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With so many time tracking software options available, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. That’s why, in this post, we’re excited to help you explore the differences between two popular platforms: Hubstaff and Hourly.io.
At Hubstaff, we understand the importance of efficient time management and accurate tracking — but that doesn’t mean we can’t provide unbiased insights and share our honest thoughts on other great tools like Hourly.io. Let’s get started.
Which one should you use?
Choose Hubstaff if you need advanced time tracking and workforce analytics features and already have a separate payroll system. It's ideal for companies looking to automate time tracking with automated timesheets or geofencing, gain detailed insights, and maximize productivity.
Choose Hourly.io if you’re looking for a solution that integrates time tracking with payroll and workers' compensation. It’s perfect for businesses that need accurate location tracking and simplified payroll management, particularly those with mobile or remote teams.
Hubstaff vs. Hourly.io features at a glance
| Feature | Hubstaff | Hourly.io |
|---|---|---|
Time tracking | Yes | Yes |
GPS/Geofencing | Yes | Yes |
Productivity tracking | Yes | No |
Optional screenshots | Yes | No |
Detailed reports | Yes | Yes |
Invoicing | Yes | No |
Project budgets | Yes | Yes |
Shift scheduling | Yes | No |
Payroll management | Yes | Yes |
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Time tracking features
Hubstaff
Hubstaff’s comprehensive time tracking software enhances productivity and provides detailed insights into employee activities. The platform offers a clean and intuitive timer that works across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android devices. Users can switch seamlessly between these options without losing a second of tracked time.
Additionally, Hubstaff provides a web app and Google Chrome extension for even more flexibility. With features like adjustable idle timeout settings, Hubstaff prevents employees from running up the clock and billing for inactive work hours.
For those on the go, the mobile time tracking app can log time entries, and users can add notes to provide context to their idle time.
What I like best about Hubstaff is its precise time tracking. It's incredibly helpful to have an accurate record of my work hours without any extra effort.
Offline tracking capabilities ensure time is still tracked even when users are without an internet connection. Hubstaff can then sync the data once reconnected. Users can also add manual time entries to make corrections or add offline work or automate clock-ins and clock-outs with geofencing.
Hourly.io
Hourly.io offers a seamless time tracking experience integrated directly with payroll and workers’ compensation. The real-time tracking system collects time, task, and location data to ensure you always have up-to-date information.
Automatic location-based clock-ins and outs simplify the tracking process for mobile and remote teams. Hourly.io also includes manager-approved overtime and mandatory breaks, helping control labor costs and ensuring compliance with labor laws.
Employees can track their time using mobile devices or web browsers, providing flexibility and ease of use. Managers can easily see how much time employees spend working.
Hubstaff vs. Hourly.io time tracking overview
| Feature | Hubstaff | Hourly.io |
|---|---|---|
Automatic time tracking | Yes | Yes |
Timesheets | Yes | Yes |
In-app payments | Yes | No |
Time off tracking | Yes | Yes |
Work breaks | Yes | No |
Time tracking reminders | Yes | Yes |
Idle time reminders | Yes | Yes |
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Location tracking
Hubstaff
Hubstaff’s GPS features allow managers to see their employees' real-time location. This feature benefits businesses with field teams, as it allows managers to verify that employees are on-site and working as expected.
Start by creating geofenced Job sites to prevent time theft and buddy punching. Crews can clock in and out automatically whenever they enter or leave a Job site. This tracked time then becomes an automated timesheet in just a few clicks.
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Try Hubstaff todayIf you manage on-the-go teams, route tracking allows you to see how your crew gets from Job site to Job site. You can also see when they stop for breaks, materials, or gas.
Hourly.io
Like Hubstaff, Hourly.io enhances GPS tracking with geofencing capabilities that automate clock-ins and outs based on an employee's location. It’s highly efficient for on-the-go workforces looking to eliminate the need for manual clock-ins and outs.
