Best Time Tracking Apps for Mac

The short answer. Timing and Qbserve are the automatic trackers with projects, timesheets and billing-friendly records. ActivityWatch is the open-source, privacy-focused, extensible one that stores the data locally. Rize is the one that adds coaching on top of the record. Dayflow builds a screen activity timeline with AI support. KeyStats counts keystrokes, clicks and movement rather than time in applications. The dividing question is whether the tool watches you or asks you, because the automatic ones produce a record you did not have to maintain and a record you did not choose to keep.

This guide covers 6 time tracking apps for macOS. Every fact below is drawn from the same verified records that back each app’s own page. The recommendations are our editorial judgment, not payment.

Quick comparison

What actually decides this

• What it actually records. Application names, window titles, URLs and keystroke counts are four different datasets with four different privacy profiles. A tool that records window titles has a log of every document you opened, which is a different thing from a log of which app you used.
• Automatic or declared. Automatic tracking is complete and cold; declared tracking is partial and personal. The second fails when you forget and the first fails when it records something you would rather it had not, and neither failure is fixable by configuration.
• Where the data is stored. A local database you can read, copy and delete is a different proposition from a cloud account. Since the data is a minute-by-minute picture of your working day, this is the single decision that outlives the others.
• Whether it will produce an invoice. For freelance work, the question is whether the tool can produce a timesheet a client will accept, with projects, rates and rounding. A tracker that only shows you a pie chart of your own day is a personal tool, and the gap is invisible until the first invoice.
• What it does with the record. Some tools stop at the log. Some add idle detection, project rules and coaching. The coaching is the feature people uninstall first, because a tool that tells you that you were unproductive is measuring something other than what you meant by productive.

Our picks

• Timing — Its record describes automatic time tracking with productivity insights and billing-friendly records, which is the invoice case. Choose it when you need records that will survive a client invoice.
• Qbserve — Its record describes automatic time tracking with projects, timesheets and productivity insights, which is the project-tracking case. Choose it when you want automatic projects and timesheets without a cloud account.
• ActivityWatch — Its record describes a cross-platform, extensible and privacy-focused time tracker, which is the local-first case. Choose it when the record has to stay on your machine and be open source.
• Rize — Its record describes an AI time tracker that helps you focus and build better work habits, which is the coaching case. Choose it when you want the record turned into coaching about how you work.
• Dayflow — Its record describes a screen activity timeline with AI support, which is the timeline case. Choose it when you want to see the day as a timeline you can read back.
• KeyStats — Its record describes a menu bar tracker for daily keystrokes, clicks, movement and scrolling, which is the activity-count case. Choose it when what you want is activity counts rather than time in applications.

The apps

ActivityWatch

ActivityWatch is a time tracker for macOS. Cross-platform, extensible, and privacy-focused time-tracker. It is released under MPL-2.0.

What it does. The best free and open-source automated time tracker. Cross-platform, extensible, privacy-focused.

ActivityWatch is listed with current version 0.13.2.

Full profile and verified facts for ActivityWatch →

Dayflow

Dayflow is a time tracker for macOS. Screen activity timeline with AI support. It is released under MIT.

What it does. The automatic work journal/time tracker. Privately turns your screen into a timeline of what you actually accomplished. Open-source and local-first.

Dayflow is listed with current version 2.6.0.

Full profile and verified facts for Dayflow →

KeyStats

KeyStats is a system tool for macOS. Menu bar tracker for daily keystrokes, clicks, movement, and scrolling. It is released under MIT.

What it does. Keyboard Keystroke Statistics: Real-time tracking of daily key presses. Mouse Click Statistics: Separate tracking of left and right clicks. Mouse Movement Distance: Track total distance of mouse movement. Scroll Distance Statistics: Record cumulative page scroll distance.

KeyStats is listed with current version 1.54.

Full profile and verified facts for KeyStats →

Qbserve

Qbserve is a Mac utility for macOS. Automatic time tracking with projects, timesheets, and productivity insights. Its pricing is not published.

What it does. Freelance time tracking, invoicing, and productivity improvement.

Qbserve is listed with current version 1.91.

Full profile and verified facts for Qbserve →

Rize

Rize is a Mac utility for macOS. AI time tracker that helps you focus and build better work habits. Its pricing is not published.

What it does. Rize tracks time automatically and gives managers team time visibility: utilization, billable hours, and profitability by client. No timers or screenshots.

Rize is listed with current version 3.0.45.

Full profile and verified facts for Rize →

Timing

Timing is a Mac utility for macOS. Automatic time tracking with productivity insights and billing-friendly records. Its pricing is not published.

What it does. Timing automatically tracks your time, logging apps, websites, and documents. Bill accurately and boost productivity and make manual timers a thing of the past.

Timing is listed with current version 2026.5.

Full profile and verified facts for Timing →

How to choose

• No licence fee, source available. ActivityWatch, Dayflow and KeyStats — the source can be read and, under the terms of each licence, reused.
• Pricing not published in our data. Qbserve, Rize and Timing — check the developer’s own site before assuming anything about cost.

Open source: ActivityWatch, Dayflow and KeyStats (3 of 6).

Common mistakes

• Installing a tracker on a machine you share. The other person did not consent to being in your dataset.
• Reading the first week as data. The first week measures the novelty of being watched, not your working day.
• Choosing the tool with the best dashboard before checking the export. The dashboard is the part that will be replaced.
• Letting the tracker decide what productive means. It measures what it can see, which is not the same thing.

How this guide was put together

Each app’s facts come from its own record: the developer’s own pages and repository, the App Store listing where one exists, and the documentation, each with a source grade and an access date. Where a fact rests on the developer’s own statement rather than on something we verified independently, the sentence says so. Where our data has no value for something, the guide says “not published” instead of guessing.

A price appears here only where the record carries one from a stated source; the guide never estimates one, and it records the pricing model alongside so the two can be read together. Prices change and vary by region, so each app links to its own page for the current detail.

The facts and the recommendations are kept apart on purpose. Everything in the app entries, the comparison table and the answers above is composed from the records. The short answer, the criteria and the picks are our editorial judgment: they reflect what we would choose and why, and they are not paid for. Where we make a recommendation we name the condition it applies under, because we do not call anything “the best” without explaining the criteria.