6 Best Hubstaff Alternatives After 500+ Hours Tracked
Hubstaff is typically introduced as a time-tracking and employee-monitoring platform built for teams that want visibility into how work gets done. And while some teams love it, others find it a bit invasive and annoying.
Therefore, I wanted to compile the best Hubstaff alternatives for those who are not sure whether it is the right time-tracking software for them.
To help narrow things down, I recently tracked 500+ hours across 20+ time tracking apps. Some provide deeper productivity insights, others are built for freelancers and client billing, while some intentionally prioritize privacy, simplicity, or generous free plans.
Go down, because you’ll find the best Hubstaff alternatives based on real use cases, each picked for what it does best.
Let’s dive in!
Which are the best Hubstaff alternatives in 2026?
In this article, my goal was not to find a single universal Hubstaff replacement but to identify the best alternatives for different needs.
Here are the main criteria I used:
Without further ado, here are the best Hubstaff alternatives based on real use cases and hands-on testing.
My list of the best Hubstaff alternatives in 2026
Here are the best Hubstaff alternatives in 2026:
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Hubstaff alternatives |
Overall experience |
My top picks |
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Best Hubstaff alternative overall | |
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Best Hubstaff alternative for freelancers | |
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Best Hubstaff alternative for professionals | |
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Best free Hubstaff alternative | |
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Best Hubstaff alternative for reporting | |
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Best Hubstaff alternative for project-based time tracking |
Best Hubstaff Alternative #1 | Insightful
Best Hubstaff alternative overall
Insightful is time-tracking and employee-monitoring software for teams. It captures daily work in real time and features a wide range of productivity tools to help your team maximize time.
After testing more than 25 time-tracking and employee-monitoring apps, Insightful stood out as one of the most complete options. It combines time tracking, employee monitoring, and productivity analysis in a way that works especially well for remote employees and hybrid teams.
Key features
Time tracking software: Insightful requires a desktop app for time tracking on Windows, Mac, and Linux. After installation, employees select a project and task and can start tracking time immediately. Switching between tasks or stopping tracking is simple, and the overall experience felt polished when capturing time spent on work.
Employee monitoring: Insightful offers extensive employee monitoring features with a strong focus on customization. You can control screenshots, break and idle time, and permissions for each employee individually. Screenshots are optional, which makes it easier to balance productivity tracking with privacy.
Productivity trends and insights: The productivity trends dashboard shows work hours, idle time, utilization, and other key metrics across teams and time periods. Insightful also provides up-to-the-minute insights into active and inactive employees, along with app and website usage, with settings that can be adjusted to limit visibility.
Projects, tasks, and time & attendance: You can create projects and tasks, assign them to team members, and track time against them. Insightful also includes time and attendance features such as schedules, timesheets, and manual time entries for offline work, all accessible from one place.
Activity tracking and reports: Activity tracking provides a timeline view of work hours, breaks and idle time detection, along with detailed logs of app and website usage. The reporting feature is very easy to use, and it visualizes metrics beautifully. You can also export data with a single click.
Integrations: Insightful offers direct integrations with tools like Asana, Wrike, Deel, and GitHub. While it does not support Zapier, the available native integrations cover many common workflows for remote employees and hybrid teams.
Pricing
Insightful offers a 7-day free trial without requiring a credit card.
The Productivity Management plan is $6.40 per seat per month with annual billing and includes app and web activity analysis, employee activity analysis, screenshots, stealth mode, and reports.
The Time Tracking plan costs $8 per seat per month and adds project and task time tracking with integrations.
For teams with over 50 users, the Process Improvement plan costs $12 per seat per month and includes automated project and task tracking, workflow analysis, and process optimization.
Organizations with over 100 users are able to request custom pricing through the Enterprise plan. Insightful also offers add-ons for screen recording, on-demand screenshots, upgraded security, and data warehouse integrations.
My experience with Insightful
What stood out during testing was how Insightful combines a large feature set with ease of use. Despite offering advanced employee monitoring and reporting tools, the interface remains user-friendly and easy to navigate.
