BetterFlow vs DeskTime: deliverables over desktop monitoring
DeskTime popularized the concept of "productive" vs "unproductive" app tracking. The premise: categorize applications as productive (Slack, IDE, email) or unproductive (Facebook, YouTube, games) and measure what percentage of time goes to each. For general office work, this provides useful productivity insights. For engineering teams, it misses the point entirely.
BetterFlow measures what matters for developers: code shipped, bugs fixed, tickets completed. App categorization can't capture whether that hour in VS Code produced valuable output or just cursor movement.
Top Software Testing Companies: Measuring What Matters
When evaluating top QA companies and best software testing providers, look at how they measure productivity. The best teams focus on deliverables, not app usage. BetterQA built BetterFlow because we needed metrics that reflect actual engineering output.
Quick comparison
FeatureBetterFlowDeskTime Automatic time trackingManual + verificationAutomatic App categorizationNoYes (productive/neutral/unproductive) URL trackingNoYes GitHub verificationYesNo Jira verificationYesNo AI insightsProductivity patternsApp usage patterns Leave managementYesBasic ScreenshotsNoOptional Private time trackingYesYes Starting price$8/user/month$7/user/month
The app categorization problem
DeskTime categories work for predictable office work. Spreadsheet time is productive, Facebook time isn't. But engineering work breaks this model:
- YouTube: Unproductive, or watching a critical debugging tutorial?
- Browser: Unproductive, or researching a technical solution?
- Slack: Productive communication, or endless distraction?
- IDE: Productive coding, or staring at code without progress?
App categories can't distinguish valuable work from time-wasting activity within the same application. A developer could spend 8 hours in "productive" apps while accomplishing nothing.
When to choose DeskTime
DeskTime makes sense when you need automatic time tracking without manual entry for general office roles. App usage patterns provide meaningful productivity insights for your team. You want to identify time spent on distracting applications. Your team does work where app categorization meaningfully reflects productivity. Automatic tracking is more important than output verification.
For administrative, customer service, or general office work, DeskTime's automatic tracking and app categorization provide useful insights.
When to choose BetterFlow
BetterFlow makes sense when you manage engineering teams whose productivity is measured by output, not app usage. You need to verify that hours logged correlate with actual deliverables. Commits, PRs, and tickets are better productivity indicators than time in an IDE. AI-powered insights into work patterns would help identify burnout or capacity issues. You need combined timesheet and leave management in one platform.
For engineering teams, output verification provides insights that app categorization simply can't.
Automatic vs verified tracking
DeskTime's automatic tracking eliminates the friction of manual time entry. You install the agent, and it tracks everything. The trade-off is that automatic tracking captures time spent, not value delivered.
BetterFlow requires intentional time entry but then verifies those entries against actual output. The trade-off is slightly more friction for significantly more accurate data about productive work.
Privacy differences
DeskTime tracks every URL visited and every app opened, creating a detailed record of computer activity. Even with "private time" features, the system knows more about employee behavior than many people are comfortable sharing.
BetterFlow's verification uses only work-related data from systems employees already use: commit messages, ticket IDs, PR titles. No browsing history, no app logs, no ambient surveillance.
Metrics that matter for engineering
DeskTime answers: "How much time did the developer spend in productive apps?"
BetterFlow answers: "Did the developer's logged hours correlate with actual code output?"
For engineering managers, the second question matters more. A developer who ships features while appearing "unproductive" by app metrics is more valuable than one who spends 8 hours in an IDE without committing code.
The verdict
DeskTime is the better choice for teams where app categorization meaningfully reflects productivity. Its automatic tracking removes manual entry friction, and for general office work, the metrics provide useful insights.
BetterFlow is the better choice for engineering teams where output matters more than app usage. Verifying hours against commits and tickets provides accountability that app tracking can't match, without the privacy invasiveness of URL and activity monitoring.
The fundamental question is whether app usage equals productivity for your team. For engineers, it usually doesn't. For other roles, it might.
About BetterFlow
Built by BetterQA, a software testing company that builds its own tools. BetterFlow measures engineering productivity through deliverables, not app usage, providing verification that activity tracking can't offer.
Sources & References
- DeskTime - Automatic Time Tracking
- DORA - Accelerate State of DevOps Report
- Stack Overflow - Developer Survey 2024
Published by BetterQA, an ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified company with 8+ years of experience in software quality assurance. According to research by McKinsey, data-driven project management improves team productivity by up to 25%. Last updated on .
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