TimeMagick vs DeskTime: go beyond employee productivity tracking
TimeMagick combines detailed activity visibility with project delivery, resource planning, client access, billing and profitability in one connected workspace, and never collects screenshots.
Comparison last reviewed: September 2026
At a glance
TimeMagick
For project-based teams that need detailed productivity visibility without screenshots, plus native project delivery, planning, communication, client access, billing and deeper profitability.
- Activity %, apps, URLs and productivity
- No screenshots
- Project board, Gantt and portfolio Gantt
- Resource planning
- Budgets, alerts and forecasting
- Project channels
- CLIENT workspace
- Project Billing and recurring invoices
- Recurring expenses
- Profitability KPIs and Client Health
DeskTime
For teams focused primarily on automatic time tracking, productivity monitoring, attendance and workforce scheduling.
Feature comparison
DeskTime plan names show where a feature sits on its pricing page. "No … identified" means the feature is not in DeskTime's current official documentation.
| Feature | TimeMagick | DeskTime |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking and productivity | ||
| Desktop time tracking | Windows app with activity tracking | Yes; automatic tracking on Windows, Mac and Linux |
| Manual, web and mobile time | Yes; manual time requires a written reason and approval | Web timer, mobile time and offline time |
| Project and task tracking | Yes; every hour carries its client, project, task and member into budgets, billing and profitability | Yes; projects and tasks |
| Idle time | Yes; configurable threshold, plus Private Time | Yes; with meeting and video handling |
| App and URL tracking | Yes; classified productive, neutral or unproductive per role or member | Yes |
| Document-title tracking | No; app and URL level | Yes; document names, email subjects and app titles |
| Productivity classification | Yes; productive, neutral or unproductive per role or member | Productive, neutral or unproductive |
| Screenshots | No, by design: activity data instead of screen images | Optional; Premium and above, with blur |
| Private Time | Yes; time still counted, app and URL detail withheld | Yes; stops app, URL and screenshot tracking |
| Project delivery and budgets | ||
| Project budgets and cost | Yes; budget vs spent on cards, overview, Gantt, approvals and dashboards | Estimated budgets, hourly rates and cost calculation |
| Budget visible during project execution | Yes; project cards, overview, Gantt, approvals and dashboard | Cost against estimate in the Projects section and project reports |
| Budget visible during time approval | Yes; the project budget beside the billable total | No equivalent identified; approvals cover offline time, shifts and absences |
| Budget alerts and forecasting | Yes; alerts and forecasting connected to project profitability | No budget alerts or forecasting identified |
| Kanban project board | Native drag-and-drop board with custom and automatic statuses | No native Kanban project board identified |
| Custom and automatic statuses | Yes; custom statuses plus automatic In Progress and Inactive | Active and archived projects |
| Project Gantt | Native; per project and across the client portfolio | No native project Gantt identified |
| Portfolio Gantt | Yes; every client's projects on one interactive timeline | No native portfolio Gantt identified |
| Resource planning | Native project scheduling and resource planning | Shift scheduling and absence calendar (workforce scheduling) |
| Project communication | Native; a channel inside every project | No project communication identified |
| Direct and group messaging | Native direct messages and groups | No direct or group messaging identified |
| Client access | ||
| External client role | Native CLIENT workspace: Dashboard, Projects, Timesheets, Report, Message Channels, Sensai | No external client role identified |
| Client project dashboard | Yes; projects, tasks, weekly hours, overdue tasks and team hours | No client dashboard identified |
| Client project visibility | Yes; the Projects board in the client workspace | No client project access identified |
| Client timesheets | Yes; Member's Timesheet with hours per day | No client timesheet access identified |
| Client reports | Yes; a detailed Report inside the client workspace | Reports can be exported and sent to clients |
| Client messaging | Yes; project channels and groups in Message Channels | No client messaging identified |
| Client AI assistant | Yes; Sensai, the AI assistant, in the client workspace | No client AI assistant identified |
| Approval, billing and expenses | ||
| Manual or offline time approval | Yes; manual time with a written reason, Pending, Approved or Declined | Yes; offline time can require approval |
