Managing a workforce that spans across office, remote, and hybrid environments comes with its own set of challenges. Ensuring productivity, data security, and a positive company culture requires the right tools and strategies. This is where Controlio, an employee monitoring software, steps in to provide a comprehensive solution.
Controlio allows businesses to gain deep insights into their remote employees’ work patterns and computer usage. By collecting and analyzing this data, managers can identify areas for improvement and take action to optimize their team’s performance. In this piece, we’ll explore Controlio’s features, pros, cons, pricing, and alternatives to help you determine if it’s the right solution for your organization.
What is Controlio?
Controlio is a web-based cloud system for employee surveillance on work devices running Windows or Mac OS. It’s designed to help businesses gain visibility into their workforce’s activities, regardless of their location.
By automatic tracking and analysis of user activity data in real-time, Controlio provides valuable insights into employee productivity levels, application and website usage, and work time utilization. This enables managers to optimize workflows, identify potential security risks, and make informed decisions to drive business success.
Features
- Productivity Analysis: Controlio automatically tracks productive and unproductive activities, calculating productivity scores for individual users and departments. It provides dynamic dashboards and reports to help managers understand productivity trends and identify areas for improvement.
- Employee Monitoring: The software monitors employee computer activities, including application and website usage, keystrokes, and file operations. It allows for screen activity monitoring to provide a detailed view of user behavior.
- Work Time Tracking & Logging: Controlio automatically logs employees’ work hours, tracking start and end times, active time, breaks, and idle times. It generates detailed attendance reports and timesheets, eliminating the need for manual time tracking.
Pros
Controlio offers several notable advantages that make it an attractive choice for businesses seeking to enhance their employee monitoring and productivity management processes. Let’s explore some of the key benefits of using Controlio:
Track Hybrid Workforces
One of Controlio’s major strengths lies in its ability to seamlessly monitor and manage remote, in-office, and hybrid teams from a single, unified platform. It provides real-time visibility into employee activities, regardless of their location, helping managers ensure that their teams remain productive and compliant with company policies.
Easy to Use
Controlio boasts an intuitive user interface and a straightforward setup process, making it easy to implement and use, even for non-technical users. The software offers a range of pre-configured monitoring profiles and behavioral rules, allowing businesses to quickly customize their monitoring settings to suit their specific needs.
Compliance-Friendly
Controlio includes built-in features to help organizations comply with data protection regulations, such as GDPR and HIPAA. It offers a dedicated GDPR mode, which prevents the collection of personally identifiable information (PII) and provides detailed audit trails and reports to support compliance efforts.
Multiple Deployment Options
Controlio offers flexible deployment options to cater to different business requirements. In addition to its cloud-based solution hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS),, the software can be deployed on-premises or in a private cloud environment, providing enhanced security and control over sensitive data.
Cons
While Controlio has many strengths, it’s essential to consider some of its limitations to make an informed decision about whether it’s the right fit for your needs:
Limited Monitoring Channels
Controlio primarily monitors computer activities and does not offer advanced features for tracking other communication channels, such as instant messages, audio recordings or social media content. This may limit its effectiveness in identifying potential security risks or compliance issues that occur outside of the monitored computer activities.
No OCR
Unlike some of its competitors like Teramind, Controlio does not include optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities. This means that it cannot extract and analyze text from images or screen recordings, potentially missing valuable information that could be used for productivity analysis or security investigations.
Limited Data Loss Prevention (DLP) & Insider Risk Features
While Controlio offers some basic DLP features, such as blocking applications or websites employees are restricted from accessing during work hours, it lacks advanced capabilities for insider threat detection and data exfiltration prevention. Organizations with stringent security requirements may need to consider additional solutions to supplement Controlio’s functionality in this area.
Static Reports with Limited Customization
Controlio provides a range of pre-built reports for analyzing employee productivity and behavior. However, these reports are relatively static, with limited options for customization or creating ad-hoc queries. This may restrict the ability of managers to gain deeper insights or tailor reports to their specific needs.
No Payroll Features
Unlike some employee monitoring tools that offer integrated payroll management capabilities, Controlio does not include any built-in features for processing or automating payroll. Businesses that require seamless integration between time tracking and payroll may need to consider alternative solutions or use separate payroll software.
No Geolocation Tracking
Controlio does not offer geolocation tracking features, which can be useful for monitoring the location of remote or field-based employees. Organizations that require this functionality may need to explore other employee monitoring solutions that include GPS tracking capabilities.