Insightful performs especially well in employee monitoring and productivity analysis. The customization options make it easier to balance visibility and trust, and the productivity dashboards help identify unproductive patterns.
Where Insightful has room for improvement is in client tracking and mobile support. It is primarily designed to improve productivity in remote and hybrid teams.
Pros and cons of Insightful
Pros of Insightful
Cons of Insightful
Why Insightful is the best Hubstaff alternative overall
Insightful combines time tracking, employee monitoring, and productivity analysis in a flexible and customizable way. In comparison to Hubstaff, it offers deeper insights into productivity and more control over monitoring settings.
For remote and hybrid teams that want clear visibility into how time is spent without relying only on strict monitoring, Insightful is the strongest overall Hubstaff alternative.
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Best Hubstaff Alternative #2 | Toggl Track
Best Hubstaff alternative for freelancers and client-based teams
Toggl Track is a time-tracking app that offers automated time tracking, project management, invoicing, and reporting to help you maximize productivity and revenue. It does not try to do everything, and that is one of its strengths. It focuses on time tracking and reporting rather than employee surveillance.
Key features
Automated time tracking: Toggl Track can automatically track time spent across apps, websites, and documents. You can choose which activities are tracked, and there are no screenshots or mouse tracking. During testing, this feature saved time and made daily tracking more consistent without feeling invasive.
Timer and offline tracking: Toggl Track offers a simple timer available on web, desktop, and mobile apps, with support for offline time tracking. Time entries can be added manually if needed, and the calendar view makes it easy to review daily activity. The built-in Pomodoro timer is also available through the browser extension.
Invoicing and reporting: Toggl Track allows you to create invoices directly from tracked time and reports. Reporting features include project distribution, billable hours, workload view, and profitability analysis. These tools worked especially well for agencies and consultancies that rely on transparent client billing.
Projects, clients, and timesheets: You can create projects and clients to track time, billable hours, and profitability. Filters allow you to view data by project, client, team member, or billable status. Toggl Track also supports automatic timesheet creation, with simple approval workflows.
User interface and integrations: Toggl Track has a simple and user-friendly interface across web, desktop, and mobile apps, with a minimal learning curve. It integrates with over 100 tools, including Asana, ClickUp, Notion, and Evernote, and also supports Zapier for connecting thousands of additional apps.
Pricing
Toggl Track offers a free plan for up to five users, which includes time tracker, productivity tools like the Pomodoro timer, calendar integrations, and basic reporting. Based on testing, the free plan works well for freelancers and individuals getting started. If you want to test premium features, though, there’s a 30-day free trial.
Paid plans start with the Starter plan at $9 user/month when billed annually. This plan adds team features, billable rates, invoicing, and more advanced reporting. If you want customizable reports, profitability analysis, fixed-fee projects, and single sign-on, you’ll have to upgrade to the Premium plan. It’s $18 user/month with annual billing, or $20 monthly.
For larger organizations, Toggl Track provides an Enterprise plan with custom pricing, personalized onboarding, and dedicated support.
My experience with Toggl Track
I spent several weeks using Toggl Track and implemented it directly into my business. Overall, I was satisfied with how easy it was to use while still offering all the features a small or medium-sized business might need.
The reporting and invoicing tools stood out the most, especially for client-based work. While it is not ideal for businesses that require GPS or location tracking, Toggl Track works extremely well for remote teams, agencies, and consultancies.
Pros and cons of Toggl Track
Pros of Toggl Track
Cons of Toggl Track
Why Toggl Track is the best Hubstaff alternative for freelancers and client-based teams
Hubstaff focuses heavily on employee monitoring and location tracking. Toggl Track, on the other hand, prioritizes time tracking accuracy, reporting, and client billing.
For freelancers, agencies, and remote teams that care about billable hours and reporting rather than surveillance, Toggl Track is a solid Hubstaff alternative.
