Hey everyone, I am a developer, freelancer and a mac user for more than 10 years, during my search for a time tracking app that is simple, easy to use, no subscription I found that I really like Timing App but it is subscription based and have too many features that I don't need.
So I built Chronoid - a Mac app that automatically tracks your time while keeping everything 100% local on your machine. It's been a game-changer for my own freelance work.
Key features:
- Runs silently - no timers to start/stop
- All data stays on your Mac (no cloud sync, no accounts needed)
- Beautiful reports showing where your time actually goes
- Tracks apps, websites, and documents automatically
- Pomodoro timer
- Web blocker - block distraction sites
Technical details for the curious:
- Native SwiftUI app (~20MB)
- Uses macOS Accessibility APIs for window tracking
- SQLite database stored locally in Application Support
- On-device ML model for smart categorization (beta, use https://fasttext.cc/)
- AI Chat that using your activities (beta feature, support local and cloud LLM)
I use it myself to track client work as a freelancer, and it's been eye-opening to see where my time really goes
Report
Just joined product hunt solely to comment on this. I purchased Chronoid about a week ago now. It is an astonishingly good product. Easy to use. Stable. There when you want to see it working, happily disappearing into the background when you don't. Connecting it with an AI to help it provide context to what i was doing was a breeze. Then this morning i got an email saying that coding started in April this year and was coded by just one developer. What the sh$&(!?!?!?!? I thought this app was made by a software development company with teams of developers and marketing people and admin staff and all that. That's the quality of the product.
This developer will go far. Chronoid is an amazing product, I'm excited to see what is next.
@aaron_lowndes I literally cried when I read this. Thank you so much for this comment. This gave me hope and courage to keep moving on. Chronoid will go far, I promise. There are a ton of features that I want to add in to make the app become your trusty time tracker and beyond that
Report
@aaron_lowndes I feel the same when use the product. So premium app with good price.
been using chronoid for a bit and it kinda fixed a problem i’d just accepted as permanent: i finally know where my day actually went without babysitting a timer or filling out some boring spreadsheet at night. i just do my work, then crack it open and go “oh, that’s why today felt chaotic.” it’s weirdly satisfying.
I’ve been using the app for two days now and got hooked right away. It’s so well executed and really helps me see where my time goes across different projects. The developer is also very responsive to user feedback. Congratulations on the release! 🥳
Chronoid is one of those apps that will subtly change how you work. Similar to a calorie tracker, you will make small changes just because it is recorded. Seeing how much time I waste was a wake up call. The ability to add custom Projects and assign apps (even specific web pages based on filters) to them makes it easy to see a high level view of what you’re working on without having to manually assign your time.
Give this app a test run, you’ll be surprised where your time goes!
@codyf Thank you so much, Cody. I am glad that you love the app. Don’t hesitate to share your suggestions with me. Cheer!!
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I've been using Chronoid basically since day one. Maybe I am even one of the very first adopters... :)
The app is brilliant.
Only few apps can track the time automatically. I mean - fully automatically. Most of them claim they can do it but you end up with an app where you have to input most of the things manually.
Chronoid track really everything - every file opened, every website visited, all automatic.
Setting up rules is easy - you just Option-drag the file onto the project and that's it. The next time you open it it will be assigned automatically.
You can customize the app to your liking with project colours, rules, web blockers...
As a graphic designer working on many different projects each month, I need to know exactly how much time I spent on each of these project. Without having to track everything manually. Thanks to Chronoid I can focus on my work.
But the best part is the developer - Mr. Vu
is open to all the suggestions and recommendations since the very beginning. I asked for example for the global keyboard shortcuts and like a week later there were all there. Project and subprojects customization - three days later it's there.
This is something you hardly see these days.
Did I mention that there is no subscription? Well, there really isn't. Which is also rare nowadays. And the app is very fairly priced, by the way.
Thank you very much Mr. Vu for your brilliant work!
@david_bauer_7 Hi David, just want to say thanks for all your support, keep suggesting new features. I think you have a very good sense of product. I like every single suggestion from you.
Report
@vunguyentuan Privacy-first time tracking with Pomodoro built in! ⏱️
How does the AI categorize different types of work automatically?
Rule-based categorization: works very well if you have fixed rules. For example, you can use file names or folder names as indicators of projects.
AI-based for everything else: there are two AI approaches in Chronoid.
- ML classification using fasttext.cc model (local & private). When you have more than 1000 categorized activities, the app will trigger the training process to help categorize new activities.
We prepare a training data set:
- At 10 a.m., visit youtube.com, see Black Friday sales in 2025 video -> distraction
- At 11 a.m., visit github.com, see how to build a web app -> non-distraction
.... ....
Then when new data comes in, the ML model can predict user intent very fast. I would say it works best when the pattern is clear and has around 70% accuracy.
- LLM-based classification: think about using ChatGPT to help categorize your activities to the correct project. You can use your local private LLM run on your machine or use cloud providers like OpenAI, Gemini .... using API
Report
Fantastic product, been using it a few weeks now after manually trying to time track being a failure in my calendar. Thanks again Vu!
Been using Chronoid for a few months now and it's been fantastic! Vu is really responsive to feedback and clearly has a vision for his project but is also not scared of making changes based on community feedback. This is a refreshing experience compared to most software development at the moment.
