EU-hosted7 sub-processorschecked 12 August 2026

TimerOS vs Hubstaff: no screenshots, and a client portal from €8

No screenshots and no keystroke logging exist in the product, so there is nothing for your team to agree to. For €8 a month: projects, invoicing and a branded client portal; tracking is on Windows today, macOS in development.

  • No screenshots, no keystroke logging
  • EU-hosted · 7 sub-processors
  • Client portal at your own address
  • Hours become invoices, from €8

TimerOS is Vezoft’s flagship product. Every Hubstaff fact below was read off the company’s own pages on 12 August 2026 and links to its source.

Automatic tracking runs in the Windows app; the macOS build is in development. Everything else runs in the browser.

14 days with the full plan, nothing cut. The card is saved at signup and nothing is charged if you cancel before the end. After that, from €8 a month for one person or €15 per user, billed annually. Full pricing.

For freelancers and for teams of two to fifty. Larger organisations run on Enterprise.

Stay on Hubstaff if
  • Budget is the binding constraint: Starter is $4.99 per seat / month on annual billing, against our €8 for one seat and €15 per user for a team. Starter carries a two-seat minimum, so on one person the two are close. From three people up it is a different bracket, and these are dollars against euros, not converted. src
  • You need tracking off Windows today. Hubstaff’s pricing page lists a “Multi platform timer app” on every plan. src Our macOS build is in development.
  • Integrations decide it: its pricing page lists one on Grow and unlimited on Team, where ours are on Enterprise and not shipped. src
Switch to TimerOS if
  • You want your team to accept it. No screenshots and no keystroke logging exist in the product at all, and the timer sits in a bar they can see all day.
  • You bill clients and want them to see something that looks like a company: a branded portal at your own address with their projects, approvals, tickets, invoices and chat, from the €8 Freelancer tier, with no seat or licence billed for the client.
  • A client’s procurement asks where their data is processed and you want a short answer: databases, application compute and uploaded files in the EU on every plan, an EU contracting entity, and seven sub-processors published for them to read.
EU vs US
Default storage location

where each stores by default. Ours: databases, application compute and uploaded files, on every plan. Hubstaff “retains customer data in the United States”. src

Windows today
Where tracking runs

is where TimerOS tracking runs; the macOS build is in development. Hubstaff’s pricing page lists a “Multi platform timer app”. src

7 vs 34
Published sub-processors

sub-processors on each company’s published list. ours theirs

Neither the location nor the count is a verdict on anyone’s security. Both companies publish a sub-processor list, both carry SCCs, and both can sit inside a lawful GDPR setup. What differs is the default and the paperwork it generates. Every figure here is sourced in the rows below.

What you get with TimerOS

A timer the person can see

The timer sits in a bar the tracked person sees all day. Screenshots and keystroke logging do not exist in the product, so there is nothing to switch off or review. download

Data in the EU, a contract with an EU company

Databases in Frankfurt and Ireland, application compute in Frankfurt, files in Cloudflare R2 under the EU jurisdiction restriction, 7 published sub-processors. Your contract is with Vezoft in Bulgaria, under EU law. our list

A client portal at your own address

Your client signs in at your-slug.timeros.ai and sees their projects, approvals, support requests, invoices, chat and whiteboard. A client takes no seat and pays nothing. features

From hours to invoice, without an export

Hours attach to a project with a budget and become an invoice in the same workspace. Nothing is exported to another tool. Pricing starts at €8 a month. our pricing

What we do not have: tracking off Windows, integrations beyond the AI assistant connector, a SOC 2 report or a free plan — see “Where Hubstaff is the better choice”.

01The product

Your team’s workspace, and your client’s

One subscription runs both. Your client signs in at your own branded address and sees their side of the same job, with no seat, no licence and nothing to install.

What the person being tracked sees all day: a bar that stays on top, showing the state it is recording and the running total. Nothing is hidden from them — there is no silent mode, and no screenshots to review afterwards.

About a minute, from signing in to a tracked day. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Watch on YouTube.

Your team desktop app + web

The workspace your team works in, live and clickable. Shown here as the Windows desktop app, which is where tracking runs; the web app at app.timeros.ai is the same workspace without it.

Your client your-slug.timeros.ai

The same work from the client’s side: their projects, their invoices, their tickets. Included from the €8 Freelancer tier up.

The client’s side, at your own address. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Watch on YouTube.

02Comparison

Head to head

12 rows, each one sourced, so you can check all of it without taking our word for anything. Where a fact could not be established from Hubstaff’s own documentation the cell says so instead of guessing, including where the gap is ours.

