Best Remote Employee Monitoring Software Shortlist
Here’s the shortlist of the best remote employee monitoring software systems that I’ll cover in this article, with detailed summaries below:
Remote employee monitoring software has gained a whole new level of importance in recent years. Now that virtual teams have become the norm rather than the exception, employers need better ways to manage worldwide teams effectively.
How can you ensure you’re getting the best from your remote teams? And how do you know employees are working productively and not slacking off? These are important questions and a number of cloud-based software tools have been developed to answer them.
In this article, I’m evaluating the best employee monitoring software on the market today. I’ll show you a range of available options, and the pros and cons associated with each tool. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to choose the tool that best suits your needs.
What is Remote Employee Monitoring Software?
Employee monitoring software is a type of tool that enables employers to track and monitor their employees' activities and behavior while working, usually in a remote or virtual environment. The resulting data can help increase productivity, ensure compliance, and prevent security breaches.
Overviews of the 10 Best Remote Employee Monitoring Software
Here’s a brief description of each remote employee monitoring software that showcases each system’s best use case, their noteworthy features, and some pros & cons. I’ve also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of their user interface too.
Teramind
Best for combining employee monitoring & security
Teramind offers remote work monitoring software that aims to increase both employee productivity and data security.
Why I picked Teramind: This software application visually records every action that remote users make, including contractors and third parties. You can track all activities, including those taken in custom apps, and configure rules and policies to collect data on any user action.
You can track all user activity while complying with any applicable employee privacy requirements. The software can monitor work done on local machines, remote domains, servers, or terminal servers. You can request a breakdown of work-related versus non-work related tasks, and get minute-to-minute trends graphs showing how much time is spent on specific projects.
Teramind Standout Features and Integrations
Features include smart rules, automated alerts, live view, historical playback, website monitoring, application monitoring, email monitoring, instant message monitoring, time-tracking tools, and social media monitoring.
Integrations include ArcSight ESM, IBM Security Jira, QRadar, Redmine, Splunk Enterprise, and Zendesk.
Pros
- Robust feature set
- Excellent tracking features
- Great user behavior analytics
Cons
- Minimum of 5 seats
- False positives with anti-virus software
Insightful
Best for employee productivity monitoring
Insightful helps you manage team members wherever they are, delivering actionable data insights into productivity and employee time management.
Why I picked Insightful: This tool offers comprehensive employee monitoring and computer activity tracking, showing you how employees and freelancers use time, apps, and websites. Periodic or rules-based screenshots provide proof that employees are doing their work as expected during the day. Employees work is automatically tracked based on activity.
You can add projects and tasks, assign employees, and ensure that work is being done. Precise project budgeting keeps your finances on track and eliminates guesswork. Project insight reports help you stay on top of progress and ensure that every second is counted.
Insightful Standout Features and Integrations
Features include employee monitoring, activity tracking, remote work management, automatic time tracking, automatic screenshots, verified attendance, proof of work, employee engagement, and project budgeting.
Integrations are possible through the Insightful developer portal and Insightful API.
Pros
- Easy to mark unproductive apps
- Light on system resources
- Works quietly in the background
Cons
- More integration options needed
- Limited number of screenshots
Veriato
Best for monitoring employees in regulated environments
Veriato is a workforce behavior analytics company that gives you the tools you need to manage remote or hybrid employee productivity.
Why I picked Veriato: Veriato helps you manage remote teams effectively, highlighting unproductive employees and optimizing efficiency across the team. The software is ideal for dealing with complex corporate and regulatory compliance requirements in industries such as healthcare, legal, and financial services.
Veriato makes it easier to run audits and stay compliant, with real-time alerts, customizable reporting, and dashboards. You can track how many minutes an employee’s computer was active or idle during the day, monitor chats, and take automatic screenshots. It’s also easy to set flexible start and finish times and decide when tracking starts or ends.
Veriato Standout Features and Integrations
Monitoring features include email & chat monitoring, web & app tracking, automatic screenshots, idle & active time-tracking, network activity, file & document tracking, fully-customizable settings, reports, an employee monitoring system, and real-time alerts.
Integrations with Veriato are available through Zapier.
