DoneThat vs ManicTime

The short answer

ManicTime does something almost nobody in this category still does: it sells you the software. A perpetual licence, with a year of upgrades, after which you keep using what you bought.

For anyone tired of renting tools indefinitely, or working somewhere that will not approve cloud processing of activity data, that plus on-premise deployment is the whole argument. What you do not get is interpretation — ManicTime gives you an unusually detailed timeline and leaves the reading of it to you.

Buying versus renting

This deserves to lead, because it is genuinely rare now.

A ManicTime licence includes a year of upgrades. After that year you can keep using the version released within it, indefinitely, or renew to receive new versions. You are not locked into a payment to retain access to your own tool.

Licences also support on-premise deployment. In a regulated environment where sending activity data to a vendor's cloud will not clear review, that is not a nice-to-have — it is the difference between adopting a tool and not.

DoneThat is subscription-only with no on-premise option. If either of those is a requirement, this comparison is settled.

Pricing

As of 11 August 2026:

30-day trial on all products. No free tier.

Two things worth noting. Ultimate's price is not published, and neither is licence pricing, so budgeting requires a conversation. And the thing Ultimate adds is cloud screenshots — the upgrade path here leads towards more capture rather than more insight, which is a different design instinct from ours.

DoneThat is subscription-based with a 14-day free trial; current prices are on the DoneThat download page.

Timeline versus reconstruction

Both capture automatically with no timer.

ManicTime's strength is the timeline: a detailed, dense, precise record of what was open when, across up to five devices. Long-time users are loyal to it for good reason — as an instrument for reading your own day in detail, it is excellent, and it has been doing this longer than most of the category has existed.

DoneThat's difference is reconstruction. Screen-first capture means the record knows what the work was about rather than which window held it, which is what makes coaching possible: Don can tell you that you drifted off a stated goal because the reconstruction knows what you drifted onto.

On the capture ask: screenshots are never stored — processed in real time, immediately deleted, only derived structured activity persists. Excluded apps are redacted on your machine before anything is sent. With your own Gemini or OpenAI-compatible model, raw activity never reaches our servers. The desktop app is open source.

Note the contrast: DoneThat processes screenshots and discards them; ManicTime's Ultimate tier stores them in the cloud. Neither is a scandal, but they are opposite decisions and worth knowing before you pick a tier.

Platform support

ManicTime's coverage is wider than ours in both directions — mobile and on-premise.

Where ManicTime is the better choice

• You want to own the software. Perpetual licences, and you keep what you bought.
• You need on-premise. No cloud processing of your activity data.
• You want a detailed timeline you read yourself, in depth.
• You track across mobile devices as well as desktops.
• You want a long evaluation. 30 days against our 14.
• You value longevity. This tool has been around a long time and shows no sign of going anywhere.

Where DoneThat is the better choice

• You want the work interpreted, not displayed for you to interpret.
• You want coaching. Don nudges you onto goals, blocks calendar time, flags low-value work while you can still fix it, checks your mood, reminds you of meetings, suggests breaks.
• You want AI tools to have your work history through MCP and an API.
• You do not want screenshots stored anywhere, including your own cloud tier.
• Your team wants shared signal without surveillance. Summary-level dashboards, relative trends rather than per-person hours, visibility set per summary, optional mood tracking.
• You want peer accountability. Follow others, share summaries, Slack and Discord, accountability groups — all opt-in.
• You do not want per-device limits.

How we compared these

Everything stated about ManicTime comes from its public pricing page, read on 11 August 2026 and linked below. Ultimate and perpetual licence prices are not quoted because they are not published there.

Claims about DoneThat are first-hand: we build it. ManicTime's perpetual licence, on-premise option, mobile coverage and 30-day trial are all things we do not offer — stated plainly above.

Questions people ask about ManicTime

Can I still buy ManicTime outright?

Yes. Perpetual licences are sold alongside subscriptions, which is rare in this category. A licence includes a year of upgrades; after that you can keep using the version released within that year indefinitely, or renew to get new versions. DoneThat is subscription-only.

How much does ManicTime cost?

The Standard cloud plan is $7 per month with 3 devices per user. Ultimate adds cloud screenshots and 5 devices per user, but its price is not published on the pricing page. Perpetual licence pricing is also not listed. All products have a 30-day trial.

Does ManicTime support on-premise deployment?

Yes, with a licence — cloud or on-premise are both supported. That is a meaningful advantage in regulated environments where cloud processing of activity data will not be approved. DoneThat has no on-premise option.

ManicTime vs DoneThat?

ManicTime if you want to own the software, deploy on-premise, or need a detailed timeline across five devices including mobile. DoneThat if you want the work interpreted rather than displayed, coaching during the work, and history an AI assistant can query.