If payroll software is the engine and HR software is the control panel, Hubstaff is the dashboard light that tells you what’s really happening once the work starts. It’s built for companies that want to know where time goes, how productive their teams are, what projects cost, and how tracked hours translate into invoices, budgets, and payments.
Hubstaff positions itself around time tracking, productivity monitoring, workforce analytics, and global payments, with integrations for tools like Wise, Deel, QuickBooks, Gusto, Jira, Asana, and PayPal. That’s exactly why Hubstaff can look surprisingly affordable at first glance. The entry price is low, the plans are public, and the structure feels simple.
But the real monthly number depends on how many seats you need, which plan unlocks the features your team actually wants, and whether you’ll need add-ons or more advanced controls. Hubstaff uses per-seat pricing, counts owners and managers as paid seats, and says the minimum number of seats billed is 2, except for its separate free one-seat option.
In other words, Hubstaff is easy to price on paper and a little more layered in practice. In this guide, we’ll break down Hubstaff’s plans, feature differences, and the rules that determine what teams actually pay.
Hubstaff Pricing Overview
Hubstaff’s pricing is built around per-seat billing, with a free plan for one person and paid plans that scale by features and team size. Its published pricing page shows Starter at $4.99 per seat/month, Grow at $7.50, Team at $10, and Enterprise at $25 when billed annually. The same page also notes a 2-seat minimum on paid plans. Hubstaff says subscriptions are available in monthly, quarterly, or annual billing packages.
Free
Hubstaff’s Free plan is intended for solo users who primarily need to track time and provide proof of work. According to Hubstaff’s support documentation, it includes time tracking, timesheets, activity levels, 100 screenshots per user per month, limited reports, limited clients and invoices, limited payments, and limited data retention. It supports one seat only, and Hubstaff says the organization can include the owner only under this plan.
This plan is useful when the goal is simple visibility rather than full team management. It gives freelancers and very small operators a place to start, but it is intentionally narrow.
Starter
The Starter plan is Hubstaff’s low-cost entry point for teams. Hubstaff lists it at $4.99 per seat/month on annual billing and describes it as a plan for basic time tracking and productivity tools for small teams.
Its support article says Starter includes time tracking, timesheets, activity levels, 500 screenshots per user per month, 500 app and URL records per user per month, 500 to-dos, limited payments, up to 5 clients, client invoices, two-factor authentication, and Help Center access.
The Starter plan makes Hubstaff feel accessible. It covers the essentials well, but it also makes the product’s philosophy clear: low entry price, tighter limits.
Grow
The Grow plan is when Hubstaff starts to feel more operational. Hubstaff lists it at $7.50 per seat/month on annual billing. The support docs say Grow includes everything in Starter plus scheduled reports, one integration, unlimited clients, idle timeout, project budgets, work breaks, expenses, 1,500 screenshots per user per month, and 1,500 app and URL records per user per month. Hubstaff also notes that Grow supports 1 integration.
This is the plan where Hubstaff begins to move from “time tracker” to “team operations tool.” For businesses that want better visibility into budgets, workflows, and reporting, Grow usually feels much closer to the real value point.
Team
The Team plan is priced at $10 per seat/month on annual billing. Hubstaff says this plan includes everything in Grow plus unlimited screenshots, unlimited app and URL tracking, unlimited integrations, Teams, payments and payroll features, overtime, time off and holidays, scheduling and attendance, client budgets, timesheet approvals, daily and weekly limits, and achievement badges. It also includes Hubstaff Tasks and a 3-month trial of Insights.
This is the tier where Hubstaff starts feeling fully built for managers, not just contributors. The monitoring limits disappear, the operational controls become much stronger, and the platform becomes much more useful for companies seeking reliable team-wide visibility.
Enterprise
Hubstaff’s Enterprise plan is listed at $25 per seat/month on an annual billing basis. According to Hubstaff, Enterprise includes everything in Team plus higher API limits, ACH payments, HIPAA compliance, SOC 2 Type II compliance, enterprise deployment, account provisioning, single sign-on, and SCIM user and group provisioning. The support article also says it includes add-ons like Hubstaff Tasks, Insights, Silent App, and Locations.
