head to head · open source
qinglong vs Watson
qinglong has 19,887 GitHub stars, 3,232 forks, 108 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Watson has 2,539 stars, 257 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. qinglong leads on adoption by 683% (19,887 vs 2,539 stars). qinglong is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Watson is written in Python under MIT. qinglong has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Watson 10%. qinglong 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
| qinglong | Watson | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-12-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 257 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick qinglong if
- You weight community size — 20K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Watson if
- You want the Watson feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Watson fits your workflow better
About qinglong
Qinglong is a self hosted timed task management platform that schedules and runs Python 3, JavaScript, Shell, and TypeScript scripts from a web interface, built for developers and operators who want central control over scheduled jobs instead of hand editing crontab on every machine.
read the full qinglong overview →
About Watson
Watson is a Python command line application for tracking time spent on projects and activities. It lives in the open source Python ecosystem, where it is distributed as td watson on PyPI and as watson through Homebrew on OS X. The tool records work as frames, and each frame can have a project name, tags, a start time, and a stop time.
read the full Watson overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is qinglong or Watson more popular?
qinglong has 19,887 GitHub stars and Watson has 2,539. qinglong has the larger community by that measure.
Are qinglong and Watson free?
Both are open source. qinglong is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Watson under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between qinglong and Watson?
qinglong is written in TypeScript and Watson 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, qinglong or Watson?
Choose qinglong if you want the larger community (19,887 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Watson if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.