When it comes to time tracking and project management solutions, small businesses and remote teams are sometimes torn between systems with distinct features and capabilities. Paymo and Time Doctor are two popular solutions that cater to the needs of companies looking to optimize processes, increase productivity, and manage projects more efficiently. 

While both platforms provide excellent time-tracking capabilities, they have different features, integrations, and price methods. In this comparison, we'll examine Paymo vs Time Doctor closely to help you decide which best suits your team's needs. 

Comparing Paymo Vs Time Doctor: At A Glance

Features 

Paymo 

Time Doctor 

Time Tracking 

Flexible time tracking via web timer, desktop app, mobile apps, visual timesheets, bulk time entry, and activity tracking app 

Easy time tracking with a one-click timer and productivity analysis dashboard tracks websites and apps visited 

Reporting And Analytics 

Provides time utilization, project progress, and profitability reports, customizable and exportable data 

Detailed reports on activity summaries, project tracking, hours worked, and web/app usage. Customizable exports 

Remote Team Management 

Task management, resource scheduling, real-time timer monitoring, file proofing, and collaboration 

Time tracking with web and app usage monitoring, detailed productivity and attendance insights, work-life balance metrics 

Integration 

Integrates with tools like Google Calendar, Slack, Zapier, QuickBooks Online, Typeform, PomoDone, and more 

Integrates with Asana, Zoho Projects, Monday.com, Slack, Microsoft Teams, QuickBooks, Gusto, and more 

Pricing 

Offers a free plan. Paid plans start at $9.90 /user/ month, with a 14-day free trial  

Starts from $8/ user/ month, with a 14-day free trial 

What Is Paymo?

Paymo is an online time tracking and project management platform for small businesses and teams of up to 20 individuals. It enables job management, scheduling, time tracking, and billing within a single application. This makes it an appealing option for businesses that need to manage both internal workflows and client-facing projects. 

Established in 2008, Paymo has since expanded to assist a wide range of clients, including creative businesses, marketing organizations, legal offices, architecture firms, and freelancers. 

Unique Features Of Paymo 

  • Leave Planner: Helps employees manage their time off by displaying leave balances on their dashboards, adding company-wide holidays in bulk, and integrating leave schedules into the 'Team Scheduler' to avoid project conflicts 
  • Pomodoro Timer: Integrated into the Paymo Track desktop software, helps improve attention by breaking work down into customizable intervals, with timed breaks and notifications to ensure productivity throughout the workday 
  • File Proofing: Enables users to highlight and offer feedback on design files directly from the platform. It features markup tools, threaded discussions, version control, and the ability to track revisions efficiently 

Pros And Cons 

Pros 

  • Automatic invoice reminders help ensure timely client payments and steady cash flow 
  • The simple invoicing feature helps streamline the billing process and cuts down on manual work 
  • Effective time tracking feature ensures accurate billing and supports better time management across teams 

Cons 

  • Limited project list customization can be restrictive for users who prefer a more personalized workspace 
  • The estimate formatting feature lacks the flexibility needed for a more professional, client-ready documentation 

What Is Time Doctor?

Time Doctor is a comprehensive time-tracking and workforce analytics tool established in 2012. It provides businesses with tools to monitor and improve employee productivity, including time tracking, website, and application usage monitoring, and extensive reporting. 

Trusted by over 10,000 global brands, the platform supports a diverse range of clients, including freelancers, remote teams, and huge corporations. Time Doctor focuses on helping companies optimize their workforce, improve team efficiency, and manage remote teams. 

