140k global users trust Hubstaff for time tracking
TL;DR: Quick verdict
Hubstaff is a better fit if you want a single platform for workforce visibility, time tracking, and AI-ready workforce data. It also provides audit-ready work records to support end-to-end operations.
If your focus is on interpreting workforce behavior and productivity patterns, ActivTrak does that well. Both are good options, depending on what matters most for your team.
Choose Hubstaff if:
- You want a platform that’s easy to use and connects time data to your existing workflow.
- You value easy access to workforce data for compliance audits and internal reporting.
- You need flexible deployment across personal and company devices, across remote, hybrid, and in-office teams.
- You want strict governance with SSO, SCIM, role-based access, and policy management.
- You operate in a regulated industry where data protection, security, and visibility matter most.
- You want a single platform for time tracking, workforce analytics, and AI-ready workforce data.
Choose ActivTrak if:
- You want to use your team’s behavioral analytics to analyze productivity.
- You want deeper insight into application use, workload patterns, focus, and technology adoption.
- You already use separate systems for timesheets, payroll, billing, and project-cost management.
- Your workforce primarily uses company-managed devices.
“We switched to Hubstaff because ActivTrak didn’t give us the flexibility we needed. The annual billing made it difficult to adjust as our team changed, and managing onboarding and offboarding wasn’t easy. We also wanted better visibility into what people were working on without relying on screenshots."
- Marketing team, 150 users
Hubstaff combines time tracking with AI-powered workforce analytics to help teams understand productivity levels and work patterns, answering operational questions across personal and company-managed devices. Alternatively, ActivTrak’s strength lies in its activity and behavioral analytics features.
Dive into this detailed comparison of Hubstaff vs ActivTrak to find out which platform works better for your team.
Hubstaff and ActivTrak are both strong time tracking tools, but they offer different capabilities. Hubstaff is an all-in-one time tracking platform with built-in payments, productivity insights, and workforce analytics capabilities across both personal and company devices. ActivTrak’s power lies in activity monitoring and workforce analytics.
Hubstaff vs. ActivTrak: At a glance
| Category | Hubstaff | ActivTrak |
|---|---|---|
Starting price | From $4.99/user/month (annual). Higher tiers include: Grow, Team, Enterprise | From $10/user/month (annual). Higher tiers include: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise |
Core focus | Time tracking platform with productivity monitoring, AI workforce analytics, and automated global payments | Workforce analytics and productivity insights (Limited, automatic time tracking connected to projects, and no payroll available) |
Time tracking | Project and task tracking with overtime, and PTO across desktop, mobile, and web. Supports tracking on both personal and company devices for remote, hybrid, & in-office teams | Primarily desktop-based automatic tracking |
Workforce analytics | AI-powered workforce analytics surfaces insights into utilization, capacity, focus time, remote vs. in-office output benchmarks, and more through 20+ built-in reports | Solely captures behavioral workforce analytics like focus time, collaboration patterns, and productivity trends |
Payments and payroll | Built-in global payments, payroll, and PTO & leave management tracking | No payments or payroll features available |
Integrations | 30+ integrations (PM, CRM, and payments tools) | Offers integrations with workplace essentials (HRIS, meeting, productivity tools) |
Deployment options | Works across personal and company devices; supports automatic tracking on managed devices | Primarily deployed on company devices with background tracking; no personal device option |
Security & compliance | Hubstaff supports SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, LGPD, and CCPA requirements with role-based permissions and audit-ready reporting | ActivTrak’s plans include security controls, such as SOC 2/HIPAA, Security audit (IT forensics) |
Best fit | Global teams in need of time tracking, activity, payments, and operational visibility who like an intuitive, easy-to-use interface/app | Teams focused on productivity insights and behavior analysis |
See how the key features compare
Let’s explore how Hubstaff and ActivTrak’s features compare, so you can better understand their differences, save money, and make a more informed buying decision.
Time tracking for operations vs. activity-first analytics
Hubstaff
Convert every work hour into records you can trust with Hubstaff’s time tracking platform. Capture time across projects and tasks, generate automated timesheets for payroll, and operational documents for regulatory reviews. With desktop, mobile, and timer-based tracking on personal computers, and automatic tracking of company equipment, teams get the flexibility to track work wherever they are.
ActivTrak
Track and analyze behavioral insights from activity data, including hours worked, schedules, app usage, and website usage. Similarly, ActivTrak offers automatic time tracking that runs in the background on company devices.
Key takeaway: Hubstaff connects time tracking to operational workflows, creating reliable records for audits, payroll, and compliance. ActivTrak prioritizes activity-based analytics to measure productivity and work patterns.
