Hubstaff Review

Insightful Employee Tracking for Businesses of All Sizes

Hubstaff provides a wide spectrum of features as simple solutions for multiple areas of everyday business operations. It stands out by focusing on employee activity rather than “undercover spying”. Other features like the online invoicing and the payroll software give businesses more transparency when payment hour comes. 

The scope of this Hubstaff review, however, is to establish whether the platform goes the extra mile in accommodating the needs of remote employers and employees, as well as the clients they answer to. And more importantly, to what extent their features and products ensure everyone on the team experiences the productivity and efficiency boost the software aims to yield. 

Are the Hubstaff Features Easy-to-Use & Manage?

Just like many of its competitors, Hubstaff’s tools have many of the hallmarks of what makes a top-performing employee monitoring software. Yet, some Hubstaff reviews find them a little basic since they don’t filter content or measure activity when reading or having a video call. Others, meanwhile, consider Hubstaff features overly complex and hard to configure. Here are some of our observations after testing the software ourselves. 

Time Tracking and Online Timesheets

The Hubstaff app available for both mobile and desktop along with its Chrome browser extension is what makes this app super easy-to-use and effective. Depending on the permissions, time can be tracked continuously or entered manually. A recent Hubstaff app review concludes this time tracking feature highlights productivity because managers can easily view the amount of time each employee spends working and see which task or project they spent the most time working on. Moreover, it’s a way to differentiate between the busy bees and the slackers.

The online timesheets are generated automatically, meaning there is no need for any additional administrative work. Instead, by reviewing the timesheets, administrators can assess whether the projects are moving smoothly or lag behind schedule. By looking through their Hubstaff tasks, they can decide if they need to dissect big projects into smaller tasks for more accurate tracking or improving work processes. For smarter insight, the app also provides daily, weekly, and monthly calendars. 

Employee Activity and Productivity Monitoring 

By tracking keystroke volume and mouse usage, the software calculates employees’ activity levels in percentages. The downside is that if the employee is on a Skype call, for example, the activity will be very low as there will be minimal movements. This flaw, however, is compensated by Hubstaff screenshots, as more than one Hubstaff review points out. The app captures random screenshots (frequency is adjustable) which show you what your employees are looking at while on the clock. Plus, it supports multiple screens. Reviews further mention the availability of using blur mode for the screenshots as a great option to ensure client health or financial information is safe. It is ideal for teams that regularly access sensitive data.

Just like many of the Hubstaff competitors, if the time tracking software detects inactivity for a certain amount of time it will signal your employee with an idle prompt popup. The user is then given two options — keep the idle time or remove it. More than one Hubstaff review mentions that this works particularly well for employees who often get phone calls from clients or are out of the office doing fieldwork.

For a more comprehensive review, we did a comparison of Hubstaff vs Harvest in the matter of app usage and URL visits, and it wasn’t at all hard to pick a winner. Hubstaff exceeds expectations as it doesn’t simply track time and show which websites and apps staffers visit but also shows the length of their sessions, like how much time they spend on Facebook. This makes these features crucial for such a software solution because they alert managers on how much time employees waste on unproductive activities.

GPS Tracking and Geofencing

Many Hubstaff reviews congratulate the software creators for integrating these two features. Relying on a time tracking app that can be used inside the office and by on-the-go teams is more than convenient for most businesses. The GPS tracking feature offered through the Hubstaff mobile app is what makes the software valuable for organizations with fleet resources and employees busy with fieldwork. 

The fully automated geofencing feature makes time and attendance tracking super easy for employees and managers, and avoids the issue of generating additional costs to your business due to untracked billable hours. Hubstaff user reviews indicate admins can go full Big-Brother on their employees by setting up Job Sites, as the system alerts them when an employee misses a shift, is late, or abandons the job site. Geofencing, as our Hubstaff vs TimeDoctor comparison reveals, is not something the latter can boast with. TimeDoctor admins have to manually track time and record location and routes for fleet tracking.

Hubstaff Schedules

Hubstaff’s scheduling complements the GPS feature because it simplifies processes such as team management, clocking-in, and shift scheduling. This makes things easier for staff to see when and what they are assigned to work on next while admins get attendance reports to make more informed decisions. 

Hubstaff Invoices

Hubstaff reviews generally speak of positive experiences with the online invoicing feature that allows users to send invoices of their tracking time directly to the company they work. For freelancers struggling to complete multiple tasks in a given day, this feature is a bliss as it saves them from additional administrative work. But it’s excellent for businesses too, as it offers them a more insightful client-invoicing process or rather, a more controlled method to scale a business that is running across multiple countries.

Our Hubstaff app review also observed that admins get notifications when the budget limits have been met, and invoices are automatically calculated based on the hours worked and the pay rate of each staffer. 

Hubstaff Integrations

Users can connect Hubstaff to over 30 third-party applications, including project management solutions like Asana or Zoho Projects, CRM tools like Salesforce and Zendesk, and even accounting and invoicing support like FreshBooks, PayPal, or Bitwage. 

While integrations make it possible for the payroll to be set to go automatically via platforms like PayPal, the admins are not asked for approval before the payment is made, meaning there is no signal for them to verify whether the payment is correct. For 100% accuracy, this has to be done manually.