Now is a great time to buy and support Vu and help create one of the best time tracking applications out there!
I've used tracking apps before, and most are overpriced and not particularly smart. This is both detailed, easy to use and very smart in the way it tracks time across apps. I also love the support for all types of AI models (local and cloud).
Also the frequency of updates - you are a madman @vunguyentuan
Replies
Smooth Capture
Just joined product hunt solely to comment on this. I purchased Chronoid about a week ago now. It is an astonishingly good product. Easy to use. Stable. There when you want to see it working, happily disappearing into the background when you don't. Connecting it with an AI to help it provide context to what i was doing was a breeze. Then this morning i got an email saying that coding started in April this year and was coded by just one developer. What the sh$&(!?!?!?!? I thought this app was made by a software development company with teams of developers and marketing people and admin staff and all that. That's the quality of the product.
This developer will go far. Chronoid is an amazing product, I'm excited to see what is next.
Smooth Capture
@aaron_lowndes I literally cried when I read this. Thank you so much for this comment. This gave me hope and courage to keep moving on. Chronoid will go far, I promise. There are a ton of features that I want to add in to make the app become your trusty time tracker and beyond that
@aaron_lowndes I feel the same when use the product. So premium app with good price.
Uselink
been using chronoid for a bit and it kinda fixed a problem i’d just accepted as permanent: i finally know where my day actually went without babysitting a timer or filling out some boring spreadsheet at night. i just do my work, then crack it open and go “oh, that’s why today felt chaotic.” it’s weirdly satisfying.
Smooth Capture
@nathan_tran2 Thanks mate!!!!
I’ve been using the app for two days now and got hooked right away. It’s so well executed and really helps me see where my time goes across different projects. The developer is also very responsive to user feedback. Congratulations on the release! 🥳
Smooth Capture
@marceeelll Thank you so much Marcel!
Disclaimer: I received the app for free
Chronoid is one of those apps that will subtly change how you work. Similar to a calorie tracker, you will make small changes just because it is recorded. Seeing how much time I waste was a wake up call. The ability to add custom Projects and assign apps (even specific web pages based on filters) to them makes it easy to see a high level view of what you’re working on without having to manually assign your time.
Give this app a test run, you’ll be surprised where your time goes!
Smooth Capture
@codyf Thank you so much, Cody. I am glad that you love the app. Don’t hesitate to share your suggestions with me. Cheer!!
I've been using Chronoid basically since day one. Maybe I am even one of the very first adopters... :)
The app is brilliant.
Only few apps can track the time automatically. I mean - fully automatically. Most of them claim they can do it but you end up with an app where you have to input most of the things manually.
Chronoid track really everything - every file opened, every website visited, all automatic.
Setting up rules is easy - you just Option-drag the file onto the project and that's it. The next time you open it it will be assigned automatically.
You can customize the app to your liking with project colours, rules, web blockers...
As a graphic designer working on many different projects each month, I need to know exactly how much time I spent on each of these project. Without having to track everything manually. Thanks to Chronoid I can focus on my work.
But the best part is the developer - Mr. Vu
is open to all the suggestions and recommendations since the very beginning. I asked for example for the global keyboard shortcuts and like a week later there were all there. Project and subprojects customization - three days later it's there.
This is something you hardly see these days.
Did I mention that there is no subscription? Well, there really isn't. Which is also rare nowadays. And the app is very fairly priced, by the way.
Thank you very much Mr. Vu for your brilliant work!
David
Smooth Capture
@david_bauer_7 Hi David, just want to say thanks for all your support, keep suggesting new features. I think you have a very good sense of product. I like every single suggestion from you.
@vunguyentuan Privacy-first time tracking with Pomodoro built in! ⏱️
How does the AI categorize different types of work automatically?
Smooth Capture
@mskyow Hey Vlad, the app supports two modes:
Rule-based categorization: works very well if you have fixed rules. For example, you can use file names or folder names as indicators of projects.
AI-based for everything else: there are two AI approaches in Chronoid.
- ML classification using fasttext.cc model (local & private). When you have more than 1000 categorized activities, the app will trigger the training process to help categorize new activities.
We prepare a training data set:
- At 10 a.m., visit youtube.com, see Black Friday sales in 2025 video -> distraction
- At 11 a.m., visit github.com, see how to build a web app -> non-distraction
.... ....
Then when new data comes in, the ML model can predict user intent very fast. I would say it works best when the pattern is clear and has around 70% accuracy.
- LLM-based classification: think about using ChatGPT to help categorize your activities to the correct project. You can use your local private LLM run on your machine or use cloud providers like OpenAI, Gemini .... using API
Smooth Capture
@scottwilk Thank you so much Scott
Been using Chronoid for a few months now and it's been fantastic! Vu is really responsive to feedback and clearly has a vision for his project but is also not scared of making changes based on community feedback. This is a refreshing experience compared to most software development at the moment.
Now is a great time to buy and support Vu and help create one of the best time tracking applications out there!
BatteryBoi (Open-Source)
I've used tracking apps before, and most are overpriced and not particularly smart. This is both detailed, easy to use and very smart in the way it tracks time across apps. I also love the support for all types of AI models (local and cloud).
Also the frequency of updates - you are a madman @vunguyentuan