Security and privacy decision
MonitUp
A capable technical user can build a limited self-hosted replacement for core visibility (apps, websites, work hours) given time, but reproducing MonitUp's full paid product (screenshots polish, enterprise on‑prem packaging, support, classification tuning, and managed hosting) is impractical for one person.
Visit website↗Built by Faruk Durak, who ships 4 products in this index
$6/mo
$72/yr
Per seat. Read off the official pricing page.
$100one-off140 h to build
$0/mo6 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 2 seats.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All MonitUp alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Install a lightweight Windows agent that records active application/window, website domains and work-start/stop times; upload batched events to a backend; store events in a relational DB; present reports (work hours, app/website usage, productivity categories) in a web dashboard.
What it still won’t have
- Polish, reliability, and QA of a commercial product (edge-case handling, scaling)
- Vendor-hosted SLA, enterprise support, and managed on-premise offering
- Built-in productivity classification tuned by product team
- Integrated billing, trials, and demo flows
- Potential legal/compliance review and certifications provided by vendor
What remains hard
- Product polish and ongoing maintenance
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 2 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal self-hosted employee activity monitor: stack — Windows agent in .NET (C#) that logs active window, process name, timestamps, idle/active heuristics and stores events in a local SQLite file; uploader service (Go or Node) to batch POST to a backend; backend API in Node.js/Express with Postgres for events and MinIO-compatible object storage for screenshots; web dashboard in React (Vite) showing per-user work hours, app and domain usage, and aggregated productivity charts. In scope: agent event capture, installer packaging (MSI), secure authenticated uploads, DB schema, dashboard views (user, team, reports), basic productivity classification configurable via admin UI, and optional screenshot upload handling. Out of scope: advanced ML classification, integrations with HR systems, multi-tenant billing, and enterprise SLA/certifications. Include error handling, retry/backoff for uploads, authentication (JWT + API keys), basic unit and integration tests, and deployment scripts (Docker Compose) for the backend and object store.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 4 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Evidence score67
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 4
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productMonitUp — official product page
- official pricingMonitUp Pricing
- official docsMonitUp Features
- open sourceopsrobot repository
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
