On this page
The best remote employee monitoring software for a distributed team is Insightful for productivity analytics, Hubstaff for time tracking with light activity and screenshot monitoring, and Teramind when the goal is protecting data rather than measuring output. All eight tools compared here track activity levels and app usage, and what separates them is whether they add screenshots, keystroke logging or data loss rules, at prices that currently run from free plans to $25 per user a month.
This page covers remote worker monitoring software in the proper sense: tools that show an employer how, when and on what a remote team is working, from activity levels to screen capture. Pure hours-and-timesheet tracking is a separate category, and the Hubstaff and Time Doctor entries below note where that line sits for teams whose main need is payroll data.
Every entry is judged on the same three criteria: what the tool actually tracks, the published price per user in USD on the vendor’s own pricing page, and its legal fit, meaning how well it supports the notice and consent duties that jurisdictions impose on employers. The comparison table gives the shortlist at a glance, the cost section works out what a 10-person remote team pays at current prices, and the laws section names the notice rules that change which tool fits.
Monitoring tools compared
| Tool | Best for | Starting price (USD) | What it tracks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insightful | Productivity analytics for distributed teams | $8 per user a month | Activity, app and URL usage, optional screenshots as a paid add-on |
| ActivTrak | Workforce analytics without keystroke logging | $10 per worker a month, free plan available | Activity, app and website usage, optional screenshots as a paid add-on |
| DeskTime | Automatic productivity tracking on a budget | $6.42 per user a month | App and document usage, automatic screenshots on the Premium plan |
| WorkTime | Non-invasive monitoring at a low price | $6.99 per employee a month, free plan available | App and website usage, screen productivity scores, optional keystroke counter |
| Hubstaff | Time tracking plus light activity monitoring | $4.99 per user a month, free plan available | Activity levels, screenshots, app and URL usage |
| Time Doctor | Detailed hours with screenshots and payroll | $6.67 per user a month | Activity, screenshots, app and website usage |
| Monitask | Screenshot-based monitoring for small teams | $7.99 per user a month | Screenshots, app usage, time against tasks |
| Teramind | Security-focused monitoring and data loss prevention | Does not publish standard pricing | Screen recording, keystroke logging, content-aware data loss rules |
Productivity analytics tools
These four employee productivity tracking software options measure how remote employees work from activity and app data, with screenshots either absent or an add-on, which suits employers who want numbers without screen-level surveillance.
Insightful
Best for: productivity analytics for distributed teams
Insightful turns app and URL usage into productivity analytics by employee, team and project, which suits distributed teams that want to see work patterns before deciding whether any visual monitoring is needed at all.
Workforce Analytics currently costs $8 per seat a month billed annually, the Workflow Optimization plan $12, and screenshots are a paid add-on rather than a base feature at $4 per seat a month for on-demand capture, on the Insightful pricing page.
Pros
- Productivity reports by employee, team and project
- Screenshots stay off unless the employer pays for the add-on
- Pricing published per seat with annual billing
Cons
- Screenshots cost extra on top of the base plan
- No published option for keystroke logging
- Add-ons stack quickly once screenshots and screen recording are both needed
ActivTrak
Best for: workforce analytics without keystroke logging
ActivTrak focuses on work activity analytics: app and website usage, productivity trends and how fully people’s time is used, without keystroke logging in any plan, which suits employers who want visibility for coaching rather than enforcement.
Work Activity Tracking currently starts at $10 per worker a month billed annually, Workforce Management costs $15 and Productivity Optimization $17, and there is a free plan with 30 days of data history, on the ActivTrak pricing page.
Pros
- Free plan with 30 days of data history
- Analytics built for coaching conversations about workload
- No keystroke logging anywhere in the product
Cons
- Screenshots and full URL visibility sit behind a separate Screen Details add-on
- Top plan at $17 per worker a month is the priciest published analytics rate here
- AI features add $4 per worker a month on the higher plans
DeskTime
Best for: automatic productivity tracking on a budget
DeskTime tracks time automatically and scores productivity from application and document usage, which suits small remote teams that want numbers without manual timesheets or a long rollout.
The Pro plan currently costs $6.42 per user a month billed annually, and Premium, which adds automatic screenshots, shift scheduling and integrations, costs $9.17, on the DeskTime pricing page.
Pros
- Lowest published analytics price of the four in this section
- Automatic tracking with no manual timesheet admin
- Screenshots available on the Premium plan
Cons
- No free plan, only a 14-day trial
- Screenshots require the higher Premium tier
- Only annual billing prices are shown on the pricing page
WorkTime
Best for: non-invasive monitoring at a low price
WorkTime is built for employers who want proof of productive work without capturing screens: it scores screen productivity from what is in use and measures application, website and attendance data instead.
Basic currently costs $6.99 per employee a month billed monthly, Premium $8.99 and Enterprise $10.99, and the free plan monitors up to 3 employees, on the WorkTime pricing page.
