TL;DR

What it is: An advanced open-source todo application combining tasks, time tracking, Pomodoro timer, and developer integrations in one offline-first app
Who it’s for: Developers, freelancers, and privacy-conscious knowledge workers who want to own their time tracking data
Cost savings: Free vs. Monday.com at $9–19/user/month; vs. Toggl Track at $9/user/month for time tracking; vs. combined tools running $20–40/month per user
Key strength: Genuinely offline-first with no telemetry — your data never leaves your device unless you configure sync
Key weakness: The UI looks dated and lacks Material You design on Android; there are no native home screen widgets

What is Super Productivity

Super Productivity is an open-source task manager built by Johannes Millan and a community of contributors. It started as a solo developer’s attempt to build something that actually fit how he worked, and that origin is visible in every design decision: the tool assumes you are a knowledge worker who codes, tracks time, and wants keyboard-driven control over your schedule.

The project has 18,018 GitHub stars, is licensed under MIT, and runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, with a web app at app.super-productivity.com. The desktop apps are Electron-based, which means the same codebase runs everywhere.

The core loop is simple: create tasks with time estimates, track time as you work, review the day’s log at the end. Around that core are optional layers — a Pomodoro timer, break reminders, integrations with GitHub/GitLab/Jira, CalDAV sync, keyboard shortcuts for everything, and a plugin system for extending functionality.

As the project author wrote: “Super Productivity is designed for people who work extensively on computers. The tool emphasizes balancing disciplined, focused work with adequate rest and breaks.” That philosophy shows: the app nudges you toward time awareness rather than trying to be a project management platform.

Why people choose it over top alternatives

vs. Todoist

Todoist is polished, cross-platform, and has a generous free tier. The gap shows up in time tracking: Todoist has none. If you want to know where your hours went — across tasks, projects, and clients — you need to add Toggl or another tracker alongside it. Super Productivity builds that tracking in. For freelancers billing hourly or developers who want to review what they actually worked on, that integration matters more than Todoist’s cleaner UI.

vs. TickTick

TickTick is the closest commercial equivalent: tasks plus a Pomodoro timer plus some time tracking. But TickTick is a SaaS product with your data on their servers. Super Productivity’s local-first model means everything runs offline, and sync (via WebDAV, Dropbox, or local file) happens on your terms. For the privacy-focused user, that is the decisive factor.

vs. Notion / Linear for personal task management

Notion and Linear are team tools being stretched into personal productivity. They require accounts, have telemetry, and are overkill for individual task management. Super Productivity is explicitly single-user and offline-first. “100% Offline & Private: Your data never leaves your device. Zero tracking, zero accounts, maximum privacy.” For a developer who wants to manage personal tasks without another SaaS dependency, that positioning is direct.

vs. Obsidian with Tasks plugin

Some developers use Obsidian with the Tasks plugin as a note-taking-plus-tasks system. Obsidian is more flexible but requires configuration effort; time tracking is handled through separate plugins that lack the integration Super Productivity offers natively. If time tracking and work summaries are important to you, Super Productivity is more purpose-built.

Features: what it actually does

Task management

Tasks with subtasks, tags, and project assignment
Natural language input: typing “Buy gift #shopping @5PM” auto-populates details
Due dates, scheduling, repeat tasks with granular recurrence
Kanban, Eisenhower matrix, compact list, and custom views
Quick add via keyboard shortcut from anywhere

Time tracking

One-click time tracking per task
Idle time detection — prompts you to account for time away from the computer
Timesheets and work summaries exported to CSV or JSON
Daily and weekly metrics showing where time actually went

Focus and productivity

Pomodoro timer with configurable session and break lengths
Focus mode hiding everything except the active task
Break reminders that do not interrupt mid-flow
Standing desk reminders (configurable)
Built-in CBT-based procrastination helper

Developer integrations

Jira: import issues, log time directly, sync status
GitHub and GitLab: import issues as tasks
CalDAV: sync from any calendar supporting the standard

Sync and portability

Local file storage (default — no cloud required)
Dropbox and Google Drive sync
WebDAV sync (compatible with Nextcloud, ownCloud)
Export to JSON or CSV anytime
No vendor lock-in: your data format is standard JSON

Keyboard-first design

Comprehensive shortcuts covering task creation, navigation, time tracking
Every common action reachable without a mouse

