TimePrivate is a Mac time tracker that records your work automatically, turns it into reports and ready-to-send invoices, and files every second in a database on your own Mac. No cloud. No account. No surveillance.
Not released yet. Join the waitlist and we will write to you the day it opens. Apple Silicon first, Windows is on the roadmap.
TimePrivate is a time tracking app for Mac that keeps the whole record on your Mac. It tracks automatically by app and by browser domain, drafts a timesheet you approve, turns approved hours into PDF invoices, and files all of it in a local database. The app makes no network requests, so there is no account to create and no server holding your history.
Nothing here is for sale today. The TimePrivate waitlist is one email on the day the Mac app opens.
Most trackers are surveillance tools wearing a productivity costume. TimePrivate is structurally different: the monitoring features simply do not exist.
Your data lives in a local database on your Mac. There is no upload code to trust, because there is no upload. Export everything to CSV whenever you like. More on who ends up holding your work hours, plus a free weekly hours calculator you can use right now, and the line between the app and this website is spelled out on the TimePrivate privacy page.
There is no single best time tracking app for Mac, because Mac trackers answer to different owners. Six questions separate them, and TimePrivate deliberately answers two of them badly. Work out which column you are shopping in before you install anything.
A cloud Mac tracker keeps your history on its servers under its policy, which is what makes team reporting possible. TimePrivate keeps the history in a local database on your Mac, which is what makes team reporting impossible. Neither is cheating. Pick the one that matches who the hours are for.
Read the permission list, not the marketing. Monitoring tools take screenshots, log keystrokes and record window titles. TimePrivate records the app name and, in a browser, the domain only, so "figma.com" is stored and the document you had open is not.
Manual timers are exact and easy to forget. Automatic tracking never forgets and always needs an edit pass. TimePrivate does both: it drafts your day from what it saw, and you accept, adjust or dismiss the draft before anything is booked.
Ask where the export button is before you commit years of hours. If TimePrivate lapses, the app locks, your database stays on your Mac and CSV export keeps working, so the record does not become hostage to a card that expired.
Plenty of Mac time trackers are a web app in a window and stall on a plane. TimePrivate makes no network requests at all, so tracking at 30,000 feet behaves exactly like tracking at your desk, and optional sync writes encrypted files to a folder you choose.
Free tiers are real and often generous. They are usually funded by paid seats above you or by the value of the data. TimePrivate has no free tier of the app for that reason, and charges a flat planned $9 a month or $79 a year instead.
This is the question every Mac time tracker comparison turns on, so here is the plain version. TimePrivate runs both, and the timesheet only counts what you sign off on.
You start a timer, name the project, stop it when you switch. Accurate to the second, honest about intent, and useless on the afternoon you forgot. In TimePrivate a manual entry is a global keyboard shortcut, a menu bar panel, or plain English in the command bar, for example "2h Acme redesign yesterday 2pm #design".
The Mac app watches which application is in front and, in a browser, which domain, then maps that to your projects using rules you set once. Nothing is forgotten, but raw activity is not the same as billable work, so it always needs a pass from you. TimePrivate drafts the day, for example "Today, already drafted, 5h 40m across 3 projects".
Automatic tracking that books itself is how a tracker turns into a monitoring tool. TimePrivate drafts, you accept, tweak or dismiss, and nothing lands in a report or on a client invoice until you say so. Idle time is offered back to you rather than silently kept or silently dropped.
One macOS detail worth knowing before you install any automatic tracker: macOS will not let an app see what you are working in until you grant it permission yourself, in System Settings under Privacy and Security, and you can revoke that at any time. TimePrivate asks for what it needs to name apps and browser domains and nothing beyond it, which is why there is no screenshot feature to switch off later.
Automatic tracking notices which Mac apps you're in, browser tabs by domain only, and maps them to your projects with rules you set once. Forgot to start a timer? Nothing is lost.
Each day TimePrivate drafts your timesheet from what it saw: "Today, already drafted, 5h 40m across 3 projects." Accept all, tweak, or dismiss. Nothing books itself.
Tracked hours become branded PDF invoices with your rates, tax, expenses, due dates, and a pay-online link. Fully offline, no invoicing service required.
TimePrivate draws a weekly goal ring, streaks, a 24-hour rhythm dial that shows your golden hours, deep-work stats, and a year heatmap. Analytics built to change your behavior, not report it to someone else.
TimePrivate offers optional multi-device sync through a folder you control, like iCloud Drive or Dropbox. Files are end-to-end encrypted with your passphrase. The cloud only ever holds ciphertext.
TimePrivate keeps invoice history, statuses, duplicate-for-next-month, overdue badges, and per-entry billable control so internal time never lands on a client's bill.
In TimePrivate, ⌘K adds time in plain English: "2h Acme redesign yesterday 2pm #design". A menu-bar mini panel and a global macOS shortcut start and stop timers from anywhere, which is as close to a plain Mac timer app as this gets.
Step away from the Mac and TimePrivate offers to keep or discard the idle time when you return. It reads only the time since your last input, never the input itself.