| Billable % during tracked-time approval | Yes; e.g. 5 worked hours approved at 80% become 4 billable hours | No billable-percentage step identified |
| Project Billing: billable vs billed | Project Billing: billable vs billed hours per client and project | No billable-vs-billed ledger identified |
| Client invoices | Duration and quantity lines, tax, notes, PDF, status, multiple entities and billing accounts | No native client-invoice workflow in current documentation |
| Recurring invoices | Scheduled recurring invoices with an approval workflow | No recurring client invoices identified |
| Multiple legal entities | Yes; legal entities with their own logo, VAT ID and invoice prefix | No multi-entity invoicing identified |
| Multiple billing accounts | Yes; multiple bank accounts, chosen per invoice | No billing-account selection identified |
| Project expenses | Project-linked, custom categories, approval, Lunch | No native expense tracking identified |
| Expense approval | Yes; dedicated Pending, Approved and Declined queues | No expense approval identified |
| Recurring expenses | Yes; schedules, approval and payment history | No recurring-expense workflow identified |
| Reporting and analytics | ||
| Workforce productivity reports | Yes; timelines, activity, productivity and app and URL usage per member | Yes; productivity, attendance, apps and extra-hours reports |
| Budget data in Excel reports | Yes; the client detailed report exports budget hours, time spent, billable hours and amount | Excel or CSV exports of project time and costs; no budget fields documented |
| Project cost and profitability | Profit and margin by client and project | Project cost from hourly rates |
| Client profitability | Yes; most and least profitable clients, Avg Client Profit and Margin | No client profitability identified |
| Low-profit projects | Yes; Low-Profit Projects list | No low-profit project view identified |
| Uninvoiced hours | Yes; Uninvoiced Hours by client | No uninvoiced-hours metric identified |
| Retention metrics | Yes; Repeat Client %, Retention %, Avg Cooperation and Avg Project Gap | No client-retention metrics identified |
| Revenue concentration | Yes; Revenue Concentration % with a risk indicator | No revenue-concentration metric identified |
| Client Health | Active, warm or cold status per client | No native equivalent identified |
| Access and pricing | ||
| Roles and permissions | Yes; custom roles across 40 permission modules on every plan | Five roles with account, team and member settings |
| Full feature set on paid plans | Yes; no feature tiers or add-ons | No; features tiered from Pro to Premium |
| Free plan | No; 1-month free trial on the Business plan | No; 14-day free trial |
| Pricing model | Per user; every feature on every plan | Per user; features tiered by plan |
DeskTime information reviewed September 2026 from DeskTime's public pricing, product and help pages. Features and plans change; verify before purchasing.
Time tracking that feeds the whole project
In TimeMagick, the tracked hour does not stop at a productivity report. It becomes part of the project's delivery and commercial workflow:
- Tracked time, against the project and task
- Activity and productivity detail, without screenshots
- The project budget it burns, with alerts and forecasting
- Approval, with a billable percentage
- Project Billing: billable against billed hours
- An invoice, one-off or scheduled recurring
- Project margin, client KPIs and Client Health
DeskTime tracks time automatically on the desktop, with a web timer, mobile time and offline time.
Explore TimeMagick time trackingDetailed productivity visibility without collecting screenshots
Both TimeMagick and DeskTime give managers detailed information about how computer time is used. TimeMagick does it without capturing images of employees' screens: Activity %, apps, URLs, idle periods and productivity classifications, with no visual screen captures stored.
TimeMagick
Activity data, never screen images
- Activity % from keyboard clicks, mouse clicks and mouse movement
- A configurable activity calculation
- Active app and URL, with time per item
- Productivity classification per role or member
- Idle time with a configurable threshold
- Private Time: time counted, app and URL detail withheld
- No screenshots are taken
DeskTime
Apps, URLs, document titles and optional screenshots
DeskTime tracks apps, websites and document titles with productivity categories, and offers optional screenshots on its Premium and Enterprise plans.
Run the project, not only track its time and cost
DeskTime can tell you how much time and cost went into a project. TimeMagick also gives the team the operating layer used to plan, move, discuss, bill and analyse that project.
