Employee monitoring software ranges from anonymous activity totals to recorded screens and keystrokes, and the right amount depends on the question an employer needs answered.
This guide ranks thirteen products on what they capture, whether the agent can hide, where the captured data is stored and for how long, and how openly each vendor prices it.
Vendors can pay for visibility on this page. It never changes what an entry
says about a product, including the criticism, and we earn nothing when you click through to a
vendor. How that works.
In short
What employee monitoring software does
Employee monitoring software installs an agent on work computers that records activity such as application use, websites, idle time, screenshots or keystrokes, and reports it to the employer.
In this order: setup effort, what it really costs, how your data comes back out, whether
you can leave, and who each employee monitoring tool is built for. Why those five, and why there is no
score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Organisations needing monitoring, filtering and device blocking from one agent on Chromebooks too
Buyers who want to compare prices before speaking to sales
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
Attendance and activity figures with a stated ban on content capture
Ranked #1 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Free tierSelf-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
The purchase is easy to defend to staff because the vendor's own list of what is never recorded is short and specific. Three paid plans are priced per employee by the month or the year, all with unlimited history, and the top tiers replace screenshots with a screen productivity figure.
Deployment on your own servers keeps the data inside the company. Buyers who expect to reconstruct what happened on a screen should look further down this list.
What stands out
Cloud or on-premise
Free plan
Numbers, not images
Where it costs you
Records neither screenshots nor typed content, so an investigation has figures but nothing visual to review
The free plan stops at three employees and keeps two weeks of history
Right for
Employers who want attendance and productivity figures and nothing that shows screen content
Wrong for
Security teams that need screen recordings as evidence after an incident
CanadaFree plan for 3 employees; per employee monthly or yearly, published
Continuous screen recording with stealth optional, in cloud or on-premises
Ranked #2 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
A twelve-person firm can choose between the vendor cloud and its own server here, with a two-week trial. The Advanced plan adds a private cloud, and the Enterprise tier, quoted from one hundred users, a dedicated managed server.
Because recording is continuous and the stealth setting hides the agent entirely, the product can collect far more than most purposes justify. Decide what is switched on before rollout, since the defaults will not decide it for you.
What stands out
Optional stealth mode
Cloud or on-premise
5-user minimum
Where it costs you
Every plan has a five-user minimum and on-premises installation needs at least ten users
Standard storage is six months; keeping recordings longer is an extension up to three years
Right for
Small and mid-sized employers who need screen recordings and a choice of hosting
Wrong for
Employers who have ruled out screen or keystroke capture on principle
United StatesPer user per month, published; Enterprise quoted
Activity and app analytics that log time, never typed text
Ranked #3 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
More visual evidence than a pure analytics tool, less than a keystroke recorder. A week-long trial needs no card and takes unlimited employees, which is short for judging a full pay cycle.
Read the add-on list before comparing prices, because screenshot frequency and screen recording each carry their own monthly charge. The Employee Login is off until a manager enables it, so transparency is a choice you make, not a default.
What stands out
Stealth or visible
Typing never logged
7-day trial
Where it costs you
More frequent screenshots and screen recording are separate per-seat add-ons on top of the plan price
Running it on your own servers requires at least 250 employees and an extra service fee
Right for
Remote and hybrid teams wanting activity analytics with optional screenshots and employee access
Wrong for
Small firms that must keep monitoring data on their own servers
United StatesPer seat per month billed annually, published; Enterprise quoted
Workforce analytics that rules out keystroke logging, video and cameras
Ranked #4 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
The four tiers run from basic activity tracking to capacity planning and workflow discovery, and an AI insights add-on is charged per worker on top of two of them. A 14-day trial opens the two middle plans as a bundle.
The retention ceiling matters more than it looks: on the cheaper paid plans six months of history is all there is, which is short for year-on-year comparison. Budget for a full year up front.
What stands out
Free plan
Annual billing only
Screenshots as add-on
Where it costs you
Paid plans are billed annually only, with monthly payment not offered
Screenshots require the Screen Details add-on and are limited to two of the four plans
Right for
Mid-sized and larger employers who want workload and productivity trends across teams
Wrong for
Employers who need per-screen evidence or a month-to-month contract
United StatesFree plan for 3 users; per worker per month billed annually, published
Modular monitoring and web filtering you can run inside your network
Ranked #5 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
The modules read like an IT department's list: filtering, peripheral control and power management beside activity reports, with the data able to stay on premises. The 14-day trial is fully functional on up to ten computers.
Add up the modules you need, because BrowseReporter alone costs a little over half the suite. The vendor's own advice is to tell employees what is monitored, and the settings allow each data type to be turned off.
