Hubstaff is a time-tracking and productivity-monitoring solution designed to cater to all types of teams, including freelancers and remote employees. It allows users to track and monitor employees’ activities during work hours. Employees can track time through the desktop and mobile app, and employers can choose when and how they want to record their time.
We decided to take Hubstaff on a test run to see what features the software offers and how it compares to the best GPS tracking apps in the market.
In this Hubstaff Review, we will explore the major features of the app, how the app works, its cost, and its strengths and weaknesses to help you decide if it’s the right choice for your business.
Hubstaff is particularly helpful if you work from home or your company employs people from other countries. The platform includes native mobile apps for iOS and Android, desktop apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and a Google Chrome browser extension.
The app’s GPS features allow employers to know exactly what their employees are working on and where they spend their time. The app collects this information and creates individual reports for all employees to help you understand how employees spend their time at work and estimate project costs. Employers can schedule these reports to be sent to employees, clients, or stakeholders.
Companies can also use Hubstaff to automatically generate invoices and bill clients based on the hours spent on their premises.
Pros and Cons of Hubstaff
Hubstaff employee monitoring software offers advantages that help many business owners deal with data, employees, and other aspects of their work. Similarly, it has some drawbacks that are common among users. Here are the pros and cons we discovered about the app.
Pros
Reliable activity tracking with screenshot monitoring allows employers to see how employees spend their time and gauge productivity levels.
Customizable reports on the team’s productivity and efficiency
Streamlined payroll and workforce management with attendance, scheduling, and time off
Cons
Limited integrations with other platforms
Lacks a mileage tracking feature
No reliable live chat
Hubstaff Review: Features Walkthrough
In addition to time tracking, Hubstaff offers a range of project management features such as team scheduling, task management, and budget tracking to help businesses improve employee productivity. The app also offers automatic payrolling processing, reporting, and invoicing, making it a reliable solution for remote teams and freelancers.
Here is a detailed look at the most popular features on Hubstaff.
Time Tracking and Online Timesheets
Hubstaff app is available for iOS and Android users, along with a Chrome browser extension for the desktop version. This makes the app easy to use and effective.
After setting up your organization and projects, team members can use the Hubstaff mobile, desktop, or web apps to start tracking time. All they have to do is press the start button, and the app will log how many hours, minutes, and seconds they have worked. Time can be tracked continuously or entered manually on the app, depending on the permissions. These entries are compiled automatically into timesheets, which can be used for invoicing and payroll processing.
Employers can also review, approve or reject timesheets and time-off requests from a single application.
Hubstaff dashboard shows real-time tracking for employees
The online timesheets are automatically generated on the app. You don’t need any additional administrative work to get the reports done. Managers can review timesheets to see whether the project is moving well or lagging behind schedule. The app provides daily, weekly, and monthly calendars for every employee.
Employee timesheets on Hubstaff
The only caveat with Hubstaff time tracking software is that if you fail to get a stable connection before logging out for the day’s work, the app will record the last time when the app was connected on the final report. For instance, if you’re supposed to work an eight-hour shift, but your connection was cut off at seven hours, that’s what Hubstaff will record. This means you have to remind employees to always refresh their timer before logging off to get accurate results.
Geofencing and GPS Location Tracking
Like Timeero, Hubstaff offers both GPS tracking and geofencing. But how reliable and accurate are these functionalities?
Hubstaff GPS tracking allows managers to track their team member’s locations, which is especially beneficial for field teams. Employees can clock in and out using mobile apps, and their GPS location will be recorded and tracked automatically. This allows managers to monitor where every employee is during working hours.
Hubstaff location tracking shows where the employee has been throughout their work hours
That said, Hubstaff GPS tracking might not be the most reliable if you want to track the real-time location of employees such as sales reps. For this case, consider getting the best location-tracking apps for sales reps, such as Timeero.