Productivity monitoring approach
Hubstaff
Keep a pulse on productivity without sacrificing flexibility. Hubstaff's built-in productivity monitoring shows you efficiency trends with activity levels, apps and URLs used, optional screenshots, and idle time detection. Configurable tracking settings and role-based permissions make it easy to align performance monitoring with your company's policies, privacy requirements, and regulatory needs.
ActivTrak
ActivTrak combines activity and application data to identify work patterns, focus time, and collaboration trends, with screenshots available as an optional add-on. It's a strong choice for organizations focused on understanding workforce behavior.
Key takeaway: Hubstaff gives you full operational visibility through productivity signals tied to time, projects, and work records, while ActivTrak analyzes activity data to uncover work patterns and productivity trends.
Workforce analytics depth
Hubstaff
Keep actionable data at your fingertips to manage workload, utilization, and operational anomalies with Hubstaff's AI-powered workforce analytics and Insights for deeper productivity analysis. Using workforce intelligence, it turns data into contextual signals, identifies unusual activity, app and URL usage patterns, projects, capacity, and costs. You can also compare productivity between remote and in-office settings.
Query your workforce data with the Hubstaff CLI for instant answers to questions like who's overworked this week or which project is over budget. Make your workforce data AI-ready to analyze performance trends, uncover insights, and eliminate manual reporting.
ActivTrak
Get detailed behavioral analysis, application use, workload patterns, productivity coaching, and digital work habits with ActivTrak. It is an ideal fit for behavior-focused teams that already have separate operational and payroll systems, but need workforce behavior insights.
Key takeaway
Hubstaff simplifies workforce optimization to support operational records and governance, whereas ActivTrak concentrates more deeply on behavioral analytics and workforce optimization.
Two ways to deploy for flexibility
Hubstaff
Growing organizations need flexible deployment for employees, contractors, and distributed teams. Hubstaff does exactly that, offering both personal and automated tracking for company-managed devices. While personal device tracking gives individuals the flexibility to use a start/stop timer to track time to projects, companies can customize the data they want to see. Likewise, Hubstaff can be deployed to run automatically on managed devices, helping IT maintain consistent work records with less manual effort.
ActivTrak
ActivTrak mainly offers automatic background tracking for company-managed devices. The ActivTrak agent can be installed to run in the background, collecting device information, employee activities, and productivity metrics.
Key takeaway
ActivTrak mainly offers automatic background tracking for company-managed devices. Meanwhile, Hubstaff provides full-scale tracking for larger teams, with the flexibility to track work on both personal and company-managed devices.
Integrations and ecosystems
Hubstaff
Hubstaff integrates with 30+ tools across project management, payroll, invoicing, accounting, and CRM, including Salesforce, Jira, GitHub, Deel, and more. This makes it easy to build a seamless, end-to-end operational workflow. With API access, teams can further customize workflows and tailor the experience to fit their business needs.
ActivTrak
ActivTrak integrates with a range of collaboration tools, including Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar. It also provides API access, but its integrations are more limited for operational workflows like time tracking and payroll, often requiring additional tools to connect ActivTrak analytics with timesheets and execution.
Key takeaway: Hubstaff enables end-to-end operational workflows with built-in integrations, while ActivTrak focuses on analytics and relies on additional tools for payroll execution.
Pricing comparison
A side-by-side look at Hubstaff and ActivTrak, breaking down pricing tiers, features with each plan, and the value each platform delivers. Hubstaff offers more cost-effective entry and mid-tier pricing with time tracking, payment options, and analytics, while ActivTrak focuses primarily on monitoring and analytics and may require additional tools.
| Plan tier | Hubstaff | ActivTrak |
|---|---|---|
Free | 14-day free trial (full features) | Free plan ($0/user/month, up to 3 users, limited features) |
Entry plan | Starter $4.99/user/month (billed annually) (Includes basic time tracking & productivity tools) | Work Activity Tracking $10/user/month (billed annually), suitable for small businesses (Includes basic monitoring & automatic tracking) |
Mid tier | Grow $7.50/user/month (billed annually) (Includes advanced reporting, integrations) | Workforce Management $15/user/month (Includes workforce utilization, productivity goals) |
Advanced | Team $10/user/month (Includes AI workforce analytics, automated payments, scheduling, unlimited integrations) | Productivity Optimization $15/user/month (Productivity insights, utilization, AI adoption) |
Enterprise | Enterprise $25/user/month (Includes custom setup, advanced security & support) | Custom pricing available for enterprise features and volume discounts. |
What our customers say
“We work in a lot of different industries, so I can’t always know what’s a 45-minute task and what’s a four-hour task. With tools like Hubstaff, you can tell. You then decide if a whole project should’ve taken 16 hours or if someone is just not the right fit.”
