Compare · Employee monitoring
WorkMonitor vs DeskTime
Automatic time tracking with productivity categorisation and an integrated Pomodoro timer.
Written from public materials and reviewed September 7, 2026. Check anything here against DeskTime’s own site before you decide, and everything below about WorkMonitor is read from the same catalogue as our product pages.
Watching people work, or proving the work happened
workmonitor.vsScreenshot-based monitoring
What the evidence is
With WorkMonitor
A work-edge record built from commits, tickets, documents and active-tab URLs, with no pixel capture in the proof path.
Screenshot-based monitoring
Screenshots on an interval, plus an activity percentage derived from keyboard and mouse events.
Showing a client
With WorkMonitor
A signed, timestamped certificate they verify on a public page, disclosing only the fields you choose.
Screenshot-based monitoring
Export the screenshots into a deck, which exposes the client’s own data to prove you worked on it.
What "productive" means
With WorkMonitor
Focus and deep-work stretches with category overrides you control, and every score opens into its breakdown.
Screenshot-based monitoring
Input volume, which rewards fidgeting and penalises reading, thinking and pair work.
When a decision is challenged
With WorkMonitor
A transparency view of their own record, a dispute route with a right to human review, and a log of who looked — so the decision holds up when somebody pushes back on it.
Screenshot-based monitoring
Data collected about a person that the person cannot see and cannot contest, which is where the argument starts.
Capture cadence
With WorkMonitor
Randomised cadence, plus integrity signals that detect simulated input and downgrade any proof built on it.
Screenshot-based monitoring
A fixed interval, which everybody learns within a week and works around.
Operating across borders
With WorkMonitor
Capture policy per region, consent recorded against a version, and written guidance for 32 jurisdictions.
Screenshot-based monitoring
One policy applied everywhere, and a legal review that starts from scratch in each new market.
The question we get asked
We picked a simple tool on purpose. Is this going to be heavy to run?
Two seats are free and the first run is an agent install and nothing else — the capture, categorisation and weekly view work with no configuration at all. The approval chains, budgets and payroll runs exist but stay switched off until you want them, so the simple version stays simple and the ceiling is higher when you need it.
Insights — focus, deep work and meeting load, week by week
What WorkMonitor ships, with its real status
- WORM-anchored certificates (from a finalized invoice)
- Public no-login verifier
- Selective disclosure
Switching
Bringing your DeskTime history across
Nobody switches tools if it means abandoning a year of history. Export yours as CSV and the importer maps it onto our columns. There is no dedicated DeskTime preset yet, so expect to line the columns up once rather than not at all.
The columns your export needs to line up with
- date
- minutes
- project
- task
- note
Six columns, mapped once on the first import. Rows that cannot be normalised still pass through, so the importer reports exactly which ones need attention rather than rejecting the file.
After the import
Where your DeskTime history lands
Imported hours sit on the same ledger as everything captured after them, so a week from before the switch and a week from after it are read the same way. Corrections append with an author and a reason rather than overwriting, which is what lets you answer why a number changed long after anyone remembers.
Timesheets — submitted hours against recorded hours
When DeskTime is the better answer
You want the simplest possible setup for a small team and none of the proof, approval or payroll machinery.
If that is the deciding requirement, buy that instead. Nothing on this page is worth reading if the unflattering half is missing from it, which is also why every capability above carries its real status rather than a tick.
Questions
Moving from DeskTime
Answered about what WorkMonitor does, including where the answer is no.
- How do I move my DeskTime data into WorkMonitor?
- Export it as CSV and the importer maps it onto our columns — email, date, minutes, project, task, note. There is no dedicated preset for this vendor yet, so the columns get lined up once on the first import. Categorisation does not come with it: app and website categories are yours to set here, and a category you correct stays corrected.
- Does WorkMonitor track time automatically?
- Yes, as the work happens, with idle time detected and split out rather than silently rounded into the total. Nobody starts a timer, and nobody reconstructs Thursday from their calendar on Friday afternoon.
- Is WorkMonitor too complex for a small team?
- The parts you do not turn on are not in your way. A two-person team typically uses the activity board, the weekly insights and timesheets; projects, budgets, approvals, invoicing and payroll are separate surfaces that stay dormant until switched on.
- Does WorkMonitor have a Pomodoro timer?
- No. Focus is measured rather than prompted — the analytics identify deep-work stretches and meeting load from what actually happened, instead of asking somebody to declare a session up front.
- Is there a free version of WorkMonitor?
- Two seats are free permanently, with no card and no trial clock. That covers a founder and one colleague, or a freelancer issuing client certificates; beyond two it is published per-seat pricing.
- What happens to my data if we stop paying?
- It stays exportable. Data export is a first-class surface rather than a support ticket, every export is itself audited, and the certificates you have already issued keep verifying on their public pages.
Ask AI
Ask anything about your team
Plain-language answers about your own workforce data, with the figures behind them. Pick a question to see how it reads.
Pick a question above and WorkMonitor AI will answer from your team's real numbers.
Also comparing
Other employee monitoring tools
- WorkMonitor vs ActivTrakWorkforce analytics that classifies app and website use into productivity dashboards for coaching.
- WorkMonitor vs HubstaffTime tracking with screenshots, activity rates and GPS, aimed at distributed teams that bill by the hour.
- WorkMonitor vs Time DoctorWorkforce analytics and performance reporting built around tracked time and distraction alerts.
- WorkMonitor vs InsightfulTime and activity tracking for hybrid teams, with visible and stealth monitoring modes.
Take these with you
The software is the easy part of a rollout
Here is what we would send a manager doing one for the first time: how to read a productivity number, what to say to a remote team before anything is installed, and a policy you can adopt as written.
Point it at one team for a week.
Create the account, put the agent on a handful of desks, and leave it alone. On Friday you read the week instead of reconstructing it: hours against their projects, focus and idle per person, and the timesheets already filled in.
Free for two seats. No card, and no sales call to sit through.