Dayflow
Dayflow is an open-source automatic time tracker for Mac that turns screen activity into an AI-written work journal.
If you're on a Mac and want an automatic time tracker that explains your day instead of graphing it, Dayflow is the one I'd install first — the free tier is a complete product, not a teaser, covering capture, the local timeline, AI summaries, and bring-your-own Gemini, OpenAI, or Anthropic keys. The $20/mo Pro is worth it only if configuring an API key or running a local model sounds like friction you'd rather pay away, since Free does the same analysis with your own key. Against RescueTime, Rize, Timing, and Toggl for Mac it wins on the journal framing and local storage; the catch is structural — Mac-only, and it works by capturing your screen, so settle that question before you install.
Verified 3d ago · liveness 75/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/dayflow
- Freelancers who need a record of billable hours without starting a timer
- Remote knowledge workers who want standup updates written from their actual day
- Developers who want an MIT-licensed, auditable client they can build themselves
- Privacy-conscious Mac users who keep analysis on-device with Ollama or LM Studio
- Windows or Linux users — Dayflow is a Mac app today, with Windows on a waitlist
- Macs running anything older than macOS 14 Sonoma
- Teams that need SSO/SAML or retention policies without going through Enterprise sales
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Skip Dayflow if you're not on macOS 14 Sonoma or later — it's a Mac-only app today, with Windows on a waitlist and no Linux build.
Pro is $20/mo month-to-month, but the pricing page points to an annual offer in the app — check which rate you're actually signing up for before subscribing
Free at $0/mo suits solo Mac users willing to configure a local model or their own Gemini/OpenAI/Anthropic key. Pro at $20/mo month-to-month fits those who'd rather pay away that setup. Enterprise is quote-based for orgs needing SSO/SAML and retention controls. RescueTime and Toggl sell cheaper dedicated timer tiers; Rize sits in a similar range.
In short
Dayflow — Dayflow is an open-source automatic time tracker for Mac that turns screen activity into an AI-written work journal. Best for Freelancers who need a record of billable hours without starting a timer, Remote knowledge workers who want standup updates written from their actual day, Developers who want an MIT-licensed, auditable client they can build themselves. Free to start; paid plans from $20/mo.
What people actually say about Dayflow — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
43 mentions across 6 sources (Hacker News, YouTube, Product Hunt, App Store, GitHub, Lemmy) · researched Aug 19, 2026.
Average across the 6 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +Automatically creates a timeline with AI summaries of what you did.
- +Local-first storage: screenshots and data stay on your Mac.
- +Supports local AI via Ollama/LM Studio for full privacy.
- +Open source (MIT) — you can audit and modify the code.
- +Lightweight background process despite occasional regressions (~100MB RAM).
- −Frequent bugs: empty timelines, silent processing fails, and click-blocking.
- −High CPU and battery drain reported after v1.8 update.
- −Hidden AI costs: Gemini can run $10/day without alerts.
- −Requires macOS 14 Sonoma+ — no Windows or older Mac support yet.
- −First card takes up to 30 minutes, hurting onboarding experience.
- • Pro tier cost is high for what you get if you can bring your own API key.
- • Cloud AI (Gemini, ChatGPT, etc.) can rack up significant usage costs in Free tier — a day's $10 is not uncommon.
- • No free trial for Pro? (Not specified, but 'free tier gives API key consumption' suggests you pay for API keys.)
