head to head · open source
Kimai vs TimeScribe
Kimai has 5,005 GitHub stars, 844 forks, 350 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TimeScribe has 899 stars, 85 forks, 30 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Kimai leads on adoption by 457% (5,005 vs 899 stars). Kimai is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; TimeScribe is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. Kimai has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, TimeScribe 9%. Kimai 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
| Kimai | TimeScribe | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.0K | ★ 899 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 844 | ⑂ 85 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kimai if
- You weight community size — 5.0K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick TimeScribe if
- You want the TimeScribe feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and TimeScribe fits your workflow better
About Kimai
Kimai is a free and open source, web based time tracking application written in PHP on the Symfony framework, licensed under AGPL 3.0. It is built as a multi user, multi timezone and multi language system that handles the time tracking use cases of freelancers as well as companies with dozens or hundreds of users. The project lives in the PHP ecosystem, stores its data in MariaDB or MySQL through Doctrine, and renders its interface with Tabler. It is distributed both as a self hosted on premise application and as a hosted SaaS version at kimai.cloud.
read the full Kimai overview →
About TimeScribe
TimeScribe is a free, offline first desktop time tracker for macOS and Windows, built for freelancers, remote workers and anyone who needs to log work hours without a subscription, an account or a cloud service.
read the full TimeScribe overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kimai or TimeScribe more popular?
Kimai has 5,005 GitHub stars and TimeScribe has 899. Kimai has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kimai and TimeScribe free?
Both are open source. Kimai is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and TimeScribe under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kimai and TimeScribe?
Kimai is written in PHP and TimeScribe in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Kimai or TimeScribe?
Choose Kimai if you want the larger community (5,005 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose TimeScribe if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.