The 6 Best Hubstaff Alternatives for Mac in 2026

For a Mac team that still needs timesheets, invoicing or approvals, Clockify is the closest Hubstaff replacement and has a free plan for up to 5 users. Toggl is the stronger pick for billing and profitability reports. Solo Mac users who want automatic tracking instead of screenshots should pick Timing for billable hours, Dayflow for a free AI-written timeline, or ActivityWatch for free local logs.

Hubstaff is built for managers who want proof of work. Its desktop and mobile apps run a start-and-stop timer. While you track, Hubstaff collects activity levels, screenshots, app and URL history, and GPS location for field teams, then uploads it to dashboards for review.

That design explains most of the searches for a replacement. Three reasons come up again and again:

• Price and seat minimums. Hubstaff has no free tier. The cheapest plan, Starter, costs $4.99 per seat per month billed annually or $7 billed monthly, with a 2 seat minimum. Several features are paid add-ons on the lower plans.
• How it tracks. Screenshots and activity scores make sense if you are auditing a remote team. They are more than a freelancer needs, and more than someone who just wants to know where the week went.
• Where the data lives. Hubstaff is a web service. Tracked data is uploaded so managers can review it.

Disclosure: Dayflow is our product. It is ranked where we think it fits, and there is a section below on when it is the wrong choice. This article compares each vendor’s own documentation and pricing pages as checked on October 4, 2026. Dayflow details reflect version 2.2.0.

The alternatives covered here are Clockify (see our Clockify for Mac comparison), Toggl (formerly Toggl Track) (Toggl for Mac comparison), Dayflow, Timing (Timing alternative page), Rize (Rize alternative page) and ActivityWatch (ActivityWatch vs Dayflow). For the wider field, see our roundup of the best Mac time trackers.

Quick comparison

Tool	Best for	How it tracks	Price
Clockify	Small teams that need timesheets, invoicing and approvals	Timer, timesheet, calendar, kiosk, desktop auto tracker	Free for up to 5 users; paid from $3.99/seat/month billed annually ($4.99 billed monthly)
Toggl	Agencies and firms that bill by the hour	Timers, timesheets, calendar integrations, background tracking in desktop app	Free for up to 3 users; paid from $9/user/month billed annually ($12 billed monthly)
Dayflow	Individuals who want a record of their own day	Screen capture at one frame every 10 seconds, AI-written timeline	$0, MIT licensed; optional Pro at $20/month
Timing	Mac freelancers and professionals billing hours	Automatic app, website and document tracking	From $9/month billed annually ($11 billed monthly)

What Hubstaff does well

Hubstaff is good at its intended job. If you run a distributed team and need to show a client that paid hours were actually worked, few tools match it. Screenshots and activity levels give you that proof directly.

It also goes past time tracking. Hubstaff handles payments, payroll and invoices, so tracked hours can turn into paychecks without exporting to another system. Field teams get GPS location tracking and geofenced job sites as an add-on. Project budgets, scheduling and 35+ integrations round it out.

Platform coverage is broad: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome and web. A mixed team can all use the same tool.

On AI, Hubstaff offers AI-powered unusual activity detection as part of its Insights add-on. That feature is aimed at managers, not individuals.

If that list describes what you use every week, the rest of this article may not apply to you. Skip to “When should you stay with Hubstaff?”

Why people switch from Hubstaff

The bill grows with every seat. No free plan exists, and the Starter, Grow and Team tiers each need at least 2 seats. A solo user still pays for two seats. A growing team pays more for add-ons such as Insights, Tasks and Silent app, which start at $2.5 per seat per month.

The tracking model is surveillance by design. Screenshots, activity percentages and URL logs are the product. Some teams want that. Many freelancers, and plenty of employees on trust-based teams, do not. We wrote more about this in time tracking without surveillance.

A timer still has to be started. For all its monitoring, Hubstaff runs on start and stop. If you forget to start it, that time goes unrecorded. Automatic trackers avoid this by recording in the background. Our explainer on what an automatic time tracker is covers the difference.

The data goes to the cloud for review. Everything Hubstaff collects is uploaded so managers can see it in reports. If you want your activity history to stay on your own Mac, you need a different kind of tool.

It is a team product. A Mac user who only wants to track their own week, without a manager, ends up paying for features built for someone else.

The best Hubstaff alternatives, ranked

1. Clockify

What changes: You keep team timekeeping with timesheets, approvals and payroll-ready data, and you drop screenshots as the default. Clockify tracks by timer, timesheet, calendar and kiosk clock-in, plus an auto tracker in the desktop app. Activity monitoring and GPS tracking are available, but only on the Pro plan. Data can be hosted in the EU (Germany), the UK, the USA or Australia, which helps if clients ask where their records sit.

