[HN Gopher] Show HN: I quit my job and made an automatic time tr...
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Show HN: I quit my job and made an automatic time tracker
Hey Hacker News! This is my first post here. About 5 months ago, I
left my job because I was completely burnt out. After taking some
time off, I started freelancing. But I found tracking my time to be
a real hassle as I kept forgetting to start or stop the timer and
often had no idea what I'd worked on. So, I decided to build Taim
as a side project, while also working now on some freelancing gigs.
Taim is going to be automated time tracking tool for freelancers
and teams. It's designed to make tracking time effortless and
accurate, so you can focus on your work and not worry about the
clock. I'm excited to share this with you all and would love your
feedback! Currently planning to launch it to the public in a few
months.
Author : rocksalad
Score : 102 points
Date : 2024-07-16 15:28 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (taimapp.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (taimapp.io)
| breck wrote:
| Looks interesting. How are you saving the data under the hood?
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thanks for the interest!
|
| For data storage, it uses a local database, specifically SQLite
| for its reliability and lightweight nature.
| leovander wrote:
| Via CoreData/SwiftData?
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| How does this compare to something like Timely or memtime? Is the
| draw for an individual the one time payment instead of the
| subscription?
| blowski wrote:
| A one-time payment used to be a draw. Now I wonder how long my
| lifetime access will last until I need a subscription.
| (TextExpander, Sketch, 1Password, Ulysses, for example)
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| Or even just when support ends. "It's been two years, time to
| buy the new version!"
| cm2012 wrote:
| I think it would be absurd to expect continuous updates
| from something you paid for once.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| Sure, but I want to know how long do I have it for. Six
| months? A year? Five years?
| brailsafe wrote:
| Ironically, I just started playing around with the newest
| version of Sketch on their free trial, having bought Version
| 3 way back or something.
|
| And... the performance and UI reliability seems to be wildly
| worse than ever. Pretty disappointed so far. Features have
| certainly improved, but when I close a sub menu for colour
| picking or font selection, the menu doesn't go away. Dragging
| a selection between artboards is choppy as hell, and it
| doesn't even seem to be using that much ram. It's like they
| shot themselves in the foot trying to compete with Figma on
| the collaboration aspect; while the collab functionality
| seems fine, the main interface is just getting me down.
|
| I am still using 1password 6 standalone though, fuck em it's
| fine for me.
| rocksalad wrote:
| Great question! You're on the right track -- I hate
| subscriptions myself. Unlike others, Taim offers a one-time
| payment option instead of a subscription, making it cost-
| effective for individuals. Compared to many other apps, it is
| much more resource-efficient and makes time tracking effortless
| with various features. With some apps I've used, I sometimes
| don't want automatic time tracking. Taim allows you to track
| both automatically and manually.
| jaysonelliot wrote:
| This looks like exactly the kind of thing I've been searching
| for, and I'm happy to pay a one-time price. I'd much rather own
| than subscribe.
|
| Two things:
|
| 1. Will the local storage version be dependent at all on your
| servers? In other words, if I buy it once, can I use it forever
| even if you stop supporting it?
|
| 2. I would hit "buy now" today if there was a limited trial
| period before I was charged for it. $90 is a fair price for
| software (a little high, tbh, but I don't know another app that
| can do this) but I wouldn't pay that without having the chance to
| do a test drive first.
|
| Best of luck, this looks awesome and I want to see it succeed!
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thank you for your support and interest!
|
| 1. The local storage version will not be dependent on Taim
| servers, so once you buy it, you can use it forever, even if we
| stop supporting it (although currently user data is stored on
| cloud, but it will change)
|
| 2. I appreciate your feedback on the pricing. I plan to offer a
| limited trial period, once I've actually launched it and it is
| out of development stage.
|
| Thanks again for your encouragement. I'm excited to see Taim
| help you and many others!
| joshstrange wrote:
| > but I don't know another app that can do this
|
| I've never used this product and I have zero connection to it,
| a friend suggested it to me but I've not checked it out:
| https://rize.io/
|
| It's $10/mo so more expensive than the pre-order price of this
| but less expensive than the full price. And it doesn't let you
| use the old version if you stop paying, just wanted to throw
| out a datapoint of something that seems similar.
| allknowingfrog wrote:
| It's not quite a free trial, but the FAQ at the bottom promises
| "no questions asked" refunds upon request.
