Apploye combines screenshot monitoring with payroll and client invoicing, and each alternative below pushes one side of that mix further. I've ranked ten of them for 2026, noting who each one suits and what it costs right now.
TL;DR
Reflow is my top Apploye alternative for 2026, built for operations teams who need to see how their workflows run. Its Mac and Windows agent records work time and productive time with nothing typed in by hand. Reflow then maps each run of a workflow and points to the steps worth automating, and once an automation goes live, it reports the return.
Hubstaff and Time Doctor are the closest match to Apploye's monitoring-plus-payroll setup: Hubstaff pays approved hours out in several currencies, while Time Doctor scores productivity against AI-matched benchmarks from comparable teams.
TimeCamp and Clockify start their paid seats below Apploye's $4.50: TimeCamp's free plan has no user cap, and Clockify's covers five people, with screenshots on Pro. eMonitor's paid plans also start lower, at $3.90, and Professional adds USB blocking. DeskTime starts recording at power-on and scores document titles.
If client billing drives your tracking, I'd start with Harvest: clients pay straight from its invoices. Everhour puts the timer inside Jira, Asana, and eight other tools, and Timesheet enforces working-time limits on its Business plan.
How do you choose the best Apploye alternative?
Start by deciding which part of Apploye's job you need to go further, then put each candidate through the four tests I used for this list.
At Collective, which I co-founded, it was surprisingly hard to see where our time went and what we should automate, and that's the problem the third test looks at.
Confirm the tool captures its own data: A timer, a background tracker, a location trigger, or an agent on the computer all count. Reporting layers that read someone else's timesheets were left out.
Look for a job Apploye's plans don't list: eMonitor's USB blocking and DeskTime's document title tracking are two examples. Reflow goes furthest on this test because it measures each workflow run and ranks the steps worth automating. If a tool's plans simply mirrored Apploye's, I left it off, because switching would gain you nothing.
Ask which decision the data will inform: Timesheets and activity scores feed payroll and client invoices. Step-level workflow data answers a different question, which processes to automate and whether the change paid off, and Reflow is built for that question.
Check what ships today: Every tool here is generally available. Apploye lists AI report analysis and an AI chatbot as coming soon, so I didn't count them, and metered costs such as TimeCamp's token-billed AI Time Tracker are flagged in each tool's own section.
Reflow passes all four. You'll still want Apploye, or a tool like it, for payroll and client billing, since Reflow doesn't cover them.
What are the best Apploye alternatives in 2026?
Reflow is the best Apploye alternative in 2026. Its agent records operational work on Mac and Windows, and the results are broken down by workflow run.
Hubstaff ranks second for its per-team monitoring settings and multi-currency payouts, and Time Doctor comes third for reading productivity against peer benchmarks.
Here's the full shortlist with each tool's best fit and entry price:
Tool | Best for | Starting price |
Reflow | Per-workflow readouts from data captured on Mac and Windows, plus ranked automation candidates with ROI measured after launch. Nothing to integrate. | Not published; quoted after a demo |
Hubstaff | Monitoring depth set team by team, with payroll paid out in several currencies. | From $4.99/seat/month, two-seat minimum |
Time Doctor | Background tracking with Benchmarks AI and payroll, plus video screen recording on Premium. | From $6.67/user/month billed annually |
TimeCamp | Unlimited free users and AI-filled timesheets, with screenshots and approvals on Ultimate. | Free for unlimited users; paid from $2.99/user/month billed annually |
Clockify | Self-run timers and an Auto tracker on lower plans, with screenshots and GPS on Pro. | Free for up to 5 users; paid from $3.99/seat/month billed annually |
DeskTime | Recording from power-on, with document title data and an AI Summary of each day. | From $6.42/user/month billed annually, excluding VAT |
eMonitor | DLP alerts and USB blocking next to screenshots, on Chromebook as well as Windows, macOS, and Linux. | From $3.90/user/month billed annually |
Harvest | Hourly invoicing with a rate picked for each entry and payment straight from the invoice. | Free for 1 seat; Teams from $9/seat/month billed annually |
Everhour | Start Timer buttons on tasks in ten project tools, with budgets and Xero or QuickBooks invoicing. | Free for up to 5 seats; $8.50/seat/month on yearly billing for Team (5 seats minimum) |
Timesheet | Timers started by NFC, Wi-Fi, or geofence, with working-time rules on Business. | Free for single users; Pro from $10/user/month |
#1: Reflow
Reflow is the best Apploye alternative in 2026 for enterprise operations teams that want to know how each workflow runs, using data captured automatically with no time typed in by hand.
The first layer gives a workforce manager work time, session time, active and productive time, and each team's productivity trend, all without timesheets or timers.
On top of that, each workflow gets a readout built on four figures:
Total runs.
Average run time.
Average deviation time.
Potential savings, in hours per month.
Disclosure: We build Reflow. Below is my case for ranking it first, along with the Apploye features it won't replace.