Pros
- Comprehensive overview of activity
- Can be customized extensively
- Descriptive reporting
Cons
- Takes time to set up
- Needs better screenshot archives
DeskTime
Best for non-intrusive employee monitoring
Desktime helps small business owners manage remote employees by monitoring their performance with time-tracking software and providing detailed productivity reports.
Why I picked DeskTime: This app tracks employee activity automatically and calculates productivity. The URL and app tracking features show you exactly what websites, programs, and apps your employees use. These can be categorized as being productive or unproductive.
You can also see exactly which documents employees are working on. The integrated web time tracker measures time, projects, and tasks. A broken timer allows employees to take time off when permitted. A booking facility also allows people to book meeting rooms and other shared resources.
DeskTime Standout Features and Integrations
Features include automatic time-tracking, offline time tracking, private time options, document title tracking, a Pomodoro timer, custom reports, cost calculations, a mobile app, and shift scheduling.
Integrations include Asana, Basecamp, Google Calendar, GitLab, Jira, Outlook Calendar, and Trello.
Pros
- Easy to assess productivity
- Simple onboarding process
- Can be accessed from mobile devices
Cons
- Gap management could be improved
- Integrations need improvement
ActivTrak
Best for balancing employee productivity and well being
ActivTrak is an employee tracking tool that facilitates flexible schedules, ensures compliance, and promotes a healthy work balance for better long-term productivity.
Why I picked ActivTrak: Using ActivTrak, you gain visibility into digital work so you can balance productivity, flexibility, and employee well-being. The software analyzes daily work activity data, giving you insights into time and technology usage, resource gaps, and productivity trends.
You can measure daily work activity across hybrid and remote employees, and determine active or passive online status and current work focus. You can also categorize apps and websites by team, role, or job function to analyze usage. ActivTrak compares the habits of remote and in-office employees to understand productivity and process bottlenecks.
ActivTrak Standout Features and Integrations
Features include dashboards, productivity reports, location insights, impact analysis, application and website usage, workload management, productivity coaching, team summaries, and website blocking.
Integrations include Asana, Google Calendar, Jira, Lattice, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, Workday, and Zoom.
Pros
- Invisible to the user
- Compatible with anti-virus software
- Useful alarm feature
Cons
- No keystroke logging
- Historical records are clunky
Time Doctor
Best for employee monitoring software with extensive integrations
TimeDoctor gives you direct visibility into your team’s workflow and productivity, showing you the websites and apps used by each employee throughout the day.
Why I picked TimeDoctor: This app gives you actionable insights and information on employee performance trends designed to help you boost productivity. You can take screencasts of your employee’s screens at specified intervals and see which websites and apps they use the most.
Time Doctor also helps you generate accurate payroll information and process invoices. Thanks to integrations with a wide range of popular business applications, you can adapt TimeDoctor to suit your organization’s needs. Overall, you get a clear picture of how employees are performing, allowing you to optimize team productivity and efficiency.
TimeDoctor Standout Features and Integrations
Features include time-tracking, employee monitoring, online timesheets, payroll, project budgeting, distraction alerts, chat monitoring, offline time tracking, and email notifications.
Integrations include Asana, ClickUp, Evernote, HelpScout, Jira, Payoneer, PayPal, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Trello.
Pros
- Accurate time-tracking
- Improves billing
- Reduces wasted time
Cons
- Redundant notifications
- Occasional tracking glitches
Hubstaff
Best for real-time employee monitoring
Hubstaff offers a unique blend of time-tracking and employee-monitoring software so you can see how your team works in real-time.
Why I picked Hubstaff: You can use Hubstaff’s remote employee monitoring software to track your workforce’s time and generate accurate timesheets. You can also create automatic reminders to ensure that people don’t forget to track their time.
Website and app usage are directly measured by the software, giving you insights into potential distractions. You can also arrange automatic screenshots to keep track of user activity.
The software tracks keyboard and mouse activity, but never obtains sensitive data. Instead, it measures the frequency of activity.
Hubstaff Standout Features and Integrations
Features include time-tracking, online timesheets, time reports, timesheet approvals, screenshots, employee monitoring, and productivity tracking.
Integrations include ActiveCollab, Asana, Breeze, ClickUp, GitHub, GitLab, Insightly, Jira, Liquid Planner, and Mavenlink.
