Buddy Time Tracker
Standalone desktop time tracker. Asks first. Screenshots stay on this computer.
Buddy Time Tracker v0.2.19 · free to try · $9.99 a year
This is its own Mac app — not a feature of Vibe Coding IDE and not a browser plugin. A desktop time tracker for people who are uncomfortable with monitoring software — on either side of it. Screenshots stay on this computer. The app does not upload them. There is no account. When you click Check for updates, the app requests the published file list and puts nothing about your work in that request. A separate switch, off until you turn it on, can send a short diagnostic note — the kind of event, a few numbers, and a couple of short labels — to an error service. That note does not include screenshots, project names, or anything you typed.
Download it and try it free. A licence is $9.99 for one year, paid once and never charged automatically. Renewing is a new payment, and renewing early keeps the days you have left. In version 0.2.19 the app works the same with or without one: a licence locks and unlocks nothing. After paying, paste the key you are emailed into the app under Settings → Licence.
Comparing it with what you pay for now? Buddy Time Tracker vs Other Softwares.
See it
Screenshots of version 0.2.11 with demo data — the projects and hours shown are examples, not a real person’s week.
What it does today
- Consent-first capture. Tracking and screenshots are off until someone turns them on, and the consent can be withdrawn at any time.
- Screenshots the tracked person controls. Every screenshot is visible to the person being tracked and can be deleted by them. There is no hidden capture and no copy held anywhere else.
- On this computer, unless you opt in. No account and no sync. Screenshots are not uploaded. The update check runs only when you click it.
- Idle detection you can see. When you stop working the app notices and tells you — no silently discarded time.
- Per-app breakdown on macOS. Where the hours actually went, application by application.
- Reports and CSV export. Summaries in the app, and a CSV you can hand to a client, an employer, or a spreadsheet.
- Signed and notarized on macOS. It opens without a Gatekeeper warning, because Apple has checked it.
Download
macOS
Not sure which Mac build? Apple menu → About This Mac. A “Chip” line naming an M-series processor means Apple silicon; a “Processor” line naming an Intel chip means Intel.
Windows and Linux Beta — untested
These builds are produced by the same release, but we have not run them on Windows or Linux ourselves. They are published so you can try them; treat them as unverified, and the macOS-only features above (per-app breakdown, notarization) do not apply.
Check what you downloaded.
Every build above is listed in
SHA256SUMS.
Put it beside the file you downloaded and run
shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS — the line for your build
should read OK. On Windows, use
certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256 and compare by eye.
Why it is built this way
Most time trackers are sold to the person doing the watching. The tracked worker gets an agent they cannot inspect, uploading screenshots to a server they have no account on. That is the design decision this app declines to make.
Screenshots and tracked time stay on the machine that produced them. A diagnostic note can leave only if you turn that switch on, and it does not include screenshots or project names. If you want to share a week, you export a CSV and send it yourself. That is a smaller product, and an honest one.
Scope, plainly: version 0.2.19 is a single-user desktop app. There is no team dashboard, no administrator console, and no automatic analysis of what it records.
Built by Thomas Woodfin
I build desktop, mobile and web software, and I consult on AI products. More about me, or hire-programmers.com if you have something you would like built.
