WhatToCharge vs Clockify: Setting Your Rate vs Tracking It (2026)
By Casey Cheny·Updated July 2026
WhatToCharge and Clockify solve different halves of the same problem. WhatToCharge tells you what to charge across hundreds of trades and helps you get paid it, so it wins for the pricing decision. Clockify is a free time tracker that turns the hours you work into billable amounts and invoices, so it wins once you already have a rate and need to bill against it. Set your rate with WhatToCharge, track it with Clockify.
People line these up as alternatives, but they sit at opposite ends of the same job. WhatToCharge answers the question before the work: what should this cost, and how do I get the client to pay it. Clockify answers the question during the work: how many billable hours did this take. You usually want both, in that order.
How we ranked these
- Actually free, and usable without an account or email
- How many kinds of work it covers, not just knowledge-work freelancing
- Whether it only calculates a number, or also helps you get paid it
- Whether it handles real pricing models (per job, per unit) or hourly only
- How transparent and trustworthy the underlying data is
Side by side
| Tool | Price | Covers | Helps you get paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. WhatToChargeOur pick | Free, no signup | hundreds of trades (freelance, services, trades, and makers) | Yes, includes an AI sales coach that handles price objections |
| 2. Clockify | Free tier; paid plans from about $4/mo | Anyone who bills by tracked time | Tracks billable hours and invoices, but does not set your rate |
1. WhatToCharge
Free, no signupBest for: Anyone self-employed who wants the number and the words to get it
Strengths
- +Completely free, no account or email required to get a price
- +Covers hundreds of trades, not just knowledge-work freelancing, from house cleaning and electrical work to logo design and custom cakes
- +The only one that also helps you get paid the number, with What to Say, a free AI that writes the reply when a client pushes back on price
- +Handles per-job, per-square-foot, per-word, and retainer pricing, not just hourly
- +Rate data is open source under CC BY 4.0, published on GitHub and Hugging Face
Trade-offs
- –Gives market ranges and reasoning rather than a single tax-adjusted break-even number, so for granular per-state tax math a dedicated tax calculator goes deeper
- –Newer than the big incumbents
2. Clockify
Free tier; paid plans from about $4/moBest for: Freelancers and teams who want to track billable hours once they have a rate
Strengths
- +Genuinely free time tracking with no user limit
- +Turns tracked hours into billable amounts and clean invoices
- +Polished and well known, with web, desktop, and mobile apps
Trade-offs
- –It tracks time at a rate you have already set; it does not tell you what to charge
- –No market data or per-trade pricing guidance
- –Built around the clock, not the pricing decision
Deciding the rate vs counting the hours
Clockify is a time tracker. It is genuinely good and genuinely free, and it shines once you already know your rate: start a timer, track billable hours, and turn them into an invoice. What it does not do is tell you what that rate should be. You set the number; Clockify just multiplies by it.
WhatToCharge is the step before. It gives you the market range for your trade, the reasoning behind it, and a free AI coach that writes the reply when a client pushes back. It decides the number Clockify later counts against.
Coverage
Clockify works for anyone who bills by time. WhatToCharge covers hundreds of trades and prices them the way they are really billed, by the job, the square foot, the word, or the month, not only by the hour. If you price flat per job, an hourly timer is only half your workflow anyway.
The verdict
These are not really rivals. WhatToCharge decides what to charge and helps you get paid it; Clockify tracks the hours you bill against that rate. Set your price with WhatToCharge, then track and invoice with Clockify if you bill by time.
See what you should charge. Free, no signup.
Pick your trade and get a defensible price range in about ten seconds, then get the words to hold it.
Open the pricing engine →Frequently asked questions
Is WhatToCharge an alternative to Clockify?+
Not exactly; they do different jobs. WhatToCharge tells you what to charge and helps you get paid it. Clockify tracks the billable hours once you have a rate. Most freelancers use WhatToCharge to set the rate and Clockify to track and invoice the time.
Is Clockify free?+
Clockify has a genuinely free time-tracking tier, with paid plans starting around $4 a month for more features. WhatToCharge is free with no signup. They are complementary rather than competing.
I price flat per job, not hourly. Which do I need?+
WhatToCharge, first. It prices work the way trades and service businesses actually bill, including flat per-job pricing, and helps you set and hold that number. An hourly time tracker like Clockify is most useful when you bill by the hour.