OneIMS President and Founder
“We believe — just like Hubstaff — that talent is everywhere and people should be able to work any time, anywhere, even in their pajamas,” says Kothari. “As a company, we believe in the same future of work as Hubstaff, which is great because our values align.”
Co-founder at Tallyfy
Ease of use and support
When it comes to usability and support, Hubstaff and ActivTrak take different approaches.
Hubstaff
As outlined in the G2 review summary, users appreciate Hubstaff for its ease of use and reliable time tracking, which helps them manage remote work effectively. Hubstaff brings ease of use and support together by offering:
- Multi-platform usability as a desktop, web, and mobile app
- Clear time tracking with a start/stop timer or automated tracking
- Automated timesheets created from tracked time with a task breakdown
- A central dashboard for managers to view team productivity with
- Many configuration and customization options with guided support
- 24/7 help center, onboarding resources, and VIP phone support for enterprise teams
Key takeaway: Easy-to-navigate UI built for teams that need both time tracking and management in one structured platform.
ActivTrak
ActivTrak is known for increasing visibility into employee productivity through workforce monitoring. It offers:
- Strong analytics with 20+ dashboards
- Minimal setup, pre-installed on company devices, and runs in the background
- The interface is organized around key workforce reports and insights
- No manual interaction required for tracking, as data gets collected automatically
- Guided account setup available for self-onboarding
Key takeaway: The ActivTrak UX focused on quickly surfacing workforce analytics and activity insights, with less emphasis on active user input or workflow management.
Hubstaff takes a hands-on, workflow-focused approach, offering active time tracking, project management, and built-in payments at a more accessible price point. In contrast, ActivTrak primarily offers background tracking, emphasizing workforce analytics and activity insights with minimal user input.
Who each platform is built for
Both Hubstaff and ActivTrak serve different use cases, though there is some overlap for teams looking to improve visibility and productivity.
Hubstaff: Built for organizations with 51–500 employees across various industries, including health care, legal, and finance, Hubstaff turns time tracking and AI-powered workforce analytics into reliable records. Every hour and activity is documented in real time and ready for compliance checks.
ActivTrak: ActivTrak is the perfect choice for organizations focused on behavioral analytics. It works well for teams that already have other time tracking and payroll tools but need support with in-depth employee activity and productivity insights.
Security and governance to support growing organizations
Workforce analytics can include sensitive employee, project, and client information. Compliance and IT leaders need to know how that data is used, how users are provisioned, and whether the platform can support work and activity documentation during a regulatory review.
Hubstaff
Hubstaff's guiding principles are designed to maintain transparency, access, and control for growing organizations. They establish a clearer governance framework across workforce data, time records, approvals, and payments.
- Control access to sensitive data: Role-based permissions help limit access according to each person's responsibilities. Managers, payroll teams, administrators, and employees can receive access appropriate to their role rather than broad visibility across the organization.
- Simplify provisioning and offboarding: IT teams can centralize authentication and user provisioning with SSO and SCIM help. This reduces manual administration and makes it easier to update or remove access when individuals change roles or leave the organization.
- Work and activity records: Compliance, HR, and finance teams can simplify audits, payroll, and investigations with a verifiable work and activity trail linked to tracked time, projects, approvals, and payroll.
- Maintain security controls: Being SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant, Hubstaff provides the data governance frameworks you need.
- Detect reporting anomalies: Unusual-activity insights can help teams identify work records that warrant review without requiring managers to manually inspect every entry.
See our full certifications in the Trust Center.
ActivTrak
ActivTrak is well-equipped to support businesses focused on security, compliance, workforce data governance, and company device tracking. Behavioral analytics and productivity insights remain its priority.
Key takeaway: Hubstaff pairs its security controls with a complete operational workflow that covers timesheets, approvals, payroll, billing, and audit records. ActivTrak brings solid security to a platform centered on behavioral analytics.
Final verdict: Hubstaff vs. ActivTrak
After analyzing both tools, we can conclude that Hubstaff and ActivTrak, in their own ways, solve different layers of the same problem.
Hubstaff tracks work hours and connects them to projects, costs, and payments, while providing visibility into team productivity and operations through AI-powered workforce analytics. Its CLI and API capabilities make workforce data easier to connect, automate, and prepare for AI-powered workflows.
ActivTrak is built to analyze how work gets done through agent-based activity tracking, with a strong focus on work patterns, behavioral insights, productivity optimization, and workforce analytics.
- Choose Hubstaff if you need robust time tracking, visibility into global team workflows, and a simple way to manage accurate payments, all from one platform.
- Choose ActivTrak if your priority is analyzing activity and understanding how your team works.