The 10 Best Employee Time Tracking Software for Windows in 2023 | Reviewed

The best employee time tracking software will help you with monitoring employee hours, internet, and device activity so that you only pay for legitimate billable time. Accurate time tracking will also improve your business’ productivity by giving you detailed insights into employee timesheets, including unproductive hours, overtime alerts, and sick time.

Finding the best employee time tracking system isn’t easy, considering how busy you might be as a business owner. In this guide, we rank 10 employee time trackers after reviewing them across parameters like pricing, ease of use, how insightful the data is, free trial/refund policy, and more. Read on to learn how software like Teramind, ActivTrak, and HubStaff can help you.

The Best Employee Time Trackers for Windows 2023 | Quick Answer

After thorough research, we found Teramind to be the best employee monitoring and time-tracking software. It has the most diverse feature set, including the most versatile video-capturing feature, plus low prices and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. See how it compares with other employee tracking software like ActivTrak and HubStaff:

1. Teramind — The Best Overall Employee Time Tracking Software in 2023. Put it to the Test With a 14-Day Free Trial + a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
2. ActivTrak — The Best Free Employee Monitoring Software for Beginners. Leverage ActivTrak’s Free Plan and the 14-Day Free Trial.
3. HubStaff — An Incredible Location-Based Employee Tracking Solution. Try it Now With the Free Plan and 14-Day Free Trial.
4. StaffCop — The Best Employee Time Tracking Software for Business Security and Data Confidentiality. See if it’s Your Cup of Tea With the Live Demo and 15-Day Free Trial.
5. Controlio — Popular Employee Monitoring App for Data Organization. Try it Risk-Free With the Live Demo and 14-Day Free Trial.
6. mSpy — The Best Employee Monitoring Solution for Small Businesses. Put it to the Test With the Free Live Demo, and Sign Up Risk-Free with the 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
7. EyeZy — A Top Employee Monitoring Software With Video Recording Features. Leverage EyeZy’s 3-Day Free Trial and 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
8. uMobix — A Solid Employee Tracker Providing Surveillance Over 30 Apps. Has a Live Demo and a 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
9. Cocospy — A Popular Mobile Employee Monitoring Solution for Mobile Devices. Try it With its Live Demo and Risk-Free 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
10. Spyic — An Impressive Mobile Employee Time Tracking Software With the Longest Money-Back Guarantee of 60 Days. Also Has a Free Demo.

The Best Employee Time Trackers for Windows 2023 | In-Depth Reviews

Eager to learn more about our top 10 employee monitoring tools? Here, we delve into each one in more depth to help you find the one most suitable for your needs and budget. Let’s get started.

1. Teramind — The Best Overall Employee Time Tracking Software in 2023

Teramind should be your pick if you’re looking for a champion employee tracking software that combines monitoring, analytics, and reporting features like a pro.

While you have to contend with basic employee monitoring features with other tools, Teramind will have you on the edge of your seat, credit to its sheer volume of tracking and security features.

Teramind’s dashboard houses a well-arranged database of your employees, all marked with their respective departments.

Not only will you get detailed insights into your employees’ day, including their current task in hand, active and idle time, and code of conduct violations (if any), but you’ll also be able to build audit evidence from the employee screen snapshots taken by Teramind, thanks to Teramind’s OCR system.

Teramind’s alerting feature deserves a special mention too. It’ll send automated notifications to your employees if they spend more than a pre-decided amount of time on an unproductive app — social media apps, for example. Plus, you can even block certain apps on the employee’s device or log the employee out.

Speaking of Teramind’s video-capturing feature; you can capture:

• Zoom sessions
• Normal screen recordings
• Live broadcast of employee PCs

Last but not least, Teramind’s prompt customer support (live chat) and live demo will give you every possible assistance so that you understand the ins and outs of the tool before committing to it.

Pricing:

Teramind starts at just $10/user/month; the Starter plan comes with instant messaging, social media tracking, remote control, alerting, activity blocking, and more. For OCR and keystroke tracking, you’ll have to upgrade to at least the UAM plan, which, again, is highly competitively priced.