TimePrivate imports from Toggl, Clockify, or Harvest CSV exports and calendar .ics files, including tags and billable flags. Encrypted local backups keep it safe.
Short list, because a Mac time tracker that runs on device does not need much. This is the honest state of the TimePrivate app as of August 2026.
TimePrivate ships on Apple Silicon Macs first. Windows is on the roadmap and there is no iPhone or iPad app, so if you punch in and out from a phone this is the wrong tracker for you and no amount of waiting will change that.
Automatic tracking in TimePrivate only works once you allow it in System Settings under Privacy and Security. Turn it off and the app falls back to manual timers rather than quietly finding another way to watch.
The TimePrivate Mac app makes no network requests, so there is nothing to sign in to and no offline mode to lose. Optional sync is the only thing that touches a folder, and it writes end-to-end encrypted files your cloud provider cannot read.
TimePrivate stores your hours in a local SQLite database inside your Mac's application data folder. Years of tracking is a small file, it is included in whatever backup you already run, and CSV export is always one click away.
The TimePrivate app is subscription only and is not released, so it is not the answer to "what is the best free time tracking app". These three TimePrivate tools are free right now, need no account and no email, and run in any browser on macOS, Windows or Linux.
The TimePrivate work hours calculator totals a week of shifts, subtracts unpaid breaks, handles overnight shifts, splits anything past 40 hours and downloads to CSV. Good for checking a paycheque.
The TimePrivate timesheet app page hands you a weekly timesheet template plus the six fields any timesheet has to carry, whichever brand you end up using.
The TimePrivate freelance time tracking app page adds up billable hours by client and rate, and counts the unpaid hours next to them, which is the number most freelancers avoid looking at.
TimePrivate has no tiers to decode and no per-seat surveillance economics. Every feature, every update, both planned prices below.
Compare: cloud trackers charge similar money and keep your behavioral data. Here the subscription funds updates and the privacy guarantee, and the data stays yours. These are the planned prices; nothing is on sale yet, and the waitlist is how you find out when that changes. The planned billing and cancellation terms are written out in the TimePrivate terms of use.
There is no single answer, because the question hides a second one: who is the record for. If the hours have to reach a manager or a payroll system, a cloud tracker with an approval flow is the right tool and TimePrivate is not. If the hours are for you or for your own clients, pick the Mac app that stores them locally, exports to CSV and cannot take screenshots. That is the slot TimePrivate is built for.
Manual tracking means you start and stop a timer yourself, which is exact and easy to forget. Automatic tracking means the app records which application is in front and, in a browser, which domain, then matches that to your projects, which never forgets and always needs an edit pass. TimePrivate does both and drafts the day for you to approve, so automatic tracking never books itself.
Yes, several, and free tiers of the big cloud trackers are genuinely usable. What free normally buys is a seat inside someone else's workspace, funded by the paid seats above you or by the data. TimePrivate takes the other trade: the Mac app is subscription only at a planned $9 a month or $79 a year, while the work hours calculator, timesheet template and billable hours calculator on this site stay free and need no account.
Yes. A menu bar panel and a global keyboard shortcut start and stop a timer from any app, and ⌘K adds an entry in plain English. You can ignore automatic tracking entirely and use TimePrivate as a plain Mac timer that happens to keep its history in a local database.
Apple Silicon Macs first. Windows is on the roadmap, and there is no iPhone or iPad version. The free calculators and the timesheet template on this site are plain HTML and JavaScript, so they run in any browser on any machine today.
Your TimePrivate hours sit in a local SQLite database inside your Mac's application data folder. You can export everything to CSV at any time, and encrypted backups are a single file you keep wherever you like.
The TimePrivate Mac app makes no network requests. If you turn on sync, TimePrivate writes end-to-end encrypted files into a folder you choose (like iCloud Drive or Dropbox). Your cloud provider sees only ciphertext, and TimePrivate has no servers of its own.
They are cloud services: your work history lives on their servers, under their policies. TimePrivate does the same job, including automatic tracking and invoicing, without your data ever leaving the machine. There is nothing to subpoena, breach, or quietly change terms on. TimePrivate breaks the comparison down by what to check in a work hours tracker before you commit your history to one.
No. TimePrivate has no screenshots, no keystroke logging, no admin console, and no way to view anyone else's data. Team features are limited to files you deliberately export and hand over.
TimePrivate is not on sale yet, so there is nothing to buy and no trial to start today. When it launches it will be subscription only: a license key arrives by email, one license covers two Macs, and if you cancel the app locks while your data stays on your Mac and remains exportable to CSV forever.
The TimePrivate Mac app ships first, on Apple Silicon. Windows is on the roadmap. In the meantime the free work hours calculator runs in any browser on Windows or Linux, breaks, overnight shifts, CSV download and all.
The TimePrivate subscription funds continuous work: updates, new features like on-device AI categorization, and keeping the privacy guarantee intact as platforms change. Billing is transparent, cancel anytime, and your data never depends on the subscription. It is on your Mac.
TimePrivate is not released yet. Leave your email and we will tell you when it is.
Not released yet. Leave your email and we will write to you the day it opens.