Plugin system

Extensible via custom plugins
Developer automation via scripts and quick commands

Pricing math

Tool	Cost	What you get
Super Productivity	Free (MIT)	Full feature set, self-hosted or web app
Todoist Pro	$4/month	Tasks only, no time tracking
TickTick Premium	$2.79/month	Tasks + Pomodoro, SaaS
Toggl Track Starter	$9/user/month	Time tracking only
Todoist + Toggl	~$13/month	Tasks + time tracking combined
Monday.com Basic	$9/user/month	Team task management
Linear	$8/user/month	Developer-focused, team-oriented

Super Productivity’s value proposition is replacing two subscriptions (task manager + time tracker) with one free tool. For a freelancer, eliminating Toggl Track at $9/month plus Todoist at $4/month saves $156/year. For a small team of five developers, that comparison gets larger, though Super Productivity is genuinely a single-user tool and does not scale to team collaboration.

Deployment reality

Desktop (recommended path) Download the platform-specific installer from GitHub Releases. AppImage, DEB, RPM, Snap, and Flatpak packages are available for Linux. Windows and macOS have native installers. Setup takes two minutes.

Web app app.super-productivity.com runs a fully functional version in the browser. Data is stored locally in the browser. This is the fastest way to evaluate the app before committing to a desktop install.

Self-hosted web server (Docker)

docker run -d -p 80:80 super-productivity/super-productivity:latest

This serves the web app from your own infrastructure. Useful if you want a consistent URL accessible from multiple devices without using the public web app. It does not add server-side data persistence — your data still lives in the browser’s local storage unless you configure WebDAV sync pointing to a server.

Mobile Android: available on Google Play and F-Droid. iOS: available on the App Store. The Android experience is functional but has an outdated UI, lacks Material You styling, and has no home screen widgets.

Sync setup The practical sync setup for most users is WebDAV pointing to a personal Nextcloud instance or a NAS. This gives true cross-device sync without any third-party cloud dependency. WebDAV configuration is under Settings > Sync, takes under five minutes once you have the server URL and credentials.

Who should use Super Productivity

Best fit

Developers who want Jira/GitHub tasks in the same interface as personal todos
Freelancers and consultants who need time tracking for billing and reporting
Privacy-first users who want zero cloud dependency for task data
Knowledge workers with keyboard-heavy workflows who dislike mouse-driven UIs
Anyone who currently pays for both a todo app and a time tracker

Not the right tool if

You manage tasks with a team — there is no collaboration layer
You need mobile as your primary platform and care about a polished app experience
You want Gantt charts, project planning, or resource management
You need client-specific dashboards or reporting shared with others
Your workflow requires deep calendar integration beyond CalDAV task import

Alternatives worth considering

Vikunja — Self-hosted, team-capable task manager with Kanban, Gantt, and list views. Better for small teams. No built-in time tracking.
Taskwarrior — Command-line task management for GTD purists. Infinitely scriptable, zero GUI. Choose this if you live in the terminal.
OpenProject — Full project management platform with Gantt charts, agile boards, and time tracking. Significantly heavier to self-host. Better for structured software development teams.
Joplin — Note-taking with task checkboxes. Choose this if your primary need is notes with attached tasks rather than task management with attached notes.
Obsidian with Tasks plugin — Flexible but requires configuration. Better if notes are the primary artifact and tasks are secondary.

Sources

This review synthesizes 5 independent third-party articles along with primary sources from the project itself. Inline references throughout the review map to the numbered list below.

[1] opensource.com (2020-12-03) — “Support your work-life balance with this open source productivity tool” — praise (link)
[2] fossforce.com (2025-07-16) — “Super Productivity: Open Source Project Manager That Does It All” — praise (link)
[3] androidpolice.com (2025-10-07) — “I finally found the perfect open source task manager on Android” — praise (link)
[4] dev.to (2025) — “Open-Source Productivity Apps in 2025: A Comparative Overview” — comparison (link)
[5] super-productivity.com (2025) — “Open-Source Productivity Apps: Key Insights” — comparison (link)
[6] GitHub repository — official source code, README, releases, and issue tracker (https://github.com/johannesjo/super-productivity)
[7] Official website — Super Productivity project homepage and docs (https://super-productivity.com)