What Is Harvest? Time Tracking, Features & Pricing (2026)

Harvest is a time tracking and invoicing tool aimed at freelancers, agencies, and small professional services teams. The platform’s simplicity is a fan favorite, letting users track their time and convert it into client invoices and small business insights in just a few clicks. 

Harvest doesn’t offer activity monitoring or surveillance features. Users control what they track and who sees it, meaning that automated tracking and screenshots are not available as part of the platform. But there’s plenty of functionality available at a low or no cost. Individual users can get started with the free forever plan while small team plans start at $9/seat/month. 

Key takeaways  Harvest is a time tracking and invoicing tool popular with freelancers, small businesses, and agencies, due to its simplicity.  Harvest offers timer-based and manual time tracking. Surveillance features like automatic keystroke logging, screenshots, and desktop capture are not part of this tool’s feature stack.  Harvest offers a free forever plan for individual users. Its three paid plans are Teams (from $9/seat/mo), Enterprise (from $14/seat/mo), and Enterprise Plus (custom pricing.)  Ease of use and the ability to turn tracked time into send-ready invoices are Harvest’s main selling points. Some users will struggle with its limited project management functionality and recent price hikes reported by existing customers.

 

How do we review software in TimeCamp? A human is behind every word posted here. We value our users’ time and trust, so you can be sure our team (Ola, Wojtek, Kasia, Iza, Robert, and others) spent real hours testing the apps, and then researching, briefing, and writing this article.  However, our editorial team has 10+ years of experience writing SaaS content, including testing and using a variety of tools daily. Our writers are also app users, so we write our recommendations based on what we would read as potential clients. Our main rule is “do not cover without a source.”We also revisit and update our articles to cover notable changes to the app’s features or pricing (at least quarterly). Read more → How do we create content and review software in TimeCamp? Happy reading!

What is Harvest (getharvest.com)? 

Harvest is a cloud-based time tracking and invoicing tool that helps businesses record their working hours and use that information to manage their project budgets and bill clients for completed work. 

Harvest launched in 2006 after founders Danny Wen and Shawn Liu developed the software to manage time and billing at their New York web design agency. In July 2025, Italian technology company Bending Spoons acquired Harvest, adding it to a portfolio that includes other SaaS platforms like Evernote and WeTransfer. 

Although Harvest stays in a fairly narrow lane, the platform integrates with 70 other tools, including the likes of Slack, Asana, and Google Calendar, so you can track time wherever you’re working. It’s a popular option, serving 70,000 customers worldwide, who’ve tracked north of 4.5 billion hours and invoiced $64 billion. While Harvest is best-suited to freelancers and small businesses, some Fortune 500 companies lean on its enterprise package to track time. 

Harvest in 2026 at a glance 

	Harvest details
Provider	Founded in 2006 by Danny Wen and Shawn Liu in New York City. Acquired in 2025 by Bending Spoons.
Product type	Time tracking, expense tracking, and invoicing
Core features	Timers, timesheets, project budgets, expenses, invoicing, online payments, and reporting.
Time capture	Start/stop timers and manual entries. No automatic desktop activity tracking, screenshots, or keystroke logging.
Pricing model	Per-seat subscriptions, with additional usage-based charges for some resources on paid plans.
Price plans	Free: $0. Teams: from $9/seat/month. Enterprise: from $14/seat/month. Enterprise Plus: custom pricing.
Free plan	Yes, for one seat and two projects.
Invoicing	Create recurring invoices from tracked time and expenses, send payment reminders, and accept online payments through Stripe or PayPal.
Profitability reporting	Available on Enterprise and Enterprise Plus.
Integrations	70+ integrations across 10 tool categories.
Resource planning	Harvest Time Tracker connects with Harvest Forecast, a separately billed scheduling and capacity-planning tool.
Platforms	Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. Browser extensions for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.
User ratings	G2: 4.3/5 (843 reviews). Capterra: 4.5/5 (655 reviews).
Best for	Freelancers and service teams that want straightforward time tracking and client invoicing.
Less suitable for	Teams needing automatic activity capture, extensive project management, or profitability reporting on a lower-priced plan.

How does Harvest work? 

Harvest connects recorded working hours to project budgets and client invoices. Once you’ve set up your projects, your team can track the time they spend on each task and use that information to monitor costs or bill clients. Here’s how the process works.

• Set up your projects. Add a client, create a project, and define the tasks your team will work on. You can also set hourly billing rates and project budgets to help you keep track of how much each job costs.

• Record your working hours. Start and stop a timer as you work, or add time entries manually using Harvest’s web, desktop, or mobile apps. You’ll need to remember to operate the timer yourself, as Harvest doesn’t automatically capture your desktop activity.

