The 8 Best Mac Time Trackers with No Subscription in 2026

If you want no subscription at all, Dayflow (free, MIT) wins for an AI-written timeline of your day, and ActivityWatch (free, MPL-2.0) wins for raw app and window data across Mac, Windows and Linux. If you bill clients, Qbserve ($29.00 one-time) or Timemator ($39 one-time) are the best pay-once picks. Timing and Tyme are subscription-only.

This ranking is for someone on a Mac who wants to know where their working hours go and is tired of paying monthly for it. The job is easy to state: capture time with as little effort as possible, keep the record on your own machine, and pay once or not at all. Some readers need that record for invoices. Others want to answer “what did I actually do this week?” without rebuilding it from memory. If you are open to subscriptions too, our wider ranking of every time tracker for Mac covers more options.

Dayflow is our product, and it sits at number one because this list weights two things heavily: paying nothing and getting a record you can read without running timers. It does not win on billing. Qbserve generates invoices and Timemator tracks hourly rates, while Dayflow does neither. It also does not win on platforms. ActivityWatch runs on Windows, Linux and Android, while Dayflow is Mac only (macOS 14 or later); we cover that matchup in ActivityWatch vs Dayflow. Two more caveats up front: Dayflow’s free app needs either a local AI model on your own hardware or an AI provider you pay, and its optional Pro plan is $20 a month, which is a subscription. Two tools on this list, Tyme and Timing, are subscription-only. They are here as reference points, so you can see what you give up by skipping them.

Quick comparison

Tool	Best for	How it tracks	Price
Dayflow	A readable AI timeline of your day, free	One screen frame every 10 seconds, AI writes the timeline	$0 (MIT); optional Pro $20/month
ActivityWatch	Free raw activity data on any OS	Active app, window title and away-from-keyboard; browser and editor plugins	Free (MPL-2.0)
Qbserve	Paying once and invoicing clients	Apps, websites and window titles, with a productivity score	$29.00 one-time
Timemator	Paying once with iPhone and Apple Watch apps	Rule-based auto timers plus a manual timer	$39 one-time (2 devices)

Quick picks by use case

Best free: Dayflow ($0). It records your screen and has AI write the day as a timeline you can read. Nothing to start or stop, and the code is MIT licensed.

Best free across operating systems: ActivityWatch (Free). Open source under MPL-2.0, no feature gates, and it runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.

Best one-time purchase for billing: Qbserve ($29.00 one-time). Automatic tracking, project rules and invoices in 18 languages, for less than many trackers charge for a few months.

Best one-time purchase with mobile apps: Timemator ($39 one-time for Mac, $7.99 one-time for iOS). Auto-tracking rules on the Mac, plus iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch apps synced through iCloud.

Best for teams without a subscription: ManicTime ($87 one-time License per user). The License lets you install locally or host your own server, and it adds attendance and overtime tracking.

Best if you will accept a subscription: Timing (from $9 a month billed annually). The most complete automatic tracker here, with AI activity summaries. See our Timing alternative page for how it lines up against Dayflow.

How we compared them

These weights reflect a reader who wants to avoid recurring fees first and everything else second.

• No recurring cost (30%). High: free or a one-time price with no required add-ons. Low: subscription-only.
• Automatic capture (20%). High: records apps, windows or the screen without you doing anything. Low: depends on timers or answering prompts.
• Data stays on your Mac (15%). High: the vendor states data is stored locally, with sync optional. Low: cloud by default or storage location unstated.
• A record you can actually read (15%). High: the output answers “what did I do” in a form you can scan or share. Low: raw app totals you have to interpret yourself.
• Billing and project features (10%). High: hourly rates, project rules, invoices. Low: none of that.
• Openness and export (10%). High: open source or clean export formats. Low: data hard to get out.

We compared every tool from its vendor’s own pricing and product pages on October 4, 2026, and Dayflow from its 2.2.0 release. No benchmark was run, and the scores are judgments.

