For the Mac
Time tracking on a Mac
The three kinds of tracker, what each one has to ask macOS for permission to do, and how to choose without handing over more than you meant to.
Every time tracker on the Mac is one of three things, and the difference that matters is not the feature list. It is what each one has to ask macOS for permission to do.
Three kinds, and only three
Manual timers. You press start, you press stop. Accurate when you remember, blank when you do not. Toggl, Harvest, Clockify and Tyme are these.
Automatic trackers. They watch what is in front of you and build the record without being asked. Timing, RescueTime, Rize, Memtime and Timemator are these.
The ones that ask. They prompt at an interval and record your answer. Daily has done this since about 2013; Quarter Past is the other one, and we make it.
The permission that tells you what a tracker can actually see
This is the part worth understanding before you install anything, and it is specific to the Mac.
Since macOS Catalina in 2019, an application cannot be told the title of another application’s window unless it has been granted Screen Recording permission. The list of open windows is available to anything; the names on them are not. macOS holds that back deliberately, because a window title is usually a document name, a client name or a web page.
So there is a simple test, and it does not depend on trusting anybody’s marketing:
- A tracker that can tell you “you spent forty minutes in Pages, on Riverside proposal” must have Screen Recording permission. There is no other way for it to know the document name.
- A tracker that only says “you spent forty minutes in Pages” can manage without it.
- A tracker that asks you what you were doing needs neither, because you told it.
Screen Recording does not mean it is recording your screen
The name alarms people, and it should be said plainly: granting it does not mean an app is filming you. It is the single permission macOS uses to gate everything that can see what is on screen, from a screenshot tool to reading one window title.
But the reason it is one permission rather than several is the reason it matters. An application you have granted it to could capture the screen. Almost none of them do. You cannot tell from the outside which is which, and that is precisely why the permission is the thing to decide about rather than the feature list.
Check it in thirty seconds
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording. Recent versions of macOS call it that; older ones call it simply Screen Recording, and it is the same list. Everything currently allowed to see your screen is in it, with a switch beside each. The Accessibility list next door is worth the same look: it grants the ability to read and control other applications’ interfaces.
An application only appears in that list once it has asked for the permission. So a tracker that is not in it has never requested the ability to see your screen at all, which is a stronger statement than a switch turned off. Our own list is on the home page, for what it is worth.
Do this now, before you are choosing a tracker. Most people have never opened those two lists, and what is already on them is more interesting than anything a new app will add.
Three questions worth answering before you install
- Are your document names confidential? If you are a solicitor, an accountant, a consultant under an NDA, or anyone whose file names contain client names, an automatic tracker is reading exactly the thing you are not supposed to repeat. That is not a criticism of the software. It is the trade it asks you to make.
- Where does the record end up? Some keep it on the Mac. Some sync it to their own servers. Memtime is unusual among automatic trackers in saying plainly that the captured activity stays offline on your device.
- What happens when you stop paying? Most subscriptions lock the record, not just the recording. Worth knowing before there are two years of data in it.
The ten we have looked at
All of these run on a Mac. Every price carries the date it was checked, and each name goes to a full comparison that says what that product does better than ours.
| How it tracks | Reads your screen | Where the record lives | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily | Periodically asks what you are doing; the interval is configurable. By design it records the duration of each … | No. Its App Store privacy label says no data is collected | On your Mac, with optional iCloud sync | In-app purchase: £7.99 a month, £19.99 a quarter, £39.99 a year, or £99.99 once … |
| Timing | Automatically, by recording the apps, document titles and web addresses in use | Yes. Reading what is open is how it works | Synced and backed up to Timing's cloud | Subscription. From £84 a year on the Professional plan (about £7 a month paid an… |
| Rize | Automatically, from the focused window and browser addresses | Yes, by design; it says it does not screen-record or log keystrokes | On Rize's servers (Amazon Web Services), behind your account | Subscription. Billed annually: Basic $9.99 a month, Pro $23.99, Max $39.99. Paid… |
| RescueTime | Automatically, from the apps and websites in use, with idle detection | Yes. Application and website activity is what it records | On RescueTime's servers | Subscription. Solo (Focus) $84 a year ($7 a month billed annually, or $9 monthly… |
| Toggl | A timer you start and stop, on any device; an optional desktop timeline records app and window titles to help … | Not by default; the optional timeline records app and window titles | On Toggl's servers, synced | Free for up to three users; Starter $9 per user a month billed annually ($12 mon… |
| Tyme | A timer you start and stop on any Apple device, with reminders when you forget and optional clock-in and clock… | No. It does not read documents or web addresses. It can use your location to clock you in | On your Apple devices, kept in sync by Tyme; a web app is in beta | Subscription. £4.16 a month billed annually (£49.99 a year), or £5.99 billed mon… |
| Timemator | Automatically, from the apps you use and the files you have open, with rules that assign that activity to task… | It reads which apps and files are in use, which is how its rules work. What it sees stays on your Mac | On your Mac, with optional iCloud sync and automatic backups to a location you choose | $39 once for the Mac app, usable on two devices; $7.99 once for iOS |
| Memtime | Automatically records every program, document and meeting in the background, to the second; you then assign th… | Yes. Recording the programs and documents in use is how it works, though Memtime says what it records stays on your device | Memtime says the automatic activity record stays offline on your device; the entries you create are what reaches its integrations | Subscription. Basic £11 per user a month billed annually; £13 quarterly, or £9 o… |
| Clockify | A timer you start and stop, or manual entry, or an auto-tracker that records the apps and websites you use; Pr… | Optionally, yes. The auto-tracker records apps and websites, and Pro upwards can screenshot every five minutes | On Clockify's servers | Free for up to five users; Basic $3.99 per seat a month billed annually ($4.99 m… |
| Harvest | One-click timers, daily and weekly timesheets, and calendar imports; entries record start and end clock times,… | No | On Harvest's servers | Free for 1 seat and 2 projects; Teams $11 per seat a month, or $108 a seat bille… |
| Quarter Past | Asks what you have been doing every 5 to 60 minutes; one tap logs the interval that just passed, to the minute… | Never. No screen-recording or accessibility permissions | A file on your Mac. No account, no server, no sync | £54, once |
Each row links to a full comparison with the date its prices were checked. If one has changed, tell us and it gets fixed.
Mac App Store, or straight from the developer
Both are fine, and they are not the same. An App Store app runs in Apple’s sandbox, which limits what it can reach and is a genuine safety net. It also means slower updates, and some things simply cannot be built.
An app downloaded from a developer’s own site should be signed and notarised — Apple has checked it for malware and issued it a ticket, which is why macOS opens it without complaint. If a Mac tracker is neither on the App Store nor notarised, and macOS warns you about an unidentified developer, that is worth stopping for.
A declaration of interest
We make one of the ten. Quarter Past is the third kind: it asks what you are working on at an interval you choose, and one tap logs the quarter-hour that just passed. It holds no Screen Recording and no Accessibility permission, because it has nothing to read — everything it knows, you told it. The record is a file on your own Mac, it works offline with no account, and an expired licence never locks you out of your own data.
It is £54 once, after fourteen days free. That is the only pitch on this page, and the rest of it is true whether or not you ever download it.
A tracker that asks for no permissions at all
Quarter Past sits in the menu bar and asks what you have been working on. One tap logs the quarter-hour that just passed. It never reads your screen, your documents or your browser, because it never has to.
Fourteen days free, no card · £54 once · macOS 10.15 or later, Apple silicon and Intel