In case you ever wondered how productive your employees are, or if they might be going rogue, you probably asked yourself how to monitor employee’s computer? Well, the answer is quite simple - by using an employee monitoring software.

In general, such software allows you to track track employee internet usage, as well as any actions your employees take using company’s computers. Usually, such tools will allow you to see real-time data, and data from the past. The best software to monitor PC also allows you to gain insight into employees’ working habits, time consumption and productivity levels.

In this article, we’ll share our list of top 6 monitoring software solutions.

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Employee Monitoring Categories

Employee monitoring software solutions can be divided into two broad categories:

1. Those who are used for surveillance, as an additional level of data and system security
2. Those who help track employees’ habits and productivity, which are generally used for improved team management.

Most of the tools we’ve selected for this article can help both to a certain extent, but their primarily use is one or the other.

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Analysis Methodology

Since the employee monitoring market is huge, and each software offers something special, we’ve decided to go through computer monitoring software reviews on websites like Capterra, GetApp, Featured Customers and TopTenReviews to find out which solutions are the most popular among customers.

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6. SentryPC

From what we could gather from SentryPC’s website - they are a cloud-based employee monitoring and filtering solution with which you can record, filter and schedule computer activities for your employees. 

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Pros

• Oriented towards heavy monitoring

This can be a pro or a con, depending on what you’re looking for. SentryPC certainly seems like a robust surveillance tool. Besides providing you with real-time monitoring, it takes screenshots, attendance, inactivity, as well as emails, keystrokes. It even allows you to print and monitor removable storage devices.

Depending on your wishes, this could be excessive, but there are companies out there who are looking for full surveillance programs and SentryPC seems like a tool for them.

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• Filtering the content

Another handy feature is filtering and blocking of harmful websites, apps, or chats your employees use. However, if you blog social media or news sites, your employees won’t be able to browse them during their breaks either.

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• Evaluating productivity

Since the program tracks inactivity and attendance, you can also use it to evaluate everyone’s productivity. However, we weren’t able to see anything about advanced productivity reports or app and website categorization - features which would make this option a whole.

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Cons

• No trial available

Unfortunately, the software doesn’t have a free trial version, which made it impossible for us to examine it. Additionally, customers are always keen on testing a product before the purchase, so this is definitely a big con for SentryPC. 

There is a pre-made online demo presentation, but you really can’t get a grip of the tool if you don’t test it out yourself.

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• Support only during business hours

If you have any questions regarding the software, or if some issues come up while you’re using it - you can only reach SentryPC support during working hours, and only through email. This means you probably won’t get your answer before 24h pass, and if you’re a user with serious issues this can be a major problem.

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Price

When it comes to pricing, there are three options. $59.95 for a single PC per year, $955 for 50 licences, and $1.595 for 100 licences. If you’re getting a per PC subscription you’ll pay $59.95 for the first licence, and $19.95 for every additional licence.

When you look at it - it’s not expensive. BUT, and this is a big but. It’s a bit weird they’re asking for a yearly subscription without giving you a day of free trial. This can be especially problematic in smaller companies.

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Summary

Free trial - not available

‍Deployment - cloud-based

‍Customer Support - email, during business hours

‍Monitoring & Time Tracking features:

• ‍‍Real-time monitoring - Yes
• Screenshots - Yes
• Automatic time tracking - No
• Attendance tracking - Yes
• Website blocking & filtering - Yes
• Project & task tracking - No
• Payroll calculator - No
• Apps & websites categorization - No
• Productivity reports & analysis - No
• Employee database - No
• User login - No
• Optional transparency - No

‍Pricing - from $59.90 per PC / year

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5. Toggl

‍Toggl is a very intuitive and simple to use cloud-based platform. You can use it to track time and monitor tasks and projects. Additionally it has a feature that simplifies your accounting tasks. 

Pros

• Tracking reminders

Since one of the cons is that the time tracking isn’t completely automated (you’ll see what we’re talking about in the next paragraph), it’s imperative we mention that Toggl has tracking reminders. In case your employees start working on something without turning on the timer, they’ll receive a handy notification which will remind them to start the clock.

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• Available across devices

Toggl syncs across devices, so if you turn on the tracker on your phone, you can easily turn it off on the computer and vice versa. This is certainly handy if you count all client communication as billable hours. If they call you, you can just turn on Toggl on your phone and measure the time spent.

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Cons

• Time tracking is not entirely automated

What we mean by this is that employees need to click a button when they start or stop working. This can be problematic because people tend to forget about such tasks. Since employees can add time manually, they can do this in case they forget to turn on the timer. However, this means you won’t get data that is 100% accurate as you would with an automatic time tracker.