Related posts:
- Toggl Review 2025: My 4-Week Personal Experience
- Harvest Vs Toggl: I Personally Tested Both (2025)
- Toggl Vs Clockify: I Tried Both for Weeks — This One Won (2025)
Best Hubstaff Alternative #3 | Rize
Best Hubstaff alternative for professionals
Rize is an AI-powered time tracker that improves your focus and helps you establish better work habits. After using it daily for more than three months, it became clear that Rize is designed for professionals who want to understand how they spend their time and actively improve their productivity.
Key features
Automatic time tracking: Rize automatically captures the time spent on your computer without requiring timers. It tracks workflows as soon as you start your PC and categorizes activities based on focused windows and browser usage. Automatic tracking can be paused at any time, and manual edits can be made if needed.
Customizable categories and sessions: Rize categorizes activities into different categories and sessions, such as focus time, meetings, and breaks. Categories can be adjusted manually or saved as rules for future tracking. This made it easy to understand how time is distributed throughout different types of work.
AI notifications and break reminders: Rize uses AI to send notifications suggesting breaks based on work activity. It alerts you when you reach a certain number of hours worked in a day, which is great for preventing overworking and burnout.
Reports and productivity insights: Rize sends daily, weekly, and monthly reports regarding time management and productivity. These detailed reports include in-depth breakdowns and suggestions for improving efficiency and building better work habits. It makes a big difference in establishing the right work habits to avoid burnout.
Tasks, projects, and client tracking: You can add projects, tasks, and clients, and assign budget hours, keywords, and rules so Rize can automatically identify related activities. These features make Rize especially useful for client-facing professionals and freelancers who want accurate time tracking without manual input.
Integrations: Rize integrates with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar to automatically capture meeting times. The Professional plan also includes Zapier integration, allowing connections with thousands of third-party apps.
Pricing
Rize offers a Free plan that can be used by the whole team. The free tier retains one day of tracking data and includes the timer and goals view, a desktop widget, focus metrics, focus music, a distraction blocker, and break reminders. Older data is automatically deleted.
The Standard plan costs $12.99 user/month. It unlocks full data retention, access to all dashboard views, customizable categories, daily and weekly reports, AI productivity insights, and the AI session planner.
In addition to everything included in the Standard plan, the Professional plan adds task and project tracking, client tracking, Zapier integration, and access to a custom API. This plan costs $19.99 user/month.
If you decide to downgrade to a free version, you will still have access to your account and will be able to export past data.
My experience with Rize
Despite offering advanced features and in-depth productivity data, Rize remained simple and easy to use. It also greatly influenced my time management and thus efficiency.
What stood out most was how clearly Rize showed focus patterns and unproductive habits. The insights were sometimes eye-opening, though truly helpful for improving daily routines. Overall, my experience with Rize was 10/10, and it is one of the few time-tracking apps I can recommend for almost all professional use cases.
Pros and cons of Rize
Pros of Rize
Cons of Rize
Why Rize is the best Hubstaff alternative for professionals
Hubstaff focuses on employee monitoring and time tracking. Rize focuses on professionals who want to improve focus, efficiency, and work habits through automatic tracking and analytics.
For those seeking a Hubstaff alternative that focuses on personal productivity over surveillance and helps you build better work habits, Rize is one of the strongest options available.
Related posts:
- My Honest Rize Review After Using It For +3 Months (2025)
- Clockify Vs Rize | An Easy Decision (2025)
Best Hubstaff Alternative #4 | Jibble
Best free Hubstaff alternative
Jibble is a time tracking software and employee productivity app designed for teams. It works on web, desktop, and mobile devices (iOS and Android) and offers a wide range of features, from attendance tracking to automated timesheets.
Key features
Time tracking on web, desktop, and mobile: Jibble lets you track time using its web app, desktop app, Chrome extension, and mobile apps. You can start and stop timers, switch activities, track breaks, and add notes. The web app serves as the main hub for all tracked time and settings.
Timesheets and attendance tracking: Jibble automatically generates timesheets from tracked time and allows manual entries if someone forgets to clock in. It tracks regular and overtime hours and supports approvals, making it well-suited for payroll and attendance management.