When employees enter or leave a designated geofenced area, the system automatically records their time to ensure precise, effortless tracking. This level of automation is particularly beneficial for businesses in construction, logistics, or any industry where employees frequently move between different Job sites.
Hubstaff vs. Hourly.io location tracking overview
| Feature | Hubstaff | Hourly.io |
|---|---|---|
GPS tracking | Yes | Yes |
Geofenced Job sites | Yes | Yes |
Automatic location-based clock-in and out | Yes | Yes |
Job routes | Yes | No |
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Productivity monitoring and optional screenshots
Hubstaff
While Hubstaff offers a wide range of features, its standout capabilities lie in its robust activity and productivity measurement, which sets it apart from Hourly.io.
Hubstaff’s activity monitoring features center around tracking mouse movements and keyboard strokes to provide activity levels. App and URL tracking offers insights into the software and websites employees use during work hours.
With the Insights add-on, managers can manage productive and unproductive apps on a per-user basis. In other words, you can mark Instagram as unproductive for your sales team, but productive for your Social Media Manager.
These features help leaders manage large teams without constant check-in meetings. Plus, it helps reward high achievers, as employees can earn achievement badges for activity hot streaks, hours worked, and more.
Monitoring features are fully customizable
Managers can fully customize employee monitoring settings by toggling screenshots, apps, URLs, and other features on and off — or blurring the details. Each user’s dashboard is fully customizable and managers can tweak theirs based on the employee data they need. Toggle between optional screenshots, weekly limits, and add more widgets to manage your team easily.
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Hourly.io
Hourly.io does not offer employee monitoring software or activity monitoring features like Hubstaff. Instead, Hourly.io focuses on enabling employers to track time spent, manage workers comp, and process payroll.
Hubstaff vs. Hourly.io productivity features overview
| Feature | Hubstaff | Hourly.io |
|---|---|---|
Activity scores | Yes | No |
App and URL tracking | Yes | No |
Achievement badges | Yes | No |
Optional screenshots | Yes | No |
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Reporting features
Hubstaff
Hubstaff offers over 30 reports for time tracking, activity, invoicing, attendance, etc. One of the standout features is the customizable reports, which allow you to tailor the data to meet your specific needs.
Hubstaff offers tons of automated reports, but there are a few that stand out:
Payroll reporting. Hubstaff’s detailed timesheets and reports facilitate easy payroll processing and project management. You can pay your team directly from the platform and generate records in just a few clicks.
Activity reporting. Activity reports are another critical feature. They show the percentage of time each employee is actively using their mouse and keyboard. This data is updated regularly, providing real-time insights into employee engagement.
Location reporting. Hubstaff also includes GPS location reports, which track the locations where employees are working. This makes it ideal for managing remote or field-based teams.
Project budget reporting. Hubstaff's project budget reporting feature is handy, allowing managers to set project budgets and receive notifications as limits are approached. This helps track profitability and ensures projects stay within budget by monitoring costs in real time.
Plus, a lot of this information is available in real time in an easy-to-use dashboard. Hubstaff’s customizable dashboards provide a visual overview of key metrics, making it easier for managers to monitor employees, optimize team performance, and gauge employee well-being.
Hourly.io
Hourly.io offers essential reporting features tailored for businesses needing efficient solutions. Here are a few reports Hourly.io provides that stood out to us:
Attendance reports. Hourly’s reports detail clock-in and clock-out times and break periods, helping ensure compliance with labor laws and internal policies.
Time-off reports. Track vacation and sick leave balances and policies while detailed payroll reports cover wages, taxes, and other payroll-related data.
Location reports. GPS tracking provides insights into employee locations and movements during work hours.
Managers can access this data via a dashboard to monitor labor costs accurately by project, location, or worker. However, Hourly.io does not provide app and website reports, activity reports, project budget reports, or expense reports like Hubstaff.