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• No screenshots and website blocking

Since Toggl is more of a project time tracking software, it lacks surveillance options like screenshots and website blocking. It makes sense when you consider that its main use isn’t actual monitoring.

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• No app and website monitoring

Like we said above, it’s not surprising Toggl doesn’t have this feature. However, because of this you’re missing proof of work. Don’t forget that people can enter they’ve worked for an hour on something when, instead, they were browsing Facebook.

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Price

If you’re going with the yearly starter plan, you should be prepared to give $9 per employee per month, which doesn’t exactly make Toggl the cheapest solution on the market. However, they do offer a freemium for up to 5 users (perfect for team who are just starting).

Furthermore, they have a 30-day trial, which is more than enough time for you to see if the solution is right for you.

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Summary

Free trial - available, up to 30 days

‍Deployment - cloud-based

‍Customer Support - email, during business hours

‍Monitoring & Time Tracking Features

• ‍‍Real-time monitoring - No
• Screenshots - No
• Automatic time capture - No
• Attendance tracking - Manually
• Website blocking & filtering - No
• Project & task tracking - Yes
• Payroll tracker - Yes
• Apps & websites categorization - No
• Productivity reports & analysis - Yes
• Employee database - Yes
• User login - Yes
• Optional transparency - Yes

‍Pricing - from $9 per user / month for yearly plans

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4. Yaware.TimeTracker

Yaware.TimeTracker is an automated time tracking app that helps you monitor your employees’ internet and software usage. At the same time, you can track time spent on projects, as well as evaluate performance. It’s also cloud-based, and their support team is available via email during their working hours.

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Pros

• Screenshots and webcam shots

Yaware.TimeTracker offers screenshots and webcam snapshots. Screenshots are a feature most monitoring tools have, however, webcam snapshots are quite intrusive and you better check your country’s law in order to avoid legal issues. 

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Cons

• No tasks and projects tracking

This software still doesn’t have an option to track tasks and projects, which became a necessity among customers in the past couple of years. We do consider this a con, because you would certainly expect to use a more sophisticated software in your industry.

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Price

They offer 3 different kinds of pricing. The first one ($3.99 per employee per month) is for those who only which to use Yaware.TimeTracker as an automated timesheet. Second option is more suitable for productivity analysis and it will cost you $7.99 per employee per month. They call their third option Productivity Growth it has more advanced features and costs $9.99.

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Summary

Free trial - available, up to 14 days

‍Deployment - aloud-based / on-premise available on request

‍Customer Support - email, during business hours

‍Monitoring & Time Tracking Features

• ‍‍Real-time monitoring - Yes
• Screenshots - Yes
• Automatic time capture - Yes
• Attendance tracking - Yes
• Website blocking & filtering - No
• Project & task tracking - No
• Payroll tracker - No
• Apps & websites categorization - Yes
• Productivity reports & analysis - Yes
• Employee database - Yes
• User login - No
• Optional transparency - Yes

‍Pricing - from $3.99 per user / month

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3. Worksnaps

Worksnaps comes in third in our employee computer monitoring software reviews, and it’s a work hours tracker focused mostly on remote and small teams. You can use it as a project hours tracker, as well as billable hours tracker. It has a large knowledge base center on the website, which aims to help you resolve issues without contacting the support team.

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Pros

• Integrations

Worksnaps integrates with a lot of project management and accounting tools. These integrations are extremely handy for quick, accurate payments and task management. These tools are usually imperative for remote teams, so it’s no wonder Worksnaps claims it’s the best solution for those.

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Cons

• No apps and websites tracking

It doesn’t track app and website usage, nor does it allow you to categorize website and app usage. Meaning, there’s no real-time tracking, which is a must for some companies. Also, lacking information about which websites and apps your team uses can cause serious issues.

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Price

Worknaps offers a freemium version for 1 person who’s working on 1 project. But if you’re looking for team-wide implementation, you would need to pay at least $20 per month. This subscription includes 4 users, so the price grows as you keep adding new users. If you have 30 users, you would need to pay $90 per month. Companies with more than 30 employees need to pay $90 per month + $3 for each additional employee.