Reflow follows operational work as it happens and records each step in order, skipped and repeated steps included.
Capture runs on a native Mac and Windows agent, with machine learning sorting what it records. You won't need integrations or engineering time before the first readout.
Here are the capabilities that I think put Reflow at the top of this list:
Run-by-run workflow readouts
Reflow lays out each workflow in the order it was performed and puts a time on every step, so you can see exactly where a delay happened.
In Reflow's example data, subscription cancellation ran 3,608 times at an average of 7 minutes 15 seconds per run.
Deviation averaged 1 minute 35 seconds across those runs, and Reflow put the potential savings at 96.0 hours a month.
Hours logged against a cancellations project tell you how big the workload is. The readout shows you which part of the sequence the deviation time comes from.
Procedure checks against each SOP
For every run, Reflow lines up the steps taken against the steps the standard operating procedure expects. Drift shows up while the work is still in progress.
Data deletion requests ran 145 times in the example data, with an average deviation time of 28 seconds.
If one of those runs skipped a verification step, it would show against the SOP as soon as it happened, with time left to correct the record.
Over many runs, the same comparison also tells you where the written procedure and the team's day-to-day practice have drifted apart.
Ranked automation candidates and post-launch ROI
Reflow ranks its automation recommendations by impact, and each one names the steps involved.
Once an automation is live, Reflow continues measuring the workflow, and the ROI it reports comes from those post-launch figures.
In one sample recommendation for a Refund Requests SOP, repeatable steps (lookup, copy-paste, and updating multiple systems) take up 52% of the workflow's time.
The proposed automation covers "lookup + populate + update", and Reflow projects it would eliminate missed-field errors and save 1 minute 40 seconds per case, with the steps themselves taking 25 seconds.
Because the workflow stays in Reflow's reports after the change, you'll want to check its post-launch numbers before choosing the next automation.
Reflow can also carry out the automation it recommends.
💡 Reflow data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and collection follows a privacy-first approach with strict access permissions. Reflow's Trust Centre lists each security and compliance control.
Agent-based capture with no manual entry
Work is captured at the interaction level by an agent built natively for Mac and Windows.
Each interaction is then assigned a project and a work type by machine learning, which also judges whether it was productive.
There's no manual entry anywhere in Reflow and no timer to start or stop, so you never depend on someone remembering to log their day.
Task mining for workflows draws on this agent too, and when a classification calls for judgment, a person reviews it.
The same data feeds workforce intelligence, the layer workforce managers use to see how many people they have and how those people work.
The two layers above, workflow intelligence and workflow automation, draw on those records as well.
How is Reflow different from Apploye?
Apploye records each person's hours and activity, screenshots included, for timesheets and payroll, while Reflow measures how each workflow runs and which steps are worth automating.
Reflow doesn't handle payroll, client invoicing, attendance, or shift scheduling, and for remote and hybrid teams looking for all of those in one product, I'd say Apploye is well built for the purpose.
Our platform covers workforce intelligence through to workflow automation on a single dataset, with no manual entry anywhere.
Here's how they compare side by side:
Apploye | Reflow | |
Primary output | Timesheets, activity and productivity reports, payroll, and client invoices built from tracked time | A readout per workflow with total runs, average run time, average deviation time, and potential savings |
How work is captured | Desktop apps, mobile apps, and a Chrome extension, with automatic clock in and out and idle time detection | A native agent that records continuously, with machine learning classifying each interaction |
Devices | Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and Chrome | Mac and Windows computers |
Manual time entry | Supported on every plan, with explanatory notes from Elite; admins can lock it down | No manual entry is possible |
Screen content | Screenshots on every plan (6 per person a day on Starter, 18 an hour on Elite, 60 an hour plus instant screenshots on Power), with session video as a $4 add-on | Operational signals needed to understand workflows; no personal content by default |
Activity scoring | Activity percentage from mouse clicks and keystrokes, with productive and unproductive apps and URLs on Power or the Activity Insights add-on | Each interaction labeled by project, type of work, and whether it was productive |
Unit of measurement | Time per person, project, and task, with app and URL usage | The steps of a workflow in sequence, skipped and repeated steps included |
Process compliance | Unusual activity and mouse-jiggler detection on Power, and an audit log on Enterprise | Each run compared with its SOP while the work is underway |
Automation guidance | Process automation isn't a listed function; API, webhooks, and MCP connections are included on Power | Workflows ranked for automation, with the steps named and ROI measured after launch |
Payroll and invoicing | Payroll from tracked hours with pay and bill rates, plus client invoices | Not covered |
Attendance and scheduling | Automatic clock in and out, leave requests, shift scheduling, and schedule adherence | Not covered |
Integrations | Project management, accounting, payroll, HRIS, and other tools from Elite, including Jira, Asana, and Trello | None required; capture works across systems with no connections to set up |
Security and compliance | GDPR and HIPAA compliant, 2FA on every plan, and SSO and a HIPAA BAA on Enterprise | SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and CPRA/CCPA; data encrypted in transit and at rest |
Getting started | Data appears once invited staff clock in, after a setup Apploye puts at two minutes | Days, after configuration by Reflow's team |
Trialling it | Free 10-day trial with no credit card, a free Starter plan for up to 10 users, and a 100% money-back guarantee | A parallel trial beside Apploye or another tracker |
Reflow pricing
Reflow doesn't publish pricing. You'll get a quote after a demo, based on team size and the workflows in scope.
