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10 Best Employee Monitoring Software of 2023

The Best Employee Monitoring Software Shortlist

After careful evaluation, here’s my list of the best employee monitoring software to track employee activity, with detailed summaries below:

  1. 1. Insightful — Time-tracking software for monitoring the time employees spend productively on their workstations
  2. 2. Connecteam — Employee monitoring software with online forms and checklists app for a deskless workforce
  3. 3. Veriato — Best for protecting sensitive information and preventing data breaches
  4. 4. Clockify — Employee monitoring software with a calendar for visually tracking time and logging activities.
  5. 5. ActivTrak — Employee monitoring software that can help leaders coach their team members
  6. 6. Hubstaff — Employee monitoring software for generating reports to identify trends and aid in decision making
  7. 7. Kickidler — Employee monitoring software that can help companies prevent sensitive information from leaking
  8. 8. Teramind — Employee monitoring software with insider threat detection feature to protect your company and its clients
  9. 9. Monitask — Employee monitoring software that can help you analyze employees’ computer usage to improve productivity
  10. 10. CleverControl — Employee monitoring software with on-cloud solution for screen-recording, webcam-recording, and call-recording

Employees are the backbone of your company, and their collective productivity will have a big impact on your company's success. That's where employee monitoring software can add a lot of value. It'll simplify the employee tracking process no matter if your employees work from home or from the office. Either way, you can rest easy and let these employee monitoring tools collect the data you're craving on your behalf.

For this article, I've summarized the best employee monitoring software on the market today. I've explained each system's key features and why I added them to my list. Using one of these systems, you'll be able to get your peace of mind back and stop wondering how hard your employees are (or aren't) working. If you need to take corrective actions, you'll have all the data you need to back up your decision.

What is Employee Monitoring Software?

Employee monitoring software is a type of software that monitors computer-based employee activities. They run in the background on employee computers and produce data-rich reports that are easy to understand for managers. Key details they track include keystroke logging, active vs. passive time, emails, websites visited, and any apps used. More advanced features include periodic screen captures and file activity monitoring. Their main purpose is to summarize employee productivity to spot any potential issues, such as time theft. They can also help to detect potential security issues such as excessive file downloading or printing too.

Overviews of the 10 Best Employee Monitoring Software

Here’s a brief description of each employee monitoring software solution that highlights what each system does best. I've also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of their user interface too.

1

Insightful

Time-tracking software for monitoring the time employees spend productively on their workstations

Insightful is a workforce analytics software with time tracking and employee monitoring features. Insightful lets you track time using employee computer activity to help eliminate manual time-tracking issues like buddy punching. It has a stealth mode that lets you inside employee workstations undetected so you can investigate suspicious activities.

Insightful has a productivity labeling feature that tags unproductive websites and applications so you know which websites to monitor.

Understanding how employees spend their time can help you implement plans to help boost productivity, and Insightful can help you with its apps and website monitoring feature. You can see which apps employees use the most to determine if these apps drive productivity or act as a source of distraction.

Insightful lets you capture random screenshots of your employees’ workstations to help deter employees from accessing personal websites. The software also records activity logs so you can assess what drives idle time among employees.

If you want to make well-informed decisions to boost productivity, provide excellent training and create detailed and objective employee performance evaluations, Insightful is the best solution for you.

Insightful pricing starts at $8/employee/month, and they offer a free 7-day trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.8 95

7-day free trial

From $8/employee/month

2

Connecteam

Employee monitoring software with online forms and checklists app for a deskless workforce

Connecteam is an employee productivity software with a host of employee monitoring tools like real-time time tracking and an absence management feature. You can use it to schedule shifts and dispatch jobs, ensuring that all projects have enough human resources for faster completion. It has communication tools allowing you to send announcements, newsletters, and updates to keep all employees in the loop regarding recent company news and updates.

Connecteam is the best employee monitoring software if you want online forms to monitor employee productivity while they work offsite. Connecteam allows you to easily customize online forms so you can create forms depending on your company’s particular requirements. Its mobile app empowers field managers to review forms, track completion rates, and share critical files with team members and shareholders.

Connecteam has a free version for up to 50 users, while the paid version starts at $39/license/month for up to 50 users plus $0.50/month/additional user.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.3 34

Free plan available

From $29/month (30 users)

3

Veriato

Best for protecting sensitive information and preventing data breaches

Veriato is a workforce behavior analytics company that helps organizations monitor and analyze employee activity on computers, laptops, and mobile devices. Their user-friendly interface is easy to set up and customize, and they offer an extensive range of features, including activity logging, screenshot capturing, keystroke logging, web activity monitoring, and linguistic sentiment analysis.