Live location tracking and facial recognition: Jibble offers live GPS tracking so employees can clock in from approved locations. It also includes a facial recognition feature to prevent buddy punching. These features make Jibble especially useful for field teams and on-site workers.
Time off management: Jibble includes built-in time-off and holiday management. You can approve requests, pull public holidays automatically by country, and set up custom time-off policies with accruals, compensation rules, and limits for each team member.
Reporting: Jibble provides straightforward reporting tools for tracked time and attendance. You can view work hours by activity, project, client, or team member and export reports to Excel. Attendance insights reports make it easy to review clock-ins and work patterns.
Integrations: Jibble integrates with tools like Asana, Xero, QuickBooks, Deel, Slack, Notion, and HubSpot. It also supports Zapier, allowing connections with thousands of additional apps, as well as payroll and accounting software.
Pricing
Jibble offers one of the most generous free plans on the market. The Free plan includes unlimited time tracking for unlimited users, automated timesheets, custom breaks, overtime rules, biometric verification, and basic tracking policies.
The Premium plan is $3.49 user/month with annual billing and adds features like team management, unlimited geofences, work schedules, custom policies, and multi-level approvals.
The Ultimate plan costs $6.99 user/month, and includes live location tracking, attendance insights, priority support, and custom permissions.
For large organizations, the Enterprise plan is $8.99 user/month and offers advanced security, dedicated support, and adapted solutions for teams with over 500 users.
My experience with Jibble
I had a great time testing and using Jibble in my business. It is a user-friendly time-tracking solution with a short learning curve, even for people who have never used a time-tracking app.
What stood out most was how much value is packed into the free plan. Features such as automated timesheets, unlimited users, GPS tracking, and integrations are available at no cost. At the same time, the paid plans remain well below average market prices.
That said, I would love to see more team collaboration and client management features in the future. Those are not Jibble’s main focus, but they would make it even stronger for remote teams.
Pros and cons of Jibble
Pros of Jibble
Cons of Jibble
Why Jibble is the best free Hubstaff alternative
Hubstaff’s free plan is very limited. Jibble takes a completely different approach by offering unlimited users and a wide range of features for free.
If you are looking for a free Hubstaff alternative that covers time tracking, attendance, GPS tracking, and basic reporting without forcing you into a paid plan, Jibble is the best option.
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Best Hubstaff Alternative #5 | Time Doctor
Best Hubstaff alternative for detailed monitoring and reporting
Time Doctor is a time-tracking and productivity tool designed to help individuals and teams monitor how they spend their work hours. It combines automatic time tracking, screenshots, app and website usage tracking, detailed reports, and payroll management.
After testing it hands-on, Time Doctor proved to be a strong Hubstaff alternative for teams that need detailed visibility into work hours, productivity data, and payroll, but are also comfortable with more intensive monitoring features.
Key features
Time tracking via desktop and mobile apps: Time tracking in Time Doctor is handled through its desktop and mobile apps, while the web app is mainly used for managing and analyzing data. The desktop app tracks time reliably and includes reminders to start tracking, automatic timer start, and manual time edits through the web dashboard.
Employee monitoring and screenshots: Time Doctor includes screen monitoring with screenshots, keyboard and mouse activity tracking, and inactivity detection. Screenshots are taken at set intervals and can be blurred, deleted, or disabled entirely. Monitoring settings can be adjusted, but admins have limited control compared to some competitors, which can make default settings seem invasive if not fine-tuned.
Dashboards and Benchmarks AI: The dashboard is highly visual and customizable, with separate views for teams and individual users. It shows metrics such as hours tracked, activity levels, idle time, and top apps and websites. Benchmarks AI adds context by comparing productivity ratings with similar profiles across the platform.
Reports and custom exports: Time Doctor offers extensive reporting features, including hours tracked, app usage, and task reports. Reports are fully customizable and can be exported in multiple formats. You can also schedule reports to be emailed at specific times, making ongoing monitoring easier.