💡 Reflow's team sets the platform up for you as part of a white-glove onboarding.
For the trial, my recommendation is to run Reflow in parallel with Apploye so both datasets cover the same period.
Reflow pros and cons
✅ An agent captures time without a timer, and manual entry isn't accepted.
✅ Skipped and repeated steps show up on the map of every workflow run.
✅ Each workflow gets a readout that includes potential savings in hours per month.
✅ Time broken down by customer or project gives you a cost per unit of work.
✅ Runs are compared with their SOP while the work is still happening.
✅ Automation recommendations name the steps involved, and ROI comes from post-launch figures.
✅ Each organization sets its own collection rules and can restrict views to aggregated or anonymized data; compliance covers SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and CPRA/CCPA.
❌ Payroll and client invoicing aren't covered, and neither is shift scheduling.
❌ Pricing isn't published.
#2: Hubstaff
Best for: Companies paying approved hours out in several currencies that also want monitoring set differently for each team.
Similar to: Time Doctor, eMonitor.
Hubstaff lets each team decide how much to monitor, whether that's activity rates on their own or app and URL records plus optional screenshots.
Field staff can be tracked by GPS, and on devices the company owns, the Silent app add-on runs in the background.
Features
Insights: unusual activity detection, work classification, focus time against meeting time, capacity gaps, and utilization trends; included on Enterprise, otherwise $2.50 per seat a month.
Per-team monitoring: screenshots (optional), app and URL tracking, and activity rates, switched on team by team, with visibility adjusted to match.
Payroll and payouts: pay frequencies and hour approvals, then payments in multiple currencies through Deel, Wise, PayPal, or Payoneer; payroll is limited on Starter and complete from Team.
Shifts and leave: scheduling, attendance, overtime, time off, and holidays from Team.
Project money: client and team invoices, expense tracking, and budgets for projects and clients that show real-time cost data and alert before an overrun.
Where tracking runs: the Silent app add-on for company-owned devices, GPS-based tracking for staff in the field, and timers in the desktop, web, and mobile apps.
Pricing
Hubstaff's plans run from $4.99 per seat on Starter to $25 on Enterprise (billed annually), and you'll want to budget for at least two seats on anything below Enterprise.
Starter ($4.99 per seat per month): client invoices for up to 5 clients and limited payments and payroll, with activity levels, timesheets, a multi-platform timer, and a monthly cap of 500 per seat on screenshots and app and URL tracking.
Grow ($7.50 per seat per month): Tasks and one integration; expense tracking, project budgets, and idle time-out; a 1,500-record monthly limit per seat for screenshots and app and URL tracking; and a one-day email SLA.
Team ($10 per seat per month): a three-month Insights trial, chat support, audit logs, and a limited public API; timesheet approvals, overtime, holidays, time off, attendance, and scheduling; team invoices, client budgets, full payments and payroll, and unlimited integrations.
Enterprise ($25 per seat per month, billed annually): a two-hour email SLA, concierge setup, and an assigned account rep; SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA; account provisioning with SCIM and SSO; and Insights, the Silent app, and Locations at no added cost.
Add-ons, per seat each month: $2.50 for Insights, Tasks, More screenshots, or the Silent app; $1.67 for Data retention; $3.33 for Locations.
Purchases are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee, after a 14-day trial with no card required.
Pros and cons
✅ Team bundles a three-month Insights trial.
✅ Grow includes Tasks at no extra charge.
✅ Email support on Enterprise runs on a two-hour SLA.
✅ Insights separates focus time from meeting time.
❌ Every plan below Enterprise requires at least two seats.
#3: Time Doctor
Best for: Managers who'd like their team's productivity measured against AI-matched benchmarks, with meeting and software-cost reports alongside.
Similar to: Hubstaff, DeskTime.
With Benchmarks AI, Time Doctor places your team's productivity numbers next to AI-matched figures from comparable teams in your sector.
Tracking runs in the background with no timer, while payroll and video screen recording come with the higher plans.
Features
Activity categories: the company rates apps and websites for productivity, and tracked time is sorted into those categories.
AI reports: Benchmarks AI, the Office vs Remote report, and the Unusual Activity AI Report (it flags keyboard and mouse input that looks automated, such as a mouse jiggler or keyboard simulator). All three are on Premium, and Benchmarks AI and Unusual Activity Reporting can be added to Basic or Standard for $3 per user per month each.