One feature that really stood out to me is Veriato's AI-powered intelligent alert system. It can identify unusual behavior patterns in your employees' activities, such as excessive web browsing or heavy amounts of downloading, and send an instant alert to the relevant authority for further investigation. This helps businesses protect their sensitive information and prevent possible data breaches, making them an excellent choice for any organization with concerns about their proprietary information.

Another feature that sets Veriato apart from other tools in the employee monitoring space is its comprehensive reporting system. Admin users can generate detailed reports covering employee productivity, internet usage, application usage, active vs. idle time, and other relevant metrics. You can also configure the reports to generate automatically, at a frequency of your choosing (either daily, weekly, or monthly) covering specific individuals, teams, departments, or across your entire organization. All combined, these features can help you gain insights into how your team is working and identify any areas for improvement or process optimization.

Integrations are available with third-party applications by connecting Veriato to a paid Zapier account.

Pricing for Veriato starts at $25/user/month. You can also request a free demo through their website.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.3 8

Free demo available

From $25/user/month

4

Clockify

Employee monitoring software with a calendar for visually tracking time and logging activities.

Clockify is an employee monitoring software with a wide array of tools to help you ensure employee productivity, like time tracking and timesheet monitoring functionalities. It has an intuitive dashboard enabling leaders to break down what team members are working on and monitor project completion. You can also use Clockify to generate productivity reports and share them with team members and shareholders for use in informed decision-making.

If you want an employee monitoring software to help employees become productive by managing their activities through a calendar feature, then Clockify is the best software for you. You can check employee calendars to ensure they spend their schedules on business-related matters. Clockify lets you compare an employee’s actual activities to their scheduled activities ensuring they are doing exactly what they should be doing and not spending time on unscheduled and unproductive activities.

Clockify integrates with other productivity tools like Google Calendar, Zendesk, Google Docs, Wrike, Basecamp, Gitlab, etc.

Clockify costs from $4.99/user/month and offers a 7-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 118

7-day free trial + freemium plan available

From $4.99/user/month

5

ActivTrak

Employee monitoring software that can help leaders coach their team members

ActiveTrak is an employee monitoring software with informative dashboards providing you with a detailed summary of workforce performance and productivity trends. You can use ActiveTrak to set workforce productivity benchmarks and track your team’s progress towards achieving their goals. ActivTrak allows you to monitor real-time user activity, enabling you to check on employees without interrupting them.

ActivTrak is an excellent employee monitoring software if you want assistance in coaching team members because of its weekly coaching summaries. You can use the weekly coaching summary as a reference for one-on-one coaching sessions to focus on the areas where individual team members are struggling. The weekly coaching summaries can also allow you to monitor the progress of employees to gauge the effectiveness of action plans and revise them as needed.

ActiveTrak integrates with productivity tools including Xero, Salesforce, Zapier, and others.

ActivTrak has a free account for up to 3 users, while the pricing of its paid version starts at $10/user/month. They also offer a 14-day free trial too.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 266

14-day free trial + freemium plan available

From $10/user/month

6

Hubstaff

Employee monitoring software for generating reports to identify trends and aid in decision making

Hubstaff is an employee management system with time tracking, payroll management, invoicing, and task management tools to help you run your company. You can use Hubstaff to monitor employee screens and track apps and websites usage, ensuring employees concentrate on their designated tasks. Hubstaff enables you to monitor employees' productive and idle times to help you increase productivity.

Hubstaff is the best employee monitoring software if you want detailed reports on how your employees work and how they spend their time, letting you gauge their productivity. With the help of detailed productivity reports, you can identify project and workplace bottlenecks so you can improve workflow and increase profits. You can also use Hubstafff reports to monitor if employees are meeting work metrics and goals so you can initiate coaching and training sessions to help employees improve.

Hubstaff integrates with productivity tools like Jira, Slack, QuickBooks, Salesforce, TransferWise, etc.

Hubstaff pricing starts at $7/user/month, and they offer a 14-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.3 392

14-day free trial

From $7/user/month

7

Kickidler

Employee monitoring software that can help companies prevent sensitive information from leaking

Kickidler is an employee monitoring software equipped with productivity tools to help companies control personnel and improve workplace efficiency. Supervisors can use Kickidler to visually assess what employees are doing without interrupting their work. Kickidler also allows supervisors and HR officers to automatically generate reports and timesheets to make tracking work hours more efficient.

Kickidler is the best employee monitoring software to protect your company and clients because it has a violation monitoring feature. It can detect work schedule violations ensuring that your company delivers service level agreements to clients. Kickidler also records the entire history of computer activities of employees to help prevent employees from committing illegal acts.

Kickidler cost starts at $3.67/user/month, and they offer a 14-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 16

14 days free trial

From $3.67/user/month

8

Teramind

Employee monitoring software with insider threat detection feature to protect your company and its clients

Teramind is an employee monitoring and data loss prevention software with activity and computer monitoring features that allow you to track user activity on apps, programs, websites, emails, instant messaging, etc. Its keystroke monitoring feature tracks, captures, and records keystrokes and provides business owners insight into their employees’ productivity and attitude. Teramind has a remote desktop control feature you can use to take control of an employee’s desktop or laptop to prevent illegal activities immediately.

