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Productivity · head to head

Hubstaff vs Rows

Hubstaff logo

Hubstaff

Productivity

Time tracking and team management for remote teams

From
$5.99/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Rows logo

Rows

Productivity

Browser spreadsheet whose formulas call live data from analytics, CRM and payment services

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Rows has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Hubstaff no pricing amounts published on pricing page; specific dollar amounts for plans not disclosed; Rows refresh frequency is the metered resource, so the free plan refreshes manually only and daily automation begins on the paid tier, which means the automatic reporting that justifies the tool is exactly what the free plan withholds.
  • They diverge on capability: Hubstaff covers Time tracking with timer, Rows covers Integrations in formulas.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Hubstaff and Rows actually diverge.

Attributes where Hubstaff and Rows differ
AttributeHubstaffRows
Starting price$5.99/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionfreemium
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, IOS, Android, MacOS, WindowsWeb
Founded2012Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Productivity).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Hubstaff

  • Time tracking with timer
  • Activity monitoring
  • GPS location tracking
  • Screenshots
  • Reports and analytics
  • Invoicing
  • Team management
  • Mobile apps

Only in Rows

  • Integrations in formulas
  • Scheduled refresh
  • Publishable sheets
  • Cell enrichment
  • AI tasks
  • Guests
  • API access
  • Version history

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Hubstaff

  • Productivitynot Rows
  • Collaborationnot Rows
  • Task managementnot Rows
  • Organizationnot Rows

Rows

  • A weekly marketing report that pulls analytics, advertising and CRM figures into one refreshing sheet instead of three manual exports.not Hubstaff
  • Agency client dashboards shared as a page, without handing over access to the underlying accounts.not Hubstaff
  • Enriching a list of companies or contacts from inside the sheet rather than through a separate tool and a re-import.not Hubstaff
  • A small team that needs live numbers in a familiar grid and has nobody available to build a proper reporting stack.not Hubstaff

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Hubstaff

  • No pricing amounts published on pricing page; specific dollar amounts for plans not disclosed
  • Per-seat pricing structure means users charged per team member regardless of active tracking use
  • Billing model includes prorated charges on annual plans but full rates for new monthly users, creating potential cost complications

Rows

  • Refresh frequency is the metered resource, so the free plan refreshes manually only and daily automation begins on the paid tier, which means the automatic reporting that justifies the tool is exactly what the free plan withholds.
  • Exports carry values rather than connections, so a downloaded file from Rows is a dead snapshot and anything you built has to be reconstructed from scratch elsewhere, which makes recurring reports quietly expensive to move.
  • Guests are capped by tier at three on free and ten on the entry plan, so sharing a report with a client's team or a group of stakeholders pushes you up a tier for people who only ever look at a page.
  • It is not Excel or Google Sheets, so the function library, add-ins, pivot behaviour, scripting and offline files people rely on are not all present, and it works as a reporting surface rather than as an organisation's general spreadsheet.
  • The Pro tier adds a fixed monthly platform charge on top of the per-user price, so moving from daily to intra-day refresh, or from ten guests to a real audience, is a step change in cost rather than an increment.

Pricing, plan by plan

Hubstaff

$5.99/month
  • FreeFree
    • Basic time tracking
    • Limited to 1 user
    • Basic reports
  • Starter$5.99/month
    • Time tracking
    • Team management
    • Reports
  • Pro$9.99/month
    • Everything in Starter
    • GPS tracking
    • Activity monitoring

Rows

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 5 AI Tasks per month
    • Manual data imports
    • 10 integration accounts
  • Plus$8/month
    • 200 AI Tasks per month
    • Daily data table automation
    • 10 integration accounts
  • Pro$79/month
    • 1,000 AI Tasks per month
    • Per-minute data automation
    • 100 integration accounts
  • Enterprise$null/mo
    • Unlimited AI Tasks
    • Custom integrations and API endpoints
    • Unlimited guest members

Which should you pick?

Choose Hubstaff if

  • You need time tracking with timer.
  • You work on Web, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows.
  • You also want activity monitoring.
Hubstaff review

Choose Rows if

  • You need integrations in formulas.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want scheduled refresh.
Rows review

Questions people ask

Is Hubstaff or Rows better?
Neither clearly leads. Hubstaff starts at $5.99/month and Rows at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Hubstaff or Rows?
Rows has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $5.99/month for Hubstaff and Free for Rows.
Does Hubstaff or Rows run on more platforms?
Hubstaff runs on Web, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows. Rows runs on Web.
Can I use Rows for free?
Yes. Rows has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Hubstaff starts at $5.99/month.
What is Hubstaff best used for?
Hubstaff is most often used for productivity, collaboration, task management, organization. Of those, productivity and collaboration are not what Rows is typically brought in for.
What can Hubstaff do that Rows cannot?
Hubstaff covers Time tracking with timer, Activity monitoring, GPS location tracking, Screenshots. Rows covers Integrations in formulas, Scheduled refresh, Publishable sheets, Cell enrichment.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Hubstaff: How much does Hubstaff cost?

Specific pricing amounts are not published on the pricing page. Hubstaff offers monthly and annual billing options with a per-seat pricing structure, a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans, and a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.

Source
Rows: Can it replace Excel or Google Sheets?

Not for general spreadsheet work. It is for reports and sheets that pull live data, and most teams end up running it alongside a conventional spreadsheet rather than instead of one.

Hubstaff: Is there a free trial for Hubstaff?

Hubstaff offers a free 14-day trial with no credit card required, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans excluding the free trial period.

Source
Rows: What can I actually do on the free plan?

Real building: unlimited members, ten integration accounts, five AI tasks a month, 1 MB imports, three guests and seven days of version history. What you cannot do is schedule a refresh.

Hubstaff: How does Hubstaff billing work when adding team members mid-cycle?

For annual plans, Hubstaff prorates charges when adding seats mid-cycle. For monthly plans, full rates apply for new users with no prorating offered.

Source
Rows: Does the data stay live after I export?

No. Exports contain values only, so the connections and the scheduling do not travel and the file stops updating the moment it leaves.

Hubstaff: Can Hubstaff plans be canceled anytime?

Plans can be canceled anytime by contacting support or archiving the associated organization. Users removed from monthly plans do not receive prorated refunds.

Source
Rows: Is pricing per user?

Yes on the paid tiers, with a fixed platform fee added at Pro. Guests are counted and capped separately from members.

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