Harvest Time Tracking Pros, Cons & Alternatives Reviewed

Are you done harvesting your time? If you have been using the Harvest time tracker for a while and are considering switching to another tool, you’re at the right place.

Look, I get it.

Time tracking is as fun as watching paint dry. It gets even less fun when you have to log each second manually.

And if you’ve been using Harvest, you might feel stuck in a never-ending loop, just clicking Start and Stop over and over again. Ugh.

Maybe it’s the pricing, maybe it’s the features, or maybe you just want to find an app that will make time tracking a bit fun or, at least, not as boring or complicated.

Whatever the reason, just stay with me.

We have rounded up some of the best Harvest alternatives. And trust us; there are ways to track your work hours without losing your sanity.

We created a list of the top 7 Harvest alternatives that don’t come with clunky interfaces, are reasonably priced, and can actually boost your productivity.

No time to chit-chat, let’s roll.

What is Harvest time tracking software?

Harvest is—whether you like it or not—a pretty popular time tracking and invoicing app.

It’s primarily marketed toward freelancers, small businesses, and teams who want to track their hours (and dollars).

The app helps you track time spent on tasks, manage projects, and generate reports, allowing you to work on your productivity and ensure accurate billing.

Here are key Harvest features you probably know all about:

• It allows you to track time. You can use a timer or log time manually (by simply entering the number of minutes or hours worked on a task when you forgot to start a timer).
• You can track projects and manage budgets. For example, as a team lead, you can see how much time your team is spending on different projects, set budget limits, and get notified before things go overboard.
• You can invoice clients and track payments. You can convert tracked time into invoices, send them to clients, and accept payments (via PayPal or Stripe).
• You get detailed reporting and analytics. You can generate reports to see where your time is spent, and even track team productivity.
• You can integrate Harvest with other tools, like QuickBooks Online, Jira, and ClickUp, making it easier to sync your workflow.
• The app is available on desktop, web (a Harvest browser extension), and mobile (iOS, and Android), so you can track time from anywhere.

How does Harvest time tracking work?

Using Harvest is pretty straightforward—I think we could agree on that. Here’s a breakdown of how it works:

1. You set up projects and tasks (and assign tasks). Before tracking time, you need to organize your work so you can see exactly where your hours are going.
2. You start tracking time. You can do so with a Start/Stop timer, or you can enter time manually if you forgot to track time in real-time.
3. You monitor task and project progress. Once you start tracking time, Harvest lets you view how much time has been spent on each project and task.
4. You generate reports and insights. You can see total hours on projects/clients/tasks, check billable vs. non-billable hours, and analyze team productivity.
5. You convert tracked time into invoices. You select a project or client, create an invoice, customize it, and send it to the client. (You can also integrate Harvest with accounting software like QuickBooks Online or Xero for financial tracking.)

Harvest pros and cons

Before we dive into the pros and cons, I just briefly want to talk about the cost of a Harvest subscription.

Harvest offers three plans: Free, Pro, and Premium.

The Free plan, as expected, comes with limited features, like only 1 user, 2 projects, time tracking, basic reporting, and invoicing. The other two plans, which start at $11 per user per month, can be a bit expensive for larger teams.

That being said, here are the ups and downs of using Harvest.

Benefits:

• It’s easy to use and has a simple, clean design.
• It has strong reporting features with insights on project hours, team productivity, and billable vs. non-billable time.
• It can convert tracked time into invoices.
• It doesn’t come with intrusive features like screenshots.

And here are the drawbacks:

• The free plan is limited; it allows 1 user and 2 projects, which isn’t ideal for teams.
• There’s no automatic time tracking; users have to track time and add time entries manually if they forget to start the timer.
• It comes with basic project management features.
• There’s no offline mode, meaning it requires an internet connection to track time.

Top 7 Harvest alternatives

Alright, alright… I have tortured you long enough with all the Harvest features you are probably tired of remembering.

Without further ado, here’s a list of the top 7 Harvest alternatives that will scratch the itch Harvest couldn’t.

#1 Memtime

Yes, I placed Memtime as #1. And no, I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a bit biased.

You know why?

Because we at Memtime believe in two things:

1. Pressing a Start/Stop timer each time you start a task actually wastes your time, and that’s why our app doesn’t include a timer.
2. Your time data is yours—and it should stay that way, which is why Memtime stores all your activity on your computer locally (more on that later).

Truly, we are all about tracking your time for you, quietly and accurately, DOWN TO THE MINUTE, while you work.

Just think of a sloth, our mascot. It moves at its own pace. It doesn’t put much effort into anything (not even sleeping), and we don’t want you to put effort into time tracking. The last thing you need is another stressful activity messing up your work hours or whole days.

With Memtime, you get automatic time tracking and no distractions (like annoying notifications on your idle time).

No screenshot monitoring. No endless settings. 

Just plain & simple automatic time tracking, working on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Here are Memtime features worth noting:

How does Memtime sound to you?

I know it doesn’t allow you to track expenses within the app or create recurring invoices for clients. But that’s exactly why we integrate with Harvest (and other widely-used tools) — to work as an add-on and complement their invoicing features. With Memtime handling automated time tracking and Harvest (or another trusted tool of your choice) managing expenses and invoicing, you get the best of both worlds.

