5 Best Employee Monitoring Software
The best employee monitoring software have reasonable pricing and use screenshots, keystroke capture, and web use monitoring to track and create custom reports of employee productivity. They also have robust security and privacy features and are easy to use.
We examined over 30 productivity, time tracking, and security monitoring software, looking for monitoring tools that balance giving you the best information and not being too invasive or distracting. We narrowed it to these five:
- Teramind: Best overall employee monitoring software
- ActivTrak: Best for helping your employees reach peak productivity through monitoring and coaching
- InterGuard: Best for remote or traveling employees with company laptops
- Controlio: Best budget-conscious choice for monitoring file and printer activity along with productivity monitoring
- Hubstaff Desk: Best time tracking and project management software with employee management tools
Top Employee Monitoring Software Compared
Monthly pricing | $12–$30 per user | $9–$15 per user (billed annually only) | <$9.99 per user* | $8+ per user | $7–$10 per user |
Free plan | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Time tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Website and app tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Productivity tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Email tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
Download/print request tracking | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
Keystroke tracking | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | For productivity only |
Suspicious activity alters | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
Block unwanted sites | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
Block unwanted activity | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
Recordings of suspicious behavior | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
Privacy Tools | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Wipe or block lost laptops | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
Use reports for legal action | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
Teramind: Best Overall Employee Monitoring Software
What We Like
- Includes activity blocking
- Monitors file transfers for saving or printing
- Interactive productivity reporting
- Rules editing; rules templates
What's Missing
- Does not lock out/wipe lost laptops
- No checklists of project management tools
- No PTO or break scheduling considered
Teramind Pricing
- 7-day free trial
- Starter: $12/user/month, increments of 5
- Limited user activity monitoring, limited behavior rules, customizable dashboard
- UAM: $25/user/month, increments of 5
- Complete user activity monitoring, unlimited activity and behavior rules, OCR* engine, pre-packaged productivity rules, SEIM** integration
- DLP: $30/user/month, increments of 5
- All in UAM plus content-based behavior rules, redaction of sensitive content from monitoring, sensitive content detection, malicious activity blocking, 200 pre-packaged DLP rules
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
- All in DLP plus in-app field parsing, enhanced security, high-availability/multi-region/large-scale deployments, premium support, professional services and customization, government-level AWS and Azure cloud storage
*OCR (Optical Character Recognition): Recognizes text in scanned documents and images
**SEIM (Security Information and Event Management): Advanced threat detection, compliance, and security incident management through collection and analysis
Teramind took the lead for the best employee monitoring software because it has such a wide range of tools and custom report building. The software may take a little time to set up with the rules, and the reports are extensive, but the interface looks clean and intuitive. It checked off nearly every feature we looked for, except for some time-tracking and project management capabilities. If those particular features are important for you, check Hubstaff out.
Teramind scored 4.38 out of 5 in our evaluation, with a perfect 5 out of 5 for reporting. It did well in pricing, losing points only because it lacks a free plan. It also lost a few points on ease of use because it lacks phone support. Popularity was its lowest score (3.5 out of 5) because it earned an average real-world user review score of 4.4 out of 5—an excellent score, though not as high as most of the others on our list.
Teramind Pricing
The pricing, while a bit higher than the others on our list, is still competitive against those we considered overall. Teramind also charges in groups of 5. For example, the Starter Plan costs $60 per month for up to five seats, $120 per month for six to 10 seats, etc.
The jump in price from Starter to UAM (User Activity Monitoring) is steep, but the features are much better—unlimited monitoring, prepackaged behavior rules, and more. The DLP (Data Loss Prevention) plan offers even more, such as file transfer tracking and malicious activity blocking, for an additional $5 per seat.
Teramind Features
Teramind offers built-in reports and deep-dive capability to let you get a complete picture of the productivity or security threats to your business. (Source: Teramind)
- Monitor online activity: Teramind offers the most in-depth monitoring of online activity, working with Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Edge, and Brave, plus Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. As such, it covers nearly every site an employee may visit during work. You can label websites to gauge productivity. It also captures IM activity for 11 of the most common chat programs. You can prevent inappropriate language and watch for security violations. However, you can also set it to prevent monitoring personal messages. Finally, you can monitor video conferencing and VoIP calls on different platforms. Teramind is the most complete for this kind of monitoring.
- Alerts: Get immediate alerts for unproductive behavior or online activity violating your internet policies. Most of the products on our list have alerts, but Teramind goes further with automated actions you set that can warn, block, or lock out a user if they violate the rules.