Pros
- Free plan covering up to 3 employees
- No screenshot capture, which lowers the notice and consent burden
- Optional keystroke counter is off by default and counts without recording content
Cons
- No screenshots at all for employers who want visual proof
- Free plan stops at 3 employees
- Screen productivity scores are estimates, not records of what was on screen
Screenshot monitoring tools
These three tools are the software to monitor remote employees with screenshots: each captures the remote screen at intervals, alongside activity levels and app data.
Hubstaff
Best for: time tracking plus light activity monitoring
Hubstaff pairs time tracking with activity levels based on keyboard and mouse input, screenshot capture and app and URL usage, which suits teams that pay or bill by the hour and want a light-touch view of remote work.
Starter currently costs $4.99 per seat a month billed annually ($7 on monthly billing), Grow $7.50 ($9 monthly) and Team $10 ($12 monthly), and there is a free plan with time tracking, limited screenshots and limited reports, on the Hubstaff pricing page.
Pros
- Lowest published starting price of the eight tools
- Free plan with time tracking and limited screenshots
- Screenshots, activity levels and app and URL usage in one product
Cons
- Activity levels only measure keyboard and mouse input
- Screenshot limits mean the cheap tiers show less than the Team plan
- Top plan reaches $25 per seat a month at the Enterprise tier
Time Doctor
Best for: detailed hours with screenshots and payroll
Time Doctor layers screenshot capture and website usage data over detailed time tracking with payroll exports, which suits teams that bill clients by the hour and want the monitoring view attached to what gets paid out.
Basic currently costs $6.67 per user a month on annual billing ($8 monthly), Standard $11.67 ($14 monthly) and Premium $16.70 ($20 monthly), on the Time Doctor pricing page.
There is no permanent free plan, only a two-week trial of the Premium features. Pure hours-and-timesheet tracking is a different category, and the best time tracking software for remote employees roundup compares those tools on timesheets and payroll exports rather than monitoring.
Pros
- Screenshots plus app and website usage alongside detailed time data
- Payroll integrations for teams that pay from the same data
- Annual billing takes two months off the yearly cost
Cons
- No free plan, only a two-week trial
- Video screen recording and other extras are $3 per user a month add-ons
- Premium tier at $20 per user a month costs more than most analytics plans here
Monitask
Best for: screenshot-based monitoring for small teams
Monitask is the simplest of the screenshot tools: it captures screenshots at intervals, tracks application usage and logs time against tasks, which suits small teams that want visual proof of work with almost no setup.
Pro currently costs $7.99 per user a month, Business $10.99, Business Premium $15.99 and Enterprise $19.99, with annual billing saving 18%, on the Monitask pricing page.
Pros
- Screenshot monitoring with minimal setup
- Time logged against individual tasks, with the time each one took
- Flat per-user pricing with a published plan for every tier
Cons
- No free plan, only a free trial
- Analytics are thinner than Insightful or ActivTrak
- No published keystroke logging or data loss features
High-security monitoring tools
When employee monitoring software serves data security rather than productivity, the shortlist narrows to tools built for insider risk.
Teramind
Best for: security-focused monitoring and data loss prevention
Teramind monitors for insider risk instead of output: screen recording, keystroke logging and content-aware rules that detect and block sensitive data leaving the company, which suits teams handling regulated, financial or valuable IP data.
Teramind does not publish standard pricing: its pricing page sells Starter, UAM and DLP plans through a seat-based calculator, with yearly billing saving 8% and a free trial on every plan.
Pros
- Content-aware data loss prevention with around 200 pre-packaged rules
- Keystroke logging, screen recording and full forensics for investigations
- Behavior rules tuned to insider risk rather than productivity
Cons
- No published prices, so budgeting needs a sales quote
- The most invasive option on this list, which raises the notice burden
- More tool than a team needs when the question is only activity data
Cost comparison
| Tool | Price per user (USD) | 10-user monthly total (USD) | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insightful | $8 a month, annual billing | $80 | No, 14-day trial |
| ActivTrak | $10 a month, annual billing | $100 | Yes, free plan |
| DeskTime | $6.42 a month, annual billing | $64.20 | No, 14-day trial |
| WorkTime | $6.99 a month, monthly billing | $69.90 | Yes, up to 3 employees |
| Hubstaff | $4.99 a month, annual billing | $49.90 | Yes, free plan |
| Time Doctor | $6.67 a month, annual billing | $66.70 | No, two-week trial |
| Monitask | $7.99 a month | $79.90 | No, free trial only |
| Teramind | Not published | Not published | No, free trial |
For a 10-person team the spread between the cheapest and priciest published plan is about $50 a month, and the differences that matter are what the base price includes and where each free tier stops. Hubstaff’s Starter rate is the lowest published price here, WorkTime’s free plan stops at 3 employees, and ActivTrak’s per-worker rate climbs to $17 a month on its top plan, so a 50-seat team pays $500 a month at its entry rate and up to $850 on Productivity Optimization. Teramind sits outside this table by design: security monitoring is quoted per deployment, so two teams of the same size can pay different amounts.
