Kimai alternative
Kimai is good, and its code is free. But it's only free if you're comfortable with a console: you install it over SSH with Git and Composer, and you update it the same way. Don't want to do that? Kimai's own answer is kimai.cloud, a per-person, per-month subscription on their servers. Hourexa is the other answer: paid for once, installed from your browser, updated with one button — on your server, with as many users as you like.
The real difference
Both track time by project and client, on your own server, with your data staying there. Where they part ways is what you need to know how to do: the day you install it, every time you update it, and the day something breaks.
Kimai: you clone the repository with Git, run Composer, edit environment variables, run the installer from the console and set file permissions. Its documentation says “FTP installation is not supported” and that it needs a dedicated subdomain. Hourexa: you upload a folder by FTP, open a page in your browser and answer three questions. Subdomain or subfolder, whichever you prefer.
And this happens far more often than installing. Kimai: back up the database, git fetch, git checkout, composer install, one more command to update, then fix the permissions. Every time. Hourexa: one button. It downloads, checks the package really is ours, installs it, applies the database changes and, if anything goes wrong, rolls itself back to the previous version.
Kimai's support is the community forum — generous people, answering when they can. With Hourexa you bought a product, so there's a person whose job is to answer you, for the support months included with your licence.
Side by side
| Kimai | Hourexa | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free if you set it up yourself. From €2.99 per user/month on kimai.cloud | €149, one-time, unlimited users |
| Do you need a console (SSH)? | Yes — to install it and for every update | No, never |
| How you install it | Git + Composer, from the console. FTP not supported | Upload by FTP, install from the browser |
| How you update it | git fetch, git checkout, composer install, one more command, then fix permissions | One button, from the browser |
| If an update fails | You restore the backup yourself | It rolls itself back |
| Where it can live | Its own subdomain only | Subdomain or subfolder |
| PHP it needs | 8.2 or newer | 8.1 or newer |
| Support | Community forum | A person answers you, included with your licence |
| Can they install it for you? | No | Yes, as an optional add-on |
| Source code | Open (GPL/AGPL) | Closed |
| Your data | On your server. On kimai.cloud, on theirs | Always on your server |
Until July, this very table said updating Hourexa needed a console command, and we put it in our own column because it was true. It isn't any more: since the July release it updates with one button. The Kimai figures come from their documentation and from kimai.cloud, checked on 4 August 2026 — if anything changes, we'll correct this page.
What it actually costs
The free version of Kimai is the one you install and update over SSH. For everyone else, Kimai itself sells kimai.cloud: the same software, on their servers, as a per-person monthly subscription. That's the honest comparison, and these are the numbers.
kimai.cloud: €107.64 the first year. Then another €107.64 the second. And the third. Hourexa: €149, once.
kimai.cloud: €179.40 a year, every year, for as long as you use it. Hourexa: €149, once — and it doesn't go up if there are eight of you tomorrow.
kimai.cloud: €358.80 a year. With Hourexa, headcount doesn't change the price: €149, once, and that's it.
Figures use the kimai.cloud Standard plan billed annually, which is their cheapest rate: €2.99 per user/month (€3.99 month to month). Prices checked on 4 August 2026, excluding tax. And there's a difference the numbers don't show: on kimai.cloud your data lives on their server, not yours.
Which of the three
If SSH and Composer are normal tools for you, or you have someone technical to handle it. It's free, it's mature and its community is excellent. If you're going to do that work yourself, don't pay someone not to.
If you don't want to open a console — not the day you install it, and not every time you update it. If you'd rather pay once than pay every month. If you want your data on your own server and a person to ask when something breaks.
If you don't mind your data living on someone else's server and you prefer a subscription to a purchase. It's Kimai's option for people who don't want a console, and it's perfectly reasonable. It just isn't free any more, and it isn't self-hosted any more.