TimerOS
Hubstaff
What you can actually do with itThe work between tracking an hour and getting paid for it. We chose these rows, so they favour us.
Project management
Projects, tasks, budgets and a whiteboard the client approves work on. From the Freelancer tier up. features
Project management
“Project budgets” from Grow; “Tasks / To-dos” capped at 500 on Starter and 1,500 on Grow, unlimited on Team. src
Client portal
A branded client portal at your own address (your-slug.timeros.ai): projects, approvals, tickets, invoices and chat, with no seat billed for the client. Every tier. features
Client portal
Its pricing page lists “Clients” (5 on Starter, included above) and “Client invoices”, but no client-login row. src Its help centre does document giving a client access: you may add clients and assign them a “Project viewer” role. help centre
Invoicing
Invoices raised from tracked hours in the same workspace, on every tier. Full P&L including payroll is Enterprise. our pricing
Invoicing
“Client invoices” on all four plans; “Team invoices” on Team and Enterprise only. src
Support desk for your clients
Support tickets and incident war rooms your client can be brought into, on every tier. features
Support desk for your clients
Not stated on the pages checked: the pricing page’s “Support” section covers Hubstaff’s own support to you: help center, chat support, email SLA. Not a helpdesk you operate. src
Integrations
None shipped. Integrations are listed on Enterprise but are not built yet. roadmap
Integrations
One integration on Grow, unlimited on Team and Enterprise. src
What it does to the people using itWhat is recorded, and what your team has to agree to.
Where tracking runs
Windows 10 and 11 today, as a desktop app, with the timer visible in a bar the tracked person can see at all times; the macOS build is in development. Projects, invoicing, approvals and everything else run in a browser at app.timeros.ai, and your clients sign in separately at your own branded portal address. download
Where tracking runs
Its pricing page lists a “Multi platform timer app” on every plan, and location tracking on mobile as a paid add-on. src
Screenshots
None. The feature is not built, so there is nothing to switch off. The Windows app reads the active window title, application name and browser host in memory to classify the time; what reaches the server is the label, its confidence and hours per day. If you correct a classification, that app and title are saved on your own machine.
Screenshots
On every plan: 500 per seat per month on Starter, 1,500 on Grow, unlimited on Team and Enterprise. src Can be switched off: “You can disable screenshot capture across an entire organization, or for specific users only”, by an Owner or Manager. src
Keystroke logging
None.
Keystroke logging
“it never logs keystrokes or records video or webcam footage”. src
What it costsEntry price, and what happens when the trial ends.
Entry price
  • Freelancer €8 / month billed annually, €10 month to month. One seat.
  • Startup €15 per user / month billed annually, €18 monthly. Up to 50 seats.
  • Enterprise is early access and not self-serve.
  • No free tier. The 14-day trial takes a card at signup. Nothing is charged if you cancel. our pricing
Entry price
  • Starter $4.99 per seat / month billed annually, $7 monthly, with a two-seat minimum.
  • Grow $7.50 / $9.
  • Team $10 / $12.
  • Enterprise $25, annual only.
  • Free 14-day trial, no card required. src
Where your data livesThe part your client’s procurement team asks about.
Where data lives, and on whose infrastructure
EU. Databases on MongoDB Atlas pinned to AWS eu-central-1 (Frankfurt) and eu-west-1 (Ireland); application compute on Render in Frankfurt; uploaded files in Cloudflare R2 created with the EU jurisdiction restriction. our list
Where data lives, and on whose infrastructure
United States. “Hubstaff retains customer data in the United States.” src Amazon Web Services is listed as “Infrastructure Hosting”, jurisdiction US, and Cloudflare for hosting and content delivery, jurisdiction Global. src
EU region option
Default on every plan. There is no region toggle, because there is no other region.
EU region option
Not stated on the pages checked: the data-transfer page, the privacy policy and the trust centre state US retention and name no regional alternative. src
Sub-processors
Seven. Two are EU companies processing EU-to-EU (Lettermint B.V. and Zoho Corporation B.V., both Netherlands). Stripe and Google LLC involve US processing; Google only for Play distribution and push on the Android build. our list
Sub-processors
34 listed. Every entry shows jurisdiction US except Cloudflare (Global) and four with no jurisdiction shown. The list includes OpenAI and Anthropic under “AI Services”. src
