GitHub Time Tracking Best Tools & Techniques
When coding, you will naturally run into a fair amount of issues with the code – regardless of your level of experience. So, by going back and addressing these issues, repositories, and requests, it’s easy to forget the actual task at hand. There are tons of developers who end up completely losing track of time when working on GitHub, which can be a huge blog to one’s productivity.
While time tracking can seem a little excessive, you’ll be surprised at what tracking time can do for your productivity. What’s more, there are tons of these apps that come with sophisticated features that can further optimize your workflow.
To help you find the right time tracking tool, in this article, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best GitHub time tracking integrations that we found the most useful. Aside from that – we’ll also be taking a look at some really underrated and useful GitHub features, and a couple of tips you can use to make the most out of the platform.
⏰ 7 Best GitHub Time Tracking Tools
1. Everhour
To kick things off – the first GitHub time tracking option that we’d recommend to you is Everhour, which is an amazing time tracker and employee time tracking tool. One of the reasons it’s included in this list is because of how well it integrates with GitHub and other project management tools.
To integrate Everhour with GitHub, you simply need to click the GitHub button from the prompt when trying to connect the two platforms together, and from there – you just need to let Everhour do the rest – step-by-step. After that, you’ll get access to a number of really cool tracking features and tools: time clock app, timesheet app, work hours tracker, attendance tracker, and many more!
Modern development teams use a lot of tools. Aside from GitHub, the tool also integrates with Jira, Asana, Basecamp, Trello, ClickUp, and a whole lot more. So, if you’re worried about having a hard time using Everhour alongside GitHub and other platforms, it’s not going to be a problem.
On top of its integration capabilities, there are tons of features that make Everhour a top time tracking GitHub option for any development and coding team. One cool feature of Everhour is that the hours you or your team tracks can be used to create invoices that you can then send to your clients.
Another awesome feature is the number of columns that show specific data coming from the GitHub platform. From there, you can select any of the columns to display the data within your report.
Additionally, Everhour isn’t just a time and attendance tool. It can also be used for budgeting, visual planning, and expense tracking. So, aside from working great as a GitHub time tracker, you can use it to help you streamline a ton of management tasks and processes.
Aside from all of the above – syncing in projects and tasks between Everhour and GitHub is also very easy. Once the two platforms are linked together, Everhour will automatically sync all of your projects across all teams and workspaces.
Everhour is the top choice for small businesses and small to mid-size teams of 5 to 50 members, including professionals like software developers, marketers, designers, consultants, lawyers, you name it!
Seamlessly integrating with popular project management tools like Asana, Trello, and Jira, its user-friendly interface and customizable reports make it the ultimate time tracking solution for small and mid-size teams.
With dedicated support ensuring you receive timely assistance, our team is here to help you promptly and with a smile!
2. TimeDoctor
TimeDoctor is one of the most popular time-tracking tools on the market. It’s been around since 2012 and has been growing exponentially each and every year.
We really enjoyed using TimeDoctor back in the day because it wasn’t only made for individuals but for larger teams as well. Once you download TimeDoctor and integrate it with GoogleChrome, every member of the team can use the tracker with GitHub.
On top of that, using the tracker is easy. Once you start a task that you want to track, all you have to do is click the “start” button. After that, the tool does its job and starts tracking how much time you spend on the task at hand.
When you’re done, you can click the “stop” button to halt the timer. You can also do this if you wish to take a break while still keeping track of exactly how much time you spent on a specific task.
Additionally, the admins of the team can take a look at how much time each member spent on each specific task. This opens the door for management to be better able to assess individual team members and help them optimize their time better.
Another neat TimeDoctor feature is that it can track how much time team members spend idle. This inspires people using the app to spend as much of their time in a productive way as possible.
3. TMetric
If you’re looking for a time tracking tool that is compatible with a lot of different software and operating systems, TMetric is a pretty good choice for you. With TMetric, you get to track time whether you’re using MacOS, Windows, or Linux. Additionally, you can integrate the tool with GitHub with a single click of the mouse, making it another easy option to integrate and start using right away.
Another cool feature of this tool is that you can easily switch between tasks without having to manually change the task timer on GitHub. This is a great feature for developers who switch between tasks.
