Solidtime

What is Solidtime?

Solidtime is an open-source time tracking tool that helps teams and freelancers document and analyze their working hours. The project runs entirely self-hosted: data stays on your own infrastructure, with no external servers involved. Anyone looking to avoid monthly subscription costs for commercial time tracking services, and willing to manage the hosting environment themselves, gets a fully featured alternative with no licensing fees.

Core features

• Time tracking with project assignment: Time entries can be linked directly to a project or client, which simplifies billing later on.
• Project management and budget monitoring: Teams can create projects, set budgets, and track progress.
• Detailed reports: Evaluations allow time entries to be filtered by project, member, or time period.
• Team support: Multiple users work together in a shared workspace, making Solidtime viable for agencies and small development teams.
• Freelancer billing: Time reports can be exported and prepared as the basis for invoices.

Who is Solidtime for?

The primary audience is developers, freelancers, and tech teams who do not want to hand their time tracking over to a SaaS provider. The tool is particularly useful for agencies working on client projects where accurate hour documentation is required for billing. Solo operators also benefit, as they retain full control over reporting and data storage.

Getting started requires some technical knowledge. Anyone who has never set up a server or worked with Docker should budget extra time for the installation process. This is no obstacle for experienced developers, but it can be a dealbreaker for freelancers without infrastructure experience.

Context & alternatives

Solidtime sits in the segment of self-hosted time tracking tools, alongside projects such as Kimai, which has been on the market considerably longer and has a larger community. Commercial services like Toggl Track or Harvest offer more integrated features and an easier onboarding experience, but charge monthly fees and store data on third-party servers.

Solidtime is the right choice when data privacy and cost control are the primary criteria and the necessary infrastructure is already in place or can be maintained.