Payroll and billable hours: The payroll feature lets you set hourly budgets, track billable hours, and manage payouts from a single place. Time Doctor supports multiple payment methods, including PayPal, Wise, Payoneer, Gusto, ADP, and Deel, which is especially useful for distributed teams.
Integrations: Time Doctor supports over 60 integrations, including Asana, Azure DevOps, ADP, and other popular tools. It also offers browser extensions, although some integrations require extra setup and may not work seamlessly in all cases.
Pricing
Time Doctor does not offer a free plan, but it includes a 14-day free trial.
The Basic plan starts at $6.70 user/month with annual billing and includes automatic time tracking, screenshots, activity tracking, and basic reports. The Standard plan adds more advanced insights into management and reporting features for $11.70 user/month.
The Premium plan costs $16.70 user/month and includes advanced reporting, company insights, and additional productivity features.
There’s also an Enterprise plan available with custom pricing for larger organizations.
My experience with Time Doctor
I used Time Doctor mainly to review tracked hours, reports, and payroll data. The reporting side is where it performs best, and the dashboard made it easier to review work patterns without digging through multiple views. Navigation felt mostly intuitive once I spent some time with the tool.
At the same time, customer support issues, occasional technical problems, and limited admin control over monitoring settings can make the tool feel more invasive than necessary. With careful configuration, however, these monitoring features can be adjusted to better fit a team’s comfort level.
Pros and cons of Time Doctor
Pros of Time Doctor
Cons of Time Doctor
Why Time Doctor is the best Hubstaff alternative for detailed monitoring and reporting
Time Doctor and Hubstaff are often compared for a reason. Both place strong emphasis on monitoring and productivity data, but Time Doctor goes further in terms of reporting depth and payroll support.
This is the best option on the list for those who need in-depth tracking, detailed insights, and built-in payroll, and are comfortable adjusting monitoring settings to avoid over-surveillance.
Related posts:
- Time Doctor Review 2025 | Too Invasive or Worth Every Penny?
- Time Doctor vs Clockify 2025 | An Unfiltered Comparison
- Time Doctor vs Hubstaff 2025 | A Honest Comparison
Best Hubstaff Alternative #6 | TimeCamp
Best Hubstaff alternative for project-based time tracking
TimeCamp is a web-based time-tracking software built for freelancers, small teams, and businesses that track work by projects and clients. It focuses on simple time capture, comprehensive timesheets, and billing tools that help you see where hours are going and how they translate into costs.
Key features
Automatic and manual time tracking: TimeCamp lets you either track time automatically in the background or start and stop timers manually. Time entries show up in your timesheets, and you can go back to edit them if needed.
Timesheets and attendance: Logged hours are organized into daily and weekly timesheets that you can review at a glance. TimeCamp also tracks attendance and overtime, giving you a simple record of hours worked, so you don’t need a separate attendance software.
Billable hours and budgets: You can mark hours as billable or non-billable and set budgets for projects. These features make it easier to monitor whether a project is staying within planned hours and costs, which is especially helpful when billing clients.
Billing and invoicing: TimeCamp allows you to generate invoices directly from tracked time. Applying hourly rates and exporting billing data from the same platform saves time compared with moving between separate tools.
Reporting and insights: TimeCamp’s reports focus on hours worked, billable time, attendance, and budget status. The reporting tools are straightforward and help you understand the distribution of work.
Integrations and platform support: TimeCamp works on web, desktop, and mobile devices and integrates with popular project management and productivity tools like Trello, Asana, and calendar apps.
Pricing
TimeCamp offers a free forever plan that includes basic time tracking, unlimited users, automatic timesheets, and access to all apps.
The Starter plan is $3.99 user/month with annual billing, and it adds attendance tracking, time-off management, and report exports. The Premium plan comes with all that, plus integrations, billable time tracking, project budgeting, and more. It costs $6.99 user/month.
