Overview

Harvest is time-tracking and invoicing software for professional teams that need to turn recorded work into client bills. It is strongest when time capture, review, and billing belong in one workflow; its free tier is too small for most teams.

It combines project tracking, billable time, approvals, and data export. The maker, Harvest, was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy.

Harvest sits across Time Tracking Software, Time and Expense Software, Time Billing Software, and Employee Time Tracking Software.

Key features

Time entry and billing

One-click timers, timesheets, and calendar imports give teams several routes for capturing work. Offline tracking is also supported, useful when a connection is unavailable. Project and billable-time tracking help organize hours for client work; tracked time and expenses can then feed into invoices with online payments. That joined-up path is the main reason to choose Harvest over a tracker focused only on logging hours.

Team controls and integrations

Approvals, permissions, roles, rates, and capacity planning give managers ways to oversee submitted time and coordinate team availability. Harvest also connects with accounting services including Stripe, QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Deel. The homepage cites 40+ integrations, while the pricing comparison cites 50+ core integrations; either way, the product has a broad integration offering, though teams should verify that a required connection is included.

Pricing

The Free plan costs $0 forever and is built for individual freelancers, with one seat and two projects. It is a practical way for a solo user to try basic tracking, but the project cap makes it a poor fit for someone handling several concurrent clients or jobs.

Teams costs $11.00 per month on monthly billing, or $9.00 per month with annual billing at $108 per seat, billed annually. It includes unlimited seats and a 30-day free trial on the monthly option. The annual rate is 20% lower, but commits the buyer to an annual per-seat charge. This is the core choice for teams needing time tracking, analysis, and invoicing.

Enterprise costs $17.50 per month on monthly billing, or $14.00 per month with annual billing at $168 per seat, billed annually. It is aimed at teams with advanced reporting and administrative needs; those needs make the premium over Teams relevant, while smaller groups without them may not benefit enough to justify it. The 30-day trial is available on the monthly option.

Enterprise Plus has custom pricing and is intended for organizations that need a tailored setup. It adds custom integrations, product customization, a dedicated Customer Success Manager, custom onboarding and training, assisted data migration, and white labelling. It is the option for organizations requiring those services, not a routine upgrade for teams looking only to track time and invoice.

The trial requires no credit card, but the account is deactivated after 30 days if it is not upgraded. Credit-card payments are available monthly or yearly; ACH or bank transfer is available for annual plans with 10 or more seats. Teams with 50 or more seats can request a personalized consultation.

Platforms

Harvest is available on Android, iOS, macOS, the web, and Windows. Mobile apps cover both Android and iOS, and a desktop app is available. This range suits teams whose members switch between phones and computers, rather than a group committed to a single operating system.

Who it's for

Harvest is best suited to professional teams that bill for time and want managers to review entries before those hours become invoices. Its combination of approvals, team administration, and billing is more relevant to that workflow than the one-seat, two-project free plan. Freelancers with only a couple of projects may be comfortable staying free; growing teams should budget per seat.

Pros and cons

Pro: Tracked time and expenses can flow into invoices with online payment, keeping work records close to billing.
Pro: Approvals, permissions, roles, rates, and capacity planning support team oversight beyond simple time capture.
Pro: Android, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows support gives distributed teams multiple ways to use the product.
Con: The free plan stops at one seat and two projects, so it leaves little room for a growing team or a freelancer managing many jobs.
Con: Paid team pricing is per seat, making the annual commitment and headcount material budget considerations.

Alternatives

Consider Clockify if a free plan for up to five users matters more than Harvest’s time-to-invoice workflow; its listed platforms also include Linux. Choose Invoice Ninja when invoicing is the priority: its free plan includes five clients, unlimited invoicing, and 11 invoice templates, with support across web and self-hosted options.

Avaza may suit teams comparing a broader free allocation for project collaborators, though its free plan limits timesheet/expense, admin/finance, and resource-scheduling users to one each. Paymo is another free-plan option, with one user, one client, two projects, and 1 GB of storage.

Teamwork.com offers a free plan for five projects and five users, so it is worth considering when those caps fit the group. Bill4Time has a $49.00 per month Time & Billing plan covering time tracking, task and client management, a client portal, and expense management.

Deltek Maconomy is an enterprise ERP for professional services firms, with pricing by demo request. Scoro offers a Time-billing plan at 17.00 USD per month, shown as €15 $17 £13 $24.5 $24 per user / month, for its Track and Invoice apps; compare it when that plan's stated scope better matches your needs.

Verdict

Choose Harvest if your professional team needs one system for capturing billable work, approving time, and turning hours and expenses into invoices. Its range of team controls and platforms supports that workflow, but the free tier is a narrow trial-sized fit for most organizations, and paid per-seat costs should be weighed against team size. Look elsewhere if a larger free allowance or a different product focus matters more than integrated time tracking and invoicing.

	Harvest	Papershift
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	Yes	Yes
Paid from	$9/mo	$400/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Android, iOS, macOS, Web, Windows	Android, api, iOS, Linux, macOS, Web, Windows
Free plan	Yes	No
Paid from	9 /user/mo	—
Timesheet approvals	Yes	—
Mobile apps	—	Yes

Harvest vs Papershift

Harvest

Papershift