Best ActivityWatch Alternatives for Developers in 2026 (Tested)

Why people look for an ActivityWatch alternative

ActivityWatch got something genuinely right: it made automatic, private, local-only time tracking real, open source, and free. The reasons people start shopping are almost always the same, and they are not about whether it works. They are about what it was never built to do.

The first is maintenance. ActivityWatch is a tool you run and tend. You install the server, keep watchers alive, and write categorization rules to turn raw window titles into something meaningful. If you have ever rebuilt your machine and realised your tracking quietly stopped weeks ago, you know the feeling. For some developers that ownership is the whole appeal. For others it is one more thing to babysit.

The second, and the bigger one for developers, is that ActivityWatch is not code-aware. It sees that an editor window was focused, not which project, branch, or commit the time went into, and it has no concept of terminal or agentic coding at all. In practice this means it can tell you that you spent four hours in VS Code, but not what you shipped in those four hours. That is a different and, for a developer, more useful question.

The third is that there is nothing to show at the end. ActivityWatch produces private dashboards for you, which is exactly what it promises. But if you want to turn the work into something a client, a manager, or your future self can trust, raw local logs are not it. This is the gap most of the alternatives below compete in.

ActivityWatch alternatives compared

Before the table, a note on how to read it. "Local-only" means data can stay entirely on your machine, "code-aware" means the tool understands projects and commits rather than just window titles, "git-based" means it derives activity from your commit history, and "AI sessions" means it captures terminal or agentic coding such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex rather than only the editor.

The 5 best ActivityWatch alternatives

I weighed each tool on the things that send developers away from ActivityWatch: low maintenance, code- and git-level understanding instead of raw window titles, and a record you can use later. Full disclosure: I build DevClocked, so I will be specific about where it wins and where it does not.

1. DevClocked

Best for code-aware tracking and proof of work

DevClocked starts from a different question than ActivityWatch: not which application had focus, but how much you and your AI coding agents shipped. The headline metric is a Leverage Score, output relative to the effort it took, and agents like Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Cursor are tracked as first-class actors, including their token usage and cost. Under the hood it combines a git baseline, a benchmark inferred from your commit history that needs nothing installed, with telemetry from a lightweight editor extension and an editor-agnostic CLI tracker. A model learns the relationship between the two over time, so the hours are calibrated rather than guessed from commit size alone. The same record then becomes a profile that proves what you shipped, audited to source.

Where it falls short: it is cloud-based, so it is not the pick for someone whose whole reason for using ActivityWatch is that data never leaves the machine. It is also built around code and agents, so it will not track your non-coding workday the way RescueTime does. It analyses metadata such as commit timing and activity rather than the content of your code, but if any cloud sync is a dealbreaker, ActivityWatch is still the honest answer.

Pros: understands projects, commits, and AI-agent work; leverage and output metrics rather than raw window time; works across editors and the terminal with no per-editor plugin; turns work into shareable proof; free tier.

Cons: cloud-based, not local-only; focused on code and agents rather than your whole computer.

Verdict: the strongest pick if you left ActivityWatch because it could not see your code, and you want output and proof rather than a private window log.

2. RescueTime

Best for managed whole-computer time and focus

RescueTime is the closest like-for-like swap if what you valued in ActivityWatch was automatic, set-and-forget tracking of your entire machine, but you were tired of running it yourself. It is a managed service: it tracks everything you do, categorizes it for you, and adds focus features that block distracting sites during deep-work blocks. You will often reach for it when you want the whole-day picture without maintaining a local server.

The trade-off is the same one ActivityWatch has, plus the loss of local-only data. RescueTime is not git-aware or code-aware. It sees an editor as just another application, so it cannot tell you which project or commit the time went into. And your data now lives in a cloud, which is the exact thing ActivityWatch users often chose to avoid.

Pros: fully managed, no upkeep, whole-computer picture, strong focus and distraction tools.

Cons: not code or git aware, cloud-based rather than local, weak for project-level coding truth.