The GPS location tracking feature on Hubstaff also allows employers to create geofences around specific job sites or office locations. Once an employee enters or exits the designated area, Hubstaff will automatically start or stop tracking their time. The system alerts managers when an employee misses a shift, is late, or abandons the work site.
Hubstaff geofenced area displays employee’s details and job site.
Employee Activity and Productivity Monitoring
Do you know what your employees are doing at work? What activities are they working on? And what apps and websites they are using at work.
Employee monitoring and project management tools allow you to understand your team’s work habits and activities during office hours. Hubstaff software company offers reliable employee monitoring tools to monitor their activities and determine every member’s average productivity levels.
Activity Tracking
Studies show that 77 percent of employees regularly use social media tools during work hours. The outcome is 13 percent of productive hours are lost every day.
Hubstaff offers activity tracking functionality that allows users to analyze mouse and keyboard strokes in intervals and calculates employee activity levels in percentages. Based on their recent activity, this helps determine how active a user is. Hubstaff refers to this as proof of work features, and they are only available in Hubstaff Desk or Desk + Field plans, which means you have to subscribe to these top-tier plans to access the feature fully. These features are customizable for every customer and can be turned off altogether.
While this is a useful feature, you must review the employee’s activity levels over an extended time, say weeks, to identify trends and make informed decisions.
Screenshots Monitoring
The Hubstaff employee monitoring tool captures random screenshots (you can adjust the frequency) of your employee’s screen every 10 minutes. The screenshots show metrics such as what your employees look at while on the clock and which sites they view. Multiple screens can be monitored simultaneously, and screenshots can be partially blurred for privacy protection.
Hubstaff allows activity monitoring for all your employees
Users can delete screenshots, but the accompanying time slots will be deducted from their payable hours. This is another proof-of-work feature that is customizable or can be turned off if the user chooses to.
Productivity Monitoring
Hubstaff offers a real-time view of what the workforce is doing. The software can monitor app and website usage and provide insights into the tools the team frequently uses. Monitoring these aspects can help you see idle time, assign accordingly, and understand where employees might be lacking, allowing you to make adjustments for improved efficiency and productivity.
Field Workforce Management
In addition to employee monitoring functionalities, Hubstaff offers workforce and field service management features for employee schedule management, client invoicing, and payroll processing.
Employee Scheduling
Hubstaff also offers a scheduling tab where managers can assign shifts to employees. Workers can use this feature to view shift assignments and get alerts when they are required to start their shifts.
Employers can create and edit schedules for employees on Hubstaff
It works hand in hand with the GPS feature to simplify clocking in, team management, shift scheduling, and workflow management. While it’s not as robust and detailed as Timeero’s employee scheduling functionality, Hubstaff schedules provide a reliable way to ensure employees are working on their assigned tasks at the right time. Managers can assign jobs based on their business needs and available of their employees.
Invoicing and Payroll Management
On Hubstaff, employers can invoice clients based on the number of hours worked or projects completed. Managers can allocate projects to clients and bill them hourly or fixed pay rates. The software will generate invoices based on this information and send them to the clients for payment.
Users can also automate payment processing to reimburse employees for hours worked or even process one-time payments. It uses time entries to generate timesheets and process payments for time worked.
Employees can set time limits for billable hours for every employee to ensure they don’t exceed a specified amount of hours per week. Hubstaff offers a range of different payment methods, including Payoneer, FreshBooks, Paypal, Quickbooks Gusto, TransferWise, and Bitwage, that employees can use to receive payment.
Hubstaff Integrations
Hubstaff offers several third-party integrations, including:
Project management solutions such as Trello, Zoho Projects, Jira, Monday, Asana, and more
Payment, invoicing, and accounting solutions, including Paypal, FreshBooks, Bitwage, and more.
CRM tools such as Salesforce, Zendesk, and Freshdesk
Access to these integrations depends on your chosen pricing plan, as we shall explore in the next section.