- A drag-and-drop Projects board with custom, default and automatic statuses
- Project cards with due date, tasks, budget, completion and client
- Tasks with assignees, budgets and progress
- The project's own channel, client access, billing and profitability
DeskTime organises projects and tasks with hourly rates, estimated budgets and cost calculation; no native Kanban project board is identified in its documentation.
Explore project managementPlan project delivery visually
TimeMagick has an interactive Gantt per project and a portfolio Gantt across clients: a project and task hierarchy, drag to reschedule, resizable durations, assignees, completion % in each bar, and budget, spent and status beside the timeline, in Day, Week and Month views.
No native project Gantt is identified in DeskTime's current documentation.
Explore Gantt planningPlan people around projects, not only work shifts
TimeMagick's planning is centred on how resources are allocated through project delivery: the same projects, tasks, Gantt and budgets the team tracks time against.
TimeMagick
Project resource planning
- Project and task scheduling on the Gantt
- Assignees on every task
- Budgets and spent time beside the plan
- Connected to billing and profitability
DeskTime
DeskTime is strong at scheduling when people are expected to work, with shift scheduling and an absence calendar.
A project budget should be visible while the project is happening
TimeMagick does not treat the project budget as a field you configure once and then look for later. Budget and spent information stays visible across project delivery, Gantt planning, tracked-time approval, dashboard reporting and profitability analysis:
- Project cards: budget hours against allocated, with a bar that turns red past 100%
- Project Overview: time spent against budget
- Interactive Gantt: budget and spent beside every project and task
- Tracked-time approval: the project budget beside the billable total
- Dashboard: a Project Budgets table across all projects
- Profitability: Projects Over Budget and project margin
Budget alerts and forecasting work from the same numbers.
DeskTime supports estimated project budgets and shows cost against the estimate in its Projects section and project reports. Its documentation does not describe budget status in the time tracker or approvals, budget alerts or forecasting.
Keep the project conversation with the project
Every TimeMagick project automatically gets its own channel beside its tasks, hours and budget, with attachments, emoji, unread badges and search. The team also has direct messages and groups, and Client Members join project channels and groups too.
DeskTime's project functionality centres on time, costs and reports; no project communication layer is identified in its documentation.
Explore project communicationGive clients visibility into the project itself
Client Members are external accounts linked to one or more of your clients. Their workspace has a Dashboard with Total Projects, Total Tasks, Completed, Weekly Hours Logged and Overdue Tasks, plus Project Status, Task Status Breakdown, Team Members & Hours and Overall Due Tasks, with Projects, Timesheets, Report, Message Channels and Sensai alongside.
What TimeMagick clients can use
- Project dashboard
- Projects board
- Timesheets
- Reports
- Project channels and groups
- AI assistant (Sensai)
No dedicated external client workspace is identified in DeskTime's documentation; its reports can be exported and sent to clients.
See the client portalApprove work and decide what is billable at the same time
Manual time comes with a written reason and goes through Pending, Approved and Declined. Tracked time is approved with a billable percentage and billable time per entry, with the project budget shown alongside: 5 tracked hours approved at 80% become 4 billable hours, and those hours flow into Project Billing.
DeskTime's approvals cover offline time, shifts and absences; no billable-percentage approval step is identified.
Take approved project time all the way to an invoice
Project Billing shows billable against billed hours per client and project, so you know what is billable and what has already been invoiced. Invoices have duration-based and quantity-based lines, taxes, notes, PDF download, due dates and statuses, from multiple legal entities, each with its own invoice prefix, and multiple billing accounts, in the client's currency. Recurring invoices are scheduled and go through approval when they become due.
DeskTime's current project documentation focuses on calculating billable project time and costs; no native client-invoice workflow or recurring client invoicing is identified.
Explore billing and invoicingKeep project costs beyond labor in the same system
TimeMagick records company expenses against the project with your own categories and an approval queue. Recurring costs have their own schedule, approval queue and Payment History, and a Lunch workflow covers meal allowances. All of it feeds the same project margin as the hours.
No native expense tracking is identified in DeskTime's documentation; its project costs come from tracked time and hourly rates.
