The Clockify and Toggl alternative built for German working time law
Both tools count hours against projects, well and cheaply. What they do not deliver: the working time record the Federal Labour Court requires, holiday entitlement under the Federal Holiday Act and personnel data in a German data centre.
All information about Clockify and Toggl Track comes from the official provider pages. As at:2. September 2026.
Features in detail
| Feature | MetronHR | Clockify and Toggl Track |
|---|---|---|
| Time tracking (web, mobile, terminal) | ~1 | |
| Absences (holiday, sickness, approvals) | ~2 | |
| Overtime (automatic calculation) | ~3 | |
| Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert) | 4 | |
| Working-time models (part-time, flexitime, trust-based working time) | 5 | |
| Shift and duty planning / roster | 6 | ~7 |
| Allowances / hour packages | 8 | |
| Digital Employee File | 9 | |
| Onboarding and offboarding workflows | 10 | |
| Compliance (Working Time Act, Federal Labour Court ruling) | 11 | |
| GDPR compliant | ~12 | |
| Application hosted in Germany | 13 | 14 |
| Hosting operator without a US parent company | 15 | 16 |
Sources and notes (16)
- 1. Clockify and Toggl Track, Time tracking (web, mobile, terminal): Both record time against projects and tasks. Clockify additionally offers a kiosk mode as a stationary time clock. Neither checks against maximum working time, rest periods or the duty to take breaks under the Working Time Act.
- 2. Clockify and Toggl Track, Absences (holiday, sickness, approvals): Clockify has absences from the Standard plan (5.49 dollars annually, 6.99 dollars monthly), Toggl Track has absence management. Holiday entitlement under the Federal Holiday Act, part-time calculation, lapsing of remaining holiday and a German public holiday calendar are not covered.
- 3. Clockify and Toggl Track, Overtime (automatic calculation): Clockify offers „attendance and overtime“ from the Standard plan. An overtime account with time off in lieu, payout and caps in the sense of German working-time accounts is not documented.
- 4. Clockify and Toggl Track, Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert): Clockify shows in its reports who has worked overtime. Warning levels with an automatic alert when a limit is exceeded are not mentioned on the product page (clockify.me/de/timesheet-app, retrieved 14 September 2026).
- 5. Clockify and Toggl Track, Working-time models (part-time, flexitime, trust-based working time): Target hours, flexitime, trust-based working time and alternating weekly patterns are not provided for by either.
- 6. MetronHR, Shift and duty planning / roster: An optional module, included in the Professional plan and activated per company, either as shift planning or as duty planning with a day plan. MetronHR also works entirely without both.
- 7. Clockify and Toggl Track, Shift and duty planning / roster: Clockify offers scheduling from the Pro plan (7.99 dollars annually). That is not a duty roster with staffing rules, qualification requirements and shift swaps. Toggl Track does not plan shifts.
- 8. Clockify and Toggl Track, Allowances / hour packages: Both pricing pages list billing, reports and project estimates. Neither mentions client-bound hour packages with periodic renewal and carry-over (clockify.me/pricing and toggl.com/track/pricing, retrieved 3 September 2026).
- 9. Clockify and Toggl Track, Digital Employee File: Neither tool keeps a personnel file with contracts, salary data and documents.
- 10. Clockify and Toggl Track, Onboarding and offboarding workflows: On the Enterprise plan Toggl Track mentions „personalised onboarding“, meaning guided rollout of the tool itself. A joining or leaving process for employees with tasks and owners appears on neither pricing page (clockify.me/pricing and toggl.com/track/pricing, retrieved 3 September 2026).
- 11. Clockify and Toggl Track, Compliance (Working Time Act, Federal Labour Court ruling): Neither Clockify nor Toggl Track refers to the Working Time Act, the Minimum Wage Act or the Federal Labour Court decision of 13 September 2022. Both are international products without German legal logic.
- 12. Clockify and Toggl Track, GDPR compliant: Both offer standard contractual clauses and a data processing agreement. Clockify does, however, state in its own privacy policy that processing takes place mostly in the USA; the choice of data region exists only on the Enterprise plan and is expressly excluded from the CAKE.com bundle.
