Timeglass Alternative

The short answer

Timeglass and DoneThat start from the same idea: nobody should have to start a timer, because software can now read the work as it happens. They point that idea at different people.

Timeglass is a timesheet product for teams that bill. Its desktop app takes periodic screenshots, its cloud AI works out which client, project and task each stretch belongs to, and the result is a drafted timesheet that the person reviews and submits. It adds meeting recording, budgets and exports aimed at payroll and accounting.

DoneThat is built for the person doing the work. It reconstructs the day too, but the output is a written summary, goals and coaching while the work is still happening, and a team sees the summaries people choose to share. If the timesheet is the product you need, Timeglass is closer to it. If you want to understand the work rather than bill it, that is what DoneThat is for.

Credit where it is due

Timesheets nobody has to write. Each activity gets a description, a duration and a category, matched to a client and project where one applies, and the help center describes correcting them as the usual fix "while Timeglass learns your work." For a consultancy chasing missing hours on a Friday, that is the problem it is built for.

Review before publishing. Timeglass's homepage says nothing leaves your desk until you approve it. In the help center that holds when the workspace publishes only after submission. A workspace can also publish automatically after 1 to 30 days, or right away, so check how yours is set.

Meetings. It records and transcribes meetings, adds speaker names, and writes summaries and action items. Video of the meeting window is recorded only when Record video is on, an option that appears only if the workspace allows meeting video.

Built to plug into billing. Budgets with overrun alerts, exports to CSV, Excel and PDF, and a homepage that names Gusto, QuickBooks and ADP as destinations. A REST API and an MCP connector for ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are included.

Enterprise basics. SOC 2 Type II; on Enterprise, SSO, SAML, SCIM, audit logs and roles; desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux.

How the capture differs

Timeglass's help center lists periodic snapshots of the displays you capture, plus the active app, window title and browser address. Its privacy policy adds keystroke and mouse activity metrics, not the content of what you type. The screenshots are uploaded and analyzed in Timeglass's cloud rather than on your computer, and the help center says text in them is not blurred before upload; screenshots flagged as sensitive are deleted after analysis. Most AI requests are routed through OpenRouter to inference hosts on its sub-processor list, which also names Google's Gemini Developer API directly, and TypeSafe AI, reached through OpenRouter. Its help center notes that AI providers may keep what they receive under their own terms, whatever the workspace's retention setting. Its databases are in the United States.

There are real controls. Its privacy policy says each raw screenshot is deleted as soon as analysis finishes by default, and an admin chooses retention up to forever. You can exclude apps and sites, skip displays, pause, and hide personal time from every total. A metadata-only mode turns screenshots off, where the workspace policy allows it.

DoneThat's default looks similar, but no setting changes it. Screenshots are never stored. They are processed in real time and immediately deleted, and only derived structured activity persists. Excluded apps are redacted on your machine before anything is sent. With your own Gemini or OpenAI-compatible model, raw activity never reaches our servers. Our primary database is in the EU, and the desktop app is open source, so none of this has to be taken on trust.

The honest trade: screen-first capture is a bigger ask than a timer in both products, and both analyze screenshots in the cloud by default. The difference is that Timeglass's retention is an admin setting that can run to forever, while DoneThat never stores screenshots, redacts excluded apps on your machine, and lets you keep raw activity off our servers with your own model.

Pricing

Timeglass pricing, as of 9 November 2026:

There is a 14-day free trial with no card required, and no free or individual plan. MCP for Claude and ChatGPT, review and publishing, and exports are all in Team.

DoneThat is subscription-based with a 14-day free trial; current prices are on the DoneThat pricing page.

Platform support

Where Timeglass is the better choice

• You bill clients by the hour and need timesheets matched to clients and projects.
• You need manager approval and client-level reporting. Timeglass has manager review, time and margin reports by client, and fine-grained data access. DoneThat's team reporting is summary-level and still smaller.
• You need payroll or accounting exports and project budgets with overrun alerts.
• You want meetings recorded and transcribed in the same tool.
• You need SSO, SCIM, audit logs or a SOC 2 report to get through procurement.

Where DoneThat is the better choice

• You want screenshots never stored, whatever an admin sets, and the option to keep raw activity off our servers with your own model.
• You want coaching during the work. Don nudges you onto goals, blocks calendar time, flags low-value work, checks your mood, reminds you of meetings and suggests breaks.
• You are one person, or you want your team to share summaries each person controls rather than submit timesheets.
• You want an EU primary database.
• You want your own work history in your AI tools through MCP, an API, Zapier or n8n.

Billing is the line we will not pretend to cross: DoneThat exports CSV and is not built to bill from. If invoicing is the job, Timeglass, Timely or Laurel are closer.

How we compared these

Everything stated about Timeglass comes from its home, pricing, security, sub-processor and privacy pages and its help center, read on 9 November 2026 and linked below. Two details differ between its own pages. Its security page lists screenshot retention of zero days (the default), 30 days, 1 year or forever, while the help center lists none, 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, 1 year or forever. And its homepage lists ISO 27001 next to SOC 2 under "Audits", but its security and compliance pages mention only SOC 2 Type II, so we have not repeated the ISO claim. Claims about DoneThat are first-hand: we build it, which is the bias to read this with.

Questions people ask about Timeglass

Does Timeglass take screenshots?

Yes. As of 9 November 2026, its help center says the desktop app takes periodic snapshots of the displays you capture and uploads them, together with the active app, window title and browser address, to Timeglass's cloud for AI analysis. Its privacy policy says each raw screenshot is deleted once analysis completes by default; an admin can set retention up to forever. A metadata-only mode turns screenshots off where the workspace allows it. DoneThat processes screenshots in real time and never stores them.

How much does Timeglass cost?

As of 9 November 2026: Team is $25 per seat per month billed annually, or $30 billed monthly, for teams up to 50 users. Enterprise is custom and adds SSO, SAML, SCIM, audit logs and roles. There is a 14-day free trial with no card required, and no free plan.

Can one person use Timeglass?

Its pricing has no individual plan: Team is priced per seat for teams of up to 50 users, and the page does not say whether a single seat can be bought. The product is built around timesheets a team reviews and publishes. DoneThat works for one person as well as a team.

Does Timeglass have an MCP server?

Yes. Its help center describes connecting ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another remote MCP client, and the whole-workspace connector can add and edit time entries and projects. DoneThat also has an MCP server, at mcp.donethat.ai, plus an API, Zapier and n8n.

Where does Timeglass store data?

Its privacy policy, revised 4 November 2026, says its databases are currently in the United States, and most of its sub-processors are US-based. Its sub-processor page says most AI requests go through OpenRouter, and that its chat-model and meeting-transcription routes request zero-data-retention endpoints. DoneThat's primary database is in the EU.