# Page 2 | RescueTime Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra

> Page 2 - 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

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RescueTime

4.6 (141)

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Last updated March 13th, 2026

# Page 2 - Reviews of RescueTime

## Showing most helpful reviews

Showing 26-50 of 141 Reviews

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VR

Verified Reviewer  
Chevron  
Oil & Energy  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Good automatic tracking capacity."

May 10, 2024

4.0

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. I establish limits regarding work time and make sure to reserve time for breaks and personal activities, simply fantastic except for what was previously mentioned such as more information about the data collected by your company.

Pros

One of the most useful aspects of RescueTime is its ability to automatically track the time I spend on different apps and websites without the need for manual intervention. 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.

Cons

Although I understand the need for monitoring to improve productivity, I am sometimes concerned about privacy and how the collected data is handled, especially when it comes to sensitive information related to my work at \[sensitive content hidden\], I think I am missing or the team is missing more data About this, further learning, this program does not have the guidelines as clear as other similar software.

Review Source

EL

Eero L.  
CEO  
Consumer Electronics  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The best time-tracking tool. Period."

July 25, 2021

5.0

Overall, I have a much better understanding how I am using my time. I have spotted a lot of time-consuming activies and removed or limited them, while increasing the beneficial activities. I am very happy with the software and intend to use it in the future too.

Pros

This software has been a game-changer, and I have been a happy paying customer now for more than three years. The tracking is very precise and works on all of my devices. Reports and analytics are easy to understand, and the software allows a lot of customization when it comes to recorded activities and their categorization. All in all a top product.

Cons

The only thing I don't like about RescueTime is that it can records me on multiple devices at the same time and counts those as separate. For example, I may listen to something on Youtube on my cellphone while I work on the laptop. RescueTime would then add both Youtube-time (harmful) and working time in its records. That can of course be changed by either modifying the records later or turning the tracking off prior to situations like this. However, I wish there will be some AI in the future to make this part more intelligent.

Reason for choosing RescueTime

At the time of purchasing, I didn't really find anything similar to RescueTime, at least when it comes to options.

Review Source

AB

Angelica B.  
University Intern  
Pharmaceuticals  
Used the software for: I used a free trial

### "Unleash Your Potential with RescueTime's Powerful Time Tracking"

June 9, 2023

5.0

RescueTime became a crucial tool for time management during my internship in the pharmaceutical product development and research division. The software's automatic time tracking offered insightful information about my work habits and assisted me in locating time wasters and potential improvement areas. I was inspired to stay focused and complete my tasks by RescueTime's productivity rankings. I was able to reduce distractions and keep up a high level of work by setting individualized notifications and focus time intervals. Overall, RescueTime made a big difference in my ability to effectively manage my time and be productive in a rigorous research atmosphere.

Pros

RescueTime can help you find and get rid of distractions to increase productivity by giving you insightful information about how you spend your time. The program automatically keeps tabs on your usage across numerous websites and applications and generates thorough time usage reports. You can establish objectives and track development using RescueTime's productivity scores and goal-setting options. RescueTime enables you to retain focus on key tasks with its customized warnings and concentrate time settings. Users are empowered to make knowledgeable decisions about their time management by the software's user-friendly interface and clear reports, which increase productivity and work-life balance.

Cons

One drawback of RescueTime is that its automatic time tracking might not fully record all offline activities, which could result in inaccurate results. RescueTime's free edition has a limited feature set, and upgrading is necessary to access more sophisticated functions. Some users could find the comprehensive reports to be too much to handle or think that the productivity ratings are arbitrary. RescueTime offers information, but it doesn't actively push users to modify their behavior; instead, it relies on users' willpower to do so.

Review Source

LP

Lucas P.  
Senior Software Engineer  
Computer & Network Security  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Activity tracking done right"

August 7, 2023

5.0

I would definitely recommend it to everybody, even if you don't have a professional need for it, just the insights it gives you (even in the free version!) are truly amazing.

Pros

The best thing about RescueTime is how after setup you simply forget about it. It works 100% without interaction and at the end of each day you have a comprehensive report on all the activities you performed.

Cons

Until recently the user interface was a bit suboptimal, however, with new version of rescue time even that is no longer an issue given the modern revamped layout.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Web Developer & Graphic Designer  
Internet  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "A Good Way to Get an Overview of Where your Time is Going"

December 4, 2019

4.0

I keep it running in the background and it seems to work well for me. I'll continue to use it. When it has benefit to me, it's quite a help. When it doesn't, I just don't pay attention to it.

