SCREENish vs ActivTrak: Which Time Tracker Fits Your Team? (2026)

The short answer: ActivTrak is a workforce analytics platform that starts at $10 per user per month (billed annually) and sells screenshots as a paid add-on, while SCREENish is a flat $5.00 per employee per month with screenshots, activity levels, Android GPS and payroll reports all included. Choose ActivTrak if you want deep productivity analytics, benchmarks and coaching insights for a larger organization. Choose SCREENish if you need proof-of-work time tracking — screenshots, fair activity review and payroll-ready reports — at a predictable flat price.

When ActivTrak is the better choice

ActivTrak deserves real credit as a workforce analytics product. If your goal is understanding how your organization works — utilization, focus time, workload balance, schedule adherence, team benchmarks and AI-generated coaching insights — ActivTrak's reporting goes well beyond what SCREENish offers. Its Location Insights feature helps leaders shape hybrid-work policy by showing productivity trends for office versus remote days, without resorting to GPS surveillance.

ActivTrak is also a good fit if you have three or fewer people: its permanent free plan costs nothing and includes core activity tracking. And its default data collection is deliberately restrained — no keystroke logging, with screenshots kept behind an optional add-on — which some privacy-conscious organizations prefer. Larger companies will additionally appreciate longer data history (up to a year on the top tier), HRIS and API integrations, and the maturity of a large, well-established vendor. SCREENish is a smaller company with fewer third-party integrations, and it keeps screenshots for 45 days rather than months — if year-long audit trails and BI-stack integrations matter to you, ActivTrak is the safer pick.

When SCREENish is the better choice

SCREENish is built for teams that need verifiable proof of work — agencies, outsourcing firms and remote teams that bill clients or run payroll from tracked hours. Screenshots and activity levels are included in the flat $5.00 price, not sold as an add-on, and hourly rates turn tracked time directly into payroll calculations and downloadable accounting reports. Clients can be given a read-only, time-limited link to their project — no account needed — which ActivTrak has no equivalent for.

SCREENish also handles the awkward parts of monitoring more humanely. Its Activity Review can flag stretches of time that look like they came from a mouse jiggler or auto-clicker, but every flag goes to a human for review — no time is rejected and nobody is accused automatically. Activity levels are computed from input counts only, never from what anyone types. For shared workstations, consent-first face recognition (currently in beta) verifies who is actually tracking time, and employees can withdraw consent at any time.

Platform coverage is another practical difference: SCREENish ships native apps for Windows, Mac and Linux plus a Chrome extension, and its Android app adds GPS tracking for field teams at no extra cost — ActivTrak has no native Linux desktop agent and no GPS at all. Built-in Team Huddle gives small teams peer-to-peer calls, chat and file sharing that are never recorded. To be fair about limits: there is no iOS app yet, and SCREENish won't give you ActivTrak-style organizational analytics dashboards.

Pricing compared

As of mid-2026, ActivTrak's published plans are Free (up to 3 users), Work Activity Tracking at $10 per user/month, Workforce Management at $15, and Productivity Optimization at $17 — all billed annually, with no monthly option. Screenshots require the separately priced Screen Details add-on, AI Insights costs an extra $4 per user/month, and extended data history is $1 per user/month. See the ActivTrak pricing page for current details.

SCREENish charges a flat $5.00 per employee per month with everything included — screenshots, activity levels, Activity Review, Android GPS, Team Huddle, client sharing and payroll reports. For EU customers, VAT is included in the price. There are no tiers, no add-ons and no annual lock-in, and the free trial requires no credit card.

The math for a 10-person team: ActivTrak's entry tier costs $100 per month ($1,200 per year, paid up front) before adding screenshots. SCREENish costs $50 per month all-in — half the price, with screenshots, GPS and payroll included from day one.

Frequently asked questions

Is ActivTrak cheaper than SCREENish?

Only for teams of three or fewer, where ActivTrak's free plan costs nothing. For paid use, ActivTrak starts at $10 per user/month billed annually, with screenshots as an extra add-on, while SCREENish is a flat $5.00 per employee/month with screenshots included and monthly billing.

Does ActivTrak include screenshots?

Not in its standard tiers. As of mid-2026, screenshots, screen views and full URLs require ActivTrak's paid Screen Details add-on on top of a paid plan. SCREENish includes random screenshots with every subscription, retained for 45 days, and employees can delete accidental captures.

Can either tool detect mouse jigglers or auto-clickers?

SCREENish has a dedicated Activity Review feature that flags time that looks machine-generated, then routes it to a human for review — nobody is penalised automatically. ActivTrak classifies activity as productive or idle but does not advertise dedicated fake-activity detection.

Does ActivTrak offer GPS tracking?

No. ActivTrak's Location Insights infers whether someone works from the office or remotely, but it does not track GPS position. SCREENish includes GPS tracking in its Android app at no extra cost, which suits field and mobile teams; note that SCREENish has no iOS app yet.