea of which tool gives you more value for your money.

We’ll see why many users looking for an affordable time tracking software comparison end up viewing Flowace as the best DeskTime alternative when it comes to value and insights. 

Understanding DeskTime Pricing Plans

DeskTime offers four main plans to suit different types of users. Here’s a breakdown of each plan and what it includes:

Lite Plan (Free)

The Lite plan is DeskTime’s free option, perfect for freelancers or individuals who just need basic time tracking. It includes automatic time tracking, app and URL tracking, idle time tracking, and even meeting time tracking. The Lite plan is great for solo users who want to test out DeskTime’s core features with no cost involved.

If you’re a freelancer looking to track your work hours without paying for a tool, the Lite plan gives you everything you need to get started for free.

Pro Plan

The Pro plan is designed for small teams and startups. For $5 per user per month, you get everything in Lite, plus more advanced features like calendar integrations (Google Calendar or Outlook), an admin dashboard for managers, and productivity scoring. You can also track project time, create custom reports, and designate “private time” for employees to pause tracking when needed.

A small marketing agency can track time with the Pro plan for different projects, generate reports, and have managers view team productivity. It’s a step up for teams that need more control and reporting but don’t require advanced monitoring.

Premium Plan

The Premium plan is the most popular paid option, priced at $7 per user per month. It includes everything in Pro, plus powerful features like automatic screenshots (taken at set intervals), absence tracking, shift scheduling, and IP restrictions for security. This plan is great for teams that need better oversight, especially with remote or hybrid employees.

A hybrid team can use the Premium plan to track not just work hours but also manage vacation days, track employees’ shifts, and ensure everyone is logging in from approved networks.

Enterprise Plan

The Enterprise plan is for large organizations with 200+ users. It includes everything in Premium, plus unlimited data history, unlimited projects and tasks, a dedicated account manager, personalized onboarding, and custom API features. This plan is designed for large companies with more complex needs.

A large multinational company might need the Enterprise plan to handle multiple teams, manage projects at scale, and integrate with their internal systems.

Annual Discounts

DeskTime offers a discount if you choose annual billing. By paying yearly, you get one month free. This brings the effective monthly price down to about $5.04 for Pro and $6.96 for Premium.

Quick Recap of DeskTime’s Plans

• Lite (Free): Best for freelancers and individuals who want basic time tracking and productivity stats.
• Pro ($5/user/month): Ideal for small teams that need more control, reporting, and project tracking.
• Premium ($7/user/month): Perfect for growing teams or those with remote/hybrid workers who need advanced monitoring features.
• Enterprise (Custom): Best for large companies needing unlimited data, personalized support, and advanced customization.

As your team grows, DeskTime’s pricing can scale quickly. Since the cost is per user, you may start to notice the expenses adding up, especially if you need to upgrade to higher tiers for advanced features. DeskTime pricing can become a concern as team size increases. For some businesses, this is when they start looking for alternatives that may offer better pricing or more features for the same cost.

Meet Flowace: The Best Automated Time Tracking Solution

If DeskTime pricing feels steep as your team scales, Flowace is an AI-powered time tracking tool and productivity platform that is a cost-effective, feature-rich alternative to DeskTime. Here’s a quick look at what Flowace brings to the table:

Fully Automated Time Tracking

Like DeskTime, Flowace automatically tracks computer usage, apps, websites, and idle time—without you needing to start or stop timers. It runs in the background, logging activities and filling in timesheets automatically. No more worrying about forgetting to log hours.

AI-Driven Productivity Insights

Flowace doesn’t just track time; it analyzes it. Using AI, it identifies productivity patterns and gives suggestions for smarter work habits. It can alert you when you’re most focused or when someone’s getting distracted, like having a built-in productivity analyst.

Project & Task Management Integration

Flowace stands out with its flexible project/task structure. Most tools, including DeskTime, offer a simple two-level hierarchy (project > task). Flowace, however, lets you go as deep as you need, supporting unlimited levels, like Client > Project > Task > Sub-task. This is perfect for teams that need detailed time tracking at multiple levels.

