# RescueTime Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is RescueTime the right Time Tracking solution for you? Explore 141 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/103317/RescueTime/reviews --- RescueTime 4.6 (141) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/103317/RescueTime/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Reviews of RescueTime Ease of use 4.6 Customer Service 4.5 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews Jeffrey B ChevronOil & Energy, 5,001 - 10,000 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “I use the reports to adjust my work habits, making sure I spend most of my time on high-value activities, such as software design and development, work-life balance: RescueTime helps me maintain a healthy work balance and rest, which is crucial to avoid burnout.“ May 10, 2024 AB Angelica B University InternPharmaceuticals, 501 - 1,000 employeesUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “One drawback of RescueTime is that its automatic time tracking might not fully record all offline activities, which could result in inaccurate results.“ June 9, 2023 Jeffrey B ChevronOil & Energy, 5,001 - 10,000 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “This helps me get an accurate and objective picture of my work day without extra effort, the biggest time savings I have is with these features.“ May 10, 2024 Martynas S Infrastructure EngineeringComputer & Network Security, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “when i am using RescueTime i am always worried that too much of my information will go online“ January 24, 2025 AB Angelica B University InternPharmaceuticals, 501 - 1,000 employeesUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “The software's automatic time tracking offered insightful information about my work habits and assisted me in locating time wasters and potential improvement areas.“ June 9, 2023 AB Angelica B University InternPharmaceuticals, 501 - 1,000 employeesUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “Some users could find the comprehensive reports to be too much to handle or think that the productivity ratings are arbitrary.“ June 9, 2023 René A DesignerGraphic Design, Self-employedUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Rescue time helped me to capture my app and website behaviour and thus made it possible to identify areas where I could cut back on wasting time or streamline the usage of an app.“ June 27, 2023 Vadasz Z Business developerInformation Technology and Services, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “The pricing was not so appealing compared to other time tracking tools“ June 22, 2022 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 141 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Nicolet G. Eigenaar Photography Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "The only time management app that helps me take control of my time" June 30, 2019 5.0 I've spent significantly less time on social media since I implemented RescueTime in my system and, I now have a very detailed insight on how much time I spend on productive time. RescueTime helps me focus. I cannot recommend RescueTime enough.​ Pros Even though it is not a time tracker in the sense of providing info to clients, I've chosen RescueTime over all other time management software. Why? Because it helps me focus, and it gives me a clear insight into how I spend my time, both online and offline. The best part: I hardly need to fill in anything, the app provides all the details of sites and apps I use on my computer and, my phone. It takes some time, in the beginning, to set things up; you have to teach the app what you consider very productive, productive, neutral, distractive, or very distractive. But, then, it gives a clear overview of your productivity on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. As a pro-subscriber, I can also fill in time I did not spend on my computer. ​ Besides: In RescueTime,​ I can set focus time; After spending more than one hour on distracting time during work hours, ​the app blocks all websites and apps I consider distracting. Cons The only thing I am missing is the possibility​ to assign work to projects and, clients. It would make it perfect! Alternatives considered [Harvest](https://www.capterra.com/p/75598/Harvest/)[Toggl Track](https://www.capterra.com/p/247745/Toggl/) Reason for choosing RescueTime To me, it is more important to know how I spend my time than to track time I use on client work. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Founder and CEO Financial Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### " Bottom-Up Objectivity Yields No-brainer Accountability" September 21, 2019 5.0 About 4 years into my business I took on outside investors. Both as a good-faith external gesture as well as internally-focused improvement, undertook a whole series of policy and operational changes to increase transparency and allow people to hold themselves accountable. One small part of these efforts was rescuetime, which 10 years later is ironically is the only single-decision that was 100% correct then and now. We use their data as inputs to all sorts of other business processes, both weekly and for year-end reviews. I recommend it constantly, it truly is a no-brainer because as long as you can install software and spend more than a couple hours a day on computers/phones, you will get value out of it... not just immediately but over time. Pros No brainer- install it with no configuration, and you instantly get