Price: The free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited tracking, timer, timesheet, auto tracker, calendar, reports and apps. Paid plans, billed annually or monthly:

• Basic: $3.99 or $4.99 per seat/month
• Standard: $5.49 or $6.99, adding invoicing, time off and approvals
• Pro: $7.99 or $9.99
• Enterprise: $11.99 or $14.99

There is a 7-day trial of Pro features with no credit card.

The limit: It is still timer and timesheet based at heart. Invoicing and approvals require a paid plan, the free plan stops at 5 users, and no AI features are listed.

Switch to it if your team used Hubstaff mainly for timesheets and invoices, and the screenshots were never the point.

2. Toggl

What changes: Toggl replaces monitoring with timers people start themselves. The vendor states that it does not take screenshots or record keystrokes. It also lists automated background tracking and a timeline in the desktop app, calendar integrations, and project planning with tasks and capacity management. Toggl AI answers natural-language questions about workspace data, and Toggl also offers an MCP server and an AI Task Creator. The product was renamed from Toggl Track. Toggl Track and Toggl Plan remain available to existing users as legacy products.

Price:

• Free: up to 3 users, described as free forever
• Starter: $9 per user per month billed annually, or $12 billed monthly
• Premium: $16 per user per month billed annually, or $24 billed monthly. Adds timesheet approvals, profitability reports, and Jira and Asana integrations.
• Enterprise: contact the vendor

Paid plans come with a 30-day trial.

The limit: Toggl is primarily timer and manual entry rather than a full automatic record. Billable rates need a paid plan. Premium billed monthly costs more per user than any Hubstaff plan below Enterprise.

Switch to it if you bill clients by the hour, care about profitability per project, and want your team to track time without being watched.

3. Dayflow

What changes: Dayflow has no timer. It records your Mac screen at one frame every 10 seconds, and AI writes the day into a readable timeline. Nothing has to be started. Full recordings and the timeline are stored on your Mac.

Analysis can run three ways:

• Local AI: a model runs through Ollama or LM Studio, so screenshots stay on-device.
• Your own cloud provider: selected screenshots go to that provider under its terms.
• Dayflow Pro: Dayflow manages the cloud analysis. Under the privacy policy, it deletes screenshots after processing.

You can export any date range as Markdown. The local and cloud processing page has the details.

Price: $0 and MIT licensed. An optional Pro plan costs $20 a month (see pricing).

The limit: Dayflow is a personal tool. It has no invoicing, payroll, team reports or website blocking. It is Mac only and requires macOS 14 or later. AI summaries can miss or misinterpret work, so check them before sharing.

Switch to it if you used Hubstaff on yourself and want a record of what you actually did, not a manager’s dashboard.

4. Timing

What changes: Timing is a Mac-native tracker that records time automatically across apps, websites and documents, down to specific URLs and Mail threads. The vendor states that tracked times are stored locally and never leave your Mac unless you opt into sync. All plans list Sync & Cloud Backup. Every plan includes AI activity summaries, an MCP integration and AI-powered suggestions for time entries. For billing, Timing offers billing status tracking, report rounding, and plan-dependent integrations: GrandTotal for invoicing, plus two-way ClickUp, Linear and Clio sync.

Price:

• Professional: $9 per month billed annually, or $11 billed monthly
• Expert: $11 per month billed annually, or $14 billed monthly
• Connect: $16 per user per month billed annually, or $20 billed monthly. Adds shared projects for teams.

There is a 30-day trial with no credit card. The individual plans are priced for one person, with no second seat to pay for.

The limit: Timing is Mac only and subscription only, with no free tier. The Professional plan covers 1 Mac and has limited web app access.

Switch to it if you are a freelancer, developer or legal professional on a Mac who needs accurate billable hours without starting a timer. See also our guide to a Mac timesheet without manual entry.

5. Rize

What changes: Rize tracks apps and websites automatically and uses AI to categorize and tag your time. Connecting Google Calendar captures meeting time. It adds AI chat and AI focus insights, metered in monthly AI credits, and offers an MCP server on Pro and above. It runs on Mac and Windows, and the vendor states that data is hosted on Amazon Web Services with encryption at rest and in transit.

Price:

• Basic: $9.99 per month billed annually, or $12.99 billed monthly, with 500 AI credits a month
• Pro: $23.99 per month billed annually, with 1,000 credits
• Max: $39.99 per month billed annually, with 3,000 credits
• Team: $29.99 per seat per month billed annually, or $39.99 billed monthly
• Enterprise: custom pricing

For Pro and Max monthly billing, see the vendor’s pricing page. There is a 7-day trial with no credit card.