- Insider threat: If you only need productivity monitoring, then look at ActivTrak or Hubstaff. However, for threat protection, Teramind is among the best. Use it to block or redirect websites, prevent the installation of unauthorized applications (like a virus), set alerts, or even block file downloads, sensitive emails, unauthorized transfers, copy and paste and the sharing of other sensitive content. You can also use it for legal or forensic evidence, unlike Hubstaff or ActivTrak. About the only thing we didn’t find was the ability to lock out a computer completely—look at InterGuard for that.
- Privacy: Privacy can be a big concern for employees, especially those working from home. Teramind, like most of the software on our list, lets you set rules to restrict access to data to specific individuals, such as your IT manager or CEO. Teramind stands out, however, in that it offers data protection such as blocking credit card information from being recorded. It also has a Revealed Agent tool that lets employees toggle their monitoring on or off, and works on user activity rather than machine. These are strong tools, although Hubstaff has more privacy control (but does less monitoring).
- Templates: Teramind offers hundreds of templates for rules, making it easy to set up automatic monitoring. None of the others on our list offer such capability.
- Productivity reports: Teramind can monitor activity levels on apps or websites, as defined by time on app and keystrokes. It puts this data into productivity reports. While it does not have project management tools like Hubstaff or productivity coaching like ActivTrak, it does let you see the productivity of individuals or teams.
- Mobile app: Teramind has two apps. The time tracker is on both Android and iOS and very basic. The Teramind dashboard is available on Android and offers live monitoring and productivity reports. Teramind’s mobile apps are unrated.
What Users Think of Teramind
PROS | CONS |
---|---|
Easy to use | Would like to drill down to time vs date |
Successfully protected the company | Little pricey |
Robust and feature-rich | So many tools can be overwhelming at first |
Overall, users found Teramind well worth the expense and the time it takes to learn all its features. While a few remarked that they had some issues with customer support or a glitch in the software, these were back in 2020; recent reviews have been excellent. Overall, it had an average of 4.4 out of 5 average—which is actually the second-lowest score of those on our list but still respectably high for this type of software.
- Capterra: 4.6 out of 5, from 60+ reviews
- G2 Crowd: 4 out of 5, from 30+ reviews
- Trustradius: 8.8 out of 10, from 5 reviews
ActivTrak: Best for Productivity Monitoring & Coaching
What We Like
- Free plan
- Tools for coaching employees as well as monitoring productivity
- Easy to use, offers phone support
What's Missing
- Can’t create custom reports
- No keystroke tracking
- Can’t lock down lost computers
ActivTrak Pricing
- 14-day free trial
- Free Plan: 3 users
- Activity dashboard, reports, activity alarms, email notifications, email support
- Advanced: $9/user/month, 5 minimum
- Free plan, plus additional reports, productivity classification, Slack or MS Teams notifications, USB for file transfer detection, alarm-triggered screenshots, phone/chat/email support
- Premium: $15/user/month, 5 minimum
- Advanced, plus team productivity and goal tracking, productivity benchmarks, virtual coach recommendations, personal insights dashboards, distraction analysis, burnout reports
- ActivConnect Add-on: $2/user/month
- Export and query data to business intelligence (BI) tools for more analysis, BI starter templates, app integrations
Not everyone looks for employee monitoring because of a perceived security threat. Some want to use it to get the most out of their team by identifying distractions, burnout, or even times when an employee is simply less efficient—which is ActivTrak’s specialty.
Its features are focused on improving productivity. It even offers tools and features that help you coach your employees or enable them to self-monitor. For productivity monitoring, it blows the rest away.
ActivTrak earned 4.19 out of 5 on our list based on the strength of its pricing, popularity, and ease-of-use scores, all of which were perfect 5s. It lost the most points for security monitoring, which is fine if you are more concerned about employee efficiency rather than security threats. If you’re looking for a platform with more security functions, we recommend Teramind or InterGuard.
ActivTrak Pricing
ActivTrak has a free plan with limited features that works for up to three team members. The paid plans offer more functionality, of course, and let you add ActivConnect, its integration tool for business intelligence software.
Plans start at $9 per user, per month, which is competitive with all the plans on our list. However, the monthly pricing listed is more for comparison—you must purchase plans annually. It’s the only one on our list that has this requirement. Further, like Teramind, you must purchase at least five seats. If you are really concerned about productivity and coaching, however, you’ll want the most expensive plan, which has additional tools for providing your employees with feedback.
