Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: An In-Depth Comparison [April 2024]

Hubstaff and Time Doctor are popular time tracking software. However, when we tried the tools, it became clear that they approach time tracking in different ways to cater to their target audiences. 

Hubstaff’s time tracking solution offers in-depth analytics and some employee productivity tracking features like geolocation tracking, so construction, logistics, and field service managers can easily track and optimize their workforce’s productivity.

On the other hand, Time Doctor depends heavily on employee monitoring software and distraction management tools to ensure agencies can oversee and optimize the work habits of their in-office and remote teams. 

However, such extensive employee monitoring methods, as seen in Time Doctor, may lead to a culture of distrust and an unhappy workforce. And, while Hubstaff is a bit less intrusive, its disadvantages over the Time Doctor are its addon-based pricing model that can balloon the cost, and its heavy emphasis on reporting features rather than the time tracking features on the web app.

To make up for these drawbacks, we decided to include Toggl Track into the mix. Its approach to time tracking is three-fold:

1. Encourage adoption with flexible time tracking tools across platforms — allowing users to adapt time tracking to their workflow, not the other way around. 
2. Equip decision-makers with industry-leading analytics, comprehensive reports, and valuable insights, so that when time tracking becomes effortless across the organization, they can use them to take their business to the next level.
3. Stay clear of employee monitoring software. Instead, it uses time data to build cultures of trust, transparency, feedback, and growth.

In this article, we compare Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track in the following areas:

• User Experience,
• Reporting & Analytics,
• Employee Privacy,
• Integrations,
• and Price.

But before we get into the details, let’s look at a quick overview!

Comparison Summary: Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track

What is Hubstaff?

“Optimize productivity at every step”🚶✅

In 2012, Dave Nevogt and Jared Brown started Hubstaff as a better way to track and analyze remote workforces by combining the best of employee monitoring features with in-depth analytics.

Hubstaff starts with a simple time tracking solution for employees to track time on the browser, desktop, and mobile app. The time data is uploaded to timesheets where managers can view and approve employee work hours. For a deeper understanding of employee work habits, managers have access to employee monitoring features like screenshot capture, URL tracking, and geolocation. But what sets Hubstaff apart are its comprehensive analytics features that use employee time and monitoring data to provide in-depth insights into company-wide and individual productivity, project costs, and payroll. 

Hubstaff is ideal for managers looking to monitor and optimize the productivity of off-site employees like delivery executives, remote customer support executives, and construction crews.

What is Time Doctor?

“Eliminate distractions to reach your goal”🧑‍💻🎯

Liam Martin and Rob Rawson founded Time Doctor in 2012 to empower employees to remain productive no matter where they are.

Its comprehensive employee productivity software eliminates distractions at every turn, starting with a time tracker, available on the desktop or mobile app. Meanwhile, the web app allows managers to optimize company-wide tracking settings, including automatic time tracking. They can also analyze employee work habits using monitoring software like screenshot capture, URL tracking, video recordings, and activity tracking. Managers can then use this data to implement distraction management techniques for improving productivity. For example, they can tag unproductive sites and send nudges, reminding employees to focus on work if they visit these sites.

Time Doctor is designed for agencies and businesses looking for a platform to track and optimize the work habits of their in-office and remote teams.    

What is Toggl Track?

“Empower employees, improve performance.”📈

Toggl was founded in 2006 by Alari Aho and Krister Haav as a full-fledged time tracking and productivity software to help your team become the best version of themselves. It was rebranded to Toggl Track after the launch of Toggl Plan and Toggl Hire. 

Its time tracking solution uses intuitive tools and automated time tracking features to easily populate time data in timesheets. The collected time data is used to fuel Toggl’s powerhouses — the Analytics and Insights features, which offer unique insights into employee work habits and productivity. Finally, Toggl offers a wide selection of third-party integrations to seamlessly integrate time tracking into your workflow. It does all this without depending on employee monitoring features, living up to its mantra of respecting an individual’s privacy and autonomy.   

