{"category":{"slug":"open-source-time-tracking","label":"Open-source time tracking software"},"methodology_url":"https://www.orbator.io/ai-index/methodology","license":"Free to use with attribution to orbator.io","date":"2026-08-19","engine":null,"available_dates":["2026-09-08","2026-08-19","2026-08-18","2026-08-10","2026-08-09","2026-07-29","2026-07-25","2026-07-22","2026-07-05","2026-07-04","2026-06-17","2026-06-16"],"policy":{"quotable_engines":["anthropic","openai","gemini"],"max_excerpt_chars":400,"full_text_public":false,"customer_runs_public":false,"full_text_retention":"retained at least 24 months, then operator review","notes":["Only Index category runs are archived publicly — customer scans never appear.","The quotable unit is a short excerpt of at most 400 characters, never the full answer.","Engines outside the verbatim allowlist are recorded as having answered, with the excerpt withheld under their terms.","Prompt intent is published; the prompt text itself is not."]},"status":"ok","count":7,"limit":50,"truncated":false,"engines":[{"engine":"anthropic","count":7,"withheld":false,"answers":[{"engine":"anthropic","answered_on":"2026-08-19","prompt_intent":"best_in_category","excerpt":"For a self-hosted, hourly-billing agency setup, a few open-source tools stand out clearly above the rest:\n\n## Top pick: Kimai\nAcross nearly every source, **Kimai** is called out as the most mature, business-oriented option. Kimai tracks time against a hierarchy of customers, projects, and activities, and at the end of the month invoices generate from actual recorded hours — no guessing, no roundin","excerpt_withheld":false,"withheld_reason":null,"highlights":[{"start":120,"end":125,"name":"Kimai"},{"start":156,"end":161,"name":"Kimai"},{"start":224,"end":229,"name":"Kimai"}]},{"engine":"anthropic","answered_on":"2026-08-19","prompt_intent":"best_in_category","excerpt":"For a freelancer who wants full control over their own data, a handful of open-source, self-hostable tools stand out — each with a different trade-off between polish, features, and simplicity.\n\n## Top pick: Kimai\nKimai is the best-known open-source time tracker — hosted on your own server, with reports, project management, invoicing add-ons, and API access all included, giving you maximum data con","excerpt_withheld":false,"withheld_reason":null,"highlights":[{"start":207,"end":212,"name":"Kimai"},{"start":213,"end":218,"name":"Kimai"}]},{"engine":"anthropic","answered_on":"2026-08-19","prompt_intent":"recommendation","excerpt":"For a self-hosted setup, the clear front-runner is **Kimai** — it's the most mature, business-oriented open-source time tracker and maps well onto a law firm's needs (client → matter → activity hierarchy, billable/non-billable rates, and exportable reports).\n\n## Kimai (top pick)\n\n**Why it fits:** You can start and stop timers or enter hours manually against any client, project, or activity for acc","excerpt_withheld":false,"withheld_reason":null,"highlights":[{"start":53,"end":58,"name":"Kimai"},{"start":263,"end":268,"name":"Kimai"}]},{"engine":"anthropic","answered_on":"2026-08-19","prompt_intent":"recommendation","excerpt":"For a distributed team spread across multiple time zones, **Kimai** is the strongest open-source option to start with, with **solidtime** and **Ever Gauzy** as close alternatives depending on your priorities.\n\n## Top pick: Kimai\n\nKimai is explicitly built for multi-timezone, multi-user teams. Its feature set includes a JSON API, invoicing, data exports, multi-timer and punch-in punch-out mode, tag","excerpt_withheld":false,"withheld_reason":null,"highlights":[{"start":60,"end":65,"name":"Kimai"},{"start":126,"end":135,"name":"Solidtime"},{"start":144,"end":154,"name":"Ever Gauzy"},{"start":223,"end":228,"name":"Kimai"},{"start":230,"end":235,"name":"Kimai"}]},{"engine":"anthropic","answered_on":"2026-08-19","prompt_intent":"alternatives","excerpt":"If you're looking to move away from proprietary, cloud-hosted time trackers like Toggl, Clockify, or Harvest, there are several solid open-source options — ranging from self-hosted business timesheet apps to privacy-focused automatic activity trackers.\n\n## Full-featured, self-hosted business time trackers\n\n**Kimai** is the most commonly recommended open-source alternative to Clockify/Toggl for tea","excerpt_withheld":false,"withheld_reason":null,"highlights":[{"start":81,"end":86,"name":"Toggl"},{"start":88,"end":96,"name":"Clockify"},{"start":101,"end":108,"name":"Harvest"},{"start":310,"end":315,"name":"Kimai"},{"start":378,"end":386,"name":"Clockify"},{"start":387,"end":392,"name":"Toggl"}]},{"engine":"anthropic","answered_on":"2026-08-19","prompt_intent":"comparison","excerpt":"Open-source time tracking splits pretty cleanly into two categories depending on whether you're tracking your own focus/coding time or managing a team's billable hours and reporting. Here's how the landscape breaks down:\n\n## For Individual Developers\n\nThe priority here is usually integration with your existing workflow (IDE, issue tracker), privacy (local data), and low friction — not surveillance","excerpt_withheld":false,"withheld_reason":null,"highlights":[]},{"engine":"anthropic","answered_on":"2026-08-19","prompt_intent":"problem_solving","excerpt":"Here's a practical roadmap for self-hosting a time tracking system that talks to your project management and invoicing tools.\n\n## Two approaches: all-in-one vs. best-of-breed stack\n\n**Approach 1: All-in-one self-hosted suite**\nSome tools bundle time tracking, PM, and billing together so you don't need integrations at all:\n\n- **Kimai** — Kimai is a mature open-source time tracking platform for proj","excerpt_withheld":false,"withheld_reason":null,"highlights":[{"start":329,"end":334,"name":"Kimai"},{"start":339,"end":344,"name":"Kimai"}]}]}]}