ActivTrak Features
ActivTrak’s activity report can help you identify employee burnout. (Source: ActivTrak)
- Coaching: Unlike any of the others on our list, ActivTrak takes a coaching approach to employee monitoring. All its reports and tools are geared toward helping your employees or teams work more effectively by cutting down on distractions.
- Burnout reports: ActivTrak stands out with its burnout reports. These look at hours spent, either as a trend or a surge, and flag them if they are excessive. It can also look at focus time and flag those working past the optimum (20 minutes) without a break.
- Goals setting: ActivTrak does not just monitor activity, however. It can allow you, your employees, or your team to set specific goals and track productivity toward those goals. These are in terms of time spent on productive activities as opposed to checklist items like you might find with Hubstaff’s project management software, but it does help employees achieve greater efficiency and less distraction.
- Privacy: ActivTrak offers multiple ways to protect user privacy, including role-based access, removal of non-business URLs in the Insights report, and anonymized data when possible. It also works for transparency with personal insight reports that share what it finds with the employee themselves. It and Hubstaff probably have the most privacy control—but their focus is not security or threat detection.
- Ease of use: ActivTrak wants to help you be as productive with its software as possible. In addition to phone, chat, and email support, it has a thorough manager’s guide. What sets it apart, is that it offers onboarding sessions, and—for higher plans—a Learning Hub where you can learn best practices. It alone got a perfect score for ease of use.
- Risky behavior: However, ActivTrak is not all about productivity—It does have some security tools too. For example, you can set alerts for unauthorized downloading of confidential files, and monitor email and website use. For the best security features, however, check out Teramind or InterGuard.
- Mobile: ActivTrak has disabled its mobile apps. You can access your software through a browser. If mobile is important to you, consider Teramind or Hubstaff.
What Users Think of ActivTrak
PROS | CONS |
---|---|
Seamless integrations | Installation can be difficult (dealing with firewalls) |
Great support | Hard to tell what applications are being used vs simply open |
Customizable | Most useful features are in higher-priced plans |
ActivTrak was the second most popularly rated software on our list, with Hubstaff being the first. With an average user review rating of 4.51, which was the median for those on our list, it is highly praised by users. They liked the ease of use and customizability, although one person bemoaned the inability to filter out people on leave. I found praises for customer support, the counseling tools, and the overall ability to monitor productivity. The most common complaint was that the most useful features for monitoring and advising employees are only in the higher-priced plans.
- Capterra: 4.6 out of 5, from 530+ reviews
- G2 Crowd: 4.5 out of 5, from 190+ reviews
- Trustradius: 8.3 out of 10, from 130+ reviews
InterGuard: Best for Protecting Company Laptops/Computers
What We Like
- Can lock out or erase data from lost or stolen laptops
- Store data on-premise or in the cloud
- Very strong activity-tracking tools
- Easy to use
What's Missing
- Quote-based pricing
- Not as many privacy tools as others on the list
- User reviews are mixed; very few reviews
InterGuard Pricing
- 7-day free trial
- Call for Quote
- InterGuard offers a sample pricing of “$9.99 user/month or less”
- Pricing depends on whether you host in the cloud or on-premise, if you sign up for long-term contracts, device types, and users.
InterGuard not only has excellent employee monitoring tools for productivity and security but also protects against attacks. It can even lock down or wipe a device that has been lost or stolen. It’s a great choice if you have a mobile or remote workforce and are concerned about protecting intellectual property.
With a score of 4.16 out of 5, it’s a leap ahead of the others on our list. However, its pricing and popularity brought the score down. While competitive, it requires you to call for a quote and does not have a free plan. In the meantime, the lack of online reviews brought the popularity score way down. (It also was the only one with user reviews evenly split between SMBs and large corporations, but again, the sample size was tiny.) It did, however, get excellent scores for time tracking, security monitoring, and reporting.
InterGuard Pricing
InterGuard is the only one on our list that does not have pricing online, although it does give a sample quote for the cloud-hosted plan of $9.99 per user, per month, paid annually, for an order of between 11 and 25 users. At this price, it competes with Teramind’s starter plan and the more advanced plans for ActivTrak and Hubstaff.
InterGuard Features
InterGuard has a feature that allows it to take a screenshot when it “sees” a set keyword. (Source: InterGuard)
- Lockdown: Too often, the information on a computer is more important than the hardware itself. InterGuard lets you remotely access lost, stolen, or compromised PCs and Macs and delete or retrieve files. It also has a geolocation tracking tool so you can locate the computer.
