head to head · open source
ActivityWatch vs Ziit
ActivityWatch has 19,481 GitHub stars, 1,068 forks, 186 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Ziit has 258 stars, 13 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. ActivityWatch leads on adoption by 7,451% (19,481 vs 258 stars). ActivityWatch is written in Python under MPL-2.0; Ziit is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. ActivityWatch has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Ziit 5%. ActivityWatch was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (dashboard, productivity, time-tracker, time-tracking), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Ziit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 258 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 13 |
| 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 Ziit if
- You want the Ziit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Ziit fits your workflow better
About ActivityWatch
Records what you do so that you can know how you've spent your time . All in a secure way where you control the data . Website — Forum — Documentation — Releases Contributor stats — CI overview Do you want to receive email updates on major announcements? Signup for the newsletter! Table of Contents About Screenshots Is this yet another time tracker? Feature comparison Installation & Usage About this repository Server Watchers Libraries Contributing About The goal of ActivityWatch is simple: Enable the collection of as much valuable lifedata as possible without compromising user privacy. We've worked towards this…
read the full ActivityWatch overview →
About Ziit
The Swiss army knife of code time tracking. Docs • Stats • Leaderboard • Discord [!IMPORTANT] Upvote Ziit on AlternativeTo, ProductHunt, PeerPush to help me promote it. Star History What is Ziit? Ziit (pronounced 'tseet') is an open source, self hostable alternative to WakaTime. It provides a clean, minimal, and fast dashboard for displaying coding statistics, while ensuring privacy by keeping all data on your own server. Ziit tracks coding activity such as projects, languages, editors, files, branches, operating systems, and time spent coding all presented in a familiar interface inspired by Plausible…
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Frequently asked questions
Is ActivityWatch or Ziit more popular?
ActivityWatch has 19,481 GitHub stars and Ziit has 258. ActivityWatch has the larger community by that measure.
Are ActivityWatch and Ziit free?
Both are open source. ActivityWatch is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Ziit under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ActivityWatch and Ziit?
ActivityWatch is written in Python and Ziit 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 Ziit?
Choose ActivityWatch if you want the larger community (19,481 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Ziit if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.