The Best Employee Tracking Software in 2024 | Monitor Your Remote Staff

With the best employee tracking software, you’ll have time-tracking tools, productivity reports, and more, such as employee email monitoring capabilities and insight into employee internet usage. Besides productivity tracking, these tools are a must-have to spot suspicious activity to safeguard your business’ confidential information.

However, as a business owner with ample options, finding the best employee monitoring tool for your company is hard work. In this post, we delve into the market’s top 10 employee monitoring software to help you find one best suited for you. From the almighty Teramind to ActivTrak and HubStaff, read on to learn what each one has to offer you.

The Best Employee Monitoring Software 2024 | Quick Answer

With various types of employee monitoring and a boatload of options (including ample scams), finding the best tool for monitoring employee activity is hard. Our research found Teramind the best for employee monitoring in the workplace, but here’s a quick rundown of our top picks:

1. Teramind — Overall, the Market’s Best Employee Monitoring Tool for Productivity, Security, and Compliance. Try it now with the 7 or 14-Day Free Trial.
2. ActivTrak — Best Free Employee Monitoring Software for Privacy-Conscious Businesses. Offers a Limited Free Plan + 14-Day Free Trial.
3. HubStaff — Leading Remote Employee Monitoring Software for Small Businesses + Offers a Limited Free Plan and a 2-Week-Long Trial.
4. StaffCop — Best Enterprise Solution for Employee Monitoring in the Workplace. You Can Trial it for Free for a Full 15 Days.
5. Controlio — Powerful Employee Monitoring Software for Mac and Windows + Has a 14-Day Free Trial You Can Check Out.
6. mSpy — The Best Small Business Mobile Tracker for Company Phones. Has a Solid 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee and a Live Demo.
7. EyeZy — One of the Top Monitoring Solutions for Mobile Devices. Test it Now For Free for 3 Days.
8. uMobix — Leading App for Monitoring Employee Activities on Mobile. Take Advantage of the 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
9. Cocospy — Popular Employee Tracking Software for Mobile Devices. Check Out the Demo or Trial it for a Day for $1.
10. Spyic — Top Employee Monitoring Solution for Tracking Multiple Devices on 1 Subscription + Offers a Generous 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee.

Eager to learn more about the market’s top 10 employee monitoring software? Read on for all the nitty-gritty details.

The Best Employee Tracking Software 2024 | In-Depth Reviews

From the world-class Teramind to the popular Spyic, our reviews will give you the details you need to make an informed decision on the best employee monitoring software for your business. Ready?

1. Teramind — Overall, the Market’s Best Employee Monitoring Tool for Productivity, Security, and Compliance

Teramind is the go-to employee monitoring solution for businesses of all sizes — whether you need employee tracking for in-office, hybrid, or remote setups, it doesn’t get any better than Teramind.

With phenomenal employee productivity tracking to easy compliance management, Teramind gives you the insight you need to make informed business decisions, streamline your processes, and avoid costly incidents of data insecurities and non-compliance.

You can block certain activities altogether or label apps and websites as productive or unproductive. On top of this, you can also set up idle time alerts and send messages to employees to boost productivity.

With screen recording, app, web, and email monitoring, you’ll get a complete overview of all activity to see where and how your employees spend their time, plus have evidence for audits in the event of non-compliance or violations.

To do this, Teramind has an OCR system (Optical Character Recognition) that detects suspicious activity and gives you real-time threat alerts. Along with this, you also have a host of remote access-blocking capabilities to minimize damage.

Time tracking, productivity analysis, active vs idle time insights, a policy manager, a visual rule editor, and the option to record the activity only during a violation — Teramind is the employee monitoring powerhouse that every business needs.

2. ActivTrak — Best Free Employee Monitoring Software for Privacy-Conscious Businesses

ActivTrak has over 550,000 free users and 9,000+ mid-sized business customers, and for good reason — unlike most, this tool focuses on insight as opposed to surveillance, making it ideal for businesses that prioritize transparency and employee privacy.

From daily to long-term productivity trend analysis, time tracking tools, and in-depth reports, ActivTrak lets businesses stay on top of their employee activities to optimize processes, improve employee happiness, and balance workload to minimize the risk of burnout.

You’ll be able to make agile decisions on coaching opportunities, drive employee engagement, and make wise calls on project uptake based on resource availability.

On top of this, ActivTrak also lets you safeguard customer and employee data with employee compliance reminders, plus you can set up real-time alerts on any suspicious activity across channels like Slack and MS Teams.