The 8 best no-subscription time trackers, ranked

1. Dayflow

Dayflow is a free, open-source Mac app that records your screen and has AI turn the day into a readable timeline. It captures one frame every 10 seconds, and full recordings plus the timeline are stored on your Mac. For analysis you choose: a local model through Ollama or LM Studio keeps screenshot analysis on-device; your own cloud provider receives selected screenshots under its own terms and charges; or Dayflow Pro manages cloud analysis and, under our privacy policy, deletes screenshots after processing. See local and cloud processing for the boundaries.

What you get is an answer to “what did I do Tuesday afternoon” written as sentences, plus Markdown export of any date range, which feeds directly into exporting your work history.

Price: $0 under the MIT license, with an optional Pro plan at $20 a month. The limits: no invoices, no payroll approvals, no team reports and no website blocking. AI summaries can miss or misread work, so check them before sharing. Local AI needs a Mac with enough resources to run a model.

Pick it if you want to remember your work rather than bill it, and you want to pay nothing.

2. ActivityWatch

ActivityWatch is a free, open-source tracker that logs what is active on your computer and keeps it all on your device. It records the active application, the window title and whether you are away from the keyboard. Browser extensions add the active tab title and URL, and editor plugins add coding activity.

For this audience it is the purest answer to “no subscription”: the vendor describes it as completely free, with no feature gates, no usage limits and no ads, under the MPL-2.0 license. Data is stored on your own device and never sent to a server. It also runs on Windows, Linux and Android, so a mixed-OS household or a work PC can use the same tool. A local API and custom watchers let you build your own reports if you are technical.

Price: Free. The honest limits: sync between devices is still work in progress, there is no iOS app, and no AI summaries are listed. What you get is precise data, not a narrative, so you do the interpreting. There are no invoices or billing rates.

Pick it if you want free, local, exact activity data across more than one operating system and you are comfortable reading charts instead of sentences.

3. Qbserve

Qbserve is a Mac-only automatic tracker sold as a one-time purchase. It records applications, websites and window titles, rates productivity automatically for over 8,100 sites, apps and games, and shows a real-time productivity score in the menu bar. Rules assign tracked time to projects.

For a freelancer who wants to pay once and bill clients, it covers the whole loop: automatic capture, project time and invoice generation in 18 languages. The vendor states all tracked data is stored locally on your Mac and never sent anywhere. Export goes to JSON and CSV, so the data is not trapped.

Price: $29.00 one-time, no subscription, read from the vendor’s checkout with a US locale; the price may differ by country. There is a 15-day trial and no free tier. The limits: Mac only, no AI features listed and no team or sync features listed. The productivity score is useful feedback, but it is the app’s judgment of which sites count as productive, and you may need to adjust it for your work.

Pick it if you bill by the project or hour on a single Mac and want the lowest one-time price with invoicing included.

4. Timemator

Timemator is a time tracker for Apple devices that combines automatic rules with a manual timer, sold as one-time purchases. On the Mac, auto-tracking rules start and stop timers based on the app, file or project you have open, and there is an activity timeline (Mac only) alongside the traditional timer.

What this audience gets is billable-hours tracking without a subscription: hourly rates and revenue per task, CSV import and export for invoicing, and apps for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. The vendor states private data stays on your device, with iCloud sync across devices and automatic backups.

Price: $39 one-time for Timemator for Mac, covering 2 devices, and $7.99 one-time for Timemator for iOS. There is a 30-day trial and no free tier. It is also sold through Setapp, which is a subscription, so buy direct if one-time ownership is the goal. The limits: Apple platforms only, no AI features listed, and the Mac and iOS apps are bought separately. Rule-based tracking is only as good as the rules you set up, so expect some configuration in the first week.

Pick it if you want a one-time tracker with hourly rates and you need to log time from your phone or watch.

5. ManicTime

ManicTime is an automatic tracker that records computer use into a timeline you tag to projects, and it is the only tool here that offers both a one-time License and cloud subscriptions. It tracks apps, documents and websites, supports auto-tagging rules, and can take optional screenshots.

For this audience the $87 License is the interesting part: it lets you install ManicTime locally or host your own server, so a small team can share data without a vendor cloud. It also covers invoices from timesheets, automated email reports, and attendance, vacation and overtime tracking. It runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.

