I Spent 18 Months Building a WakaTime Alternative Solo — Here's What I Learned

Niklas Schäffer — Mon, 04 May 2026 21:36:53 +0000

The Chronova dashboard — real-time coding analytics with offline support.

The Problem: I Didn't Know What I Was Actually Doing

I've been writing code for over 15 years. Full-stack developer from Düsseldorf, Germany. Recently founded NX Solutions, a tiny software company, specifically to build and ship one thing: Chronova.

It started because I was frustrated. I wanted to understand how I actually spend my coding time — not just "I coded for 6 hours today," but what I was working on, which languages I was using, whether I was actually productive or just switching between tabs like a maniac.

I tried existing tools. Some were too simple, some were too enterprise-y, some were too expensive for what you actually get, and some just didn't give me the insights I cared about.

So I did what every developer with too much optimism does: I decided to build my own.

The Journey: 18 Months of Solo Night-and-Weekend Coding

That was about 18 months ago. It's just me, working solo, building this in my off-hours while keeping the bills paid. Every line of code, every bug, every late-night "why isn't this working" moment — all mine.

There were moments I wanted to quit. Moments where I questioned whether anyone would care. But I kept going because I wanted this tool for myself. If it solved my problem, I figured it might solve someone else's too.

What Is Chronova?

Chronova is a developer productivity analytics platform. It tracks your coding activity through heartbeat monitoring, breaks down your time by language, project, and editor, and gives you insights that actually matter.

The Biggest Differentiator: WakaTime Compatibility

If you're already using WakaTime, switching is effortless.

Our CLI (chronova-cli) is a drop-in replacement for wakatime-cli
Our API is fully compatible with WakaTime's API v1
Same editors, same integrations, better dashboard

You literally just swap the CLI binary, change your API key, and keep working. All your historical data structure is preserved.

Key Features

Real-time heartbeat tracking with offline processing — your data isn't lost if you lose connection
Full WakaTime API compatibility — zero-effort migration
Language breakdowns, project time allocation, trend analysis, and streak tracking
Goals system — set coding goals and track whether you're hitting them
Organization support for teams with proper role-based access control
GitHub integration for commit correlation
Android app for mobile insights
Data export in CSV, XML, Excel, and Markdown
PWA with offline support and cache management
Dark mode — obviously

The Tech Stack

I went all-in on a modern, robust stack because I wanted Chronova to feel like a serious product from day one:

Next.js 16.2.4 + React 19.2.5 + TypeScript 5.9.3 (strict mode)
PostgreSQL 17 with Prisma 6.19.3 ORM — 41 migrations, 633-line schema with ~25+ models
Redis 7 with circuit breaker (5 failures → open, 60s auto-recovery) + in-memory fallback
BullMQ background workers with exponential backoff and rate limiting
Factory-pattern heartbeat detection pipeline with confidence scoring via linguist-languages
Prometheus + Grafana monitoring stack with 6 scrape targets
99 API v1 endpoints, all input validated with Zod 4.3.5
42 frontend pages using Next.js App Router
25 react-icons packs loaded dynamically on demand with fuzzy matching
Stripe billing with Pro / Team / Lifetime plans
Jest 30 test suite with 82 test files across unit, contract, integration, and security tests

This isn't a toy project. It's built to scale.

Why SaaS?

Self-hosting isn't on the roadmap. I want to build something sustainable, not spend weekends writing installation docs for niche Linux distros. SaaS means I handle the infrastructure, the backups, the updates — you just sign up, get an API key, and plug it into your editor.

If that disqualifies me from your stack, fair enough. But for developers who want insights without DevOps overhead, this is the way.

The Honest Part

Full transparency: I used AI to help write this article. After 18 months of coding, my marketing brain is absolutely fried. The product itself is 100% my work — every line of code, every bug, every late-night debugging session. I just needed help not sounding like a caveman in the announcement.

Where to Find It

https://chronova.dev

There's a free tier. No credit card required to try it. If you do decide to go Pro, use the code RELEASE2026 at checkout for an extra 10% off your first subscription period — consider it a "thanks for being part of the launch" discount.

If you sign up and hate it, tell me why — I actually read feedback (and cry about it, but that's beside the point).

If you love it, an upvote on Product Hunt (if we're live there) or a share on Twitter would mean the world to a solo founder.

AMA

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I know launch posts are a dime a dozen, but after 18 months of grinding on this solo, it feels weird to just silently release it into the void.

AMA if you want — about the tech stack, the struggles, why I chose SaaS over self-hosted, the WakaTime API compatibility layer, whatever. I'll be around in the comments.

DEV Community: Niklas Schäffer