solidtime — an Austrian open-source time tracking, project, team & roles platform, fully GDPR-compliant and hosted in the EU. Learn more at solidtime.io.
Introduction
In an era where data privacy is under intense scrutiny, solidtime emerges as a compelling European alternative to dominant American SaaS platforms like Toggl Track and Clockify. Made in Austria, solidtime is built on open-source principles, operates under full GDPR compliance, and keeps data hosted within the European Union. This makes it especially attractive for freelancers, small to medium teams, enterprises, and organisations that prioritise both transparency and legal robustness.
What is solidtime?
solidtime is a modern time-tracking tool that offers clients, projects, tasks, roles, and reporting all in one platform. It provides independent users and teams with clean interfaces and full control over their data. Key features include billing rates (set per project, per user or per organisation), project & task estimates, shareable reports, and multi-organisation support with role-based permissions.
Data Location, Hosting & GDPR Compliance
The platform is hosted in the European Union, ensuring data remains under European jurisdiction and away from extraterritorial data access laws like some in the U.S. solidtime affirms strong privacy practices, fully embracing GDPR. As an open-source tool published under the AGPL licence, it also allows self-hosted deployments, which can reduce reliance on third-party cloud infrastructure.
Comparison with large U.S. alternatives
- Toggl Track: A widely used tool from the U.S., which offers multiple integrations and strong usability. But for organisations handling sensitive client or personal data, questions sometimes arise around where user data is stored, how tracking and usage metrics are processed, and what happens when U.S. laws conflict with European privacy standards.
- Clockify: Another popular U.S.-based competitor, with generous free tier, wide adoption, but similar concerns around data sovereignty, privacy, and compliance. Solidtime presents itself as a strong alternative for those concerned about hosting location and GDPR enforcement.
Plans, Pricing & Open Source Structure
solidtime offers a free plan (“Solo”) for individuals or freelancers, covering one user with clients, projects, tags, billable hours, rates, and reporting included.
For team-focused needs, there are paid plans such as the “Professional” cloud plan at roughly €9 per user/month, which adds team support, project access management, invoicing, task estimation, rounding, PDF reports, and priority support.
Open-source users who prefer to self-host can use or deploy the full core features under the free AGPL-based license. Paid tiers for on-premise editions add features like invoicing, access to a private Docker registry, and priority support.
Features & Role System
- Time tracking & projects: Tasks are assigned to clients, projects, and users timers have a clean UI.
- Billable rates: Configurable at several levels—organisation, project, member. Rates cascade with priority rules.
- Reporting & exports: Offers reporting tools for hours, projects, clients also supports import of data from Toggl, Clockify, or CSV files.
- Roles, permissions, organisations: Define roles, restrict access to projects, tasks or invoice data as needed for team coordination.
- Self-hosting: Full stack deployable on private servers advantage for high privacy, compliance & avoiding foreign jurisdiction.
What is not clearly established
While solidtime ticks many boxes for privacy and compliance, some areas are less certain or publicly disclosed:
- Renewable energy usage: There is no clear or confirmed information about whether solidtime operates using renewable energy sources for its servers or offices.
- Large-scale enterprise guarantees: Though enterprise-grade plans exist, especially for on-premise installations, the exact SLAs, compliance audits, or uptime guarantees depend on contract.
- Third-party certifications: While GDPR compliance is asserted, external audits, ISO certifications, or similar public validation are less visible at this time.
Why solidtime could be the better choice
- Data sovereignty: With data stored in the EU and the option to self-host, solidtime helps organisations avoid risks tied to U.S. data laws or surprise demands for data disclosure.
- Open source transparency: The AGPL licence means users can audit, modify, host, and own the full stack, avoiding vendor lock-in. This is unlike many proprietary U.S. tools where source code is hidden.
- Fair pricing & free access: A free tier enables individuals or small teams to test and use core features without cost paid plans are reasonable and incrementally scale. No artificial upselling just for visibility.
- Compliance alignment: GDPR is a rigorous legal domain. For those doing business in the EU or handling EU citizen data, using a tool already aligned with GDPR simplifies legal risk. Comparing US-based tools, even if they attempt compliance, data transfer and jurisdiction remain sticky issues.
Potential drawbacks
- Feature maturity: U.S. giants like Toggl or Clockify have developed extensive integrations, mobile apps, and tens of thousands of users in some advanced corners (e.g. offline mobile use, deep analytics) they may still lead.
- Support & infrastructure overhead for self-hosting: Running your own stack requires technical skill, server hosting, backups, security patches, etc.
- Transparency gaps on operational sustainability: For users seeking green credentials or renewable energy usage, lack of visibility there could be a reason to ask for clarifications.
Conclusion
solidtime stands out as one of Europes strongest alternatives to large U.S. time-tracking platforms. With its Austrian origins, EU hosting, open-source licence, and full GDPR compliance, it addresses many of the privacy, data sovereignty, and transparency concerns that arise when using overseas tools. While it may not yet have the same depth of integrations or global presence as some U.S. incumbents, it offers a compelling set of features, fair pricing, and scalability. For teams, organisations or freelancers who take privacy seriously, or those operating under EU regulatory regimes, solidtime is well worth considering as a modern, ethical, and practical solution.