Compared honestly
RescueTime alternatives for Mac
RescueTime is the original automatic tracker, on every platform, built around distraction, with the record on its servers. People leave it for one of four reasons: they want something that feels like a Mac app, a record that stays on their own machine, one payment instead of $84 a year, or a timesheet rather than a focus score. This page is sorted by those four.
Prices and facts checked 10 October 2026 · Quarter Past 2.3.10 · They change; tell us if one has
What RescueTime is, and what you are replacing
RescueTime runs in the background on Mac, Windows and phones, records application and website activity with idle detection, scores how focused the day was, and offers focus sessions and blocking. The Solo plan is $84 a year; Solo+ adds timesheets at $144 a year; both carry a 14-day trial, and the data lives on RescueTime’s servers. Quarter Past vs RescueTime has the full side by side.
Two things to know before choosing. First, every automatic tracker on a Mac reads what you have open, which since macOS Catalina needs Screen Recording permission; the three kinds of Mac tracker explains it. Second, nothing below blocks distractions the way RescueTime does. If the blocking is what you use, keep RescueTime, or add a blocker beside whichever tracker you choose.
Timers are a different answer and not on this page: Tyme, Toggl Track, Harvest and Clockify all need you to press a button, which is the thing RescueTime spared you.
Four that watch, the Mac way
Automatic, like RescueTime, and closer to the Mac. Five-year costs are what you would actually have paid on the cheapest plan that does the job for one person.
Timing Mac-only, and the best at this
The nearest like-for-like: automatic, reads which apps, documents and websites are in front of you, and builds a minute-by-minute timeline filed to projects by rules. Made for the Mac only, sold direct, with a 30-day trial. Where it differs from RescueTime is the purpose: Timing is for knowing where the hours went, by client and project, not for scoring your focus. The record syncs to Timing’s cloud, so it does not answer the own-machine reason. Subscription.
Timemator Automatic, one payment, kept on your Mac
Watches the apps you use and the files you have open, with rules that assign the activity to tasks, and a manual timer for when you want one. It answers two of the four reasons at once: what it sees stays on your Mac, and you pay $39 once. iPhone, iPad and Watch apps are sold separately. No focus scoring.
Rize The closest to RescueTime’s focus idea
If the focus score was the point, Rize is the one that kept it: it watches the focused window and browser addresses, scores your focus and coaches you with AI. Mac and Windows. Like RescueTime, the data lives on its servers, and it costs more: no free tier, plans priced by AI credits, from $9.99 a month billed annually.
Memtime Records everything, offline, for timesheets
Records every program, document and meeting in the background, to the second, and keeps the recording on your device; you then turn blocks of it into entries, with AI suggesting where each belongs. It is built for billing, with integrations to the tools that invoice, so it is the Solo+ replacement rather than the Solo one. Windows, Mac and Linux. Subscription.
Two that ask instead
No reading at all, and the record is in your own words. The price is a tap every so often, and the gain is that nothing on your Mac is being watched.
Daily for Mac Asks at an interval you set; since 2013
A prompt at an interval you choose, and you say what you are doing. Its App Store privacy label says no data is collected, and the record stays on your Mac with optional iCloud sync. It records how long each activity took, not when it started and ended, so it gives you proportions rather than a timeline. Mac only, with an iPhone companion. One payment available.
Quarter Past Asks every fifteen minutes; this site’s own
Every fifteen minutes a small card appears by the menu bar asking what you have been doing. One tap logs the quarter-hour that just passed, with a start and an end, so the entry is good for a timesheet. Forget for an hour and it asks about the hour, and marks the answer as recalled, so the record is honest about its own gaps. It holds no Screen Recording and no Accessibility permission because there is nothing to read; the record is a file on your Mac, with no account and no server. It answers three of the four reasons: Mac-native, own machine, one payment. It does not score your focus. Mac only, one person, no invoicing.
By the reason you are leaving
- You want a Mac app, not a cross-platform service. Timing, Timemator, Daily and Quarter Past are Mac-first; Rize and Memtime are cross-platform like RescueTime.
- You want the record on your own machine. Timemator and Memtime keep what they read local; Daily and Quarter Past read nothing and keep the record on the Mac. Timing and Rize keep it on their servers.
- You want one payment. Timemator $39, Quarter Past £54, Daily £99.99 for life. Everything else is a subscription.
- You want a timesheet, not a focus score. Timing, Memtime and Quarter Past give entries with a start and an end. Rize is the one to keep if the score was the point.
Which one, honestly
Choose one of the others if
- You want RescueTime’s effortlessness on a Mac and the reading does not trouble you: Timing, or Timemator for one payment.
- The focus score and coaching were the point: Rize.
- You bill from a recording and need the integrations: Memtime.
- You like being asked and do not need start and end times: Daily.
Choose Quarter Past if
- You are leaving because software was reading what you had open, and you want that to stop entirely.
- You want the record on your own Mac, with no account and no server, for one payment.
- You want entries with a start and an end, honest about which were measured and which were recalled.
- You want to plan the week and see it against the record, and a brief an AI can read at the end of a fortnight.
What Quarter Past does not do
So that this page is worth trusting:
- Mac only. No Windows, no phone, no web version yet.
- One person. No team view, no shared projects, no manager reports.
- No focus score, no blocking, no distraction alerts. It records what you say, and stops there.
- No invoicing, no integrations, no Zapier. It exports a CSV.
- Not on the Mac App Store, by choice; it is signed and notarised with Apple and downloaded from this site.
Try it for a fortnight. Decide then.
Free for fourteen days, no card and no account. If it earns its place, it is £54 once, paid from inside the app. If not, nothing to cancel.
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