The limit: Rize has no permanently free tier, data lives in the cloud, and Linux is not yet available. A Team seat billed annually costs more than Hubstaff Enterprise.

Switch to it if you want automatic tracking with AI coaching on focus, use both Mac and Windows, and are comfortable with cloud storage.

6. ActivityWatch

What changes: ActivityWatch is free and open source under MPL-2.0. It automatically records the active application, the window title and whether you are away from the keyboard. Browser extensions add the active tab title and URL, and editor plugins add coding activity. The vendor states that all data stays on your own device and is never sent to any server. You can extend it with custom watchers and query it through a local API. It runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.

Price: Free. The vendor describes it as having no feature gates, no usage limits and no ads.

The limit: Sync between devices is still a work in progress, and there is no iOS app. No built-in AI summaries are listed. What you get is a raw log of apps and windows, not a written account of your day. There is also no invoicing or team reporting.

Switch to it if you want free, private and scriptable tracking, especially across Mac and Linux, and you are happy to read charts instead of summaries.

Alternatives by reason for leaving

• No free plan: Clockify, free for up to 5 users
• Need invoicing and approvals for less: Clockify Standard
• Bill by the hour with profitability reports: Toggl Premium
• Uncomfortable with screenshots for managers: Toggl
• Solo user stuck paying for 2 seats: Timing
• Forgetting to start the timer: Dayflow or Timing
• Want data to stay on your Mac: ActivityWatch or Timing
• Want to remember what you actually did each day: Dayflow
• Need Windows as well as Mac with AI insights: Rize

Full comparison table

Tool	Price	Automatic capture	Where data lives	Platforms	Open source
Hubstaff	No free tier; from $4.99/seat/month billed annually ($7 billed monthly), 2 seat minimum	Timer-based, with screenshots, activity levels, app and URL tracking	Cloud, uploaded for manager review	Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome, Web	No
Clockify	Free for up to 5 users; from $3.99/seat/month billed annually ($4.99 billed monthly)	Auto tracker in desktop app; activity monitoring on Pro	Cloud, hosted in EU, UK, USA or Australia	Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions	No
Toggl	Free for up to 3 users; from $9/user/month billed annually ($12 billed monthly)	Background tracking listed in desktop app; mainly timers	Cloud	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, browser extensions	No
Dayflow	$0; optional Pro at $20/month	Yes, one screen frame every 10 seconds	Recordings and timeline on your Mac; analysis local or cloud by choice	Mac (macOS 14+)	Yes, MIT
Timing	No free tier; from $9/month billed annually ($11 billed monthly)	Yes, apps, websites and documents	Local, optional sync	Mac	No
Rize	No free tier; from $9.99/month billed annually ($12.99 billed monthly)	Yes, apps and websites	Cloud (AWS)	Mac, Windows	No
ActivityWatch	Free	Yes, apps, window titles, AFK	Local	Windows, Mac, Linux, Android	Yes, MPL-2.0

When should you stay with Hubstaff?

Stay if you manage people and need evidence of work. No other tool on this list offers screenshots, activity levels, GPS geofencing and payroll in one product. Clockify comes closest, with activity monitoring and GPS on its Pro plan, but it is a different product.

Stay if you run field teams. Geofenced job sites and GPS tracking are core to Hubstaff and absent from Toggl, Timing, Rize, ActivityWatch and Dayflow.

Stay if your team spans Linux, Chrome and mobile. Hubstaff covers more platforms than any alternative here, so a mixed team can use one tool.

Stay if the payments workflow matters. Turning tracked hours into payroll and invoices inside the same tool removes an export step every pay period.

If you bought Hubstaff recently and it does not fit, the vendor lists a 30-day money-back guarantee, so deciding early costs little.

Where Dayflow is the wrong pick

Dayflow is a personal record for one Mac user. Plenty of Hubstaff users need something else.

• You manage a team and need proof of work. Dayflow has no team reports or manager view. Hubstaff wins.
• You need invoices, approvals or payroll. Dayflow offers none of them. Clockify is the cheapest route, and Toggl is better for profitability reporting.
• You bill hours to clients from a Mac. Timing is built for billable hours, with report rounding and invoicing integrations. Dayflow gives you a narrative timeline, not billing records.
• You work on Windows or Linux. Dayflow requires macOS 14 or later. ActivityWatch covers Windows, Mac, Linux and Android for free, and Rize covers Mac and Windows.
• You want sites blocked during focus time. Dayflow does not block websites, and none of the tools in this article list that feature either.
• You need guaranteed accuracy. Dayflow’s AI summaries can miss or misinterpret work. Check them before sharing.