Workforce operations: payroll, time approvals, and shift schedules from Standard, with attendance and tracking of breaks and leave; connecting native HRIS or payroll systems costs extra.
Leadership views: an executive dashboard, Meeting Insights, Software Cost Insights, and client login, all on Premium.
Pricing
Time Doctor's three published plans cost $6.67, $11.67, and $16.70 per user per month on annual billing, with Enterprise priced on request. If benchmarks are the main draw, I'd compare Premium against Standard plus the $3 add-ons before deciding.
Basic ($6.67 per user per month annually, $8 monthly): automatic tracking, screenshots, the timeline report, projects and tasks, groups, and tracking online or offline.
Standard ($11.67 annually, $14 monthly): more than 60 integrations and real-time notifications; payroll, time approvals, schedules, attendance, and leave and break tracking; work-life balance metrics; and web and app usage reports with productivity ratings.
Premium ($16.70 annually, $20 monthly): a dedicated success manager, SSO, open API access, and client login; Meeting Insights and Software Cost Insights; the executive dashboard and video screen recording; and Benchmarks AI with the Office vs Remote and Unusual Activity AI reports.
Enterprise (custom): guided implementation and professional services, customizable BI dashboards, and deployment in a private cloud.
Add-ons: Benchmarks AI, Unusual Activity Reporting, and Software Cost Insights for $3 per user per month apiece on Basic or Standard, and $200 a month for each native HRIS or payroll integration.
Pros and cons
✅ Work-life balance metrics come with Standard.
✅ Clients can log in on Premium.
✅ Basic includes offline tracking.
✅ Time Doctor can run in a private cloud on Enterprise.
❌ Video screen recording and the Office vs Remote report require Premium.
#4: TimeCamp
Best for: Teams of any size that need a free plan without a user limit, with screenshots and timesheet approvals available on Ultimate at $5.99 per user.
Similar to: Clockify, DeskTime.
TimeCamp's top published plan, Ultimate, adds screenshots and timesheet approvals at $5.99 per user a month on annual billing.
Users and projects are uncapped on the free plan, where the AI Time Tracking Agent categorizes app and website activity and completes timesheets with no clicks.
Features
AI time capture: time reaches tasks through keyword rules and the AI Time Tracking Agent with AI Timesheets (metered by token usage), and each person has an activity timeline that shows idle time.
Monitoring choices: Premium tracks apps and websites, with private time available, and Ultimate adds screenshots and remote work detection.
Attendance for payroll: Starter opens with an attendance calendar plus overtime and time-off tracking; a time clock kiosk is available, and Ultimate adds timesheet approvals.
Costs and billing: invoices go to Xero or QuickBooks, fixed-fee projects and labor costs are tracked, and budgets and estimates send alerts, alongside billable rates, rounding, and expenses.
Team view and data access: the AI Operational Hub, a privacy-first view of team time updated in real time, plus, on Enterprise, Power BI API templates, a BigQuery pipeline, and data warehouse access.
Pricing
On annual billing, TimeCamp charges $2.99 per user for Starter and $5.99 for Ultimate, and Enterprise is quoted separately. I tend to watch the AI Time Tracker line closely, since it's billed by token usage on every plan.
Free ($0): 2FA, the AI Time Tracker (charged per token used), and web, desktop, and mobile apps for timesheets, with no limit on users or projects.
Starter ($2.99 per user per month annually, $3.99 monthly): an attendance calendar, overtime and time-off tracking, invoicing, Excel export of reports, unlimited tasks, project templates, and bulk edit.
Premium ($4.49 annually, $5.99 monthly): apps and websites tracking, private time, the Resource Planner, budgets and estimates with alerts, billable time and rounding, management roles, scheduled email reports, and one integration.
Ultimate ($5.99 annually, $7.99 monthly): screenshots, remote work detection, timesheet approvals, billing rates, labor costs, expenses, fixed-fee projects, custom fields and user roles, a pivot table, time entry history, SSO, and unlimited integrations.
Enterprise (on request): self-hosted or private cloud deployment, a BigQuery pipeline, data warehouse access, Power BI API templates, custom reports, integrations, and activity categories, user directory sync, an audit log, an enterprise SLA, and onboarding with training.
Pros and cons
✅ Free accounts get two-factor authentication.
✅ Premium includes the Resource Planner at $4.49 per user on annual billing.
✅ Ultimate adds a pivot table and stores a history of time entries.
✅ Enterprise supports custom activity categories.
❌ Premium connects one integration, and the limit lifts on Ultimate.
#5: Clockify
Best for: Small teams happy to start with self-run timers and switch on screenshots and GPS later, on Pro.
Similar to: TimeCamp, Everhour.
Clockify is free for up to five users, who can log time through a Timer, a weekly Timesheet, Calendar blocks, or the Auto tracker.