| bo0tzz wrote:
| I've been wanting a tool like this, and just spent the last
| weekend hacking together a bare minimum version for myself [0],
| so it's awesome (and hilarious) to see this pop up now. Clearly
| you're doing a much better job at it than I ever could ;) Do you
| have any plans for Linux support?
|
| [0] https://github.com/bo0tzz/focustime
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thanks for the kind words! It's great to hear that you've been
| working on something similar. Right now, I'm focused on
| launching Taim for macOS first. After that, the plan is to roll
| out a Windows version. Linux support is something I'm
| considering for the future, but I'm not entirely sure yet. I
| appreciate your interest and would love to keep you updated as
| things progress!
| bo0tzz wrote:
| I'd love to stay updated too, do you have an email list
| somewhere I can sign up to?
| rocksalad wrote:
| Im going to add a email list to the site soon, but until
| then -> https://emails.taimapp.io/subscription/form
| afelixdorn wrote:
| I saw this and thought, all I really need is an app that tracks
| Hyprland focus events (in my case) along with the title.
|
| Thanks for paving 90% of the way.
| uienge432 wrote:
| This looks awesome, I'm definitely going to give this a try.
|
| Also, how has freelancing been for your burn out? Do you feel
| rejuvenated?
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thanks! I'm glad you're excited to try Taim. Freelancing has
| been a great change for me. It's given me more control over my
| time and helped me feel more rejuvenated for sure.
|
| Hope to get it out by this autumn, also for everybody else who
| is not sure about purchasing yet, I'll be adding a mailing list
| soon for updates and special offers. Thanks for your support!
| dzonga wrote:
| good to see someone still making beautiful desktop apps.
|
| with web apps all over, we tend to forget the benefits that full
| desktop apps provide such as full offline access, not being
| dependent on the 'cloud'.
|
| congrats on launching and good luck.
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thank you! I completely agree -- there's something special
| about the reliability and performance of a full desktop app.
| I'm excited to bring these benefits to users with Taim. Thanks
| for the good wishes and support!
| dzonga wrote:
| and by the way - for your landing page is that a custom
| sveltekit theme ? been wondering where to find a theme like
| that .
| DontchaKnowit wrote:
| Trite comment, but your website is sweet. Really aesthetically
| pleasing.
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm glad you like the
| design. It means a lot to hear that the aesthetics are
| appreciated. If you have any suggestions or feedback, feel free
| to share!
| iross wrote:
| This looks super promising. Two things caught my eye that give me
| pause:
|
| > Save your seat for 67% off
|
| The price listed ($89) is only 50% off the $179 listed. At $60
| (~67% off), my gut reaction is "Oh that's just like an early
| release videogame, not bad for how promising it looks!" but $89
| crosses into "Ehh, I don't know. Maybe I'll wait and see"
| territory.
|
| > We are planning to launch Taim to the public in early Spring
|
| Early Spring...2025? Is a preorder now really almost a year away?
|
| Definitely something I'll keep an eye on though!
|
| (edit: ope! Ignore point 2 -- I see you already updated the time
| to fall. Thanks!)
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thanks for pointing that out! I appreciate the keen eye.
|
| 1. The discount is indeed wrong, I've adjusted the pricing a
| bit.
|
| 2. I apologize for the confusion -- I actually meant early
| Autumn, not Spring. So the launch is much sooner than you
| thought!
|
| I hope this clears things up, and thanks for your interest!
| I'll keep you updated on our progress.
| iross wrote:
| I love the responsiveness and communication -- I'm
| preordering now!
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thank you so much for your kind words and support! Your
| feedback already was incredibly helpful.
| Centigonal wrote:
| better time tracking is sorely needed! If I never see the SAP
| Concur UI again in my life, it still won't be enough.
|
| Quick bit of copy-editing: You probably want to say "Forgetting
| to start a timer is an issue *of* the past"
| rocksalad wrote:
| I hear you, better time tracking is definitely overdue! Thanks
| for the copy-editing tip.
| littlekey wrote:
| Going to post this here as it's too small to deserve a top
| level comment, but I have a copy-edit tip too: at the bottom
| near the pricing, "be sure to checkout our roadmap",
| "checkout" should be "check out".
| FlamingMoe wrote:
| Looks sleek.
|
| I just went through a period of testing out TimingApp,
| ActivityWatch, and Clockify, for automatic time tracking.
|
| One important feature for me was a good API for generating
| reports, so that I can integrate it with my custom client
| dashboard. I ultimately decided on Clockify because I found their
| API to be easiest to use.
|
| Do you anticipate adding an API?