Price: the License is $87 one-time per user, without tax, and includes a year of support and upgrades. Cloud plans are Standard at $7 a month billed yearly or $9 billed monthly, and Ultimate at $9 a month billed yearly or $11 billed monthly, per user, without tax. There is a 30-day trial. The limits: after a year, a License keeps working only on versions released within that year unless renewed. Cloud screenshots require Ultimate, and Standard is limited to 3 devices per user.

Pick it if you need self-hosting, team time records or cross-platform billing and want to avoid a monthly fee.

6. Daily

Daily is a Mac tracker that asks what you are doing instead of running timers. It periodically prompts you, builds a timesheet from your answers, and lets you apply an activity silently for a set duration.

For this audience it suits people who want a timesheet but do not want an app watching their windows: nothing is captured unless you answer. Data is kept on the Mac and can sync through iCloud, with local backups supported. It produces daily, weekly and monthly timesheets with export, and it connects through a Web API, Zapier and AppleScript.

Price: the Business license is €39,99 per year or €7,99 per month, per license, excluding VAT, which is a subscription either way. Individual licenses are sold inside the app through the Mac App Store and the price is not printed on the vendor site, so see the vendor’s pricing page and the in-app listing before you buy. A trial is offered in the app, with no length stated. The limits: tracking happens only on the Mac, the iOS app is for viewing and editing, there is no Windows app, and accuracy depends on how consistently you answer.

Pick it if you prefer self-reporting over automatic capture and need clean timesheets for an employer.

7. Timing

Timing is a Mac-only automatic tracker with AI features, sold only by subscription. It records time across apps, websites and documents, down to specific URLs and Mail threads, and also lists manual entries, iOS activity import and call tracking.

It is here as the benchmark for what a subscription buys. All plans include AI activity summaries and AI integration via MCP, plus AI-powered suggestions for time entries. Billing status tracking, customizable reports with rounding, two-way ClickUp, Linear and Clio sync, and GrandTotal invoicing are available depending on plan. The vendor states tracked times are stored locally and never leave your Mac unless you opt into sync.

Price: Professional is $9 a month billed annually or $11 billed monthly; Expert is $11 a month billed annually or $14 billed monthly; Connect is $16 per user per month billed annually or $20 billed monthly. There is a 30-day trial with no credit card required. The limits: Mac only, no free tier, subscription only, and Professional covers 1 Mac with limited web app access.

Pick it if you want the most capable automatic billing tracker on the Mac and have decided a subscription is worth it.

8. Tyme

Tyme is a timer-based tracker for Apple devices and teams, sold only by subscription. You start and stop timers from the app, shortcuts or Apple Watch, and it can clock you in and out by location using geofences, recording breaks automatically.

For a reader avoiding subscriptions, Tyme is the least aligned pick, but it does things no other tool here does: team mode with admin and member roles, expense and mileage tracking, and invoicing plugins such as GrandTotal, Lexware and sevdesk. A Tyme MCP Server is listed for connecting AI assistants, though no built-in AI features are described.

Price: $4.99 a month per user billed as $59.99 a year, or $6.99 a month per user billed monthly. There is a 14-day trial and no free tier. The limits: Apple platforms only, with web login in beta, and no automatic app or window capture listed, so time you forget to start is time you lose. The vendor says plans stay in sync across your devices, but the sync backend is not described on the pages we read.

Pick it if you work on-site, need geofenced clock-ins or mileage, and accept a subscription for that.

Full comparison table

Tool	Price	Automatic capture	AI summaries	Where data lives	Open source	Platforms
Dayflow	$0; optional Pro $20/month	Yes, a screen frame every 10 seconds	Yes, via local model, your provider or Pro	On your Mac; your provider or Pro processes selected screenshots	Yes, MIT	Mac (macOS 14+)
ActivityWatch	Free	Yes, apps, windows, away-from-keyboard	None listed	Local only	Yes, MPL-2.0	Windows, Mac, Linux, Android
Qbserve	$29.00 one-time	Yes, apps, websites, window titles	None listed	Local only	No	Mac
Timemator	$39 one-time (Mac); $7.99 one-time (iOS)	Rule-based auto timers	None listed	Local, optional iCloud sync	No	Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
ManicTime	$87 one-time License, or cloud from $7/month billed yearly	Yes, apps, documents, websites	None listed	Local or self-hosted (License); cloud on subscriptions	No	Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS
Daily	Business €39,99/year or €7,99/month; individual price in app	No, prompt-based	None listed	Local, optional iCloud sync	No	Mac; iOS companion
Timing	From $9/month billed annually	Yes, apps, websites, documents	Yes, AI activity summaries	Local, optional sync	No	Mac
Tyme	$4.99/month billed annually ($59.99), or $6.99 monthly	No, timers and geofences	None built in; MCP server listed	Synced across devices; backend not stated	No	Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Web (beta)

