ActivityWatch is a free, MPL-2.0 licensed automatic time tracker for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android that logs the active app, window title and idle time, with browser extensions and editor plugins for more detail.
Free / open sourceSelf-hosted
Best Open Source Employee Monitoring Software for Distributed Workforces
Self-hosted and open source workforce tracking for teams across several offices, regions or countries, weighed on languages, sign-in options, attendance features and who maintains the servers.
What this audience should prioritize
Spread-out teams bring data residency and language questions that single-office companies skip. Self-hosting lets an organization decide which country stores its time and attendance records, but it also means someone must patch and back up the servers in every environment the company runs.
Kimai supports more than 30 languages and offers SAML or LDAP authentication, so staff in different countries can log time in their own language under company sign-in. Its managed cloud is hosted in the EU, and the self-hosted route runs on the company's own server. OrangeHRM offers a broader open source HR foundation with time and attendance, plus a commercial Standard plan priced by quote.
Two free, self-hosted choices, ERPNext HR and Odoo Community, serve SMB and mid-market teams and make most sense for organizations already running the wider ERPNext or Odoo software. Sentrifugo is aimed at smaller teams and keeps people data inside infrastructure the company controls, though there is no hosted trial. For every self-hosted option, updates and security across regions remain the buyer's job.
Shortlist candidates for Distributed Workforces
Kimai is a free, open-source time tracking tool built for teams that want a more structured way to track time, activity, attendance, or workforce visibility in self-hosted or open environments.
Free / open sourceSelf-hosted
TimeTrex is time and attendance software with a free self-hosted community edition and paid cloud or on-site editions.
Free / open sourceCloudFree trial
OrangeHRM is open-source HR software with a free Starter edition you can self-host and a paid Advanced edition with extra modules.
Free / open sourceCloudFree trial
Sentrifugo is a free, GPL-3.0 open-source HRMS that you download and host yourself, covering employee records, leave, attendance, appraisals and recruitment.
Free / open sourceSelf-hosted
Frequently asked questions
Who maintains a self-hosted monitoring tool?
The buyer does. With Kimai, OrangeHRM or TimeTrex Community, deployment, updates, security and backups sit with the company's own technical staff. Teams without that capacity usually end up on a vendor's commercial or cloud plan.