From employee time tracking to distraction analysis, insight into the apps and websites used, plus timed screenshots, you’ll have the means to improve employee accountability, optimize processes, and pinpoint any compliance risks.

With a boatload of integration support and a generous free plan for up to 3 users, ActivTrak is certainly worthy of exploring, particularly for mid-market businesses.

3. HubStaff — Leading Remote Employee Monitoring Software for Small Businesses

HubStaff is a popular time, workforce, and project management solution that’s perfect for monitoring field and remote teams. It boasts a powerful GPS and time tracker, plus some unique nice-to-have features.

Unlike most, the time tracking tools are also compatible with mobile devices, but what we find most impressive is the automation — not only do timesheets and built-in payroll solutions save you the hassle and cost of integration, but the time savings are invaluable.

On top of this, HubStaff also lets you monitor employee productivity with detailed reports to learn where your company’s resources are going, including insight into the websites and apps frequented by your employees.

There’s an optional screenshot feature too, plus a unique keylogger, that differs from other keylogger apps as it tracks the frequency of mouse and keyboard activity as opposed to sensitive data.

On the whole, HubStaff lets you establish accountability, monitor employee productivity, automate tedious admin tasks, and prioritize important work — it would be a crime not to feature it among our top 3.

4. StaffCop — Best Enterprise Solution for Employee Monitoring in the Workplace

StaffCop holds the key to tracking thousands of employees on one account and it boasts industry-leading security — making it by far one of the best employee monitoring software tools on the market for large businesses.

What stands out most about StaffCop’s security is its insider threat detection and prevention. You’ll have real-time risk identification and alerts, plus automated employee notifications for non-compliant actions — StaffCop has your every security need handled.

On top of the behaviour-based threat analysis, StaffCop’s monitoring ensures you capture violations as they happen (by screen recording each session and tapping into the device’s microphone) for audit trails of the event.

This, combined with StaffCop’s other features, helps you safeguard your business’s sensitive data and reputation, and enhance employee productivity.

You can even customize employee activity reports, see social media, app, and website use, the time dedicated to each project, and more for complete control and transparency.

What’s most impressive about StaffCop is the screenshot customization. You can specify capture intervals or create unique rules, such as screen grabbing when an employee opens a new tab.

Unfortunately, the biggest downfall is that there’s no cloud-based installation, which makes StaffCop a phenomenal on-premise solution, but not so great for remote setups.

5. Controlio — Powerful Employee Monitoring Software Mac and Windows

Controlio is a scalable cloud monitoring tool for businesses of all sizes looking for a reliable, real-time surveillance solution to track employee productivity and manage workplace rules.

You can track the time spent on apps and websites and view a log of history across the board, plus block access or set up alerts for when employees use certain apps or websites.

In fact, as with the best spy apps, you can also set custom keyword alerts to receive notifications if employees use certain words in searches, conversations, or otherwise to pick up derogatory terms, competitor interest, etc.

Besides all this, Controlio also offers continuous screen recording or you can set when you’d like the recording to begin. For example, if an employee inserts a USB, you can set how long the screen recorder is active following this action.

You can also monitor idle and active performance and even get productivity scores for individuals or whole departments to identify and improve workflow bottlenecks.

With employee activity and attendance tracking, access controls, and real-time alerts, together with powerful encryption that’s common with the best VPN apps, Controlio is a noteworthy option on our list.

6. mSpy — The Best Small Business Mobile Tracker for Company Phones

mSpy is by far one of the best spy apps for Android and iOS, so if you’re looking to monitor employee mobile devices, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better solution.

With GPS location tracking, you can see where they’ve been, which is great if you have employees that are often on the move — giving you, the business owner, the means to monitor business travel expenses and even compensation.

This, paired with mSpy’s other features, makes it a top employee remote monitoring software and a solid choice for managing field workers that spend considerable time out of the office.

For example, it’s phenomenal for monitoring employee internet usage and for gaining insight into how they’re spending their work hours.

From screen recording to employee email monitoring, call, and text tracking, mSpy gives you detailed reports on the device’s activity to ensure they use work devices as intended and to protect your business data from insider threats.

Besides video recordings, mSpy lets you block certain apps and websites from work devices, plus you get one of the best keyloggers for Android and iOS for real-time insight into what’s typed, as well as custom keyword alerts to spot prohibited or suspicious activity.

7. EyeZy — One of the Top Monitoring Solutions for Mobile Devices

EyeZy is one of the best parental control apps, and because it’s jam-packed with tracking tools, it’s also ideal for small businesses too, particularly those managing remote workers.

