What Is Cake.com? Clockify, Pumble & Plaky Explained (2026)

If you've come across Clockify, Pumble or Plaky and wondered how they're connected, here's the answer: they're all made by Cake.com, a productivity software company building a suite of business tools known for unusually generous free plans. Where many competitors gate core features behind paywalls, Cake.com's tools tend to give a lot away for free, which has made them popular with startups, small businesses and remote teams. Here's what Cake.com is, what each of its tools does, and who they're for.

What is Cake.com?

Cake.com is the company (formerly known as COING) behind a growing family of workplace productivity apps. Its strategy is consistent across products: take a category dominated by expensive incumbents, build a clean, capable tool, and offer a remarkably generous free plan to win users. The result is a suite that covers time tracking, team communication and project management — the everyday building blocks of running a team — at a price point that's hard to argue with. The three flagship products are Clockify, Pumble and Plaky.

1. Clockify

Clockify is Cake.com's flagship — a time tracking app used by millions to log hours, track projects, manage timesheets, run reports and bill clients. Its claim to fame is a genuinely free core plan that supports unlimited users and projects, which is rare in the time-tracking world. Best for: freelancers, agencies and teams that need free, unlimited time tracking and timesheets. Visit Clockify →

2. Pumble

Pumble is a team chat and communication app — think a Slack-style workspace with channels, direct messages, voice and video calls, and file sharing. Its standout is a free plan with unlimited message history (something rivals often charge for), making it a strong free alternative for team communication. Best for: teams that want free team chat with unlimited message history. Visit Pumble →

3. Plaky

Plaky is a project and task management tool with boards, tables, custom statuses and views for organizing work. Like its siblings, it offers a generous free plan with unlimited users, projects and tasks, positioning it as an affordable Monday.com-style alternative. Best for: teams that want free, flexible project management without per-user fees. Visit Plaky →

Why are Cake.com's tools so generous on free plans?

Cake.com's model is to win users with truly useful free tiers, then earn revenue from teams that upgrade for advanced features, admin controls, integrations and higher limits. For users, that's a great deal: you can run real time tracking, team chat and project management for a whole team at $0, and only pay when you need premium capabilities. It's the same playbook that helped Clockify grow to millions of users — give away the core, charge for the extras — applied across the whole suite.

Do the tools work together?

Each Cake.com product works perfectly well on its own — you can use Clockify without Pumble, or Plaky without either — but together they cover a lot of a team's daily needs: track time in Clockify, communicate in Pumble, and manage projects in Plaky, all from one company with a consistent approach to pricing and design. They're not as deeply integrated as a single all-in-one platform, but for teams that want best-of-category free tools rather than one mega-app, the suite is appealing. You can adopt one and add the others as needs grow.

Who should use Cake.com's tools?

Cake.com's suite is ideal for startups, small businesses, freelancers and remote teams who want capable productivity tools without big software bills. If you're tracking billable hours, Clockify's free unlimited plan is hard to beat. If you want team chat without paying for message history, Pumble is compelling. If you need flexible project management without per-user pricing, Plaky delivers. Larger enterprises with complex needs may still prefer heavier incumbents, but for cost-conscious teams that value generous free plans, Cake.com is well worth a look.

How Cake.com compares to the big incumbents

Each Cake.com tool goes head-to-head with a well-known, often pricier rival. Clockify competes with time trackers like Toggl and Harvest, and stands out by offering unlimited free time tracking where others limit users or projects. Pumble takes on Slack and Microsoft Teams, and its big differentiator is unlimited free message history — Slack's free plan hides older messages, while Pumble keeps them. Plaky challenges Monday.com, Asana and Trello, competing on a generous free plan without the per-user fees that make those tools expensive as teams grow. The pattern is clear: Cake.com positions each product as the budget-friendly, free-generous option in a category dominated by costlier incumbents. For many small teams, that trade — slightly fewer bells and whistles for a much friendlier price — is an easy yes.

Getting started with the suite

The easiest way to try Cake.com is to start with whichever problem is most pressing. If you need to track billable hours or understand where time goes, begin with Clockify — it takes minutes to set up and the free plan is immediately useful. If your team's communication is scattered across email, start with Pumble to centralize chat. If projects feel disorganized, spin up Plaky and build a board. Because each is free to start and works independently, there's no big commitment: adopt one, see if it sticks, and bring in the others as needs arise. Many teams end up using all three simply because the free plans keep delivering value as they grow.

Frequently asked questions

What company owns Clockify, Pumble and Plaky? All three are made by Cake.com (formerly COING), a productivity software company that builds business tools known for generous free plans. Clockify is its flagship, with Pumble (team chat) and Plaky (project management) rounding out the suite.

Is Clockify really free? Yes — Clockify offers a free core plan that supports unlimited users and projects for time tracking and timesheets, which is unusually generous. Paid plans add advanced features like detailed reporting, approvals and admin controls.

Is Pumble a good Slack alternative? Pumble is a strong free Slack alternative, especially because its free plan includes unlimited message history — something Slack limits on its free tier. It offers channels, DMs, and voice/video calls for team communication.

Is Plaky free? Plaky has a generous free plan with unlimited users, projects and tasks, making it an affordable alternative to tools like Monday.com that charge per user. Paid plans unlock advanced features and higher limits.

Are Cake.com tools good for small businesses? Very much — their generous free plans and low pricing make them ideal for startups, freelancers and small teams that want capable time tracking, chat and project management without high software costs.

Do I have to use all three tools together? No — each works independently, so you can use just Clockify, just Pumble, or just Plaky. Many teams adopt one and add the others as their needs grow, since they share a company and a consistent, free-friendly approach.

Is Cake.com the same as COING? Yes — Cake.com is the rebranded name of the company formerly known as COING, the makers of Clockify. The rename reflects its growth from a single time-tracking app into a broader suite of productivity tools (Clockify, Pumble and Plaky).

Is Clockify better than Toggl? Clockify's biggest advantage is its generous free plan with unlimited users and projects, where Toggl limits its free tier. Toggl is polished and well-liked too, so it comes down to whether you prioritize Clockify's free generosity or Toggl's refined experience.

Is Pumble a free Slack alternative? Yes — Pumble is one of the strongest free Slack alternatives, mainly because its free plan keeps unlimited message history (Slack hides older messages on its free tier). It offers channels, DMs and voice/video calls at no cost.

Does Cake.com have other tools? Cake.com's core suite centers on Clockify (time tracking), Pumble (team chat) and Plaky (project management), and the company continues to expand its productivity lineup. Together they cover the main pillars of running a team's day-to-day work.

The bottom line

Cake.com is the company quietly powering a lot of teams' productivity through Clockify, Pumble and Plaky — a suite built around the simple idea of giving away genuinely useful free plans and charging only for the extras. If you're a startup, freelancer or small team watching costs, it's one of the best-value toolkits around: free unlimited time tracking, free team chat with unlimited history, and free project management without per-user fees. Try whichever solves your most pressing need first, and add the others as you grow. In a software market where costs add up fast, a company that gives away this much genuinely useful functionality is a refreshing find — and for a small team watching every subscription, that generosity can add up to real savings without sacrificing the tools you need to run your work.

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