Comparison
The 5 best Timing alternatives in 2026
Timing is the most polished Mac-native time tracker, built for consultants who bill hours. If you want something free, something with AI, or something that never touches a cloud, here are the honest options.
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 the output - meticulous numbers, but no plain-language account of what you actually worked on.
Quick comparison
| App | Price | Automatic | AI summaries | Data stays local | Open source | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dayflow | $0 (Pro optional, $16/mo annual) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (MIT) | Mac |
| Timing | From ~$10/mo | Yes | No | 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 Pro $16/mo annualBest free pickDayflow is the only app in this comparison that is fully automatic, AI-powered, 100% local, and free. It records your screen and has AI write a readable timeline and daily summary of where your time actually went - your recordings never leave your computer.
Where Timing counts minutes per app and document, 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 lightweight native Mac app (about 100MB RAM, under 1% CPU), works fully offline with local AI (Ollama, LM Studio), and the whole codebase is public with 6,000+ GitHub stars.
Better than Timing at
- Price: $0 vs a subscription
- Understanding context: narrative summaries, not app counts
- Guaranteed local: no cloud component at all
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 everything local, 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 and has AI write a readable timeline of your day, all stored locally 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. If a hard no-cloud guarantee matters to you, Dayflow (open source, recordings never leave your Mac), ActivityWatch, Memtime, and Qbserve all keep data strictly on-device.
Dayflow vs Timing: which should I pick?
Pick Timing if you bill clients: its per-project rates, document-level tracking, and reports are the best in the category. Pick Dayflow if you want to understand your day: it writes an AI narrative of what you actually did, costs $0, and keeps everything local. Timing tells you the numbers; Dayflow tells you the story.
Start with the free one
Dayflow is $0, open source, and everything stays on your Mac.
Download for MacOS macOS 14+ · MIT licensed · no account required