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 › Employee monitoring › Small business › October 2026 Edition

Employee monitoring for small business buyers

Asked as “employee monitoring tool”, and as “workforce productivity analytics software”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 60 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
23%
Contested · ActivTrak 15%
23Hubstaff15ActivTrak10Apploye52others

23% 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 small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Hubstaff23%8%52accepted challenger
02ActivTrak15%3%39accepted challenger
03Apploye10%5%20accepted challenger
04Time Doctor8%9%33accepted challenger
05Clockify7%0%19accepted challenger
06Insightful3%4%23accepted challenger
07Toggl Track3%0%16accepted challenger
08DeskTime2%0%21accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Teramind0%54%26criticized challenger
09Monitask0%6%18accepted challenger
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
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Hubstaff23%
02ActivTrak15%
03Apploye10%
04Time Doctor8%
05Clockify7%
06Insightful3%
07Toggl Track3%
08DeskTime2%
09Monitask0%
10Teramind0%

What they warned about

One of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, 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
54%
14 of 26 labels negative · 9 of 14 models · 5 hard negative
“Tools like **StaffCop**, **Teramind** (in full-surveillance mode), and **CleverControl** that log every keystroke are among the most problematic.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Hubstaff
8%
4 of 52 labels negative · 4 of 14 models
“**Reason to Caution:** While generally well-rated, users have noted limitations in **reporting customization**.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
CleverControl
75%
3 of 4 labels negative · 3 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“Tools like **StaffCop**, **Teramind** (in full-surveillance mode), and **CleverControl** that log every keystroke are among the most problematic.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Veriato
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“often viewed as an enterprise-grade solution that may be **overly complex and expensive** for smaller teams” Qwen 3.7 Flash, 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

74 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. 981 links across 196 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 · CurrentWare50 answers · 73 citations · 11 models
38 answers · 42 citations · 11 models
33 answers · 44 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Insightful29 answers · 46 citations · 12 models
27 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Hubstaff26 answers · 36 citations · 12 models
vendor site · TMetric26 answers · 28 citations · 10 models
24 answers · 42 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Jibble23 answers · 25 citations · 11 models
vendor site · G220 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
vendor site · G218 answers · 25 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Time Doctor16 answers · 26 citations · 9 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
Hubstaff hubstaff.com23%15218,100202100,097120
ActivTrak activtrak.com15%1468,10015618,356$11,550471
Apploye apploye.com10%36480445,5281
Time Doctor timedoctor.com8%854,4002,63819,45621
Clockify clockify.me7%10060,5001,0932,084,74940
Trackpilots trackpilots.com5%4
Insightful insightful.io3%106135,00031,73251,763$34376
Toggl toggl.com
Toggl Track 3%
3%5012,10089257,259 company30
Desklog desklog.io3%9
Controlio controlio.net3%22880339,25425

