Time Doctor vs. Insightful: Features, Pros, Cons & Pricing

August 16, 2024

Time Doctor and Insightful are two popular choices for companies that want employee monitoring and time tracking tools.

This post will examine these employee monitoring software platforms in-depth and provide valuable insights to help you make an informed decision before sharing your credit card information. Teramind could be a better alternative to Time Doctor and Insightful for certain use cases, and we’ll explain why.

Time Doctor & Insightful Overview

Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a time-tracking and productivity management tool. Key features include:

Automated time tracking: No need to remember to flip any manual time clock switches to start time tracking. It starts the clock for you, so all billable hours are accurate.
Productivity ratings and analytics: Do you want to know your staff’s activity levels based on workday activity and idle time? Time Doctor provides productivity tracking stats based on real-time website and mobile app usage analytics.
Project and task management: Improve project progress and team productivity levels by setting up project tracking and assigning tasks inside Time Doctor.
Screenshot monitoring: Mitigate the risk of an insider threat with screenshot monitoring. This can also be an employee monitoring tool to assess work output.
Payroll software integration: Get paid accurately and promptly for staff, freelancers, contractors, and remote employees. Use Time Doctor’s payroll features to record employee work hours and generate invoices with accurate information.

Insightful

Insightful is a comprehensive analytics and workplace productivity software, that tracks employee activity and project progress, and tracks time. By giving deep insights into employee behavior, real-time data-driven decisions can be made to optimize the company.

Key features include:

Automatic time tracking: Insightful can track time and generate employee time records by looking at workday activity. Specific data can be tracked to see how much time employees spend on specific assignments.
Productivity scoring and benchmarking: Each employee gets a productivity score which can then be compared against the industry average.
Application and website monitoring: An employee’s productivity can be assessed by the websites they visit and the mobile apps they use. Unproductive time and idle time can be segmented.
Productivity trends and analysis: actionable insights into employee productivity can be provided on a single dashboard.
Remote/in-office data segmentation: With office workers turning into remote employees, Insightful can segment analytics data into those working remotely and those working in the office.

Why Teramind is a Better Alternative to Time Doctor and Insightful

Despite these powerful features, Teramind offers the best user experience for employee monitoring, project tracking, productivity optimization, and insider threat detection.

Advanced user user behavior analytics and reporting: Offers more advanced data analysis to discover sub-optimal company processes.
Insider threat detection and prevention: Teramind can be used to detect and prevent insider threats.
Data loss prevention and compliance monitoring: Teramind implements safeguards to lower the risk of proprietary data loss and ensure the company abides by all compliance obligations.
Remote desktop control and support: IT teams can control any desktop to prevent employee access, block malicious acts, and record employee actions.
Cross-platform support (Windows, macOS): Teramind works regardless of the operating system you use.

Tool	Summary	Best For
Time Doctor	Employee time tracking and productivity monitoring.	Small to medium-sized businesses.
Insightful	Productivity analytics and employee monitoring.	Distributed teams and remote workforce.
Teramind	Comprehensive employee monitoring, behavior analytics, and data protection.	Large enterprises, regulated industries, remote workforce.

Time Doctor and Insightful Feature Comparison

Let’s make a brief feature comparison between Time Doctor and Insightful.

Feature	Time Doctor	Insightful	Teramind
Time Tracking	Automated time tracking with start/stop timers, project and task tracking	Automatic time tracking based on app and website usage	Automated time tracking with idle time detection and activity monitoring
Productivity Monitoring	Productivity ratings and analytics based on active and idle time, websites visited, and applications used	Productivity scoring, benchmarking, and trends based on application and website usage	Advanced user behavior analytics, productivity reporting, and policy violation alerts
Employee Monitoring	Screenshot monitoring, webcam monitoring (optional)	Application and website usage monitoring, productivity labeling, and categorization	Comprehensive monitoring features including screen recording, keylogging, file transfers, and more
Remote Workforce Support	Basic remote monitoring and time-tracking capabilities	Designed for remote teams with in-office/remote data segmentation	Remote desktop control, support, and monitoring for distributed teams
Reporting and Analytics	Basic reporting tools on time usage, productivity, and payroll data	Detailed productivity reports, trends, and benchmarking	Advanced user behavior analytics and reporting, including risk scoring and insider threat detection
Data Security and Compliance	Basic data security features	Standard data security measures	Robust data protection and compliance features, including DLP, encryption, and access controls

Time Tracking

Time Doctor gives automated time tracking to ensure accurate billing. Insightful does automatic time tracking based on an employee’s website and app usage.

Productivity Monitoring

Time Doctor bases productivity ratings and analytics on metrics such as active and idle time, and websites and apps used. Insightful is similar with productivity scoring and benchmarking based on employee app and website usage.

Employee Monitoring

Time Doctor is rather light on employee monitoring with only screenshot monitoring and webcam monitoring. Insightful goes a bit further with valuable insights based on online time monitoring, and productivity labeling and categorization.

Use Cases

Time Doctor Use Cases

Time tracking and billing for freelancers, consultants, and service-based businesses. Whether it’s office staff, remote workers, or independent contractors, Time Doctor offers a streamlined billing system and expense tracking tool for all.
Monitoring employee productivity and time management for remote teams: Time Doctor makes it simpler to manage remote teams and assess their work output based on project time tracking data metrics and employee attendance.

Insightful Use Cases

Analyzing productivity trends and identifying areas for improvement in distributed teams: If management sets KPIs, this can identify which employees need extra job training.
Benchmarking employee productive time and performance across different teams or locations. Company bosses can use these comprehensive reports to compare results against what the company expects or the industry norm.