Explore expensesReports should help you manage the project, not just export rows
TimeMagick's reports are filtered by client, project, member, task, status and date range, show worked or billable time, and export as formatted Excel files. The client detailed report lists each project's status, due date, budget hours, time spent, billable hours and billable amount, and the budget and profitability context stays in the same workflow.
DeskTime is strong at workforce and productivity reporting and exports tracked data as Excel or CSV; its documented project exports list project time and costs.
Explore reportsGo beyond project cost into client profitability and health
TimeMagick extends the commercial view into revenue, margins, client profitability, retention, concentration and Client Health: 14 headline KPIs including Revenue, Profit, Avg Client Margin, Effective Rate, Utilisation %, Projects Over Budget, Retention % and Revenue Concentration %; revenue, profit, billable and client-activity trends; the most and least profitable clients, falling activity, uninvoiced hours and low-profit projects; and a Client Health ledger with margin, cooperation length, last activity and active, warm or cold status.
DeskTime calculates the cost of tracked project work from hourly rates.
TimeMagick illustration (demo data).
Control access across the project workflow
Every TimeMagick plan includes custom roles set across 40 permission modules, with actions varying by module. Projects and All Projects, Reports and Export Report, Project Channel and All Project Channels, and expense and Lunch workflows are separate modules, and clients get the locked CLIENT role.
DeskTime uses five roles, from Company Owner to Employee, with settings applied at account, team and member level.
Explore roles and permissionsEvery TimeMagick plan includes the full feature set
TimeMagick
- Freelancer$4.50/month, or $3.80 billed yearly; up to 2 users
- Business$9.50/user/month, or $7.60 billed yearly; 30-day free trial
- EnterpriseCustom pricing for 30+ users
- Time, activity and productivity
- Project board and Gantt
- Resource planning
- Budgets, alerts and forecasting
- Project communication
- Client workspace
- Approvals and Project Billing
- Invoicing and recurring invoices
- Expenses
- Profitability KPIs and Client Health
DeskTime
Per user/month, billed annually (monthly)
- Pro$6.42 ($7)
- Premium$9.17 ($10)
- Enterprise (200+ users)Custom
DeskTime offers a 14-day free trial.
DeskTime pricing checked: September 2026. Verify before purchasing.
DeskTime moves screenshots and shift scheduling into Premium ($9.17 per user billed annually, $10 monthly), while TimeMagick includes its complete feature set, from productivity tracking to Project Billing, invoicing and profitability, for $7.60 per user per month billed yearly, or $9.50 monthly. See TimeMagick pricing
Why choose TimeMagick over DeskTime?
Choose TimeMagick when productivity tracking also needs to run the project
TimeMagick is the stronger fit when a project-based team wants its operational insights connected directly to project delivery, planning, communication, clients, billing and profitability, and a budget that stays visible while the work is happening.
- Productivity visibility without screenshots
- Native Projects board
- Interactive and portfolio Gantt
- Project-focused resource planning
- Budgets visible during delivery and approval
- Budget alerts and forecasting
- Project channels, direct messages and groups
- A client workspace
- Billable-percentage approval
- Project Billing
- Invoices and recurring invoices
- Project and recurring expenses
- Multi-entity billing
- Project and client profitability with Client Health
- Every feature on every plan
Where DeskTime has an edge: fully automatic background time tracking · document-title tracking · shift and absence management · screenshot capture where visual proof is required.
See how TimeMagick fits agencies and engineering studios, or compare TimeMagick vs Clockify, TimeMagick vs Toggl, TimeMagick vs Harvest, TimeMagick vs Hubstaff, TimeMagick vs TimeCamp and TimeMagick vs Time Doctor.
TimeMagick vs DeskTime: key facts
- TimeMagick measures Activity %, app and URL usage and productivity classifications without capturing screen images.
- TimeMagick shows budget against spent time on project cards, the project overview, the Gantt, tracked-time approval and the dashboard.
- TimeMagick includes budget alerts and forecasting connected to project profitability.
- TimeMagick has a native project board, interactive Gantt, portfolio Gantt and project-focused resource planning.
- TimeMagick has a chat channel in every project, plus direct messages and groups.