Hubstaff vs. Hourly.io reporting features overview
| Feature | Hubstaff | Hourly.io |
|---|---|---|
Customizable reports | Yes | Yes |
App & website reports | Yes | No |
Activity reports | Yes | No |
Location reports | Yes | Yes |
Project budget reports | Yes | No |
Attendance reports | Yes | Yes |
Time off reports | Yes | Yes |
Payroll reports | Yes | Yes |
Expense reports | Yes | No |
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Invoicing
Hubstaff
With Hubstaff, you can effortlessly convert time tracking data into automated invoices, complete with custom branding and automated line items. You can then email these invoices directly from Hubstaff and get notified when a client views them. You can also track pending, partial, and completed payments by filtering invoices by clients or teams.
If you already have an invoicing system, Hubstaff integrates smoothly with popular accounting software like QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and Wise, ensuring your current workflow continues seamlessly.
Hourly.io
Hourly.io focuses primarily on time tracking and payroll management but also offers some basic invoicing capabilities. After tracking time, tasks, and locations, Hourly.io users can export reports at the end of each pay period. Users can then download these reports in Excel or PDF to create invoices.
Hubstaff vs. Hourly.io invoicing features overview
| Feature | Hubstaff | Hourly.io |
|---|---|---|
Generate invoices from timesheets | Yes | Yes |
Email, PDF, and HTML invoices | Yes | PDF only |
See when clients view an invoice | Yes | No |
Export as PDF | Yes | Yes |
Add custom logos, branding, etc. | Yes | No |
Accounting software integrations | Yes | Yes |
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Project budgeting features
Hubstaff
Keep your projects on track with Hubstaff’s comprehensive budgeting features. With Hubstaff, you can:
Set budgets based on hours worked, bill rates, and hourly pay rates. This ensures teams can monitor every aspect of their project’s financial health. Hubstaff allows you to track these budgets in real-time, providing immediate insights into your project's financial status.
Enable notifications and receive alerts when your project is approaching budget limits, allowing you to make timely adjustments.
Access detailed reports that enable you to pull comprehensive reports on project costs and budget utilization. These reports can be customized to show specific data such as cost per project, cost per user, and overall project profitability.
Set up recurring budgets, ensuring ongoing projects remain within financial constraints. Use prior budgets to create future project plans and make small tweaks to the project scope as you go.
Whether you’re managing a single project or multiple client budgets, Hubstaff’s robust features help maintain control and visibility over all project expenses.
Hourly.io
Hourly.io does not offer specific project budgeting features within its current suite of tools. While the platform excels in real-time time tracking, payroll, and workers' comp management, it does not include functionalities for setting or tracking project budgets.
Hubstaff vs. Hourly.io project budgeting features overview
| Feature | Hubstaff | Hourly.io |
|---|---|---|
Set project budgets | Yes | No |
Set project notifications | Yes | No |
Project budget reports | Yes | No |
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Scheduling
Hubstaff
Hubstaff’s shift scheduling features give you complete control over your team's schedules to enhance both management efficiency and employee productivity. This is another area where Hubstaff stands out from Hourly.io, a platform that offers no employee scheduling.
Leveraging Hubstaff’s robust time tracking and productivity data, managers can easily create and adjust schedules, track attendance, and set weekly hour limits for hourly work. This ensures that all team members work the optimal number of hours and helps prevent burnout or overtime issues.
Hubstaff also offers proactive alerts for late, missed, or abandoned shifts, helping managers address and resolve scheduling issues.
GPS and geofencing technology further simplify shift management by confirming that employees are clocking in from the correct locations. This feature ensures accountability and accuracy in time tracking and is particularly useful for managing remote or field-based teams.
Hourly.io
Hourly.io focuses on time tracking, payroll, and workers' compensation management but does not offer advanced employee scheduling features like Hubstaff.