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thanks for the compliment! I'm glad you find Taim sleek. For
| teams, there will definitely be an API. For individual users,
| I'm planning to offer webhooks, and I'm exploring options to
| potentially allow APIs through proxies or other methods. We'll
| have to see how that develops. I appreciate your interest and
| will keep you updated as it progresses!
| integricho wrote:
| grear work, two questions:
|
| 1. what UI framework do you use, since I see Windows support is
| already announced?
|
| 2. if I pay for an early bird license, would that work with the
| Windows version later on as well?
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thank you! I'm glad you like it. For the UI framework, I'm
| using Tauri, which allows for cross-platform support and a
| smooth user experience. Yes, if you pay for an early bird
| license, it will also work with the Windows version once it's
| released, licence isnt linked to a OS, rather to an account,
| which can also be unlinked in the future.
| domlebo70 wrote:
| Hey. Well done on launch. Looks very sleek. So the frontend
| is some sort of JS/CSS app. How did you get it so native
| looking? What UI libs are you using, or just tailwind
| classes?
| rocksalad wrote:
| Hey, thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you like the
| design. It's a mix of Tailwind CSS and Tauri to achieve
| that "native" look. Using Tauri helps me access some OS
| features to create effects like the "glass/translucent
| effect" If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!
| domlebo70 wrote:
| Thanks. I am about to start an app using Tauri, and
| styling the UI so it doesn't feel like a "web app" is a
| concern of mine
| blorenz wrote:
| Congrats on making a product! I've been using Qbserve for a
| decade with a one-time price (and it looks to still be just $29).
| Things that I love about it:
|
| - No connection needed. - Ability to categorize my time by
| project - Adding Rules to categorize by page url pattern,
| document path, or window title. - Exporting the data from the
| local sqlite. - Ability to annotate the timelines and attribute
| it to specific projects. This is useful when navigating off my
| Rules while I'm working a project. - High level summaries of my
| time. - Ability to bucket (or discard) my time AFK. Useful if it
| was a client call.
|
| Good luck on your product! I'm sure you can bring additional
| innovations to the space.
|
| [https://qotoqot.com/qbserve/]
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thank you for the detailed feedback and kind words! It's great
| to hear about your positive experience with Qbserve. I
| appreciate you sharing the features you love--many of them
| align with what I'm aiming to offer with Taim. I'm working hard
| to bring these features and more to Taim, with a focus on
| simplicity and efficiency. Your insights are very helpful, and
| I hope to add some innovative touches to improve the time
| tracking experience even further. Thanks again for your
| support, and stay tuned for more updates!
| eps wrote:
| > $179
|
| Ballsy... unless you mean to make that deep discount permanent,
| which is a can of worms of its own.
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thanks for your feedback! The final price isn't set in stone
| yet. My goal is to make Taim accessible and affordable for
| individuals. The current discount is a special offer for early
| supporters, and I'm still considering the best pricing
| structure to ensure everyone gets great value. I appreciate
| your thoughts and am always open to more feedback!
| eps wrote:
| I'd encourage you to do a thorough competitor reseach, but
| anything over $100 will be a hard sell. It's not that $179 is
| unreasonable, it's that people aren't used to shelling out
| this sort of sum _for software_ in one sitting.
|
| Consider sweetening a deal by offering something like a $20
| one-year license with an option of coverting it to the
| perpetual after a year.
|
| Also, with early birds - again, speaking from experience,
| consider labeling what you have a "beta" and giving it away
| for free. Then, after few months, do a proper release and
| offer deeply discounted licenses to beta users. This kills 3
| birds with one stone - build loyal userbase, monetizes them
| and avoids having deep _public_ discounts. Discounts, once
| you offer them, will be expected and you will lose sales if
| the only option will be a full-price one. Use them sparringly
| and in a very controlled manner.
| p1necone wrote:
| It seems like this is macOS only? It's not really explicitly
| spelt out - you just have to work it out through context clues
| (screenshots showing macOS borders, "macOS Ventura is
| 'recommended'").
|
| I can definitely see someone not realizing before getting to the
| payment page - probably needs to be an explicit list of supported
| OSes somewhere.
|
| Edit: just noticed the expandable 'what platforms does Taim
| support' at the bottom. That should be bigger, and not buried
| with the rest of the FAQ stuff imho.
