ActivityWatch alternative

The best ActivityWatch alternative in 2026

  • ActivityWatch is the canonical free, open-source, fully-local tracker. Most alternatives are SaaS.
  • If 'no SaaS, no upload' is your hard line, none of the alternatives below clear it.
  • If you need teams, invoicing, or polish, you'll outgrow ActivityWatch.

ActivityWatch has a small but loyal community. People look for alternatives when they need team features or polished invoicing — both of which require some kind of server.

Start tracking time, free No credit card. Free during early access.

Why people look for a ActivityWatch alternative

  • You hit the limits of solo, single-machine tracking.
  • You want a polished web dashboard out of the box.
  • You need invoicing and project management in the same tool.

ActivityWatch alternatives compared

Temporal.ist That's us

Free during early access

Automatic tracking from file edits and URLs with invoicing built in — idle time and PC sleep deducted on their own, offline-first desktop apps plus a headless Linux CLI. No screenshots.

Best for: Freelancers and small teams who forget timers and bill hourly.

Toggl Track

Free up to 5 users; paid plans from ≈ $9/user/mo

The polished manual stopwatch. 100+ integrations and best-in-class team reporting.

Best for: Teams that reliably hit start/stop and depend on integrations.

Harvest

≈ $12/user/mo (Pro)

Manual timer + mature invoicing with deep QuickBooks/Xero integration.

Best for: Agencies running their billing on QuickBooks/Xero today.

Memtime

From ≈ €11/mo

Visual day-timeline tracker (Mac/Win/Linux) with strong professional-services traction.

Best for: Teams that want a horizontal timeline reconstruction of the day.

Timing

$12–$15/mo or one-time licence ≈ $129

Mature macOS-only automatic tracker with rich app categorisation.

Best for: Solo Mac freelancers who don't need teams or invoicing.

Rize

≈ $9.99/mo

Beautifully designed macOS focus app with timesheet exports.

Best for: Mac-only individuals who want a focus coach.

Why teams pick Temporal.ist

Temporal.ist is SaaS — there's a backend that sessions sync to. In exchange you get what a single-machine tool can't do: teams and organisation roll-ups, invoicing with per-client rates, and one account across desktop apps, browser extensions, and a headless Linux CLI. We try to be respectful about the trade: local-first capture that works offline and syncs later, no screenshots, an audit-friendly plain-text activity log, and a published breakdown of exactly what gets sent to the server. If 'no server' is non-negotiable for you, stay on ActivityWatch. We won't compete on that line.

What you get when you switch

The pitch above, made concrete — this is what's in the box.

Tracking that starts itself

A file save or a visited URL starts the session and files it under the right project. No timers, no screenshots, no activity scores.

Invoices from tracked time

Projects link to clients with per-client hourly rates. Unbilled sessions become line items on auto-numbered invoices — nothing re-typed.

Hours that stay honest

Sessions close by themselves after 15 idle minutes, time your PC spends asleep is deducted automatically, and you can pause with one click.

Sessions or whole days

Think in days, not sessions? Optional day-span mode shows one session per project per day, first save to last — reversible, and applies to your whole history.

Everywhere you work

Apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux, a headless CLI for servers over SSH, and extensions for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. Offline-first, syncs later.

Teams without surveillance

Organisation and team roll-ups with a live dashboard. Managers see project totals — never screenshots or keystroke records.

Flow diagram: a saved file and a visited URL are captured automatically, become a tracked session on the DMI project totalling 2 hours 30 minutes, and land two clicks later as a 2.50-hour line item at 90 dollars an hour on invoice DMI-202607-0012 totalling 225 dollars
From a file save to an invoice line — attribution and billing happen on their own.
Three panels: a session closes itself after 15 minutes without a save; 41 minutes of PC sleep between 12:31 and 13:12 are recorded as a break and deducted from the day's total; a session paused at 15:04 and resumed at 15:26 with the gap not billed
Idle timeout, sleep deduction, and one-click pause keep the hours something a client can trust.
Four panels showing where Temporal.ist tracks: desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux that work offline and sync later; browser extensions for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari that only see sites you add; a headless Linux CLI running temporal watch on a server; and one-click manual sessions for meetings and calls
One account across desktop, browser, and servers — with manual sessions for the rest.

Frequently asked questions

Is any part of Temporal.ist open source?

The browser extensions are MIT. Open-sourcing more is on the roadmap.

Does Temporal.ist phone home with my activity?

Sessions sync to your backend so teams and invoicing work. Raw activity stays local until the session syncs.

Can I self-host Temporal.ist?

Not officially — though the backend code is Django, so technically it's possible. Self-hosted edition is not a v1 promise.

Ready to stop reconstructing your week?

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