Pros

It's easy to set up and use and pretty much works on its own. Using RescueTime, you can see how much time is spent on your computer and what types of things you are doing. It also comes in handy to be able to back-track and see what you were working on when you've been lax on your time-tracking duties. It helps to retro-actively fill in timesheets.

Cons

Some of the categorization out of the box doesn't always match up to your reality; for example, it may track a task as being unproductive when, in fact, it was a productive task for you. So things that it reports need to be either reviewed or taken with a grain of salt.

Review Source

Sean B.  
Student  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Cannot recommend this enough. "

September 20, 2019

4.0

This is the first thing I install in all my new machines and browsers, the information it provides is invaluable and really eye-opening, and really worth the low price-tag honestly. I really recommend this for anyone looking to improve their productivity.

Pros

The amount of information that this gathers is just mindblowing, being available on everything is just awesome. The automatic categorization for apps works most of the time. Then there are the vast amount of integrations it offers. This is the best time tracking software I have used, which just gets better with time.

Cons

Re-categorizing activities is somewhat convoluted, I've had to bookmark the page honestly so I can get to it quickly. The focus sessions are a neat feature but it needs to be more robust as it is quite easy to circumvent.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Reactor Engineer  
Renewables & Environment  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "RescueTime helps you manage the most limited resource you have."

April 19, 2018

5.0

Pros

I love that RescueTime is both easy to use, requiring very little setup, and also infinitely customizable, meaning that over time you can mold it to exactly what you want it to be doing. For instance, in tracking how productively you are using your time, it already knows that certain websites are distracting and certain ones are productive, but if your work requires you to spend some time on a specific "distracting" website, you can re-categorize it as needed to capture that.

Cons

I have very few complaints about RescueTime. I feel like it does everything I need it to do. If anything, I wish the free version had more features, but I am more than happy to pay for the premium version to get the features I need.

Review Source

Kevin F.  
Consultant  
Construction  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Identify & highlight distractions"

August 21, 2018

5.0

I had experienced a drop in my income as a self-employed consultant. I felt that I was always busy, but was billing less, and this software made it clear to me that I was indeed busy all day, but on many distractions that were not contributing to income or projects, but were costing time and my energy. RescueTime put me back on track, and I have stayed there for the past two years. Savings/earnings are of the order per annum, I kid you not.

Pros

This software helped me to objectively and quantitatively identify which distractions were doing most damage to my daily income. By seeing it in front of me and putting against it, I was able to instantly cut those activities out completely or minimise them.

Cons

No cons, really. The software is unobtrusive, not pushy, it just does its thing well.

Review Source

Fernando R.  
CCO  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great tool to time tracking"

December 2, 2022

5.0

I use daily rescuetime to track my time. It categorize the time by software you are log in. It shows me how I use my time

Pros

The time tracking is easy. It has a good UI and categorize automatically the tools used in the PC

Cons

More reports in free plan. Better app from mobile devices

Review Source

Iris H.  
Concept Artist  
Entertainment  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The stats will surprise you"

September 8, 2018

5.0

Definitely worth it.

Pros

Rescuetime has mostly helped me whittle down little time sinks that I was unaware of. For example, it turned out I spent 30 minutes a day selecting songs on iTunes; now I have a playlist on shuffle and do not actively use iTunes anymore to select my music during the work day. Rescuetime has often surprised me by showing stats being very different from how I perceived them. It can also be motivated to see a highly productive day unfolding and feeling competitive with yourself.

Cons

Currently Rescuetime cannot distinguish browser tabs in Firefox. Other apps like Timedoctor can, so I'm sure Rescuetime could fix this if they'd commit to it.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Social Media and Content Specialist  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Never realized how much time I was wasting! "

December 17, 2018

4.0

It's been a great way to see a true summary of how I'm spending my time and ensure that I'm being mindful of my use of the internet. The accountability makes me more productive during work hours, because I want my weekly report to be positive!

Pros

The ability to sync across multiple devices - I use it on my work laptop, my personal laptop, and my mobile phone. This gives me a much clearer idea of how I'm spending my online life. I also like the weekly email that sums up my time logged, as well as the ability to recategorize certain apps. For example, I use Twitter for work, so I don't want it to count as "very distracting."

