Compared honestly
Quarter Past vs Clockify
Clockify is the free one, and genuinely free for up to five people. It is a timer, an auto-tracker, and on the higher plans a camera pointed at your desk.
Prices and facts checked 18 September 2026 · Quarter Past 2.3.9 · They change; tell us if one has
What Clockify is
Clockify, from CAKE.com, tracks time on web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and in the browser. The free plan covers up to five users with unlimited tracking, timesheets, an auto-tracker, a calendar and reports, and it is a real free plan rather than a teaser. Paid plans run from Basic at $3.99 per seat a month billed annually to Enterprise at $11.99, adding invoicing, approvals, time off, scheduling and — from Pro upwards — activity monitoring, GPS tracking and optional screenshots every five minutes.
For a small team that wants to spend nothing, it is hard to argue with. Your data lives on Clockify's servers.
What Clockify does better than Quarter Past:
- Free for up to five users, and the free plan is a real one.
- Every platform, plus browser extensions.
- Invoicing, approvals, scheduling and time off on paid plans.
- Cheap per seat even when you do pay.
Side by side
| Clockify | Quarter Past | |
|---|---|---|
| How it tracks | A timer you start and stop, or manual entry, or an auto-tracker that records the apps and websites you use; Pro and above can also take screenshots every five minutes | Asks what you have been doing every 5 to 60 minutes; one tap logs the interval that just passed, to the minute, with a start and an end |
| Reads your screen | Optionally, yes. The auto-tracker records apps and websites, and Pro upwards can screenshot every five minutes | Never. No screen-recording or accessibility permissions |
| Where your data lives | On Clockify's servers | A file on your Mac. No account, no server, no sync |
| Platforms | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions | macOS 10.15 or later, Apple silicon and Intel |
| Price | Free for up to five users; Basic $3.99 per seat a month billed annually ($4.99 monthly), rising to Enterprise $11.99 ($14.99 monthly) | £54, once |
| Cost over five years | $0 on Free; $239.40 on Basic for one person | £54 |
| Trial | 7 days of Pro, no card | 14 days, no card |
| Says how each entry was captured | No. A timer records what you started, whether or not you were doing it | Yes: every entry says whether it was measured live or recalled later |
| Plan against actual | No | Yes: a weekly plan set against the record, difference shown, nothing scored |
| What an AI gets | No official MCP server or assistant; community-built MCP servers exist on its public API | A written brief you read before you send it: the fortnight, the plan against the record, and how much of it was measured rather than recalled. You choose the assistant and the moment |
| Export | CSV, Excel, PDF, and integrations | CSV, and a full backup file |
| Teams | Yes; that is its strength | No. One person, one Mac |
Prices, plan contents and mechanism from clockify.me/pricing. Quarter Past facts from this site. Subscriptions are judged forwards: five years is what you will actually have paid.
Which one, honestly
Choose Clockify if
- You want to spend nothing, and five seats is enough.
- You need Windows, Linux or Android in the mix.
- You want approvals, invoicing and scheduling in one place.
Choose Quarter Past if
- You would rather not work somewhere that can screenshot your desk every five minutes.
- You forget to press the timer, and the auto-tracker is not an answer you want.
- You want the record on your own Mac, in a file you can open.
- You want the plan against the record, and a brief for an AI that admits its gaps.
What Quarter Past does not do
So that this page is worth trusting:
- Mac only. No Windows, no phone, no web version yet.
- One person. No team view, no shared projects, no manager reports.
- No invoicing, no integrations, no Zapier. It exports a CSV and stops there.
- Not on the Mac App Store, by choice; it is signed and notarised with Apple and downloaded from this site.
Try it for a fortnight. Decide then.
Free for fourteen days, no card and no account. If it earns its place, it is £54 once, paid from inside the app. If not, nothing to cancel.
Version 2.3.10 · 7 MB · macOS 10.15 or later, Apple silicon and Intel · Checked by Apple