DeskTime Alternative: Why Teams Switch to Trackpilots in 2026

Why Teams Look for a DeskTime Alternative

DeskTime is a well-established time tracking and productivity tool with a loyal user base. For individual freelancers or very small teams, it works well. But as teams grow, three issues consistently drive them to look for alternatives:

• The free plan supports only 1 user. DeskTime's free tier — called DeskTime Lite — is explicitly designed for solo use. The moment you need to monitor a second employee, you are on a paid plan. For a 20-person team, that means $140/month minimum at the Pro rate before you have had a single day to evaluate whether the tool works for your use case.
• Screenshot monitoring requires Pro or Premium. Screenshots — one of the most important features for remote team management and client billing verification — are locked behind DeskTime's paid tiers. On the Lite plan, you get time tracking and basic app usage, but no visual evidence of what employees were working on.
• Pricing in USD with no India-market alternative. DeskTime prices in USD, which creates a meaningful cost difference for teams in India compared to locally-priced alternatives. At current exchange rates, DeskTime Pro at $7/user/month translates to approximately ₹580/user/month — significantly higher than the ₹399/user/month Trackpilots Starter Pack.

DeskTime vs Trackpilots: Full Feature Comparison

DeskTime's Strengths: Where It Still Leads

A fair comparison acknowledges what DeskTime does well. These are the areas where DeskTime has an edge over Trackpilots:

• Project and task time tracking: DeskTime Pro includes project-level time tracking with the ability to assign time to specific projects and generate client billing reports. Trackpilots focuses on employee monitoring and does not have project-level time allocation.
• Shift scheduling: DeskTime Premium includes a shift scheduling module. Trackpilots does not include scheduling — it is a monitoring and attendance platform, not a workforce scheduling tool.
• Offline time tracking: DeskTime can track time spent in meetings, phone calls, or offline tasks through its manual offline time entry feature. Trackpilots captures computer activity only.
• Integrations: DeskTime integrates with project management tools including Jira, Asana, Trello, and Basecamp. Trackpilots has a more focused integration set.

If your primary use case is client project billing with granular time allocation per task, DeskTime Pro may be the better fit despite the cost. If your primary use case is employee productivity monitoring, attendance tracking, and screenshot evidence, Trackpilots is the stronger tool — and significantly cheaper.

The Real Cost Difference: A 50-User Team Over 12 Months

Consider a team of 50 employees that needs screenshot monitoring and attendance tracking:

• DeskTime Lite: Blocked at 1 user — not a viable option for team monitoring
• DeskTime Pro at $7/user/month: $350/month × 12 = $4,200/year
• Trackpilots Free: $0/month × 12 = $0/year (includes screenshots every 20 min)
• Trackpilots Starter Pack at $3.99/user/month: $199.50/month × 12 = $2,394/year (includes 1-min screenshots + stealth mode)

Even the Trackpilots paid plan saves $1,806 per year over DeskTime Pro for a 50-person team. For a 200-person team, the difference is over $7,000 annually. For teams that can work within the free plan's feature set, the saving is $4,200/year against DeskTime Pro.

Who Should Stay on DeskTime

Trackpilots is not the right answer for everyone. Stay on DeskTime if:

• You need project-level time tracking for client invoicing — DeskTime's project time features are more mature
• You need shift scheduling integrated with your monitoring tool — DeskTime Premium covers this
• Your team is 1–2 people and DeskTime Lite covers your needs

How to Switch from DeskTime to Trackpilots in Under an Hour

1. Export your DeskTime data. Download your historical attendance and productivity reports from DeskTime in CSV format before deactivating accounts. Retain these for payroll and compliance purposes.
2. Create your Trackpilots account. Go to trackpilots.com/sign-up — no credit card required. Set up your organisation in under 5 minutes.
3. Invite your team. Send email invitations to all employees from the Trackpilots admin dashboard. Each employee receives an installation link with step-by-step instructions.
4. Install the desktop agent. The Trackpilots agent installs in under 5 minutes on Windows, macOS, or Linux. No IT expertise required.
5. Configure shift schedules and productivity categories. Set expected work hours and categorise your team's key applications as productive or non-productive. This takes 15–20 minutes for most teams.
6. Deactivate DeskTime accounts. Once Trackpilots is running and capturing data for all employees, cancel your DeskTime subscription from your billing settings.

Most teams complete the full switch in under an hour, including the time required to configure productivity categories and verify that all employees' agents are reporting correctly.

Conclusion

DeskTime is a capable tool for freelancers and small project-based teams. For businesses that need to monitor more than one employee — with screenshots, attendance tracking, and productivity dashboards — the 1-user free plan and $7/user pricing make DeskTime an expensive choice when a fully-featured alternative is available for free.

Trackpilots gives unlimited users everything they need for core employee monitoring at no cost. Start with the free plan, and upgrade to Starter Pack at $3.99/user/month only when you need 1-minute screenshots or stealth mode. try Trackpilots free — setup takes under 30 minutes.