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thanks for pointing that out! You're right I should make the
| supported platforms more explicit. Currently working on macOS
| side of Taim, but I'm planning to add Windows support next.
| I'll make sure to highlight this information more clearly on
| the site. Appreciate your feedback and thanks for helping us
| improve!
| akeldamas wrote:
| Looks awesome!
|
| I do wonder will there be Linux support in the future?
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thanks for the compliment! Right now, I'm focused on launching
| Taim for macOS and then Windows. Linux support is something I'm
| considering for the future, but it's not a definite plan yet.
| I'll keep you updated as things progress. Appreciate your
| interest!
| netsharc wrote:
| > How does automatic tracking work in Taim?
|
| > Taim tracks your activity by monitoring the applications and
| windows you use, recording session data without the need for
| manual input. This ensures precise and effortless time tracking.
|
| The "Application flow" screenshot shows Mr. Demoman working on
| XYZCorporationsite.com - 2h 15min / Header.tsx for 1h 32min as
| well as a block of time in Slack, I wonder if this is really how
| Mr. Demoman works - totally focused inside VSCode and Chrome.
|
| For my own workflow I know there'd be a lot of window switching
| between IDE, database tool, maybe StackOverflow/other reference
| sites, and the web UI. It'd be interesting to have "AI" (or what
| traditionalists might call "machine learning") recognize those to
| be belonging to the same project... And to also see that if the
| browser is on Hacker News, those aren't billable minutes. ;) --
| unless the IDE is compiling[1]?
|
| [1] Relevant: https://xkcd.com/303/
| rocksalad wrote:
| Oh you really scanned through everything :D There will be
| "ignore list" and as you can see the "Suggestions" screenshot,
| this does exactly..almost that, sees that those applications &
| windows belong to one project with 87% certainty ;)
| jabroni_salad wrote:
| Does anybody use these to bill clients? My problem with these
| dealios is they can usually tell you what applications you have
| open but not why you had them open.
|
| The auto tracker will tell me I spend a lot of time in notepad++
| and mobaxterm but wont relate it to the case that prompted me to
| do that, so starting a free running timer is the only way to get
| a billable number.
| rocksalad wrote:
| I understand the challenge. Taim addresses this by allowing you
| to categorize your activities and sessions manually, in
| addition to automatic tracking. You can relate your time spent
| in apps like Notepad++ and Mobaxterm to specific projects or
| clients. This way, you get a clear, billable number that's tied
| to the actual work you did. Thanks for your feedback, and I
| hope Taim can solve this problem for you.
| thinkling wrote:
| Lots of people use the same set of tools for all their
| projects, so the application doesn't really help allocate to
| projects or clients.
|
| Instead of going off the active app, doesn't it make more
| sense to categorize based on the open document, or the folder
| tree that the document is in?
| exe34 wrote:
| sounds like something you could implement easily in emacs,
| having full access to whatever is in the buffer
| huhtenberg wrote:
| Do you have any experience running any affiliate programs or is
| it your first crack at it?
| rocksalad wrote:
| Being totally honest, not really. It is currently also not
| finished and no integrations have been made for that. Thanks
| for making me nervous haha, removed it from the footer for now.
| huhtenberg wrote:
| Affiliate programs for desktop software are difficult to pull
| off.
|
| If commissions are low, there will just be no interest. If
| commissions are high, it allows affiliates take out Google
| ads for your product name and route all searches for the name
| through themselves.
| rylan-talerico wrote:
| Your website looks awesome. Congratulations on the launch!
| rocksalad wrote:
| Thank you so much for your kind words and support!
| brailsafe wrote:
| Looks like you might have been inspired by Klokki, which is what
| I've been using for a while. Seems like a decent UI direction,
| but quite a lot of UI for something designed for people who
| forget to use their time tracking app. The roadmap indicates
| you've got plans for a bunch of features that are hard to
| reconcile with the idea of something getting out of my way.
|
| I do feel like that pricing scheme is also too aggressive,
| especially for a pre-order which I don't think I've ever gone for
| in software. Likewise your subtle comparison to "other apps"
| seems a bit silly, either have a clear comparison or leave it
| out.
|
| My feeling is that $30 is on the very high end of what I'd pay as
| a freelancer, unless I was doing quite a lot of work and this
| offered me substantial value, and you don't have the trust up-
| front that OmniGroup or Panic have, who are also asking in the
| hundreds for their much more sophisticated and niche offerings.
|
| Perhaps with a small upgrade/subscription fee, or a little less
| than that with optional in-app purchases for integrations with
| third-party task management platforms, since an individual is
| going to need either 1, none, or a mix of integrations depending
| on how many clients in what industries they work with.
