Kimai vs Traggo
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted time tracking options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Kimai
Professional time tracking for teams and freelancers
VS
Traggo
Tag-based time tracking without rigid project hierarchies
| Feature | Kimai | Traggo |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 79 · Good |
| Category | Time Tracking | Time Tracking |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,025 | ★ 1,632 |
| First released | 2006 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Toggl, Harvest, Clockify | Toggl, Clockify |
What are Kimai and Traggo?
Kimai
Kimai is a free, web-based multi-user time tracking application. It tracks work time across projects and activities and generates invoices and exportable reports.
- Multi-user time tracking
- Invoice generation
- Detailed reporting and exports
- Plugin marketplace
Traggo
Traggo is a tag-based time tracking tool. Instead of fixed projects and tasks, every tracked entry is described by tags, giving flexible reporting and analysis.
- Tag-based time entries
- Flexible custom dashboards
- Single binary deployment
- Lightweight resource usage
Kimai vs Traggo: key differences
Kimai is written in PHP, while Traggo is built with Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Kimai versus GPL-3.0 for Traggo. Traggo is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Kimai. Kimai is the more established project (first released 2006), while Traggo arrived in 2019. Kimai has the considerably larger community, at 5,025 GitHub stars versus 1,632.
Why pick each one
Choose Kimai if…
- Mature and actively maintained
- Strong invoicing features
Watch out for
- Configuration can be involved
Choose Traggo if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.6k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Kimai or Traggo better?
Neither is universally better. Kimai has the larger community, while Traggo is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Kimai and Traggo free and open-source?
Yes. Kimai is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Traggo under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kimai and Traggo with Docker?
Kimai: yes. Traggo: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Kimai or Traggo?
Traggo has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Kimai. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.