This plan is clearly aimed at companies that need stronger governance, security, deployment control, and compliance support. It is less about tracking time and more about turning Hubstaff into infrastructure for a larger organization.
What These Plans Mean in Practice
At a glance, Hubstaff’s pricing is easy to follow: the higher the plan, the more visibility, automation, and control you unlock. The real dividing line is not just price; it is how much detail your team wants, how many seats you need to pay for, and whether lower-tier limits will get in the way.
Hubstaff’s support docs make that especially clear by showing that Starter and Grow have screenshot and app/URL caps, while Team removes those limits and adds much deeper operational features.
That’s what makes Hubstaff interesting. It can be a lightweight tracker, a productivity-monitoring tool, or a broader workforce management system, depending on the plan you choose. The price only tells part of the story; the seat rules and feature limits tell the rest.
Costs and Billing Rules That Can Raise Your Hubstaff Total
Hubstaff’s pricing seems simple at first glance, given the seat rate. The part that changes the real monthly number is everything around it: who counts as a paid seat, the minimum seat requirement, how plan changes are billed, and whether your team needs features that only unlock at higher tiers.
Hubstaff says it uses per-seat pricing, bills on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis, and charges add-ons once their trial periods expire.
Seat count matters more than active tracking
One of the biggest pricing details is that Hubstaff not only charges for people actively running the timer. According to Hubstaff, everyone counts as a paid seat except Project Viewers. That includes owners, managers, inactive members, and people with tracking disabled. Hubstaff also says the minimum number of seats billed on paid plans is 2, which means even a very small team can end up paying more than the headline “per seat” number suggests.
That makes Hubstaff different from tools where billing closely follows active usage. A team might think it only needs to pay for trackers, then realize that supervisors, admins, and non-tracking members still affect the bill unless they fit the Project Viewer role.
Monthly plans are less flexible when seats change
Hubstaff’s monthly billing rules are another detail to watch closely. It says that when you add a member to a monthly plan, that seat is charged at the full monthly rate for the entire billing cycle, with no proration. If you remove someone, Hubstaff says the seat remains open for the rest of the cycle, but there are no prorated refunds or credits for removed users.
This matters for teams that hire quickly, restructure often, or rotate contractors in and out. On paper, the price per seat stays low. In practice, seat movement on a monthly plan can make the bill feel less forgiving than expected.
Annual and quarterly billing are smoother, but not fully reversible
Hubstaff’s annual and quarterly billing rules are a little kinder when you add seats. The company says added seats are billed on a prorated basis for the remainder of the billing period. But if you remove users, Hubstaff still does not issue prorated refunds or credits. Instead, those seats stay open and are removed when the next billing cycle begins.
That means longer billing cycles can help when a team is growing, but they do not eliminate the need to model headcount carefully. Once seats are added, the pricing becomes more predictable than flexible.
Lower tiers can look affordable until feature limits show up
Hubstaff’s entry pricing is appealing, but the lower plans come with meaningful limits. Its support documentation says Starter includes 500 screenshots, 500 app and URL records, 500 to-dos, up to 5 clients, and limited payments. Grow raises those caps to 1,500 screenshots and 1,500 app and URL records, and adds project budgets, expenses, scheduled reports, and one integration, while Team removes many of those limits and adds broader management features such as timesheet approvals, scheduling, attendance, time off, holidays, overtime, and unlimited integrations.
That creates a common pricing pattern: a company starts on Starter because the seat rate looks inexpensive, then moves to Grow or Team once it needs more clients, more reporting, more integrations, or more detailed operational control. The upgrade path is clear, but it can make the real Hubstaff cost higher than the initial plan choice suggests.
Disabled tracking does not lower the bill
Hubstaff’s support center is very explicit here: disabling tracking for a team member does not affect billing. Those members still count as paid seats unless they are assigned the Project Viewer role. That means you cannot lower the monthly total simply by turning off tracking for someone who no longer needs the timer.
