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
| TimeNova | Hubstaff | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan (annual, per user/mo) | $7.50 (Pro) | $4.99 (Starter) |
| Top plan (annual, per user/mo) | $11.67 (Max) | $25 (Enterprise, annual only) |
| 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 |
| 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 silent agent, projects, working hours and every report; recording lives on Max at $14, and there are no add-ons on either.
Where Hubstaff is ahead
Being straight about it: 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 in every paid 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 a mixed-platform fleet today. Pick TimeNova if your team works on Macs 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.