Plus, it comes with a live demo, a free plan, a 14-day free trial, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Try it now.

2. ActivTrak — The Best Free Employee Monitoring Software for Beginners

ActivTrak is easily the best free employee time-tracking app out there. With over 9,000 customers and 550,000 free users, ActivTrak is a juggernaut in the industry as far as combining employee tracking and enhancing worker productivity is concerned.

ActivTrak doesn’t set out to pry on employees but to chalk out analytics and insights that give you a better idea of how you can improve their productivity. For example, based on the peak productivity hours of your employees, you can schedule and distribute tasks accordingly.

Besides being free, ActivTrak’s easy-to-understand user interface is another reason it’s a beginner’s favorite. For example, the dashboard has a productivity bar chart that shows productive, unproductive, and idle time separately, not to mention that there are other graphical presentations as well, such as a pie chart to compare time spent on productive versus unproductive websites and apps.

ActivTrak shows you in real-time what websites and apps your employees are currently on. Click on the Camera icon to take a screenshot if you want to zoom in.

As one of the best employee time-tracking apps, ActivTrak sends out real-time threat alerts and non-compliance reminders to employees. Non-compliance may include using external hard drives on an organization device or surfing through untrustworthy websites.

Pricing:

ActivTrak’s free plan comes with 3GB of data, 30-day rolling data history, and features such as activity alarms and 24/7 access to educational resources. Upgrade to the Advanced plan for additional features such as remote installation and alarm-triggered screenshots.

Sign up for ActivTrak’s 14-day trial plan today and see if it’s your cup of tea.

3. HubStaff — An Incredible Location-Based Employee Tracking Solution

HubStaff, an employee time-tracking app that caters to over 40,000 businesses worldwide and performs over 21 million hours of tracking every month, does more than just a few things right.

First things first, HubStaff’s strength lies in its geo-fenced time-tracking feature on its mobile app. Here, the concerned employee gets clocked in and out automatically, based on their location, so that you don’t have to worry about your team rigging the timesheet for onsite jobs.

Other employee time tracking features include URL and application monitoring and activity screenshots — you can either command HubStaff to take screenshots at random intervals or specify intervals, for instance, 5 screenshots in one minute.

Then there are also online timesheets, time reports, and timesheet approval that help you zero in on the exact hours worked by your employees. This ensures that you pay only for what’s legitimate. Such built-in integrations will save you money that you’d have otherwise spent on third-party payroll and invoicing integrations.

Speaking of employee activity tracking, HubStaff will track what websites and apps your employee visits and how long their sessions are. Now, it does have a keylogger, but it’s far from perfect — you can only see the activity provided by their mouse and keyboards and nothing else.

But one area HubStaff doesn’t compromise in is capturing screenshots remotely. You can then access all this info from HubStaff’s dashboard, where you can filter the results by user.

Pricing:

A free plan, a 14-day free trial, and a 60-day money-back guarantee should be reason enough to get you started with HubStaff.

Yes, HubStaff’s prized GPS tracking feature demands $10/month/user; it’s still at par with the industry’s best, though. Try it today and if you don’t like it, get a full refund.

4. StaffCop — The Best Employee Time Tracking Software for Business Security and Data Confidentiality

StaffCop, like Teramind and ActivTrak, is a fantastic employee monitoring app, but its security features are what set it apart from the rest.

We love StaffCop’s insider threat prevention feature that tracks employee activity with the help of a keylogger, screenshots, and more, and assesses whether what they’re doing is in accordance with your organization’s code of conduct.

If StaffCop finds an employee on a malicious website or doing something they’re not supposed to do, it’ll send you real-time alerts — you’re also free to set up custom alerts with multiple behavior anomalies as triggers.

If you want to do one better than simply warn an employee, make use of StaffCop’s Live Administration feature to take complete control of an employee’s device remotely and stop an unauthorized activity in its tracks.

Moreover, Teramind and StaffCop are the only ones to offer OCR (Optical Character Recognition), but StaffCop’s OCR is a bit more unrestrictive. How?