Pricing
Controlio offers a straightforward pricing model with three main plans to cater to businesses of different sizes and requirements.
- CLOUD for small & medium businesses: $7.99 per user per month or $79.90 per user per year. It supports a range of 5 to 10,000 monitored users.
- ON-PREMISES for medium-sized businesses and enterprises: Pricing is available upon request. It’s suitable for organizations with 10 to 10,000 users.
- PRIVATE CLOUD for enterprises: Pricing is also available upon request. It can accommodate 100 to 100,000 users and provides a dedicated, secure cloud environment for hosting the Controlio software.
The software comes along with a free 14-day trial. While Controlio’s base price is competitive, it may not be the most affordable option in the market, especially for smaller businesses that need software with a wide range of functionalities.
6 Alternatives to Controlio
If you’re looking for employee monitoring solutions beyond Controlio, there are several robust alternatives available in the market. These tools offer advanced features for user activity tracking and workforce productivity optimization. Let’s explore six of these top alternatives:
1. Teramind
Teramind is a comprehensive employee monitoring and data loss prevention solution that empowers organizations to protect their sensitive data and optimize workforce productivity. By leveraging advanced behavioral analytics and real-time monitoring capabilities, Teramind provides unparalleled visibility into user activities, enabling businesses to detect and mitigate insider threats proactively.
With features like continuous video recordings, keystroke logging, and behavioral alerts, Teramind ensures thorough oversight of all digital interactions within the company. The platform’s user-friendly activity dashboard presents a clear visual representation of data, making it easy for administrators to navigate and identify potential security risks. Teramind also offers customizable monitoring rules and seamless integration with popular enterprise tools, allowing organizations to tailor the solution to their specific needs and existing IT infrastructure.
Features
- Comprehensive Employee Monitoring: Teramind monitors a wide range of user activities, including application usage, website visits, email communications, and file transfers.
- User & Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA): Teramind utilizes machine learning to establish baseline user behavior and detect anomalies that may indicate potential threats or compliance violations.
- Productivity Analysis & Optimization: The platform offers detailed productivity metrics, allowing managers to identify top performers, set benchmarks, and optimize workflows.
- Business Process Optimization: By analyzing user activity data, Teramind helps organizations identify inefficiencies and streamline their processes for improved performance.
- Real-time Alerts: Teramind generates instant notifications when inappropriate activities, policy violations, or potential security threats are detected, enabling quick response times.
- Data Loss Prevention: With its advanced DLP features, Teramind helps organizations protect sensitive data from unauthorized access, exfiltration, and accidental exposure.
- Screen Recording & Playback: Teramind allows administrators to view live user sessions and review historical recordings for detailed insights into employee activity.
Pricing
- Teramind Starter: Starts at $15 per user per month
- Teramind UAM: Starts at $30 per user per month
- Teramind DLP: Starts at $35 per user per month
- Teramind Enterprise: Custom pricing for enterprises and government organizations
2. Time Doctor
Time Doctor is an advanced workforce analytics platform that empowers teams of all types—remote, hybrid and in-office—with data-driven insights to optimize performance, productivity and employee well-being.
With real-time dashboards, detailed analytics reports, and seamless integrations with 60+ work tools, Time Doctor provides a holistic solution for time tracking, productivity tracking, payroll management, and more.
Features
- Comprehensive Time Tracking: Time Doctor enables users to easily track time spent on tasks, projects, and clients with manual or automatic timers.
- Productivity Analytics: The platform provides insights into employee productivity metrics with activity levels, website and app usage reports, allowing managers to gain a deep understanding of how time is being utilized.
- Workforce Management: Time Doctor helps managers efficiently manage attendance tracking, work schedules, payroll, and workload balancing.
Pricing
- Basic plan: $7 per user/month (monthly) or $5.9 per user/month (annual)
- Standard plan: $10 per user/month (monthly) or $8.4 per user/month (annual)
- Premium plan: $20 per user/month (monthly) or $16.7 per user/month (annual)
- Enterprise plan: Custom pricing for large organizations requiring advanced features and dedicated support
Read more: Time Doctor vs. Teramind.
3. Insightful
Insightful is a workforce analytics and productivity management platform that empowers organizations to optimize their operations, enhance employee well-being, and drive sustainable growth.
Insightful delivers the actionable intelligence needed to cultivate a high-performance culture, from identifying productivity trends and workflow bottlenecks to balancing workloads and supporting employee engagement.
