SHSelfHostIndex

Hamster vs Gnomecast Timewarrior UI

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted time tracking options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
HA Hamster Desktop time tracker for individual productivity VS GN Gnomecast Timewarrior UI Graphical front-end for the Timewarrior CLI tracker
FeatureHamsterGnomecast Timewarrior UI
CategoryTime TrackingTime Tracking
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguagePythonPython
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB128 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcebinary, source
GitHub stars★ 1,127★ 70
First released20082020
ReplacesToggl, RescueTimeToggl Desktop, Clockify Desktop

Why pick each one

Choose Hamster if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Python
Hamster details

Choose Gnomecast Timewarrior UI if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in Python
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Gnomecast Timewarrior UI details

Frequently asked questions

Is Hamster or Gnomecast Timewarrior UI better?

Neither is universally better. Hamster has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Hamster and Gnomecast Timewarrior UI free and open-source?

Yes. Hamster is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Gnomecast Timewarrior UI under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Hamster and Gnomecast Timewarrior UI with Docker?

Hamster: check the project docs for container support. Gnomecast Timewarrior UI: check the project docs for container support.

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