Toggl Track is perfect for large teams and enterprises looking for a time tracking solution that equips decision-makers with in-depth insights. It’s an ideal solution for any company aiming to improve productivity and profitability while building a culture of growth, performance, and trust.

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: User Experience

In a nutshell, Toggl Track focuses on simplifying employee time tracking, Time Doctor does the same but uses intrusive tracking methods, and Hubstaff focuses on helping managers measure productivity.

Toggl Track and Hubstaff let you track time on the web app, while Time Doctor only tracks time using the desktop app.

Toggl Track syncs all activity across all its apps: web app, desktop app, mobile app, and browser extensions. However, they’re designed for different permission levels.  

The desktop app (shown below), mobile app, and Chrome extensions simplify time tracking for employees, using Reminders, Pomodoro Timer, and an Autotracker (more on these in the next section).

On the other hand, the web app adds to time tracking with management-specific timesheet and analytics features so managers can approve timesheets, understand employee productivity, and measure project profitability from a single platform.

Hubstaff offers time tracking options similar to Toggl Track, with the desktop app, mobile app, and Chrome extension. However, the web app focuses more on reporting than actual time tracking — so much so that the time tracker is relegated to a small corner on the top left side. 

The dashboard uses widgets to create custom layouts with business- or role-specific information. Though it offers much flexibility, setting up the dashboard to access this information takes time. 

Also, you’ll need to understand your processes well to prioritize the right data. This is something only experienced managers who understand the business thoroughly will be able to do.

Meanwhile, Time Doctor supports time tracking via its desktop and mobile app. It also supports a Chrome extension but it only works if you’ve already installed the desktop app. 

The web app is only meant for managers to analyze tracked time and optimize settings. Its dashboard is similar to Hubstaff’s, letting you select from different widgets to create a layout with custom data. However, you can’t reorganize the widgets to your convenience.

Time Doctor uses auto-tracking to monitor employees and Hubstaff also uses it to keep tabs on off-site workers, meanwhile, Toggl Track’s private Autotracker simplifies employee time tracking without any surveillance features.

Toggl Track improves the time tracking experience on its apps with two automation options:

• Timeline, which tracks and stores your computer activity privately, so you can easily fill in gaps in your timesheets when you’re ready to upload your time entries. The data is stored locally on your device so other users (like managers) won’t have access to it unless you add it to your timesheet. 

• Autotracker, which uses preset conditions (1) to automatically start the timer, for example, during work hours or when a specific app is opened. It’s useful when tracking time for tasks across different apps, like editing videos for a client on Premiere Pro or attending a meeting on Zoom.  

Unlike Hubstaff and Time Doctor, Toggl doesn’t depend on employee monitoring software to track time. Instead, it uses proven time management tools like Reminders, Idle Time Detection, and a Pomodoro Timer to help employees improve time management and productivity.

Like Toggl Track, Time Doctor also supports reminders and automatic time tracking, but they aren’t as comprehensive. For example, you can’t set time slots for time tracking automatically. It starts when you use the computer for the first time, starting at 5 am each day for as long as you’re signed into the app. 

So unless employees have a work laptop, your database will be filled with unnecessary tracking and time data, undermining the integrity of your productivity tracking data. Moreover, employees can’t delete the data themselves, severely impacting employee privacy.

Meanwhile, Hubstaff also supports automatic time tracking but uses geolocation to start and stop the timer. It’s great for in-office as well as off-site employees but doesn’t automatically highlight what the employee is working on. They’ll need to update that information manually. 

Managers can access real-time location data on their mobile apps. However, certain features are only available on specific device types. For example, the mobile map view is only available on iOS and not on Android. 

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Reports and Analytics

In a nutshell, Hubstaff and Time Doctor are concerned about optimizing employee input, while Toggl Track focuses on employee output.

Toggl Track offers three analytics dashboards to measure employee output.

Toggl Track provides three interactive analytics dashboards: Reports, Analytics, and Insights.

First, the Reports dashboard provides an overview of employee hours and earnings. You can use the filters to see which projects are over budget, where resources are needed, and how each employee contributes to the business’s bottom line.