Unique Features Of Time Doctor 

  • Break Tracking: Allows employees to record paid and unpaid breaks. Managers can define break settings, set time limitations, and track break durations using various reports  
  • Inactivity Alerts: Informs users when there is no keyboard or mouse activity for a specified period of time. This reminder encourages employees to stay engaged while also ensuring that tracked time accurately reflects active work periods 
  • Work-Life Balance Metrics: Helps companies track and enhance employee well-being. Administrators can establish thresholds for indicators like late hours, excessive daily hours, and weekend work. When these thresholds are exceeded, the system alerts admins, allowing them to take proactive actions to prevent burnout and maintain a healthy work-life balance among employees 

Pros And Cons 

Pros 

  • Extensive reports provide valuable insights into team productivity and project progress 
  • Offline time tracking ensures continuous tracking of hours worked, especially for remote team members  
  • Integrated project management capabilities are valuable to streamlining routine workflows and enhancing overall team productivity 

Cons 

  • The attendance feature lacks advanced scheduling capabilities 
  • Excessive monitoring and random screenshots can sometimes capture personal info that can feel quite intrusive 

Paymo Vs Time Doctor: Key Features Comparison

1. Time Tracking

Paymo’s time tracking module offers flexibility through its web timer, desktop app, and mobile apps, enabling users to track time in real time. The software is ideal for managing a range of workflows, with manual and automatic methods for recording work hours. Users can start and stop timers directly from the web app or use ‘Paymo Track’, a desktop app for automatic activity tracking, ideal for determining how time is being spent.

The software also supports visual timesheets and bulk time entry, making it easy to monitor billable hours accurately and streamline invoicing. Paymo also offers iOS and Android mobile apps that provide seamless time tracking from anywhere. The visual timesheet view allows users to easily enter or adjust time entries by using a click-and-drag option. In contrast the bulk entry mode is excellent for tracking several activities across projects simultaneously.

Time Doctor’s time-tracking feature is an intuitive solution for tracking work hours and boosting efficiency. Users can create projects and start tracking time with a single click, enabling real-time recording of work activities. This real-time tracking ensures that time is accurately recorded as activities are completed, reducing the reliance on memory for time entries.

The software also features an integrated productivity analysis dashboard for both employees and supervisors. This dashboard provides insights into how time is spent within the company, helping to identify areas for improvement and ensure work hours are spent efficiently.

Winner: Time Doctor dominates the time tracking comparison primarily because it provides broader productivity insights beyond simple time tracking, while Paymo is better for project-focused time tracking.

2. Reporting And Analytics

The reporting and analytics feature in Paymo provides clear, actionable insights about time utilization, project progress, and profitability. Users can generate static and live time reports to see how their work hours are distributed between tasks and clients. The software also offers extensive overviews of projects, clients, and users, including data like time spent, financials, and unbilled hours.

Thanks to the built-in profitability tracking feature, businesses can analyze expenses, profits, and margins in real time. Data views are easily customizable and exportable, allowing for additional performance analysis using tools like Excel or Google Sheets.

Time Doctor's reporting and analytics tools provide detailed insights into how time is spent across teams. It generates detailed data like activity summaries, project and task tracking, hours worked, web and app usage, and attendance records. Managers can also view daily and weekly schedules, track odd activities, and even access internet connectivity.

These insights assist in identifying productivity trends, highlighting inefficiencies, and facilitating better decision-making. Reports can be exported in various formats, and custom exports enable teams to compile only the data they want without extra hassle.

Winner:It's a tie.
Both platforms offer excellent reporting and analytics capabilities, but the best choice depends on your business needs. Paymo is ideal for project and financial insights, while Time Doctor is better for productivity and behavior tracking.

3. Remote Team Management

Paymo offers a complete solution for managing remote workers, including technologies to improve cooperation and efficiency. Task management capabilities allow teams to be assigned tasks and track their progress using various views such as lists, boards, and Gantt charts. Time monitoring enables users to manually or automatically register their work hours, whereas resource scheduling assists managers in allocating jobs and avoiding overbooking.

The file proofing and collaboration features make it easier to provide feedback and share files throughout the platform. Real-time monitoring of active timers allows managers to understand what activities are being worked on at any given moment. At the same time, the profitability tracking function analyzes project expenses and margins, offering vital insights for better decision-making.

Time Doctor provides an excellent set of capabilities for properly managing remote teams. It supports both manual and automatic time tracking, providing accurate billing and productivity analysis. The software also keeps track of website and app usage, which helps you avoid distractions and stay focused. Time Doctor encourages accountability by informing management of non-work-related activity and periods of inactivity.

