Softime vs Clockify: an honest comparison

We built Softime ourselves. We are Softspring, a development agency in Madrid that bills by the hour and by project, and for years we tracked our time in Clockify. We wanted something quick to fill in, with billable amounts per client and data under European jurisdiction, so we ended up building our own tool. This comparison is therefore written by an interested party. That is why we have also included the cases where you are better off staying where you are.

Quick answer

Stick with Clockify if:

• Your team has 5 people or fewer and the free plan meets your needs, with monthly reports exported as PDF.
• You need mobile or desktop apps, invoicing clients from the tool itself, expense management, time off or shift scheduling, or connecting time tracking with Jira and other tools.
• You need employee attendance tracking. Softime is not designed for that.

Try Softime if:

• Your team has more than 5 people. With Clockify, the sixth person means paying for the whole team, and the cheapest plan costs $3.99 per person per month when billed annually. Softime costs €2 with annual billing.
• You are required to have your team’s time data stored and managed by a European company, on a European provider’s servers and under European law.
• You want to export to Excel or CSV and see billable amounts per client without paying for a higher plan.
• Your team works in Catalan, Basque, Galician or Italian, or you would prefer to speak Spanish with the people developing the tool.

Comparison table

Clockify prices are in US dollars and Softime prices in euros, excluding VAT. Clockify data checked on its official website on 20 October 2026.

If your team has more than 5 people

Clockify’s free plan allows up to 5 active people. As soon as the sixth joins, you must move to a paid plan, paying for every person on the team, not just those above the limit.

For a team of 10 with annual billing, Softime costs €240 per year plus VAT. Clockify Basic, the first plan with Excel exports and rates, costs $478.80 per year. Pro, which lets you store data in the EU, costs $958.80.

For 20 people, the difference grows in the same proportion: €480 per year for Softime, $957.60 for Clockify Basic and $1,917.60 for Clockify Pro.

Where your data is and who can access it

Your team’s time entries are personal data: they say who works, when and for which client. If a client, an auditor or your data protection officer asks about them, the question rarely ends at where the server is. The company managing them and the laws that apply to it also matter.

In Softime, time entries and backups are stored with Scaleway, a French provider, within the European Union. The service provider is a Spanish company, under a Spanish contract. Neither Softspring nor Scaleway is a US company, so US laws allowing authorities to request data from companies in that country do not apply to them directly.

There is one exception worth knowing: we currently manage email support through Google Workspace, so anything you email us may be processed outside the European Economic Area. We are working to move support to European infrastructure too. Your tracked time does not pass through it.

With Clockify, the company is CAKE.com Inc., with an address in California, and the servers are with AWS, also American. Every new workspace is created in the global region, wherever you are. From the Pro plan, you can move it to another region, such as the EU region in Germany. According to its own help centre:

• The chosen region stores time entries, projects, clients and tags, activity data, invoices and workspace settings.
• Some data may remain outside that region, such as member profiles (name, email and photo), organisation data, usage metrics and technical logs.
• You can move from the global region to a regional one, but not back.
• During the transfer, which can take up to 12 hours, nobody can access the workspace or track time.

Choosing the European region changes where data is stored, but not the nationality of the company or provider. The US CLOUD Act allows US authorities to require companies under their jurisdiction to provide data they control, even if it is on servers in another country. This does not mean it will happen to your data, but it does mean Clockify’s European region does not answer this question.

No tool makes you GDPR compliant on its own. What you can establish with each is where data is stored, who processes it and which laws apply, so your team can decide.

Where Clockify wins

Clockify is a very good tool (we used it ourselves for years). These are its advantages over Softime:

• Free for small teams. Up to 5 people can track time without paying. If you do not need reports spanning more than a month or Excel exports, there is nothing cheaper.
• Apps for everything. Mobile, desktop on all three operating systems and extensions for several browsers. If your team works away from the computer, Softime currently will not serve you as well.
• Much more than time tracking. Client invoices, expenses, shift scheduling, time off, timesheet approval, kiosk mode and activity monitoring, depending on the plan.
• Connects with other tools. Integrations with Jira and project management and accounting tools, plus a documented public API.
• Years on the market. Its documentation, forum and the number of teams using it offer reassurance that a new product cannot yet provide.

If you need a tool that does almost everything, Clockify is the better option. We wrote this article a while ago about when a custom-built tool pays off and when it does not.

Where Softime wins

• Price from 6 people onwards. One plan at €2.50 per person per month, or €2 with annual billing, including Excel and CSV exports, rates per person and billable amounts.
• European jurisdiction throughout. Spanish company, French provider and EU servers, without changing plans or selecting a region.
• Languages. The interface and extension are available in 9 languages, including Catalan, Basque, Galician and Italian, which Clockify does not offer.
• Direct contact. You write to us, the people developing the product, in Spanish or English.
• Designed for hourly billing. This is the tool we use to finalise our own invoices every month. The report by client and project, with amounts already calculated, is what we use most.

What Softime does not do

• Employee attendance tracking. Softime tracks time spent on each client, project and task. It is not for clocking staff in and out or meeting statutory working-time recording requirements. If that is what you need, look for a dedicated tool.
• Native apps. We have no mobile or desktop app. The website can be installed as an app, but requires a connection to track time.
• Extensions for other browsers. For now, the extension is available for Chrome and Firefox. We are working to bring it to more browsers.
• Invoicing your clients. Softime calculates billable amounts, but you will need to issue invoices in your invoicing software.
• Expenses, scheduling, time off, approvals and kiosk. These are not included.
• Integrations. There are no connections with Jira or other tools.

How to move from Clockify

Switching does not mean starting from scratch. Softime can import your Clockify data through its API or from a Detailed report CSV. If you choose the API:

1. In Clockify, generate an API key from your profile settings.
2. In Softime, open the Clockify importer, paste the key and choose the workspace and the date to import from.
3. Match each person in Clockify with their user in Softime.
4. Review the preview analysis, which warns you of conflicts before importing anything.
5. Start the import. It brings in clients, projects, tasks, tags and time entries, and you can follow its progress, cancel it and resume it.

If you prefer CSV, export the Clockify Detailed report and upload it to Softime. You do not need an API key; only the time entries in the file are imported.

Running timers in Clockify are not imported, so it is best to stop them first. If your Clockify workspace uses the Free plan, bear in mind that its API allows only 30 requests per hour, so a long history may take time to arrive. Since API imports can be resumed, you do not have to do everything in one go.

If you are coming from Toggl Track, there is an equivalent importer.

Unsure whether it is worth switching?

If you are unsure whether switching makes sense for your team and your numbers, email softime@softspring.es and we will look at it together. You can try Softime free for 2 months without a card.