Honest Review:

Clockify Chrome Extension

• Makes recording time against GitHub tasks easy
• User-friendly interface
• Good customer service
• Pomodoro timer

Learn about the other five ways Clockify is great.

• Glitches that cause the timer to stop working
• Integration issues
• Very difficult to add task names
• Slow loading times

Learn about the other five ways Clockify sucks.

The good news is that you can actually download and use the Clockify Chrome Extension for free! It’s a great way to streamline time tracking on Chrome without worrying about the hefty price tag.

But given that it is a free time tracking extension, you can’t expect much in terms of features. The extensions’ capabilities are fairly limited to just time tracking, none of the time off management, invoicing, and scheduling features that Clockify offers with its paid plans. You also won’t get much access to customizable settings, such as enabling break tracking and setting up task rates. Opting for the paid plans for more advanced features can cost you anywhere from $4.99 to $14.99 per month, depending on which Clockify pricing tier you choose.

1. Time Tracking

With the Clockify Chrome extension, you can choose to track time either manually or using the extension’s built-in timer. I personally prefer the latter, but the ability to add manual time entries is a good backup option for when you forget to turn on your timer.

The timer is straightforward to use. You can type in the task or project you’ll be working on in the text bar and click on “Start.” You can also add task and project details later, even as the timer is running.

There’s no separate button to pause the timer, so if you want to take a break, you’ll need to stop it entirely. But what’s neat is that you can still go back to the time entry you left with and press play again to continue tracking that specific activity. All of your time entries and the total hours you’ve recorded for the week are visible right on the extension for easy access. This data is also synced in real-time to the web and mobile app so you can switch between different platforms with no fear of losing any precious time data.

All in all, I think in terms of time tracking, the Clockify Chrome Extension provides a no-fuss time tracking experience. However, I do have to agree with some user comments saying that it has slow loading times, especially every time you open the extension menu.

2. Reminders and Idle Detection

Clockify’s Chrome extension goes beyond basic time tracking by offering useful features like automatic time reminders and idle detection to enhance accuracy and efficiency. Users can access these features by navigating to the extension’s settings, where they can enable additional time tracking functionalities.

The Reminders feature acts as a helpful prompt for users, sending notifications when they forget to start the timer. Users also have the flexibility to customize the reminder interval, ensuring that they receive timely prompts to track their work. Additionally, they can set specific start and end times for reminders, as well as designate particular days for reminder activation.

Idle Detection, on the other hand, is designed to automatically identify periods of inactivity based on mouse and keyboard movements. The extension enters idle mode when it detects inactivity for a specified duration. Users then have options to manage the idle time, including discarding it from the total time, discarding and initiating a new timer, or keeping the idle time.

I tried the idle detection feature by setting the idle time limit to 30 minutes and leaving my laptop to take my lunch for about 40 minutes. When I came back, the extension icon did display some sort of idle time indicator on the extension icon, but other than that, it didn’t really flag the idle time or tell me exactly how long I was idle. It’s not really as great of a feature as I would’ve expected.

3. Pomodoro Timer

Another thing that sets Clockify’s Chrome extension apart is that it comes with a built-in Pomodoro timer. This neat feature helps enhance productivity by providing structured work intervals and breaks. You can easily enable the Pomodoro timer via the extension’s settings.

Clockify lets you customize the timer intervals by setting the duration of your Pomodoro session, the length of your short breaks, and the duration and frequency of your long breaks. For the long break to work, you need to start/stop the timer from the notification popup. Be mindful that manually stopping the timer will reset the count of sessions, which is kind of inconvenient. A way around this is to enable automatic breaks, which will automatically start/stop the timer at the end of Pomodoro or break periods. The issue with this, though, is that there aren’t really any notifications that pop up when your break is over, so you might find yourself unintentionally extending your break!

4. Integrations

The Clockify Chrome extension offers seamless integrations with various web tools, making time tracking even more convenient. There’s a long list of integrations available, and you can choose to enable or disable whichever one best suits your workflow. With the ability to start the Clockify timer directly from platforms like Jira, Trello, Asana, Gitlab, Slack, Github, Xero, and more, users can effortlessly transition between tasks without switching between applications. 

Once integrations are enabled, the extension can automatically pick up project names from other apps, simplifying the process of creating and selecting projects, tasks, and tags. It’s worth noting, though, that there are some users who have reported difficulties stopping the timer on other websites. If this is the case, you may be required to input the project and task name manually or enable integrations to create projects, tags, and tasks. This is a bit of a bummer.

As of December 2023, the Clockify Chrome Extension currently has 159 ratings on the Chrome Web Store. The average of these ratings gives the extension a not-so-stellar score of 3.8 stars out of 5.

There’s a lot to like about the Clockify Chrome extension. Its long list of app integrations is one of them. The way you can natively integrate Clockify with your existing tech stack makes for a more seamless workflow with no need to switch through multiple tabs to track your time. And with features like idle detection and automatic reminders, you can ensure a more accurate and disciplined approach to time tracking.

There are still several areas that could use some improvement, though. For one thing, the Pomodoro timer, while great for structuring your breaks and work sessions, doesn’t really alert you when work sessions and breaks start and end. The idle time detection also doesn’t flag the idle time or tell you exactly how long you were idle, so it won’t really do you much good if you’re looking for detailed insights into periods of inactivity.

All things considered, for a free time tracking extension, I think you’re getting a fairly good amount of value with Clockify. There is definitely some room for improvement, and the free plan has some significant limitations, but Clockify remains a practical choice for individuals and teams looking for effective time management within the Chrome browser

If you want to learn more about Clockify, not just its Chrome extension, have a look at our comprehensive, and of course completely honest, Clockify review. Cheers!