As one of the best keyloggers for iOS and Android, monitoring employee activity on work mobile devices doesn’t get any easier than with EyeZy — searches, chats, you name it, you’ll know whether your employees are using work devices for work.

Of course, as with all the best employee monitoring software, you can set up keyword alerts to ensure you spot suspicious activity before it becomes a big issue, plus you can even view deleted messages and monitor their GPS location movements.

On top of this, EyeZy also offers screen recording and grabbing to help you track idle time vs active productivity, and you have the means to block or restrict access to certain apps and websites, plus monitor the time spent on certain activities.

This is handy for monitoring employee internet usage and encouraging workers to use work devices solely for work activities.

On the whole, EyeZy’s mobile tracker is a powerhouse for remote employee monitoring and it’s kitted to give you peace of mind that employees are taking their work seriously and that no suspicious activity is taking place.

8. uMobix — Leading App for Monitoring Employee Activities on Mobile

uMobix boasting over 30 valuable monitoring features makes it a fantastic option for businesses looking to monitor work mobile devices.

It gives you full control over what apps and websites you’ll permit access to, but on top of this, you can even restrict calls and messages if you don’t want them using the devices for this or monitor how long they’re spending calling or texting.

If you choose not to block things like social media apps, you can set up alerts for when they’re online to monitor their productivity time vs. idle time.

To sweeten the deal, uMobix also lets you view deleted messages, plus their keylogger picks up text inputted in incognito browser searches as well as copied and pasted content.

As one of the best iPhone spy apps and a leader for Android monitoring too, you can also monitor group chats and access the microphone and camera remotely (or block access to the device in case of emergency breaches)!

Everything a business would need insight into, uMobix shows you — whether you want to record their browser usage or know how long they’re spending on each app, your dashboard holds all the answers.

9. Cocospy — Popular Employee Tracking Software for Mobile Devices

Cocospy is one of the leading Android spy tools on the market — their keylogger, group chat monitoring capabilities, and overall social media and messaging tracking are nothing short of phenomenal.

Although not as feature-rich as others, Cocospy gives you all the must-haves to help you pinpoint if an employee is sabotaging your business or doing anything inappropriate on their work devices.

Besides being one of the best WhatsApp spy apps, Cocospy also lets you monitor apps like Skype, which is helpful if your business uses it for communication. Plus, location and call activity is also something you can track with ease.

Some of the most impressive offerings with Cocospy include that you can block apps and websites (or restrict access) and even monitor their work calendar events to minimize back-and-forth meeting arrangements.

From browser history insight to setting up geo-fencing alerts, you can keep an eye on your employees’ actions on their work devices and help improve productivity and minimize idle time.

10. Spyic — Top Employee Monitoring Solution for Tracking Multiple Devices on 1 Subscription

Spyic is certainly one of the best family tracking tools for monitoring multiple devices, and this also makes it a valuable addition to our list of the best tools for employee monitoring.

One of the standout features of this software is its ability to track SIM card locations. This is helpful in the event that work devices are stolen or SIM cards are changed.

On top of this, Spyic, as with Cocospy, truly shines in monitoring group chats and viewing in-depth call and message logs — allowing you to learn what’s said, the time that chats took place, along with the duration of calls.

This makes Spyic ideal for tracking field and remote employees — especially considering that you can also monitor GPS locations and set up geofencing alerts.

There’s more on offer with Spyic, such as the ability to view a full web history, including the sites your employees frequently visit with a mini description of the website.

Overall, Spyic is a solid solution for monitoring employees, and with the Business plan, you can track up to 25 devices for a total of $83.33/month with an annual subscription.

Comparing the Best Employee Tracking Software

Here’s a quick head-to-head comparison of the main details we’ve addressed in our reviews section:

What is Employee Monitoring Software? | Why is Employee Monitoring in the Workplace Important?

Monitoring software comes loaded with features that you can use for employee productivity monitoring and compliance. Here are some of the main reasons businesses use employee monitoring tools:

1. Increase Productivity

With the means to block, restrict, or monitor app and website usage, you’ll be able to get insight into employee productivity and idle time, plus control what employees can access on work devices.

This can help reduce time wasters and help you act on the time spent on non-valuable tasks to focus on promoting productivity.

With the best employee monitoring tools, like Teramind, you can restrict access to unproductive apps like social media platforms, pinpoint problem employees (or those who need more guidance), or simply get a clear idea of where your resources are going.