Is a one-time license actually cheaper than a subscription?

Usually, by a wide margin in year one. Timing Professional at $9 a month billed annually comes to $108 for the year. Tyme’s annual plan is $59.99. Qbserve is $29.00 once, Timemator for Mac is $39 once, and the free tools are free.

The catch is what “one-time” covers. ManicTime’s $87 License includes one year of upgrades; after that you keep the versions released in that year unless you renew, and the renewal terms are on ManicTime’s pricing page, not in our notes. Qbserve and Timemator do not describe an upgrade window on the pages we read, so check before buying if future macOS compatibility matters to you.

Also count the hidden costs. Timemator’s iOS app is a separate $7.99. Dayflow’s free app costs nothing, but cloud AI through your own provider has its own charges, and Pro is $20 a month. Running a local model avoids both but uses your Mac’s resources. If you bill hourly, any of these prices is a small fraction of your time; our real hourly rate calculator shows what an hour of yours is actually worth.

Can a free tracker keep everything on your Mac?

Yes. ActivityWatch states that all data stays on your device and is never sent to a server. Dayflow stores recordings and the timeline on your Mac, and with a local model through Ollama or LM Studio the screenshot analysis stays on-device too. The tradeoff is that local AI needs hardware headroom, while sending screenshots to a cloud provider means they leave your Mac under that provider’s terms.

Among paid options, Qbserve says data never leaves your Mac, and Timemator and Daily keep data local with optional iCloud sync. If you want to understand how automatic tracking works before choosing, read automatic time tracking on Mac, and for the difference between tracking yourself and being monitored, see time tracking without surveillance.

Where Dayflow is the wrong pick

• You invoice clients. Dayflow has no invoices or billing rates. Qbserve ($29.00 one-time) does invoices in 18 languages; Timemator ($39 one-time) tracks hourly rates and revenue.
• You use Windows or Linux. Dayflow is Mac only. ActivityWatch is free on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android; ManicTime covers those plus iOS.
• You run a team. Dayflow has no team reports or payroll approvals. ManicTime’s License can run on your own server; Tyme has team roles if you accept a subscription.
• You do not want your screen recorded at all. Daily builds timesheets from your answers instead of capturing anything.
• You cannot run a local model and will not pay for AI. ActivityWatch gives you exact app data with no AI step and no bill.
• You are on an older macOS. Dayflow needs macOS 14 or later.
• You want website blocking. Dayflow does not block sites, and none of the tools here list blocking either.

How much do they cost?

Tool	Plan	Price	Billing
Dayflow	Free	$0	None
Dayflow	Pro (optional)	$20	Monthly
ActivityWatch	ActivityWatch	Free	None
Qbserve	Qbserve license	$29.00	One-time (US locale; may differ by country)
Timemator	Timemator for Mac	$39 (2 devices)	One-time
Timemator	Timemator for iOS	$7.99	One-time
ManicTime	License	$87 per user, without tax	One-time, includes a year of support and upgrades
ManicTime	Standard	$7/month billed yearly, or $9/month billed monthly, per user	Subscription
ManicTime	Ultimate	$9/month billed yearly, or $11/month billed monthly, per user	Subscription
Daily	Business license	€39,99 per year or €7,99 per month, per license, excluding VAT	Subscription
Daily	Individual (Mac App Store)	See the vendor’s pricing page	Sold in app
Timing	Professional	$9/month billed annually, or $11/month billed monthly	Subscription
Timing	Expert	$11/month billed annually, or $14/month billed monthly	Subscription
Timing	Connect	$16/user/month billed annually, or $20/user/month billed monthly	Subscription
Tyme	Annual	$4.99/month per user ($59.99 annual payment)	Annual
Tyme	Monthly	$6.99/month per user	Monthly

The cheapest sensible setup is free: Dayflow with a local model if you want a readable timeline, or ActivityWatch if you want raw data on any OS. If you bill clients, add Qbserve at $29.00 once rather than starting any subscription; Dayflow’s own plans are on our pricing page.