- Screenshot capability: All the products on our list take screenshots, but InterGuard has the most versatility. In addition to having regularly scheduled screenshots (like you might find with Hubstaff), you can set screenshots to continuous, which screenshots everything for a given period of time. What really impressed us was the keyword capability. Give InterGuard words to look for, and it will automatically screenshot whenever they are mentioned. It’s a great investigation tool.
- Cellphone monitoring: While it lacks apps of its own, InterGuard does monitor cellphone applications. Others, like Hubstaff, only do this through their application, while Teramind can do this through specified apps.
- Legal investigations: Hopefully, you’ll never have to suspect an employee of inappropriate or illegal behavior, but if so, and you need to collect the evidence, InterGuard can work in stealth mode for covert investigations and gathering of evidence that is legally admissible in court.
- Productivity: InterGuard does not ignore productivity for security monitoring. In addition to tracking idle and active time, website use, and keystrokes, you can set productivity ratings for applications and activity. This helps you identify what websites are useful—for example, your marketing group may need Facebook, while the engineering team should be discouraged from using it during work hours.
What Users Think of InterGuard
PROS | CONS |
---|---|
”Prevented embezzling at my company” | May be thwarted by antivirus software |
Point lock down features a bonus | Pricey |
Good features | Problems with installing/uninstalling |
InterGuard did not have a lot of real-world user reviews and has the lowest rating of those on our list, with an average of 3.79 out of 5. Even the good reviews were lukewarm concerning functionality, although users praised the features and one said it helped them uncover two embezzlers in their company. There were several complaints about the software not working—as in simply stopping—and about problems with installing or later uninstalling the software from a device.
- Capterra: 3.9 out of 5, from 30+ reviews
- G2 Crowd: 3 out of 5, 6 reviews
Controlio: Best for Budget-Conscious Businesses Needing Advanced Monitoring
What We Like
- Cloud plan is inexpensive while offering a great range of features
- Keystrokes linked to video for easy review
- Can set warning messages
- Set times when monitoring is disabled
What's Missing
- Integrations by API only
- No remote lockdown for lost laptops
- No project management or GPS tools
Controlio Pricing
- 14-day free trial for 3 users
- Cloud Plan: $7.99/user/month, 1–10,000 employees
- Live screen monitoring, six months’ data storage, web filtering, remote agent, web and apps tracking, attendance, screenshots, keystrokes, file usage, email monitoring, print monitoring, behavior rules
- On-Premise: Custom quote, 10–10,000 employees
- Same features, unlimited data storage
- Private Cloud: Custom quote, 100–100,000 employees
- Same features, unlimited storage
Controlio is an inexpensive employee management software that offers a great range of features for employee monitoring, rivaling even Teramind and InterGuard. We especially like its alert and warning system because it can even alert the violator. This makes it great for the immediate enforcing of rules and helping employees police themselves. However, it does fall short on project management tools, like those found in Hubstaff and ActivTrak. Thus, we recommend it for budget-minded companies concerned not only with productivity but protecting intellectual property.
Controlio scored 3.84 out of 5 in our evaluation, primarily because it lacks a free plan, custom report creation, and some project management and GPS tools. However, it scored very well for security monitoring features, and for ease of use. It’s well regarded by users, with a perfect 5 out of 5 for popularity and an average user review score of 4.9, which was the highest of those on our list.
Controlio Pricing
Controlio’s plans all have the same features. The only differences are whether they are cloud-based or on-premise, how long they store data, and what platforms they use. The Cloud Plan is recommended for most SMBs and runs $7.99 per user per month or $79.90 per user per year. It’s one of the cheapest on our list, especially because it offers tools that some don’t offer except in their more expensive plans. (Hubstaff, for example, is cheaper, but does not offer the file and printer monitoring found in Controlio.) This makes it a great choice for budget-conscious businesses.
Controlio Features
You can set several monitoring profiles to apply to different people or groups. (Source: Controlio)
- Privacy: Controlio does have a stealth mode, which means there are no extra icons on your employee’s computer to tell them they are being actively monitored. However, it offers several tools for ensuring private information is not monitored or shared. For example, you can set hours when monitoring is disabled. You can also set multiple profiles and apply them to different users or situations. While Hubstaff is the least invasive, Controlio’s tools are still good.
- Live video: If you choose, you can have continuous video monitoring of activity, even in real time. This is handy if there is an alert to suspicious activity. Simply click the display icon to the left of the username and you’ll see exactly what’s on the user’s screen at that moment. This was the only software on our list that specifically mentioned this real-time monitoring capability.