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Dayflow? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Automatic screen capture and activity recording with no manual timers
- AI timeline that classifies blocks as Coding, Planning, Communication, Research, or Distraction
- Context-aware analysis distinguishing research from casual video watching
- Per-block summaries with a win and a focus note
- Daily summary generation from captured activity
- Weekly summary generation for progress review
- One-click standup update writing from daily activity
- Chat interface to query your historical work activity
- Local-first storage: full recordings and database stay on your Mac
- Local AI analysis via Ollama or LM Studio
- Bring-your-own-key cloud AI via Gemini, OpenAI, or Anthropic API keys
- Managed AI service with Dayflow Pro, no API keys required
- Bring-your-own-key support for GPT-5.4 and Opus 4.6 in research workflows
- Pause and resume recording from the menu bar
- Automate start/stop recording with Shortcuts deeplinks
About Dayflow
Dayflow is an automatic time tracker for Mac that records what's on your screen and uses AI to write your day as a readable timeline instead of a bar chart of app names. It distinguishes research from distraction, labels each block Coding, Planning, Communication, Research, or Distraction, and attaches a short summary, a win, and a focus note — no timers, no tags, no manual categorization. It is aimed at developers, freelancers, and knowledge workers who want a truthful record of where the hours went, and it has 7k+ GitHub stars and Y Combinator backing behind it. Two things set the architecture apart. Full recordings and the database stay on your Mac, and you decide how the analysis happens: a local model through Ollama or LM Studio, your own Gemini, OpenAI, or Anthropic key, or Dayflow Pro's managed service. The Mac client is MIT-licensed, so you can read or build the code yourself. Beyond the timeline, Dayflow rolls activity into daily and weekly summaries so a standup update is a click instead of twenty minutes of recollection, and a chat view lets you ask what you worked on. Recording starts and stops from the menu bar or via Shortcuts deeplinks. Dayflow says capture sits around 100MB RAM and under 1% CPU; pushing inference to a local model is heavier on GPU and battery. Pricing splits by who configures the AI, not by what the app can see. Free ($0/mo) covers capture, the local timeline, AI summaries, and bring-your-own keys. Pro is $20/mo month-to-month for managed analysis with no provider setup. Enterprise adds SSO/SAML, data-retention controls, and internal AI gateway integration by quote. Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
Behind the Verdict
Dayflow's pitch is narrow and clear: it is a Mac app that watches your screen, classifies the blocks into Coding, Planning, Communication, Research, or Distraction, and writes each one up with a summary, a win, and a focus note. The homepage example — a 9:04 AM OAuth token refresh block followed by an API docs block, a 10:49 AM YouTube distraction block, and an 11:15 AM research block comparing GPT-5.4 and Opus 4.6 coding benchmarks — shows what the output actually looks like. That distinction between "researching on YouTube" and "watching cat videos" is the whole product; a bar chart of app names cannot do it. Strengths: the free tier is genuinely usable, not a demo. You get automatic capture, the local timeline, AI-powered daily and weekly summaries, bring-your-own API keys, and the option to run a local model through Ollama or LM Studio with analysis staying on-device. Full recordings and the database stay on your Mac. The client is MIT-licensed with 7k+ GitHub stars and Y Combinator backing, so it is auditable and buildable. Dayflow also credits Shortcuts deeplinks for automating start/stop recording, which matters more than it sounds for people who don't want a background recorder running all day. Weaknesses: it is Mac-only today — Windows is a waitlist with no build. You need macOS 14 Sonoma or later. And the product is built on screen capture, so if that premise bothers you, no amount of local storage will fix it. On the free tier you supply either a local model or your own cloud key, which is real configuration work; Pro is what removes that. AI summaries can also miss or misinterpret what a block actually was. Where it fits: freelancers reconstructing billable hours, remote knowledge workers who need standups written from the actual day, and privacy-conscious Mac users who keep analysis on-device with Ollama or LM Studio. Where it doesn't: Windows or Linux users, older Macs, teams that need SSO/SAML or retention policies and won't go through Enterprise, and anyone who wants no screen capture at all. Dayflow is a journal, not a billing system — it does not produce invoices, payroll approvals, or website blocking, so pair it with your invoicing tool rather than replacing it.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Dayflow actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Install Dayflow on the Mac, let it capture the day, then open the timeline each evening to see which client blocks got how many hours
Outcome: A truthful per-client record you can reconstruct into an invoice without ever starting a timer
Dayflow captures the workday and writes the daily summary; at standup you hit one-click and paste the generated update instead of reconstructing yesterday from memory
Outcome: Standup written in seconds from actual activity rather than recollection
Run Ollama or LM Studio locally so analysis never leaves the Mac, and pause recording from the menu bar during personal blocks
Outcome: Work-journal insights with on-device analysis and full local control of recordings
Use Cases
- Automatically log your workday into a searchable timeline with AI-generated summaries.
- Generate daily standup updates in one click without relying on memory.
- Compare AI model research (GPT-5.4, Opus 4.6) against your own coding benchmarks.
- Identify time spent on distractions vs. productive work with automatic activity classification.
- Use local AI to keep sensitive data on your machine while still getting smart insights.
- Review weekly progress and plan the next week with context from previous days.
- Ask a chat interface what you actually worked on yesterday.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-09-24
Limitations
- Dayflow is a Mac-only app; the Free tier requires either a supported local model or your own cloud API key (Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic), while Pro ($20/mo month-to-month) provides managed AI analysis.
- Enterprise features such as SSO/SAML, data retention controls, and internal AI gateway integration are available via contact-based pricing.
