The best screen time app for Windows: eight compared

There is no single best screen time app for Windows, because people want different things from one: a calm, private picture of their own day, limits on a child's account, or reports to bill from. Here is the short answer for each, then the detail.

We make TimeWell, so weigh our view accordingly. We checked every other app here against its maker's own site, documentation or Store listing in October 2026, and we say plainly where each one is the better choice.

• Your own screen time, kept private: TimeWell, or ActivityWatch if you want free and open source.
• Tracking with limits and blocking: StayFree.
• A child's account: Microsoft Family Safety.
• Work reports: RescueTime, or ManicTime to keep the data on your PC, or Rize to sort work time by client and project automatically.
• Billing clients by the hour: Toggl Track.

We only included apps that run on Windows 10 or 11 today and are still being updated. Then we compared them on six things that shape what it is like to live with a screen time app for PC.

• Accuracy, including idle time. Every tracker has to decide when you have stopped. By default, ActivityWatch marks you away after three minutes without mouse or keyboard input, and RescueTime ends a record after five idle minutes. That suits typing-heavy work, but a long read can then count as away. TimeWell counts reading and watching, and drops time when the screen turns off, the PC locks or sleeps, or the quiet passes an allowance you set (15 minutes by default).
• Privacy, local or cloud. Some apps keep your history on your PC; others upload it so you can see it anywhere. Neither is wrong, but know which you are choosing, especially if window titles are recorded.
• Websites. Browser time is often most of a working day, so we noted which browsers each app reads and whether it needs an extension. Our guide to tracking time spent on websites goes deeper.
• What it costs. Free, free with paid plans, subscription or one-time purchase, as of October 2026. Prices change, so we name the model rather than the number.
• Footprint. An app usage tracker runs all day, so it should cost next to nothing in processor time, memory and battery.
• How visible it is. A number you only see when you remember to open a report rarely changes anything. A widget or a weekly summary does more.

TimeWell: private screen time for your PC

TimeWell is our screen time app for Windows. It shows how long each app and website was in front of you, hour by hour and by category, with day and week totals and the change from last week. It also counts pickups and notifications, and adds a Pomodoro timer, habits with streaks and desktop widgets.

• Good at: privacy, since your activity stays in your user folder, with no telemetry; only the trial and licence checks go online, never your activity. It tracks websites in Chromium browsers, Firefox and its forks, keeping only the domain, as our guide to tracking time on websites explains, and the Rust tracker sits at about 0% CPU in Windows' Efficiency mode.
• Less good at: it does not block apps or enforce limits, does not sync to the cloud or a phone, and runs only on Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit, x64 and Arm64). There are no timesheets.
• Cost: free to download, with everything for 7 days, then TimeWell Free for good: tracking, the last week, one habit and the focus timer. Pro is a one-time payment for up to two PCs, no subscription and no account needed to buy. Download TimeWell for Windows.

ActivityWatch: free and open source

ActivityWatch is a free, open-source tracker for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. Out of the box it records the active window and whether you are at the keyboard; a browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox adds the active tab. Your data stays on your device; version 0.14, out in October 2026, added optional syncing through a folder you share yourself, with no account or server.

• Good at: costing nothing, keeping data local, and being open to inspect or extend. It suits people who enjoy setting things up.
• Less good at: the default three-minute away rule can split quiet reading into active and away time. The classic dashboard opens in your web browser (a new app with its own window is still marked experimental), and syncing devices takes manual setup.
• Cost: free, as of October 2026.

StayFree: tracking with limits

StayFree, which also has phone apps, has a free Windows app in the Microsoft Store. It tracks apps, games and websites (websites through its browser extension, which feeds the same dashboard), and it can block apps and sites on a schedule, after a daily limit or for a session. It can also hide feeds such as Shorts and Reels, and lock settings behind a PIN.

• Good at: pairing tracking with limits, and keeping desktop, browser and phone figures together if you connect them.
• Less good at: if you only want to look, the blocking tools are more than you need. Its Store listing does not say where synced data is kept, so read its privacy policy if that matters to you.
• Cost: free, with some premium extras such as themes, as of October 2026.