Screenshots and activity monitoring are part of Pro, at $7.99 per seat on annual billing, along with GPS tracking.
Features
Monitoring on Pro: activity monitoring, screenshots, GPS tracking, and alerts.
Time entry options: the Timer, Timesheet, Calendar, Pomodoro timer, and Auto tracker with idle detection on the free plan, then the Kiosk and entry on another person's behalf from Basic.
Attendance and planning: time off, attendance, overtime, and targets with reminders from Standard, and shift and assignment scheduling with forecasting on Pro.
Revenue and cost: Pro sets labor cost against revenue and covers budgets, estimates, and expenses, Standard handles recurring invoices with QuickBooks, and Basic sets billable rates.
Controls: required fields and time audits from Basic, approvals and locked periods from Standard, and SSO, SCIM provisioning, control accounts, and an audit log on Enterprise.
Pricing
Paid seats run from $3.99 on Basic to $12.99 for the CAKE Bundle on annual billing. I'd suggest starting Clockify on the free plan and moving up when you need invoicing (Standard) or screenshots (Pro).
Free ($0, up to 5 users): four ways to log time (Timer, Timesheet, Calendar, Auto tracker) with no tracking limit; idle detection and a Pomodoro timer; reports, team activity, and tracking integrations.
Basic ($3.99 per seat per month annually, $4.99 monthly): the Kiosk, billable rates, time entry for others, required fields, time audits, bulk edit, imports, and project templates.
Standard ($5.49 annually, $6.99 monthly): a manager role, targets and reminders, time off, overtime, and attendance; approvals with locked time; invoicing, including recurring invoices, and the QuickBooks integration.
Pro ($7.99 annually, $9.99 monthly): email reports and alerts, custom fields, expenses, estimates, budgets, labor cost and profit, forecasting with scheduling, GPS tracking, activity monitoring, and screenshots.
Enterprise ($11.99 per seat annually, $14.99 monthly): a custom subdomain, control accounts, an audit log, and SSO with SCIM provisioning.
CAKE Bundle ($12.99 per seat annually, $15.99 monthly): Clockify Enterprise bundled with Plaky, a project management app, and Pumble, a team communication app.
Pros and cons
✅ The Pomodoro timer and idle detection are free.
✅ A manager role comes with Standard.
✅ Required fields and time audits start on Basic.
✅ Locking past periods is possible from Standard.
❌ SSO and the audit log are Enterprise features, at $11.99 per seat on annual billing.
#6: DeskTime
Best for: Organizations that want document titles counted in their productivity data, with tracking that starts the moment a computer does.
Similar to: Time Doctor, eMonitor.
DeskTime scores productivity from the document titles people have open, email subject lines included, alongside their apps and URLs.
Recording begins when the computer powers on, and screenshots are part of Premium at $9.17 per user on annual billing.
Features
Productivity scoring: apps, URLs, and document titles graded productive or unproductive, with a score for each person and each team.
Recording from power-on: idle detection, meeting and video call tracking so calls aren't counted as idle, and a way to add time worked offline.
AI Summary: a daily written recap, produced by AI from the tracked activity.
Projects, shifts, and absences: time logged to projects and tasks, an absence calendar, and shift scheduling and screenshots on Premium.
Integrations and API: Pro connects Google and Outlook calendars, Premium adds the API with Jira, Asana, Zapier, and other tools, and Enterprise can request a custom API.
Security certifications: encryption in transit and at rest, 2FA, and certification under ISO 27001 and ISO 27701.
Pricing
DeskTime publishes two prices and quotes Enterprise for 200 users or more. Published rates exclude VAT, so my advice is to factor it in if your country charges it.
Pro ($6.42 per user per month annually): aimed at small teams and startups, with Google and Outlook calendar integrations, productivity calculations, and document title tracking.
Premium ($9.17 per user per month annually): the API, integrations with Jira, Asana, Zapier, and others, shift scheduling, and screenshots.
Enterprise (custom, 200-plus users): a custom API on request, an account manager, and training for employees.
Annual plans include one month free, and the 14-day trial doesn't ask for a credit card.
Pros and cons
✅ An AI Summary writes up each day's activity.
✅ Productivity scores roll up to team level.
✅ An account manager is included on Enterprise.
✅ Pro already connects Google and Outlook calendars.
❌ Shift scheduling is a Premium feature.
#7: eMonitor
Best for: Companies that need USB blocking and file-transfer alerts next to screenshots, with employees able to see their own numbers.
Similar to: Time Doctor, Hubstaff.
eMonitor pairs activity monitoring with data loss prevention, so it can block USB devices and alert you when a policy is broken.
Managers see only their own reports, and employees can open their own dashboards, whether they work on Windows, macOS, Linux, or a Chromebook.
Features
DLP and alerts: USB blocking, file-transfer and cloud-upload monitoring, and alerts on policy breaches, from Professional.