- 13. MetronHR, Application hosted in Germany: The application and customer data run at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, exclusively in Germany.
- 14. Clockify and Toggl Track, Application hosted in Germany: By its own account Clockify processes mostly in the USA, with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (USA) as its cloud infrastructure. Toggl OÜ is based in Estonia. Neither commits to a data centre in Germany.
- 15. MetronHR, Hosting operator without a US parent company: The operator is Hetzner Online GmbH, a German company with no US parent. This marketing website is hosted with Vercel, Inc. (USA) in the Frankfurt region, where no employee data is processed.
- 16. Clockify and Toggl Track, Hosting operator without a US parent company: At Clockify, Amazon Web Services, Inc., a US group, on behalf of CAKE.com Inc., also USA.
~ = available with limits, the notes are below the table. – = no verified information is available for this provider on this feature. That is not a no: we only record a negative where we can cite a source.
An overview of which features exist at all, regardless of plan. The price-performance comparison is on the pricing page, the individual features in detail under Features.
Feature comparison as at September 2026. Information about competitors comes from publicly available sources, in each case the official provider pages with the date retrieved, and can change. Clockify and Toggl Track is a trademark of its respective owner.
MetronHR is also available as a native app for iOS and Android:
Where the data sits
Server location and operator are two different questions. A data centre in Germany does not remove the data from US law: providers with a US parent company fall under the CLOUD Act and the surveillance powers of FISA 702, regardless of where the servers stand. Microsoft's chief legal officer in France testified under oath before the French Senate's committee of inquiry on 10 June 2025 that he could not guarantee that data from European data centres would not go to US authorities (record of the Sénat). That is why both are shown side by side here, each with the source it comes from.
What is compared is what the provider documents for its own application, not the infrastructure of its marketing website. More about our own hosting is in the Trust Center.
MetronHR
- Server location of the application
- Hetzner Online GmbH, Nuremberg and Falkenstein. All servers stand exclusively in Germany.
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- Hetzner Online GmbH, a German company with no US parent and therefore beyond the reach of the CLOUD Act and FISA 702. No US provider sits in the data path for the application.
- Processors outside Germany
- None for the application. Payment is handled by Stripe Payments Europe (Ireland). This marketing website is hosted with Vercel, Inc. (USA, Frankfurt region), and analytics run through PostHog Cloud EU and the reverse proxy cdn.metronhr.de with a Cloudflare edge. No employee data is processed there.
- Source
- MetronHR privacy policyAs at 08/2026
Clockify and Toggl Track
- Server location of the application
- Clockify: mostly in the United States by its own account. Verbatim: „As a US company, most of our operations are conducted in the United States and in order to provide the Services, personal information will be processed in the United States“. The choice of data region, including within the EEA, belongs to the Enterprise plan and is not included in the CAKE.com bundle. Toggl Track: the provider is Toggl OÜ in Estonia, and no data centre is named on the pricing page.
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- Clockify: CAKE.com Inc., USA, with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (USA) as cloud infrastructure. Toggl Track: Toggl OÜ, Estonia.
- Processors outside Germany
- In its privacy policy Clockify lists, among others, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (USA, cloud infrastructure), COING DOO (Serbia, software development), Databricks, Inc. (analytics, based in Germany), Eversign GmbH (Austria), Google, Inc. (USA) and Aircall.io, Inc. (USA), based on standard contractual clauses.
- Source
- Clockify privacy policy with its list of sub-processorsabgerufen 02.09.2026
All information comes from the providers' publicly available privacy policies and security pages, and the date retrieved is on every card. Providers can change their infrastructure and their processors at any time. The adequacy decision on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework still applies, but is under legal challenge.
What MetronHR does better
Working time records as German law requires them
Since the Federal Labour Court decision of 13 September 2022 (1 ABR 22/21), following the ECJ judgment C-55/18, employers must record the start, end and duration of daily working time. On top of that come the limits of the Working Time Act: at most eight, exceptionally ten hours a day, eleven hours of rest, breaks from six hours. Clockify and Toggl Track count hours, but check none of that. MetronHR reports the breach as it arises and documents every correction traceably.