What stands out
On-premise or cloud
Modular suite
14-day trial
Where it costs you
A minimum purchase threshold of 1,440 US dollars a year applies, and licences grow in blocks of five
Monitoring, filtering and device control are separate modules, so the suite price is well above one module
Right for
IT-led organisations that want monitoring data kept on their own SQL Server
Wrong for
Teams of a handful of people looking for a cheap starter
CanadaPer user per month, published; minimum annual purchase
Automatic time and app tracking with a private-time switch for staff
Ranked #6 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
The feature list reads more like workforce software than surveillance: shift scheduling, an absence calendar, project tracking and document title tracking sit beside the monitoring. Each person has a user dashboard, and a private time option is listed among the features.
That design suits shared visibility and does little for an employer worried about data theft. Both plans can be tried for 14 days, and monthly billing is available at a higher rate than the annual price.
What stands out
Private time option
Screenshots on Premium
14-day trial
Where it costs you
Screenshots are excluded from the Pro plan and start at Premium
The pricing page states no data retention period for any plan
Right for
Offices and agencies that want productivity tracking staff can see and pause
Wrong for
Investigations that need keystrokes, screen video or hidden deployment
LatviaPer user per month, published; Enterprise quoted
Screenshot-based tracking with blur, in visible or stealth mode
Ranked #7 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
For a company paying contractors by the hour, screenshots plus activity levels answer the one question that matters, and the blur setting limits what managers can read on those images. A ten-day trial needs no card.
The vendor itself attaches a condition to stealth mode: where policy and local law permit. Treat the short storage window as a design constraint, since a complaint raised three months later will find the evidence already gone unless reports were exported in time.
What stands out
Stealth or visible
Screenshot blur
10-day trial
Where it costs you
Data storage is one month on Pro and two months on Business and Business Premium
Longer storage and custom screenshot settings sit in the Enterprise tier, reserved for 100 or more employees
Right for
Small remote teams and outsourcers who want screenshot proof of work at low cost
Wrong for
Employers who need more than two months of stored history
United StatesPer user per month, published; Enterprise quoted
The former Kickidler: screen video, keylogger and remote control
Ranked #8 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingEurope
Three plans split the product into time tracking, employee monitoring and data loss protection, each priced per user with discounts for longer terms and the only perpetual licence on this page.
After the trial, seven days or fourteen if you give a phone number, the software drops to a mode limited to one computer. A self-monitoring interface shows employees their own activity. The old and new sites publish different Nicosia addresses for the same company.
What stands out
Formerly Kickidler
Keylogger and video
On-premise
Where it costs you
Records keystroke history and screen video, which is more than most monitoring purposes can justify
Pricing for the on-premise deployment is on request, unlike the published per-user plans
Right for
Employers who want a perpetual licence and recordings stored on their own server
Wrong for
Organisations looking for aggregate analytics with minimal personal data
CyprusPer user per month billed annually, published; perpetual licence offered
Indian productivity analytics priced in rupees with a year of history
Ranked #9 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingAsia-Pacific
A year of history on the entry plan is generous beside rivals that keep one to six months, and the hourly screenshot cap keeps the image volume modest. The second plan adds AI features for a higher per-user price, and a seven-day trial needs no card.
Be careful with the attrition and disengagement scoring: a prediction about an individual is a different kind of data from a record of hours, and staff will reasonably ask how it is used.
What stands out
1-year retention
Screenshots capped hourly
7-day trial
Where it costs you
Own-server deployment and two-year retention are Enterprise-only and quoted
Published prices are in Indian rupees, so buyers elsewhere should confirm billing currency
Right for
Indian and Asia-Pacific employers wanting attendance and productivity analytics at low seat cost
Wrong for
Small teams that need recordings stored inside their own network
IndiaPer user per month in rupees, published; Enterprise quoted
Time, screenshots and GPS tracking for office and field staff
Ranked #10 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingAsia-Pacific
The plan names, Proof and Profit, describe the split: the first covers time, screenshots and activity reports, the second adds margin tracking, invoicing and workforce analytics. A seven-day trial needs no card.
Location history is a second category of personal data on top of screen activity, so decide whether field tracking is needed at all before enabling it. Silent deployment is available on every plan, which sits awkwardly beside the transparency the site advertises.
What stands out
GPS and geofencing
Blurrable screenshots
7-day trial
Where it costs you
Retention is 90 days on the Proof plan and 180 days on Profit; two years needs Enterprise
Private cloud, single sign-on and two-year retention are reserved for Enterprise, from 100 users
Right for
Service businesses with both desk and field staff who bill clients by time
Wrong for
Employers who want only desktop analytics and nothing location-based
IndiaPer user per month, published; Enterprise quoted
Productivity scoring drawn from business applications, not from screens
Ranked #11 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
The least screen-focused approach on the list, and one staff can inspect, since they can view their own productivity data. Data is held in a warehouse on Google Cloud Platform.
