Comparison
Tracker vs Timing
Written by the developer of Tracker · every claim about Timing comes from the linked article
If you have already decided that timers are not for you, the shortlist of automatic Mac time trackers is short and Timing is on it. Both apps record the frontmost window and the site you are on without you starting anything, so the comparison is not automatic versus manual. It is about where the data lives, whether you classify up front or review afterwards, and whether you rent the software or buy it.
Side by side
| Criterion | Tracker | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking method | Samples the frontmost window, and the URL when that window is a browser, every few seconds. | Also automatic: it records the frontmost app, the document or window title, and the website you are on. |
| How work becomes a client | Rules written up front. A URL or window-title pattern per client files every sample as it arrives. | A rich, detailed timeline, plus a large toolkit for slicing that timeline into projects afterwards. |
| What that costs you | Less to review later, because the classification already happened — but a badly written rule quietly mislabels a week. | More to review, and more to discover: the detail is genuinely useful when you want to know where your week went. |
| Where the data lives | A SQLite file on your disk is the whole backend. No account, no server, nothing to sync. | A Mac app, with cloud sync available in the higher tiers. |
| Two Macs | Not supported. One machine, and nothing follows you to the other one. | Sync in the higher tiers carries your timeline between machines. |
| Idle time | The gap is cut out of the day entirely, so the exported CSV holds keyboard time rather than wall-clock time. | Also addresses the problem of walking away from a running machine. |
| Pricing model | Free during early access, a one-time license after launch. | A subscription, with sync and the higher-end features in the upper tiers. |
| Available today | No. Tracker is in early access and not released yet. | Yes. An established, actively developed product with a long release history and a large feature surface. |
Which one to choose
Choose Timing if you want the mature option, if you want a detailed timeline you can explore and re-slice after the fact, if you move between two Macs, or if you need something available today. That last one is the most important line on this page: if you need a time tracker on your Mac this week, Timing is the one that exists.
Choose Tracker if the deciding factor is that client data never leaves your machine, if you would rather define a few rules once than review a timeline every week, if you prefer buying software to renting it, and if you are comfortable waiting for an early-access app to mature. Neither answer is wrong; the two tools optimise for different anxieties.
The reasoning behind every row above is written out at length in Timing vs Tracker: two automatic time trackers for Mac, compared. The local-only design that decides most of these trade-offs is explained on the about page.