• Review your time and expenses. Harvest uses your time entries to populate timesheets and update project budget reports. You can see how much time you’ve spent on a project and whether you’re approaching its budget limit. You can also record expenses against individual projects.

• Turn billable work into invoices. It’s straightforward to select the time entries and expenses you want to bill for, and then use Harvest to generate an invoice. From here, you can send it out directly to your client and accept online payments through Stripe or PayPal. Timesheet approvals are also available on the Enterprise and Enterprise Plus plans. 

• Connect your other business tools. While invoicing is baked into Harvest, it also integrates with accounting software such as QuickBooks Online and Xero, so you can keep your overall financial records up to date. And if you have a favorite project management app, you can also hook Harvest up to platforms like Asana or Trello to track hours within your existing workflows.

What does Harvest do well, and where does it fall short? 

Ease of use is one of Harvest’s strongest benefits. You can sign up for a free trial, set up your first client and start tracking time on your first project all within the time it takes to make a cup of coffee. For this reason, Gints F., a small business co-founder, reviewing Harvest on G2 in April 2026 reports, “It’s so straightforward that even a 3-year-old could manage it.” 

But Harvest’s simplicity comes with some trade-offs. Its manual timers are easy to use but equally easy to forget, which could potentially leave some of your most valuable billable hours unrecorded. The platform also has limitations around project management, while access to advanced reporting features depends on your subscription.

How do Harvest timesheets and time tracking work? 

Harvest time tracking takes very little effort. As soon as you’ve selected a project and started the timer, you can get on with your work. You click to stop the timer as soon as you’re finished and Harvest adds the recorded time to your timesheets.

If you’re working across several different clients, the weekly timesheet is useful as it shows how your hours are divided between projects. You can make corrections to individual entries and check how much billable time you’ve totted up. Those same records feed into your project budgets and invoicing, so you don’t have to calculate your hours separately at client billing time. 

But there’s a catch.

Harvest only knows about the hours you’ve remembered to record.

 

Spend 45 minutes answering client emails without starting a timer, and there’s no automatic time tracking to help you account for that time later. You can add a manual entry, of course, but you’ll need to remember what you worked on and for how long. 

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How does Harvest invoicing work? 

The best part of tracking your time is turning it into hard-earned cash, and Harvest’s invoicing tool does just that. Once you’ve tracked your time against a project, you can pull those billable hours directly into an invoice, along with any expenses you’ve recorded. 

There’s no need to transfer the figures into a separate spreadsheet or calculate what each client owes.

Gints F., a small business co-founder, describes invoicing as the most valuable part of Harvest as “it holds all the financial information of my companies.” He also credits Harvest with removing his reliance on Excel to manage business finances.

 

There are other invoicing features available to small business owners too. Harvest lets you set up recurring invoices and send automatic payment reminders, reducing the amount of time you spend chasing outstanding bills. And if your clients like to pay by credit card through third parties like Stripe or PayPal, Harvest offers these integrations along with connections to QuickBooks Online and Xero that keep your accounting records in order.

Is Harvest a project management tool? 

With such a strong focus on time tracking and invoicing, Harvest’s project management capabilities feel limited.

Yes, you can keep on top of how many hours your team has spent on a project and compare this against your initial budget to track whether you’re still on track. But Harvest doesn’t include task boards or Gantt charts, so you’ll need another tool to plan and schedule the work itself.

The obvious choice is Harvest’s sister product, Forecast, which adds resource scheduling and capacity planning to the mix. The two tools work side by side, allowing you to compare the hours you’ve scheduled in Forecast against the time your team records in Harvest. You can also see when a project is likely to reach its budget limit, so you have plenty of runway to adjust your assignments before your costs are out of whack. 

Be aware that Forecast’s pricing is separate from Harvest, costing an additional $5 per person per month when billed annually, or $6.25 with monthly billing.

A 30-day free trial is available if you’d like to try before you buy. Or, if you prefer to stick with your current project management software, Harvest integrates with 18 different tools, including Asana, monday.com, Trello, ClickUp, and Linear. These integrations let you keep project planning in your existing platform while using Harvest to record time and manage the financial side of client work. 

What are the pros and cons of Harvest in 2026? 

Harvest’s main appeal is the ease of turning recorded hours into client invoices. But its manual tracking and having to fork out on enterprise pricing for features like timesheet approvals won’t suit every team. Here’s what to consider. 

Strengths	Limitations
Simple interface with very little setup required	No automatic desktop time capture
Billable hours flow directly into client invoices	Forgotten timers can lead to missed hours
Free forever plan available for individual users	Free plan limits the number of projects
Integrates with popular project management tools and accounting platforms	No built-in task boards or Gantt charts
Privacy-friendly with no screenshots or keystroke monitoring	Resource scheduling requires a separate Forecast subscription
Project budgets help teams monitor spending	Advanced functionality depends on your subscription

Who is Harvest for and when might they outgrow it? 