At $9.99 user/month, the Ultimate plan includes expanded functionality, such as invoicing, labor cost tracking, timesheet approvals, and unlimited integrations. Finally, Enterprise pricing is available for larger teams that need more advanced features.
My experience with TimeCamp
In practice, TimeCamp strikes a good balance between simplicity and capability. Time tracking is easy to adopt, and the timesheets provide a clear picture of how hours are allocated across projects. The billing features are solid for client work, and I found the reporting feature helpful without feeling intrusive.
In terms of pricing, the free plan already offers a lot of value, and the paid tiers add functionality while not being overly complicated.
Pros and cons of TimeCamp
Pros of TimeCamp
Cons of TimeCamp
Why TimeCamp is the best Hubstaff alternative for project-based time tracking
TimeCamp works well when your priority is tracking hours and managing project and client-related costs, rather than monitoring employee screens or activity levels.
If you need a Hubstaff alternative that offers clear timesheets, simple billing, and flexible reporting without pushing surveillance features, TimeCamp is a practical, feature-rich choice.
Summary: Best Hubstaff alternatives in 2026
The tools on this list cover different priorities. Some focus on deep productivity insights, others work better for client billing, project-based work, or teams that value privacy and simplicity over surveillance. That flexibility is exactly what makes them strong Hubstaff alternatives.
Related articles:
- How to Track Employee Productivity in 2026?
- 8 Best Time Tracking Apps In 2026| 20+ Personally Tested Tools
- 5 Best Clockify Alternatives: My Personal Picks (2025)
- Harvest Review 2025 | The Truth After Personally Testing It
- Hubstaff vs Clockify | My Findings After +2 Months (2025)
The best choice ultimately depends on what you need from time tracking. If you want accurate hours, clear reports, and a setup that fits your workflow rather than forcing a specific one, one of these Hubstaff alternatives will likely be a better long-term fit.
Why you can trust our reviews
At thebusinessdive.com, our team tests, reviews, and compares hundreds of productivity apps every year — from project management tools to note-taking apps. We dive deep into real-world use cases to help you find the right tools that actually improve your workflow, not just add noise.
Every month, 35,000–50,000 people trust us to find the best productivity apps at the best price.
Our mission? No fluff, no shortcuts—just honest, hands-on insights from productivity pros, so you can make an easier decision.
Have a question or suggestion? I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out anytime at aronkantor@thebusinessdive.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hubstaff still worth using in 2026?
Hubstaff can still make sense for teams that need strict employee monitoring, GPS tracking, attendance tracking, and shift scheduling. That said, many remote teams and small teams run into pain points around pricing per user per month, rigid monitoring features, and limited flexibility as their team members scale.
What is the best Hubstaff alternative overall?
The best Hubstaff alternative depends on whether you prioritize employee productivity, project management, or reliable time tracking. Some time tracking software focuses on detailed productivity insights and activity tracking, while others offer a more user-friendly interface, basic tracking, and better support for managing tasks and team performance.
Are there Hubstaff alternatives with a free plan?
Yes, many Hubstaff alternatives offer a free version with basic time tracking features. These free Hubstaff alternatives are especially useful for freelancers, small teams, and remote employees who want to track time, log work hours, and test automatic time tracking before moving to paid plans.
Which Hubstaff alternative is best for client billing?
Tools that focus on billable hours, accurate billing, project budgeting, and expense tracking work best for client-based teams. These time tracking solutions make it easier to track progress, convert tracked hours into invoices, and manage project costs without relying on external billing tools.
Can I track time without invasive monitoring?
Absolutely. Many modern time tracking tools are built for teams that want to manage productivity and team productivity without heavy employee monitoring platforms. These tools focus on automatic time tracking, manual time entries, detailed reports, and data accuracy, rather than mouse tracking, screenshots, or idle time detection.
Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself, and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that, at no additional cost to you, may earn a small commission. Read the full privacy policy here.
Hey! I’m Jovana, a content writer who loves writing, researching, and testing new productivity apps. With a background in philosophy, I bring a thoughtful but no-bullshit approach to everything I do. Let’s connect on Linkedin!