The trial covers up to 25 users for office suite activity only, so it shows little of what the CRM and telephony integrations add. Investor ownership and a quoted upper range are reasons to fix renewal terms in writing, and to ask what happens to the data on exit.
What stands out
API-based
Screens left alone
PSG Equity backed
Where it costs you
Only the Basic plan shows a price; Premium and Enterprise require a sales conversation
Scores depend on the integrations you connect, so work done outside those systems goes unseen
Right for
Sales and service teams already standardised on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace
Wrong for
Employers who need screen evidence or monitoring of unconnected software
United StatesBasic per user per month, published; Premium and Enterprise quoted
Insider-risk monitoring that captures keystrokes, email, chat and screenshots
Ranked #12 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
The published figure is the second highest entry price on this page, and the trial is granted on request, not by self-service signup. Deployment is cloud or on your own infrastructure, and one licence covers a user's several devices.
Buy it when the question is what a specific person did with company data. The AI risk scoring produces judgements about individuals, so decide in advance who may see those scores and how a flagged employee can respond.
What stands out
Insider risk
Cloud or on-premise
5-user minimum
Where it costs you
Collects email, chat and keystroke data, which demands a clear purpose and tight access control
The insider risk product has a 20-user minimum and its price is given only by quote
Right for
Security and compliance teams investigating data theft or insider threats
Wrong for
Managers who simply want to know whether remote staff are working
United StatesUAM per user per month billed annually, published; IRM quoted
Keystroke, screenshot and web-filtering suite with silent remote installation
Ranked #13 of 13 in Best Employee Monitoring Software in 2026.
Self-hostablePricing on requestNorth America
Coverage is the argument: the site shows Windows, Mac, Chromebook, Android, Citrix and VMware, which matters for virtual desktop estates. The pricing page gave no trial length either; the site says only that you can start free.
With last place comes the least verifiable entry here, not a judgement on the software. Anyone shortlisting it should get the retention period, the hosting terms and the export format in writing, because none of them is published.
What stands out
Keystroke logging
Silent install
Self-hosted option
Where it costs you
The pricing page lists no plans or amounts; all pricing comes through sales
Marketed for covert investigations, which sets a tone many employers will not want
Right for
Organisations needing monitoring, filtering and device blocking from one agent on Chromebooks too
Wrong for
Buyers who want to compare prices before speaking to sales
Employee monitoring software installs an agent on work computers that records activity such as application use, websites, idle time, screenshots or keystrokes, and reports it to the employer. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
12 of the 13 tools here publish what they cost; the other 1 quote per organisation. The ones you can compare without a sales call: WorkTime, Controlio, Insightful, ActivTrak, CurrentWare, DeskTime, Monitask, KeepActive, We360.ai, Workstatus, Prodoscore, Veriato.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 13 vendors are established in 5 countries across 3 regions (North America 9, Europe 2, Asia-Pacific 2). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
Employee monitoring software captures either counts or content
The first decision is what kind of record you want to hold. WorkTime reports attendance and active time as figures and states that screenshots, keystrokes and document content are never recorded. ActivTrak excludes keystroke logging, video and cameras, and Prodoscore reads activity from business applications instead of the screen. At the other end, Controlio records the screen continuously, KeepActive adds a keylogger and remote control, and Veriato collects email and chat as well.
Insightful and Monitask sit between: screenshots, but typed text left alone. Content capture answers more questions and creates more liability, because every screenshot may contain a bank balance, a medical message or a password. Buy the lightest capture that answers the question you actually have, and check whether the heavier features can be switched off per team.
Write down the question monitoring must answer before you look at any feature list.
Ask whether screenshots, keystrokes and screen video can each be disabled per group.
Check whether screenshots can be blurred or redacted before they reach a manager.
Stealth or visible: what the monitored employee sees
Vendors differ sharply on whether the agent may hide. Controlio offers an optional stealth mode with no icon and no Task Manager process. Insightful and Monitask each ship a visible and a stealth mode, and Monitask attaches the condition that policy and local law must permit it. InterGuard advertises silent remote installation for covert investigations, and Veriato says its agent can run discreetly in the background.
Others lean the opposite way: DeskTime lists a private time option, Workstatus promises employees sight of their own data, and Insightful has an Employee Login that a manager must enable. Hidden monitoring is a narrow tool for a specific suspicion. Used as the default for a whole workforce, it risks costing more trust on discovery than the data was worth.
Confirm which mode the installer uses by default and who can change it.
Ask what the employee can see: their own dashboard, the screenshots, or nothing.
Find out whether staff can pause tracking for private use of a work device.
