Compared honestly
Quarter Past vs Toggl Track
Toggl is the timer everyone has tried. It is excellent if you remember to press it. Quarter Past exists for the days you don't.
Prices and facts checked 10 October 2026 · Quarter Past 2.3.10 · They change; tell us if one has
What Toggl is
Toggl Track is a manual timer with a free plan for up to three users, apps on every platform, and paid plans that add reports, billable rates, invoicing and team features: Starter at $9 per user a month billed annually ($12 monthly) and Premium at $16 per user a month billed annually ($24 monthly), with a 30-day trial on either paid plan and no card. Its desktop app has an optional timeline that records app and window titles to help you fill gaps. Your entries live on Toggl's servers.
If the forgotten hour is the problem rather than the timer, seven Toggl alternatives without a timer sets the trackers that watch and the trackers that ask beside each other.
For a team that needs shared projects, reports and invoices, it is the sensible default, and the free plan is genuinely free.
What Toggl does better than Quarter Past:
- Free for up to three people.
- Every platform, with sync.
- Team reports, billable rates, invoicing on Premium.
- Over a hundred integrations.
Side by side
| Toggl Track | Quarter Past | |
|---|---|---|
| How it tracks | A timer you start and stop, on any device; an optional desktop timeline records app and window titles to help fill gaps | 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 | Not by default; the optional timeline records app and window titles | Never. No screen-recording or accessibility permissions |
| Where your data lives | On Toggl's servers, synced | A file on your Mac. No account, no server, no sync |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, Linux, web, iOS, Android | macOS 10.15 or later, Apple silicon and Intel |
| Price | Free for up to three users; Starter $9 per user a month billed annually ($12 monthly); Premium $16 billed annually ($24 monthly) | £54, once |
| Cost over five years | $0 on Free; $540 on Starter for one person | £54 |
| Trial | 30 days on either paid plan, 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; community-built ones exist on the Track API, and an official one is an open feature request | 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, PDF, Excel, and integrations | CSV, and a full backup file |
| Teams | Yes; that is its strength | No. One person, one Mac |
Prices, plan contents and the free-tier limit read from toggl.com/pricing in a browser on 18 September 2026, monthly and annual toggled separately; the three-user figure is from Toggl's own FAQ on that page ('Is Toggl free for teams? Yes, up to 3 users'). Mechanism from toggl.com. Quarter Past facts from this site. Subscriptions are judged forwards: five years is what you will actually have paid.
Which one, honestly
Choose Toggl if
- You are a team and need shared projects, reports or invoices.
- You need it on your phone and your Windows laptop as well.
- You reliably press the timer, and the free plan is all you need.
Choose Quarter Past if
- You forget to press the timer, and you have proved it.
- You want a record that is honest about gaps and about what was reconstructed.
- You want no account and no server: a file on your Mac.
- You want the plan against the record, and a brief for an AI.
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