Personnel data in Germany instead of the USA
In its own privacy policy Clockify writes that, as a US company, processing takes place mostly in the United States, with Amazon Web Services as its infrastructure. The choice of an EEA data region exists only on the Enterprise plan, and it is expressly excluded from the bundled offer. For the working time and personnel data of German employees, that is a decision the works council and the data protection officer have to support. MetronHR runs exclusively at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein.
Holiday under German law, not as a counter
Holiday entitlement in Germany is not a simple number: the statutory minimum under the Federal Holiday Act, pro rata calculation on joining and leaving, conversion when the number of working days a week changes, lapsing on 31 March of the following year, and public holidays that differ by federal state. Clockify and Toggl Track keep an absence list. MetronHR calculates the entitlement, warns before it lapses and knows the public holidays of all 16 federal states.
Personnel file and onboarding instead of counting hours alone
Both tools know users, not employees. Contracts, salary letters, social security, documents with expiry dates, joining and leaving processes run alongside. MetronHR keeps the file per person with self-service and expiry reminders and sets up joining and leaving as a reusable workflow.
Price comparison
On price Clockify and Toggl Track win, and clearly. The comparison is still worth making, because both are built for a different job.
| Service | MetronHR | Clockify and Toggl Track |
|---|---|---|
| Free entry point | no free plan, a 14-day trial | Clockify up to 5 users, Toggl Track for a limited number of users |
| Paid entry point | Team 5 euros | Clockify Basic 3.99 dollars annually, 4.99 dollars monthly; Toggl Starter 9 euros |
| With absences and approvals | included in Team at 5 euros | Clockify Standard 5.49 dollars annually; Toggl Premium 14 euros in the first year, 18 euros thereafter |
| Working time records under the Working Time Act with break and rest period checks | included in Team | not provided |
| Holiday entitlement under the Federal Holiday Act, public holidays for all 16 federal states | included in Team | not provided |
| Personnel file, onboarding workflows, shift and duty planning | included in Professional | not available |
| Data processing | exclusively in Germany, with a German operator | Clockify mostly in the USA, data region only on the Enterprise plan |
| Language of product and support | German, answered from Hanover | Interface translated, support and documentation mostly in English |
Free entry point
- MetronHR
- no free plan, a 14-day trial
- Clockify and Toggl Track
- Clockify up to 5 users, Toggl Track for a limited number of users
Paid entry point
- MetronHR
- Team 5 euros
- Clockify and Toggl Track
- Clockify Basic 3.99 dollars annually, 4.99 dollars monthly; Toggl Starter 9 euros
With absences and approvals
- MetronHR
- included in Team at 5 euros
- Clockify and Toggl Track
- Clockify Standard 5.49 dollars annually; Toggl Premium 14 euros in the first year, 18 euros thereafter
Working time records under the Working Time Act with break and rest period checks
- MetronHR
- included in Team
- Clockify and Toggl Track
- not provided
Holiday entitlement under the Federal Holiday Act, public holidays for all 16 federal states
- MetronHR
- included in Team
- Clockify and Toggl Track
- not provided
Personnel file, onboarding workflows, shift and duty planning
- MetronHR
- included in Professional
- Clockify and Toggl Track
- not available
Data processing
- MetronHR
- exclusively in Germany, with a German operator
- Clockify and Toggl Track
- Clockify mostly in the USA, data region only on the Enterprise plan
Language of product and support
- MetronHR
- German, answered from Hanover
- Clockify and Toggl Track
- Interface translated, support and documentation mostly in English
Prices per clockify.me/de/pricing and toggl.com/track/pricing, retrieved on 2 September 2026. Clockify bills in US dollars per seat per month, Toggl Track in euros per licence per month. With Toggl Premium the price of 14 euros applies only in the first year of an annual subscription, 18 euros thereafter.
