SHSelfHostIndex

Timewarrior vs FocusTime Tracker

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?
TI Timewarrior Command-line time tracking with powerful reporting VS FO FocusTime Tracker Minimal command-line and web work timer
FeatureTimewarriorFocusTime Tracker
CategoryTime TrackingTime Tracking
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageC++Python
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM64 MB64 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcebinary, source
GitHub stars★ 1,637★ 2,535
First released20162015
ReplacesTogglToggl, Harvest

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++
Timewarrior details

Choose FocusTime Tracker if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Python
FocusTime Tracker details

Frequently asked questions

Is Timewarrior or FocusTime Tracker better?

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

Are Timewarrior and FocusTime Tracker free and open-source?

Yes. Timewarrior is licensed under MIT and FocusTime Tracker under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Timewarrior and FocusTime Tracker with Docker?

Timewarrior: check the project docs for container support. FocusTime Tracker: check the project docs for container support.

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