Microsoft Family Safety: for a child's account

Family Safety is Microsoft's free parental-control service, run from its app on Android and iPhone or on the web. The family organiser sets daily screen time limits for Windows and Xbox, limits for single apps and games, and content filters on a child's Microsoft account. With activity reporting on, organisers see daily and weekly reports of when, and for how long, each device and app was used.

• Good at: it costs nothing, covers Windows, Xbox and Android, and can stop a device when time runs out, with requests for more time the parent can approve.
• Less good at: it is built for parents, not adults tracking themselves. Web activity comes only from Microsoft Edge, the one supported browser today, and web filters block the others. Microsoft also notes that the usage report leaves out idle time while limits count every signed-in minute, so the two can disagree.
• Cost: free; each person needs a Microsoft account in your family group.

If limits are what you are after, our guide to setting screen time limits on Windows walks through Family Safety and the other ways to do it.

These four are built around work: reports, categories, timesheets and, for some, teams. If you want a RescueTime alternative, the questions that matter most are whether your data can live in the cloud, and whether you want a subscription.

RescueTime: automatic reports and focus sessions

RescueTime's app for Windows 10 and 11 records the apps and websites you use, then shows reports on its website, sorted by category and by how productive each activity is. You need an account, and your activity syncs to RescueTime's servers. After five minutes with no input, it ends the record and takes those minutes back off.

• Good at: polished reports, weekly summaries and, on paid plans, Focus Sessions that block distracting apps and sites. It runs on macOS, iPhone and Android too.
• Less good at: the free Lite plan shows only the last two weeks of reports, with one goal and no offline tracking. On Windows it needs administrator rights at install to record which websites you visit.
• Cost: a free Lite plan, and paid subscriptions with a 14-day trial, as of October 2026.

ManicTime: a detailed timeline that stays on your PC

ManicTime records the apps, websites and documents you use on a timeline, and notices when you step away. It is aimed at people who tag time to projects and turn it into timesheets. On Windows its data sits in a local database in your user folder by default; cloud plans add backup, reports across devices and apps for Mac, Linux, Android and iPhone.

• Good at: a detailed record that stays on your PC, a free version and, with a licence, automatic tagging, timesheets, a Pomodoro timer and alerts for time limits on apps or websites.
• Less good at: it is a work tool first, so there is more to learn than in a simple screen time view, and many of the useful extras need a licence.
• Cost: a free version, then a paid licence (you keep the version you bought, and a year of upgrades is included) or a cloud subscription, with a 30-day trial, as of October 2026.

Rize: automatic work tracking, in the cloud

Rize runs in the background on Windows 10 and 11 and on Macs, noting the app in front of you and the web address you are on, with no browser extension. Its AI then suggests which client, project or task each stretch belongs to, and you approve or change it. By default it reads app names, window titles and web addresses, with no keylogging, screen recording or screenshots, and keeps your data encrypted on Google Cloud in the US.

• Good at: hands-off tracking of work time by client and project, with client reports on its higher plans, and team plans.
• Less good at: it is subscription only, with no free tier, and it keeps window titles in the cloud, which not everyone will want.
• Cost: subscription plans after a 7-day free trial, as of October 2026.

Toggl Track: for billing your time

Toggl Track is a different kind of tool: you start and stop a timer for each client or project, so you can bill accurately. Its desktop app for Windows can also record any app or website that is active for ten seconds or more onto a timeline, kept on your PC, to help you fill in entries you forgot. Clockify works in a similar, timer-first way and also has a free plan.

• Good at: projects, clients, billable rates (on paid plans) and teams.
• Less good at: it is not a screen time app at heart. The reports are built around timed entries rather than a picture of your whole day.
• Cost: a free plan for a small number of users, and paid per-user plans, as of October 2026.

Windows has no screen time dashboard for your own account, and no daily goal for yourself.

Two built-in views come close. On a Windows 11 laptop, Settings > System > Power & battery > Battery usage shows a Screen on total and rough in-use minutes for each app, but those minutes come from battery accounting and miss most time on mains power, so treat them as a ranking rather than a total; desktops get no such page. For a child's account, Microsoft Family Safety reports device and app use. Our guide on how to check screen time on Windows 11 goes through both.