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Try Hubstaff freeHubstaff vs. Hourly.io scheduling features overview
| Feature | Hubstaff | Hourly.io |
|---|---|---|
Shift scheduling | Yes | Yes, with a paid upgrade |
Shift notifications | Yes | Yes |
Attendance tracking reports | Yes | Yes |
Weekly hours limits | Yes | No |
Work orders and jobs | Yes | Yes |
Work breaks | Yes | No |
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Payroll management
Hubstaff
Hubstaff stands out by offering the capability to pay freelancers, contractors, and full-time employees directly through the app. With Hubstaff, you can turn tracked time into digital timesheets. This streamlined process eliminates the need to export timesheets to PDF or CSV formats for manual payroll processing.
Hubstaff's powerful integrations with apps like PayPal, Payoneer, Wise, and Bitwage allow seamless payments to ensure quick, efficient payments. Managers can assign weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly pay periods for each team member and process payments through their preferred payment platform.
Additionally, Hubstaff’s payment integration capabilities include support for automated payments. This automation helps reduce administrative workload, minimize the risk of errors, and ensure all employees receive their wages on time without manual intervention.
Hourly.io
Hourly.io simplifies payroll management with its comprehensive full-service payroll capabilities. The platform handles automatic wage calculations, tax filings, and direct deposits to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal tax regulations. It offers flexibility in payment methods to support next-day direct deposit, paper checks, and same-day direct deposit.
Integrated with real-time time tracking, Hourly.io ensures accurate payroll data by syncing hours worked, tasks, and locations. The platform also offers advanced features like automatic workers' comp payments, digital paystubs, employee self-onboarding, and a document control center for electronic signatures via DocuSign.
One important thing to note is that Hourly.io has limited payroll integrations. Currently, they integrate with Quickbooks but lack integrations with other tools that Hubstaff offers.
Hubstaff vs. Hourly.io payroll management features overview
| Feature | Hubstaff | Hourly.io |
|---|---|---|
Automated payroll | Yes | Yes |
In-app payments | Yes | Yes |
Custom pay periods | Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly | Weekly, bi-weekly, and twice-monthly |
Payroll integrations | PayPal, Payoneer, Wise, Bitwage, Quickbooks, Freshbooks, and Gusto | QuickBooks |
Hubstaff vs. Hourly.io: Which one is right for you?
Pricing comparison
Last but certainly not least, let’s talk money.
Hubstaff pricing
Starter ($7 per user/month): Time tracking, limited reporting, and one integration.
Grow ($9 per user/month): Advanced reporting, project budgets, and expenses.
Team ($12 per user/month): Activity monitoring, payroll, unlimited integrations, timesheet approvals, scheduling, and the Hubstaff Insights add-on.
Enterprise ($25 per user/month): HIPAA and SOC-2 Type II compliance, enterprise deployment, account provisioning, and the Hubstaff Corporate app.
Hourly.io pricing
Hourly.io does not have pricing listed on its website. You can contact them for a quote.
Final decision
There’s a lot of information here, so let’s quickly summarize:
Hubstaff
Hubstaff is ideal for businesses seeking advanced time tracking and employee monitoring tools. It offers detailed insights into employee activities, like activity scores, app and URL tracking, and optional screenshots.
Hubstaff also supports GPS and geofencing for real-time location tracking and comprehensive reporting for payroll, activity, and project budgets. It integrates with various payroll and accounting software for streamlined operations. Finally, Hubstaff, with the Tasks add-on, offers project management software for task tracking.
Hourly.io
Hourly.io excels at pairing time tracking with payroll and workers' compensation management. It supports real-time data collection, GPS-based clock-ins and outs, and automatic wage calculations. While it lacks advanced employee monitoring like Hubstaff, it provides essential reports for attendance, time off, and payroll management.
Ultimately, the choice between Hubstaff vs Hourly depends on whether your priority is advanced productivity measurement or seamless integration with payroll and workers' compensation.
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