Features
- Real-Time Monitoring: Insightful provides instant visibility into how time and focus are allocated, enabling managers to spot issues and optimize resources on the fly.
- Productivity Analytics: With Insightful, you gain deep insights into employee productivity, engagement and work patterns to drive continuous improvement.
- Automatic Time Mapping: Insightful’s AI automatically categorizes and maps employee work time to the right projects, clients and tasks without any manual effort.
Pricing
- Productivity Management: $6.40 per seat/month, billed annually
- Time Tracking: $8.00 per seat/month, billed annually
- Process Improvement: $12.00 per seat/month, billed annually (minimum 50 users)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing, designed for organizations with over 100 users, including additional features and support
4. Hubstaff
Hubstaff is a workforce management and time tracking tool that empowers businesses to optimize productivity, streamline operations, and foster a thriving work environment for remote, hybrid, and in-office teams.
The platform’s robust reporting and analytics capabilities offer real-time visibility into team performance, resource allocation, and project profitability, allowing managers to identify areas for improvement and support employee well-being.
Features
- Automated Time Tracking: Hubstaff streamlines time tracking with one-click timers, automatic timesheet generation, and accurate billing for clients and payroll.
- Employee Productivity Monitoring: You can get insights into team performance with optional screenshots, apps tracking, and key metrics based on keyboard and mouse activity.
- GPS Location Tracking: Efficiently manage mobile and field teams with GPS tracking, geofencing, and real-time location updates for accurate timesheets and improved accountability.
Pricing
- Starter plan: $4.99/seat/mo, 2 seat minimum, billed annually
- Grow plan: $7.50/ seat/mo, 2 seat minimum, billed annually
- Team plan: $10.00/ seat/mo, 2 seat minimum, billed annually
- Enterprise: $25.00/seat/mo, billed annually
Read more: Hubstaff vs. Teramind.
5. Veriato
Veriato is an insider risk management and user activity monitoring solution that leverages the power of generative AI to help organizations predict and prevent costly data breaches. By applying advanced behavior analytics, sentiment analysis, and anomaly detection reporting, Veriato provides unparalleled visibility into employee activities across remote, hybrid, and in-office environments.
Features
- Generative AI-Driven Insider Risk Management: Veriato utilizes GenAI to detect and predict risky behaviors based on advanced pattern matching, language analysis, and sentiment detection.
- Comprehensive User Activity Monitoring: Gain complete visibility into employee activities, including email, chat, web usage, file access, and network activity, to identify productivity issues and potential security risks.
- Compliance Management & Auditing: Veriato simplifies compliance management by monitoring for policy violations, tracking access to sensitive data, and providing detailed audit trails to meet regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.
Pricing
- User Activity Monitoring (UAM): $15 per user per month (billed annually) or $25 per user per month (billed monthly)
- Insider Risk Management (IRM): Custom pricing based on specific requirements
Read more: Veriato vs. Teramind.
6. ActivTrak
ActivTrak is a popular productivity management software that provides businesses with data-driven insights to optimize their workforce and drive performance.
By collecting and analyzing digital activity data, ActivTrak enables managers and executives to assess team productivity, detect signs of disengagement or burnout, and proactively address issues that impact employee well-being and efficiency.
Features
- Productivity Insights: ActivTrak connects work habits to productivity trends, providing a clear picture of how teams work and identifying opportunities for improvement through focused work analysis, application usage tracking, and workload balance assessment.
- Workforce Planning: You can optimize your workforce investments with ActivTrak’s capacity and headcount planning, technology license optimization, and impact analysis of organizational change.
- Productivity Coaching: ActivTrak empower managers and employees to improve personal work habits and well-being through visibility into individual productivity patterns, AI-driven coaching recommendations, and customizable goal-setting and progress tracking.
Pricing
- Free Plan: $0/month/user, up to 3 users.
- Pro Plan: $4.99/month/user, billed annually
- Business Plan: $6.99/month/user, billed annually
- Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing for larger organizations with specific needs and requirements
Read more: ActivTrak vs. Teramind.
Conclusion
While Controlio offers a solution for employee monitoring and productivity management, it’s important to consider the alternatives available in the market. Among the various options, Teramind stands out as the most effective and feature-rich platform.
With its advanced behavioral analytics, real-time monitoring capabilities, and robust data loss detection measures, Teramind provides a comprehensive approach to ensuring employee productivity and safeguarding sensitive company information.
