ActivityWatch vs Hackatime
Learn how ActivityWatch and Hackatime differ in their key features, development activity, technology
stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these time tracking tools is best for you.
Learn how ActivityWatch and Hackatime differ in their key features, development activity, technology stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these time tracking tools is best for you.
ActivityWatch
Last 30 days
Last commit
2 days agoRepository age
11 yearsVersion
v0.14.1License
MPL-2.0Repository
activitywatch
Hackatime
Last 30 days
Last commit
9 hours agoRepository age
2 yearsLicense
MITSelf-hosted
YesRepository
hackclub/hackatime
Detailed Comparison
Both ActivityWatch and Hackatime have their unique strengths and serve similar purposes effectively. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, growth, activity, technology, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.
Both ActivityWatch and Hackatime have their unique strengths and serve similar purposes effectively. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, growth, activity, technology, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.
Community & Popularity
ActivityWatch significantly outpaces Hackatime in community adoption with 19,553 stars compared to 216 stars on GitHub. This 90.5x difference suggests ActivityWatch has a much larger and more active community. In terms of developer contributions, ActivityWatch has 1,076 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.
Growth Momentum
ActivityWatch is growing faster, adding 397 stars in the last 30 days (+2.1%) against adding 3 stars for Hackatime (+1.4%). ActivityWatch is both larger and pulling further ahead.
Development Activity
Both projects show recent activity, with ActivityWatch last updated 2 days ago and Hackatime 9 hours ago.
Technology Stack
Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with Bash. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: ActivityWatch uses Python while Hackatime leverages JavaScript, CSS, Typescript, Ruby.
Project Maturity
ActivityWatch has been in development longer, starting 11 years ago, compared to Hackatime which began 2 years ago. This 8.9-year head start suggests ActivityWatch may have more mature features and established processes.
Licensing
Hackatime uses the MIT license, which is more permissive than ActivityWatch's MPL-2.0 license, potentially offering greater flexibility for commercial use and integration.
Use Cases & Features
Both tools serve similar use cases in Time Tracking.
Hosting & Deployment
Hackatime provides self-hosting options for complete data control and customization, while ActivityWatch may be primarily cloud-based or require different deployment approaches.
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