Next, Analytics lets you create custom dashboards to visualize time data using line graphs, bar charts, donuts, and pivot tables. It’s ideal for building interactive reports for management to deep dive into employee work habits and projects.

Finally, we have the Insights dashboard. It lets you slice and dice time data to measure employee and project profitability, as well as associated trends across periods.

Hubstaff offers a wide array of detailed reports for faster analysis. 

Hubstaff’s predefined reports (1) offer a quick and easy way to compile and review performance data for employees and teams. They provide information on employee time and activity, work sessions, project budgets, and more. 

It also has an Insights feature similar to Toggl Track’s. However, the feature focuses more on employee productivity by tracking activity levels, app usage, and comparing them to organization averages. 

Nonetheless, his approach doesn’t give you the full picture because it only looks at employee input in the sense of how many hours they put in. It doesn’t consider the impact of the employee’s output, such as how the work contributes to revenue. 

For example, a top performer may take three hours to complete a task that usually takes two, and Hubstaff will tell you their performance is ‘below average’. Meanwhile, the reality could be that the task was for a high-paying client, significantly increasing the company’s revenue.

Time Doctor’s simple reports offer a fragmented view of your business. 

Time Doctor offers seven basic analytics reports:

• Activity Summary for insights into how employees spend their time by analyzing active and idle time data.
• Attendance Reports to organize information on employee attendance, absences, leaves, and punctuality.
• Hours Tracked Report to measure total hours spent by each employee to create accurate timesheets for payroll and invoicing.
• Projects & Tasks Report for a detailed breakdown of employee time spent on each project and task.
• Timeline Report for a breakdown of each employee’s day, including start and end times, tracked time, and inactive times. 
• Web & App Usage Report for details on time spent on websites and applications to understand remote work habits and process gaps.
• Unusual Activity Report tracks any unusual keyboard and mouse activity to identify hardware or software used to trick monitoring software.

At first glance, a wide selection of reports appears valuable. However, when using it, we realized it’s inefficient and offers a fragmented business overview. 

For example, Attendance Reports and Hours Tracked Reports are generated using time entries. However, they’re available separately only because they provide different insights: Attendance Reports focus on employee attendance, while Hours Tracked focuses on hours worked.  

Managers would better understand how employees spend their time if time and attendance data were compiled in one place — similar to the Toggl Track’s Reports feature below. 

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Employee Privacy

In a nutshell, Time Doctor and Hubstaff use employee monitoring software, while Toggl Track doesn’t believe in employee surveillance.

Hubstaff uses employee monitoring to optimize company-wide productivity, while Time Doctor tries to minimize individual unproductive habits.

Time Doctor’s policy seems to be that if employees are monitored, they’ll be more productive at work. 

This is justified with various employee surveillance tools like screenshots, URL tracking, and mouse and keyboard tracking. Screenshots can be blurred, offering some privacy, but managers have to turn on the feature. 

Also, managers can use URL tracking data to identify and tag ‘unproductive websites.’ If an employee visits any unproductive site, Time Doctor reminds them to focus on work. 

Finally, you have the “Unusual Activity Report”, which reports any unusual activity that may point to external software trying to imitate keyboard and mouse movement. Premium plan users also get access to video recordings so managers can review the activity from their own perspective. It may seem attractive initially, but using such measures can develop a no-trust culture within your organization. 

Hubstaff, on the other hand, isn’t as strict as Time Doctor. It focuses on three employee monitoring tools:

• Geolocation Tracking, which tracks employee movement based on preset locations. You can also use geofencing settings to automatically start and stop employee timers.
• App and URL Tracking, which tracks the websites and apps you’ve visited while the timer is running, and how much time you spent on each. 
• Screenshots feature, which captures and stores screenshots of your work. You can set it so screenshots are blurred, offering employees more privacy.

However, there is a ‘Private Mode’ available, which disables employee monitoring. But using the mode is still recorded in employee timesheets. It also informs the ‘Activity Tracking Overview’ dashboard, comparing employee productivity to company-wide benchmarks. 

