SCREENish vs Clockify: Which Time Tracker Fits Your Team? (2026)
The short answer: Clockify is a flexible, general-purpose time tracker with a very capable free plan and 100+ integrations, but its monitoring features — screenshots and GPS — sit behind the Pro plan at $7.99–$9.99 per user per month as of mid-2026. SCREENish is a monitoring-first platform with one flat price: $5.00 per employee per month includes screenshots, three-tier activity levels, human-reviewed mouse-jiggler detection, Android GPS and payroll reports. Teams that mainly need timesheets, invoicing and deep integrations will be happier with Clockify; teams that need verifiable proof of work at a predictable price will get more from SCREENish.
| Feature | SCREENish | Clockify (as of mid-2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Price with screenshots + GPS | $5.00 / employee / month, flat (EU VAT included) | Pro plan: $7.99/user/mo annual, $9.99 monthly |
| Free plan | No free plan; free trial, no credit card | Yes — free plan for up to 5 users |
| Free trial | Yes, no credit card required | 7-day trial of paid features, no credit card |
| Screenshots | 5–10 random shots per 10 minutes | Random ~5-minute intervals, blurred low-res by default (Pro+) |
| Screenshot retention | 45 days | Up to 1 year |
| Activity levels | Active / Partially active / Idle per 10-minute window | Idle detection and reminders; no activity-level percentage |
| Fake-activity detection | Yes — Activity Review with mandatory human review | Not advertised as a dedicated feature |
| GPS tracking | Included (Android app), no extra cost | Pro plan and above |
| Face recognition | Yes (beta), consent-first | No |
| Team chat and calls | Team Huddle: P2P calls, chat, file sharing — never recorded | Via Pumble (separate CAKE.com product) |
| Client project sharing | Read-only project view, no client account needed | Shared reports and public links |
| Payroll / accounting reports | Included: hourly rates, premium hours, salaried staff | Rates and invoicing (Standard+); no native payroll |
| Platforms | Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome extension, Android | Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome/Firefox/Edge, kiosk |
| Integrations | Limited | 100+ (Jira, Asana, Trello, QuickBooks, Zapier and more) |
When Clockify is the better choice
Clockify has earned its reputation, and there are situations where it is simply the right tool.
You want a genuinely free time tracker. As of mid-2026 Clockify's free plan covers up to 5 users with unlimited time tracking, timesheets, idle detection, calendar view and reports. For a very small team that only needs honest timekeeping — no screenshots, no monitoring — that is hard to beat, and SCREENish has no equivalent free tier.
You live inside other tools. Clockify integrates with 100+ web apps, including Jira, Asana, Trello, QuickBooks and Google Calendar, plus thousands more through Zapier. Its browser extension can start a timer directly inside 90+ apps. SCREENish offers far fewer third-party integrations, so if your workflow depends on starting timers from Jira tickets or pushing time straight into QuickBooks, Clockify wins.
You need iOS, kiosks or a broader product suite. Clockify runs on the web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android, with Chrome, Firefox and Edge extensions and a shared-device kiosk mode. It is also part of the larger CAKE.com suite (with Pumble for chat and Plaky for project management), and the vendor is substantially bigger than SCREENish. Clockify additionally keeps screenshots for up to a year, versus 45 days on SCREENish — relevant if you need long-term evidence retention.
When SCREENish is the better choice
You need monitoring, and you want one price for everything. On Clockify, screenshots and GPS only unlock at the Pro tier ($7.99–$9.99 per user per month as of mid-2026). SCREENish includes every feature — screenshots, activity levels, GPS, face recognition beta, Team Huddle, client sharing, payroll reports — at a flat $5.00 per employee per month, with EU VAT already included. There are no tiers to compare and no surprise upgrade when you need one more feature.
You want real activity evidence, handled fairly. SCREENish captures 5–10 random screenshots every 10 minutes and classifies each window as Active, Partially active or Idle based on keyboard and mouse use — without ever logging keystrokes or clicks. Its Activity Review goes further: when patterns look like a mouse jiggler or auto-clicker, the case is flagged for a human to examine. It is never an automatic accusation. Clockify's idle detection is useful, but it does not attempt to identify faked activity, and its screenshots are blurred by default — a reasonable privacy choice, but less useful as proof of work.
You need field-team accountability without add-on pricing. Android GPS tracking, with location, notes and photos attached to work logs, is included in the SCREENish base price. The consent-first face recognition beta adds identity verification for shared workstations — and employees must explicitly agree before it can be switched on, and can withdraw at any time.
You bill clients or run payroll from tracked time. Read-only client project sharing (no client account required), payroll and accounting email reports, retroactive rate changes, premium hours and salaried-employee support are all built in.
To be fair about the trade-offs: SCREENish has fewer integrations, no iOS app yet, keeps screenshots for 45 days rather than a year, and is a smaller vendor. If those are dealbreakers, Clockify deserves your shortlist.
Pricing compared
As of mid-2026, Clockify offers a free plan for up to 5 users and four paid tiers: Basic ($3.99/user/month billed annually, $4.99 monthly), Standard ($5.49 / $6.99), Pro ($7.99 / $9.99) and Enterprise ($11.99 / $14.99). Screenshots and GPS tracking first appear in Pro. Current details are on the Clockify pricing page.
SCREENish charges a flat $5.00 per employee per month with everything included, and EU VAT is already in the price. For a 10-person team that needs screenshots and GPS, that works out to $50/month on SCREENish versus $79.90–$99.90/month on Clockify Pro. If you never need monitoring features, however, Clockify's Free and Basic tiers will undercut SCREENish.
Frequently asked questions
Is SCREENish cheaper than Clockify?
It depends on what you need. For plain time tracking, Clockify's free plan (up to 5 users) and Basic tier are cheaper. But if you need screenshots or GPS, Clockify requires the Pro plan at $7.99–$9.99 per user per month as of mid-2026, while SCREENish includes both — plus payroll reports and face recognition — at a flat $5.00 per employee per month.
Does Clockify take screenshots?
Yes. As of mid-2026, Clockify captures screenshots at random roughly 5-minute intervals on its Pro and Enterprise plans, stores them for up to a year, and blurs them at low resolution by default. SCREENish captures 5–10 random screenshots every 10 minutes on every subscription and retains them for 45 days.
Can either tool detect mouse jigglers or auto-clickers?
SCREENish can. Its Activity Review feature flags patterns consistent with mouse jigglers and auto-clickers, and every flag is examined by a human before anything happens — it is never an automatic accusation. Clockify offers idle detection and reminders but does not advertise dedicated faked-activity detection as of mid-2026.
Which platforms do SCREENish and Clockify support?
Clockify runs on the web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android, with Chrome, Firefox and Edge browser extensions and a kiosk mode. SCREENish supports Windows, Mac, Linux, a Chrome extension (Chromebooks included) and Android with GPS; there is no iOS app yet.