Harvest is a strong match for businesses that bill clients for their time but don’t need complex project management software. The important consideration is how your team records its hours and what you need to do with that information afterwards.

Three common scenarios highlight when it might be worth reconsidering Harvest as your time tracking platform of choice:

Profile	Harvest fit?	Why
Creative agency managing hourly client work and monthly retainers	Yes, strong fit	Tracks time against client budgets and turns additional billable work into invoices
Solo consultant or freelancer billing several clients	Yes, with limits	Straightforward invoicing, although the free plan only covers two projects
Small professional services firm using QuickBooks or Xero	Yes	Connects billable time to invoices and existing accounting workflows
Agency managing fixed-fee projects with tight margins	Depends on the plan	Budget tracking is useful, but profitability reporting requires Enterprise
Consultancy frequently switching between short client tasks	Less suitable	Manual timers make it easier to overlook brief periods of billable work
Growing agency needing staff scheduling and workload planning	Limited on its own	Requires Forecast or another project management tool for resource scheduling

When manual timers cost you billable hours

Harvest relies on you remembering to start and stop your timers which is manageable when you’re spending several hours on one project, but much less feasible when you’re hopping between incredibly short client tasks that don’t feel like they merit individual tracking.

Harvest doesn’t have an automatic activity history and it’s near impossible to reconstruct the quick client call or Slack conversation after the fact. Repeated across your team, those missing minutes stack up fast, resulting in considerable amounts of unbilled work. 

When Harvest’s pricing model no longer fits

Harvest’s free plan sounds pretty generous until you notice you’re limited to two projects. If you’re a busy freelancer working with several clients, you could outgrow it by the end of your first week. 

Upgrading to a paid plan can be expensive too. Harvest Teams starts at $9 per seat per month with annual billing, which means a 30-person agency will pay $270 every month. Move everyone onto Enterprise and you’re looking at $420 a month. 

Neither figure is necessarily unreasonable, particularly if Harvest saves you hours of invoicing admin. But if you’re mainly paying for time tracking, you might start questioning whether you’re getting your money’s worth.

When profitability reporting comes at a premium

Imagine you’ve quoted $5,000 for a website redesign and your team has already burned through most of the allocated hours. Harvest can tell you how much of your project budget you’ve used, but understanding whether you’re still making money on the job is another question.

Harvest reserves its dedicated profitability reporting for Enterprise clients, which is frustrating if you’re running a small agency where every project’s margin counts, but you don’t have the budget for a higher subscription tier. If you need to keep an eagle eye on what your client work is costing you, it’s worth comparing tools that offer profitability reporting at a lower price.

Choose Harvest when: You want straightforward time tracking and professional invoicing without the complexity of a larger business management platform. Consider an automatic tracker when: Forgotten timers are costing you billable hours, or Harvest’s free plan and per-seat pricing no longer suit your business.

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How much does Harvest cost in 2026? 

Harvest pricing starts at $0 for a single user tracking time and invoicing across no more than two projects. Beyond this, you’ll pay a per-seat fee based on your subscription. The Teams plan starts at $9 per seat/mo on an annual basis (or $11 monthly), while Enterprise has transparent pricing from $14 per seat/mo (or $17.50 monthly). Enterprise Plus is the only plan without published pricing, so you’ll need to contact sales for a quote.

Plan	Reported price	Includes
Free	$0 forever	1 seat, 2 projects, time tracking, invoicing, expense tracking, Mac and iOS apps
Teams	From $9 seat/mo	Unlimited seats, team reporting, accounting and payment integrations
Enterprise	From $14 seat/mo	Unlimited custom reports, profitability reporting, timesheet approvals, activity logs, SAML-based SSO,
Enterprise Plus	Custom pricing	Custom integrations, product customization, dedicated customer success manager, custom onboarding support and training, assisted data migration, white labeling, and privileged access to product development

 

Watch out for additional usage fees. Harvest’s advertised prices are starting rates per seat. Depending on your plan and usage, you may also pay extra for invoices, projects, clients, and tasks. If you’re an agency handling lots of smaller projects or clients, it’s worth checking the included allowances before committing to a plan.

Some Harvest customers report being hit by high, unexpected price hikes since the Bending Spoons acquisition that have caused pricing uncertainty.

Kimbra J., a Land and Contracts Manager, reviewing Harvest on G2 in September 2026, describes their experience:  “We have been longtime Harvest customers and were recently notified with a 30-day notice that our pricing would increase from approximately $6,000 per year to $30,000 per year, a 5x increase. A price increase of this magnitude is simply not reasonable, so we are leaving Harvest.”