What you can actually do with itThe work between tracking an hour and getting paid for it. We chose these rows, so they favour us.5
Project management
TimerOS
Projects, tasks, budgets and a whiteboard the client approves work on. From the Freelancer tier up. features
Hubstaff
“Project budgets” from Grow; “Tasks / To-dos” capped at 500 on Starter and 1,500 on Grow, unlimited on Team. src
Client portal
TimerOS
A branded client portal at your own address (your-slug.timeros.ai): projects, approvals, tickets, invoices and chat, with no seat billed for the client. Every tier. features
Hubstaff
Its pricing page lists “Clients” (5 on Starter, included above) and “Client invoices”, but no client-login row. src Its help centre does document giving a client access: you may add clients and assign them a “Project viewer” role. help centre
Invoicing
TimerOS
Invoices raised from tracked hours in the same workspace, on every tier. Full P&L including payroll is Enterprise. our pricing
Hubstaff
“Client invoices” on all four plans; “Team invoices” on Team and Enterprise only. src
Support desk for your clients
TimerOS
Support tickets and incident war rooms your client can be brought into, on every tier. features
Hubstaff
Not stated on the pages checked: the pricing page’s “Support” section covers Hubstaff’s own support to you: help center, chat support, email SLA. Not a helpdesk you operate. src
Integrations
TimerOS
None shipped. Integrations are listed on Enterprise but are not built yet. roadmap
Hubstaff
One integration on Grow, unlimited on Team and Enterprise. src
What it does to the people using itWhat is recorded, and what your team has to agree to.3
Where tracking runs
TimerOS
Windows 10 and 11 today, as a desktop app, with the timer visible in a bar the tracked person can see at all times; the macOS build is in development. Projects, invoicing, approvals and everything else run in a browser at app.timeros.ai, and your clients sign in separately at your own branded portal address. download
Hubstaff
Its pricing page lists a “Multi platform timer app” on every plan, and location tracking on mobile as a paid add-on. src
Screenshots
TimerOS
None. The feature is not built, so there is nothing to switch off. The Windows app reads the active window title, application name and browser host in memory to classify the time; what reaches the server is the label, its confidence and hours per day. If you correct a classification, that app and title are saved on your own machine.
Hubstaff
On every plan: 500 per seat per month on Starter, 1,500 on Grow, unlimited on Team and Enterprise. src Can be switched off: “You can disable screenshot capture across an entire organization, or for specific users only”, by an Owner or Manager. src
Keystroke logging
TimerOS
None.
Hubstaff
“it never logs keystrokes or records video or webcam footage”. src
What it costsEntry price, and what happens when the trial ends.1
Entry price
TimerOS
  • Freelancer €8 / month billed annually, €10 month to month. One seat.
  • Startup €15 per user / month billed annually, €18 monthly. Up to 50 seats.
  • Enterprise is early access and not self-serve.
  • No free tier. The 14-day trial takes a card at signup. Nothing is charged if you cancel. our pricing
Hubstaff
  • Starter $4.99 per seat / month billed annually, $7 monthly, with a two-seat minimum.
  • Grow $7.50 / $9.
  • Team $10 / $12.
  • Enterprise $25, annual only.
  • Free 14-day trial, no card required. src
Where your data livesThe part your client’s procurement team asks about.3
Where data lives, and on whose infrastructure
TimerOS
EU. Databases on MongoDB Atlas pinned to AWS eu-central-1 (Frankfurt) and eu-west-1 (Ireland); application compute on Render in Frankfurt; uploaded files in Cloudflare R2 created with the EU jurisdiction restriction. our list
Hubstaff
United States. “Hubstaff retains customer data in the United States.” src Amazon Web Services is listed as “Infrastructure Hosting”, jurisdiction US, and Cloudflare for hosting and content delivery, jurisdiction Global. src
EU region option
TimerOS
Default on every plan. There is no region toggle, because there is no other region.
Hubstaff
Not stated on the pages checked: the data-transfer page, the privacy policy and the trust centre state US retention and name no regional alternative. src
Sub-processors
TimerOS
Seven. Two are EU companies processing EU-to-EU (Lettermint B.V. and Zoho Corporation B.V., both Netherlands). Stripe and Google LLC involve US processing; Google only for Play distribution and push on the Android build. our list
Hubstaff
34 listed. Every entry shows jurisdiction US except Cloudflare (Global) and four with no jurisdiction shown. The list includes OpenAI and Anthropic under “AI Services”. src
03Hosting