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Summary

Free trial - available, up to 30 days

‍Deployment - cloud-based

‍Customer support – ticketing system on the website

‍Monitoring & Time Tracking Features

• ‍‍Real-time monitoring - No
• Screenshots - Yes
• Automatic time capture - Yes
• Attendance tracking - No
• Website blocking & filtering - No
• Project & task tracking - Yes
• Payroll tracker - Yes
• Apps & websites categorization - No
• Productivity reports & analysis - No
• Employee database - Yes
• User login - Yes
• Optional transparency - Yes

‍Pricing - from $20 per month

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2. Veriato Cerebral

At the time of the first writing of this article, Veriato Cerebral was called Veriato 360. Since then the app has updated many of their features, but they’re still focused on surveillance and security. They do offer productivity management, but their main focus is still on data protection.

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Pros 

• Robust monitoring features

Cerebral captures screenshots and record keystrokes. It’s extremely useful if you’re trying to catch insider threats. The best part is that it can log the above based on certain actions. Additionally, it records a video of what’s happening on the employees’ computer.

As you can see it is really intrusive, but it’s serving the purpose it’s supposed to serve - detecting and preventing security threats.

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• Productivity analysis

Veriato Cerebral offers daily activity reports, in which you can see what your employees were up to during the day. If they were spending their time on productive activities, or lurking around social media networks.

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Cons

• Task tracking is not available

Unfortunately, due to Veriato’s focus on surveillance and security you won’t be able to track which tasks and projects you’re team has completed during the day. But yeah, you do have project management tools for this, so I guess it won’t be a big issue.

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Price

Veriato is “secretive” when it comes to pricing. Prices aren’t publicly available, so you need to share your email and some other information with them in order to get it.

Summary

Free trial - available

‍Deployment - cloud-based

‍Customer Support - email, phone, and live chat

‍Monitoring & Time Tracking Features

• ‍‍Real-time monitoring - Yes
• Screenshots - Yes
• Automatic time capture - Yes
• Attendance tracking - Yes
• Website blocking & filtering - Yes
• Project & task tracking - No
• Payroll tracker - No
• Apps & websites categorization - Yes
• Productivity reports & analysis - Yes
• Employee database - Yes
• User login - No
• Optional transparency - Yes

‍Pricing - available on request

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1. Insightful

Insightful combines employee monitoring and time tracking into one neat platform. It is cloud-based, but on-premise solution is available upon request. Workpuls prides itself into being a company that is suitable both for in-office and remote employee tracking, as well as being a  remote employee monitoring tool.

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Pros

• Fully automated time tracking

Insightful is one of the few platforms that offers fully automated time tracking. The tracker starts working once the computer is started and stops when the computer is off. This way, you’re not losing out on data, or missing any billable hours.

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• Flexible screenshot capturing

Screenshot feature is turned off by default, but if you want to activate it you can select to have up to 20 screenshots per employee per hour.

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• Different login options

Insightful has a managerial login, which you and your senior team members can use, but it also offers an employee login. Employees are only able to see their own data, and it’s proven to be quite useful for boosting productivity levels.

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• Stealth mode

Insightful is probably the best stealth computer monitoring software. Stealth mode is great for those companies who want to track all computer activity without the possibility of employees’ involvement in app settings.

Cons

• No integrations

At the time of writing of this post, Insightful still doesn’t offer any integrations. For some companies it’s a deal-breaker, but it doesn’t have to be for you. Although, Insightful did announce that some integrations will be available in the near future.

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Price

Considering the features it offers, Insightful is the most affordable tool on the market, with the price of $6.4 per employee/per month. Clients who decide to pay for a full year, and those with a lot of employees can even enjoy a discount on this price.

Summary

Free trial - available

‍Deployment - cloud-based / on-premise upon request

‍Customer Support - email, live chat, help knowledge base on the website

‍Monitoring & Time Tracking Features

• ‍‍Real-time monitoring - Yes
• Screenshots - Yes
• Automatic time capture - Yes
• Attendance tracking - Yes
• Website blocking & filtering- No
• Project & task tracking - No
• Payroll tracker - Yes
• Apps & websites categorization - Yes
• Productivity reports & analysis - Yes
• Employee database - Yes
• User login - Yes
• Optional transparency - Yes

‍Pricing - from $6.4 per employee per month

Wrap Up

Selecting an employee computer monitoring software based on reviews can be complicated and time-consuming. Especially if you’re new to the industry. You’re still not fully aware of the features each tools offer, and are still thinking about what it is that you really need.

That’s perfectly fine, because with this post, as well as with many others we’ve written, we can help you select the best employee monitoring software of 2019.

Start Monitoring Your Employees Now

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This article was originally written on August 2nd, 2017. It was updated on September 24th, 2019.

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