Cons

I wish there was an easier way to note when I'm being productive vs. when I'm wasting time on the same app. Sometimes I use Instagram for work and sometimes I use it for pleasure, and there's no way I've found to differentiate the uses.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Software Developer  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "The Best Productivity Tracker"

May 17, 2020

5.0

RescueTime is a great tool and a very necessary one to automatically measure and monitor how and what you spend your time on

Pros

RescueTime is a very straightforward and easy to use time tracker as you just download the time tracking app onto your laptop or android device and it does the rest. It fits in well with our current requirement as it silently and automatically records time spent on each application in the background. The feature that we enjoyed the most is the fact that you get to see a complete picture of your productive and non productive time, this is all categorised automatically and it is very accurate. In addition, you get a dashboard online for you to visualise your activity. It greatly helped us to improve how we spent our time.

Cons

As an improvement, a feature that might be required is one to categorise certain activities viewed as non productive as productive. Additionally, support to integrate the logged hours with a billing tool will be very handy

Review Source

Sebastian W.  
Lecturer  
Higher Education  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great automatic activity tracker, with only the limitations of that approach"

February 18, 2022

4.0

RescueTime is a very well-designed solution for automatic activity tracking; I am just no longer really convinced that this is the right approach (for me). The focus on applications (not projects) makes the collected data of limited value (for me). I still use it, since it is free and doesn't hurt, but I am not relying on the collected data for analyzing my working patterns anymore

Pros

Tracks what you work one completely automatically, reliably records all applications used, gives automatic ratings how “productive” certain applications are

Cons

Updating the Linux client could be smoother / better automated.

Review Source

BM

Benjamin M.  
Chargé d'E-commerce  
Retail  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Idéal pour concilier vie pro et vie perso"

August 21, 2023

5.0

Pros

Rescuetime permet réellement de gérer son temps d'écran de manière optimal et d'identifier tout de suite les taches et réunion trop chronophages.

Cons

Il n' y a pas d'inconvénients majeur dans l'utilisation de RescueTime

Review Source

VA

Vinicius A.  
Designer  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Grade your productivity"

August 25, 2019

5.0

It’s free, and in the first week you will see the transformation it can make at your day job. You'll see where you are wasting too much time, and what you have to cut out in order to stop losing attention on what really matters. Tip for the development team: Please do, invest in design, the product is good and affordable, a good UI/UX project can bring a great perception of value.

Pros

I was first introduced at rescue time by a work colleague, he was claiming that he could do pomodoro time, and in the end of the day he knew how much focused and productive he had been. I was curious out by this tool, so I start using it and became impressed in how simple and silent it was, it was just a icon occult in my taskbar. It demands only 3mb of pc memory and maps everything that I do. He is aware of the types of websites I'm accessing because he already has a database. However I had to edit some sites as research/work/etc. (like my company website).

Cons

The interface is ugly and outdated, but the use is so simple that maybe not the focus of development team. The information architecture and content at the dashboard page is the biggest problem, a simple redesign could do miracles.

Review Source

Ulrich N.  
Doctor  
Medical Practice  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Excellent Rescue Time!"

November 8, 2023

4.0

Rescue Time is excellent for efficient time management, organizing and backing up your activities. Offering users other language options besides English would make it perfect.

Pros

I love this software. With it, I plan my work, I organize my time, I control the duration of use of websites and block those that distract me. And I can also save my activities every day, unbelievable!

Cons

This great software seems to be designed only for English speakers, since there's no option to switch languages.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Senior Software Engineer  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "A glance at productivity"

December 5, 2018

4.0

Pros

The ease of use and automated sorting buckets make it really easy to set up. I also love how seamlessly my account works between browsers and my two different computers. It makes me not have to worry about syncing data manually to prevent double-counting time.

Cons

There isn't much else you can do on the free tier of this product outside of seeing visualizations of usage. Though this is benefitial on its own, there were other pieces of software I needed to use in order to take action on the behavior I wanted to change/improve.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Web Developer  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Rescue your days and weeks from procastinating (too much)"

February 12, 2020

5.0

A good tool to breakdown and understand your time online and offline on the devices, a great tool to have if you want to be more productive and healthier as well.

Pros

Rescue TIme is a great tool for those concerned on how are they spending their time online. Rescue Time lets you record precisely how much time you spent and where, giving you a real (often shocking) insight on what you were doing. This not only concerns people that wants to be more productive but also people that want to stay away from using too much their phones. In general RescueTime is simple and their free version does well for my needs. Rescue Time is simple to use, you don't have to do anything, just pretend nobody is watching and check your reports to see what's going on.