Teams can make more educated decisions by receiving detailed statistics on time usage, productivity trends, and attendance levels. Additionally, Time Doctor promotes employee well-being by providing insights into work-life balance and recognizing employees who are at risk of burnout. These features combine to boost productivity while ensuring a healthy work environment for remote teams.

Winner:Time Doctor
Time Doctor edges out Paymo for remote team management, offering robust features that help boost productivity and ensure employee well-being. While Paymo excels in task and resource management, its lack of detailed productivity tracking and employee wellness features makes Time Doctor the winner in this category.

4. Integration

Time Doctor offers four pricing plans, including Basic, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. These plans are designed for teams with different requirements and offer features like screenshots, timesheets, and time approvals. Users can get a 14-day free trial to test its features. The pricing plans are as follows:

Paymo supports a wide range of integrations for enhancing workflow efficiency and team cooperation. It works with popular tools like Google Calendar for scheduling, Slack for team collaboration, and Zapier to connect with over 1,000 apps and automate tasks across platforms.

The software also integrates with QuickBooks Online to provide seamless invoicing and payment monitoring, while Typeform allows users to build projects straight from form submissions. Additionally, solutions such as PomoDone and Integromat help with workflow automation, while integrations with LambdaTest and Rethink streamline testing and file management.

Time Doctor provides a wide range of integrations to help improve workflows and enhance productivity. It integrates with project management applications like Asana, Zoho Projects, and Monday.com, allowing teams to track their time spent on assignments. The tool also works with CRM systems like Pipedrive and HubSpot to monitor the time spent on customer interactions. Communication services such as Slack and Microsoft To-Do are enabled, allowing teams to handle tasks and monitor communication time.

The software also connects with help desk software such as Zoho Desk and Freshdesk to track time spent on customer support requests, as well as accounting systems such as QuickBooks Online and Gusto to ensure seamless payroll processing.

Winner:Time Doctor
Time Doctor is the winner for this category with its more extensive and comprehensive integration options.

5. Pricing

Paymo offers four different pricing options for its diverse range of customers:

  • Free: $0/ user/ month

The Free plan is suitable for freelancers as it includes basic features like time tracking, invoicing, task management, and up to 10 projects.

  • Starter: $9.90/user/month

The Starter plan includes unlimited projects and clients, task calendar views, guest access, and 5GB storage.

  • Small Office: $15.90/user/month

The Small Office plan adds advanced features like recurring tasks, project templates, profitability tracking, and integrations.

  • Business: $23.90/user/month

 The Business plan, ideal for larger teams, includes Gantt charts, employee scheduling, leave management, and priority support.

A 15-day free Paymo trial is also available for all paid plans.

Time Doctor provides four price tiers to meet varying business demands:

  • Basic: $8/user/month

The Basic plan includes essential features like time tracking, task and activity management, and unlimited screenshots.

  • Standard: $14/user/month

The Standard plan adds integrations with popular tools, along with payroll and invoicing capabilities.

  • Premium: $20/user/month

The Premium plan, suited for more advanced needs, includes all the features of the 'Standard plan' plus an executive dashboard and client login access.

  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

The Enterprise plan is a customizable option for large organizations. It offers all the features in the 'Premium plan' plus private cloud hosting, BI dashboards, and guided setup for custom pricing.

Time Doctor offers a 14-day free trial for all of its plans.

Disclaimer: The pricing is subject to change.

Winner:It’s a tie
If you need advanced task and project management with built-in time tracking, Paymo is a better option. If your focus is productivity monitoring, detailed reporting, and managing distributed teams, Time Doctor can be worth your investment.

Paymo Vs Time Doctor: Finding The Best Fit For Your Team

Paymo and Time Doctor each cater to different business demands. Paymo excels in project and task management, with integrated time tracking, making it an excellent solution for organizations that prioritize efficient workflows and client projects. 

On the other hand, Time Doctor is suitable for organizations looking to enhance productivity, track employee efficiency, and manage remote teams with its advanced data and insights. 

You have to keep your organizational needs at the forefront while making the final decision, so choose wisely!