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Technology · head to head

RescueTime vs Soketi

RescueTime logo

RescueTime

Technology

Take back control of your time

From
$12/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Soketi logo

Soketi

Developer Tools

Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Soketi has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: RescueTime no free tier since 2023, making it costly for individual experimentation; Soketi maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • They diverge on capability: RescueTime covers Automatic time tracking, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which RescueTime and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where RescueTime and Soketi differ
AttributeRescueTimeSoketi
Starting price$12/monthFree
Pricing modelUnknownOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Android, WebLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryTechnologyDeveloper Tools
Founded2006Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in RescueTime

  • Automatic time tracking
  • Productivity scoring
  • Detailed categorization
  • FocusTime blocking
  • Goal setting
  • Alerts & notifications
  • Offline time entry
  • API access

Only in Soketi

  • Pusher protocol compatibility
  • Presence and private channels
  • Horizontal scaling
  • App management backends
  • Webhooks
  • Prometheus metrics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

RescueTime

  • Personal productivity trackingnot Soketi
  • Time auditnot Soketi
  • Focus improvementnot Soketi
  • Work-life balancenot Soketi
  • Team productivity analysisnot Soketi

Soketi

  • A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot RescueTime
  • Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot RescueTime
  • A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot RescueTime
  • A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot RescueTime

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

RescueTime

  • No free tier since 2023, making it costly for individual experimentation
  • Limited iOS support compared to competitors that offer full mobile app access
  • Requires integration via categories and rules rather than direct app detection on some platforms

Soketi

  • Maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • Dependency drift on Node and uWebSockets.js will eventually force you to fork or migrate, and that cost is unbudgeted at the point you adopt it.
  • There is no commercial support to buy, so a production incident at three in the morning is entirely your problem with no escalation path.
  • Scaling beyond a single node needs Redis and careful configuration, and getting presence channels correct across nodes is a genuine source of subtle bugs.
  • It implements the Pusher protocol rather than tracking it, so any protocol feature Pusher adds later will not appear, and the compatibility guarantee slowly decays.

Pricing, plan by plan

RescueTime

$12/month
  • Standard$12/month
    • Automatic time tracking
    • Focus Time
    • Idle time monitoring
  • Team$6/month
    • All Standard features
    • Team analytics
    • Cross-device tracking

Soketi

Free
  • SoketiFree
    • MIT licensed
    • Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
    • No vendor billing

Which should you pick?

Choose RescueTime if

  • You need automatic time tracking.
  • You work on Windows, macOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want productivity scoring.
RescueTime review

Choose Soketi if

  • You need pusher protocol compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want presence and private channels.
Soketi review

Questions people ask

Is RescueTime or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. RescueTime starts at $12/month and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, RescueTime or Soketi?
Soketi has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $12/month for RescueTime and Free for Soketi.
Does RescueTime or Soketi run on more platforms?
RescueTime runs on Windows, macOS, Android, Web. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Soketi for free?
Yes. Soketi has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. RescueTime starts at $12/month.
What is RescueTime best used for?
RescueTime is most often used for personal productivity tracking, time audit, focus improvement, work-life balance. Of those, personal productivity tracking and time audit are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can RescueTime do that Soketi cannot?
RescueTime covers Automatic time tracking, Productivity scoring, Detailed categorization, FocusTime blocking. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

RescueTime: Does RescueTime still have a free tier?

No. RescueTime discontinued its free tier in 2023. The service now requires a paid subscription starting at $12 per month or $78 per year.

Source
Soketi: Is Soketi still maintained?

Barely. The maintainer has stated that available time is very limited and releases have been sparse; treat it as community-maintained.

RescueTime: What platforms does RescueTime support?

RescueTime supports Windows, macOS, Android, and web. iOS support is limited to passive features like calendar sync and mobile summary emails.

Source
Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.

RescueTime: What are the key productivity features in RescueTime?

RescueTime offers automatic time tracking, Focus Time for blocking distractions, idle time monitoring, goal-setting with reminders, and in 2026 adds AI-Based Focus Sessions with real-time alerts to detect poor focus patterns.

Source
Soketi: What does it cost?

Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.

RescueTime: Is there a team plan for RescueTime?

Yes. The team plan costs $6 per user per month when billed annually, with a minimum of 3 users required.

Source
Soketi: What are people moving to?

Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.

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