Personal Time Tracking

Personal-flavour time tracking — automatic activity tracking ("you spent 3h on YouTube") and manual timers ("I worked 90 minutes on this project"). For team / billable time tracking see time-tracking. For pomodoro see prod-focus-pomodoro. For habit streaks see prod-habit-streaks.

Manual timers (you press start/stop)

• ★ Toggl Track — free + paid (Premium / Business); web + every platform; the long-time leader for project-based time tracking. Generous free tier.
• Clockify — free + paid; the most generous free tier (unlimited users / projects on Free); Toggl-shape competitor.
• Tyme — paid (~$5/mo or one-time on macOS); Mac/iOS power-user pick; Apple Watch tracking.
• TimeCamp — paid + free; team-focused.
• Hours — paid + free; iOS-leaning; pretty.
• Harvest — paid; invoicing-flavour.

Automatic activity tracking (it watches what you do)

• ★ ActivityWatch — free OSS; cross-platform; the only major OSS automatic tracker; data stays local; surprisingly featureful. Default in 2026 for privacy-respecting users.
• ★ Timing — paid (~$10/mo or ~$50 one-time license); macOS only; the best automatic tracker on Mac — categorises apps + websites + folders without manual rules. Loved by freelancers who bill by app.
• RescueTime — paid + free; cross-platform; productivity-score flavour with focus mode; the ancestor of the category.
• TimingApp vs Tockler (free OSS Mac/Win/Linux) — Tockler is the OSS lightweight version of ActivityWatch.
• Qbserve — paid Mac; older; manual-rule-heavy.

Hybrid (manual + auto)

• Toggl Track has an optional Autotrack feature (paid).
• Timing has manual override layered on top of automatic.
• Clockify auto-tracker is paid.
• TMetric — paid + free; auto-tracking + invoicing.

Linux-friendly OSS

• ★ ActivityWatch — same product, Linux-native (Python + Rust); the right answer.
• Hamster — old GNOME app; manual; less active.
• KTimeTracker — KDE; manual.
• gtimelog — minimalist text-file timer.
• arbtt — Linux automatic tracker; less polished than ActivityWatch.

Apple-only manual

• Tyme — paid; Apple-shape.
• HoursTracker — paid; iOS/Mac.
• OmniFocus time tracking via integration — see prod-task-gtd-apps.

What automatic trackers track (and you should know)

• Active window title + bundle ID — i.e. which app and which doc/url.
• Idle detection — most pause when keyboard/mouse idle for >2 min.
• Browser tabs — via extension; this is the privacy-sensitive bit.
• Aggregation — "you spent 14h in code, 2h in Slack, 3h on YouTube this week."

Privacy reality

• ★ ActivityWatch is 100% local — nothing leaves your machine unless you opt-in. The privacy default.
• RescueTime / Timing can sync to cloud (RescueTime more so) — fine for individuals but ask if you're under MDM.
• Toggl / Clockify are timer apps; they don't watch your activity unless you turn on Autotrack.
• Workplace surveillance tools (Hubstaff, Time Doctor) are a different category — not covered here.

Pricing reality check

• Toggl Track Free is genuinely useful — unlimited tracking + 5 users + reports.
• Clockify Free is the most generous in the category — unlimited everything for free.
• Timing is ~$50 one-time licence on Mac (or subscription for cloud sync) — best Mac automatic tracker by a mile.
• RescueTime Premium ~$78/yr — only worth it if you'll act on the reports.
• ActivityWatch is fully free OSS.

Patterns that actually work

• ★ Track for one week, then decide. Most people overestimate their work-time and underestimate their distraction-time; the data is what changes behaviour.
• Don't bill clients with auto-trackers — the categorisation is too fuzzy. Use a manual timer (Toggl) for billing and an auto-tracker for self-awareness.
• Pair with prod-distraction-blocking — see the data, then block the worst offenders.
• Daily review — 5 min at end-of-day to look at the day's tracking; without review it's just a graph.

Pick this if…

• Default free manual tracker: Toggl Track or Clockify (Clockify if you want unlimited free).
• Default automatic tracker, free, OSS, private: ActivityWatch.
• Mac freelancer who bills by app/folder: Timing.
• Score-based "am I being productive": RescueTime.
• Team billing flavour: Harvest or TMetric.
• CLI-only, simple: gtimelog (Linux) or timetrap gem.