AI Indexes
HR AI Index
October 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Workforce planning and analytics › October 2026 Edition

Employee monitoring

Asked as “employee monitoring tool”, and as “workforce productivity analytics software”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
33%
Contested · Insightful 16%
33ActivTrak16Insightful12Apploye39others

33% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince September 2026
01ActivTrak33%6%51endorsed leadernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 33% now.
02Insightful16%2%41accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 16% now.
03Apploye12%9%11accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 12% now.
04Hubstaff8%16%44accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 8% now.
05Teramind4%19%48accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 4% now.
06DeskTime2%0%18accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now.
07Time Doctor2%23%31accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now.

The floor is 13 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-one head-to-head pages: the top seven products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01ActivTrak33%
02Insightful16%
03Apploye12%
04Hubstaff8%
05Teramind4%
06DeskTime2%
07Time Doctor2%

What they warned about

Three of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-6 Luna and Muse Glimmer 30B changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Teramind
19%
9 of 48 labels negative · 9 of 14 models · 5 hard negative
“Frequently cited in controversies, including a 2024-2026 lawsuit by MindsEye (Build a Rocket Boy) employees and the IWGB union.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Time Doctor
23%
7 of 31 labels negative · 7 of 14 models · 1 hard negative
“Screenshots, keystroke logging, video capture, website/app monitoring” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Hubstaff
16%
7 of 44 labels negative · 6 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Frequently cited in privacy complaints for requiring installation on work devices with tracking capabilities” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
StaffCop
100%
4 of 4 labels negative · 4 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“Cited by privacy advocates for aggressive data collection practices” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the fourteen in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

77 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 993 links across 212 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

vendor site · CurrentWare44 answers · 58 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Insightful43 answers · 76 citations · 14 models
34 answers · 37 citations · 10 models
33 answers · 46 citations · 12 models
31 answers · 40 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Hubstaff27 answers · 34 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Teramind21 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
vendor site · G220 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
vendor site · ActivTrak19 answers · 25 citations · 10 models
vendor site · WorkTime17 answers · 22 citations · 10 models
vendor site · TMetric16 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Time Champ15 answers · 17 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best employee monitoring tool”, “employee monitoring tool”, “employee monitoring tools”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
ActivTrak activtrak.com33%1468,10015618,356$11,550471
Insightful insightful.io16%106135,00031,73251,763$34376
Apploye apploye.com12%36480445,5281
Hubstaff hubstaff.com8%15218,100202100,097120
Teramind teramind.co4%1305,40011919,425$51848
E-Monitor4%210206
Jibble jibble.io4%669,90010867,2111
DeskTime desktime.com2%411,000259,2455
Time Doctor timedoctor.com2%854,4002,63819,45621
WorkTime worktime.com2%223,6001713,3339