Pros Compared

Time Doctor Pros

Simple and easy-to-use time-tracking interface. Employers and employees like easy tools, not instruction manuals and steep learning curves.
Third-party integrations with popular project management tools so you never have to choose between tools. Use them all on a custom dashboard.
Integration for streamlined payroll processes. Quicker invoices going out means quicker money coming in.

Insightful Pros

Detailed productivity insights and analysis. Time, computer usage, keystroke activity, mouse activity, and more can provide detailed insights into employee performance.
Productivity benchmarking and trend reporting. Find out if employee productivity levels are optimized to produce the best company results, by benchmarking them against industry trends.
Segmentation of remote and in-office data. No two work environments are the same, so data will be different. Insightful segments that data to provide a more accurate picture.

Time Doctor Cons

Limited advanced monitoring and behavior analytics capabilities. With its emphasis on time tracking and basic user activity tracking, Time Doctor lacks the advanced data tools that some companies will need.
Basic remote workforce support features which may be sufficient for many businesses, but not all. Its insights and analytics are limited, with minimal team collaboration tools.
Lack of advanced data security and compliance features. Encryption is not the best, and two-factor authentication is missing.

Insightful Cons

No comprehensive employee monitoring tools beyond application and website usage. No video monitoring, no geolocation tracking, and limited idle time analysis. The flip side is that employee privacy issues will not be a big issue.
Limited remote workforce support features. Insightful does not offer employee engagement metrics or any employee management tools.
Lack of advanced data protection and compliance features, such as two-factor authentication, vague data privacy policies, and sub-par data encryption.

Pricing Comparison

Time Doctor Pricing

Time Doctor has three pricing tiers, with features depending on your pricing plan. You can also save money on an annual plan versus a monthly plan.

Basic Plan – $7 per user per month (or $5.90 per user per month, if you select annual billing.)
Standard Plan – $10 per user per month (or $8.40 per user per month, if you select annual billing.)
Premium Plan – $20 per user per month (or $16.70 per user per month, if you select annual billing.)

Insightful Pricing

Insightful has three transparent pricing plans available, with each one having a specific set of workforce management tools.

However, additional features can be bought for an extra cost.

Productivity Management – $8 per user per month (or $6.40 per user per month, if paid annually.)
Time Tracking – $10 per user per month (or $8 per user per month, if paid annually.)
Process Improvement – $15 per user per month (or $12 per user per month, if paid annually.)

It is also possible to get a custom pricing plan.

When To Use Time Doctor or Insightful

Use Time Doctor if you primarily need a simple time tracking and basic productivity monitoring solution for small to medium-sized teams.
Use Insightful if you have a distributed workforce and require better detailed in-depth insights, benchmarking, and trend analysis.

Teramind: A Better Alternative to Time Doctor and Insightful

Teramind provides superior tools and features compared to Time Doctor and Insightful. Here’s how Teramind compares to both platforms:

Feature	Time Doctor	Insightful	Teramind
Time Tracking	Automated time tracking with start/stop timers, project tracking and task tracking	Automatic time tracking based on application and website usage	Automated time tracking with idle time detection and activity monitoring
Productivity Monitoring	Productivity ratings and comprehensive analytics based on active and idle time, websites visited, and mobile apps used	Productivity scoring, benchmarking, and trends based on application and website usage	Advanced user behavior analytics, productivity reporting, and policy violation alerts
Employee Monitoring	Screenshot monitoring, webcam monitoring (optional)	Application and website usage monitoring, productivity labeling and categorization	Comprehensive monitoring including screen recording, keylogging, file transfers, and more
Remote Workforce Support	Basic remote monitoring and time tracking capabilities	Designed for remote teams with in-office/remote data segmentation	Remote desktop control, support, and monitoring for distributed teams
Reporting and Analytics	Basic reporting on time usage, productivity, and payroll data	Detailed productivity reports, trends, and benchmarking	Advanced user behavior analytics and custom reports, including risk scoring and insider threat detection
Data Security and Compliance	Basic data security features	Standard data security measures	Robust data protection and compliance features, including DLP, encryption, and access controls
Insider Threat Detection	Not available	Not available	Advanced insider threat detection and prevention capabilities
User Activity Reconstruction	Not available	Not available	Detailed user activity reconstruction for forensic investigations
Cross-Platform Support	Limited platform support	Limited platform support	Comprehensive support for Windows and macOS

How Teramind Stands Apart

Comprehensive Monitoring Capabilities

Teramind offers a large number of real-time monitoring capabilities, which goes way beyond time tracking and productivity analysis. Teramind also offers screen recording, keylogging, URL tracking, file transfer monitoring, and screen activity monitoring. These features offer deeper insights and more comprehensive analytics that will help companies make better decisions.

Advanced Insider Threat Detection

Teramind’s advanced user behavior analytics and risk scoring capabilities give companies behavioral data insights to assess an employee’s risk level, and detect suspicious behavior patterns. This will greatly mitigate the risk of insider threats, such as data exfiltration, intellectual property theft, and policy violations.

Privacy-First User Activity Monitoring

Teramind allows companies to monitor employee activities and actions in great detail (while respecting privacy). These detailed reports will prove invaluable for forensic investigations and compliance audits, when a complete picture of an event is necessary.

Cross-Platform Support

Teramind recognizes that not everyone works on the same operating systems. So, Teramind offers comprehensive support for Windows and macOS platforms no matter what brand you prefer.

Conclusion

Time Doctor and Insightful offer unique tools and features that will appeal to some companies. However, some companies need a lot more than an automatic time tracker.

Teramind becomes the best alternative to Time Doctor and Insightful by focusing on advanced features. Enterprises, regulated industries, and organizations with stringent security and compliance requirements will appreciate Teramind’s employee monitoring tools, enterprise-grade security, and comprehensive reports.

Author

Arick Disilva

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