- Full screen recordings and the local timeline stay on your Mac, but bring-your-own-key and Pro modes send selected screenshots to the respective provider, and AI summaries can miss or misinterpret work.
- Dayflow does not provide invoices, payroll approvals, or website blocking.
as of 2026-10-04
Verification history
We have re-verified Dayflow 9 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Showing the 6 most recent of 9 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Dayflow tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free
$0/mo
Ideal for
Solo Mac users who already have a Gemini, OpenAI, or Anthropic key or are willing to run Ollama or LM Studio locally, and want no subscription.
What this tier adds
Starting tier — covers automatic capture, the local timeline, AI-powered summaries, bring-your-own API keys, and the MIT-licensed open-source app at $0/mo.
Pro
$20/mo
Ideal for
Mac users who want the journal without configuring an AI provider themselves and don't mind $20/mo month-to-month.
What this tier adds
Adds managed AI analysis with no provider setup — your screen recording still stays on your Mac and processed screenshots are deleted after analysis.
Enterprise
Custom
Ideal for
Organizations rolling Dayflow out across a team that need identity controls and retention policies before deploying.
What this tier adds
Adds organization-level deployment support, SSO/SAML integration, data-retention controls, and help connecting Dayflow to an internal AI gateway, quoted per deployment size.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Dayflow's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Free at $0/mo suits solo Mac users willing to configure a local model or their own Gemini/OpenAI/Anthropic key. Pro at $20/mo month-to-month fits those who'd rather pay away that setup. Enterprise is quote-based for orgs needing SSO/SAML and retention controls. RescueTime and Toggl sell cheaper dedicated timer tiers; Rize sits in a similar range.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Dayflow — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Free tier: 10–30 minutes if you already have a Gemini, OpenAI, or Anthropic key, or 30–60 minutes to install and wire up a local model through Ollama or LM Studio. Pro: roughly 5 minutes, since Dayflow configures the managed analysis for you. Enterprise adds SSO/SAML and AI gateway rollout time on top.
Switching to or from Dayflow
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From RescueTime: install Dayflow, let it capture a week, and compare the AI timeline against RescueTime's app-usage charts before cancelling
- →From Rize: move over after a trial week — Dayflow writes a readable journal rather than an app-category breakdown
- →From Timing: point Dayflow at the same Mac, keep local recordings, and keep your old Timing history exported for reference
- →From Toggl for Mac: stop manual timers, run Dayflow Free alongside Toggl for one week, then switch once the timeline matches your billable reality
- →From manual time logs or spreadsheets: install Dayflow, work a normal day, and let the daily summary populate what you'd otherwise have typed
- ↗To RescueTime: export your Dayflow daily and weekly summaries as a record, then install RescueTime for cross-platform app-usage tracking
- ↗To Rize: keep Dayflow's local timeline as an archive and switch to Rize if you want cross-platform automatic tracking
- ↗To Toggl or Clockify: use Dayflow summaries as the source of truth for billable entries, then log them manually in a dedicated billing tool
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Dayflow”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Dayflow” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Dayflow.
Official links
Tools that pair well with Dayflow
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Dayflow, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
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Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Dayflow vs Gem
Gem and Dayflow serve entirely different needs. Gem is a comprehensive AI recruiting platform for teams, while Dayflow is an open-source productivity tracker for individuals. Choose Gem if you need to automate hiring with AI agents; choose Dayflow if you want a private, automated work log. The comparison is moot unless you are evaluating both for unrelated use cases.
Dayflow vs Poke Interaction Co
Dayflow and Poke serve completely different needs. Dayflow is for privacy-conscious freelancers and devs who want an automated, local-first work journal on Mac. Poke is for anyone who wants an AI assistant to manage email, calendar, and tasks directly from their messaging apps. Choose based on your workflow: if you need to track what you did all day, go Dayflow; if you want to act on tasks via chat, go Poke.
Dayflow vs Guesty
These tools serve completely different needs: Guesty is a powerful property management platform for vacation rental businesses, while Dayflow is a productivity tracker for individual Mac users. Choose Guesty if you manage rental properties; choose Dayflow if you want automated time tracking. There's no direct competition.
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Reflect
Reflect is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted note-taking app with backlinks, local Markdown files, and an MCP server that lets Claude and Codex read and
Llmwiki
Open-source, self-hosted wiki your LLM compiles and maintains from your own raw source files
Reflect AI
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Frequently Asked Questions
Best-of guides
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