Though the goal is to improve productivity, it also may create a competitive environment where employees and departments look to become the most productive, possibly leading to a toxic work environment and burnout. 

Toggl Track encourages employee autonomy and privacy in the workplace.

Toggl doesn’t believe in employee surveillance and micromanagement. Instead, it offers valuable insights to empower team members to bring out their best work, maximizing your profitability. We encourage this approach in both our workplace and our platform.

Toggl Track doesn’t monitor your employee’s location, keyboard activity, screen, or URLs. We know that although employee monitoring may generate a lot of data, not all of it is valuable. It may just make it hard for managers to drill down into what’s essential — the employee output. 

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Integrations

In a nutshell, Toggl Track has 100+ integrations, Time Doctor also syncs with various tools, and Hubstaff focuses more on native integrations. 

Toggl Track’s integrations offer unlimited flexibility.

Toggl Track supports integrations with 100+ apps and services, including calendars, email services, accounting tools, and project management tools. You can also build the whole Toggl ecosystem with Toggl Plan and Toggl Hire for a complete workforce management solution.

Apart from this, you can streamline work by linking with additional 3000+ apps via Zapier and Integrately connections, or use the Toggl API to develop your own. 

Hubstaff integrates directly with project management tools but offers limited functionality.

Hubstaff offers 30+ integrations, including CRM, accounting, payroll, and invoicing platforms. Its project management integrations with Asana and Trello let you track time directly on the project management app, but you need to sync the data with Hubstaff manually. 

Time Doctor has browser extensions that sync with third-party project management apps.

Time Doctor has 60+ integrations for project management, payments & invoicing, CRM, help desk, and communication platforms. It also offers browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. You can customize the data pulled from third-party apps, but this feature is currently only available for Monday.com users.

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Pricing

In a nutshell, Time Doctor’s paid plans don’t offer much value for money, Hubstaff has hidden charges baked into the pricing plans, while Toggl Track has transparent pricing plans that offer the most value for money. 

Time Doctor’s Standard plan offers great value for money, while its Basic and Premium plans miss the mark.

Time Doctor doesn’t have a free plan. Instead, it offers a 14-day free trial where you can test all its features, but after that you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan. 

The pricing plans start with the Basic plan at $7/mo/user, which sounds perfect for freelancers at first glance with its unlimited projects and activity tracking. 

But it doesn’t offer URL tracking to measure personal productivity. Also, you can’t send invoices or integrate with accounting software to manage time tracking and invoicing in one location. Freelancers have to manually export time data to their invoicing software, adding to their workload.

The Standard plan starts at $10/mo/user.

It includes everything from the Basic plan, 60 integrations, payroll features, and productivity ratings. It’s perfect for measuring employee productivity for businesses of all sizes. However, single sign-on (SSO) is only available as a paid add-on, and historical data can only be stored for up to six months. 

Meanwhile, the Premium plan is designed specifically for big corporations, starting at $20/mo/user.

It offers everything in the Standard plan with additional features like an executive dashboard, client login access, and a dedicated account manager.

But, these features may not really add value for corporations because:

1. SSO and automatic user provisioning are only available as paid add-ons.
2. The Executive dashboard reports on the Premium plan seem similar to those found in the Reports feature available with the Standard plan.
3. The Client login access would be really useful if Time Doctor would support invoicing — which it doesn’t. Clients are essentially logging in to view the time data only.

At the bottom line, if you choose the Premium plan, you’ll be paying an additional $10 per user for an account manager and not much more. 

Instead, it might be better for corporations to go for the Enterprise plan — Time Doctor’s custom solution with enterprise-grade security, private cloud, and dedicated customer success managers. Otherwise, opt for the Standard plan only if you’re trying to measure employee productivity for internal purposes. 

If you need a time tracking software with client-centric features like invoicing, we recommend Hubstaff or Toggl Track.

Hubstaff’s paid plans require at least two users, adding to the cost.

Hubstaff starts with a 14-day free trial, after which you’ll need to pick one of five plans depending on your business size.