Pros
- Excellent idle time management
- Very customizable
- Lots of integrations
Cons
- Manual start for time-tracking
- Reporting can be confusing
EmailAnalytics
Best for improving email response time
EmailAnalytics gives you visibility into daily email activity and unlocks insights into how your team members respond to email inquiries.
Why I picked EmailAnalytics: This tool shows your sales team’s email activity in an email analytics dashboard, so you can see how many emails are sent and received each day. You get insights into how many people your team corresponds with and the number of spam complaints received. You can also drill down into any metric to get further information.
It’s easy to see who sends the most emails, which clients team members respond to, and the average response time for each recipient. You can also check how many unread emails are in each person’s inbox or how many are labeled ‘important.’ The system also analyzes emails by time of day, so you can see when people are most active.
EmailAnalytics Standout Features and Integrations
Features include emails sent & received, email traffic by day of the week, top senders & recipients, traffic by hour of the day, email response time, and team management.
Integrations include Gmail, HubSpot, and Outlook.
Pros
- No software to install
- Gives complete team reports
- Comprehensive email insights
Cons
- Only tracks email
- Designed for sales teams only
Monitask
Best for employee monitoring with customizable settings
Monitask offers employee monitoring for remote workplaces, including everything from automatic time-tracking to proof-of-work screenshots.
Why I picked Monitask: This app keeps a record of when home-based employees start work and when they finish. In addition, it monitors the work hours of remote employees and ensures they work their full shifts. The employee productivity tracking ensures that team members stay focused and avoid distractions.
Their employee monitoring solution also helps in ensuring the safety of sensitive data, especially when it is to be accessed outside the safe website. The system monitors if such sensitive data is being sent by email, uploaded to the cloud, or copied to an external USB device. Admins are alerted accordingly.
Monitask Standout Features and Integrations
Features include screenshot monitoring, a live dashboard, automatic time-tracking, productivity monitoring, app tracking, project management, and idle time removal.
Integrations include ActiveCollab, Active Directory, Acuity Scheduling, Basecamp, Box Time, ClickFunnels, ClickUp, Convertri, DeskTime, and Easy Projects.
Pros
- Easy to set up
- Offline time tracking
- Keeps everyone productive
Cons
- Huge number of integrations
- Limited history logs
InterGuard
Best for employee monitoring with proactive alerts
Interguard helps you monitor remote and work-from-home employees, keeping your business safe and productive wherever your team members are located.
Why I picked InterGuard: This software application will alert you if employees break rules, such as by exporting your customer list from your CRM. You can also go beyond monitoring and set up policies to block sensitive data from being sent by email, uploaded to the cloud, or copied to an external storage device. If employees are suspected of committing fraud or theft, you can lock down their computers remotely.
The software also monitors employee productivity to ensure you get the best value on your investment. It helps you eliminate distractions and keep projects on track. You can also track the time spent on a project and identify potential delays that slow work down.
InterGuard Standout Features and Integrations
Features include email monitoring, website blocking, chat monitoring, file tracking, screenshot taking, cell phone monitoring, keystroke logging, insider threat detection, and active time tracking.
Integrations are available through Zapier.
Pros
- Easy to set up
- Keyword capture
- Runs in the background
Cons
- Reports are not intuitive
- Dated interface
The 10 Best Remote Employee Monitoring Software Comparison Chart
Here’s a comparison chart that summarizes basic details about each of my top remote 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.
| Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Teramind Best for combining employee monitoring & security | 3-day free trial | From $15/user/month | Visit Website |
| 2 | Insightful Best for employee productivity monitoring | 7-day free trial | From $8/employee/month | Visit Website |
| 3 | Veriato Best for monitoring employees in regulated environments | Free demo available | From $25/user/month | Visit Website |
| 4 | DeskTime Best for non-intrusive employee monitoring | 14-day free trial | From $7/user/month | Visit Website |
| 5 | ActivTrak Best for balancing employee productivity and well being | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $10/user/month | Visit Website |
| 6 | Time Doctor Best for employee monitoring software with extensive integrations | 14 days free trial | From $7/user/month | Visit Website |
| 7 | Hubstaff Best for real-time employee monitoring | 14-day free trial | From $7/user/month | Visit Website |
| 8 | EmailAnalytics Best for improving email response time | 14 days free trial | From $15/user/month | Visit Website |
| 9 | Monitask Best for employee monitoring with customizable settings | 10-day free trial | From $5.99/user/month | Visit Website |
| 10 | InterGuard Best for employee monitoring with proactive alerts | Free demo available | From $25/user/month (5 user minimum) | Visit Website |
Other Options
Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the best remote employee monitoring software list:
- Controlio
Best for ensuring remote employee complianc
- iMonitor EAM
Best for employee monitoring with automatic backup
- Timely
Best remote employee monitoring software for background time tracking
- Kickidler
Best remote employee monitoring software for visual monitoring tools
- RescueTime
Best remote employee monitoring software for winning back unproductive time
- Ekran System
Best remote employee monitoring software for auditing employee activity
- CleverControl
Best remote employee monitoring software for tracking messenger communications
- ActiveOps WorkiQ
Best remote employee monitoring software for remote workforce intelligence
- ControlUp
Best remote employee monitoring software for digital work experience management
- WE Controlio
Best remote employee monitoring software for productivity analytics
Selection Criteria for the Best Remote Employee Monitoring Software
If you’re wondering how I selected the best remote employee monitoring software for this list, here’s some information on my methodology. To construct this top 10 list, I evaluated and compared a wide range of employee monitoring solutions with helpful features and positive user ratings.
After deciding on my long list of top choices, I further honed my list by using the selection criteria below. This helped me understand how each platform stacked up against the next one. I also drew on my years of remote working experience to pinpoint the features that add a lot of value.
Core Functionality
The main functionalities of an employee monitoring system will vary from one platform to another. Some track employee time while monitor employee work and others measure employee performance. I’ve explained the overall functionality of each tool in its overview.
Key Features
Here are some of the popular monitoring features I came across in my research:
- Time tracking: Employees can log their work hours using timesheets to clock in and out. Some software has automatic time tracking based on user activity.
- Productivity monitoring: Productivity tracking usually factors into account things like active and idle time and other behavior analytics.
- Keystroke logging: Some systems log every keystroke employees make. This gives employers a complete audit of employee messages, searches, and more.
- User activity monitoring: This might be monitoring specific computer activity like what apps, websites, and social media pages employees are visiting.
- Screen recording: Many platforms will record what employees do on their devices. Or, they’ll take periodic screenshots to keep records of computer activity.
- Reporting and analytics: Most remote employee monitoring software provides detailed reports on employee productivity, workloads, work time, and other key metrics.
- Security features: The software should have safeguards in place to keep sensitive information secure and maintain legality on employee privacy.
- Hybrid functionality: Some tools are set up to monitor both team members working from home as well as on-premise employees.
- Insider threat detection: If your company deals with a high level of sensitive information, the software may be able to detect and assess insider threat risks.
- Mobile app: Having the software installed on employee mobile devices can facilitate geofencing and tracking application usage.
Usability
Monitoring software for your remote workforce should be easy to set up and intuitive to use. I always take user-friendliness into account when assessing software solutions. You might be looking for something specifically for Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, or iOS devices. I’ve noted the software’s compatibility with different devices and operating systems in my overviews, too.
Integrations
Ideally, any new software will integrate well with your existing tech stack. Common integrations were with project management software and team productivity tools like Workday, Slack, and Asana. Many platforms also integrate with time tracking software, and some have an API you can use to build custom integrations as necessary.
Pricing
The cost of the remote employee monitoring tools on this list ranges from around $6 per employee per month up to $25 per employee per month. Generally, a higher pricing tier will get you access to more advanced features and productivity reports. Completely free plans don’t tend to be available, however many providers offer a free trial.
People Also Ask
People often ask me about the best way to manage remote teams and how to improve the employee experience. Here are answers to the most common questions:
What are the benefits of remote employee monitoring?
What are the risks of monitoring remote employees?
How can you detect employee monitoring software?
Does your employer have to tell you if your computer is being monitored?
Are there ways to trick employee monitoring software?
Build Stronger Teams
Using the recommendations in this article, you can build stronger remote teams that are both productive and efficient. If you’d like a few more options to consider, take a look at our list of the best employee monitoring software too.
We’ll bring you more articles on related topics soon, so be sure to sign up for our People Managing People newsletter. That way, we can keep you up-to-date with the latest news and insights regarding people management.
New technology is making it possible to build effective remote teams like never before. So be ready to take advantage of the opportunities to take your organization to the next level.