ActivTrak Interactive Demo
Explore a demo of ActivTrak, a workforce analytics platform that tracks application and website usage, productivity patterns, and team activity to help managers understand how work actually gets done.
What is ActivTrak?
ActivTrak is a workforce analytics platform founded in 2009 and headquartered in Austin, Texas. It installs a lightweight agent on employee devices and collects data on which applications and websites are used, how much time is spent in each, and when users are active or idle. Managers and HR teams use this data to understand productivity patterns, identify burnout risk, and make staffing or process decisions based on actual work patterns rather than assumptions.
The platform categorizes applications and URLs as productive, unproductive, or undefined based on rules you configure for your team. Time in Slack or Zoom might count as productive for a sales team but not for a focused engineering sprint, so the classification is customizable per team or role. ActivTrak also surfaces team-level aggregates, which means you can see department trends without drilling into individual-level surveillance data, depending on how you configure it.
ActivTrak offers a free plan for up to 3 users with 30 days of data history. Paid plans start at around $10/user/month and add longer data retention, comparison reporting, goal tracking, and integrations with HR and productivity tools. It’s one of the more commonly used tools in this category, sitting alongside competitors like Teramind and Hubstaff.
How to get started with ActivTrak
- 1
Sign up and define your team structure
Create an account at activtrak.com and set up your user groups. Organizing users by team or department from the start makes the reporting more useful, since most of the comparative views are built around group-level aggregates.
- 2
Deploy the agent to employee devices
The ActivTrak agent installs on Windows and Mac. For larger deployments it can be pushed via Group Policy, Jamf, or your MDM of choice. The agent runs in the background and begins collecting application and website data immediately after install.
- 3
Configure productivity classifications
Go through the default application and website categories and adjust them to match how your team works. Mark tools like your project management software and internal apps as productive for the relevant groups. Getting the classifications right in week one avoids misleading reports later.
- 4
Review your first week of data
After a week of data collection, the team reports start to show meaningful patterns. Look at focus time distribution, top applications by time, and any anomalies in work hours. This first review usually surfaces a few surprises and helps you identify what questions you want to track going forward.
- 5
Set up alerts and share reports with managers
Configure alerts for specific behaviors you want to monitor, such as extended idle time or access to certain application categories. Grant manager-level access to team leads so they can review their own team’s data without needing to go through IT or HR for every question.
Who is ActivTrak most useful for?
Operations and HR leaders at distributed or hybrid companies who want visibility into how work time is actually spent across the organization. The most common use case is identifying patterns that explain productivity gaps or help with capacity planning, not monitoring individual employees minute by minute.
Managers overseeing remote teams who need data to have informed conversations about workload and focus time. ActivTrak’s wellness metrics flag individuals who are consistently working very long hours or showing fragmented focus, which gives managers a concrete starting point for a check-in rather than guessing. The data is most useful when teams know it’s being collected and understand what’s being measured.
IT and compliance teams at organizations in regulated industries where demonstrating responsible data handling or monitoring insider risk is part of the job. ActivTrak supports audit logs and can alert on specific application use or data transfer behaviors. For organizations onboarding ActivTrak for the first time, a Supademo walkthrough of the dashboard and configuration options can help HR and managers get up to speed quickly without requiring a live training session every time someone new joins the rollout.
Alternatives to ActivTrak
ActivTrak sits in a market with several overlapping tools, ranging from lightweight time trackers to full employee monitoring platforms.
Integrated directly into Microsoft 365 and Teams, surfacing collaboration patterns, meeting load, and focus time without a separate agent. The right option if your organization is already deep in the Microsoft ecosystem and doesn’t need cross-platform coverage.
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More extensive monitoring capabilities than ActivTrak, including behavior analytics, data loss prevention, and insider threat detection. Better suited for compliance-heavy industries. More expensive and more involved to configure.
Combines time tracking with GPS location, screenshots, and activity levels. Popular with agencies and field service teams that bill clients by the hour. More focused on time accountability than the productivity analytics angle that ActivTrak emphasizes.
Tracks time at the task level with optional screenshots and integrates with payroll tools, which makes it popular for managing contractors. More manual than ActivTrak in terms of how users log work, but more granular for billing and contractor oversight.
FAQs on ActivTrak
Commonly asked questions about ActivTrak. Have more? Reach out and our team will be happy to help.
Does ActivTrak take screenshots of employees?
ActivTrak does have a screenshot feature, but it’s optional and off by default on most plans. The core product tracks application and website usage by time rather than capturing screen images. Whether to enable screenshots is a policy decision for the organization, and most teams that use ActivTrak for productivity analytics don’t turn it on.
Is ActivTrak free?
ActivTrak has a free plan that supports up to 3 users and retains data for 30 days. Paid plans start at around $10/user/month and unlock longer retention, advanced reporting, coaching dashboards, and integrations. Enterprise pricing is available for larger deployments with SSO and dedicated support.
Does ActivTrak work for remote and hybrid teams?
ActivTrak is specifically designed for distributed work environments. The agent runs on Windows and Mac devices regardless of where the employee is located, and data is collected the same way whether someone is in an office or working from home. That’s one reason it became popular during the shift to remote work.
What’s the difference between ActivTrak and time tracking tools like Harvest or Toggl?
Time tracking tools like Harvest or Toggl rely on employees manually logging time against projects. ActivTrak is passive and automatic, recording what actually happens on the device without any input from the user. That makes the data more consistent and removes the compliance burden from employees, but it also means the data is application-level rather than project-level unless you configure integrations.
How does ActivTrak handle employee privacy?
ActivTrak gives administrators control over what data is collected and who can see it. You can configure the platform to collect aggregate data only, limit access to individual-level data to HR roles, and set policies around personal device use. Transparent communication with employees about what’s being tracked and why is generally recommended, both for trust and for legal reasons in certain jurisdictions.
Does ActivTrak integrate with other tools?
ActivTrak integrates with HR platforms and productivity tools including Slack, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365 for context enrichment. It also connects with Salesforce and other CRMs for sales productivity analysis. The API allows custom integrations for organizations that want to pipe workforce data into their own dashboards or data warehouses.