What the hosting difference actually changes

hubstaff.com/data-transfer-compliance

On its data-transfer page, Hubstaff says:

Hubstaff retains customer data in the United States.
Read it on Hubstaff’s sitechecked 12 August 2026
Where TimerOS stores your data
European Union
Where Hubstaff says it stores data
United States

Hubstaff retains customer data in the United States. src It is documented and framework-covered, but it means your record of processing lists a US transfer, your transfer impact assessment considers US access law, and the works council question starts from “why is our staff’s activity data in America?” With TimerOS the databases, the application compute and the uploaded files are in the EU, so that part of the assessment is short.

The second difference is surface area. Thirty-four sub-processors is what a company with a full marketing and analytics stack looks like when it publishes honestly. But each name is one your DPO may have to review. src Ours is seven, two of them EU companies processing EU-to-EU with no transfer mechanism required at all.

04Plans

What one TimerOS subscription covers

Freelancer is the full product for one person: client portal, invoicing and support, nothing cut. Startup adds everything a team needs, up to 50 seats; Enterprise has no seat cap and is in early access.

FreelancerFor one person
€8
/ month billed annually · €10 monthly · one seat
  • Projects and tasks
  • Invoicing and billing
  • Basic expenses and a basic profit overview
  • Support tickets
  • A branded client portal — chat, whiteboard approvals, incident war rooms
Start with Freelancer
StartupFor teams
€15
/ user / month billed annually · €18 monthly
  • Everything in Freelancer
  • Team management, with hours per person in one workspace
  • Shifts and scheduling
  • Time-off approvals and leave balances
  • Company goals, awards and team performance

Up to 50 seats. Beyond that is Enterprise, which is early access and not self-serve.

Start with Startup
Enterprise
Early access
Not self-serve
  • Full payroll
  • Unlimited departments and a company-wide org chart
  • Custom roles and permissions
  • Full expenses (vendor bills, approvals)
  • Full P&L including payroll

Single sign-on, an audit log, third-party integrations and dedicated support are on this tier’s list but are not shipped yet — they are on the roadmap.

05Switching

What switching actually involves

  • Install is per machine. The Windows app on the machines being tracked, with the macOS build in development; nothing to install for managers or for clients.
  • There is no bulk import. No CSV import today. Teams start on a period boundary and keep the old tool read-only for history.
  • Your clients get their own address. A branded portal at your own subdomain, not a login to our dashboard.
  • There is no SOC 2 report. No Type I, no Type II. If a client’s security review begins with that document, we will not pass it.
  • Cancelling is self-serve. The workspace owner cancels from the Subscription page; nothing is charged if you do it inside the 14 days.
06Where it is better

Where Hubstaff is the better choice

Four cases where we would point you to Hubstaff. Better to know now than in month two.

  • Starter from $4.99 per seat on annual billing

    $4.99 per seat per month on annual billing, against our €8 for a single seat and €15 per user on the team tier. Starter carries a two-seat minimum, so the smallest possible bill is $9.98 and a solo buyer lands near our €8. At five people it is $24.95 against €75, and we quote euros against dollars without converting. If entry price decides it, Hubstaff is the cheaper choice for a team. src

  • A multi-platform timer app on every plan

    Our tracking runs on Windows today; the macOS build is in development. Hubstaff lists a multi-platform timer app on every plan, and mobile location tracking as a paid add-on. A field team on phones, or a studio on Macs, is not a team we can track today. src

  • Unlimited integrations on the Team plan

    Its pricing page lists one integration on Grow and unlimited on Team. Ours are on Enterprise and are not shipped yet. If pushing timesheets into your existing payroll or PM tool is why you are buying, that gap decides it. src

  • Invoices, expenses and scheduling in its plans

    Its pricing page lists client invoices, expense tracking, project budgets, scheduling and attendance, time off, overtime and payments. Much of what we cover, Hubstaff covers too. What its plans do not list is a client-facing portal. src

If none of those describe you
You give up a lower entry price and a wider platform list. You get EU hosting by default, 7 sub-processors instead of 34, and an EU contracting entity, Vezoft in Bulgaria.
07Questions

Questions people ask before signing up

Does it take screenshots of my screen, or log what I type?

No. Not even as a setting you switch off. Neither feature exists in the product, so there is nothing to disable and nothing to review afterwards. The Windows app reads the active window title, the application name and, in a browser, the site’s domain, in memory, to work out what the time was spent on; what reaches the server is the label, how confident the classification is, and hours per day. If you correct a classification, that app and title are saved on your own machine, not ours. The timer itself lives in a bar the tracked person can see all day. There is no silent mode.

Is there a free plan, and does the trial take a card?

You get 14 days of the full plan, with nothing cut or locked, before anything is charged. There is no free plan, and yes, the trial takes a card at signup: it is saved through Stripe and nothing is charged during the trial. The workspace owner can cancel from the Subscription page in the dashboard before day 14. After that it is €8 a month billed annually for Freelancer (€10 month to month, one seat), or €15 per user per month billed annually for Startup (€18 monthly, up to 50 seats).

I work alone. What do I get for €8, and does my client have to pay?