Hubstaff user reviews about integrations stand divided. Although Hubstaff integration is possible with popular project management tools users still report difficulties. For example, the Jira integration lags up to 10 minutes, and when a user contacts customer service, the two support teams pass them around like a hot potato. A Hubstaff vs Harvest comparison shows that users report the latter is doing a much better job with integrations because the timer can be turned on via Asana and sync starts immediately. 

Hubstaff Pricing

The charges for using the software include a monthly fee of $7 per user for the Basic tier, $10 for Premium, and $20 for the Enterprise tier, all with a 60-day money-back guarantee. Our review shows that compared to what competitors offer, it’s great value for money. There is also the option of getting a Hubstaff coupon code through the referral program. 

The annual prices are even more affordable and range from $5 to $16 with 2 months free along with a 14-day trial period. Our Hubstaff vs TimeDoctor comparison says both offer the same price, with the access to advanced options being the main difference. 

The free plan is an opportunity that should not be missed by freelancers on a budget. Users get an accurate record of working hours, a simple start and stop feature to keep them focused on work, activity rate measurement, and a clear overview of how productive they are. However, screenshots and payments are limited.

Hubstaff user reviews on the other hand indicate that although the subscription plans are versatile and competitive against industry standards, they could be doing better by integrating a more customizable approach. By comparing Hubstaff vs Toggl, we’ve discovered that Toggl offers customizable solutions or features catering to an organization’s specific needs and type. For a vendor that serves both suit-and-tie and labor workers, tailoring prices to fit clients’ specific requirements could be a major game-changer. 

Hubstaff Tasks Review

A recent addition to the Hubstaff family is the Agile project management software — Hubstaff Tasks. The product focuses on bringing all team members on the same page and helping project managers complete all the work on time. The features of this product revolve around a simple application with minimalistic UI adjusted to all kinds of users regardless of their skill level. They allow you to create workspaces and tasks, assign members, and add all the necessary options to mobilize the work process. 

Agile Workflows 

The automated visual Kanban-board style platform is something we would like to highlight in our Hubstaff Tasks review as it stands out in its simplicity and ease of use in making quick boards with either preset workflows or blank templates. It also supports Sprints which are heaven-sent for setting priorities so everyone knows what to work on at any given moment. This feature allows team members to collaborate, organize columns and tasks, and at the same time eliminate the risk of project details overlapping. 

Communication & Collaboration

Hubstaff Tasks is perfect for managing tasks and workflows among teams of staffers who already use the employee monitoring software. The integration between the two apps is seamless. Once you start using the boards, you can post comments to ask questions, add attachments, checklists, descriptions, share due dates or updates, and even tag teammates or followers. Our Hubstaff Tasks review found that work-in-progress (WIP) limits and swimlane diagrams have not been integrated yet but some new features have been announced so it remains to be seen whether they will cover these aspects.

Templates & Integration

This tool includes more than 40 different project management templates including ones for A/B testing, hiring, onboarding, IT support, and others. Project managers can further create their own templates and see what works best for them. And the best thing is that you can sync them to a project on the Hubstaff app and through it integrate with other software such as Jira, Zendesk, Asana, etc. At present, Hubstaff Tasks does not allow you to build your integrations, though the option to import data from similar software like Trello, for example, is available. 

Hubstaff Tasks Pricing

A free plan is available for up to five users with unlimited projects and up to 100MB storage. There is also a premium plan at $5/user/month ($4 per user annually) for teams of over five members, with unlimited projects and up to 5GB user storage, all with a 60-day money-back guarantee. 

Hubstaff Talent Review

Hubstaff Talent is the third child of the software company aimed at helping businesses hunt for quality staff at affordable prices. It is conceived as a directory of high-quality freelancers and agencies. This open marketplace offers the option of browsing for remote workers or freelancers by skill and by country. Contractors and interested employees can also register their agencies via Hubstaff Talent.

Unfortunately, the data we’ve compiled for this Hubstaff Talent review brought to light some disappointing issues. For instance, there is no built-in rating system for companies to leave feedback which only increases the chances of hiring staff that is unethical or worse, unreliable. Users are also complaining that most jobs are low paid while others say they are receiving a lot of spam.

Our bottom line for this product is that although it’s an awesome idea to have two established Hubstaff products join forces for the sake of offering additional benefits to clients, developers might consider adding some privacy-related restrictions. 

In terms of Hubstaff Talent pricing, the platform is conceived as a service provided to clients at no additional costs but rather as an added value. For those looking for remote work as well as the ones looking to hire freelancers, the service comes with no Hubstaff fees, markups, and middlemen.

Hubstaff Customer Service 

The vendor provides customer support through various channels for all its products and plans. More than one Hubstaff review suggests that opening a ticket is the fastest and most efficient way to get support, but some users comment on the turnaround time of around 90 minutes as being too long.

On a more positive note, the support team has done an excellent job of providing self-help materials such as FAQs and video tutorials where users can find answers to most of their queries. These are particularly convenient for free account holders, as they don’t have 24/7 support at disposal. 

The Hubstaff support team is also available via email while the time-tracking and project management products come with personalized onboarding assistance. The Hubstaff Enterprise plan includes VIP support including live chat and concierge setup. 

Our Final Ruling

Hubstaff is more than just an application for monitoring employees; it’s a platform packed with features designed to accommodate both employers and staff. So, does it deliver on its promise? If you are looking for a time tracking and employee monitoring software, the answer is a resounding yes. It’s perfect for businesses with remote teams and mobile fleets. However, when it comes to project management, task tracking, or talent scouting, our Hubstaff review finds there is room for improvement.