What this means for your budget
The biggest takeaway is that Hubstaff’s true cost is shaped as much by billing rules as by plan price. The seat rate matters, but so do the 2-seat minimum, full-price monthly seat additions, no prorated refunds for removed users, and the fact that managers and non-tracking members still count toward billing. Once you add feature limits into the picture, Hubstaff becomes less about “What does this plan cost?” and more about “How many people and how much visibility do we really need?”
What You’d Really Pay Using Hubstaff
The easiest way to understand Hubstaff’s pricing is to stop looking at the plan name and start looking at the seat count. Hubstaff’s published paid tiers currently show Starter at $4.99 per seat/month, Grow at $7.50, Team at $10, and Enterprise at $25, and the platform bills per seat, not just per active timer user. Hubstaff also says the minimum number of paid seats is 2 on paid plans.
For these examples, it makes the most sense to use Hubstaff’s published annual per-seat rates as the baseline. The final number can still change depending on billing cadence, add-ons, or seat changes during the cycle.
Scenario 1: A tiny team on Starter
Let’s say you have 2 paid seats on Starter, which is effectively the floor for a paid Hubstaff setup. At $4.99 per seat/month, the monthly total comes to:
2 × $4.99 = $9.98/month
That’s a low entry point, but it still matters that Hubstaff requires a minimum of 2 paid seats. A very small team may expect to pay for only one person and still end up above that number.
Scenario 2: A 5-seat team on Starter
For a 5-seat team on Starter, the monthly total would be:
5 × $4.99 = $24.95/month
That looks affordable, and for teams that only need basic tracking, it may be enough. But Starter also comes with limits like 500 screenshots per user per month, 500 app and URL records per user per month, 500 to-dos, up to 5 clients, and limited payments, so the low price makes the most sense when those caps are still workable.
Scenario 3: A 12-seat team on Grow
Now imagine a 12-seat team on Grow, which Hubstaff prices at $7.50 per seat/month. That gives you:
12 × $7.50 = $90/month
This is often where Hubstaff starts feeling more practical for growing teams, because Grow adds scheduled reports, project budgets, expenses, unlimited clients, one integration, and higher screenshot and app/URL limits.
Scenario 4: A 20-seat team on Team
For a 20-seat team on Team, using the published $10 per seat/month rate, the total would be:
20 × $10 = $200/month
This is a good example of where Hubstaff moves from “simple tracker” to “management system.” Team adds unlimited screenshots, unlimited app and URL tracking, unlimited integrations, payments, and payroll features, time off, holidays, scheduling, attendance, and timesheet approvals.
Scenario 5: A 40-seat team on Enterprise
If a company needs stronger compliance and enterprise controls, Enterprise is priced at $25 per seat/month. For 40 seats, that becomes:
40 × $25 = $1,000/month
At that point, the conversation is much less about time tracking alone and much more about governance, security, deployment, and enterprise administration. Hubstaff positions Enterprise around features like SSO, SCIM provisioning, higher API limits, ACH, HIPAA compliance, and SOC 2 Type II compliance.
Scenario 6: When managers and non-trackers count too
This is where Hubstaff’s real pricing gets more interesting. Say you have a 10-person working team on Grow, plus 2 managers who do not track time. Hubstaff says owners and managers always count as paid seats, and members with tracking disabled still count too, unless they are Project Viewers. That means the bill is based on 12 seats, not just the 10 people running the timer:
12 × $7.50 = $90/month
That kind of setup is one of the clearest examples of why Hubstaff’s real cost is shaped by seat rules, not just feature tiers.
Scenario 7: A small team that outgrows Starter fast
A company might begin with 6 seats on Starter and expect a low monthly cost:
6 × $4.99 = $29.94/month
But if that same team needs more than 5 clients, scheduled reports, project budgets, or an integration, it likely has to move to Grow. At that point, the same 6-seat team becomes:
6 × $7.50 = $45/month
That is still reasonable, but it shows how quickly Hubstaff’s “starting at” price can stop being the most relevant number.
