Slim Timer or Less Time Spent?
Applications / Ramblings / Usability
5 February 2010
Maybe this is an unfair comparison. Both are simple and free (for the time being) web-based timers built for those who want to bill hourly (or just keep track of project-based time). There are other online web apps that will track your time, but I find that most try and do too much—such as create invoices or clients/customer based projects.
UPDATE: Neither. I was fooled—please see the update of our time tracking application, Paymo.
Slim Timer
I started using Slim Timer over a year ago. I have to note that I’ve been using this on a mac, so I can’t really comment on the pc features. Here is my breakdown:
PROS:
- simple
- nice interface
- ability to add comments per time entry
- tagging
- task sharing (with coworkers)
- reports feature
- free
CONS:
- pop out can become a problem when clicking links in things like emails (since they will load in a tiny window replacing your timer)
- features are not updated often (pretty close to the exact same thing as it was 1 year ago)
- Reports aren’t as simple as I’d like them to be.
Less Time Spent
I have just recently started using this application. But—I’m happy with it.
PROS:
- nice interface
- simple
- ability to reference a task within a project timer with a drop down
- Expenses feature
- Quick list of times spent on each project
- reporting
- sharing (with teams)
CONS:
- No desktop component
The Winner is
And this is in my personal experience—Less Time Spent. It’s much quicker to use and it allows you to quickly reference anything you might need to create an invoice.
With online timers you gain the huge benefit of being able to track your time on any machine. However, the downside is being tied to an open browser window.
To get around this—I’ve started using Safari to track time (it’s not my default browser) and Firefox for all my other web browsing needs.
Like I mentioned before, there are so many time trackers out there—I really feel like the best on will be the one that fits with your current way of working. No organization application works if it takes you more time to use it than not.
It’s kind of a pain to have to track time—so you will definitely want an enjoyable and easy way to do it.
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