DeskTime vs. Hubstaff: compare the alternatives

IF YOU NEED:

To manage yourself and be more productive

CHOOSE:

If you’re a one-man-band type of person with a strong sense of self-discipline and want to make sure you don’t get distracted – go with DeskTime.

With DeskTime, you can track a lot of things: URLs, documents and their titles (programs you have running), time on an hour-to-hour basis, productivity levels, and more. And the best part is, it can be only as complicated as you make it.

If you want to simply find out your list of productive and unproductive apps and how long you spend on each site daily, you can easily do that with DeskTime. But if you’d rather get into the details of your work habits, calculate your effectiveness and productivity percentages, and then export that in a ready Excel file, DeskTime can help you with that too.

Hubstaff, on the other hand, is more focused on assigning employees to certain projects and then tracking their time accordingly. Although you can set it up to focus on your own goals and projects, it truly shines when it’s used for and by a group of outsourced employees.

IF YOU NEED:

To manage a team of employees or freelancers working remotely

CHOOSE:

Hubstaff is a tool that makes it easy to manage a team working remotely. It’s fast, it’s simple, and most importantly – its main focus is on teams based remotely. With it, you can easily automate many time-consuming tasks: whether it's time limits and shifts, weekly budget (when it has been reached or exceeded, for example), or the payment process (through PayPal).

Because of that, it’s the perfect tool for managing remote workers and freelancers. You can check what your employees are doing and where (you can monitor where they are during work hours via mobile GPS tracking), making it suitable for people who have to travel a lot for work.

Although DeskTime is also suitable for freelancers and companies alike, Hubstaff allows you to set up a payroll process based on the recorded hours – making it ideal for freelancers. If you need help with managing and paying an outsourced team, Hubstaff might be more convenient.

IF YOU NEED:

To know the “when and where” of your employees

CHOOSE:

When it comes to actual tracking, Hubstaff can tell you all you need to know about the “when and where” of your employees down to a T.

With automatic screenshots (which can be customized to fit your needs) and activity rates, managers can track how long each project takes, who’s working on them currently, and more. Other types of monitoring Hubstaff offers includes internet monitoring (internet usage/websites), application monitoring (app/program usage), schedules, and more. Depending on the type of work, the GPS and location tracking might also come in handy. Automating time tracking, the payment process and customizing all of the above allows you to watch work unfold in real time.

If you want to guarantee that work gets done and you’re there to see it, Hubstaff might be more convenient. While DeskTime also lets you keep up to date with your team’s activity, Hubstaff goes more in depth, depending on your needs and requirements.

IF YOU NEED:

A tool with more advanced uses and features

CHOOSE:

For advanced project management, employee monitoring, productivity analysis, and more, choose DeskTime. DeskTime makes sure to zoom in on the details. It’s mainly for companies and teams that are interested in the bigger picture, but it can also provide an in-depth dive into the productivity management of your department. Depending on your needs, DeskTime can provide a simple dashboard overview or a more detailed look into how your team is doing. You can manage project costs and bill your clients accordingly, log offline hours (and charge them too), automate and generate custom reports, which can be exported, and more. In short: DeskTime lets you see the bigger picture without micromanaging your employees. So, if you want to create a detailed layout of specific departments and employee groups, be sure to go with DeskTime.

But if you want to save time on set-up and you're simply looking for a general overview of how your team is doing, Hubstaff can probably help you with that more. Compared to Hubstaff, DeskTime offers a more advanced and detailed look into your team and can help you manage them better as a result.