2. Streamline Processes

Every business has bottlenecks in its workflow, but not every business has the means to easily identify them — the best employee monitoring software gives businesses the insight they need to make crucial decisions.

This can be identifying tasks that are taking up too much time, pinpointing employees that are overworked, or gaining the data you need to help you better manage your resources to improve your workflow.

Decrease employee burnout. Improve workflow processes. Manage your resources better. The benefits of such insight to any business are near endless.

3. Threat Detection

Insider threats and the need to protect sensitive data are becoming a bigger issue with remote work, hiring contractors, and other instances that may put your company’s data and reputation at risk.

From employees copying files with external hard drives, using cloud storage to share confidential corporate files, or downloading and opening unknown email attachments, etc., businesses face risks of reputation, violations, and insider threats like these every day.

With the best employee monitoring solutions, you can set up alerts to warn employees of non-compliant actions, gain remote access to prevent further damage (by locking offending employees out of the system), and record violations for audit trails.

With technology that picks up suspicious activity, you can rest easy that no surprise attacks or regulatory compliance risks that can severely damage your business are on their way.

4. Improve Employee Time Management

Not only do these tools let you monitor clock-ins (and outs), and the time spent on certain projects, apps, or websites, but they can give you valuable information for productivity reports and help you improve employee attendance and accountability.

Time tracking is a must-have, not only for accurate timesheets and easy payroll management, but it also helps to spot time-sucking tasks that offer no value. This is particularly important if you’re managing remote teams.

5. Gain Valuable Insight

With detailed productivity reports to analyze productive and idle times, you can better understand how your team copes day-to-day, identify your top performers and those who need a little more guidance, and more.

Insight is something every business needs, and with video recording, keyloggers, screenshots, and more, you’ll have insight into where your resources are going, and of course, have the means to pick up suspicious activity before it’s too late.

How We Chose the Best Employee Monitoring Software

To ensure only the best of the bunch ended up on our top 10 list, these are some of the main evaluating factors we used:

1. Ease-of-Use and Setup

We took ease of use and setup into consideration with our top 10 employee monitoring software to ensure a hassle-free experience — each of these has a seamless setup process (apart from, unfortunately, StaffCop, which requires an on-premises setup.).

The rest take as little as 3-4 steps and offer ample customer support and documentation if you find yourself in a pickle.

Better yet, users praise these best employee monitoring tools for their ease of use — with the software handling all the complex stuff, and displaying it to you in a simple, easy-to-understand way with highly intuitive dashboards.

2. Monitoring Capabilities

Of course, one of the key factors we considered when compiling our list of the top employee monitoring software was their overall tracking capabilities and the value they provided to businesses of all sizes.

From screen recording, to time tracking and app and web monitoring, these 10 solutions offer the best suite of employee monitoring tools to meet every need.

3. Pricing

Different types of employee monitoring software can mean different pricing structures and options — we ensured that no matter the budget, you’d find a suitable fit for your needs here.

On top of this, we took into account any free trials, demos, and money-back guarantees which are always helpful when trialing software as important as this, risk-free, before you commit to a paid plan.

4. Compatibility

Whether you’re after employee monitoring software for Mac, Windows, or mobile devices, we were sure to include various options suitable for varying compatibility needs.

How to Get Set Up With the Best Employee Monitoring Tool

Getting set up with employee monitoring software like Teramind is a breeze — here’s all you need to do:

1. Sign Up and Create an Account

Sign up for Teramind‘s 7 (Cloud) or 14-day (On-Premise) free trial and choose your subscription plan:

2. Deploy the Server

This is an optional step if you opt for an on-premise or private cloud solution. If you use the Teramind cloud, this step isn’t for you as it’s fully managed by Teramind.

If you need help with getting your server set up, you’ll find handy guides on Teramind’s website.

3. Install the Agent

Here, you’ll install the Teramind Agent (you can choose the Visible or Stealth agent) onto the devices you wish to monitor. Alternatively, you can invite your employees to install it themselves.

Next, choose your installation process:

The advanced installation lets you hide that you’re monitoring the device. Decide whether you want a Revealed or Hidden Agent. Following your decision, you’ll see this:

Choose what device you’d like to install Teramind on and copy the URL, open it in your browser, and save the installer to a USB to plug it into the target device:

Alternatively, you can log into your Teramind account on the device you want to monitor to download it directly from your dashboard. You can also opt for an email to be sent to you for a detailed step-by-step guide for additional assistance on the installation process.

Employee Monitoring FAQs