Well, you can select a keyword — for example, a corporate card’s number — that might hint at unethical employee practice and search for it across chats, keystrokes, emails, Google Drive, OneDrive, and even within Microsoft Word or PDF documents saved locally on the employee device.

StaffCop’s Summary Reports are a fresh introduction too. They show you a list of top latecomers, time spent on productive vs unproductive apps, and more, giving you a deeper understanding of the footfalls of employee productivity and simultaneously the areas to focus on in order to improve the same.

Pricing:

StaffCop’s yearly plan costs $8.16/user/month for 5 users and $5.83/month/user for 10 users, beyond which the price remains more or less the same per user, even with an increase in the number of users.

Try StaffCop risk free with its live demo and 15-day free trial.

5. Controlio — Popular Employee Monitoring App for Data Organization

Controlio brings something called the productivity score to the table. This score is prepared by tracking and then averaging your team’s productive and distracted hours.

Based on your employees’ productivity score, Controlio ranks your employees across categories like Most Productive, Top Violators, and more.

Controlio edges past other employee tracking solutions on the back of impeccable data organization. In our testing, we found there to be no fields that were off-limits for generating a report, then be it attendance, searches, emails, online sessions, or anything else.

Plus, each of these reports was further flooded with organized information, such as the user’s details, the computer used, and even time stamps. Yes, Controlio lacks Teramind’s OCR, but everything else for tracking your employees’ activities, productivity, as well as behavior anomalies, will be at your disposal.

Other employee monitoring features include live video recordings, an intuitive keylogger, automated alerts, and scheduled reports to keep an eye on employee productivity and threat detection remotely.

Custom alerts are missing, but you’ll rarely find a need for them when Controlio provides a massive list of pre-decided events for triggering alerts. For example, launching an app, visiting a specific website, specific keystrokes, and more.

All of this, plus Controlio’s scalability (it’s cloud-based), make it a must-have employee time-tracking app for small to midsize businesses.

Pricing:

At just $6.65/month/user, Controlio’s yearly plan will offer the best bang for your buck. Note that there are enterprise-level plans, too, with more features and bandwidth — get in touch with Controlio’s team for a custom quote.

Controlio comes with a live demo, a 14-day free trial, and a 7-day hosting refund so that you can try out the tool thoroughly before investing in it.

6. mSpy — The Best Employee Monitoring Solution for Small Businesses

mSpy does a fantastic job at activity tracking, and there are very few employee tracking apps that can do it better. You’ll know how long a message took to type, whether the content was deleted, replaced, and more.

mSpy monitors all popular communication channels, including WhatsApp, Snapchat, emails, and Facebook Messenger, and sends you an alert every time a new message or a reply is received/sent on/by an employee device. In fact, it’s one of the best WhatsApp spy apps to use right now.

Note that you also have the option to set custom alerts for keywords that you want to be warned about if and when used by your employees. This way, you’ll be able to ensure your employees don’t slack during office hours.

mSpy’s live GPS tracking and geo-fencing ensure your employees are where they’re supposed to be during work.

Besides live video recordings, mSpy’s screen recorder also lets you download every conversation’s screenshot, see browsing history even if deleted, sort browser history by frequency of visits, and block or restrict unproductive websites and apps.

What’s more, mSpy also lets you monitor phone calls and SMS messages, making it a truly unrestricted employee monitoring app that will save your business from data breaches and unproductivity.

Pricing:

1. Monthly — $69.99/month
2. Quarterly — $40/month
3. Yearly — $16.67/month

mSpy’s yearly plan at $16.67/month is a bargain. Plus, it often comes up with additional discounts, so keep an eye out for those.

How can we not mention the 14-day money-back guarantee — try mSpy now, and if you don’t like it, get a full refund.

7. EyeZy — A Top Employee Monitoring Software With Video Recording Features

EyeZy is one of the best parental control apps, but it’s equally good as an employee time and activity tracker.