Verdict: the right swap if you want automatic whole-computer tracking without the maintenance and do not mind a cloud. See DevClocked vs RescueTime or the RescueTime alternative switching guide if code-level tracking matters more.

3. WakaTime

Best for per-editor language and project stats

WakaTime is where most developers go when they want code-level detail that ActivityWatch cannot give: time per language, per project, per file, broken down automatically. If you have ever wanted to know exactly how your week split across TypeScript, SQL, and config, WakaTime answers that cleanly, and it has a generous free tier.

The catch is the one that defines the whole category: WakaTime works through an editor plugin, so you install and maintain one for every editor you use, and it stops counting the moment your work moves to a terminal, a new machine, or an agentic session. You are trading ActivityWatch's setup burden for a different one, spread across every editor instead of one server.

Pros: detailed per-editor and per-language coding stats, large integrations list, free tier.

Cons: requires a plugin in every editor, misses terminal and AI-agent work, gaps when you switch machines.

Verdict: pick it for granular per-editor stats. If the plugin fragility bothers you, compare the no-plugin options in best WakaTime alternatives or the WakaTime alternative guide.

4. Toggl Track

Best for client billing across all work

Toggl Track is a polished general-purpose time tracker with strong reporting and invoicing. If part of why you outgrew ActivityWatch is that you now bill clients for a mix of coding and non-coding work and need one clean timesheet, Toggl does that far better than a local window logger ever will.

It is manual, though, which is almost the opposite of what drew you to ActivityWatch in the first place. You start and stop timers yourself, and developers are famously bad at remembering to hit start. For coding specifically, a tool that captures the work automatically will always hold a more honest record than one that depends on your memory.

Pros: excellent reporting and invoicing, tracks coding and non-coding work together, mature apps.

Cons: manual timers, not code or git aware, accuracy depends on discipline.

Verdict: good for general freelance billing. Less ideal if you want the automatic capture ActivityWatch gave you.

5. Tockler

Best for a lighter local automatic timeline

Tockler is the closest in spirit to ActivityWatch: open source, local, and automatic, recording your active window and idle time into a timeline you keep on your own machine. If you like the local-first philosophy but found ActivityWatch's server-and-watchers model heavier than you wanted, Tockler is a simpler take on the same idea.

It carries the same fundamental limits, though. It tracks application and window titles, not code, projects, or git, so it answers "what was on screen" rather than "what did I build." For a developer who wants code-level truth, it is a lateral move, not an upgrade.

Pros: local-only, open source, automatic timeline, lighter setup than ActivityWatch.

Cons: not code or git aware, basic reporting, no proof or sharing layer.

Verdict: a reasonable swap if you want local-only automatic tracking with less maintenance, and you do not need code-level insight.

Where DevClocked fits (and where it does not)

DevClocked is the best fit when you left ActivityWatch because it could not see your code and you want a record you can use later, including as proof of what you shipped. Because it reads a git baseline and a CLI tracker rather than a focused-window log, it understands projects, commits, and the agentic and terminal work that window trackers miss entirely, and it turns that into output and leverage rather than raw minutes.

It is not the answer for everyone, and the honest case for staying put matters here. If your entire reason for choosing ActivityWatch was that no data ever leaves your machine, keep ActivityWatch, or look at Tockler. DevClocked is cloud-based by design, and no feature list outweighs a hard local-only requirement. If you want your whole computer tracked rather than your code, RescueTime is the better managed option. DevClocked earns its place specifically when the work lives in git and you want that work captured reliably and turned into something you can show.

A private window log tells you where your attention went, which is useful, but it is still a claim only you can see. The harder and more valuable thing is a record of what you built that holds up when a client, a manager, or your future self goes looking.

Related Guides

• Best WakaTime alternatives in 2026: the wider field of no-plugin and git-based trackers, tested and ranked.
• Track coding time from Git: how git-based tracking works and why it understands code where window loggers do not.
• Coding time tracker without an IDE plugin: why per-editor plugins miss work, and what to use instead.
• WakaTime vs RescueTime: code-specific versus whole-computer tracking, head to head.