- Protect intellectual property and client confidentiality: Controlio has several ways to protect your files. First, it has a report to show you who accessed what files and whether they copied, created, or deleted them. It also lets you see who sent files to the printer. Actions are linked to the video of the event. Like Teramind, you can also set rules to block activities.
- Alerts and warnings: With Controlio, you can set up alerts for behaviors you want immediate notification on. This could be something like accessing a social media site or inserting a USB drive into a protected computer. What we liked even more was that you can send a warning to the user that they are violating a policy. Teramind also has this feature.
What Users Think of Controlio
PROS | CONS |
---|---|
Easy to use | No direct integration for the software they needed |
Clear dashboard, easy-to-read reports | Many reviews are old (2019 and older) |
Controlio had the fewest user reviews and the highest rating of all on our list—4.9 out of 5—but it only has seven reviews on Capterra and none in our other usual sources. The consensus was that the software is intuitive with a clear dashboard that gives great information. Some of the complaints are old and have been resolved (like the need for a Mac version). One person said it did not have the integrations they needed.
- Capterra: 4.9 out of 5, from 7 reviews
Hubstaff Desk: Best Time Tracker With Employee Monitoring
What We Like
- Free plan
- Includes time tracking and time sheet tools
- Tight privacy controls—some things you simply cannot do with this software
- Screenshots capability
What's Missing
- Very few security features
- Keystroke tracking for activity level only
- Need highest plan for online website and app monitoring
Hubstaff Pricing
- 14-day free trial
- Free: One person only
- Time tracking, time sheets, activity tracking, limited screenshots, limited reports, limited payments
- Starter: $7/user/month, minimum 2 users ($14/month)
- Time tracking, time sheets, activity tracking, unlimited screenshots, reports, limited payments, one integration 24-hour support
- Pro: $10/user/month, minimum 2 users ($20/month)
- All in Starter plus track apps and URLs, auto discard of idle time, unlimited integrations, limited API, time off and holidays, schedule and attendance, invoices, project budgets, timesheets, daily and weekly limits, expense tracking
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
- All in Pro plus VIP support, concierge setup, higher limits on the API, unlimited job sites.
Hubstaff is a very popular time tracking and project management tool for small businesses. While it has a time tracking software and a field/fleet management software, we considered Hubstaff Desk for employee management. It’s a simpler tool than others on our list, primarily focused on productivity. However, it has a free plan and is the most reasonably priced while still providing some great tools for employee monitoring.
Hubstaff earned 3.77 out of 5 on our list. Its pricing is excellent and it has a free plan. Because the time tracking tools include PTO and breaks, it alone earned a perfect score for time and productivity tools. Its lowest score was for security monitoring—but Hubstaff itself says this is not a focus, and it puts user privacy at the forefront. It has a 5 out of 5 on popularity with an average real-world-user score of 4.52 out of 5. (This was middle-high for those on our list.)
Hubstaff Desk Pricing
Hubstaff has a free plan, but it’s only for one person, whereas ActivTrak’s free tier works for teams of three. The paid plans are competitively priced, but to get the full employee monitoring tools, you will need the Pro Plan, which runs $10 per user, per month. All plans have at least two users; compare this to Teramind or ActivTrak, where the minimum is five users.
Hubstaff Desk Features
Hubstaff can take screenshots in 10-minute blocks. (Source: Hubstaff)
- Privacy: Hubstaff is the least invasive of the apps on our list, as it does not record more than the most basic of information: time, apps, and movement of the mouse or keystrokes. Keystrokes are never recorded. All features can be turned off. Employees have access to their own data and even screenshots. Of course, the flip side is it does not do security monitoring. For that, check out Teramind or InterGuard.
- Screenshots: Unlike the others on our list, which take screenshots more often or have rules for screenshot taking, Hubstaff takes screenshots in 10-minute blocks (usually three to a block), unless you disable the feature. Along with the screenshot is an activity level rating that is based on keystrokes and mouse movements.
- Project settings: Hubstaff is the only employee monitoring app on our list that can organize by project. Employees assign time to a project, and you can go to that project to see what apps were used and what websites were viewed during that time.
- Location tracking: Hubstaff lets you track where your employees have been during work hours through the mobile app. It’s a great tool for those with mobile employees, such as delivery services. We did not find anything similar in the other apps on our list, although this is not uncommon with time-tracking software in general. You can customize this feature to respect employee privacy.