How to monitor remote employees
Tracking remote employees lands well when it starts with a decision about what you need to see, not with a tool switch-on. Four steps cover the rollout:
- Define what you track and the business reason for it. The tools above track remote employees at four levels: activity shows whether work is happening, app usage shows what the work runs on, screenshots show what is on screen, and keystroke logging shows what is typed, at the highest privacy cost of the four.
- Put the monitoring in writing in the HR policy for remote workers, naming the tools, the data each one collects and who can see it.
- Give the written notice your jurisdiction requires before monitoring starts. New York, Connecticut and Delaware each impose their own notice rules, set out in the next section, and several tools let you configure the employee-facing notice inside the app.
- Review the data with the employee, not about them. The point of monitoring remote employees is the conversation the data supports, and it reads best next to remote team KPIs that measure the outcomes the data cannot.
Monitoring laws by jurisdiction
Consent and notice, not silence, are the rules in almost every jurisdiction that regulates employee monitoring, and the details depend on where your employees work.
In the US, the federal baseline is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which permits monitoring with the consent of one party to the communication under 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d). States can add duties on top of that baseline.
New York employers must give written notice of electronic monitoring upon hiring to the employees it covers, under Civil Rights Law § 52-c, and the attorney general enforces violations.
Connecticut requires prior written notice of the types of electronic monitoring the employer may engage in, and posting a conspicuous notice satisfies the duty; monitoring that may produce evidence of illegal activity or other misconduct is exempt, under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-48d.
Delaware employers monitoring telephone, email or internet use must give daily electronic notice or a one-time notice the employee acknowledges, under 19 Del. C. § 705.
In the EU, the GDPR requires a lawful basis such as consent or legitimate interest before processing employee monitoring data, and member states can set their own employee data rules, per the European Commission’s data protection guidance.
In Canada, the federal PIPEDA governs employee data at federally regulated works and undertakings, with similar provincial laws elsewhere.
In Ontario, an employer that on January 1 employs 25 or more employees must put a written policy on electronic monitoring in place before March 1 of that year and give each employee a copy within 30 days, under section 41.1.1 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000.
Monitoring a personal device adds a second privacy layer, because BYOD versus company devices policies limit what an employer can touch on hardware the employee owns.
Scaling framework
The best employee monitoring software for a team changes with team size and data sensitivity, so each stage has a tier that fits.
Under 10 seats, the free and near-free tiers do most of the job: WorkTime’s free plan covers up to 3 employees, Hubstaff’s free plan adds limited screenshots, and DeskTime’s Pro at $6.42 per user is enough for teams that mainly need activity and app data.
Between 10 and 50 seats, analytics that coach rather than catch work better than raw screenshot feeds: Insightful at $8 and ActivTrak at $10 per seat a month give team-level trends, and Hubstaff’s Team plan at $10 suits teams whose pay depends on tracked hours.
Past 50 seats with sensitive data, the security tools earn their price: Teramind’s DLP plan with content-aware rules and forensics is quoted per deployment, and keystroke logging becomes defensible only with a written insider risk policy behind it.
Teams where pay drives the data rather than curiosity stay closest to Hubstaff and Time Doctor, and the crossover to pure time tracking arrives when screenshots stop informing anything and only hours and payroll exports matter.
Whatever the tool, monitoring works as one input into managing a remote team, not a replacement for it. The notice duties above also sit inside the wider employer responsibilities for remote employees, from payroll to data protection, and a monitoring rollout that ignores them costs more than the software saves.
FAQ
Insightful for productivity analytics, Hubstaff for light screenshot monitoring and Teramind for security are the strongest picks of the eight compared here. The right one for a given team depends on what it needs to see: analytics tools answer questions about how work happens, screenshot tools answer what is on screen, and security tools answer what is leaving the company.
Employers most commonly use activity and screenshot tools like Hubstaff, Time Doctor and Monitask, or analytics platforms like Insightful and ActivTrak, for day-to-day visibility. Teams with sensitive data use security products like Teramind for keystroke logging, screen recording and data loss prevention.
With monitoring software installed on the work device, run under a written policy and the written notice your employees’ jurisdictions require (New York, Connecticut and Delaware impose specific written notice duties), and reviewed with the employee rather than about them. The tools above track activity levels, app usage and screenshots from the work laptop or desktop; installing them on personal devices adds the privacy limits described in the laws section.
Yes. ActivTrak has a free plan with 30 days of data history, WorkTime’s free plan monitors up to 3 employees, and Hubstaff’s free plan includes time tracking with limited screenshots. The free tiers trade features for price, and none of the three suits a team that needs keystroke logging or data loss prevention.
Activity levels from keyboard and mouse input, active application and website usage, and periodic screenshots, with hours logged against tasks in most tools. Remote employee tracking data from an employee tracking app shows when and on what each person works, and most tools stop there. Security products like Teramind go further, adding keystroke logging and screen recording for insider risk cases.
Published prices for the eight tools compared here currently run from free plans to $25 per user a month, with paid plans starting between $4.99 (Hubstaff, annual billing) and $10 (ActivTrak) a user. That lands a 10-person team at roughly $50 to $100 a month on entry plans, while Teramind does not publish standard pricing and quotes per deployment.