personalized and valuable weekly reports. Works on windows/mac/linux/android/iphone so can be used by anyone in company or any external team. Excellent user-interface, very easy to customize to each user's specific goals if they choose to do so. Cons The phone-based apps didn't seem to automatically categorize calls w/known contacts. Sometimes if a given site hosted applications with two different goals/intentions/categories, this at minimum much trickier to track properly and Alternatives considered [Time Doctor](https://www.capterra.com/p/129984/Time-Doctor/) Reason for choosing RescueTime Rescuetime seemed like the highest quality product, better looking and had best compromise between it's free and paid plans (we use both). Probably most importantly, it does the most out of the box. We have enough things we ask employees and consultants to do, and 100% objective time tracking is always going to be valuable even if other methods are used in parallel. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Junior Software Developer Computer Software Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Slightly underwhelming" March 18, 2019 3.0 I am currently trying to use rescue time for personal time trend awareness, but it seems to be more work and time spent to set up and maintain for my purposes than it saves me. I think this tool would be better if individual activities could be labelled as productive or otherwise, without needing to create a new category to apply it differently from similar tasks that are on the opposite end of the productivity spectrum. For instance, facebook should generally be a distraction, but if you use LinkedIn or other professional social media on a regular basis, it shouldn't require you to create a special setup just to have that one app or website treated as productive time without labeling facebook as the same importance. Seems like an oversight to me, but perhaps I just needed to use the category system more readily. Pros This software does pick up a lot of useful data, and allows you to quickly see what things you do on the computer and how the trends flow during your day or week. There is a lot of good information, simple to install and use generally, and overall a decent experience. Cons I dislike the fact that you can't really customize things without lots of tedium in the categories and other areas. Also, the ability to change tracked sections of the day or week are somewhat limited; there are only one or two generic filters for declaring which days and hours to run the tracking. I have noticed that the categories are geared mostly toward organizations more than individuals. I have realized that if I customize categories to make a certain activity productive time instead of distracted time, it won't let me change just that one activity to be productive without bringing the entire category along with it. Review Source Nneka O. Freelance Content Writer Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Productivity Tracker for Remote workers" July 31, 2021 5.0 I use Rescue Time to stay productive and track my billable hours. Pros It is easy to use. It has productivity reports at the end of the day. It helps me stay on track with my tasks daily. And it is invaluable for tracking billable hours. Cons Interface looks dated and a bit clunky. But it is a great software for tracking my productivity. Switched from [Toggl Track](https://www.capterra.com/p/247745/Toggl/) Moved to a new company that used Rescue Time. Left the company but I continue using the tool because it is great. Review Source AR Aaron R. CTO Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Frictionaless Time Tracking" September 25, 2019 4.0 I primarily use it to understand and track my own efficiency and make sure that what I am actually doing aligns with my strategic and operational directives. Pros It works in the background, I don't need to remember to turn it on or off. No need to disposition time regularly so it doesn't interfere with organic or non-linear workflows. I can go back and disposition all at once at the end of the day or very few days. Cons Update frequency seems high and sometimes the update pop-up is intrusive. Switched from [Harvest](https://www.capterra.com/p/75598/Harvest/) Had to manually start and stop timers which we often forgot to do. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer CEO Design Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "If you hate tracking this is the app for you " January 9, 2025 5.0 It takes some time initially to categorize your app activities with the tag setup you want. But once it's done it's a thing of beauty. I use it to track that I'm spending enough time doing revenue generating activities for my business. And to make sure I'm not spending too much time doing things I shouldn't. I even use this to guide our company org chart. If I'm spending too much time on certain activities, I can see what is worth delegating or automating. Pros Love to have a hands off time tracking app where I don't need to remember to actively track. This is set it and forget which is exactly what I needed. Cons I'd love more customisation in the reports and choosing what you want to see in the weekly email reports. Review Source JF Jem F. CEO Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Best way to discover how well you lose/use your time" December 5, 2024 5.0 Using Rescue Time has been invaluable as an easy way to track my productivity & effectiveness. It has enabled me to reduce my distractions as well as use my more productive times more efficiently. Pros