ActivTrak vs Insightful
ActivTrak and Insightful both sell activity analytics rather than keystroke capture, but they split on almost every practical detail. ActivTrak publishes four per-worker tiers on annual billing, keeps history for six months to a year, and offers screenshots only through an add-on on two plans. Insightful starts at $8 per seat per month on annual billing, keeps 24 months of history, lets managers choose between a visible and a stealth agent, and can store data in the EU or on your own servers from 250 employees. Pick on retention, residency and how much visual evidence you want.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderVendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Choose ActivTrak ifyou want team-level workload and capacity trends, you are content with six months or a year of history, and you would rather not capture video, cameras or typed text at all. You also need a free starter tier for up to three people and can commit to a year of billing.
Choose Insightful ifyou need data kept in the EU or on servers you run yourself, and you want two years of history to compare against. You are also willing to read an add-on list for screenshot frequency and screen recording before you total the bill.
ActivTrak and Insightful side by side
| ActivTrak | Insightful | |
|---|---|---|
| Our employee monitoring rank | #4 of 13 | #3 of 13 |
| Established in | United States | United States |
| List price, 7 November 2026 | Four tiers at $10, $15, $17 and $21 per worker per month, annual billing only; a free plan stops at 3 people | From $8 per seat per month on annual terms; add-ons run $3 to $4 per seat; Enterprise priced on request |
| Free tier | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | Mid-sized and larger employers who want workload and productivity trends across teams | Remote and hybrid teams wanting activity analytics with optional screenshots and employee access |
| Not for | Employers who need per-screen evidence or a month-to-month contract | Small firms that must keep monitoring data on their own servers |
Both are reviewed in full in our employee monitoring ranking: ActivTrak and Insightful.
Where they differ
ActivTrak 1 · Insightful 4 · open 1- 01
Three people for nothing versus seven days for everyone
ActivTrak has a permanent free plan, but it covers basic activity visibility for 3 people only and holds 30 days of data. Insightful has no permanent free plan in the facts we read, only a one-week trial with no card on file and an uncapped headcount. A tiny team that wants to keep using a tool without paying gets that from ActivTrak. A larger company that needs to test with its whole headcount gets that from Insightful.
Depends on the buyer
- 02
How many months of history you can look back on
ActivTrak keeps data for 6 months on Work Activity Tracking and Workforce Management, and for 1 year on Productivity Optimization. Insightful lists 24 months of retention on its plans. For a year-on-year comparison of workload, six months does not reach back far enough, and even ActivTrak's one-year ceiling only just covers it. Insightful's two years is the only figure here that spans two full annual cycles.
Edge: Insightful
- 03
What each vendor says it never records
ActivTrak states on its employee monitoring page: no keystroke logging, no video and no camera monitoring. Insightful says it tracks time, activity and app and website usage without logging what employees type, and its site also claims no capture of messages or document content, with screenshots never used for processing. ActivTrak's exclusion list is wider because it rules out video and cameras as well, while Insightful sells screen recording as an add-on.
Edge: ActivTrak
- 04
Screenshots as a bolt-on, and what each bolt costs
ActivTrak offers screenshots only through the Screen Details add-on, and only on Work Activity Tracking and Workforce Management. Insightful treats visual evidence as per-seat add-ons: increased-frequency screenshots at $3 (up to 120 per hour), on-demand screenshots at $4 and screen recording at $4, each per seat per month. Insightful has the wider menu, but its headline plan price rises quickly once those lines are added. ActivTrak's add-on price is not shown in the facts we read.
Edge: Insightful
- 05
Where the data physically sits
Insightful lists data residency in the US, the EU, Saudi Arabia or a private cloud region, and an on-premise option for companies with at least 250 employees, which carries an extra service fee. ActivTrak's pages in our pack describe no residency choice and no self-hosted route, so nothing in our pack states one. A buyer with a works-council or procurement requirement for EU storage has a stated option only with Insightful.
Edge: Insightful
- 06
The annual commitment and who the plans are sized for
ActivTrak charges $10, $15, $17 and $21 per worker per month across four tiers, billed annually only, with a 14-day trial of the Workforce Management plus Productivity Optimization bundle and an AI Insights add-on at $4. Insightful lists the entry plan at $8 per seat per month annually, with month-to-month billing on select plans, a 50-seat minimum on Insights at $24, and custom quotes above that. ActivTrak's annual-only rule is the stricter one.
Edge: Insightful
When neither fits
If your main need is a fully on-device tool with deep investigation features, or a lightweight timer for a small crew, neither of these is the natural fit. WorkTime and Controlio are two other names in our employee monitoring list worth opening next to these two.
ActivTrak or Insightful: questions
3 answersDoes ActivTrak record screens the way Insightful's add-ons can?
ActivTrak's screenshots exist only as the Screen Details add-on on two of its four plans, and it states that video and camera monitoring are excluded.
Insightful sells increased-frequency screenshots, on-demand screenshots and screen recording as separate per-seat add-ons. If recording matters, Insightful is the one with a stated product for it.
Which of the two lets staff see their own numbers?
Insightful has an Employee Login that gives staff access to their own data once a manager switches it on, and it also describes a visible and a stealth agent mode.
Our ActivTrak facts mention no employee-facing view. Transparency at Insightful is a setting you choose, not a default.
Can I run either tool for a few weeks without paying anything?
ActivTrak gives a 14-day trial of its Workforce Management plus Productivity Optimization bundle, and a free plan limited to 3 people.
Insightful gives a one-week trial, no card required, open to any number of staff. Neither window is long enough to judge a full month-end cycle on its own.
Sources
Checked 7 November 2026- ActivTrak pricing page: the four per-worker tiers, annual-only billing, 3-person free plan, retention of 6 months or 1 year, Screen Details add-on, 14-day bundle trial, AI Insights add-on.
- ActivTrak employee monitoring page: the vendor's own line excluding keystroke logging, video and camera monitoring.
- Insightful pricing page: the $8 entry seat price, 7-day no-card trial, 24-month retention, screenshot and recording add-on prices, 250-employee on-premise floor, 50-seat minimum on Insights.
- Insightful home page: US, EU, Saudi Arabia and private cloud data residency, and the no-capture statements on messages and document content.
- Insightful employee monitoring page: Stealth and Visible modes, Employee Login for staff, and the no-typed-text statement.