- Reports: Hubstaff’s reports are simpler than those on our list, but it’s comprehensive enough for SMBs that just want to be sure their workforce is working when they are logging hours. Activity recaps, for example, are sent daily and include hours worked, projects, apps, and website overviews. For the best reports, check Teramind or InterGuard.
- Mobile App: Hubstaff’s time tracking app includes geofencing, GPS tracking, and reports.
- Android: 3.1 out of 5 with 650 reviews
- Apple: 4.5 out of 5 with about 1,100 reviews
What Users Think of Hubstaff
PROS | CONS |
---|---|
Excellent analysis | Integration difficult at times |
Easy to use | Time not always accurate/time zone issues |
Most reviews concerned time tracking as opposed to the monitoring tools | Counts web conferencing as inactive time |
Hubstaff was the second most popularly rated software on our list, with an average of 4.52 out of 5 at the time of this writing. Many of the reviews, however, are from freelancers who are using the time tracker to bill clients rather than managers keeping tabs on employee productivity. Even so, those that did use it for monitoring said it was easy to use and gave them the information they needed. The main issues seemed to be some problems with recording time or logging the appropriate time zone, and that some activities like Zoom calls were marked “inactive” because there was no mouse or keyboard activity.
- Capterra: 4.6 out of 5, from 1,240+ reviews
- G2 Crowd: 4.3 out of 5, 390+ reviews
- Trustradius: 8.6 out of 10, 50+ reviews
Read our Hubstaff Time review for more details
How We Evaluated the Employee Monitoring Software
We considered 32 different employee monitoring software tools and selected a variety to meet different needs. For example, some, like Hubstaff, focus on time tracking, while others, like Teramind, offer security tools for businesses with intellectual property to protect. We also looked at price, ease of use, and additional functionality.
The best overall was Teramind. It offered the most functionality, with high scores for security monitoring, time tracking, and reporting. It’s also reasonably and transparently priced, although it does not have a free plan.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:
20% of Overall Score
Here, we looked for a free option as well as affordable and transparent pricing. ActivTrak and Hubstaff both had perfect scores, with InterGuard being the lowest scoring as it requires you to call for a quote.
25% of Overall Score
These are the basic employee monitoring tools and concern themselves with making sure an employee is doing assigned work during paid hours. We looked at dozens of time clock software and chose Hubstaff for this list because it has a perfect 5 out of 5 in this area.
25% of Overall Score
These get into the deeper aspects of employee monitoring: email and chat tracking, identifying and stopping threats, and even erasing hard drives if a laptop is lost or stolen. No one earned a perfect score here. Teramind and InterGuard both scored 4.5, and Hubstaff had a low 1.38.
5% of Overall Score
As we often do, we look at the feedback from real-world users. Popularity considers review scores averaged over several reputable user review sites, particularly for SMBs. ActivTrak, Controlio, and Hubstaff earned perfect scores here.
10% of Overall Score
Reports are needed for tracking trends, and in the worst-case scenario, taking action against a bad employee. We consider types of reports and customizability. Only Teramind and InterGuard had actual custom report generation and thus got perfect scores.
15% of Overall Score
We looked at interface, customer support, online guides, and dedicated help when compiling this score. There’s a bit of a learning curve for most of these, and only ActivTrak had live phone support. (Most have live chat.) ActivTrak had the highest score with a perfect 5 out of 5.
Special Considerations for Using Employee Monitoring Software
When using any kind of employee monitoring device, it’s important to know the laws in your state or country, as well as whether you are required to inform employees that they are being monitored. This is especially important in the European Union, where GDPR laws may prohibit some kinds of monitoring.
Many employees consider it an intrusion, particularly if they work from home. Even from home, however, their work and the data it produces are yours. Nearly all the software we examined had tools for respecting privacy, but it’s up to you to use them and ensure your employees understand they may be monitored.
Another use for employee monitoring software is to collect evidence for legal action against an employee. If you need reports that are admissible in court, consider Teramind or InterGuard.
Bottom Line
As we continue toward a remote and hybrid workforce, employee monitoring software will continue to gain importance. While it may seem intrusive, the best programs are designed to respect off-hours privacy and offer tools that help employees improve productivity. Even more, they protect company computers and laptops from attack from disgruntled employees or if they are lost or stolen.
We found Teramind the best overall software for employee monitoring. It offers a broad range of monitoring features, extensive reports and analytics, and tools for reacting to threats. While a little more expensive than others on our list, it provides great value for a productivity—and security—conscious company. There’s a live demo on the website or you can sign up for a free trial and jump right in.