Attendance and shifts: clock-in and clock-out logs with late, absent, and off-shift reporting, one shift configuration on Starter and several on Professional, and break time and shrinkage reports on Enterprise.
Activity by role: productive and unproductive classifications for apps and sites that differ by role, plus active versus idle time and per-app totals, for one person, a team, or the whole company.
Screen capture: Professional captures 2 screenshots per 10 minutes, on a schedule or when activity changes, and Enterprise blurs sensitive applications in screenshots and adds live video monitoring.
Rollout and reporting: deployment through an MDM or a self-install link, trends kept over time, and exports to CSV, PDF, or a BI tool.
Pricing
On annual billing, eMonitor costs between $3.90 and $13.90 per user a month, and quarterly billing costs more. If you need more than 90 days of history, you'll want Enterprise, the plan with custom retention.
Starter ($3.90 per user per month annually, $5.90 quarterly; up to 25 users): 7-day data retention, up to 2 teams, and one shift configuration, with automatic attendance, interactive-mode tracking, app and website tracking classified by productivity, and monthly reports on attendance and timesheets.
Professional ($6.90 annually, $10.90 quarterly): 90-day retention, up to 10 teams, and multiple shift configurations; silent tracking mode and a configurable idle timeout; 2 screenshots per 10 minutes; summary alerts, a week of detailed activity, and reports on apps and URLs, lateness, and productivity.
Enterprise ($13.90 annually, $22.90 quarterly): a dedicated account manager, phone support, custom retention, and up to 50 teams; Azure SSO and API access; live video monitoring and screenshot blurring; real-time statuses and alerts; and reports on suspicious and custom activity, break time, and shrinkage.
Pros and cons
✅ Enterprise reports on break time and shrinkage.
✅ Data exports to CSV or PDF, or goes straight to a BI tool.
✅ Azure SSO and phone support come with Enterprise.
✅ IT can push the agent out through an MDM.
❌ Starter is limited to 25 users and 2 teams.
#8: Harvest
Best for: Professional services firms whose revenue depends on accurate hourly invoices and retainers.
Similar to: Everhour, Timesheet.
Harvest prices each time entry automatically, using billing rates defined per person, project, or task type.
Clients can pay on the invoice itself, and retainers and project estimates are drawn down in real time.
Features
Time capture: the timer, timesheets, and calendar events on desktop, mobile, and browser, with Mac and iOS apps on the free plan.
Pricing each entry: Harvest picks the applicable billing rate, set by person, project, or task type, for each entry, and Teams records cost rates next to billable ones.
Collecting payment: clients pay on the invoice, receivables are tracked, and invoices drawn from tracked time and expenses export to accounting tools.
Budget control: retainers and estimates tracked in real time, alerts before a budget is exceeded, profitability reporting by project and client on Enterprise, and Harvest Forecast for scheduling people across projects.
Pricing
Harvest has a free plan for one seat, then Teams from $9 and Enterprise from $14 per seat a month on annual billing, plus a custom Enterprise Plus.
Free ($0 forever): the Mac and iOS apps, expense tracking, invoicing, and time tracking for one seat across two projects.
Teams (from $108 per seat a year, or $9 per seat per month annually): up to 4 custom reports, project and people import, accounting and payment integrations, billable and cost rates, team reporting, and no limit on seats.
Enterprise (from $168 per seat a year, or $14 per seat per month annually): SAML-based SSO, an activity log, required notes, custom exports, unlimited custom reports, timesheet approvals, and profitability reporting.
Enterprise Plus (custom): custom integrations, product customization, white labelling, assisted data migration, tailored onboarding, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager.
Teams and Enterprise also carry usage-based charges, so I usually estimate expected usage before committing to either.
Pros and cons
✅ The free plan includes invoicing and expense tracking.
✅ Enterprise Plus offers white labelling and assisted data migration.
✅ Mac and iOS apps come with the free plan.
✅ Custom exports are part of Enterprise.
❌ The free plan covers one seat and two projects.
#9: Everhour
Best for: Project teams who'd like to start the timer from the task itself, with budgets and approvals beside it.
Similar to: Harvest, Clockify.
In Everhour, the timer is a Start Timer button on the task in Jira, GitHub, Linear, Trello, and six other tools.
Its single paid plan, Team, covers everything from invoicing to SSO for $8.50 per seat per month on yearly billing.
Features
Task-level timer: Start Timer buttons on tasks across Jira, GitHub, Linear, Trello, Asana, ClickUp, Basecamp, Monday, Notion, and Wrike, each showing estimate against actual.
Budget guardrails: each project gets a time or money budget, email alerts go out at the thresholds you pick (75%, 90%, and 100%, for example), and recurring work can reset monthly. Timers stop automatically once the budget is used up.
Invoicing: invoices group billable time by period, project, and member and export to QuickBooks or Xero, with Everhour tracking whether each one is paid.
