TimeNova vs Hubstaff: an honest comparison.
Hubstaff is a strong, mature product with a big feature surface: GPS and location tracking, payroll, invoicing, and apps for every platform. TimeNova is deliberately narrower: time, activity, screenshots and screen recording, projects, and attendance, done carefully and fairly. Which one fits depends on which of those two shapes you actually need.
Pricing
About these figures. Competitor prices are the vendor's own published list price, in US dollars, on the annual plan, read from their pricing page and last checked on 14 September 2026. Vendors change prices without telling us, so treat this as a snapshot with a date on it rather than a live quote, and confirm on their site before you decide. If you find one out of date, tell us at team@timenova.ai and we will fix it.
| TimeNova | Hubstaff | |
|---|---|---|
| Top plan (annual, per user/mo) | $11.67 (Max) | $25 (Enterprise, annual only); $10 (Team) is the top self-serve plan |
| Entry plan (annual, per user/mo) | $7.50 (Pro) | $4.99 (Starter) |
| Plans to choose from | 2, no add-ons | 4, plus add-ons |
| Screen recording | Included on Max | Not offered (screenshots only) |
| Silent tracking agent | Included | Add-on, from $2.50 per user/mo |
| Screenshots | Included on Pro, your interval | 500 a month on Starter, 1,500 on Grow, unlimited on Team; more is an add-on |
| Free trial | 14 days, all features | 14 days |
Hubstaff's $4.99 Starter looks cheaper than TimeNova until you look at what it holds back: the features most buyers in this category actually came for tend to sit in higher plans or in paid add-ons like the silent app, extra screenshots, and longer data retention. TimeNova's $9 Pro plan includes screenshots at your chosen interval, the automatic tracker, projects, working hours and every report; recording lives on Max at $14, and there are no add-ons on either.
Where Hubstaff is ahead
Hubstaff runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, and includes GPS tracking for field teams, payroll, and invoicing. TimeNova has no mobile or GPS tracking, and does no payroll. A field-service company should look at Hubstaff first.
Where TimeNova is ahead
- Screen recording exists. Hubstaff captures periodic screenshots only. TimeNova offers real low-frame-rate screen recording with on-device blur, included on the Max plan.
- Employee trust is structural. Desktop-app users always see their own data, with no admin switch to remove it. Stopping the tracker is never flagged. Meetings always count as work.
- No keylogging by construction. TimeNova never requests input monitoring permissions on macOS. There is no keystroke data to leak because none is ever collected.
- Privacy enforced server-side. URL query strings are stripped before storage, company-wide blur cannot be undone per person, and every admin change lands in an activity log.
Which should you pick?
Pick Hubstaff for field teams, GPS, payroll, or if you need Linux and mobile. Pick TimeNova if your team works on Macs or Windows PCs and you want deeper capture, simpler pricing, and monitoring your team can read for themselves. Run both trials side by side for a week; the difference in how your team reacts is usually the real answer.