Deep Workforce Insights & Reports

Flowace provides advanced reporting, including project-based reports, productivity metrics, and even work-life balance insights. It tracks both productive and non-productive activities and sends daily or real-time email notifications about team activity. It’s not just about logging time; it’s about understanding how time is spent.

Integrations & Workflow

Flowace integrates with a wide range of apps, including Jira, Salesforce, Azure DevOps, and Asana. This means it syncs seamlessly with your existing workflow, whether you’re using project management tools or other business apps. For example, with Jira integration, Flowace can map time entries to specific tasks.

In short, Flowace gives you a detailed, automated view of how your team works, making it an ideal choice for teams that need more than just basic time tracking. It’s all about boosting productivity with minimal effort.

Flowace Pricing Plans and What You Get

Flowace keeps things fairly straightforward with three main plans: Basic, Standard, and Premium. All plans come with a free 7-day trial (so you can test any tier with full features). 

Flowace Basic 

Flowace’s Basic plan is a great entry-level option, especially if you’re looking for value at $2.99 per user per month. If you opt for annual billing, you’ll get a ~33% discount. 

The Basic plan includes unlimited users, so you can add as many people as you need. It also covers all the core time tracking features:

• Unlimited Projects & Tasks: You’re not limited in how many projects or tasks you can track time against.
• Unlimited Screenshots: Unlike DeskTime, Flowace gives you screenshots even in the Basic plan, which can be a great accountability tool.
• Automatic Tracking: Flowace silently tracks your activity, including apps, websites, and idle time, on your desktop—no manual timers needed.
• Basic Reports & Dashboards: You get simple productivity reports, along with individual and team dashboards to track progress.
• Work-Life Balance Metrics: Flowace tracks your hours worked vs. break times to help you manage your workload and prevent burnout.

The Basic plan covers everything you need for time tracking and basic monitoring, making it a solid choice for small teams or solo users. It’s like a mix of DeskTime’s Lite and Pro features but with the bonus of screenshots—at a fraction of DeskTime pricing.

Flowace Standard

Flowace’s Standard plan is priced at about $4.99 per user per month. It’s Flowace’s middle tier, similar to DeskTime’s Premium plan.

The Standard plan includes everything in the Basic plan, plus some powerful upgrades:

• Productivity Ratings: This feature automatically classifies activities as productive or not and scores employees based on their work. It’s similar to DeskTime’s productivity percentage but more customizable.
• Break Tracking & Inactivity Alerts: Flowace can notify you if someone has been away from their keyboard for too long, ensuring employees are staying on task.
• 10+ Integrations: You can integrate Flowace with tools like Jira, Asana, GitLab, and more. This makes it easier to sync your data directly between platforms, which the Basic plan doesn’t offer.
• Web & App Usage Reports: Get detailed reports on which websites and apps took up your team’s time. It’s a great way to see where time is being spent and optimize for productivity.
• Daily & Real-Time Email Notifications: You’ll get updates on your team’s hours, plus instant alerts for certain events, so you’re always in the loop.
• Sessions with a Product Specialist: These are included for onboarding, helping your team get up to speed with Flowace’s features.

For most companies, Standard is the sweet spot. You get advanced tracking, integrations, and reporting at about half the cost of DeskTime’s Pro plan, making it a powerful option if DeskTime pricing is a limiting factor.. At just ~$5 per user, it offers a lot of features for a reasonable price.

Flowace Premium

Flowace’s Premium plan is the top-tier option, priced at around $7 per user per month. This plan includes everything in Standard, plus a bunch of powerful features.