Easy to understand tracked data on the dashboard. Visual charts are impactful & very helpful. It can be quite surprising to see how much time I can waste & also how much good time I have put into my work & projects including when I seem to be most creative/productive. Also it's great that it can track my activity across my devices eg my laptop & my phone to give a better picture of how I am using/losing my time. Cons Although the dashboard is accessed through a web browser, it is still necessary to download software to run on your computer & phone too. Review Source Dan F. Senior Systems Architect Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Consistently great, but dangerous for managers" March 13, 2019 5.0 I've used RescueTime for years. It's the ultimate in "set and forget" software. Essentially it sits on your computer and silently watches your productivity, totaling up the time you spend doing actual work and the time you spend goofing off. At the end of the week you get a nice little email report telling you how you did. It does a great job not shaming you when you do poorly, as I have many times. When you have a really productive week, however, it rewards you by documenting that fact. Pros Provides a great little nudge to remind you that when you're on your computer working, you should, be, like, working... the free offering is excellent, allowing you do a semi-deep dive into your data, seeing what you're doing most and helping you improve Cons The software is great, and the portal too, but the thing I worry about most is this sort of thing getting in the hands of (bad) developer managers, who might use it to spy on their employees, firing the least "productive" ones. Truly, everyone needs a break now and then, so it worries me a bit that this powerful program could fall into the wrong hands. "With great power comes great responsibility", that sort of thing.. The other thing is the feature set has not changed much in recent years. Subtle improvements could go along way... for instance, I wish it could help me with is filling in my timesheet each week. Imagine if it could tell me which solutions i have open most often in VS Code, for example, and I could charge my time to each project. Review Source René A. Designer Graphic Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Identify potential time wasters with RescueTime" June 27, 2023 5.0 Rescue time helped me to capture my app and website behaviour and thus made it possible to identify areas where I could cut back on wasting time or streamline the usage of an app. This was especially obvious with the use of e-mail. Now I try to stick to certain times a day which cut back the time of e-mail usage significantly. Also if you already have the feeling that you spent too much time with distracting activities you can block them. Pros The detailed analysis of how I use apps and websites made it possible to become more efficient when working with a computer. You can also block distractions if needed. Cons Personally I don’t have any complaints but if you don’t want to have all your app and website usage logged online then this might be a downside. Review Source Bryan M. Product Director Design Used the software for: 2+ years ### "My favorite solution for seeing where time is spent" July 2, 2018 5.0 Easiest way to track productivity and time spent across applications/categories. Pros Rescuetime automatically tracks and categorizes the activities of you and your team. It makes it easy to see what areas and applications you might be spending more time in than expected. The weekly report emails are great and the productivity score is a nice way to get a glance at productivity vs previous months. Cons I would like if there was a different way to categorize specific files from different projects into projects within rescuetime. There may be a way to make a solution like this happen with the current features, but if I could tag certain portions of time towards specific projects it would give me further insight not only on the type of work I am doing (development, communication), but into the specific project that time was spent on. This is a small niche need though and it hasn't stopped me from using Rescuetime. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Infrastructure Engineering Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 2+ years ### "If you want to rescue your time - you have found the tool" January 24, 2025 4.0 in general i am using RescueTime, unless i work with very sensitive stuff Pros easy tracking of time, original time tracker Cons when i am using RescueTime i am always worried that too much of my information will go online Review Source CH Christian H. Engineering Consultant Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Keeps track of what you are doing automatically (and how long...)" January 15, 2023 5.0 I'm happy with that tools. It helps me keep track of working hours per project. Pros The ease of use is the best of that tool. Without having to remember to start a task or something, it silently records what you are doing in the background. Cons Sometimes (but rarely...) it can be difficult to assign a recorded activity to a certain project. That happens at times with many simultaneous projects of a similar kind for which I have to use the same tools. Reason for choosing RescueTime I can't remember the names of all the software I looked at before picking RescueTime but what made the point for me was the automatic tracking without having to start a timer or something. Review Source DO Devin O. CEO