This tool also has a mobile application. This allows you to use your phone to track time as well. While this won’t be too practical if you’re working on a computer, you can use it when working remotely to great effect.
One of the most convenient features, however, is the fact that every entry on the app has a backlink that leads to the original GitHub issue. This makes it much easier to track a bunch of different tasks at once and is one of the key reasons we decided to highlight TMetric as a worthwhile option for GitHub time tracking.
4. Timenotes
Timenotes deserves a lot of recognition when it comes to time-tracking because of how simple the tool is. List many time-tracking alternatives out there – Timenotes doesn’t hide behind any complex features and functionalities. Instead, Timenotes does one thing incredibly well: track the time you spend on tasks when using GitHub.
To start, integrating Timenotes with GitHub is as simple as a few clicks. So, you won’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to integrate the two. Additionally, once you integrate GitHub with Timenotes, you will be able to automatically import tasks that you can track and time easily.
Timenotes also has mobile-friendly applications that you can use if you want to increase functionality. And on top of all of that, you can customize the app based on your preferences, making it much more visually appealing.
There isn’t much to complain about with Timenotes, though it’s important to remember that this is one of the simpler time tracking tools available. But for a flat free and user-friendly interface, it’s a pretty fair trade-off.
5. Hubstaff
Hubstaff is a time tracker that is specifically designed to work seamlessly with GitHub. With this tracker, you can assign tasks to team members, track the time it takes to finish the task, and get detailed insights and reports right on the app’s dashboard.
While Hubstaff has a ton of features – the developers of the tool have really made sure it’s as simple as possible. The tool not only features a singular dashboard that contains everything you could possibly need but it manages to fit in there everything from budgeting, to payments and keeping track of how much time is spent on each and every GitHub task you and your team undertakes.
6. Timely
The TimelyApp is a basic timer that you can use along with GitHub. While it isn’t the most advanced timer, it does everything you might expect from a time-tracking tool. You can track time, enter timelogs, create reports on productivity, and even review activity.
On top of that, integrating it with GitHub is very easy, which means you won’t have to give yourself a hard time linking the two platforms together. And since the app saves all the hours you have spent working on certain tasks – you can take a look back and see how you can improve your performance.
The app also integrates with other tools, making it very versatile. So, if you’re a professional that works with GitHub, Zoom, and other workplace apps, TimelyApp could be the tracker you need. And though it’s simple and easy to use, it can do the job just as well as some of the more expensive options available.
7. DueFocus
DueFocus is a timing app designed to make your workflow as efficient as possible. With DueFocus, you can zone in on specific tasks and put all your attention on them. This makes it easier for you to forget about outside distractions and accomplish your goals faster when using GitHub.
It easily integrates with GitHub, which is always a huge benefit. On top of that, you can even view how team members are performing with specific tasks. This is a huge benefit for team leaders as it really allows them to stay on top of how well each of their team members are performing.
Aside from generating reports and analyzing data, DueFocus tool can also create invoices for clients. So, instead of manually tracking each hour spent on certain tasks, you can use DueFocus and the app does all the tracking for you.
🤔 TL;DR: GitHub Time Trackers Comparison
| Time tracking | Billing & invoicing | Team management | Custom reporting | Free plan | |
| Everhour | Timer or manual entry, estimates, auto-stop timer | Manage & invoice clients, flexible billing & budgeting, alerts | Clock-in/clock-out, time off, summary charts | Custom reports, metadata, download and share or schedule by email | Free trial |
| TimeDoctor | Time and activity tracking, employee monitoring, offline time tracking | Online timesheets & payroll, project management & budgeting | Screenshots, webcam shots & activity levels, distraction alerts | Productivity measuring & summary reports, reporting customization options | Free trial |
| TMetric | Offline time tracking, time utilization overview, zero online activity tracker | Generate invoices, personalize documents, integrate with accounting apps | Team performance metrics | In-depth reports, apps, and sites usage reports | Yes |
| Timenotes | Advanced time tracking reports, manual entries, start & stop timer | Member, project, company billable rates, project cost tracking | Managing team time entries, user roles, team timesheets, editing user profiles | Branded respors, export in PDF, CSV, XLS, reports rounding | Free trial |
| Hubstaff | Time reporting, time clock app, geofence time tracking, employee monitoring software | Online timesheets, payroll tracking, invoice tracking | Work orders/job management, automated stand-ups, sprint management | 17 different report options. Generate custom team’s work, hours, and other reports | Yes |
| TimelyApp | Employee in-house & remote time tracking and monitoring, timesheets | Automated billing & invoicing | Track activity of project and individual employees, optimize team productivity | Advanced reporting features for in-house and client use, visualize reports | Free trial |
| DueFocus | Time tracking with one-click, manually, or against tasks, real time monitoring | Generate & show invoice to client in the app based on data generated by your team & manual invoices | Monitor employee performance with screenshots, stage mapping | Easy custom reporting. Send .xsl reports to your task management tool, e-mail or other, clear view of team’s KPI and workflow | Yes |
🔨 Top GitHub Features to Streamline Your Workflow
GitHub features a ton of cool features that make it one of the most useful tools for developers. So, to make sure you’re working as efficiently as possible on GitHub, let’s take a look at some of these great features that you can start making use of as early as today.