Frequently asked questions about Harvest 

What is Harvest time tracking? 

Harvest lets you keep track of how long you spend working on different projects and turn those hours into client invoices. You can start a timer when you begin a task or add your hours manually later. It’s straightforward to use, although you’ll need to remember to track your time yourself, as Harvest doesn’t automatically record your computer activity.

Is Harvest free? 

Harvest offers a free forever plan for individual users. Time tracking, invoicing, and expense management is available for one seat and a maximum of two projects. Harvest also offers a 30-day free trial of its paid plans if you want to explore additional features before subscribing.

How much does Harvest cost? 

Harvest offers a free forever plan for solo users. Paid pricing starts at $9 per seat per month with annual billing for Harvest Teams, which supports unlimited users. Enterprise starts at $14 per seat per month, while Enterprise Plus has custom pricing. Monthly billing costs more.

Does Harvest do invoicing? 

Yes, invoicing is one of Harvest’s main features. You can turn tracked billable hours and project expenses into client invoices without manually transferring the figures. Harvest also supports recurring invoices, automatic payment reminders, and online payments through Stripe and PayPal.

Does Harvest have automatic time tracking?

No, Harvest doesn’t offer automatic desktop time tracking. Instead, users start and stop timers as they work or enter their hours manually into timesheets. If you forget to start a timer, Harvest won’t have an automatic activity history to help you recover the missing time.

Does Harvest take screenshots or monitor employees?

No, Harvest doesn’t track screen activity, log keystrokes, or monitor employees’ desktop activity. Its time tracking relies on employees recording their own working hours using timers or manual entries. This makes Harvest a good option for businesses that prefer a privacy-friendly approach to tracking employee time.

Can Harvest replace Asana or Trello?

Harvest offers basic project management features, including project budgets and time tracking, but it’s not a fully-fledged project management tool with features like task boards or Gantt charts and dependency management. For resource scheduling and capacity planning, Harvest offers a separate product called Forecast, which costs extra.

What integrations does Harvest have? 

Harvest offers more than 70 integrations across a wide range of business functions, including analytics and reporting, CRM, finance and payments, project management, and productivity. Popular integrations include QuickBooks Online, Xero, Slack, Asana, and Trello. Browser extensions also let you track time directly from the tools you’re already using.

Bottom line: Is Harvest the right choice for you? 

Harvest knows what it’s good at. If you’re a freelancer or run a small agency where hours translate directly into client invoices, it’s hard to argue with how straightforward the whole process feels. There’s very little to learn, and you can get a surprising amount done without needing a separate invoicing tool. 

But simplicity only gets you so far. Harvest expects you to be fairly disciplined about tracking your hours, and some of its more useful financial reporting sits behind an expensive subscription. Neither’s necessarily a dealbreaker, especially if you’re getting plenty of value from its invoicing features. But I’d think carefully about whether your team will make full use of what you’re paying for.

TimeCamp takes a different approach. Automatic time tracking reduces the reliance on people remembering their timers, while its free plan supports unlimited users and projects. Paid plans also connect time records with project budgets and costs, giving managers more insight into profitability without requiring an enterprise subscription. 

Ultimately, the choice comes down to what you need your time tracking software to do. Harvest is an excellent choice if you want to record your hours and get your invoices out with minimal fuss. TimeCamp is worth a closer look if you’re more concerned about capturing every billable minute and understanding whether your projects are making money. For a closer look at how the two stack up, read our TimeCamp vs Harvest comparison.

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Source links: 

https://www.getharvest.com/ 

https://www.getharvest.com/pricing 

https://www.getharvest.com/features/time-tracking-software

https://www.getharvest.com/features/reports-and-analysis 

https://www.getharvest.com/features/invoicing-and-payments

https://www.getharvest.com/integrations 

https://www.getharvest.com/forecast 

https://www.g2.com/sellers/harvest 

https://www.capterra.com/p/75598/Harvest/

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/05/what-is-bending-spoons-everything-to-know-about-aols-acquirer/ 

https://www.g2.com/products/harvest/reviews/harvest-review-12437855 

https://www.g2.com/products/harvest/reviews/harvest-review-13463178 

https://www.timecamp.com/blog/timecamp-vs-harvest/ 

https://www.timecamp.com/how-we-review-software/ 

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Markdown

Rebecca Noori Rebecca Noori is a freelance B2B SaaS writer and editor specializing in HR technology and workplace productivity. She has written and edited hundreds of articles for leading software brands, including UKG, monday dot com, Deel, Userpilot, and Benepass. Her work helps businesses make sense of complex topics through clear, engaging content.

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