Activitywatch by ActivityWatch
The best free and open-source automated time tracker. Cross-platform, extensible, privacy-focused.
About Activitywatch
From the project's README at github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch. Lightly cleaned for readability; for the full source see the upstream repo.
Records what you do so that you can know how you've spent your time .
<img title="Build Status Appveyor" src="https://ci.appveyor.com/api/pr
Health score breakdown
6-dimension composite. See methodology for formula and weights.
Adoption signals
Real-world usage data, pulled from each registry. The bigger the numbers, the more battle-tested the project.
| Signal | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 17k | github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch |
| GitHub forks | 887 | github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch |
Release & maintenance
Is this project actively maintained, or about to die? Check the recency of last commit and last release.
| Project age | 10.0 years | since Apr 2016 |
| Last commit | 6 days ago | May 1, 2026 |
| Releases shipped | 62 | last: 1.6 years ago |
| Security policy | SECURITY.md | declared by maintainers |
| Funding links | 7 | declared by maintainers |
Self-hosting cost across providers
Detected requirements: 4GB RAM, 40GB disk minimum. Cheapest plan per provider that meets the requirement.
| Provider | Plan | Specs | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| hetzner | CAX11 | 2c · 4GB · 40GB | $4.13 USD | Deploy → |
| vultr | VC2 | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $5 USD | Deploy → |
| linode | Nanode 1GB | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $5.12 USD | Deploy → |
| digitalocean | Basic Regular 1GB | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $6 USD | Deploy → |
What people say on Hacker News
Ready to self-host Activitywatch?
Spin up a hetzner CAX11 (4GB RAM, 40GB disk) for $4.13/mo and follow the project's official install docs.
Data last refreshed May 7, 2026.
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