Switching
How to switch from Hubstaff to AirStaff
An honest guide: what to keep, what does not carry over, and how to move a team without a gap in tracked time.
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The short answer
Switching from Hubstaff takes an afternoon plus any notice period your staff are owed. Export the Hubstaff history you need, buy the AirStaff tier that covers your team, have staff install the agent and accept the monitoring notice, run both for one pay period, then cancel Hubstaff at renewal. There is no automatic importer in version 1.
- 1 afternoon
- to buy, redeem a code and invite your team
- 14 days
- the NSW workplace-surveillance notice period, enforced before tracking starts
- $198
- AirStaff for 15 staff, once, against $1,800 a year on Hubstaff Team
Before you start
- What carries over
- Nothing automatically. AirStaff version 1 has no importer, so history stays in the exports you take from Hubstaff.
- What to export
- The timesheets, payroll reports and client reports you are required to keep, while your Hubstaff subscription is still active.
- What AirStaff will not replace
- GPS and job sites, mobile tracking, invoicing, payroll runs and third-party integrations beyond Slack webhooks and CSV export. If your team relies on those, stay on Hubstaff for them.
- Notice periods
- Staff must accept AirStaff’s monitoring notice before anything is recorded, and jurisdiction notice periods — 14 days in New South Wales, for example — run first. Start early.
The steps
Export from Hubstaff
Download the timesheets and reports you need to keep. Store them with your payroll records.
Buy the right tier
$99, $198, $297, $396 for 5, 15, 30, 50 staff seats, once. Your licence code is emailed the moment payment clears.
Create your company
Redeem the code at signup, choose your screenshot mode and idle threshold, and invite staff with a role and a team.
Staff install and accept
Each person installs the Windows or macOS agent, pastes the device token from their invite, and accepts the monitoring notice.
Run both for a pay period
Keep Hubstaff running for one pay period and compare the two sets of timesheets before you rely on AirStaff for payroll.
Cancel at renewal
Cancel Hubstaff at the end of your billing term. Check its terms for notice and refunds on annual plans.
What you stop paying
| Team size | Hubstaff · 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | AirStaff, once |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 staff | $600 | $1,800 | $3,000 | $99 Tier 1 |
| 15 staff | $1,800 | $5,400 | $9,000 | $198 Tier 2 |
| 50 staff | $6,000 | $18,000 | $30,000 | $396 Tier 4 |
Hubstaff Team at $10 per user per month is the plan with unlimited screenshots. On Starter at $4.99, screenshots are capped at 500 per user per month.
What your staff experience
Staff did not choose the tracker, so what they see matters as much as the price. On AirStaff:
- Nothing is recorded until they accept a monitoring notice, and notice periods such as the 14 days required in New South Wales run first.
- Keyboard and mouse activity is counted, never captured. There is no keystroke log.
- They can see which screenshot mode is on, and screenshots are deleted after 60 days by default.
- Their own “My data” view shows the same hours, screenshots and activity their manager sees, with a one-click download.
- Nothing is recorded while they are clocked out, and idle time is never counted as paid time.
Ask Hubstaff the same questions before you roll it out: what its agent captures, what staff can see about themselves, and how long screenshots are kept. The detail of AirStaff’s answers is on the privacy-first monitoring page.
When Hubstaff is the better choice
We would rather you buy the right tool than ask for a refund. Choose Hubstaff over AirStaff if any of these matter to you:
- GPS, geofences and job sites through its Locations add-on, for field and mobile staff.
- Client invoicing from Starter, and payroll on the Team plan.
- Project budgets from the Grow plan.
- Unlimited integrations on Team and Enterprise.
AirStaff version 1 covers desktop time tracking for remote and offshore office work on Windows and macOS, and it is honest about the edges.
Related comparisons
Sources and how we checked
Prices checked on each vendor’s own pricing page, in US dollars per user per month on annual billing unless stated. Plans and prices change — check the vendor’s page before you decide.
Hubstaff is a trademark of its owner. AirStaff is not affiliated with or endorsed by any company named on this page. No competitor logos or screenshots are used.
Questions people actually ask
Can I import my existing Hubstaff data into AirStaff?
Not automatically in version 1. AirStaff starts tracking from the day your team installs the agent. Historical timesheets exported from another tool can be kept alongside as CSV, but there is no migration importer yet.
How long does it take to move a team from Hubstaff to AirStaff?
Buying, redeeming the code and inviting staff takes an afternoon. Each person then installs the agent and accepts the monitoring notice, and any jurisdiction notice period, such as 14 days in New South Wales, has to run before tracking starts. Plan the switch around that.
Should I cancel Hubstaff before or after setting up AirStaff?
After. Run both for one pay period and compare the timesheets, then cancel Hubstaff at the end of your billing term. Check Hubstaff’s own terms for notice and refunds on annual plans.
Will my staff need to do anything different with AirStaff?
They install a small tray agent for Windows or macOS, paste the device token from their invite email, and accept a monitoring notice. They clock in and out from the tray, and they get a My data view showing the same records their manager sees.
What Hubstaff features will I lose by switching to AirStaff?
GPS, geofences and job sites, mobile tracking, invoicing, payroll runs, project budgets and most third-party integrations. AirStaff version 1 covers desktop time tracking, screenshots, activity, app and site usage, timesheets with approvals and the reports suite.
Is a lifetime licence riskier than paying for Hubstaff every month?
It is a fair question to ask any lifetime-deal vendor. A lifetime licence covers the product for as long as we commercially operate it, which the terms state plainly. AirStaff is built to run at under five cents per seat per month in infrastructure, so operating it does not depend on constant new revenue, and every organisation can export its own data at any time. Direct purchases also carry a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Ready when your renewal is.
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