Clockodo: German-Engineered Time Tracking for Freelancers & EU Teams

For most freelancers a time tracker is a nice-to-have. For EU-based teams with employees, it's increasingly a legal requirement — the EU Court of Justice's 2019 ruling and Germany's 2022 Federal Labour Court ruling made systematic working-time recording mandatory for employers. Clockodo from Osnabrueck is built specifically for this: a German-engineered tracker with EU data hosting, an attendance mode that satisfies the EU-CoJ requirements, and a Free plan for solo freelancers that stays free forever.

As of June 2026. We re-check pricing regularly — verify on the official Clockodo pricing page before you commit.

What is Clockodo?

Clockodo is a cloud-based time tracking platform built by a team in Osnabrueck, Germany since 2010. Its audience is tightly defined: solo freelancers, agencies and small-to-mid businesses in Europe that need to record working time in a way auditors, accountants and works councils will accept without questions.

Unlike global competitors such as Toggl Track, Clockify or Harvest, Clockodo is built specifically around European compliance: the attendance mode meets the EU Court of Justice ruling on mandatory working-time recording, the timesheet exports match what European accountants and tax advisors expect, and support is staffed in Germany in English and German. The software ships as a web app, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and desktop apps for Windows and macOS.

Key features of Clockodo

• Stopwatch and manual time entry: Track time live or backfill it later — both modes support project and task assignment for client billing.

• Attendance mode (EU-CoJ compliant): Start, end and breaks are recorded separately from project time — tamper-resistant and exportable. Satisfies the 2019 EU Court of Justice ruling and the 2022 German BAG ruling on systematic working-time recording.

• Project & budget control: Per-project hour budgets with overrun warnings and profitability reports — essential for agencies running fixed-price work.

• Absence management: Vacation and sick days are managed in the same tool — no parallel HR spreadsheet.

• Timesheet exports: PDF and Excel with configurable columns — ready for client invoicing, payroll or auditor handover.

• Accounting integrations: Exports to DATEV, Lexware Office, sevDesk and a long tail of other tools — track time in Clockodo, invoice from your accounting platform.

• Mobile app with offline mode: Track time without an internet connection and sync on next online — important for field teams and on-site work.

• Roles and permissions: Fine-grained access control per team member — staff see only their own hours, project leads see project budgets, owners see everything.

Clockodo pricing in 2026: what does each plan cost?

Clockodo has four plans in 2026. Annual billing saves 5%. A 14-day trial is available without credit card; solo freelancers can also stay on the Free plan indefinitely.

• Free (0 EUR): Permanently free for 1 solo freelancer. Includes almost every feature in the Pro plan, including attendance mode, projects and reports. Best for solo freelancers who need a compliant tracker without monthly cost.

• Basic (4 EUR/user/month): Stopwatch and manual time entry, attendance mode, absence tracking, mobile apps. Best for small teams that don't need billable-rate features yet.

• Pro (10 EUR/user/month) — most popular: Everything in Basic plus billable hours, hourly rates, project & budget control with warnings, configurable reports, timesheet exports, DATEV / Lexware / sevDesk integrations. The standard choice for agencies and freelancers with client billing.

• Pro Plus (12 EUR/user/month): Everything in Pro plus SLA-backed priority support, extended security features, priority DPA handling. For teams with dedicated compliance or data-protection requirements.

Who should use Clockodo?

Clockodo is the right pick when three things are true: you operate in the EU, you need defensible working-time records, and you care about GDPR-strict hosting. Solo freelancers get the rare combination of a permanently free single-user plan with full feature parity. EU-based agencies with employees use the attendance mode to satisfy the EU-CoJ ruling without having to bolt together Excel sheets and stopwatches.

Clockodo is less compelling if you want built-in invoicing in a single tool, run a fully global team without EU compliance pressure, or just want the prettiest UI on the market. For loose time tracking without compliance stakes, Toggl Track or Clockify are quicker to spin up.

Clockodo vs alternatives at a glance

• Toggl Track — global SaaS with a polished UI, generous free plan (up to 5 users free forever), and strong integrations. But: US hosting, no dedicated attendance mode, no DACH-specific accounting exports. Best for international freelancers without EU compliance pressure.

• Clockify — permanently free for unlimited users on the free tier. But: Serbia-based, US-region hosting on paid tiers, no attendance-mode specialisation. Best for distributed teams that need lightweight tracking without compliance constraints.

• Harvest — US tool with built-in invoicing and Stripe integration. But: English only, USD-first billing, no European accounting integrations. Best for freelancers billing US clients.

• Timely — AI-driven automatic tracking that runs in the background. Premium price, no DACH reporting, no attendance mode. Best for knowledge workers who forget to start the timer.

For the full landscape of time tracking tools for freelancers and small teams in 2026, see our time tracking comparison.

Final verdict: who needs Clockodo?

Clockodo is one of the best European time trackers in 2026 — and the only one in its category that combines an EU-CoJ-compliant attendance mode, GDPR-strict EU hosting and a permanently free solo plan. If you're based in the EU, employ staff or work with auditors who expect clean timesheet exports, Clockodo is the obvious pick. Solo freelancers can start free and scale into the paid tiers without ever changing tools.

If you want a more modern UI, a more generous multi-user free plan or built-in invoicing, Toggl Track, Clockify or Harvest will fit better. But for European teams with real compliance pressure, Clockodo is hard to beat in 2026.