No credit card needed · cancellable monthly
FromClockify and Toggl Track moving to MetronHR
Your data comes with you.Clockify and Toggl Track hands them over as a file, MetronHR reads people, personal data, hours and absences out of it, and before anything is taken over you see row by row what will happen. For a team under thirty people that is a matter of one to two hours, most of it spent putting the file together.
- 1
AtClockify and Toggl Track export
- Clockify: detailed report as CSV or Excel, plus the user details from administration
- Toggl Track: detailed report as CSV or Excel via Reports, Detailed, Export
- 2
Load the template and map the columns
The template comes as Excel and as CSV, with a second sheet that states for every column whether it is required, its format, an example and the permitted values. If your file's header row matches, the mapping falls away entirely. Otherwise the assistant proposes the mapping and marks everything that did not match word for word.
- 3
Check, then take it over
The dry run is mandatory and writes nothing. It shows for every row whether it will be created, changed, skipped or rejected, naming the column and the value behind the finding. Only the second click takes it over, in one transaction. The default is "create new ones only", and an empty cell never changes a value that has been maintained.
Export routes fromClockify and Toggl Track according to Clockify Help, export reports, retrieved on06.09.2026.
Comes with you
- People, with staff number, work address and employment contract
- Remaining holiday and the overtime balance as an opening value per person
- Departments, clients, services and projects
- Time entries and absences for the current year
- Public holidays, including regions that differ
Does not come with you
- Files from the old personnel file, they are uploaded again
- The history of an hours account, MetronHR starts from the opening value
On the free plan both output only PDF, and no import reads from a PDF. Anyone who recorded for free needs a paid month to switch, or types it out.
How the move works in detail, what the dry run shows and why no invitation email goes out with it is set out on the page switching time tracking.
Frequently asked questions
What you need to know about switching from Clockify and Toggl Track to MetronHR.
Because the job changes as soon as you employ people. For freelancers counting project hours for a client invoice, Clockify's free plan is enough. A business with employees needs working time records under the Working Time Act, holiday entitlement under the Federal Holiday Act, an overtime account, a personnel file and data held in Germany. Neither tool delivers that; MetronHR does, from 5 euros per person.
Both record times, and a printout from them is better than nothing. But the Federal Labour Court decision of 13 September 2022 requires the start, end and duration of daily working time to be recorded, and the Working Time Act sets limits for maximum working time, rest periods and breaks. Neither Clockify nor Toggl Track checks those limits or refers to them in its documentation. MetronHR checks every entry immediately and records corrections with person and timestamp on the Professional plan.
In its privacy policy Clockify states that, as a US company, processing takes place mostly in the United States, based on standard contractual clauses. As sub-processors the provider names, among others, Amazon Web Services (USA), COING DOO (Serbia), Databricks (Germany), Eversign (Austria) and Google (USA). The choice of a data region exists only on the Enterprise plan. Toggl Track is operated by Toggl OÜ in Estonia. MetronHR runs exclusively at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein.
Clockify: Free up to five users, Basic 3.99 dollars billed annually and 4.99 dollars billed monthly, Standard 5.49 or 6.99 dollars, Pro 7.99 or 9.99 dollars, Enterprise 11.99 or 14.99 dollars per seat per month. Toggl Track: Free for a limited number of users, Starter 9 euros, Premium 14 euros in the first year and 18 euros thereafter per licence per month, Enterprise on request. MetronHR costs 5 euros on Team and 10 euros on Professional. As at 2 September 2026.
Working time records with a check against the Working Time Act, holiday entitlement under the Federal Holiday Act with a public holiday calendar for all 16 federal states, an overtime account with time off in lieu, working-time models for flexitime and trust-based working time, a digital personnel file, onboarding and offboarding workflows, shift and duty planning as well as client-bound hour packages. Both are strong on project time, reports and integrations; neither is built for the recording duty in a German business, and processing takes place mostly in the USA at Clockify and via a provider in Estonia at Toggl Track without a named data centre.
Yes. Both offer CSV and Excel exports as well as a documented API. From those you carry over projects, clients and recorded times. You create employee master data afresh in MetronHR, because neither tool keeps a personnel file. From 30 employees we help with mapping the fields, at no extra charge.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
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