Should You Build or Buy a Time Tracking Solution for Your Team?
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The case for buying a time tracking solution
Hubstaff’s enterprise time tracking with built-in employee monitoring features is the choice for many BPOs, VAs, agencies, and other businesses in need of versatile time tracking software. Here are a few of the many ways that Hubstaff benefits even the largest of teams.
Comprehensive built-in features
Hubstaff’s wide array of features make it a helpful tool for BPOs, VAs, agencies, and virtually any other industry or use case you can think of. You’ll have access to features like:
Time tracking, timesheets, and payroll.
Time tracking, timesheets, and payroll.
Track time to tasks and projects, automatically generate timesheets, and consolidate and send payments through different providers from one app.
Employee productivity
Employee productivity
Manage remote teams with fully customizable productivity tracking. Enable, disable, blur, and adjust the frequency of screenshots, apps and URLs used, keyboard and mouse activity levels, and more.
Reporting
Reporting
Choose from over 20 customizable reports for time, activity, payments, expenses, and more. Apply custom filters, export reports, or email them to key stakeholders directly from the app.
Lower upfront cost and faster implementation
Hubstaff starts at just $7 per user/month, making it a low barrier to entry compared to proprietary software. The $25 per user/month annual plan includes add-ons like Insights, Tasks, and the Silent app to round out one of the most versatile pre-built solutions available.
Insights
Insights
Gauge utilization rates, categorize websites and apps, balance meeting and focus time, and more with Insights.
Tasks
Tasks
Sort workloads into Sprint, Timeline, or Kanban views and track time to projects and tasks with our Agile project management add-on.
Silent App
Silent App
Track time in the background on company-owned devices for high-compliance teams with the Silent app.
Enterprise-Grade
compliance and support
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Secure access, complete control
Single sign-on
Custom roles and permissions
Follows best security practices
Elevate your workflow
Advanced reporting
Background timer
On-premise/self-hosted
Effortless onboarding
Concierge setup
MSI Installer
Account provisioning
Over 35+ integrations
Run your business more efficiently with integrations for time tracking, project management, accounting, payroll, team management, and more.
View all integrationsAdvantages of building an internal time tracking tool
Building a proprietary time tracking tool offers unique advantages over purchasing a tool like complete customization, long-term cost efficiency, and the ability to build around your priorities — not a time tracking tool's roadmap.
The cost of building an internal time tracker
While enterprise-grade time tracking solutions like Hubstaff can be expensive, an internal time tracker has its own share of costs. From developer salaries to compliance costs, let’s examine the hidden expenses associated with developing a proprietary time tracking system.
Long-term cost of internal time tracking
Building an in-house time tracking system is far from a one-time venture. There is a compounding cost even when a business intends to create its own proprietary time tracking software.
Let’s take a look at some of the fixed and variable line items to address when building an internal time tracker and how hidden YOY costs can arise when maintaining such a tool.
| Category | What’s Included | Cost Inputs or Range (with Sources) | Scaling Behavior | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Engineering & QA | Backend, frontend, mobile devs, QA, DevOps, UX, PMs | Avg U.S. Engineer Salary: $129,000/year (Salary.com, 2025) | Semi-fixed. High core engineering costs regardless of seat count. *Cost per seat drops beyond 10K users. | 1.5K ≈ $1,333 / seat |
Infrastructure | Servers, DB, storage for ~80 TB/mo, scaling, monitoring | 1.5K ≈ $500 / seat | Variable. Scales with active users, data volume, and screenshot frequency. | Compute + storage usage grows roughly linearly; multi-region redundancy adds overhead. |
Operations & Support | Sysadmins, IT, technical support, security engineers | 1.5K ≈ $250 / seat | Variable. Headcount rises with user load1 Ops per ~1,000 users typical. | Based on OpenView SaaS Benchmarks (2022) and industry support ratios. |
Continued Enhancements | Continuous feature development, refactors, integrations | 1.5K ≈ $200 / seat | Semi-fixed. Requires 5–10 devs continuously post-launch for iteration. | Cost per seat decreases as user base grows (will never reach 0 due to feature debt). |
Compliance & Security | SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA audits, penetration tests, legal | SOC 2: $80K–$350K (Secureframe) | Flat. Compliance & audits are recurring annual fixed costs independent of user count. | ≈$400K–$500K / yr total |
Project Management/ Overhead Costs | PMO, product managers, admin, HR, finance ops | Average U.S. Project Manager Salary: $105,000 (Glassdoor) | Semi-fixed: staffing increases for complexity; cost per seat falls with scale. | Typically 1 PM per 8–10 engineers. |
See ROI from Hubstaff right away
Whether it’s year one or year 10 of building a proprietary time tracking system, you can never really outrun the hidden costs. Inefficient workflows, data inaccuracies, compliance issues, and productivity loss add up. Proven solutions like Hubstaff offer seamless implementation, improved cost efficiency, and enterprise-grade compliance, making growing with Hubstaff the best strategic choice.
If you’re still on the fence, check out our ROI calculator to see how Hubstaff saves teams considerably with enterprise-grade time tracking and a slew of other built-in features.
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