What these examples show
Hubstaff can be very affordable for small teams, but the real monthly total depends on how many seats you are truly paying for, whether managers and non-trackers are included, and whether lower-tier feature limits still fit the way your team works.
The cheapest plan may look great at first, but for many teams, the more realistic pricing conversation starts at Grow or Team, where the limits ease up, and operational visibility gets much stronger.
Advantages of Using Hubstaff
Public pricing makes it easy to benchmark
One of Hubstaff’s strongest selling points is that the pricing is public and easy to understand. The company lists Starter, Grow, Team, and Enterprise plans on its pricing page, and its support docs spell out what changes from one tier to the next. That makes it easier for teams to compare Hubstaff against other tracking tools before getting pulled into a demo-heavy buying process.
It has a genuinely accessible entry point
Hubstaff also has a low barrier to entry. It offers a free one-seat plan for solo users and lower-cost paid tiers for teams that mainly need core tracking and proof-of-work tools. For companies that want to start small and get visibility quickly, this makes Hubstaff easier to adopt than broader workforce platforms that begin with heavier pricing or a more complex setup.
The upgrade path is clear
Another big advantage is that the product ladder makes sense. Starter covers basic time tracking, screenshots, app and URL activity, and invoices. Grow adds scheduled reports, project budgets, expenses, unlimited clients, and one integration.
Team removes major tracking limits and adds unlimited integrations, payments, and payroll features, time off, holidays, scheduling, attendance, timesheet approvals, and overtime. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, ACH, and enterprise deployment. It is easy to see how a company can grow into the platform rather than replace it.
It works well for remote and distributed teams
Hubstaff is especially well-suited to remote, hybrid, and outsourced teams because so much of the platform is built around visibility without constant check-ins. The product pages focus on screenshots, activity levels, idle time, app and URL usage, attendance, time off tracking, and workforce analytics. For managers trying to understand how time is spent across a distributed team, that kind of visibility can be very useful.
Team and Enterprise unlock real operational control
A lot of tracking tools stay tactical. Hubstaff goes further once you reach Team and Enterprise. Team adds stronger workflow control with features like timesheet approvals, scheduling and attendance, daily and weekly limits, overtime, client budgets, and payments and payroll tools.
Enterprise layers on the security and deployment features larger organizations usually need, including single sign-on, SCIM user and group provisioning, higher API limits, HIPAA compliance, and SOC 2 Type II compliance.
It connects tracked time to money
This is one of Hubstaff’s more practical strengths. The platform is not just about watching activity. Hubstaff explicitly ties tracked work to project cost budgeting, invoicing and billing, overtime tracking, payments, and payroll-related workflows. That makes it useful for agencies, consulting teams, outsourced operations, and other businesses where time data needs to lead directly into budgeting or billing decisions.
Disadvantages of Using Hubstaff
The cheapest plan can feel restrictive pretty quickly
Starter is affordable, but it comes with tight limits. Hubstaff says Starter includes only 500 screenshots per user per month, 500 app and URL records per user per month, 500 to-dos, 5 clients, and limited payments. Grow loosens some of that, but it still caps screenshots and app/URL tracking at 1,500 per user per month and supports only 1 integration. For teams that want fuller visibility or more flexibility, the lower tiers can start to feel small fast.
Some of the more useful operational features are locked behind Team
If a company wants payments and payroll, timesheet approvals, scheduling, and attendance, time off and holidays, overtime, or unlimited integrations, Hubstaff places those features in Team rather than Starter or Grow.
Its support docs also state that Free, Starter, and Grow do not have the option to add payroll and use the send payments function. That means a plan that looks affordable at first may not actually fit how the team works.
The free plan is really only for very light solo use
Hubstaff’s free plan is intentionally narrow. It is for one seat only, and Hubstaff says it includes limited screenshots, reports, clients, invoices, payments, and data retention. That makes it useful as a starting point for a solo freelancer, but not much more than that.