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (activtrak.com, insightful.io, peoplemanagingpeople.com, worktime.com). The first result for “best employee monitoring tool” is reddit.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best employee monitoring tool for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which workforce productivity analytics software would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top employee monitoring tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best employee monitoring tool for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an employee monitoring tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which employee monitoring tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5eMonitor
Four alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, Insightful, Teramind
ActivTrakChanged
Three alternativesHiBob Analytics, Insightful, Microsoft Viva Insights
no first choiceApploye, DeskTime
Three alternativesHubstaff, SentryPC, We360.ai
no first choiceagainst: Teramind, Time Doctor, Veriato
GPT-5.4 miniActivTrak
Two alternativesHubstaff, Teramind
InsightfulChanged
One alternativeTeramind
ActivTrak
Two alternativesHubstaff, Teramind
Hubstaff
Three alternativesActivTrak, DeskTime, Teramind
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashActivTrak
Three alternativesInsightful, Teramind, Time Doctor
ActivTrakHeld
Four alternativesHubstaff, Insightful, Microsoft Viva Insights, Teramind
Teramind
Four alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, Insightful, Time Doctor
Apploye
Four alternativesActivTrak, Clockify, Jibble, StaffCounter
no first choiceagainst: Apploye, Buddy Punch, Deputy, Desklog, Hubstaff, Monitask, Time Doctor, Vericlock, When I Work
Perplexity SonarInsightful
Four alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, Teramind, Time Doctor
ADP Workforce Now, VisierChanged
Three alternativesActivTrak, Insightful, Lattice
no first choiceHubstaff
Three alternativesApploye, DeskTime, WebWork
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastInsightful
Four alternativesActivTrak, Teramind, Time Doctor, WebWork Time Tracker
InsightfulHeld
Three alternativesActivTrak, Teramind, Time Doctor
Teramind
Seven alternativesActivTrak, DeskTime, Hubstaff, Insightful, Kickidler, Time Doctor, Veriato
ActivTrak
Three alternativesApploye, DeskTime, WorkTime
against: Homebase, Hubstaff, Insightful
Hubstaff, Teramind
Two alternativesActivTrak, Insightful
against: Time Doctor
against: Controlio, Hubstaff, InterGuard, Teramind, Veriato
Mistral SmallActivTrak
Two alternativesInsightful, Time Doctor
HiBobChanged
Four alternativesADP Workforce Now, Insightful, Lattice, Teramind
no first choiceApploye
Two alternativesDeskTime, Insightful
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashActivTrak
Three alternativesHubstaff, Teramind, Time Doctor
ActivTrakHeld
Four alternativesInsightful, Microsoft Viva Insights, Prodoscore, Teramind
Teramind
Six alternativesActivTrak, Connecteam, CurrentWare, Hubstaff, Insightful, Time Doctor
Jibble
Three alternativesActivTrak, Apploye, Hubstaff
no first choiceagainst: ActivTrak, Controlio, Hubstaff, InterGuard, RemoteDesk, StaffCop, Teramind, Time Doctor, Veriato, WorkExaminer
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceTeramindChanged
Two alternativesHiBob, Insightful
no first choiceApploye
Two alternativesCurrentWare, TMetric
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashActivTrak
Six alternativesGoogle Workplace Insights, HubSpot Insights, Hubstaff, Microsoft Viva Insights, Salesforce Activity Monitoring, Teramind
InsightfulChanged
Three alternativesLattice, Monday.com, Teramind
no first choiceClockify
Three alternativesInsight2, RescueTime, Time Doctor
no first choiceagainst: Teramind, Work Examiner
Kimi K2ActivTrak
Three alternativesHubstaff, Teramind, Time Doctor
ActivTrak, InsightfulChanged
Four alternativesADP Workforce Now, Clockify, Hubstaff, Teramind
Teramind
Eleven alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, Insightful, InterGuard, KeepActive, Kickidler, RescueTime, Rize, Time Doctor, Traqq, Veriato/Cerebral
E-Monitor, Time Champ
Three alternativesActivityWatch, Controlio, Hubstaff
no first choice
Two alternativesMicrosoft Purview, Proofpoint
against: ActivTrak, FlexiSpy, Hubstaff, InterGuard, Sneek, StaffCop, Teramind, Time Doctor, WorkExaminer, iMonitor
GLM 4.7 FlashXActivTrak
Four alternativesControlio, Hubstaff, Insightful, Teramind
ActivTrak, InsightfulChanged
Three alternativesCrunchr, HiBob, Hubstaff
Insightful
Six alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, RescueTime, Teramind, Time Doctor, Veriato Vision
Apploye, Hubstaff
Two alternativesConnecteam, Insightful
against: ActivTrak, Time Doctor
no first choiceagainst: CleverControl, Hubstaff, StaffCop, Teramind
MiniMax M2.5E-Monitor
Three alternativesActivTrak, Insightful, Time Doctor
against: Teramind
InsightfulChanged
Three alternativesMicrosoft Viva Insights, Sapience Analytics, Workday People Analytics
Hubstaff
Four alternativesActivTrak, DeskTime, Teramind, Time Doctor
Apployeno first choicenothing named
GPT-6 LunaActivTrak
Two alternativesInsightful, Teramind
Microsoft Viva InsightsChanged
One alternativeActivTrak
ActivTrak
Four alternativesHubstaff, Insightful, Teramind, Time Doctor
WorkTime
Two alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff
no first choiceagainst: Teramind
Muse Glimmer 30BActivTrak, Time Doctor
Three alternativesE-Monitor, Hubstaff, Insightful
ActivTrakChanged
Two alternativesADP Workforce Now, Insightful
no first choice
Eight alternativesActivTrak, DeskTime, Hubstaff, Insightful, Teramind, Time Doctor, Veriato Vision, Work Examiner
ActivTrak, Jibble
Four alternativesApploye, DeskTime, Hubstaff, Insightful’s free Basic
no first choiceagainst: CleverControl, Hubstaff, StaffCop, Teramind, Time Doctor
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:20yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:16yes37 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:38yes1728 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:25yes183 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:39yes229 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:34yes148 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:38yes2430 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:18yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:14no026 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:29yes1217 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:13yes1533 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:13yes812 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:15yes314 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:39yes2423 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:24yes1810 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:37yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:35yes1630 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:24yes203 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:13yes249 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:21yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:36yes2241 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:22yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:36yes1036 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:22yes1534 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:22yes1518 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:30yes513 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:40yes215 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:16yes2329 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:19yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:14yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:31yes1723 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:16yes193 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:18yes159 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:19yes97 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:32yes1939 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:28yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:36yes513 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:23yes1227 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:15yes18101 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:36yes1524 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:24yes621 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:22yes1125 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:34yes109 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:22yes36 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:24yes1722 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:22yes183 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:38yes239 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:17yes95 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:31yes1920 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:32yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:30no026 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:32yes842 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:21yes2245 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:21yes521 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:24yes37 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:29yes1116 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:39no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:33no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:39yes828 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:28yes195 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:25yes1912 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:23no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:28yes2345 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:35yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:18yes521 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:41no067 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:15yes25102 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:23no09 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:28yes423 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:31yes1420 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:37yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:14yes45 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:33yes1825 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:26yes205 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:18yes1911 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:29yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:37yes2433 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:37yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:39yes1441 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:16yes2333 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:39yes2322 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:16yes922 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:35yes217 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:38yes1318 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Toggl read as Toggl Track
Unresolved, counted raw
FlexiSpy
Google Workplace Insights
HiBob Analytics
HubSpot Insights
Insight2
Insightful’s free Basic
Proofpoint
RemoteDesk
Salesforce Activity Monitoring
Sneek
StaffCounter
Veyon
WebWork Time Tracker
iMonitor
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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