WhatPulse

Overview

WhatPulse is a comprehensive system monitoring and activity tracking application established in 2003. It operates through a lightweight desktop client that records user input, network traffic, and system uptime across Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. The collected data is then synchronized with a web-based dashboard, allowing users to visualize their activity statistics, monitor trends, and compare performance over time. The platform is designed for individuals seeking to understand their digital habits, as well as teams looking to gain aggregated insights into their collective productivity metrics.

For individual users, WhatPulse provides detailed breakdowns of keyboard presses, mouse clicks, and scroll events, segmented by application and time of day. This granular data can help identify peak productivity hours, repetitive tasks, or areas where ergonomic adjustments might be beneficial. Network usage monitoring tracks both uploaded and downloaded data, offering insights into bandwidth consumption and application-specific traffic. System uptime statistics provide a historical view of computer availability, which can be useful for diagnostics or simply understanding device usage patterns. The platform also includes an online ranking system, allowing users to compete based on their recorded activity statistics.

Beyond personal tracking, WhatPulse extends its capabilities to teams. Team features enable groups of users to aggregate their statistics, providing a combined view of activity and productivity. This can be particularly useful for remote teams, competitive gaming groups, or developers collaborating on projects. Team leaders can monitor overall input trends, network usage across the team, and identify collective work patterns without intruding on individual privacy, as the data is presented in an aggregated format. The system supports custom team pages and leaderboards, fostering a sense of community and friendly competition among members.

Developers and technical buyers may find WhatPulse useful for its data collection capabilities, especially when analyzing user interaction patterns or system resource utilization over extended periods. While the primary interface is user-facing, premium users gain access to an API for programmatic retrieval of their own statistics, allowing for custom integrations or deeper data analysis outside the provided dashboard. This flexibility allows for integration into custom reporting tools or data science workflows, enabling more sophisticated analysis of the collected activity data.

Key features

• Keystroke tracking: Records the total number of keystrokes, broken down by application and key types (e.g., alphanumeric, modifiers).
• Mouse activity monitoring: Logs mouse clicks, distance moved, and scroll events, providing insights into physical interaction with the computer.
• Network usage: Monitors upload and download traffic for the entire system and individual applications, showing data transfer patterns.
• Application focus time: Tracks which applications are actively in use and for how long, helping to analyze software usage patterns.
• System uptime tracking: Records how long the computer has been running, including sleep and wake cycles.
• Online statistics dashboard: A web interface to visualize historical data, view trends, and access detailed reports over customizable periods.
• Team features: Allows groups to combine and compare their statistics, create custom leaderboards, and view aggregate team activity.
• API access (Premium): Provides programmatic access to individual user statistics for integration with external tools and custom reporting.
• User ranking and badges: Gamified elements that allow users to compete globally based on their statistics and earn achievements.

Pricing

WhatPulse offers a free tier with basic activity tracking and statistics. The premium tier unlocks advanced features, detailed historical data, and API access.

Pricing is as of 2026-05-28. For the most current pricing details, refer to the official WhatPulse Premium page.

Common integrations

WhatPulse's primary integration point for advanced users is its API, available to Premium subscribers, allowing for custom data retrieval and analysis. While direct third-party integrations aren't extensively documented as pre-built connectors, the API facilitates connections with:

• Custom data visualization tools: Users can pull their raw statistics and integrate them into dashboards built with tools like Grafana, Tableau, or custom web applications for personalized data representation.
• Productivity dashboards: Data can be incorporated into personal or team productivity dashboards, alongside metrics from other tools.
• Automation scripts: Developers can write scripts to automate reporting or trigger actions based on pulse data, such as notifying team members of activity milestones.

Alternatives

• RescueTime: Focuses on automated time tracking and distraction management, providing insights into how time is spent on different applications and websites.
• ManicTime: A desktop-based time tracking software that automatically records computer usage, allowing for detailed analysis of work habits and project time.
• ActivityWatch: An open-source, privacy-focused automated time tracker that logs how you spend your time on your computer.

Getting started

To begin using WhatPulse, the first step is to download and install the desktop client on your operating system. Once installed, you will need to create an account and log in. The client will then begin collecting data and synchronizing it with your online profile. For Premium users wanting to access their data programmatically via the API, the following example demonstrates a basic method to retrieve user statistics using a curl command-line tool, assuming you have obtained an API key from your WhatPulse account settings.

Before making API requests, ensure you have enabled API access and generated an API key within your WhatPulse profile settings. The API typically requires authentication using this key.

# Example: Retrieve your own statistics using the WhatPulse API (Premium feature)
# Replace YOUR_API_KEY and YOUR_USER_ID with your actual credentials.
# This example fetches general user statistics.

curl -X GET \
  "https://api.whatpulse.org/v1/user/YOUR_USER_ID/stats?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

# Expected JSON response snippet (actual response will be much larger):
# {
#   "key_pulses": 12345678,
#   "mouse_clicks": 9876543,
#   "downloaded": 54321098765,
#   "uploaded": 12345678901,
#   "uptime": 87654321,
#   "applications": [...],
#   "countries_pulsed": [...]
# }

This command sends a GET request to the specified API endpoint, including your user ID and API key. The -H "Accept: application/json" header requests the response in JSON format. The returned data will contain various statistics about your activity, which can then be parsed and used in custom applications or scripts. For detailed API documentation, premium users should consult the WhatPulse help documentation on API usage.