Unlike mSpy, EyeZy’s keylogger requires jailbreaking; still, it does a commendable job of producing every detail about every keystroke, including what app, search bar, or chat it was typed in.

As a comprehensive and easy-to-use employee tracker, you’ll not only know what your employees are searching for online, but you’ll also have access to their call log — EyeZy is also one of the best call logger apps on the market right now.

You can use EyeZy’s ability to remotely restrict your employees’ access to specific websites and apps that you don’t want them to waste their time on during office hours.

Alternatively, you can set a specific time limit on the usage of unproductive apps during work hours. Once the set time limit is crossed, EyeZy will cut off your employees’ access to those apps altogether.

An integral part of employee monitoring is a screen recording feature, and EyeZy does a fantastic job in that it’s always the first in the industry to implement new technology, leaving little to no room for your employees to hide malicious intent.

What’s more, EyeZy also takes a screenshot any time your employees receive a new message or send one, but with the customization it offers, you’re free to customize alerts for any specific set of keywords. For example, a corporate card’s number.

Pricing:

1. Monthly — $47.99/month
2. Quarterly — $27.99/month
3. Yearly — $9.99/month

At $9.99/month, EyeZy offers the best value-for-money proposition as compared to other secret screen recorders. Plus, with a free demo, a 3-day free trial, and a 14-day money-back guarantee on your side, you can have a good taste of whether EyeZy is the one for you before you put any money in it.

8. uMobix — A Solid Employee Tracker Providing Surveillance Over 30 Apps

uMobix’s robust and comprehensive device tracking and time monitoring features make it an excellent employee time-tracking app for small to mid-sized businesses.

Its surveillance capabilities cover as many as 30 mobile apps, including Telegram, Chrome, WhatsApp, and Instagram. This surveillance data includes:

• Internet searches — even in incognito mode
• GPS locations — to accurately log time spent at work
• Info about your employees’ media files — you’ll know if any company data is being stolen
• All copy-pasted/typed/deleted texts, including the time spent on these activities

You’ll also have access to your team’s messages and call logs, so you’ll know if they are communicating well with the clients and are sparing enough time for them.

What’s more, uMobix also unlocks employees’ deleted data and gives you the ability to control their devices remotely. This way, you can restrict access to unproductive websites and apps, such as social media channels, improving the overall business workflow and ensuring your employees do not overstep your business’s internal code of conduct.

On top of this, uMobix is also a beginner-friendly employee tracking app and one of the best phone spy apps. Not only is it available in multiple international languages, but it also tags along with a free demo, making it easier for you to get acquainted with its interface.

Pricing:

• 1-month — $49.99/month
• 3-month — $27.99/month
• 12-month — $11.66/month

uMobix’s 1-year plan starting at $11.66/month for one device is the best the tool has to offer.

The best part is that you can try it risk-free with a live demo and a 14-day money-back guarantee before risking any money on it.

9. Cocospy — A Popular Mobile Employee Monitoring Solution For Mobile Devices

Cocospy, although not as awe-inspiring as some of the other solutions on our list, is still a very good solution for small businesses that need their employee monitoring app to do a few things, but a few things right.

Cocospy will give you peace of mind that your business’s employee-client relationship is solid by giving you access to every communication channel your employees use, then be it calls, SMS messages, or even group chats like that on Skype.

A couple of standout features of Cocospy are its accurate GPS tracker and geo-fencing capabilities that come in very handy in monitoring field workers. With them, you’ll be able to track your employees’ live location and receive an alert anytime they try to leave the worksite before the scheduled hours.

What’s more, you can not only track your employees’ web activities but also restrict access to unproductive apps and websites, ensuring your organization’s overall productivity doesn’t fall off a cliff and that your employees aren’t involved in mischievous errands.

Yes, Cocospy can’t take screen recordings — a bummer indeed — but you’ll surely love how it gives access to employee device’s media files, which will help you keep any data leak or theft at bay.

Pricing:

• 1-month plan — $49.99/month
• 3-month plan — $29.99/month
• 12-month plan — $12.50/month

Try Cocospy today with a free demo and a 14-day money-back guarantee.

