A Hubstaff alternative without screenshots

Hubstaff is popular with agencies for a good reason. Some clients paying remote contractors want proof of work, and Hubstaff gives them screenshots, activity levels and hours. The cost can be the team's trust.

Tengu's Studio plan keeps what agencies actually use Hubstaff for, hours a client will accept and a payroll number at the end of the period, and leaves out the surveillance.

Who this is for

• Remote agencies of 10 to 60 people with many contractors, often paid twice a month.
• Founders and COOs who pay for Hubstaff mainly to get timesheets and a payroll export.
• Teams whose clients have never asked to see a screenshot.

If a client contract requires screenshots, keep Hubstaff for the people on that contract. More on that below.

Hubstaff and Tengu side by side

List prices, October 2026, per user (Hubstaff) or per seat (Tengu) per month, billed annually.

On price alone, Hubstaff's Starter, Grow and Team plans cost less per head than Studio. For a 25-person agency, Hubstaff Team is about $250 a month and Studio is about $300 for 25 seats. The difference buys the quest board, the review queue and the Claude Code loop. While your lists stay in ClickUp, the ClickUp seats of the people on them stay too.

Where Hubstaff is better

• Proof-of-work screenshots. Some clients write them into the contract. Tengu will never take screenshots, so Hubstaff is the right tool for those engagements.
• Price per head for time alone. If all you need is a timer, Hubstaff's lower plans cost less than Studio.

Where Tengu is different

Time lives on the work

Each member has one timer, started from a quest. It lives on the server, so a closed laptop loses nothing. Starting it moves the quest to its list's Started status.

The week gets reviewed, not watched

Members review and submit their week; entries lock on submit. Edits need a reason and every change is logged. Timers past 10 hours are flagged. An admin approves each week or sends it back with a note. Pay periods (1st to 15th, 16th to the end, or monthly) roll up approved weeks, and the payroll export gives you two CSVs per period: per person, and per person and project.

Budgets that stop the work, not the person

Set a monthly budget per client or project. At 75% and 90%, the people on the project get a warning that shows only the percentage. At 100%, timers on the project stop and the project shows as paused, naming the project lead. An admin extends it in one click. Owners and admins also get budget alerts and a Monday brief as Slack DMs: percentages, dates, counts and names, never dollars.

Who sees what

Members see their own hours, rate and pay, and nobody else's. Admins see timesheets, payroll and the Capacity Hub. Operations manages lists and settings but never sees money.

Evidence clients can use

A finished quest with its time entries, status history, approved timesheet and, when the repo is linked, a QA run with screenshots of the feature itself. That shows what was built, not just that someone was at a computer.

How to move

1. Start one project team on Tengu at a pay period boundary, so that period is paid from one tool only. Everyone else keeps tracking in Hubstaff for now.
2. Run one full period, compare the payroll export with what Hubstaff would have paid, then move the next group.
3. Keep Hubstaff for anyone whose client contract needs screenshots, and move everyone else.
4. Export, then cancel. Before you cancel, export Hubstaff's timesheet and payroll reports for past periods and keep them with your records: Tengu starts from the day each person moves.

What Tengu doesn't have yet

A mobile app, invoicing, custom fields of its own, docs, whiteboards and forms. Screenshots and activity tracking are not on that list: Tengu will never have them.