Projects and tasks, invoicing and billing, basic expenses and a basic profit overview, support tickets, and the full branded client portal at your own address, where your client sees their projects, approvals, tickets, invoices, chat, a whiteboard they approve work on, and incident war rooms. Your client does not consume a seat or a licence and pays nothing. Team management, shifts, leave approvals and goals sit on Startup, not on the €8 tier. Full expenses and a full P&L are on Enterprise, which is early access and not self-serve.

What does my client actually see, and does a client cost me a seat?

Your client signs in at your own branded portal address, not our dashboard, and sees their projects, the approvals waiting on them, their tickets, their invoices, a chat thread with you, a whiteboard where they sign off work, and incident war rooms if something breaks. A client account consumes no seat and no licence, so adding clients does not raise your bill, and the portal is included from the €8 Freelancer tier upward. It is a separate address from app.timeros.ai, where your side of the workspace runs. Do not send clients there.

Can I tell whether a client is making or losing money?

Up to a point. Hours attach to projects and tasks that carry budgets, and those hours become invoices in the same workspace, so you can compare what a client took against what it billed. Freelancer and Startup include basic expenses and a basic profit overview. Full expenses with vendor bills and approvals, and a full P&L including payroll, are on the Enterprise tier, which is early access and not self-serve.

Half of us are on Macs. Can we use it?

Not for tracking today, but for everything else, yes. Automatic tracking runs on the Windows desktop app; there is no Linux or mobile tracking. It starts when the machine is signed in to and classifies activity on the device itself. Everything else runs in a browser: your team at app.timeros.ai, which does everything except tracking, and your clients at your own portal address. Managers and clients install nothing. A mixed team can share the workspace: a Mac-based designer can be assigned work, approved and invoiced. Their hours will not track themselves yet. If tracked hours off Windows are the point of the purchase today, check each vendor’s own platform page, linked in the comparison above. The macOS build is in development; see the roadmap roadmap.

My client asks where the data is processed. What do I send them?

Databases on MongoDB Atlas in Frankfurt and Ireland, application compute on Render in Frankfurt, uploaded files in Cloudflare R2 created with the EU jurisdiction restriction. Your contract is with Vezoft, a Bulgarian company under EU law imprint, and the full sub-processor list is seven names, published, alongside our DPA our DPA. You can send links instead of writing an answer. We will not hand you a line saying nothing ever leaves the EU. The Cloudflare CDN edge that serves the pages is global, and Stripe and Google involve US processing. Stripe and Google are on the same published list. The accurate version is scoped: databases, application compute and uploaded files. And we do not hold SOC 2.

The other tool is cheaper per seat. Why should I pay more?

Sometimes it is cheaper. The price rows in the table above are quoted from each vendor’s own pricing page, in the currency each one publishes, with the date we checked. We have not converted anything. Two things to check first: whether the plan has a seat minimum, which changes what one person actually pays, and which of the things you need are on that entry plan rather than a higher one. Client login, invoicing and support tickets sit in our €8 tier; if you buy those from someone else today, add what they cost before comparing per-seat prices. And if entry price is the binding constraint, buy the cheaper plan. Better that than cancelling in month two.

What do the other tools have that you do not?

Integrations: none are shipped. They appear on the Enterprise tier list and are not built. SOC 2: we do not hold it, in any form. If procurement begins there, that is a real reason to choose something else. Screenshots and keystroke logging: neither feature exists in the product, so if you need visual evidence of work we cannot produce it. Tracking on anything other than the Windows desktop app: today only Windows, with the macOS build in development. Payroll, unlimited departments, a company-wide org chart, single sign-on and an audit log: all Enterprise, which is early access and not self-serve. And a free plan: we have none, and the 14-day trial takes a card. The comparison rows above cite each vendor’s own page, with the date we checked it, for the facts we can verify; for anything they do not cover, read the vendor’s page rather than take our word for it.

More comparisons

Compare the others

Try it against Hubstaff with your own week of work

Track a real working week on a Windows machine. Raise one invoice from those hours. Let one client into the portal and see what they see. If it does not work for you, cancel from the Subscription page inside the trial and nothing is charged.

14 days with the full plan, nothing cut. The card is saved at signup and nothing is charged if you cancel before the end. After that, from €8 a month for one person or €15 per user, billed annually. Full pricing.

Sources and trademarks
Hubstaff is a trademark of its respective owner. TimerOS is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Netsoft Holdings, LLC or Hubstaff. Every claim above was checked on 12 August 2026 against these pages and may have changed since: Data transfer compliance, Privacy policy, Trust centre / sub-processors, Pricing, Disabling screenshots. Prices are quoted in the currency each vendor publishes and are not converted. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.