• Client Login Access: You can give clients access to certain dashboards or reports. This is especially useful for agencies or BPOs that want to show clients how time is spent on their projects.
• Executive Dashboard: This gives senior management a high-level view of company-wide productivity at a glance. It’s perfect for keeping track of overall performance.
• Automatic User Provisioning: This feature makes it easier to add or remove users, which is great for large teams or companies with directories.
• Dedicated Account Manager: With Premium, you get priority support from Flowace’s team to help with any issues.
• Internet Connectivity Reporting: This tracks if a user’s device loses internet connection, which could indicate offline work or potential issues.
• Keyboard and Mouse Activity Monitoring: You can track active vs. idle time more precisely by monitoring keystrokes and mouse activity, giving you a better sense of productivity.
• Longer Data Retention: Premium offers 18 months of historical data retention. This is a big plus compared to DeskTime’s Enterprise plan, which only offers unlimited history at a much higher price point.

Flowace doesn’t list an Enterprise plan with custom pricing like DeskTime does. Instead, they offer add-on packs for specific features (like call tracking or mobile app tracking) at a small extra cost. This way, you can tailor your plan to your needs without jumping to an entirely different tier.

For example, if you need mobile app usage tracking for company phones, you can add that for just $2 per user without upgrading to a higher plan. This flexible approach makes it easier to scale and customize your plan as your needs grow.

DeskTime vs Flowace: Feature Comparison

Here is a detailed look at Flowace features vs DeskTime pricing tiers – where does your team get the most value?

As shown above, Flowace offers a lot of similar (and some extra) features at a fraction of the price. For instance, paying ~$4.99/user on Flowace Standard gets you features (screenshots, integrations, alerts) that you’d need the $7/user DeskTime Premium plan for. That’s a compelling value difference, especially as team size grows and DeskTime pricing begins to impact your budget more significantly.

Why Flowace Might Deliver More Value for Your Team

After exploring DeskTime’s pricing in detail and comparing it with Flowace’s plans, here are the key takeaways:

• DeskTime offers a free plan for individuals and solid features in its Pro and Premium plans. However, as you add functionality (screenshots, shift management, etc.), you have to jump to higher tiers, which increases the cost per user. It’s a reputable tool that can certainly help boost productivity and manage time – many companies use it and see benefits. But as DeskTime pricing climbs with each added feature, Flowace delivers those same capabilities at a more accessible rate.
• Flowace provides most of the same core features and even some extras (like unlimited screenshots, client access, and dedicated support) at a significantly lower price point per user. There’s no free forever plan, but the paid plans start so cheap that after the free trial, even a small business can afford to onboard everyone. Flowace shines in being a cost-effective, feature-rich alternative – you’re essentially getting an “enterprise feel” (unlimited users, lots of features) at a small-business price. It’s geared to deliver high value: the fact that, for roughly half the cost, you can often get all the functionality you need is a compelling proposition.

Is it worth switching to Flowace over DeskTime? If budget is a concern and you love the idea of maximizing features per dollar, then yes, Flowace is likely worth it. For teams that want to visualize potential savings, imagine cutting your time-tracking software bill by 40-50% while still getting the productivity boost and oversight you require. Those savings can be redirected into other areas of your business or simply improve your bottom line.

Moreover, Flowace’s added benefits, like personalized onboarding sessions and an emphasis on work-life balance, can lead to smoother adoption and happier employees, which in turn drives productivity. And productivity is the whole point, right? A time tracker should pay for itself by making your team more efficient. If Flowace costs less and helps your team work smarter (31% boost claims backed by user reports), it could achieve ROI faster.

Final Thoughts

If you’re currently considering DeskTime, it’s definitely worth also taking advantage of Flowace’s free 7-day trial. Try both with your team. See which interface and features your team prefers. But purely on paper (and on wallet), Flowace offers a more budget-friendly package for essentially the same outcomes. DeskTime’s pricing isn’t bad for what it offers, but why pay more if you can get the same (or more) for less?

At the end of the day, the best choice is the one that fits your team’s needs and budget. DeskTime will give you a polished tracking experience, but Flowace will do that and likely leave you with extra money in your pocket. In our book, that makes Flowace the better choice for most users searching for the best time tracking solution.

Make the switch to Flowace today. Book a free demo now.