People land on TabStyr's page after searching for a "RescueTime alternative" or a "private screen time tracker," and the honest answer is: it depends what you're trying to measure.

What each tool actually is

RescueTime watches everything on your computer — every app, every window, not just the browser — and sends that activity to its own servers for the dashboards and weekly reports. If you want to know how much time you spend in Slack vs. your code editor vs. your browser, RescueTime is built for exactly that, and it requires an account.

Toggl Track is a manual-first time tracker built for billing and project accounting — you start a timer, tag it to a client or project, and stop it. Some automatic capture exists, but the core workflow assumes you're deliberately tracking work to invoice against, and it's also account-based with data on Toggl's servers.

TabStyr only sees browser tabs. It doesn't know or care what's happening in your terminal or your email client. In exchange, there's no account, no server, and no setup beyond installing the extension — it starts working the moment you add it.

The actual decision

If the honest answer to "where does my time go" requires knowing about apps outside the browser, TabStyr isn't going to give you that picture — you want RescueTime. If you're tracking billable hours against specific clients or projects, you want Toggl's tagging and invoicing workflow, not a passive tracker.

If the question is narrower — "how much of my browser time today was GitHub vs. Twitter vs. actual work sites, and can I see that without creating an account or sending my browsing history anywhere" — that's the specific problem TabStyr is built to answer, and it's the one thing the other two can't do without a server in the loop.

A quick side-by-side

  • Scope — TabStyr: browser tabs only. RescueTime: all apps + browser. Toggl: manual/automatic entries.
  • Data location — TabStyr: your device only. RescueTime: RescueTime's servers. Toggl: Toggl's servers.
  • Account — TabStyr: not required. RescueTime: required. Toggl: required.
  • Price — TabStyr: free. RescueTime: free tier + paid plans. Toggl: free tier + paid plans.
  • Best for — TabStyr: browser-only insight without an account. RescueTime: a whole-computer usage picture. Toggl: billable time & project accounting.

None of these are strictly "better" — they're answering different questions. Pick based on which question you're actually asking.

The full README comparison table has the same breakdown if you want it at a glance.