head to head · open source
Lago vs TimeTracker
Lago has 10,627 GitHub stars, 759 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. TimeTracker has 628 stars, 68 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lago leads on adoption by 1,592% (10,627 vs 628 stars). Lago is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; TimeTracker is written in Python under GPL-3.0. Lago has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, TimeTracker 11%. TimeTracker 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Lago | TimeTracker | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 11K | ★ 628 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-25 | 2026-09-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 759 | ⑂ 68 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lago if
- You weight community size — 11K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick TimeTracker if
- You want the TimeTracker feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and TimeTracker fits your workflow better
About Lago
Lago is an open source metering and usage based billing API written in Go under AGPL 3.0. It lives in the Business Software and Finance & Accounting ecosystem and sits between product usage and revenue. It turns events such as AI tokens, compute, API calls, seats, and custom events into billable metrics, pricing, credits, entitlements, invoices, and payments.
About TimeTracker
TimeTracker is a self hosted, web based time tracking and invoicing application, released under the GPL 3.0 and built on Python and Flask, for freelancers, small teams, agencies and privacy focused organisations that want Toggl or Clockify style timers, project management and client billing while keeping their data on their own infrastructure.
read the full TimeTracker overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Finance & Accounting projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Finance & Accounting field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lago or TimeTracker more popular?
Lago has 10,627 GitHub stars and TimeTracker has 628. Lago has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lago and TimeTracker free?
Both are open source. Lago is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and TimeTracker under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lago and TimeTracker?
Lago is written in Go and TimeTracker in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Lago or TimeTracker?
Choose Lago if you want the larger community (10,627 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose TimeTracker if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.