Introduction

We spend hundreds of hours researching the best HR and recruiting software so you don’t have to. We never take money from vendors during our research phase and rely heavily on practitioners and experts to help us recommend the right software. However we may earn a small fee if you click on vendor links on this page.
Hubstaff is a time tracker and a productivity management tool that’s great for deskless workers. They stand out for having a job site feature that uses geofencing technology to automatically track your team’s time spent on the job.
Ratings
Ease of Use
Best For
Key Differentiator
Price
Free Trial
PROS
- Most users of this product complement their great customer service and fast response time.
- The product allows you to reward your employees with achievement badges which can be helpful to boost their productivity.
- This product has an open API so you can build custome integrations using their documentation.
CONS
- Steep learning curve. The product can be difficult to set up for non-tech savvy users
- Some users have complained that they get error messages when downloading reports. The system also gets laggy sometimes and crashes while the user uploads.








Hubstaff doubles as a time tracker and a productivity management software. It goes beyond monitoring time spent on projects to tracking employee activities using proof of work features such as URL tracking, app tracking, and optional screenshots. With this activity tracking, managers and administrators can review screenshots and activity percentages taken at 10-minute intervals.
Activity Tracking
These activity percentages are calculated based on mouse and keyboard movements. Managers can also see what apps their employees used and the websites they visited during the course of the day.
This activity tracking feature makes it easier for managers to stay up to date on work progress without having to micromanage or check in frequently with their remote teams. Administrators can also take advantage of Hubstaff’s "achievement badges" feature to boost team productivity.
With this feature, employees can earn badges for hours worked or activity thresholds met. This can even influence your company's decision making process in deciding the employee of the month or incentive you to put the program in place.
GPS and Geofencing Tracking
Another interesting Hubstaff feature is the GPS and geofencing tracking. The GPS location tracking helps administrators monitor employee travel routes in real-time on the map view dashboard.
The app also sends push notifications when your employees show up late or when they don't show up at all. This GPS tracking also ensures you do not under or over-spend time you designated for work to be done in a particular location.
For example, if you have already agreed with your client to work for 5 hours, the GPS tracker will ensure you spend the right amount of time working by sending you notifications when the project gives over the time you budget for. This ensures transparency in the work-pay process between you and your client— which can be tricky with mobile or deskless workforces.
Hubstaff Payroll Management
Payments are quite straightforward with Hubstaff's payroll management features. Employers and managers can set pay rates for each team member, choose payment frequency, and add different payment methods. The software integrates with popular payment platforms like PayPal, Wise, Gusto, and Payoneer to enable this feature.
Once connected with these payment softwares, payments can be automated based on the hours tracked, set rates, and frequency. You can set payment schedules to be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Hubstaff also automatically generates invoices that can be sent to your clients. If your client also uses Hubstaff, you will be notified within the app when they pay or view the invoice.
Hubstaff’s Work Order and More Notable Features
Another Hubstaff feature worth noting is the "work orders" function. This feature will prove beneficial to businesses that work with a lot of clients because it keeps all the information of all your clients including their addresses, service requests, upcoming jobs, the team assigned, and work history in one place.
The work management feature also sends notifications pertaining to activities on the clients you are working for. This helps businesses keep track of unscheduled jobs, uninvolved jobs, uncompleted jobs, and so on.
Hubstaff also has an employee scheduling feature that helps managers and employers delegate tasks and set up shifts for available workers. Employees can then clock in and out from their mobile phones or computers wherever they are.
Hubstaff’s UX and UI
Hubstaff’s sleek interface is easy on the eye and simple to navigate. You can quickly access tons of information from the dashboard including work hours, time spent on tasks, average activity on tasks, and more in the reports section.
The reports can be quite basic and, for the untrained eye, confusing. For example the time and activity report does show you a lot of information regarding the time spent on tasks, the team members that worked, the costs incurred, and so on, but the organization and presentation could use some work. The data looks plain and the pages offer little to no visualizations.

LA Clippers, Instacart, WRS Health, Keller Williams
- GPS tracking and geofencing: Hubstaff will automatically clock your employees in once they enter a pre-set job site radius. This feature uses the GPS technology on smartphones. As they work, their time and location will continue to be recorded. Once they leave the job site radius, Hubstaff will automatically clock them out.
- Automated Payroll and Invoicing: With Hubstaff, you can set up a payroll process by adding separate pay rates for each member of your team, choosing the payment frequency and adding the mode of payment. You can pay your employees through any of Hubstaff’s integrated solutions such as Wise, Gusto, PayPal, Payoneer, or Nitrate.
- API functionality: This software’s API functionality makes it possible for developers to build on the base platform to create custom solutions that specifically address business needs.
Hubstaff also offers:
- Reporting
- Expense tracking
- Time management and scheduling
- Productivity tracking
- Online timesheets
Asana, Quickbooks, Salesforce, PayPal, Zoho projects, Jira, Github
Hubstaff offers three pricing models - Time, Desk, and Field. These models depend on your business requirements. The Time model is for those that want simple time tracking, Desk is if you want team management incorporated with time tracking, and the Field model is for teams that are usually on the go because it features GPS tracking.
Both Time and Desk have similar four-tiered pricing plans. The only difference is, you will be getting productivity management features with Desk. The plans are as follows:
- Free: At $0, you get basic time tracking features and reporting. It is available for only one user at a time.
- Time Starter: This plan costs $7 per user per month. You save an extra $2 per month when you pay annually.
- Time Pro: This is their best seller at $10 per user per month ($8 when billed annually). You get unlimited features and a dedicated 24-hour support.
- Enterprise: This is a customizable price tier for businesses with specific requirements.
Hubstaff’s Field plan costs $12 per user per month.
It is worth noting that you get a 14-day free trial and a 60-day money-back guarantee with any of Hubstaff’s price plans.
Hubstaff is best for businesses that want a team management software together with time tracking.
Like most time tracking softwares, Hubstaff was born out of a need to solve a problem. After graduating from college in 2002, founder, David Nevogt, worked in finance while building up his own golf online training company— Innovative Solutions, Inc. He had to manage his team remotely but, according to him, he couldn't "find an easy way to see what was worked on or hours worked".
In essence, he wanted a time tracking solution that gave him enough information to drive positive change in his business. So in 2011, Dave recruited a developer - Jared Brown - to build Hubstaff. Jared later became a co-founder.
Hubstaff is fully remote with 90 employees in six continents. They have grown rapidly since their launch in 2011 tracking 21 million hours, processing about 300,000 payments, and helping 40,000 teams complete 4 million tasks each month.
Company HQ
Fishers, Indiana, United States
Number of Employees
101-250