Kimai vs Timewarrior
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?
Kimai
Professional time tracking for teams and freelancers
VS
Timewarrior
Command-line time tracking with powerful reporting
| Feature | Kimai | Timewarrior |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Time Tracking | Time Tracking |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,871 | ★ 1,637 |
| First released | 2006 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Toggl, Harvest, Clockify | Toggl |
Why pick each one
Choose Timewarrior if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Kimai or Timewarrior better?
Neither is universally better. Kimai has the larger community, while Timewarrior is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Kimai and Timewarrior free and open-source?
Yes. Kimai is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Timewarrior under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kimai and Timewarrior with Docker?
Kimai: yes. Timewarrior: check the project docs for container support.