I was really impressed by BambooHR's user-friendly interface. Even the least tech-savvy members of your team will be able to easily clock in, request time off, and complete onboarding tasks on their mobile devices. The onboarding experience is particularly exceptional. Custom templates and automated reminders help make the new hires feel welcome, while also ensuring that everyone stays on schedule.

What I appreciate most is the way BambooHR approaches performance management by bringing more value than just tracking activity. It provides features for goal-setting and monitoring; conducting performance reviews; and even gathering peer evaluations. This enables greater employee development because activity isn't simply monitored, it's enhanced. The reporting functions are robust, enabling fast access to insights on workforce metrics and performance data. This could help save hours of preparation for team meetings or audits.

Despite these benefits, BambooHR does have its shortcomings. Some functionalities, such as payroll and benefits administration, require extra payments or upgrades. Additionally, the platform is designed for US-based companies. The setup of public holidays or PTO policies for overseas teams can be somewhat tedious. Nonetheless, BambooHR remains one of the best options for small to midsize companies wishing to consolidate their HR services.

BambooHR features: Employee data management | Time-off tracking | Performance reviews | Customizable onboarding | Automated reminders | Peer feedback tools | Detailed reporting

Throughout my testing, I've found Hubstaff to be the simplest employee monitoring tool for remote teams. It tracks work hours with ease. Employees can clock in with one click using the desktop app, mobile app, or Chrome extension. What impressed me most were user comments about how quickly they adapt to it. Plus, the idle-time detection feature ensures accurate time records without manual changes.

The customization options are excellent, too. Managers can decide what to monitor, like activity levels from keyboard and mouse movement, screenshots, app usage, or URL tracking. You can also blur screenshots and customize settings for different team members. This strikes a good balance between oversight and privacy.

However, some users in nondevelopment roles have said their activity percentage doesn't always reflect productivity. That's because the system mainly tracks keyboard and mouse actions. Some people have also faced postupdate bugs that temporarily affected time tracking. Still, for businesses that have remote teams and need clear productivity insights without a surveillance feel, Hubstaff offers great value.

Hubstaff features: Time tracking | Activity monitoring | Screenshot capture | App usage tracking | Idle time detection | Project management | Team scheduling | Productivity analytics

Teramind is hands down the best monitoring solution I've ever tested. The tracking is very advanced. The platform enables real-time monitoring and historical playback, so managers can check earlier employee activities DVR-style. I was also impressed by the OCR feature (that's optical character recognition), which extracts and recognizes text from screenshots. 

Security-focused organizations operating in regulated industries seem to love Teramind's risk mitigation tools. It monitors unauthorized access to confidential data, to avoid potentially grave security incidents. The behavior-analytics tools are another nice addition. They automatically flag any unusual behavior that looks like it could indicate insider threats. 

But with Teramind, you need to account for the added complexity that comes with all this power. You need to spend a lot of time customizing it when you set it up for the first time. It packs way more functionality compared with other options, like Hubstaff, but it also requires deeper understanding before use. And as you increase the number of employees being monitored, the price increases a lot too.

Teramind features: Screen recording | OCR technology | Website monitoring | Application tracking | Email monitoring | Message tracking | Remote desktop control | User behavior analytics

Instead of surveilling your employees, ActivTrak focuses on using performance data to provide insights that help improve productivity. It has a dashboard that smartly converts employee activity into easily digestible charts and graphs. I was fascinated by how ActivTrak arranges information by user intent, so you can understand not only what employees are doing but also why they're doing it.  

Compared with the other tools out there, ActivTrak doesn't capture employee screens. The software detects activity by monitoring mouse movements and keyboard actions to classify people as being either active or passive, meaning engaged or disengaged. I also liked the meeting-insights feature, which checks employee calendars to factor in the time spent in offline and in-person meetings. Plus, ActivTrak uses location insight to show how employees' location data correlates with their productivity levels. 

Security features are pretty strong, too. ActivTrak allows blocking specific sites, setti...