Approvals and leave: a timesheet is frozen once it's approved; leave requests are approved inside Everhour, and time off accrues on its own.
Records you keep: if a team changes project management software, its time history stays intact, since entries are stored in Everhour itself. Data export is available on the free plan too.
Pricing
Beyond the free plan, Everhour sells one paid plan and a Custom option for 50 seats or more. With fewer than five people, I'd normally start on the free plan, since Team bills a five-seat minimum.
Free ($0, up to 5 seats): a 14-day trial of every paid feature, plus data export, reports, projects and tasks, and time tracking.
Team ($8.50 per seat per month on yearly billing; 5 seats minimum): SSO, advanced permissions, budgeting, billing and invoicing, native integrations, and the rest of the feature set.
Custom (from 50 seats): personalized demos, a dedicated manager, priority support, and volume discounts.
Pros and cons
✅ Every paid feature can be trialled free for 14 days.
✅ Budgets for recurring work can reset monthly.
✅ Payment status is tracked after invoices are exported.
✅ GitHub is one of the ten tools with the timer built in.
❌ Priority support and a dedicated manager are limited to Custom, from 50 seats.
#10: Timesheet
Best for: Teams working under contracts and working-time caps that want those rules applied while the timer runs.
Similar to: Harvest, Clockify.
Timesheet's Business plan builds employment rules into the timer, from contracts and flextime policies to live caps on working time.
The timer can be triggered by Wi-Fi detection, a geofence, or an NFC tag, and the Chronis assistant takes time entries by chat.
Features
Employment rules (Business): audit logs with compliance reports, custom approval workflows, and absence requests with a calendar; leave and overtime balances; flextime and core-time policies; rest-period and break enforcement; and contracts and employment models with working-time limits and live caps.
Automatic triggers: geofences, Wi-Fi detection, and NFC tags start the timer, or one tap does; tracking continues in the background, and break reminders go out on a schedule.
Chronis and MCP: time logged and the timer controlled from chat, project questions answered there, daily and weekly reminders, and an MCP server that connects to Claude and ChatGPT, from Pro.
Client reporting and invoicing: reports by client, project, task, and income in daily, weekly, or monthly views, invoices with expenses, notes, payment status, and PDF export, plus Excel and CSV export and API access.
Projects: calendar integration, real-time collaboration within the team, categories for tasks, and no limit on projects.
Pricing
Timesheet has two single-user plans and three multi-user plans at $10, $20, and $35 per user per month, with 10% off on yearly billing.
In my view, Business is worth it only if you need the employment rules, because Pro already covers invoicing and the Chronis assistant.
Basic ($0, single user): Excel and CSV export, basic statistics, unlimited projects, and time tracking.
Plus ($5 per month, single user): unlimited storage, real-time sync, and cloud backup.
Pro ($10 per user per month): the MCP server and the Chronis AI assistant, API access, invoice generation, team features, and web access.
Business ($20 per user per month): the employment rules set described above, from contracts and working-time caps to custom approval workflows and audit logs.
Enterprise ($35 per user per month): 24/7 priority support, for teams of up to 200 members.
Pros and cons
✅ Yearly billing saves 10%.
✅ Single users get tracking with Excel and CSV export free on Basic.
✅ Invoices track payment status and export to PDF.
✅ Priority support is available 24/7 on Enterprise.
❌ Web access and invoicing start on Pro, the first multi-user plan.
What does each Apploye alternative measure?
Most alternatives here measure time against people and projects, while Reflow measures each workflow run.
I compared all eleven tools, Apploye included, across the three columns below:
Tool | How capture starts | What it measures | What the data feeds |
Apploye (reference) | Desktop app on Windows, Mac, or Linux, mobile apps, or the Chrome extension, with automatic clock in and out | Time per person, project, and task, plus activity percentage, apps, URLs, and screenshots | Timesheets, payroll, client invoices, and productivity reports |
Reflow | A native agent on Mac and Windows, with no timer and no manual entry | Each workflow run, step by step, including skipped and repeated steps | Automation decisions, SOP checks, and ROI measured after launch |
Hubstaff | A timer on desktop, web, or mobile, or GPS-based tracking | Hours by project and client, with activity rates and optional screenshots | Payroll, multi-currency payouts, budgets, and invoices |
Time Doctor | Automatic background tracking | Time with web and app usage, rated for productivity | Payroll, attendance, benchmark reports, and the executive dashboard |
TimeCamp | The AI Time Tracking Agent or keyword-based automatic tracking | Time by task and project, with app and website activity | Timesheets, attendance, budgets, and invoices |
Clockify | Timer, Timesheet, Calendar, Auto tracker, or Kiosk | Hours by project and task | Invoices, time off, scheduling, and labor cost |
DeskTime | Computer power-on | Time by app, URL, and document title, with productivity scores | Productivity reports, shift plans, and the AI Summary |
eMonitor | One agent on Windows, macOS, Linux, or Chromebook | Time by app and site, with attendance and idle time | Attendance reports, productivity classification, and DLP alerts |
Harvest | Timer, timesheet, or connected calendar events | Hours by person, project, and task type, priced at billing rates | Invoices, retainers, and profitability reports |
Everhour | A Start Timer button on tasks in ten project tools | Time per task against estimates and budgets | Budget alerts and invoices sent to Xero or QuickBooks |
Timesheet | One tap, an NFC tag, Wi-Fi detection, a geofence, or a Chronis chat message | Hours by project, task, and client, with income | Invoices, leave and overtime balances, and working-time compliance |
The other nine alternatives, like Apploye, use recorded time for payroll, invoices, attendance, or productivity scores.