If you want an employee monitoring software to help you protect your company and its clients, then Teramind is your best option because of its insider threat prevention functionality. It can help increase your company’s data security by identifying and protecting sensitive information, ensuring data loss prevention. You can use Teramind’s user behavior analytics to detect malicious activity and behavior deviations, helping you closely monitor suspected employees.

Teramind pricing starts at $15/user/month, and they offer a 3-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4 33

3-day free trial

From $15/user/month

9

Monitask

Employee monitoring software that can help you analyze employees’ computer usage to improve productivity

Monitask is a productivity monitoring software that can help you track employee performance to help drive productivity levels. It has task and project management capabilities to ensure projects get delivered on time and within budget. Monitask has a time-tracking feature you can use to analyze which tasks are taking longer to complete and implement plans that can make them simpler and easier to accomplish.

Monitask is the best employee monitoring software to check how employees use their computers during work hours because it gives you a breakdown of the websites and applications they use. If an employee’s productivity drops, you can check the said employee’s computer usage to determine where unproductive hours get spent, like social media sites. In addition, it has a screen capture feature that takes random screenshots to help employees on their toes and discourage them from accessing non-business-related sites and apps.

Monitask integrates with other tools like Trello, Asana, Jira, ClickUp, and Slack.

Monitask pricing starts at $5.99/user/month, and they offer a 10-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 10

10-day free trial

From $5.99/user/month

10

CleverControl

Employee monitoring software with on-cloud solution for screen-recording, webcam-recording, and call-recording

CleverControl is a cloud-based employee monitoring solution for small and medium-sized businesses. Some of its standout features include an iPhone app, messenger tracking, website blocking, activity reporting, printer task tracking, and live monitor viewing.

CleverControl provides information about the employees activity and facilitates an easy and visual reporting experience so you can analyze details like active time, most used applications and websites, as well as remote monitoring. CleverControl also comes with features such as continuous screen recording, webcam recording and call recording. You can also monitor running applications, Internet searches and site visits, as well as social networking activities.

This program allows you to monitor in real time on multiple screens on monitored PCs simultaneously.

CleverControl costs from $4.70/device/month and offers a 5-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
5 2

5 days free trial

From $4.70 USD/device/month

Need Expert Help Selecting The Right Employee Monitoring Software?

We’ve joined up with Crozdesk.com to give all our readers (yes, you!) access to Crozdesk’s software advisors. Just use the form below to share your needs, and they will contact you at no cost or commitment. You will then be matched and connected to a shortlist of vendors that best fit your company, and you can access exclusive software discounts!

The 10 Best Employee Monitoring Software Comparison Chart

Here’s a comparison chart that summarizes basic details about each of my top employee monitoring software selections. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best software for your budget and business needs.

Tool Free Option Price
1
Insightful

Time-tracking software for monitoring the time employees spend productively on their workstations

7-day free trial

From $8/employee/month Visit Website
2
Connecteam

Employee monitoring software with online forms and checklists app for a deskless workforce

Free plan available

From $29/month (30 users) Visit Website
3
Veriato

Best for protecting sensitive information and preventing data breaches

Free demo available

From $25/user/month Visit Website
4
Clockify

Employee monitoring software with a calendar for visually tracking time and logging activities.

7-day free trial + freemium plan available

From $4.99/user/month Visit Website
5
ActivTrak

Employee monitoring software that can help leaders coach their team members

14-day free trial + freemium plan available

From $10/user/month Visit Website
6
Hubstaff

Employee monitoring software for generating reports to identify trends and aid in decision making

14-day free trial

From $7/user/month Visit Website
7
Kickidler

Employee monitoring software that can help companies prevent sensitive information from leaking

14 days free trial

From $3.67/user/month Visit Website
8
Teramind

Employee monitoring software with insider threat detection feature to protect your company and its clients

3-day free trial

From $15/user/month Visit Website
9
Monitask

Employee monitoring software that can help you analyze employees’ computer usage to improve productivity

10-day free trial

From $5.99/user/month Visit Website
10
CleverControl

Employee monitoring software with on-cloud solution for screen-recording, webcam-recording, and call-recording

5 days free trial

From $4.70 USD/device/month Visit Website

Other Employee Tracking Tools

Here are a few more worthwhile employee monitoring systems that didn’t make it into my top 10 list. If you want a few more options to choose from, definitely check these out too:

  1. TimeDoctor

    Employee monitoring software that can help automate time and attendance management

  2. ControlUp

    Employee monitoring application for observing, analyzing, and optimizing the employee experience

