Happy Hours vs Toggl
Toggl is a time tracker first, with one of the best timers around. Happy Hours is built around getting paid: time, expenses, invoices, and online payments for a flat $10/month.
14 days, no credit card.
Happy Hours
$10/month
Everything included
- Plans
- One plan, every feature
- Invoices
- Built from time and expenses, emailed with a pay link
- Online payments
- Card and ACH, with ACH capped at $5
- Expenses
- Bank sync and AI receipt reading
- Timer
- No timer: log time on a calendar or weekly grid
- Best for
- Solo freelancers and consultants who bill clients
Toggl
$12/user/month
Starter, Toggl’s first plan with billable rates ($9 billed annually)
- Plans
- Free, Starter, Premium, and Enterprise
- Invoices
- A basic invoice built from a time report
- Online payments
- None
- Expenses
- Only in Toggl Work, a separate product
- Timer
- Yes, with desktop and mobile apps and browser extensions
- Best for
- People and teams who live by a timer
Happy Hours and Toggl, feature by feature
Toggl is a time tracker with some billing features. Happy Hours is a billing tool with time tracking built in. Here’s where each one stops.
| Feature | Happy Hours | Toggl |
|---|---|---|
| Time tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Timesheet view | Yes. Weekly grid, with copy from last week | Yes |
| Calendar view | Yes. Click or drag out blocks of time | Yes |
| Timesheet approvals | No. Built for one person, so there’s no one to approve | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Premium plan |
| Expense tracking | Yes | *‡Yes, but only in higher tiers of Toggl Work, a separate product. Only in Toggl Work, a separate product |
| Automatic receipt parsing | Yes. AI reads receipt photos and PDFs | *‡Yes, but only in higher tiers of Toggl Work, a separate product. Only in Toggl Work |
| Automatic bank & card transaction import | Yes. Bank and card sync via Plaid | No |
| Project management | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited projects & customers | Yes. No caps and no usage fees | Yes |
| Time & expense contracts | Yes | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Billable rates on Starter and up; no expenses |
| Fixed-price contracts | Yes. With milestones | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Fixed-fee projects on Premium |
| Task granularity | No. Time is tracked per project | Yes. Tasks within each project |
| Budgeting | Yes | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Time estimates on Starter, fixed fees on Premium |
| Hours budgets | Yes | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees |
| Dollar budgets | Yes | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees |
| Retainers | Yes. Monthly retainers that reset each month | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees |
| Estimates | Yes | No. Time estimates only, not quotes for clients |
| Convert approved estimates to invoices | Yes. Or into projects | No |
| Invoicing | Yes | Yes. A basic invoice built from a time report |
| Pre-fill line items from time & expenses | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable invoice templates | †Yes, but limited preset options. Four templates with your logo | No. Fixed layout; logo and custom fields on paid plans |
| Multi-currency | No. US dollars only | Yes. Set per project or rate |
| Client portal | Yes. No login needed for your clients | No |
| Online payments | Yes. Card and ACH through Stripe | No. No payment integration |
| Capped ACH fee | Yes. 0.8%, capped at $5 per payment | No |
| Financial insights | Yes | Yes |
| Basic profitability & accounts receivable | Yes. Profit by project and customer, plus receivables aging | No. Profitability reports on Premium, but no receivables tracking |
| Per-project time reports for any date range | Yes | Yes |
| Expense reports with attached receipts | Yes. PDF reports for any project and date range | *‡Yes, but only in higher tiers of Toggl Work, a separate product |
| Customizable in-depth financial reports | No | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Premium plan |
Scroll the table sideways to compare
- *Included, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees.
- †Limited preset options, not fully customizable.
- ‡Via Toggl Work, a separate product from Toggl Track.
Feature data current as of October 2026.
The key differences
Toggl is one of the best-known time trackers, and its timer, browser extension, and apps are why. What happens after the hours are tracked is mostly left to other tools. Happy Hours starts from the other end: it’s built for the solo freelancer or consultant who needs to turn time and expenses into invoices and get paid.