E-Learning Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great for seeing where your time goes" September 26, 2023 5.0 Pros All versions of RescueTime offer a great overview of where you spend your time -- particularly how much time you waste on things like email and social media Cons Really nothing I can think of. I use the free version, and it still feels very comprehensive for my needs. Review Source JB Jessica B. Operations Manager Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "If I wasn't so cheap, I'd pay for it" August 15, 2018 4.0 While it's not the easy user experience to figure out, it's still a really helpful tool to reconstructing a day. Pros It's so helpful when recreating your day. We have to log every hour we spend, so we know what's billable and what's not, and some days I'm so all over the place I forget what I've done all day, so this helps me figure it out. It's also really nice that you can set your own designations for what's "productive" and what's "distracting." For most companies, Facebook would be "very distracting," but we actually do a lot of social media work for our clients, so it can be "productive" time for us. Just nice to have that flexibility. And the weekly emails are a nice reminder about how time adds up. Cons For a short period of time, I was able to use the "FocusTime" feature, which was awesome. I essentially turned off your access to programs or websites that were listed as "distracting." It pretty much stopped you from being your own enemy. I wish that was still part of the free version, b/c it was very helpful. Also, it's pretty clunky getting through the report of how you spent your time. You either have to look at it by category (Very Productive, Productive, Neutral, Distracting, Very Distracting) individually, or by task (Communication, Business, etc.), there's not just a way to see a full list of everything. And navigating between the different views isn't easy, but you get the hang of it. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Marketing Consultant Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "How Dare You Make Me Focus" December 3, 2019 5.0 RescueTime was great at helping me re-focus my attention when I had been spending too much time on things that didn't move me forward, I'm looking at you social media... Pros Oh RescueTime how I love and hate you. You make me focus when I don't want to, so I actually get stuff done. When you set up RescueTime you have to know you'll be incredibly frustrated when you're locked out of certain websites, but that's the point. It's great at helping you focus your attention where you need it to be. Cons It didn't work great on my phone. Usually I was able to work around it and make it to websites I had locked out during focused time. That's my own fault really though, because I should have stopped myself instead of proceeding to find a way around it. Review Source AWC Abdul Waudud C. Mobile App Developer Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "RescueTime is a Very useful Online Time Management Tool" November 1, 2020 4.0 I love this tool and will continue to use it. Pros RescueTime is a great tool when it comes to keeping track of your precious time online. It monitors each and every website you visit and the apps you use. And most importantly it tracks how much time you spend on each of them. It automatically categorizes most of the apps and sites you use on a productive or destructive level. You can always map various sites according to your requirements. It gives very detailed stats weekly and shows exactly how you spend your time online. It also helps you to set weekly productivity goals and reduce unproductive time spend. It seamlessly works in the background and tracks time on your PC and Mobile. RescueTime free version is enough for most of the user. Cons A real-time notification would be helpful. RescueTime pro version is a little costly. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Partner Financial Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "One of the best in the market" March 26, 2022 4.0 Pros It's usage tracking abilities across multiple devices is definitely its killer feature Cons Its API capabilities are very limited and new features seem to make the product worse rather than better Review Source JL Junjie L. Co-founder Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Track your productivity (or unproductivity) with email reports" March 6, 2018 5.0 Pros RescueTime runs in the background of my computer, tracking every single minute that I spend on the computer. Because it has a huge and comprehensive database of apps and websites that it categorizes as productive or unproductive, it can automatically break down for me how much time I've spend in the day/week as productive (or not), and whether I've reached the goals that I've set up myself on the website. I love the email reports that they send to me, letting me know how much time I've actually spent on my work. Cons The included software on the Mac looks rudimentary, but it's not even something I have to deal with because it just runs in the background in the menu bar. It doesn't offer an option to hide the menu bar icon, so if that bothers you you'll need something like Bartender to hide it. Review Source AK Aivar K. Administrator and owner Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Unintrusive way to track how you are spending your time" August 20, 2021 5.0 RescueTime helps me to motivate myself and do more. I can experiment with lifestyle changes and see how they impact my productivity. Pros