Software Alternatives & Reviews

Qbserve VS Radio Silence

Compare Qbserve VS Radio Silence and see what are their differences

Qbserve logo Qbserve

Freelance time tracking, invoicing, and productivity improvement

Radio Silence logo Radio Silence

Radio Silence is a network monitor and firewall for the macOS. The software stops apps from making network connections. The firewall runs in the background and does not require an open window.
  • Qbserve Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30

Mac time tracker that tracks both productivity and work hours automatically by intelligently observing active sites and apps.

  • Radio Silence Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-16

Qbserve videos

Weekly tip #2 - Qbserve

More videos:

  • Review - 5 Mac Apps of the Month | Qbserve, PDFElement 6, GIF Brewery 3, Camtasia & Unclutter

Radio Silence videos

RADIO SILENCE REVIEW.... do yall hear sumn?.. | Casey Aonso

More videos:

  • Review - every time kat was emotional about radio silence in less than 2 minutes.
  • Tutorial - 1 to 5 star book wrapup | radio silence, enchantment of ravens, severance, how to date men, & more👫

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Qbserve and Radio Silence)
Time Tracking
100 100%
0% 0
Monitoring Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Invoicing
100 100%
0% 0
Firewall
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Qbserve and Radio Silence. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Radio Silence might be a bit more popular than Qbserve. We know about 12 links to it since March 2021 and only 10 links to Qbserve. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Qbserve mentions (10)

  • Show HN: Rem: Remember Everything (open source)
    Somebody else pointed out RescueTime, but if keeping it local is a priority, I recommend Qbserve, which I've been using (mostly passively in the background) for a few years now. [0] https://qotoqot.com/qbserve/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Is there anything you’ve found immensely helpful in grad school?
    One of the hardest things for me about grad school (that I'm still struggling with!) is figuring out how to schedule my own day when I have few external things keeping my day in shape for me. it's been really helpful just to have the data of how much time I usually spend on things/what I've done that day... I can see where all my time is going lmao and readjust as needed. I use toggl track in conjunction with... Source: 5 months ago
  • Is there any other app who tracks time automatically by monitoring every app, document, and website ?
    Is https://qotoqot.com/qbserve/ actually doing this ? I can't seem to figure out if it tracks individual files inside apps. Source: about 1 year ago
  • What are your strategies for a productive writing session?
    An unconventional, and somewhat uncomfortable bit of discipline: I used Qbserve (for mac), which is an automatic time tracker. I taught it which websites were productive (/r/LaTeX, StackExchange, and ArXiV.org) and which were not (/r/GradSchool etc lol). It notified me when I was spending too much time not being productive, and also notified me when I had done "enough". Source: over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: How do you not keep track of what you did yesterday (and this morning)?
    I use Qbserve [1] after seeing it mentioned in a previous thread. Really helpful for seeing where time was spent over the course of the day/week. Collected data all stored locally too [1] https://qotoqot.com/qbserve/. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
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Radio Silence mentions (12)

  • Stopping MDNSResponder from Sneakily Using DoH for DNS Lookups on macOS Ventura
    Agreed, though I combine using Little Snitch with Radio Silence: https://radiosilenceapp.com Little Snitch is great for when I want hyper granular control of a specific app's network permissions while Radio Silence gives me a super quick way to just block EVERYTHING for a particular app right away without even opening it the first time. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Little Snitch Mini
    I'm using radio silence for years and it is awesome :) https://radiosilenceapp.com. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Do You Use A 3rd Party Firewall App On Your Mac ?
    Forgot to mention Radio Silence (commercial), seen by many as an easier introduction vs Little Snitch. Source: over 1 year ago
  • A little help
    Sorry for the late reply. I use Lulu which should be enough, but I also simultaneously use Radio Silence to be safe. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Little Snitch vs TripMode 3 - monitoring my web traffic
    Little Snitch (LS) is considered by many to be the gold standard. The aforementioned Lulu has a good reputation. The app Hands Off! Appears to be no longer developed (site offline). Then there's Radio Silence that may well fit your needs. Finally, one or more apps by Murus may be of interest but AFAIK these are not easy to configure and may be overkill for the average Mac user. I'm not familiar with TripMode. Source: about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Qbserve and Radio Silence, you can also consider the following products

Toggl - Toggl is an online time tracking tool. It features 1-click time tracking and helps you see where your time goes. Free and paid versions are available.

Little Snitch - Little Snitch is a firewall application that monitors and controls outbound internet traffic.

RescueTime - Time management software that shows you how you spend your time & provides tools to help you be more productive.

TripMode - Manage your Mac's broadband usage while on a hotspot

Harvest - Simple time tracking, fast online invoicing, and powerful reporting software. Simplify employee timesheets and billing. Get started for free.

LuLu by Objective-See - LuLu is the free open-source macOS firewall that aims to block unauthorized (outgoing) network...