The Free plan comes with unlimited time tracking, timesheets, and activity tracking while limiting other features like reports, payments, clients, and invoices. You also don’t have access to any integrations, making it more suitable for users looking to improve their personal productivity metrics. 

The Starter plan costs $7/mo/user but offers features similar to the Free plan.

It increases the limit on screenshots, tasks, and clients. Though perfect for freelancers, it doesn’t support integrations to connect the army of apps freelancers use to manage their business. It also has a two-user minimum.

The Grow plan ($9/mo/user) is perfect for small businesses and field teams. 

Like the Starter plan, you need at least two members, but it makes more sense here since you can also access Hubstaff Tasks to assign work to team members. However, you only get one integration and minimal payment options, limiting your business operations.

Next, the Team plan costs 12/mo/user with unlimited screenshots, tracking, integrations, and more. 

It even has workforce management tools like attendance tracking, leave management, and budgeting. You can use them with the Hubstaff Insights integration to track and improve your workforce efficiency and productivity.

Finally, you have the Enterprise plan at $25/mo/user. 

As the name suggests, it’s ideal for enterprises and corporations seeking a workplace management solution. It has everything from the Team plan and augments it with enterprise-level capabilities like direct bank deposits, HIPAA-compliant practices, SSO, and a corporate app.

It’s worth noting that the Starter, Grow, and Team plans have a two-seat minimum. This means its actual prices start at:

• $14/mo + $7/mo/additional user for the Starter plan,
• $18/mo + $9/mo/additional user for the Grow plan,
• and $24/mo + $12/mo/additional user for the Team plan.

Also, the Enterprise plan is only billed annually, which means you’ll need to pay $300/user upfront. 

Toggl Track costs more but offers the most value for money.

Toggl’s pricing plans also start with a Free plan perfect for freelancers or small teams of up to 5 users. It’s the most comprehensive free version of the three with unlimited time tracking, clients, and 100+ integrations to link with the freelancer’s existing toolset. 

Its paid plans start with the Starter plan at $10/mo/user, providing task management, time estimates, pre-populated project templates, and detailed reports for quickly analyzing time data. It’s designed to help small teams improve productivity without intrusive time tracking features.

Next, the Premium plan is $20/mo/user. It’s intended to help team managers implement agile practices with their growing teams using project forecasting, native Jira and Salesforce integrations, and labor cost tracking. 

Finally, the Enterprise plan offers tailored time tracking solutions at a custom price. It supports multiple workspaces under a single organization, making it perfect for large businesses with complex structures. You also get access to priority support and onboarding assistance.    

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Pros & Cons

Hubstaff vs Time Doctor vs Toggl Track: Final Verdict 

In a nutshell, Hubstaff is for monitoring off-site employees, Time Doctor is for optimizing remote employee work habits, and Toggl Track helps decision-makers improve employee output with valuable insights.

Hubstaff, Time Doctor, and Toggl Track approach time tracking very differently.

Hubstaff provides GPS tracking and comprehensive analytics to optimize the productivity of off-site employees like delivery executives, on-field workers, and construction crews. 

Meanwhile, Time Doctor offers extensive employee monitoring software and distraction management tools to ensure remote teams work at high productivity levels at all times.

Finally, Toggl Track pairs its time tracking features with valuable insights so large teams and enterprises can make informed decisions to improve productivity and profitability without relying on employee monitoring features.

Use Hubstaff if:

• You’re a construction or logistics business with an off-site workforce.
• You need geolocation to track employee time and location.
• You want comprehensive analytics to measure employee productivity.

Click here to get started with Hubstaff!

Use Time Doctor if:

• You’re an agency working primarily with virtual assistants, remote employees, and freelancers.
• You need payroll features integrated into your time tracking application.
• You want comprehensive monitoring features to account for employee work hours.

Click here to get started with Time Doctor!

Use Toggl Track if:

• You’re a large team or enterprise looking to create a work culture that values privacy and trust.
• You want an easy-to-use time tracking platform with powerful automated time tracking features.
• You want to use time data to help improve your business processes.

Click here to get started with Toggl Track!