Serious compliance and enterprise controls come with a big jump
Enterprise adds valuable features like HIPAA compliance, SOC 2 Type II compliance, single sign-on, SCIM user and group provisioning, ACH, and enterprise deployment. Those are strong features, but they also sit at the top end of Hubstaff’s pricing ladder. For companies that need governance and compliance rather than just tracking, the budget conversation changes significantly once Enterprise enters the picture.
Add-ons can make the “starting at” price less representative
Hubstaff’s support docs explicitly mention add-ons, and the pricing page is framed around choosing the right tier plus any extras your team may need. That is not unusual for workforce software, but it does mean the lowest published price is often more of an entry point than a realistic long-term number for growing teams.
The Takeaway
Hubstaff is a solid fit for companies that want time tracking, visibility into productivity, and greater control over how work is measured across a team. Its pricing is relatively easy to benchmark because Hubstaff publishes its plans publicly, charges per seat, and makes it clear that paid plans start with a 2-seat minimum.
That said, the real monthly cost depends on more than the entry price. It grows with seat count, plan tier, and whether managers or non-tracking members also need access.
That makes Hubstaff most useful once you already have the team in place and need better visibility into hours, activity, approvals, attendance, and workflows. But if your bigger challenge is still finding the right people, tracking software only solves the second half of the problem.
That’s where South is the better fit. We help companies build high-performing remote teams in Latin America, focusing on transparent pricing, pre-vetted talent, faster hiring, and support across hiring options and salary ranges. Companies only pay if they find the right candidate.
If you’re not just trying to track work, but actually build a stronger remote team, we can help you hire top LATAM talent with clear pricing and hands-on support.
Book a free call with South and explore what your next hire could look like!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How much does Hubstaff cost per month?
Hubstaff’s current published annual pricing starts at $4.99 per seat/month for Starter, $7.50 for Grow, $10 for Team, and $25 for Enterprise. The pricing page also notes a 2-seat minimum on paid plans.
Does Hubstaff charge per user?
Yes. Hubstaff uses per-seat pricing and says everyone counts as a paid seat except Project Viewers. That includes owners, managers, inactive members, and users with tracking disabled.
Is Hubstaff free?
Hubstaff offers a free one-seat plan for individual freelancers, and it also provides a free 14-day trial with no credit card required. The free plan includes time tracking, timesheets, activity levels, and limited screenshots, reports, clients, invoices, payments, and data retention.
What’s included in Hubstaff Starter vs. Grow vs. Team?
Starter includes core tracking features like timesheets, activity levels, limited screenshots, limited app and URL tracking, limited clients, and invoices. Grow adds scheduled reports, project budgets, expenses, unlimited clients, and one integration. Team adds unlimited screenshots, unlimited app and URL tracking, unlimited integrations, payments, and payroll features, overtime, time off, scheduling, attendance, and timesheet approvals.
Does Hubstaff have payroll?
Hubstaff includes payments and payroll features in the Team plan, and its support docs state that Free, Starter, and Grow do not include the option to add payroll or use the send payments function. Hubstaff also positions the platform around turning tracked hours into project costs, invoices, and payments.
Does Hubstaff charge for managers or non-tracking users?
Yes. Hubstaff says owners and managers always count as paid seats, and members with tracking disabled still count too, unless they are assigned the Project Viewer role.
What happens if you add or remove seats mid-cycle?
On monthly plans, Hubstaff says adding a member mid-cycle is not prorated, so you pay the full monthly amount for that seat. On quarterly and annual plans, added seats are prorated for the remaining period. When members are removed, Hubstaff says there are no refunds or credits, though the paid seat can be reassigned during that billing period.
Does Hubstaff offer add-ons?
Yes. Hubstaff says it offers add-ons for lower-tier plans and that these are automatically included in higher-tier plans. Its support docs also note that add-ons are charged once their trial periods expire.
Is Hubstaff good for remote teams?
Hubstaff is clearly built with remote, hybrid, and distributed teams in mind. Its product pages emphasize time tracking, productivity monitoring, workforce analytics, attendance, time off, project budgets, and integrations with tools like Jira, Slack, Wise, Deel, Asana, QuickBooks, PayPal, and Gusto.