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (insightful.io, peoplemanagingpeople.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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which workforce productivity analytics software would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top employee monitoring tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best employee monitoring tool for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an employee monitoring tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which employee monitoring tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Trackpilots
Three alternativesHubstaff, Monitask, eMonitor
ActivTrakChanged
Three alternativesADP Workforce Now, Hubstaff, Personio
Trackpilots
Five alternativesApploye, CleverControl, DeskTime, Hubstaff, Time Doctor
Trackpilots
Three alternativesClockify, E-Monitor, Time Champ
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniHubstaff
One alternativeActivTrak
against: Teramind
InsightfulChanged
Four alternativesActivTrak, BambooHR, Hubstaff, Rippling
Hubstaff, Time Doctor
Two alternativesInsightful, Toggl Track
against: Teramind
Hubstaff
Two alternativesActivTrak, Clockify
no first choiceagainst: Retina-X
Gemini 3.5 FlashActivTrak, Hubstaff
Three alternativesApploye, Insightful, Teramind
Toggl TrackChanged
Six alternativesActivTrak, EmailAnalytics, Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Hubstaff, Insightful
Hubstaff
Seven alternativesApploye, Clockify, DeskTime, E-Monitor, Insightful, Time Doctor, Toggl Track
Clockify, Jibble
Four alternativesActivTrak, Apploye, E-Monitor, TimeCamp
no first choiceagainst: ActivTrak, Apploye, Buddy Punch, Crossover, Deputy, Desklog, Hubstaff, Monitask, Teramind, Time Doctor, Vericlock, Verint, When I Work
Perplexity SonarApploye
Three alternativesDeskTime, Insightful, Monitask
against: Hubstaff
DeskTime, InsightfulChanged
Two alternativesActivTrak, Time Doctor
Monitask, TMetric
Seven alternativesActivTrak, Apploye, DeskTime, Hubstaff, Insightful, Time Doctor, Traqq
against: Teramind
Apploye
Four alternativesHubstaff, Monitask, Time Doctor, WebWork
against: Teramind
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastHubstaff, Time Doctor
Three alternativesActivTrak, CurrentWare, Insightful
ActivTrakChanged
Two alternativesHubstaff, Time Doctor
ActivTrak, Hubstaff
Four alternativesApploye, Insightful, Monitask, Time Doctor
Clockify
Four alternativesApploye, DeskTime, Homebase, Jibble
ActivTrak, Hubstaff
One alternativeTime Doctor
against: Teramind
against: CleverControl, Controlio, CurrentWare, Insightful, Teramind, Time Doctor, Veriato, WorkTime
Mistral SmallClockify, Desklog
Two alternativesHubstaff Desk, We360.ai
HubSpotChanged
Four alternativesClickUp, Insightful, Monday.com, Toggl Track
Apploye, Clockify, TMetric
Three alternativesActivTrak, Insightful, Teramind
Apploye
Two alternativesMonitask, TMetric
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashActivTrak
Four alternativesApploye, DeskTime, Teramind, Time Doctor
HubstaffChanged
Three alternativesActivTrak, BambooHR, Time Doctor
Hubstaff
Four alternativesActivTrak, Clockify, Insightful, Time Doctor
against: Teramind
Time Champ
Four alternativesActivTrak, Clockify, Hubstaff, Monitask
Hubstaff
Five alternativesActivTrak, CurrentWare, DeskTime, Teramind, Time Doctor
against: CleverControl, Controlio, CurrentWare, Hubstaff, SentryPC, StaffCop, Teramind, Time Doctor
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceApploye
Three alternativesInsightful, TMetric, Teramind
Hubstaff
Three alternativesMonitask, Time Doctor, We360.ai
nothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashHubstaff
Four alternativesActivTrak, Controlio, DeskTime, Traqq
Monday.com, Toggl TrackChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot, Microsoft Viva
DeskTime, Insightful
Two alternativesHubstaff, Traqq
Hubstaff
Two alternativesClockify, Time Doctor
Desklog, Hubstaff, Time Doctor
Five alternativesConnectWise, CurrentWare, Kronos, N-central, QuickBooks Time
against: Hubstaff, Time Champ, VK Control, Veriato, WorkiQ
Kimi K2ActivTrak, Hubstaff
Two alternativesDesklog, Time Doctor
Gusto, RipplingChanged
Three alternativesBambooHR, Hubstaff, Toggl Track
ActivTrak, Hubstaff
Two alternativesClockify, Time Doctor
against: Teramind
Clockify, TimeCamp
Two alternativesE-Monitor, WorkTime
no first choiceagainst: CleverControl, StaffCop, Teramind
GLM 4.7 FlashXControlio
Two alternativesHubstaff, Monitask
Time DoctorChanged
Four alternativesApploye, Hubstaff, QuickBooks Time, TMetric
Clockify
Six alternativesActivTrak, DeskTime, Insightful, Jibble, Monitask, Traqq
against: Teramind
Apploye, Trackpilots
Three alternativesDeskTime, Hubstaff, WorkTime
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5ActivTrak, Controlio
Two alternativesHubstaff, Teramind
ClickUpChanged
Four alternativesBambooHR, HubSpot Sales Hub, Pipedrive, Toggl Track
Hubstaff
Three alternativesTeramind, Time Doctor, Toggl Track
Hubstaff
Four alternativesActivTrak, Bitrix24, Clockify, Toggl Track
no first choicenothing named
GPT-6 LunaActivTrak
One alternativeHubstaff
Insightful’s Workforce Analytics planChanged
Two alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff
ActivTrak
Three alternativesDeskTime, Hubstaff, Time Doctor
against: Teramind
Hubstaff Small Business Essentials
One alternativeActivTrak
no first choicenothing named
Muse Glimmer 30BHubstaff, Time Doctor
Two alternativesActivTrak, Apploye
Time DoctorChanged
One alternativeActivTrak
Hubstaff, Monitask
Four alternativesActivTrak, Clockify, Time Doctor, Toggl Track
ActivTrak, Apploye
Three alternativesDeskTime, Hubstaff, eMonitor
no first choiceagainst: Controlio, SentryPC, SpyAgent, Teramind, Veriato, Work Examiner
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 22:28yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:36yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:37yes917 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:37yes184 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:18yes209 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:26yes156 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:17yes1825 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:29yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:19yes516 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:22yes917 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:20yes1425 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:25yes1430 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:24yes214 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:34yes1624 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:20yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:21yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:34yes924 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:22yes203 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:30yes218 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:32no05 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:32yes2223 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:32yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:16no023 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:25yes2321 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:18yes2323 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:14no053 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:28yes315 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:19yes2426 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:40yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:23yes69 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:33yes1120 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:17yes194 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:32yes208 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:33yes109 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:37yes2038 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:32yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:38yes1027 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:34yes1526 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:25yes1866 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:32yes2532 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:13yes516 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:24yes1525 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:19yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:40yes46 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:18yes2225 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:28yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:22yes228 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:19yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:14yes2523 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:17yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:30no024 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:35yes1219 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:21yes2032 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:21no07 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:38yes212 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:16yes1317 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:13no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:16no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:23no016 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:21yes195 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:24yes1410 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:28no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:28yes2340 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:33yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:37yes519 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:25yes1524 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:16yes1443 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:19no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:30yes418 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:25yes1422 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:32yes169 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:26yes37 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:33yes1627 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:23yes193 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:38yes1912 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:21yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:19yes2446 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:17yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:15yes1439 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:33yes1825 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:35yes2238 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:27yes1532 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:16yes218 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:33yes2325 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
ConnectWise
EmailAnalytics
Fireflies.ai
Hubstaff Desk
Hubstaff Small Business Essentials
Insightful’s Workforce Analytics plan
N-central
SpyAgent
VK Control
Veriat
WorkiQ
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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