A Timing alternative
that tracks intent, not activity
Timing and Klepsy.ai are both Mac-native, and that is where the similarity ends. Timing is an automatic tracker: it records which apps, documents, and websites you use and lets you assign that activity to projects afterwards. You never have to start anything.
Klepsy.ai tracks what you tell it. Hold a hotkey, say the task, and only that gets logged. It is less exhaustive and more deliberate. Which one fits depends on whether you want a record of everything your Mac did, or a record of what you meant to do.
Side by side
The day-to-day differences that decide whether a tracker gets used: how a timer starts, what a switch costs you, and what you get back at the end of the month.
| Klepsy.ai | Timing | |
|---|---|---|
| How you start a timer | Hold Control+Option+Shift anywhere on your Mac and say the task name. A live transcript shows what was heard, and the timer starts when you let go. | Nothing to start. Timing records app, document, and website activity in the background and you assign it to projects, by hand or with rules. Manual timers are also available. |
| Switching tasks | Say "switch to the invoice" and the running task stops, the new one starts, and the reason you switched is logged. You can also stop, resume, or mark a task done by voice or with a keyboard shortcut. | Switches are inferred from the app or document in front of you. You review and categorize the activity later; there is no spoken or typed reason attached to a switch. |
| Platform | Native macOS app (macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel). Signed-in data syncs across all of your Macs. No web, Windows, or mobile app today. | Built for macOS, with the automatic tracker running on the Mac. |
| AI summaries and reports | AI daily summary of your day, an AI narrative for your monthly report, and a natural-language Ask box for questions about your time. Daily timeline and project breakdowns are built in. | Detailed activity reports and timelines broken down by app, document, and project, well suited to reconstructing a day after the fact. Check timingapp.com for current AI features. |
| Export formats | CSV, JSON, and PDF for a month, quarter, half year, year, or a custom range of up to one year. | Report exports in several common formats. See timingapp.com for the current list. |
Timing details are summarized from public information and may change. Check timingapp.com for current plans and features. Klepsy.ai details reflect version 1.1.0.
Who should pick which
Both tools are good at what they were built for. Here is an honest split.
Pick Timing if you
- want tracking to be fully automatic, with no hotkey and no habit to build
- need to reconstruct a day from which apps, documents, and websites were open
- bill by the hour and want evidence of activity down to the document level
- are comfortable with an app that observes your Mac activity continuously while it runs
- want an established, paid Mac product with a long release history
Pick Klepsy.ai if you
- want to record what you intended to work on, not every window that was in front
- prefer that nothing is tracked unless you say so; Klepsy.ai listens only while the hotkey is held
- switch context a lot and want the reason for each switch captured in the moment
- want an AI summary of your day, a narrative for your month, and plain-language Ask
- want CSV, JSON, and PDF exports
Also comparing:
Say it, and it is tracked
Timing is excellent if you want your Mac watched for you. If you would rather say what you are doing and have the rest handled, download Klepsy.ai.
Requires macOS 14 or later. Notarized Developer ID disk image.