10. Spyic — An Impressive Mobile Employee Time Tracking Software 

Spyic might not be as feature-diverse as Teramind, but it’s still a decent employee time-tracking app that’s apt for small businesses with a team of 3-5 members (or maybe even more) that do not require extensive tracking across multiple criteria.

We like Spyic for its call tracking and geo-fencing capabilities. You’ll know the number of calls your employees make/receive, the duration of each, and their timestamps. This way, you’ll have a better idea of which employees waste work hours by attending personal calls during office hours.

With Spyic’s geo-fencing alerts and accurate GPS tracker, you can monitor your employees’ location and know if they are outside office premises during work or if they have called in sick, only to entertain other businesses that might, in fact, be counterproductive to your organization.

This is not all; Spyic also comes with web monitoring and SMS, social media, and SIM card tracking — the last one will help you find a lost or stolen device, protecting your business’s confidential info.

Pricing:

This is what Spyic’s Premium plan’s prices look like:

• 1-month plan — $49.99/month
• 3-month plan — $23.33/month
• 12-month plan — $9.99/month

Additionally, Spyic also has a Basic and a Family plan that allows you to cover more devices with 1 subscription, plus a few enterprise-level features, so check those out too.

Spyic provides a generous 60-day money-back guarantee in addition to a demo, so try it risk-free today.

The Best Employee Time Tracking Software Comparison Table

Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison of the top 10 employee monitoring solutions to facilitate faster decision-making on your end:

How We Chose the Best Employee Time Tracking App

Here is a quick checklist of our top 5 criteria for choosing the best employee tracking app for your business:

1. Coverage

One of the most important features of an employee time-tracking app is the extent of coverage it can provide. It should be able to track all your team members simultaneously, even as your team keeps growing.

On top of that, its tracking feature should be compatible with multiple device types and record an array of activities instead of just basic time tracking. For example, tools like uMobix not only check their productivity but also lets you record their keystrokes, access calls logs, and track their live location.

2. Data Filtering

If you are managing a huge team and tracking each of them, it would be quite impossible for you to sift through tons of data daily. That’s why every employee tracking tool should have a data filtering feature that allows you to sift through thousands of entries in seconds and find what you are looking for.

3. Notifications & Alerts

Employee time tracking is an important part of your business, especially if you are trying to keep their productivity up. But that’s certainly not the only responsibility on your plate.

If you don’t have the time to keep checking the control panel for activity updates every few minutes, make sure your chosen employee tracking app has an automated alert feature that sends out real-time notifications each time something important comes up.

4. Data Backup 

Whether you are collecting evidence against a corrupt employee or simply keeping a separate record of your employee activities to discuss in the next team meeting, your employee tracking app should give you the flexibility of managing your own data. This means the data it collects should be transferable or downloadable.

5. Customer Support

This goes for almost every software you purchase for your business. Only invest in a tool if it has a responsive customer support wing.

Whether over email, phone, or live chat, you need a way to get hold of their team or tech experts in case something goes wrong, or you need more help to find your way around the tool. That’s why all the employee tracking apps we have picked offer at least some level of communication with their teams.

How to Set Up An Employee Tracking App

Here is a quick example of setting up an employee tracking app through Teramind:

Step 1 — Visit the Teramind Website

Once you’re on Teramind’s website, click the “Free Trial” button on the top-right corner of the screen:

Step 2 — Start Your Free Trial

Once you click this, you’ll get a pop-up that prompts you to begin the free trial. Enter your email address to get started:

On the next page, you’ll be asked to share more information about your business, like the business name, phone number, owner name, and the number of employees working in your company.

On the same page, you can also choose whether you want cloud-hosting or self-hosting before pressing “Start Your Free Trial”.

Step 3 — Get Monitoring

Your job ends here. Once you’ve created your account, you’ll immediately get your own control panel with updates on your team:

Note: Teramind (or whatever app you choose) will later guide you on connecting your employee’s devices to the app.

Employee Time Tracking Software FAQs