- TimeMagick gives clients a workspace with Dashboard, Projects, Timesheets, Report, Message Channels and Sensai.
- TimeMagick approves tracked time with a billable percentage and shows billable against billed hours in Project Billing.
- TimeMagick creates invoices, including scheduled recurring invoices with approval, from multiple legal entities and billing accounts.
- TimeMagick includes project-linked and recurring expenses and a client KPI layer with Client Health.
- TimeMagick includes every feature on every plan.
- DeskTime calculates project time and cost against estimated budgets; no native client-invoice workflow is identified in its current documentation.
- DeskTime information reviewed September 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
How TimeMagick compares with DeskTime. DeskTime information reviewed September 2026.
Is TimeMagick a DeskTime alternative?
Yes. TimeMagick is a DeskTime alternative for project-based teams that want productivity visibility without screenshots and need tracked work to continue into project delivery, planning, communication, client access, billing and profitability.
Why choose TimeMagick instead of DeskTime?
Choose TimeMagick when productivity tracking also needs to run the project: a board and Gantt, project-focused resource planning, budgets that stay visible during delivery and approval, project channels, a client workspace, billable-percentage approval, Project Billing, recurring invoices, expenses and Client Health, with every feature on every plan.
Does TimeMagick monitor productivity without screenshots?
Yes. TimeMagick gives managers Activity %, app and URL usage, idle periods and productive, neutral or unproductive classifications without capturing images of employees' screens, so managers get detailed operational visibility without screenshot collection.
What activity and productivity data does TimeMagick track?
TimeMagick tracks worked, idle, manual and private time; Activity % from keyboard clicks, mouse clicks and mouse movement with configurable weighting; a configurable idle threshold; the active application and URL with time per item; and productivity classifications set per role or member.
Does TimeMagick include project management with time tracking?
Yes. Beyond tracking time and cost against projects, TimeMagick has a drag-and-drop Projects board with custom and automatic statuses, tasks with assignees, budgets and progress, an interactive Gantt, a portfolio Gantt, resource planning, and budgets with alerts and forecasting that stay visible while the project runs.
Does TimeMagick include Gantt and resource planning?
Yes. TimeMagick has an interactive Gantt per project and across the client portfolio, with drag to reschedule, resizable durations, assignees, progress, budget, spent and status, plus resource planning centred on how people are allocated through project delivery rather than only on work shifts.
Can TimeMagick give clients their own project workspace?
Yes. Client Members get a workspace with a Dashboard, Projects, Timesheets, Report, Message Channels and Sensai, separate from your internal team's experience. No dedicated external client role is identified in DeskTime's documentation.
Does TimeMagick include project communication and messaging?
Yes. Every TimeMagick project automatically gets its own channel beside its tasks, hours and budget, with attachments, emoji, unread badges and search. The team also has direct messages and groups, and Client Members can use project channels and groups too.
Can TimeMagick approve time and control billability?
Yes. Manual time goes through Pending, Approved and Declined with a written reason, and tracked time is approved with a billable percentage, so 5 tracked hours approved at 80% become 4 billable hours, with the project budget shown alongside. The approved hours flow into Project Billing.
Does TimeMagick support invoicing and recurring invoices?
Yes. Project Billing shows billable against billed hours per client and project, and invoices have duration-based and quantity-based lines, taxes, notes, PDF download, due dates and statuses, from multiple legal entities and billing accounts. Recurring invoices are scheduled and go through approval when they become due.
Can TimeMagick track expenses and project profitability?
Yes. Company expenses are linked to projects with custom categories and approval, and recurring expenses have their own schedule, approval queue and Payment History. The KPI module then shows revenue, profit, client margin, effective rate, low-profit projects, uninvoiced hours, retention, revenue concentration and Client Health.
Is TimeMagick suitable for agencies and engineering or design firms?
Yes. TimeMagick is built for project-based teams such as agencies and engineering, CAD and design studios that want productivity visibility without screenshots plus project delivery, client collaboration, billing and deeper profitability analytics in one connected product.
Go beyond employee productivity tracking
Start a 1-month free trial with every feature included, and run your next client project in TimeMagick.