💫 Dragging & Dropping Gist Code
On Github, there’s a functionality known as Gist where you can find tons of code snippets in different languages. This can make it much easier to code your software without manually typing out everything. And most of the time, users head to the different Gist snippets, find what they need, copy the text, then paste it into their code. However, what if we told you there was an easier way to do this?
If you want a quicker and easier time utilizing Gist codes on GitHub, you can simply drag and drop them into your project. This automatically pastes the snippet onto the page, which can save you a lot of time and effort.
💡 File Finder
It’s hard to come by a platform without a file finder functionality. It’s a very convenient feature that will help you find exactly what you’re looking for without having to scroll through hundreds of files. It can truly be a great time-saver. Though useful – this GitHub feature isn’t as obvious to most users.
This is because there isn’t a button or area where you can find the feature. Instead, this feature is solely a keyboard shortcut. All you have to do is press the “T” key to activate the file finder. From there, you can type in the name of the file you want to locate.
🔗 Linking Lines
This can be seen as a sort of highlighting tool as it allows you to point out specific lines in the repository. To do this, all you have to do is put “#L” at the end of the line, and it will be linked. And if you want to highlight a number of lines, you can use the name parameter but add the number of lines.
For example, if I was looking to highlight lines 10-15 in the repository, I would put #L10-15 at the end of it.
💠 Smart Tips to Maximize GitHub Benefits
We’ve already mentioned a bunch of times that GitHub is a great tool for developers. This is because it can really streamline the entire development process. With that said, there are always ways to enhance the GitHub benefits. Don’t worry; even the most experienced GitHub coders can forget about these tips, especially because of how vast and useful the platform is.
However, here are just a couple of the ways to make the most out of your GitHub subscription:
0️⃣1️⃣ Upload your code
One of the great benefits of GitHub is that it allows individuals to upload their code to GitHub and share it with others. This is particularly useful if you’re trying to onboard new clients or land a job and want to quickly showcase your abilities to the person you’re looking to impress.
That way, they can easily view your skills, what languages you know, and whether or not you can apply them to the level the client or recruiter may deem necessary.
0️⃣2️⃣ Explore the platform
One of the best ways to get the most out of GitHub is to discover its features and figure out how it can work for you. The thing about GitHub is that each developer can use it in different ways. And if you want to create your own workflow with GitHub, the best thing to do is to dive into all the different features in your free time and really figure out what they can do for you.
You can even view the repositories of other users to see how they’re utilizing the platform. This can open up new doors and opportunities while also giving you new ideas and inspiration.
0️⃣3️⃣ Use stars
Stars are the GitHub equivalent of likes. And we highly suggest using them liberally. Whenever you stumble upon something that is interesting for you or something you may want to learn, later on, give it a star so you can revisit it at a later date.
💁♀️ GitHub Time Tracking: Conclusion
GitHub is undoubtedly a valuable tool for developers. However, its lack of native time tracking features can pose challenges when it comes to effectively managing time. Integrating a dedicated time tracking solution like Everhour with GitHub proves to be an excellent solution. By leveraging Everhour alongside GitHub, users can not only optimize time management for themselves or their teams but also ensure accurate tracking and billing for clients.
