ActivityWatch — ActivityWatch records your computer usage locally to help you understand how you spend your time.
Analyzed by Sai Pavan Gopularam · Productivity · Time Tracking · View on GitHub
- Stars: 19078
- Forks: 1030
- Commits last 30 days: 35
- Health: Active (35 commits this month)
- Language: Python
- License: MPL-2.0
What It Is
ActivityWatch is like a personal fitness tracker for your digital life. It runs silently on your computer, recording what applications you use, which window is active, and even detecting when you're away from your keyboard (AFK). All this data is stored securely on your local machine, giving you full control.
This matters because it solves the problem of not knowing where your time goes, without sacrificing privacy to a third-party service. Unlike many other trackers, ActivityWatch emphasizes user data ownership and extensibility, allowing you to gain insights into your work habits or build custom tools without sending your sensitive activity data to the cloud.
License Verdict
MPL-2.0 License — Build and Sell, Share Changes to Source — Commercial Use Approved • Modifications to source must be shared
The MPL-2.0 license allows you to use, modify, and distribute ActivityWatch for commercial purposes, including selling products or services that incorporate it. If you modify the source code of any MPL-2.0 licensed file, you must make those specific modifications available under the MPL-2.0. If you only use it as a library without modifying its source, your own code does not need to be open-sourced.
How to Use It
ActivityWatch is typically installed by downloading pre-built binaries from its releases page. Once downloaded, you can run the executable to start tracking your activity. It's cross-platform, supporting Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android.
Prerequisites:
- Windows, macOS, Linux, or Android operating system
Estimated setup time: 5 minutes.
wget https://github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch/releases/download/v0.13.2/activitywatch-v0.13.2-linux-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x activitywatch-v0.13.2-linux-x86_64.AppImage
./activitywatch-v0.13.2-linux-x86_64.AppImageWhat I'd Build With This
Personal Productivity Coaching Dashboard (micro-saas)
Build a personalized dashboard and reporting service for individuals using ActivityWatch's local data. Offer custom visualizations, goal tracking, and weekly summaries that highlight deep work, distractions, and time allocation. Users pay for the enhanced analytics and coaching, keeping their raw data private. Market to freelancers, remote workers, and students who want to optimize their focus.
Effort: 2 Weeks Build Time · Target: Freelancers, Remote Professionals, Students · Pricing: $19/mo
Self-Hosted Team Activity Insights (saas)
Develop a self-hosted solution for small teams to aggregate (with explicit consent) and visualize their collective ActivityWatch data. Focus on team-level insights like average focus time, common tools used, or project time allocation, without individual surveillance. Provide admin controls, custom reporting, and integration options for project management tools. Companies pay for the self-hosted software license and support.
Effort: 3 Months Build Time · Target: Small Teams, Agencies, Privacy-Conscious Companies · Pricing: $99/mo per 5 users
Custom Workforce Productivity & Compliance Platform (enterprise)
Create a highly customizable, on-premise platform for large organizations by integrating ActivityWatch's data collection with existing HR and project management systems. Offer advanced features like compliance reporting for regulated industries (e.g., tracking time on specific client projects), detailed resource allocation analysis, and custom watcher development for proprietary software usage. The value is deep, private operational insights and compliance assurance.
Effort: 6 Months+ Build Time · Target: Large Enterprises, Regulated Industries · Pricing: $5000+/month (custom quotes)
Sai Pavan Gopularam's Take
This is a solid foundation for privacy-focused productivity tools, especially with its local-first data model. The extensibility is key. I'd lean into offering advanced analytics and custom reporting as a service on top of their data, potentially generating $5k/month from a handful of small teams.
Watch Out For
- Local Data Storage by Default: While excellent for privacy, ActivityWatch stores all data locally. Building cloud synchronization or centralized team dashboards requires significant development to handle data aggregation and secure transfer.
- Watcher Development Complexity: Extending ActivityWatch to track niche applications or specific user behaviors requires developing custom 'watchers,' which means diving into its Python-based architecture and API.
- MPL-2.0 Code Share Requirement: If you modify the core ActivityWatch source code, you are legally required to make those modifications publicly available under the MPL-2.0 license. This impacts proprietary forks of the project.
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