Where monitoring data is stored, and for how long
Retention is the least noticed line on these pricing pages and one of the most consequential. Monitask keeps one month of data on Pro and two on its Business plans. ActivTrak keeps six months on its lower paid tiers and a year above. Workstatus keeps 90 or 180 days, We360.ai a year, Insightful 24 months, and WorkTime states unlimited history on paid plans.
Controlio stores six months unless extended. Location matters as much: WorkTime, CurrentWare and KeepActive install on your own servers, Controlio does so from ten users, Insightful only from 250 employees, and We360.ai only on its Enterprise tier. Short retention protects staff and limits what a breach can expose, but it also means the record may be gone when a dispute surfaces months later.
Match the retention period to the longest dispute or audit window you realistically face.
Ask for the minimum seat count for on-premises hosting, not only for the cloud plan.
Check whether captured data is deleted automatically at the end of the period.
Notice, consent and proportionality stay with the employer
Employee monitoring software is sold worldwide, and the duties that come with using it fall on the buyer, not the vendor. Depending on where your staff work, that can mean telling them what is collected, obtaining consent or consulting representatives, and keeping the monitoring proportionate to a stated purpose. The rules differ by country, so take local advice before rollout.
The products hint at this themselves: Monitask limits stealth mode to where law permits, and CurrentWare advises telling employees what is monitored. Practical consequences follow for the purchase. A tool such as WorkTime or ActivTrak that cannot capture content is simpler to justify than Veriato or InterGuard, whose keystroke and message capture needs a documented reason and restricted access.
Draft the staff notice first; if a feature is hard to explain in it, reconsider the feature.
Ask who inside your organisation can view recordings and whether that access is logged.
Check how an individual's data can be exported or deleted on request.
What goes wrong most often when buying employee monitoring software
Buying keystroke logging and screen video for a productivity question that application totals would have answered.
Comparing per-seat prices without the screenshot add-ons, as with Insightful's frequency and recording charges or ActivTrak's Screen Details.
Assuming on-premises hosting is available at your size, when Insightful sets it at 250 employees and Controlio at ten users.
Discovering after an incident that the plan kept only one or two months of data, as Monitask's standard plans do.
07
Frequently asked questions
7 answers
What is the best employee monitoring in 2026?
WorkTime leads our ranking of 13. NesterSoft publishes every price and states plainly what the product leaves alone: screenshots, keystrokes, chats, emails and document content.
Managers get attendance, active time and application use as figures, and paid plans keep history without a limit. The same software runs in the vendor cloud or inside your network. The cost of that restraint: when a dispute needs visual evidence, there is nothing to show.
Which employee monitoring tools publish their pricing?
12 of the 13, with the pricing model each one publishes:
WorkTime: Free plan for 3 employees; per employee monthly or yearly, published.
Controlio: Per user per month, published; Enterprise quoted.
Insightful: Per seat per month billed annually, published; Enterprise quoted.
ActivTrak: Free plan for 3 users; per worker per month billed annually, published.
CurrentWare: Per user per month, published; minimum annual purchase.
DeskTime: Per user per month, published; Enterprise quoted.
Monitask: Per user per month, published; Enterprise quoted.
KeepActive: Per user per month billed annually, published; perpetual licence offered.
We360.ai: Per user per month in rupees, published; Enterprise quoted.
Workstatus: Per user per month, published; Enterprise quoted.
Prodoscore: Basic per user per month, published; Premium and Enterprise quoted.
Veriato: UAM per user per month billed annually, published; IRM quoted.
The other 1 quote per organisation.
Is there a free employee monitoring tool?
WorkTime, ActivTrak offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these employee monitoring vendors established?
In 5 countries across 3 regions: North America 9, Europe 2, Asia-Pacific 2.
WorkTime: Canada.
Controlio: United States.
Insightful: United States.
ActivTrak: United States.
CurrentWare: Canada.
DeskTime: Latvia.
Monitask: United States.
KeepActive: Cyprus.
We360.ai: India.
Workstatus: India.
Prodoscore: United States.
Veriato: United States.
InterGuard: United States.
Which employee monitoring tools can you host yourself?
WorkTime, Controlio, CurrentWare, KeepActive, Veriato, InterGuard. The other 7 are hosted by the vendor only.
What should you use instead of WorkTime?
Controlio and Insightful are the next two on this page. Controlio is for small and mid-sized employers who need screen recordings and a choice of hosting; Insightful is for Remote and hybrid teams wanting activity analytics with optional screenshots and employee access.
Who should not buy WorkTime?
Security teams that need screen recordings as evidence after an incident. Records neither screenshots nor typed content, so an investigation has figures but nothing visual to review.
If your employee monitoring product belongs among these 13, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
