Kimai is free and open source, but the self-hosting burden and unpublished paid tiers lead some teams to look for a managed time tracker.
Running Kimai yourself means owning setup, updates, backups and uptime, and that maintenance load is what pushes most teams away. Paid packaging beyond the free core is not published, so budgeting for support or extras requires contacting the project. It is also web-based only, which suits browsers but not staff expecting a native desktop tracker.
| Tool | Best for | Starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Kimai (current) | Freelancers and agencies self-hosting time tracking with invoicing | Free |
| ActivityWatch | Individuals who want private, on-device time tracking for free | Quote-based |
| TimeTrex | Cost-conscious employers wanting time, scheduling and payroll together | Free |
| OrangeHRM | HR departments wanting free self-hosted core HR with paid add-ons | Free |
Teams with a sysadmin and a need to keep time data on their own servers have strong reasons to stay. Those without one can try Kimai Cloud before replacing the tool entirely. Anyone moving off should export timesheets to CSV or XLSX first, since invoices and rates are tied to that history.
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.
Pricing: Free / open source. Deployment: Self-hosted. Trial: Trial not listed.
TimeTrex is time and attendance software with a free self-hosted community edition and paid cloud or on-site editions.
Pricing: Free / open source. Deployment: Cloud. Trial: Free trial available.
OrangeHRM is open-source HR software with a free Starter edition you can self-host and a paid Advanced edition with extra modules.
Pricing: Free / open source. Deployment: Cloud. Trial: Free trial available.
Most leave because self-hosting means their own staff handle updates, backups and uptime. Kimai Cloud removes that work, so teams should compare it with other hosted tools before migrating their timesheet history.
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