Hubstaff Pricing
Hubstaff offers three different pricing tiers - Hubstaff Time, Hubstaff Desks, and Hubstaff Field, with different piercing plans.
Hubstaff pricing plans
Hubstaff Time and Hubstaff Desks plans
The Hubstaff Time plan offers simple time tracking and reporting, while the Hubstaff Desk plan offers time tracking, proof of work, and time management. However, the pricing doesn’t differ.
Here is the breakdown for these two pricing tiers.
Basic plan: The Desk Free plan is free for one user only. It offers basic features such as time tracking, limited reports, timesheets, screenshots, and limited payments.
Starter plan: The desk starter plan costs $7 per month per user for a minimum of two users. This package gives you access to all the Desk Free plan features, unlimited reports, one integration, per-user setting, idle timeout, and 24-hour support.
Premium Plan: The Desk Pro costs $10 per month per user for a minimum of two users. For this plan, you get to explore all the Desk Starter plan features and advanced features, such as unlimited teams, expense tracking, scheduling and attendance, unlimited integration, invoices, timesheet approvals, custom idle timeout, and more.
Enterprise Plan: Hubstaff offers a customized plan for this tier with access to all features on the Pro plan plus VIP support, single sign-on, unlimited job sites, HIPAA compliance, pay by bank debit (ACH), higher limits on public API, and concierge set up.
Hubstaff Field plan
Hubstaff field plan features three different products for business, including:
Field Pro: The plan starts at $12 per user per month, which includes two users and access to features such as time tracking, mobile GPS tracking, unlimited teams, scheduling and attendance, timesheet approvals, and more.
Desk Field: The plan costs $15 per user per month for a minimum of two users. It includes all the features on the Field Pro plan plus unlimited screenshots, activity levels, custom idle timeout, track apps, and URLs.
Enterprise Plan: This is a customized plan that includes everything in Desk Field Pro plus unlimited job sites, VIP support, HIPAA compliance, and more.
Is Hubstaff Worth It?
From our test, we discovered that Hubstaff offers some solid features for both in-office teams and freelancers.
Hubstaff provides reliable tools to monitor and track projects and tasks. The time tracking functionality is straightforward, but you must install the Hubstaff Desktop Client or Chrome extension for better results on your desktop. The software also offers other valuable features like activity monitoring, automated payroll processing, and GPS location tracking.
That said, you might not find Hubstaff a great option if you want to track mileage for field teams and reimburse employees fairly. For such purposes, you should go for a robust mileage-tracking app such as Timeero.
Timeero: Best Hubstaff Alternative
Hubstaff comes with some dedicated features that help you track and monitor employees effectively. The real-time tracking and GPS location tracking features are reliable, and you can even monitor the activities of employees in real time.
On the downside, Hubstaff doesn’t offer mileage tracking functionalities for field employees, especially sales reps, truckers, delivery drivers, and freelancers who are always on the move.
Hubstaff offers reliable time tracking and location tracking. But Timeero offers more advanced features such as a route replay feature, detailed time stamps, geofencing, and breadcrumbing technology to accurately track teams working remotely or in the field.
Timeero shows who’s working at what time and the precise location of the employee
Timeero’s real-time GPS functionality lets you see who works at a specific job site and at what time.
The geofencing feature further improves employee tracking, where employees can create geofences around a job site to ensure employees clock in and out effectively. Managers can set automatic reminders and restrictions for punching in and out of the geofenced area. This provides employees with accurate reports at the end of their working shift for fair reimbursement, and tax computations come tax time.
Segmented Mileage Tracking
Hubstaff is a dependable tool for tracking time. Still, it has no dedicated mileage tracking feature.
Timeero mileage tracker uses motion detection technology to track mileage once the speed threshold is achieved automatically. The app will capture all the trips with detailed time, location, and speed reports. You can also attach photos and screenshots for more confirmation.
The new approach of segmented mileage tracking has made mileage tracking even better.
