Didon Review (2026): Pricing, Features & Honest Verdict

TLDR

Didon is a privacy-first automatic time tracker for macOS that runs a local AI model to log your work and build a daily journal, with no manual timers. We found it genuinely hands-off and private, which is rare in this category. Best for: solo Mac freelancers. Price: 89 euros one-time, no free plan. Rating: 7.8/10.

What is Didon?

Didon is an automatic time tracking app for macOS. It runs quietly in the background, watches what is on your screen, and uses a local AI model to figure out what you are working on. There are no start and stop buttons. You open your Mac, do your work, and Didon builds a categorized log of where your hours went, plus a daily work journal you can review or export. The whole pitch is that tracking should happen without you thinking about it.

It is built by a solo indie maker and is in early access as of 2026. The positioning is simple and specific: most automatic trackers either feel invasive or push your data to the cloud, and most manual trackers fail because people forget to hit start. Didon solves both at once. The analysis runs on-device using a small local LLM, so nothing leaves your Mac, and the tracking is fully automatic so there is no timer to forget. That combination, automatic plus private, is what makes it stand out in a category long dominated by cloud subscription tools.

The matter of who this is for is clear from the design. It is a single-user, single-device app aimed at freelancers, consultants, and indie makers who want an honest record of their own time. It is not trying to be a team dashboard or a manager surveillance tool. That focus is a strength: the app does one job, and the privacy guarantee is credible because the data physically never leaves the machine.

What Are Didon’s Key Features?

Automatic on-device tracking

Didon launches and pauses itself, so there is nothing to start or remember. It uses a local model, Qwen-3-VL:2b, to read screen activity and assign it to a task or project. Because the model runs on your machine, there are no extra AI or API costs layered on top of the purchase price, which is a real distinction from cloud tools that meter usage. The tradeoff is that a small local model can be less precise than a large cloud model, so expect to correct a category now and then in the early days while it learns your patterns.

Privacy-first design

This is the core of the product. All screen analysis happens on the device, and Didon does not send your activity to a server. If you have avoided automatic trackers because you did not want a company logging your screen, this is the feature that changes the math. It is a genuine differentiator against cloud-based tools like RescueTime that process your activity remotely. For anyone handling client data, NDAs, or confidential work, on-device processing is not a nice-to-have, it is the reason to consider the app at all.

Work journal and categorization

Didon turns raw activity into something useful. It groups your time into context-aware categories, detects specific tasks and projects, and generates a daily work journal you can actually read. Over time it surfaces productivity trends so you can see your patterns rather than guessing. This is more useful than the bare timeline of app names that older trackers produce, because it tells you what you were doing, not just which window was open. The journal also doubles as a quiet accountability log at the end of a day.

Unlimited CSV exports

Every plan includes unlimited CSV exports of your detailed logs. For freelancers, this is the feature that justifies the purchase: you can pull a clean record of hours per client or project and drop it into an invoice or report. There is no export cap or paywall on getting your own data out, which matters because some competitors gate exports behind higher tiers. Your time data stays yours, and you can move it wherever you need it.

How Much Does Didon Cost?

Didon costs 89 euros as a one-time payment during early access, with a regular price of 199 euros. There is no monthly or annual subscription anywhere in the model. The purchase includes lifetime access, future updates, 1:1 support from the maker, and a 100 percent money-back guarantee if the app does not work for you.

The catch is the license scope: 89 euros covers one Mac. If you work across two machines, a laptop and a desktop for example, you pay again for the second device. There is no free plan and no free trial, so the refund guarantee is the only way to test it without risk. That is a fair safety net, but it does mean you have to commit money up front before you can see whether the categorization fits your workflow.

Compared against the competition, the value is obvious for a long-term user. RescueTime Premium runs about 12 dollars a month, Timing is about 9 dollars a month billed annually, and Toggl Track paid plans start around 10 dollars a month per user. At roughly 100 dollars equivalent paid once, Didon undercuts a single year of any of them, and from year two onward the gap only widens. If you plan to track your time for more than a year, which most freelancers do, the math favors Didon by a wide margin. The only scenario where subscriptions win is if you need the broader feature set or cross-platform reach those tools offer.

Who is Didon Best For?

Use Didon if you are a freelancer, consultant, or indie maker on macOS who wants time tracking to happen automatically and privately. It is a strong fit if you bill clients by the hour and want a clean CSV at the end of the week without babysitting a timer. It is also the right pick if you specifically dislike subscriptions and would rather pay once and own the tool. And it is the obvious choice if privacy is non-negotiable, because the on-device model means your screen activity never touches a server.

Skip Didon if you are on Windows, since that version is still waitlist-only and not shipping. Skip it if you need team features, shared dashboards, or integrations with project management tools, because none of those exist yet. Skip it if you want a free option to evaluate over weeks rather than a refund window, and skip it if you run multiple Macs and do not want to buy a license per machine. For those cases, a cross-platform subscription tracker is the safer bet today.

Best Didon Alternatives

RescueTime

RescueTime is the established name in automatic time tracking. It runs in the background across Mac, Windows, and mobile, and offers focus tools, distraction blocking, and detailed productivity reports that early-access Didon does not match yet. The catch is the model: RescueTime Premium is about 12 dollars a month and processes your activity in the cloud rather than on-device. Choose it if you want maturity, mobile coverage, and cross-platform support, and you are comfortable with a recurring bill and remote processing of your data.

Timing

Timing is the closest Mac-native rival, also offering automatic, rule-based tracking with strong reporting and project mapping. It starts around 9 dollars a month on the Professional tier billed annually. It is more polished and feature-deep than a young product like Didon, with years of refinement behind it. The downside is that it is cloud-tied and a subscription. Pick Timing if you want a proven Mac tracker you can rely on today and you do not mind paying every year for it.

Toggl Track

Toggl Track is the option if you actually like manual timers and want a real free plan to start. It is cross-platform with a generous free tier, and paid plans begin around 10 dollars a month per user with team features and reporting. It is the opposite philosophy from Didon: you press start and stop, and your data lives in the cloud. Choose it for team use, a free entry point, and broad integrations, not for hands-off private tracking on a single Mac.

Final Verdict: Is Didon Worth It?

Didon does the hard part well. It tracks automatically, keeps your data on your Mac, and turns raw activity into a usable journal and clean exports. For a solo Mac user who bills by the hour and hates subscriptions, paying 89 euros once instead of feeding a tracker 10 dollars a month for years is an easy call. The privacy story is the closer: the local model means you can run it during confidential client work without sending anything to a third party. That is why it earns a 7.8.

The reasons it is not higher are real but narrow. It is macOS only with Windows stuck on a waitlist, the license covers a single device, and it is a young solo product with no team features or integrations yet. If you fit the profile, buy it and lean on the refund guarantee to confirm the categorization works for your workflow before you commit. If you are on Windows, need a team tool, or run several machines, wait for the product to mature or choose RescueTime or Timing instead.