How to Choose Employee Monitoring Software: Alternatives and Criteria

Products in this category look identical at first: an agent goes on the computer, data is collected, reports come out. In practice they do four different jobs, and buying the best product in the wrong category is worse than buying an average one in the right category.

Four centres of gravity

1. Time tracking and payments. The hour is the unit: who worked how long, what gets invoiced. Fits contractor and agency models.

2. Workforce analytics. Behaviour is the unit: where the team’s time goes, which tools are used, where capacity is stuck. Built to produce management decisions.

3. Security and insider risk. Risk is the unit: where data went, who copied what. Productivity is a by-product here.

4. Time and attendance. Timekeeping is the unit. Often covered by free tiers.

Berqun sits in the second category, on the productivity measurement side, and its shift and timekeeping features cover part of the fourth.

The main global alternatives

The descriptions below are taken from each product’s own website on 18 August 2026. They are the vendors’ own positioning, not our characterisation.

Regional vendors are deliberately not listed; this comparison covers global players only.

Decision criteria

Questions for the demo call. The answers sort the category and the fit for you.

1. What does it collect by default?

The most important and least-asked question. Some products ship with screenshots — occasionally screen video — enabled out of the box. That works against you in the Article 5(1)(c) minimisation test: could the same purpose be met with less data? “Yes, but we never changed the default” is not a defensible answer.

Ask: if I change no settings after install, what is collected?

2. Which features can be switched off?

A feature that cannot be disabled has to appear in your privacy notice even if you never use it. Screenshots, keystroke capture and live screen viewing should each be independently switchable.

Ask: can screenshots be disabled completely, or only reduced?

3. Is keystroke content recorded?

The distinction between typing volume and content is legally decisive. Content capture sweeps in passwords and private messages, engaging ECHR Article 8 on correspondence and national confidentiality-of-communications law.

Ask: is the text itself recorded under any configuration?

4. Can monitoring be bounded to working hours?

For remote and hybrid teams this alone is an elimination criterion. Data collected outside the work schedule cannot be justified by a work purpose.

Ask: does the agent stop entirely outside the shift calendar?

5. Where is the data stored, and who can reach it?

Get this in writing before signing: hosting region, sub-processors, the transfer mechanism if data leaves the region, retention period, access logging.

Ask: which country is the data physically in, and what is the sub-processor list?

6. Does an automated score turn into a decision?

Relevant to every product that produces a productivity score. Article 22 gives employees the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing where those decisions significantly affect them, and Articles 13(2)(f) and 15(1)(h) require the logic to be explainable.

Ask: can I show an employee what their score is made of?

7. Staff who are not at a computer

No software solves this. If part of your team is in production, field or retail work, you need separate time-clock hardware.

8. Language and support

If HR will run the rollout and the notification process, interface and support language matters more than it looks on a feature grid.

How Berqun answers those criteria

For contractual detail such as hosting region and the sub-processor list, ask our sales team in writing — and put the same question to every vendor on your list.

When Berqun is the wrong choice

Writing this may look odd on a vendor’s own site, but the wrong customer wastes both sides’ time.

• Most of your staff are not at a computer — software-based measurement will not reach them; you need time-clock hardware.
• Your real problem is data exfiltration and insider threat — security-led products such as Teramind are built for that, and treat productivity as a by-product.
• You pay contractors by the hour — a time tracker with payments and invoicing built in answers that more directly.
• You only need timekeeping — free time and attendance tools are sufficient.

If your question is “where does my team’s time go, and how do I measure that compliantly”, that is exactly what Berqun was built for.

Competitor descriptions were taken from each company’s own official website on 18 August 2026. Products change their features and positioning; verify current details with the vendor before making a purchase decision.