Comparison
The 5 best Timing alternatives in 2026
Timing is a Mac-native time tracker, built for consultants who bill hours. Compare free alternatives, local AI, and billing workflows. Timing also offers AI summaries, so the decision is about capture, cost, and how you use the record.
Timing has earned a decade of Mac loyalty: automatic tracking of apps, documents, and websites, hierarchical projects, billing rates, and reports detailed enough to invoice from. It is Mac-only by design ("no plans right now to change that," per its FAQ). People look elsewhere for three reasons: price (subscriptions from about $10/month, no free tier), the shift to subscription with cloud sync built in, and whether they need a billing-oriented workflow. Timing Expert also offers AI summaries of your activities; Connect adds access from AI assistants through MCP.
Choose Dayflow if you want a free, screen-based work journal and the option to analyze it locally. Keep Timing if project billing, manual entries, and invoiceable reports are central to your workflow. Dayflow does not replace those billing features.
Quick comparison
| App | Price | Automatic | AI summaries | Local storage | Open source | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dayflow | $0 (Pro optional) | Yes | Yes | Recordings + local timeline | Yes (MIT) | Mac |
| Timing | From ~$10/mo | Yes | Yes (Expert) | Cloud sync | No | Mac |
| RescueTime | From $7/mo annual | Yes | No | No | No | Mac, Windows, web |
| Rize | From $9.99/mo annual | Yes | Categorization | No | No | Mac, Windows |
| ActivityWatch | $0 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Mac, Windows, Linux |
| Memtime | From ~€10/mo (2-year rate) | Yes | No | Yes | No | Mac, Windows, Linux |
1. Dayflow - free, and it explains your day
Dayflow
$0, MIT license · optional paid ProBest free pickDayflow is a free, open-source work journal for Mac. It records your screen and has AI write a readable timeline and daily summary of where your time actually went. Full recordings and the local timeline stay on your Mac.
Timing builds summaries from app and document activity. Dayflow records your screen at one frame every 10 seconds and has AI summarize every 15 minutes into a timeline you can actually read at the end of the day. It is a native Mac app, supports offline analysis with local AI (Ollama, LM Studio), and the whole codebase is public under the MIT license.
Better than Timing at
- Price: $0 vs a subscription
- Screen-based context instead of app and document metadata
- Privacy choice: on-device analysis with Local AI
Where Timing wins
- Billing: rates, invoiceable per-project reports
- Document-level detail and manual time entries
- Team features and integrations (Connect tier)
2. RescueTime - productivity scoring plus blocking
RescueTime
From $7/mo annualBest distraction blockingRescueTime is cheaper than Timing and adds what Timing never had: distraction blocking and focus alerts. You give up Timing's document-level precision and gain cross-platform coverage (Windows, web, mobile). Cloud-based. See the full RescueTime alternatives comparison.
3. Rize - AI focus coaching
Rize
From $9.99/mo annual, 7-day trialBest focus coachingRize is the modern coaching take: AI categorization, focus scores, and break reminders on Mac and Windows. Less depth than Timing for billing, more intelligence about your habits. Cloud-based, no free tier - our Rize alternatives guide has the full picture.
4. ActivityWatch - the free raw logger
ActivityWatch
$0, open sourceBest cross-platform free optionActivityWatch logs apps, window titles, and browser tabs locally on Mac, Windows, and Linux for free. It is the tinkerer's choice: raw data, open buckets, community dashboards. No projects, no billing, no AI - just honest logs.
5. Memtime - the billing specialist
Memtime
From ~€10/mo on the 2-year rateBest agency workflowMemtime is the closest rival to Timing's billing use case: automatic minute-by-minute capture, stored locally, pushed as time entries into Jira, ClickUp, and other project tools. If Timing's Mac-only rule is your blocker, Memtime runs on Windows and Linux too.
The verdict
Nothing beats Timing at turning Mac activity into an invoice. But if that is not your job, you likely do not need it: Dayflow covers "where did my day go" for free with full recordings and a local timeline on your Mac, Rize covers focus coaching, RescueTime covers blocking, and Memtime covers billing across platforms.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Timing?
Yes, two serious ones. Dayflow is free and open source (MIT): it records your screen at one frame every 10 seconds, has AI write a readable timeline of your day, and keeps full recordings and a local timeline on your Mac. ActivityWatch is free, open source, and cross-platform, logging raw app and window activity. Timing itself has a 30-day trial but no free tier.
Does Timing work without the cloud?
Current Timing subscriptions include sync and cloud backup as part of the product. Historically Timing sold a standalone local license, but the subscription editions are built around Timing Connect. Dayflow can work without cloud AI: full recordings and the local timeline stay on your Mac, and Local AI keeps screenshot analysis on-device. ActivityWatch, Memtime, and Qbserve also offer local capture.
Dayflow vs Timing: which should I pick?
Pick Timing if you bill clients: its per-project rates, document-level tracking, and reports support a billing-oriented workflow. Pick Dayflow if you want to understand your day: it writes an AI narrative of what you actually did, costs $0, and keeps full recordings and a local timeline on your Mac. Timing also has AI summaries on Expert. Dayflow differs in its screen-based capture, free core app, and optional local AI.
Start with the free one
Dayflow is $0 and open source. Full recordings and the local timeline stay on your Mac; AI processing depends on the mode you choose.
Download for MacOS macOS 14+ · MIT licensed · no account required