The bottom line

If you want to pay nothing and remember what you worked on, use Dayflow. If you want free, exact activity data across Mac, Windows and Linux, use ActivityWatch. If you bill clients and want to pay once, buy Qbserve, or Timemator if you also need iPhone and Apple Watch apps. If you need self-hosting for a team, ManicTime’s License is the only no-subscription route here, and if you have decided a subscription is fine, Timing is the most complete automatic option.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a Mac time tracker with no subscription?

Yes, several. Dayflow and ActivityWatch are free and open source. Qbserve is a $29.00 one-time purchase, Timemator for Mac is $39 one-time for 2 devices, and ManicTime sells an $87 one-time License per user that includes a year of support and upgrades. Timing and Tyme, by contrast, list only monthly or annual subscription plans on their pricing pages.

Is Dayflow really free?

The app is $0 and MIT licensed. The AI step that writes your timeline is where costs can appear. A local model through Ollama or LM Studio costs nothing extra but needs a Mac with the resources to run it. Your own cloud provider charges its own API fees. The optional Dayflow Pro plan is $20 a month and manages cloud analysis for you.

What is the best one-time purchase time tracker for invoicing on a Mac?

Qbserve beats Dayflow here. It costs $29.00 once, tracks apps, websites and window titles automatically, assigns time to projects with rules, and generates invoices in 18 languages. Dayflow has no invoicing at all. If you also want iPhone or Apple Watch apps and hourly rates per task, Timemator at $39 one-time is the other strong option.

Does Timing have a one-time purchase option?

Not according to its pricing page on October 4, 2026. Timing lists three subscription plans: Professional at $9 per month billed annually or $11 monthly, Expert at $11 per month billed annually or $14 monthly, and Connect at $16 per user per month billed annually or $20 monthly. It offers a 30-day trial with no credit card required.

Does a ManicTime License stop working after a year?

No, but it stops getting new versions. The $87 one-time License includes a year of support and upgrades. After that year, ManicTime says the License keeps working only on versions released within that year unless you renew. So the app keeps running, but you are pinned to the last version you were entitled to. Check ManicTime's pricing page for renewal terms.

Is Timemator a one-time purchase?

Yes. Timemator for Mac is listed at $39 as a one-time payment covering 2 devices, with a 30-day trial. The iOS app is a separate one-time purchase at $7.99. Timemator is also available through Setapp, which is a subscription service, so make sure you know which version you are buying.

Does Tyme have a lifetime license?

Its pricing page shows only subscriptions: $4.99 a month per user billed as $59.99 a year, or $6.99 a month per user billed monthly. There is no free tier, and the trial is 14 days. If a lifetime license matters to you, Tyme is not the right fit; Timemator or Qbserve are the closest one-time alternatives on Apple platforms.

Which no-subscription time tracker keeps all data on my Mac?

ActivityWatch and Qbserve both state that tracked data stays on your device and is never sent anywhere. Dayflow stores recordings and the timeline on your Mac, and with a local AI model the screenshot analysis stays on-device too. Timemator keeps data on your device with optional iCloud sync. ManicTime's License can run locally or on a server you host.

Is ActivityWatch better than Dayflow?

For some people, yes. ActivityWatch is free, runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, needs no AI model, and gives you exact app and window data with plugins for browsers and code editors. Dayflow is Mac only but writes a readable timeline of what you worked on. Pick ActivityWatch for cross-platform raw data, Dayflow for a narrative record.

How much does Daily cost?

Daily's Business license is €39,99 per year or €7,99 per month, per license, excluding VAT. Individual licenses are sold inside the app through the Mac App Store, and the vendor site does not print that price, so see the vendor's pricing details in the app before buying. A trial is offered in the app, but its length is not stated.