Cons

Their GUI could use some improving, the overall design of the websites are apps is a bit outdated and for such a popular service I would expect a better design. Maybe it's on the way. Generally speaking I am happy with Rescue Time and I don't see major issues using it.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Coach  
E-Learning  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "No more asking where your spend your time"

October 5, 2021

5.0

Pros

I really like that I can see where I spend - or waste - most of my time.

Cons

I would really appreciate if it was translated in a few other languages, like French. It would make it easier for me to recommend it to my French speaking friends.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Systems Engineer  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "RescueTime lets me make sense of my work habits..."

October 3, 2018

4.0

My experience has been really positive. I love the data it gathers and it helps me to stay focused on getting things done.

Pros

I love that I can set it and forget it. It will record my interactions with my computer in the background and keep a detailed log of what I'm doing. It lets me see trending on how I spend my work and leisure time, giving me a lot of insights into how I work. I also like that I can have it setup to run on multiple computers and it'll aggregate all of the data so if I move from one computer to another, it combines the data into one dashboard.

Cons

Not really a con, I just sometimes forget about it and don't check my reports. It would be nice maybe if it had some notificatons to let me know that I should check in to see how I'm doing.

Review Source

JE

Jean E.  
Multimedia Designer  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great for finding "time leaks" in productivity "

February 17, 2022

5.0

RescueTime has helped me increase my productivity, by pointing out where my time is truly spent.

Pros

I love the weekly emailed report on productivity. It’s helped me find and fix "time leaks" in my productivity.

Cons

I don’t use this for billing, because I jump in and out of local software as well as multiple websites for each project, making connecting the time to different projects too complex, so I use another piece of software for project time tracking.

Review Source

ML

Michal L.  
Assistant  
Law Practice  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Great tool for staying productive"

July 20, 2017

5.0

I have recommended this product to our attorneys. Great way to keep track of how much time you spend weekly on business related activities on your workstation.

Pros

Easy to use: RescueTime is very intuitive and easy to use. Once it is downloaded and installed, it starts automatically. Easy to customize: It just takes a few clicks to tell RescueTime which activities are productive for your business. Weekly summary report: RescueTime doesn't blow up your inbox, but rather sends a weekly summary to help you keep your time spent on business on track. Tracks the user on multiple workstations: If you use more than one workstation, RescueTime will aggregate your time. Regular, easy updates: RescueTime updates come out regularly, and take a single click. Yay! Great value for the money: I use the FREE version, and it does what I need.

Cons

I can't think of any cons. However, I have not use the paid version of RescueTime, so I don't know what features or benefits I am missing out on.

Review Source

Jorgen P.  
Manager of Technical Operations  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great for staying accountable"

December 3, 2019

5.0

RescueTime brings insights into how you use your time, whether it's in a productive way or not. Can shed light on just how much time you spend on your computer.

Pros

Automatic tracking of how you use your time Easy to use dashboard Great way to stay accountable with your Goals

Cons

Lack of detail in reporting (RescueTime is not a replacement for time tracking for contractors) Always on nature of recording can pose a privacy risk

Review Source

EP

Erik P.  
Director of Technology  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "So that's where all my time goes ... writing software reviews."

June 18, 2018

5.0

Pros

I've been using the free version for some time now. It was really interesting at first, now I generally ignore it. But, I should probably take a look at my reports again to see how I'm doing. I'm impressed that it not only keeps track of time spent browsing different sites but time spent using local programs (Word, Excel, or even Remote Desktop, but not the specific usage on a remote computer). You can specify a category and how productive or distracting each website or program is. This is really helpful because a site could be productive for some people and distracting for others, depending on the type of work you do.

Cons

Sometimes I wish that it kept more history. I think it does if you pay for it. So, that makes sense. I just have it on my Windows desktop. I tried to add it to my android phone once and it didn't seem to work well. But, to be honest I didn't try very hard to get it setup.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Founder  
Internet  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Recuetime Review"

January 15, 2019

5.0

Rescuetime has made it easy to bill clients as I can show them the time spent on their projects. I also use it to evaluate the effectiveness of my team.

Pros

The software is just perfect for me. I aim to manage my time and Rescuetime makes that seamless.The daily and weekly reports help me to evaluate how I use my time. The software also has an affiliate program and thats beneficial to me as well.

Cons

I have installed it on my iPhone but I can seem to be able to track my time use on the phone. I am also not sure if the software tracks time when the screen is off.

Review Source

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