Employees will only need to clock in once and clock out at the end of the day, even if they have several jobs to work on during the day. They don’t have to worry about clocking in and out every time they start a new shift.
Timeero will track employees' trips and segment their working hours based on their activities.
The segmented feature will provide details such as:
Time and mileage of business travel
Time spent on specific locations and jobs
Managers can use the route replay feature and breadcrumbing technology to show the exact route the employee took, including detailed timestamps to show where they spend the day.
The route replay feature and breadcrumbing technology provide additional information about the employee activities during their work hours
And if you’re using the IRS mileage reimbursement rate for tax deduction purposes, you can rest assured that the information and data Timeero gathers will let you stay compliant.
Employees living in California or other states with strict laws on mileage reimbursement can rest assured that Timeero will track mileage accurately and provide IRS-compliant logs.
Check out the detailed guide on Employee Mileage Reimbursement to understand more about the rules, regulations, and rates on mileage reimbursement.
Employee Scheduling and Time Off Management
Timeero also offers employee scheduling for large and small businesses with field and remote workers.
Creating new schedules is easy on Timeero. Choose an employee or a group of workers, select a job from the list, and set a date and time to start their shift. The app will send notifications and reminders so that they can accept or decline shifts. Managers can also select the option to create a repeat shift or use drag-and-drop functionality to reschedule it for another day.
On Timeero, employers can create schedules using drag-and-drop functionality
Timeero also simplifies time off processing, where the employees use the app to request days off and receive alerts when the request is approved or rejected. Once the time off request is approved, it will appear in the employee’s schedule, and they won’t be available for more jobs.
Other Notable Features
Face recognition
User-friendly app
File and photo attachments
Scheduling tool
Message blast
Integration with payroll and accounting systems
Offline mode
Reliable customer support team
Read the full Timeero Review to learn more about the app. Or, just sign up for a free 14-day trial and check it out for yourself!
Hubstaff FAQs
How much does Hubstaff cost?
Hubstaff offers three pricing plans; Hubstaff Time, Hubstaff Desks, and Hubstaff Field, with different piercing plans.
Hubstaff Time and Hubstaff Desks plans include the Desk Starter plan starting at $7/user/month, the Desk Pro at $10/user/ month, and an Enterprise plan customizable based on the client’s needs.
Hubstaff Field pricing plans include the Field Pro plan, which costs $12/user/month, the Desk Field plan, which goes for $15/user/month, and the Enterprise plan, which is also customizable based on the client’s business needs.
Does Hubstaff offer a free trial?
Hubstaff offers a 14-day free trial to try out its features.
Is Hubstaff’s customer service good?
Hubstaff provides customer support for all its products and plans. More reviews suggest that opening a ticket is simple. Still, some users comment on a longer turnaround to get them resolved. Furthermore, you have to subscribe to top-tier plans to get VIP support, according to the Hubstaff website.
That said, the support team offers self-help materials, including FAQs and video tutorials where customers can find answers to most of their questions.
Is Hubstaff worth the money?
In a nutshell, Hubstaff is a valuable option for users looking for smooth time tracking and team management software. Other features like GPS tracking and geofencing make it a good solution for in-office teams and freelancers.
While the pricing range is slightly higher than other employee tracking services, it’s still reliable for time tracking and employee monitoring.
Is Hubstaff safe for privacy?
Hubstaff processes personal data in a manner that is compatible with and relevant to the purpose for which it was collected. In this case, employees have complete control over when they can track time. They will receive a notification when the employer begins tracking time and when Hubstaff takes screenshots. Also, employees can have full access to all the tracked data.
Don’t waste time and money on inefficient employee tracking and management.
David is a content writer passionate about all things SaaS and technology! With over seven years of experience, David knows how to craft content that captivates his readers and effectively communicates their value and offerings. When he is not writing, he is at home reading, out playing soccer, or exploring new places.
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