Reflow's readouts support a different decision, which workflow steps to automate, and the same data later shows whether the automation paid off.
When should you stay with Apploye?
I'd stay with Apploye if your remote or hybrid team wants screenshots and payroll in a single per-user subscription.
It's also the better fit in these situations:
Up to ten people need screenshots and payroll at no cost, in the limited form the free Starter plan offers.
Clients should get read-only guest access, plus invoices built from billable hours backed by screenshots.
Some of your team works on Linux or from a phone, where Apploye has its own apps.
You want mouse-jiggler and suspicious activity detection, both part of Power at $8 per user on annual billing.
You need Apploye on your own servers, through the On Premise add-on (from 100 users) or the Enterprise plan.
How does Reflow protect employee privacy?
Reflow protects employee privacy by collecting the operational signals it needs to understand workflows and, by default, leaving out personal content and anything unrelated to how work gets done.
Our platform is built to show how systems and workflows run, and it isn't employee surveillance software.
Configurable collection: Each organization decides what Reflow collects, metadata included, and sets clear boundaries on how the data is used.
Aggregated or anonymized views: Visibility controls let you choose aggregated or anonymized views.
Encryption and storage: Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with local data storage and strict access permissions.
Compliance: SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, and GDPR, plus support for CCPA/CPRA requirements, with controls listed in the Trust Centre.
Apploye has privacy controls of its own, including blurred screenshots and the option to switch monitoring off for particular projects.
Whichever tool you pick, I'd encourage you to tell staff what's collected and why before it goes live.
Trial Reflow alongside Apploye
Based on my experience, it's ideal to start with a parallel trial on one high-volume process.
That way, you can compare Reflow's readout with Apploye's records for the same work before changing anything.
Apploye continues to run payroll and invoices throughout.
Pick a process your team repeats at high volume on computers, such as subscription cancellations or invoice corrections.
Reflow's team configures the platform, and the agent starts recording on Mac and Windows machines with nothing to integrate.
Keep Apploye running for payroll and invoices.
Within days, you'll have that process's readout, from run counts and timing to deviation and potential savings, plus the steps Reflow suggests automating.
Choose the first automation with Apploye's hours and Reflow's readout for the same period side by side.
➡️ Book a demo if you'd like your own workflows mapped, or read the Collective case study for how $3.1M in annual cost savings came about.
⚠️ Disclaimer: This article was last updated on October 19, 2026. If you spot any inaccuracies, contact us, and we'll fact-check it.
FAQs
Which is better, Reflow or Apploye?
Reflow is the better choice for enterprise operations teams that need to know which workflow steps to automate and what each automation returns. Apploye suits teams that want screenshots and payroll in one per-user plan.
Apploye's paid plans start at $4.50 per user per month on annual billing, and its Starter plan is free for up to ten users.
Reflow's pricing isn't published; its agent captures work without manual entry and reports on each workflow run.
Is there a free Apploye alternative?
Yes, TimeCamp's free plan has no cap on users or projects, the largest free allowance on this list.
Clockify and Everhour are free for up to five users, Harvest for one seat, and Timesheet for a single user on Basic.
Which Apploye alternatives include payroll?
Hubstaff and Time Doctor both run payroll from tracked hours.
Hubstaff pays approved hours out in multiple currencies through Deel, Wise, PayPal, or Payoneer, with full payroll on Team at $10 per seat a month. Time Doctor includes payroll from Standard, at $11.67 per user on annual billing.
If you only need payroll-ready data, TimeCamp is a good fit, recording attendance and overtime from Starter.
Which Apploye alternative is best for employee privacy?
I'd recommend Reflow for operations teams after workflow data without monitoring individuals. It isn't built as employee surveillance software, and it collects no personal content by default.
If you'd prefer a time tracker, Timely and Toggl Track both state positions against screenshots, and our Timely alternatives and Toggl Track alternatives guides cover them in detail.
What's the best Apploye alternative for agencies billing clients?
Harvest is the best Apploye alternative for billing clients by the hour, matching each entry to its billing rate and letting the client pay from the invoice.
Everhour fits teams that run client work in Asana or Jira and export invoices to Xero or QuickBooks, while Timesheet adds working-time rules on its Business plan.
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