|
| I do like the site, and you present the app in a way I like to
| see. I'd encourage you to iterate on the direction a bit, and
| depending on how many pre-orders you've landed (maybe I'm off on
| the price) adjust accordingly. I pre-ordered the Matias Sculpted
| keyboard for marginally more than you're asking, and it hasn't
| shipped yet, but I'm willing to take the chance on it because
| they already produce keyboards, it's so critical to my workflow
| that I'd be screwed without it, and it's a reasonable cost
| compared to other enthusiast keyboards.
|
| Incredible value is worth good money, but there are some
| ambiguous constraints to how much I'm willing to _bet_ on a piece
| of software in particular categories, despite also wanting a fair
| exchange for the developer and myself.
| dvt wrote:
| This is a bit of a digression, and I might write a blog post
| about this, but I welcome comments, either way.
|
| It really seems we live in a kind of Twilight Zone when it comes
| to indie software (both productive, as we see here, but also in
| entertainment) pricing. AAA software (say, stuff being churned
| out by companies like MS/Apple/Figma/Adobe/etc.) is _so_
| aggressively priced, so egregiously recurrent (I actually am not
| even sure how many hundreds of dollars+ I spend a year on
| software I probably don 't even use, except for maybe a handful
| of times a year--like Word or PowerPoint). Similarly, games are
| routinely being sold for 70-80++ dollars.
|
| However, indie games (and as we see here, indie software) is held
| to this wild and insane standard. To me, even 100 bucks as a one-
| time-payment for productivity software (that is: something that
| literally helps you _make more money_ ) is kind of a no-brainer.
| And yet, there is so much pushback here. Even though we all
| probably pay for Google's garbage, for Apple's garbage, for space
| we don't use, and so on.
|
| It's kind of how people brutally skewer the $5 Steam indie game,
| but if the $80 game made by the AAA billion-dollar studio sucks,
| folks seem to be much more forgiving (looking at you, Diablo 4).
|
| I'm also working on some local-only software I plan on releasing
| some time this year, and pricing is something I'm very torn on.
| On one hand, it should be obvious that a one-time fee is the more
| consumer-friendly option. But something like $10 a month not only
| probably makes you more money, it also seems to be way more
| palatable by the general public.
| cableshaft wrote:
| > It's kind of how people brutally skewer the $5 Steam indie
| game, but if the $80 game made by the AAA billion-dollar studio
| sucks, folks seem to be much more forgiving.
|
| ...yep. It gets really tiring. Expectations for even a $5 Steam
| indie game are really high. Needs to have achievements,
| leaderboards, steam cloud saves, works on Steam Deck, have
| online multiplayer, be localized in 8+ languages, accessibility
| options, controller mapping, have zero bugs, have every single
| game option you expect in a AAA game, work flawlessly on all
| platforms with zero bugs, and have 10+ hours of gameplay (but
| preferably 40+), or else you'll get buried alive in the
| reviews.
|
| There's a reason it's taken me like 10x longer to get my
| current game out compared to past games. It's trying to get
| somewhat close to all these sky-high expectations (also more
| responsibilities and less energy now that I'm older, though).
|
| I didn't have any of this crap in my old Flash games I used to
| make (except maybe zero bugs, but even that wasn't always
| true), and somehow those got played millions of times then. But
| expectations are much, much higher now.
|
| Granted I would like most of this stuff in the game myself too,
| it just takes a long time to get it all in there, especially as
| a solo dev.
| xboxnolifes wrote:
| > It's kind of how people brutally skewer the $5 Steam indie
| game, but if the $80 game made by the AAA billion-dollar studio
| sucks, folks seem to be much more forgiving (looking at you,
| Diablo 4).
|
| While I know the point you're making, gamers certainly went up
| in arms over "the first AAAA game" priced at $70 instead of the
| standard $60 for AAA games, even before seeing it was a poor
| game. Additionally, the people who are typically complaining
| about the shortcomings of $20 indie games have given up
| complaining about $60 games' shortcomings. They expect them to
| suck and stopped paying attention to them, so the lack of
| comment is apathy toward AAA games and a desire for indie to
| succeed. They give passionate response, good and bad, _because_
| they care.
|
| The very low priced indie games (<$5) fall into the same
| problem category of most low priced things above free. The
| exchange of money makes people demand _much_ more from
| something than if free, and the price sensitive consumers are
| much more picky than those who can more easily put out hundreds
| of dollars.
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