The bottom line

Hubstaff is a monitoring and payroll system for managers. Most people leaving it fall into one of two groups.

Teams that still need timesheets should start with Clockify. Its free plan covers up to 5 users, and invoicing and approvals arrive at the Standard tier. Toggl is the stronger choice when hourly billing and profitability matter more than price, and it explicitly avoids screenshots.

Individuals who never needed a manager’s dashboard have better options:

• Timing if you bill hours on a Mac
• Dayflow if you want a free, AI-written timeline of your day with recordings kept on your Mac
• ActivityWatch if you want free, local, open-source logs across several operating systems
• Rize if you want AI focus insights and are fine with the cloud

If none of these fits, our guide to the best time tracker for Mac covers more options.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free alternative to Hubstaff on Mac?

It depends on who is tracking. For a small team, Clockify's free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited tracking, timesheets, an auto tracker and reports. For one person, Dayflow is $0 and MIT licensed, and it writes an AI timeline from screen captures stored on your Mac. ActivityWatch is also free and open source, and it keeps raw app and window logs on your device.

Does Hubstaff have a free plan?

No. As of October 4, 2026, Hubstaff lists no free tier. It offers a 14-day trial with no credit card required and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The cheapest paid plan, Starter, costs $4.99 per seat per month billed annually or $7 per seat per month billed monthly. Starter, Grow and Team plans all carry a 2 seat minimum.

Is there a Hubstaff alternative that doesn't take screenshots for managers?

Yes. Toggl states that it does not take screenshots or record keystrokes, and it relies on timers, timesheets and calendar integrations. Timing tracks apps and websites automatically and stores the data locally unless you opt into sync. Dayflow does capture your screen, but the recordings stay on your Mac for your own timeline. It has no team dashboard where a manager could review them.

Which Hubstaff alternative is best for invoicing and payroll?

Clockify is the closest match. Invoicing, time off and approval workflows start on its Standard plan, which costs $5.49 per seat per month billed annually or $6.99 billed monthly. Pro adds scheduling, expenses and GPS tracking. Hubstaff itself still has the most complete payments and payroll features of the tools here. Dayflow, Rize and ActivityWatch do not do invoicing or payroll at all.

Can Dayflow replace Hubstaff for managing a remote team?

No. Dayflow is a personal Mac app. It has no team reports, payroll, invoices or manager dashboards, and it runs only on macOS 14 or later. If you need proof of work, GPS for field staff and payroll in one place, Hubstaff is the better tool. If you want team timesheets without screenshots, use Clockify or Toggl instead.

Which Hubstaff alternatives keep my data on my Mac?

ActivityWatch stores all data on your own device and never sends it to a server, according to the vendor. Timing stores tracked times locally unless you opt into sync. Dayflow stores full recordings and the timeline on your Mac. With Dayflow, screenshot analysis stays on-device only if you use Local AI. Clockify, Toggl and Rize are cloud services.

How much does Hubstaff cost per user?

Billed annually, Hubstaff costs $4.99 per seat per month for Starter, $7.50 for Grow, $10 for Team and $25 for Enterprise. Billed monthly, Starter is $7, Grow is $9 and Team is $12 per seat per month. Enterprise is listed as annual billing only. Add-ons such as Insights, Tasks and Silent app start at $2.5 per seat per month.

Is Toggl Track the same as Toggl?

Mostly. Toggl now presents its product as Toggl, which combines time tracking with project planning, and toggl.com/track redirects to toggl.com. The vendor describes Toggl Track and Toggl Plan as legacy products that are still available to existing users. New sign-ups get the combined product, with a free plan for up to 3 users and paid plans from $9 per user per month billed annually.

Can a freelancer use Hubstaff alone?

Technically yes, but Hubstaff's Starter, Grow and Team plans have a 2 seat minimum, so a solo user pays the per-seat price for at least two seats. Much of what those seats buy, such as manager dashboards and payroll, is built for teams. A freelancer on a Mac who bills by the hour will usually be better served by Timing, which is priced for one user.

What is the difference between Timing and Dayflow?

Both run on the Mac and track without a timer. Timing records apps, websites and documents and turns them into billable-hour reports, starting at $9 per month billed annually. Dayflow captures one screen frame every 10 seconds and has AI write a readable timeline of your day. It is free and MIT licensed, with an optional Pro plan. Dayflow has no invoicing or billing features.