Find your fit
Who it is for
Freelancers, agencies and project-driven teams can use Kimai when they need to see where hours went by client, engagement and kind of work. Set up a small customer-project-activity structure first; Kimai can report and invoice only at the level where time was recorded.
An organization with server skills can self-host the AGPL application. A team that wants managed hosting can consider Kimai Cloud, but should budget active users including administrators and check the Standard versus Professional feature list before a trial.
The work it supports
Core capabilities
Define customers, then projects for each customer and activities for the kind of work performed. Activities can be shared globally or kept specific to one project. Optional project start and end dates stop time being booked outside the chosen window.
Record and review time in the timesheet. A user can restart a similar entry and authorized staff can batch-update selected records. Filter by period, customer, project, activity, tags or running/stopped state before reviewing a work week.
Mark a time record billable when it belongs in client billing. Non-billable records stay out of invoices and billable budget calculations. Hourly or fixed rates can be configured at customer, project, activity or record level, so a pilot should reconcile the amount against the intended contract.
Use reports to examine user hours and project totals, including money and budget figures where permissions allow. Teams can restrict access to assigned customers and projects, but a buyer should verify each user role and team assignment with sample data.
Create an invoice from filtered, billable timesheet entries using a template. Invoice and export operations mark records processed; the resulting locked records resist ordinary editing, although an administrator can have permission to edit them. Test the approval and correction process before treating this as an immutable audit trail.
Canceling an invoice does not automatically reset the export state of its time entries. To re-create it from the same work, staff need to find the already-exported records. This matters when correcting an invoice after a client dispute.
Export filtered timesheet data as PDF, XLSX, CSV or HTML for a client or another system. Kimai warns that CSV preserves entered values without the escaping used for Excel, so test the CSV with representative free-text notes before opening or importing it elsewhere.
Understand the offer
Pricing and getting started
The self-hosted AGPL software is free, but the organization supplies hosting, setup, updates and security work. Kimai recommends self-hosting for experienced operators. Some extensions are separately purchased plugins with annual updates, so an open-source installation does not imply every plugin is free.
Kimai Cloud is the vendor-maintained service. Its current public page offers Standard and Professional per-user plans with annual or monthly selection. Standard lists project time tracking, billable hours, invoicing and export; Professional adds working-hour, absence, expense, task, portal and SSO functions. Confirm the current plan table before relying on a plugin-level feature.
The Cloud pricing page advertises a 30-day trial and excludes taxes from displayed prices. The Cloud help says a trial or free plan needs no payment details, while paid subscriptions do. Every active user, even an administrator who only manages the system, consumes a license.
For Cloud seats, added licenses are charged for the remaining billing period. To reduce seats, deactivate the accounts first; the lower count takes effect at the next period. Check the active-user count and renewal date before changing staffing or billing.
Look a little closer
Before you choose
Run a sample from start to finish: define one customer, project and activity; enter billable and non-billable time; review a report; export a timesheet; and create a draft invoice. Confirm rates, exclusions and exported-record permissions against the team's actual process.
Choose operating model before comparing prices. For self-hosting, include server administration and any paid plugins. For Cloud, count every active account and check whether Standard includes the necessary function or Professional is required.
Check what happens when an invoice must be corrected: canceling it does not reset its records automatically. Verify a controlled re-invoice path and test CSV output with untrusted or unusual note text before a wider rollout.
15 distinct sources behind this profile. Research observed Oct 18, 2026. Features and offers can change.
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