SHSelfHostIndex

ActivityWatch vs Wakapi

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?
AC ActivityWatch Automatic, privacy-first time tracking for your devices VS WA Wakapi Self-hosted coding activity and time tracking server
FeatureActivityWatchWakapi
CategoryTime TrackingTime Tracking
LicenseMPL-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB128 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcedocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 18,527★ 4,398
First released20162019
ReplacesRescueTime, ManicTimeWakaTime, RescueTime

Why pick each one

Choose ActivityWatch if…

  • Released under the MPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 18.5k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
ActivityWatch details

Choose Wakapi if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (4.4k GitHub stars)
Wakapi details

Frequently asked questions

Is ActivityWatch or Wakapi better?

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

Are ActivityWatch and Wakapi free and open-source?

Yes. ActivityWatch is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Wakapi under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run ActivityWatch and Wakapi with Docker?

ActivityWatch: check the project docs for container support. Wakapi: yes.

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