Guides
Guides to time tracking and staff monitoring
The short answer
These guides answer the questions people ask before choosing a time tracker: which tools to shortlist, what they cost over years rather than months, and how to monitor staff fairly and lawfully. Every competitor price is sourced and dated, and every best-of list says where another tool is the better choice.
- 5
- best-of lists, each with a summary table and one card per tool
- 4
- how-to guides, each answering one question first
- 25 Sep 2026
- when every price in them was last checked
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Best-of lists
- Best monitoring software for small business — 8 tools ranked on cost for 5 to 15 staff, screenshots and fairness
- Time tracking software with screenshots — which plan includes screenshots, caps, blur and retention
- Lifetime time tracking software — the one-time payment options on sale, and the deals that have sold out
- Time tracker for virtual assistants — for businesses paying VAs by the hour, and for VAs tracking their own time
- Employee monitoring software in Australia — notice law, where data is stored, and US-dollar pricing
How-to guides
- Lifetime vs subscription cost — 10 trackers against one payment for 5, 15 and 50 staff over 1, 3 and 5 years
- How to track offshore staff hours — teams in the Philippines, India and Vietnam: notice, timezones, idle rules and pay
- Monitoring without keylogging — what to capture, what to think twice about and what to leave out
- Workplace surveillance notice in Australia — NSW and ACT 14-day notice, Victoria’s proposal and the other states, with sources
How we write these guides
- Answer first
- Each guide opens with a short answer to the question in its title, then the detail.
- Sourced numbers
- Every competitor price comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, or a named third-party source where the vendor hides prices, with the date it was checked.
- Honest rankings
- AirStaff ranks first on its own site, and every list says why and where another tool wins.
- Law, carefully
- Legal guides are general information, cite government sources inline, and leave out anything we could not check.
For head-to-head pages and pricing guides, see Compare. To run your own numbers, use the cost calculator, or see AirStaff pricing.
Sources
Each guide lists its own sources at the foot of the page, with a link for every competitor price and every legal point.
Questions people actually ask
Which guide should I read first if I am choosing a time tracker?
Start with the best-of list closest to your situation: small business, screenshots, virtual assistants or Australia. Then read lifetime vs subscription cost to see what each option costs over three to five years.
Are these guides biased towards AirStaff because AirStaff wrote them?
AirStaff ranks itself first on its own site, and every list says so. Every competitor price links to the vendor’s own page, and every list says where another tool is the better choice, including free plans and features AirStaff does not have.
Is the workplace surveillance notice guide legal advice?
No. It is general information that summarises government sources with a link to each, checked on the date shown. For advice on your own obligations, speak to an employment lawyer.
Do the guides cover Australian workplace surveillance law?
Yes, as general information. The workplace surveillance notice guide summarises the NSW and ACT notice rules, Victoria’s proposed reforms and the position in the other states, with a link to each government source. It is not legal advice.
How often are the prices in these guides checked?
They were last checked on 25 Sep 2026. The site’s build refuses to publish a page whose competitor prices are more than 120 days old.
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