TimeRetain – A browser-based personal time tracker, no sign-up needed

Hacker News

Share card

TimeRetain – A browser-based personal time tracker, no sign-up needed

Hi HN, I built TimeRetain: a time tracker for individuals that runs 100% in your browser. No sign up, no personal data stored, and free while I’m working on the beta. Click the white demo banner to check it out quickly :) I’m using it to track my hours at work (e.g., overtime, and what I’ve done so I come prepared for stand up). In 2023 I launched it here [1], but with a back-end. After I became interested in local-first, I realized JS could handle everything Postgres did - so I ported it. Time data now never leaves your browser and the app will ping you to run an export from time to time. I also followed up on some of the feedback in the previous thread (it now has a pause button, a dedicated data export page, no longer relies on a working back-end, and I fixed the spacing in the name). It’s not a true local first app just yet (e.g., it's not a PWA, and backing up using the File System API is on my list), but I plan on making it one should it gain some traction. One of the other things I might add is encrypted at rest storage and sync of events, for which the foundation is done (it’s event-based and events are ordered using a HLC timestamp in IndexedDB). I wonder, though: is multi-device sync even necessary? I would much rather prefer not to store any personal data at all, even if it’s encrypted. Do you need sync? And if so, what would be your ideal solution? Would love to hear your thoughts in general. Thank you! [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34457730