Detailed stats Focus mode API integrations Support for all relevant platforms Cons Can be a bit slow when trying to view monthly or yearly stats Lacks a single-page view for all the activities on a given day - only by category Reason for choosing RescueTime When I started using it, back in 2013, there were no significant competitors to speak of. I have yet to see a single reason to consider switching. Review Source DR Daniel R. Founder Writing and Editing Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Only tool that met my needs (using Linux background daemon)" January 7, 2020 5.0 Great. I've looked into all of its functionalities, including measuring how much time you spend on various websites, but I only use one very basic feature: finding out how much time I spend working per day! I added the background process for Linux Ubuntu as a startup process and the tool stays completely hidden during use (the daemon doesn't even show in the notification area). I use Zapier to push the daily hour count to a Gsheet and then email that to myself as a daily report. Pros After evaluating all possible time trackers for Ubuntu, RescueTime was the only product I found which would give me a simple metric which is part of my KPIs — how much time am I spending at my workstation every day during weekdays? The tool does a lot more than that, but I capture this metric and email it to myself daily thanks to a Zapier hook. Cons The Ubuntu GUI doesn't really exist if I remember correctly. Would be nice to have the option, although even if I did, I probably wouldn't use it. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Manager Real Estate Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Does what it says. Works in the background so you don't have to worry about it" June 19, 2019 5.0 Pros Easy to set up and works in the background so you don't have to worry about it. It also adds data from your cell phone, which is critical to see how your time gets spent each day. Cons Really, none that I can think of. I have been using it for many years, it's a keeper. Review Source CB Collin B. Assistant Professor Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Simple to use, takes a little bit of setup, but worth it" April 23, 2018 5.0 Good weekly reporting of time usage, with decent granularity. It's totally out of the way and does everything without me thinking about it now that I have all of my apps and regular websites categorized. Pros It's really easy to use and once you go through setting things up it takes no thought or effort. It just runs in the background and reports weekly. Knowing that it's running helps me stay on task. Cons The auto-categorization works okay, but I needed to spend a good chunk of time custom categorizing various apps and websites because it was throwing off my reporting. (But I AM glad that they at least allow you that option) Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Founder Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Great way to see where your time is going" December 31, 2019 5.0 RescueTime actually really helped me understand how much time I was spending being productive vs. mindlessly lurking the web. It's definitely helped me improve in that regard over the past few months. Pros \- an instant setup that's also highly customizable - gives you a full overview of where your time is being spent on the computer - you can categorize and filter out data if you like Cons Not that I would expect it to do any better, but sometimes it can take some time to make sure all your activity is properly categorized Review Source BJ N. Software Engineer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Great app for making you aware of how much time you waste" May 15, 2019 5.0 This app definitely increased my productivity. If you have a hard time staying focused while on a computer, I'd recommend this! Pros Not only are the categories already extremely thorough, but the ability to create your own categories is just awesome! I only used this app for about 6 months before I stopped, not because I didn't like it, but because I got everything I needed out of it: Better time management skills. Cons This is not the app's fault (goes for any app meant to help build habits or increase productivity): For the first week or so, there was a lot of "setting up" before it started working for me. You had to categorize each site you went to so that it could build up a dictionary/library and give you metrics. Like I said though, the app does it well, it's just tedious at the beginning. Review Source Zamruddin S. Founder E-Learning Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Excellent product for like me people that do not manage time properly" December 19, 2022 5.0 Pros I am a tech-savvy person, and I like to research new technology more than 5+ hours are spent on this and I can't manage how many hours of the day I watch YouTube videos or watch Netflix Web Series, for a very long time I can't monitor my spending time And one of my favorite Youtuber is talking about Rescue Time. That helps them to manage their time and then I wondered why not I would also start to use and now, it has helped me to know how I spend my time and give insight full information about them, And I can just try to modify my time spending structure and get most out of the time. Cons Great product can't find any cons for this software Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Related categories [Time Tracking](https://www.capterra.com/time-tracking-software/) ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.