head to head · open source
ActivityWatch vs Sol
ActivityWatch has 18,919 GitHub stars, 1,012 forks, 186 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Sol has 3,132 stars, 180 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ActivityWatch leads on adoption by 504% (18,919 vs 3,132 stars). ActivityWatch is written in Python under MPL-2.0; Sol is written in TypeScript under MIT. ActivityWatch has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Sol 6%. ActivityWatch was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| ActivityWatch | Sol | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 180 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ActivityWatch if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Sol if
- You want the Sol feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Sol fits your workflow better
About ActivityWatch
ActivityWatch is the free and open source automated time tracker in the productivity and time tracking ecosystem. It is written in Python and uses the MPL 2.0 license. The project records what a user does so the user can know how time has been spent, while keeping the data under the user's control.
read the full ActivityWatch overview →
About Sol
Sol is an open source application launcher and command palette for macOS, written in TypeScript and distributed under the MIT license. It runs natively on the desktop and is built with React Native, which is also the toolchain required to compile it from source. The project is hosted on GitHub, where it has accumulated roughly 3,100 stars and 180 forks, and it is tagged with topics such as launcher, command palette, cmd k, spotlight, alfred, and raycast — placing it squarely in the macOS productivity ecosystem alongside those well known launchers.
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Frequently asked questions
Is ActivityWatch or Sol more popular?
ActivityWatch has 18,919 GitHub stars and Sol has 3,132. ActivityWatch has the larger community by that measure.
Are ActivityWatch and Sol free?
Both are open source. ActivityWatch is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Sol under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ActivityWatch and Sol?
ActivityWatch is written in Python and Sol in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ActivityWatch or Sol?
Choose ActivityWatch if you want the larger community (18,919 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Sol if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.