  3. Vericlock

    Employee tracking software to help you manage employee locations

  4. BambooHR

    Employee monitoring software that can help automate time and attendance management

  5. timeBro

    Software that automatically captures work hours and allocates them to projects to enhance productivity

  6. DeskTime

    Time tracking service that analyzes how employees use applications and programs to optimize productivity

  7. monday.com

    Cloud-based work management platform for managing projects, tasks, and employee productivity

  8. Ekran System

    Identity and access management platform for incident response and employee activity audits

  9. FocusRO

    Employee monitoring platform that uses algorithms to detect and manage employee productivity

  10. Work Examiner

    Time-tracking solution for managing staff work time and productivity

Selection Criteria for Employee Monitoring Software

Wondering how I selected the best employee monitoring software for this list? I'm happy to explain my methodology. I drew on my years of experience monitoring employee time tracking data, as well as my experience as a remote worker being tracked, to really grasp the features that made these systems stand out.

Here's a summary of the main details I assessed to create this list:

Core Functionalities

Each time I dive into creating a new top 10 list, I always determine the core features I need to check first, to ensure nothing crucial is missed. As I set about evaluating and comparing a wide range of popular employee monitoring systems, these are the basic functionalities each system had to include in order to make it into my final selections:

  • The ability to track employee activity in a granular and customizable way
  • Integrated productivity reports and analytics that aggregate the data details into easy-to-understand formats (i.e., graphs and other visuals) to help with decision-making

Key Features

In addition to the basic functions above, I also assessed the following key features to see how each employee monitoring solution compared to the next one:

  • Employee time tracking: An automatic time tracking feature records what time employees clock-in and clock-out to produce an accurate record of their work hours. This helps prevent time theft, where an employee claims to work a certain number of hours, yet their computer activity says otherwise.
  • Detailed activity breakdowns: I sought out systems that go beyond just active vs. passive computer time. Instead, the best systems allow you to monitor more details, such ash the apps, software programs, and specific websites employees access while using their workstations.
  • User behavior analytics: This feature automatically analyzes employee behavior to detect anything suspicious and prevent possible security threats. If any suspicious activities are identified, the system should support automated notifications to your designated internal contact (e.g., IT, leadership team, etc.).
  • Screen capture: Not all systems include this, and I do think you have to be careful not to infringe on your employee's privacy. However, the ability to take occasional screenshots of an employee's desktop to confirm what they're working on is a common feature in employee monitoring tools.
  • Data loss prevention tools: This covers any features to help you keep your sensitive information secure to prevent data leaks and insider trading threats. They include flags for potentially suspicious activities such as accessing or downloading classified files, deleting items, or excessive printing of documents.
  • Remote desktop control: This feature allows managers or IT personnel to remotely take control of an employee's workstation to prevent illegal activities (e.g., accessing or downloading restricted files, deleting items, and printing or emailing sensitive documents).

Usability

I prioritized systems that offered a clean and uncluttered user interface (UI) and appeared easy to implement and use. When assessing software for this list, I paid close attention to the details of their UI, including how their menus were organized, as well as how their data was displayed in their reports and analytics (both their dashboards and reports).

Software Integrations

To help you get the best return on your investment, I selected employee monitoring software that integrates with other key systems you're likely already using. That includes other tools for productivity tracking and task-tracking, as well as project management software if you're organization is project-driven.

Pricing

I always try my best to select software systems that offer clear and transparent pricing models upfront. That way, you'll know right away whether any given system works for your budget or not. Employee monitoring software is available under a SaaS (software-as-a-service) agreement model, meaning you'll pay a monthly fee based on the number of users (employees) you have. The general price range you can expect is between $4 to $25 per user, per month.

Related Read: What Is Employee Monitoring?

Conclusion

Employee productivity is a huge factor in a company's success. According to a report by Atlassian, an average employee spends just around 60% or less of their work time being productive. That translates to more than half of their time wasted or spent on trivial matters.

With the help of the best employee monitoring software, you can cut down on unproductive hours and ensure that projects get completed on time. By doing so, you'll help your employees realize their full potential, while also ensuring greater organizational success.

If you want to learn about other software that can help your company grow, then subscribe to People Managing People to hear about the latest productivity apps and tools your company can benefit from.

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By Kim Behnke

Kim Behnke is an HR Tool Expert & Writer for People Managing People. She draws on her 9 years of human resources experience and her keen eye for systematic processes to support her analyses of the top HR tools on the market. She is passionate about maximizing efficiencies and streamlining workflows to ensure internal systems run smoothly. Kim's HR experience includes recruitment, onboarding, performance management, training and development, policy development and enforcement, and HR analytics. She also has degrees in psychology, writing, publishing, and technical communication. When away from her desk, she can usually be found outside tending to her ever-expanding garden.