Getting from hours to paid
Toggl Track can turn a summary or detailed time report into an invoice. Its layout, template, and font are fixed, there’s no way to mark it paid, and there’s no payment processor, so you send it yourself and chase the payment elsewhere.
In Happy Hours, invoices fill in from your tracked time, expenses, and fixed-price milestones. Pick one of four templates, email it, and your client pays by card or bank transfer from a link. Bank transfers cost 0.8%, capped at $5. You can see when the client viewed it, send a reminder in one click, and the invoice moves to Paid once the payment goes through. More on invoicing and online payments.
Pricing
Toggl’s free plan covers timers, tasks, and personal reports for up to three people, and if that’s all you need, it’s hard to beat. Billing clients takes more. Billable rates start on Starter at $12 per user per month ($9 billed annually). Fixed-fee projects and profitability reports need Premium at $24 ($16 billed annually).
Happy Hours is $10/month for everything: invoicing, online payments, expenses, budgets, and financial insights. No tiers, no add-ons, and no limits on projects, customers, or invoices. See pricing.
Expenses in the same place as your time
Toggl’s time tracker doesn’t track expenses; those live in Toggl Work, a separate product. Happy Hours connects to your bank and cards through Plaid and pulls transactions in, AI receipt reading fills in the details from a photo or PDF, and billable expenses land on the same invoice as your hours. More on expense tracking.
Budgets and the money view
Toggl’s project estimates are about time: Starter adds project time estimates, and fixed fees and profitability come with Premium. And no plan tracks what clients owe you. Happy Hours includes hour and dollar budgets, monthly retainers, and financial insights like profit by project and customer, receivables aging, and 13 weeks of expected collections.
When Toggl is the better choice
We’d rather you pick the right tool. Toggl is the better fit if:
- You track time with a running timer, from desktop and mobile apps or a browser extension, with automatic tracking and idle detection. Happy Hours has no start/stop timer.
- You only need time tracking. Toggl’s free plan does that well, at no cost.
- You manage a team and need timesheet approvals and team reports.
- You track time per task, or connect it to tools like Jira and Asana.
- You bill in other currencies. Happy Hours invoices in US dollars only.
Switching from Toggl
Book a free setup call and we’ll import your clients and projects from Toggl and walk you through sending your first invoice. Then try everything free for 14 days, no credit card needed.
Happy Hours vs Toggl FAQ
Does Happy Hours have a timer like Toggl?
No. Happy Hours doesn’t have a start/stop timer: you enter time afterwards by clicking or dragging blocks on the calendar, or typing hours into the weekly grid. If a running timer, a browser extension, and automatic tracking are what you need most, Toggl is the better fit.
Can clients pay a Toggl invoice online?
No. Toggl Track can turn a time report into an invoice, but it has no payment processor and no way to mark an invoice paid, so clients pay you some other way and you track it yourself. In Happy Hours, clients pay by card or ACH from a link in the invoice email, and the invoice moves to Paid on its own.
Is Happy Hours cheaper than Toggl?
It depends on what you need. If you only track time, Toggl’s free plan costs nothing. To bill clients you need billable rates, which start on Toggl’s Starter plan at $12 per user per month ($9 billed annually); fixed-fee projects and profitability reports need Premium at $24 ($16 billed annually). Happy Hours is $10/month and includes invoicing, online payments, expenses, and budgets.
What happened to Toggl Track?
In September 2026, Toggl relaunched Toggl Track as a new app called simply Toggl, and existing Toggl Track accounts keep working. This comparison covers both, and only claims what holds for both.
Can I move my clients and projects from Toggl to Happy Hours?
Yes. Book a free setup call and we’ll import your clients and projects from Toggl, set up your first project, and walk you through your first invoice.
Does Happy Hours work for teams, like Toggl?
No. Happy Hours is built for one-person businesses, so it has no seats, timesheet approvals, or team reports. If several people track time against the same projects, Toggl is the better choice.