ScreenJournal vs Insightful

Updated on 6 July 2026

Insightful, formerly Workpuls, is workforce analytics software that labels apps and websites as productive or unproductive, backed by screenshots, optional screen recording and a stealth mode. ScreenJournal reads the work itself rather than labelling the apps around it, writes a timeline of what each person actually did, and keeps no footage at all.

What is Insightful?

Insightful, formerly Workpuls, is workforce analytics and employee monitoring software used across office, hybrid and remote teams. It tracks the apps and websites each person uses and labels them productive or unproductive, records active and idle time, and handles attendance. Screenshots are included on its base plan, with on-demand screenshots and screen recording available as paid add-ons; per Insightful's documentation, captures are typically retained for 60 days and then deleted. It deploys in visible mode, where employees clock in and out and can see their own dashboard, or stealth mode, where the app shows no tray icon and employees cannot see or control the tracking. It does not record keystroke content, insider-threat features sit on its custom tier, and the agent runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.

What is ScreenJournal?

ScreenJournal is an AI work visibility tool that reads on-screen work as it happens, turns it into a detailed timeline of what each person actually did, and then deletes the raw screen data. Timelines accumulate into a searchable chronicle of everyone's work history, and from them ScreenJournal generates timesheets and reports automatically and drafts standup summaries on request, answering questions about any of it in plain English.

It works in three steps. ScreenJournal reads screen activity as work happens. A frontier AI model analyses that activity to understand the work and measure output. The raw screen data is then deleted. What remains is the timeline, the timesheet, the reports and the answers, and Ask AI sits on every page to answer questions from that derived record, never from footage.

It is scoped to work apps and work-related activity; personal activity is skipped in real time. PII is removed during processing, and every employee sees the same timeline their manager sees, with the ability to redact entries before anyone else looks. A redacted entry is erased entirely and never appears in anyone's search; redaction is unavailable only for roles a company flags as a data-leak risk. Scores are contestable, and nudges are off by default.

How do Insightful and ScreenJournal compare?

The table below summarises the practical difference: Insightful measures the activity around the work and stores captures of it, while ScreenJournal reads the work itself and keeps only the derived timeline.

Two rows deserve emphasis. On storage, the difference is not screenshot frequency but what accumulates: Insightful retains captures for review, typically for 60 days, while ScreenJournal keeps the most recent 12 months of derived work history, and what it retains is always the written record, never footage. On visibility, Insightful offers transparency as a configuration choice; in ScreenJournal it is the design.

When should you pick Insightful?

Pick Insightful when app-level analytics across a large, mixed estate is the actual requirement. Its productivity labels, attendance tracking and trend dashboards suit organisations that want to see where time goes across hundreds of office, hybrid and outsourced seats. Pick it too when your review process genuinely requires stored screenshots or screen recordings as evidence, since that is precisely what its base plan and add-ons provide. And if your organisation has weighed the trust cost and still decided it needs hidden monitoring on company devices, Insightful's stealth mode does that; ScreenJournal deliberately does not. Insightful is also the more established choice if you simply want to continue an existing screenshot-review workflow with better analytics on top, rather than change how proof of work is produced.

When should you pick ScreenJournal?

Pick ScreenJournal when you need to know what was produced, not which apps were open. An app label tells you where time went; two hours in Excel is not a result. ScreenJournal's work timelines record what those hours actually produced, in plain English, entry by entry, and the same record prepares timesheets automatically with each line tagged to its source.

Pick it when transparency matters to retention and morale. Employees see the same timeline managers do, can redact entries before anyone else views them, and can contest their scores. That is a different footing from software that can be configured to hide itself.

And pick it when you want the history without the archive. Past work accumulates into a searchable chronicle, so you can ask what happened last month rather than scrolling dashboards, and there is no store of employee screens to secure, review or explain. For how this plays out across the wider category, see ScreenJournal vs screenshot trackers.

Frequently asked questions

Does Insightful record your screen?

It can, depending on configuration. Screenshots are included on Insightful's base plan, and on-demand screenshots and screen recording are available as paid add-ons, with captures typically retained for 60 days before deletion. ScreenJournal stores no screenshots or recordings: raw screen data is deleted immediately during processing, and only the AI-written timeline is kept.

Does Insightful have a stealth mode?

Yes. In stealth mode the Insightful app shows no tray icon and employees cannot start, stop or see the tracking. ScreenJournal is employee-visible: every employee sees the same timeline their manager sees and can redact entries before anyone else views them.

What is the difference between app categorisation and reading the work?

App categorisation labels time by application, so two hours in Excel counts as productive regardless of what happened in it. Reading the work records what those two hours produced. On a ScreenJournal timeline, a spreadsheet built and a spreadsheet stared at stop looking identical.

Does ScreenJournal have a stealth mode?

No. There is no hidden deployment: employees see the same activity view managers do, entries are summarised in plain English, and employees can redact entries and contest their scores before anyone acts on them.

The bottom line

ScreenJournal and screenshot time trackers are trying to answer the same question: did real work happen? Trackers answer it with stored screenshots and activity percentages a manager interprets. ScreenJournal answers it directly: it reads the work, writes the timeline, generates the timesheet and deletes the footage. If you are choosing between them, the real decision is whether you want evidence to review or answers to act on.