Memtime offers a more streamlined and less error-prone time tracking process (you can recover up to 20% more billable time without working more!) compared to Harvest's manual system.

And when you are 100% sure about your work hours, you can accurately bill your clients without worrying about missing or miscalculating any time. Your invoices will be precise, giving you the confidence that your billing is correct. Every. Single. Time.

It takes less than 10 seconds to create a Memtime account so you can download the app. Just click the button below and give it a try. It’s on us, two weeks free of charge.

#2 Clockify

Clockify is one of the most popular time tracking tools globally.

It offers a wide range of features for tracking and managing your team's time, so you can monitor activities and progress. Here are some of those features:

• It allows you to track hours in real-time and add time manually.
• You can create automatic timesheets.
• You can track visited websites.
• With the Kiosk add-on, you can clock in and out using a shared device via PIN.
• It integrates with over 80 tools, including Google Workspace, Pumble, and Trello.
• It creates reports on billable and non-billable hours.
• You can create invoices based on tracked time and monitor fixed and variable expenses.
• It reminds you when you're idle to ensure accuracy.

Overall, Clockify is a great Harvest alternative, as it provides flexible solutions, similar to Harvest’s, but a bit more streamlined. Clockify could work for all teams, no matter the size.

#3 Toggl Track

Toggl Track is marketed as an easy-to-use time tracking app that should help you increase business profitability and save time on admin tasks.

It offers more than just time tracking; it allows you to do billing, invoicing, and project budgeting. You can track time automatically (on desktop) and manually (on mobile). You can also track time per project, client, and task.

Here are some of Toggl Track features worth noting:

• You can assign billing rates to workspaces and members.
• You can generate reports and projections.
• You can do quick payroll management based on tracked billable hours.
• There’s a Pomodoro Timer that should boost your productivity.
• The app syncs with tools like Trello, Salesforce, Jira, and more.

With Toggl Track, you can truly streamline your workflow and do accurate billing and reporting for your projects.

#4 Timely

Timely is an automatic time tracker (it automatically records time in the background) that gives insight into time spent on tasks. Its Memory app automatically logs your time and syncs it to the cloud. However, since the app doesn’t have its own interface, you’ll need to use the web version to view and manage your time data.

Here are some of the app’s key features:

• You can automatically track time for various activities and create timesheets.
• You can match tracked time with specific projects thanks to AI-driven time matching.
• You can monitor project progress and profitability.
• You get visual reports on productivity, budgets, and billable hours.
• You can convert tracked time into invoices to streamline billing.
• You can sync tracked time with project management tools to stay on top of deadlines.

Overall, with Timely, you can focus more on your work, as it takes care of tracking time, and reporting for you.

#5 Hubstaff

Hubstaff is a productivity and time tracking software that can help you track billable hours, monitor employee activity (!), and enhance productivity.

It allows users to track time for specific tasks and projects, manage schedules, and automate payroll, no matter where their team is located. Hubstaff promotes its unique combination of time tracking, employee monitoring, and project management as an ideal tool for managing productivity and employee performance.

Here’s a list of Hubstaff’s key features:

• The app offers manual work hours tracking (with a timer), review, and approval in one tool.
• It calculates in-meeting time compared to total work hours, as well as unproductive time.
• You can track progress, view detailed timesheets, and set time limits for tasks.
• You can monitor activity, track URLs visited, and review productivity through keyboard and mouse actions.
• You can assign pay rates to team members, automate payroll, and manage payments through integrated platforms.
• You can break projects into tasks, set deadlines, and monitor progress toward project budgets (in hours or money).
• You can discard idle time when you forget to stop the timer.
• The app takes screenshots every 10 minutes to monitor employee activity with notifications.
• It syncs with 22 different project management tools.

With its powerful tracking, and reporting features, Hubstaff acts as a hub for managing productivity, billable hours, and payroll. If you are into Hubstaff’s monitoring features, this app might be what you’re looking for.

#6 DeskTime

DeskTime is an automatic time tracking and productivity monitoring app marketed toward freelancers, small teams, and remote employees who want to track work hours and improve accountability.

It helps monitor productivity through automatic time recording, app and URL usage tracking, and optional screenshot capture (which can be blurred for privacy). DeskTime promotes the Screenshots features to boost user productivity, believing that such monitoring empowers employees, helping them focus on their tasks better. If you agree with that statement (we at Memtime don’t), this might be your tool.

Here are some of DeskTime’s key features:

• The app records arrival, departure, productive, idle, and total work hours.
• It tracks app, website, and program usage, classifying time as productive, unproductive, or neutral.
• It comes with a “private time” option that disables all tracking activity, and admins can’t see that private time.
• The app captures screenshots at intervals to boost productivity.
• There’s a Pomodoro timer that should help users take breaks to help improve their focus.
• You can assign teams to specific projects with time tracking and project-based rates.
• The app syncs with tools like Asana, Trello, Jira, and Zapier.
• You can track time even when you’re offline.
• You can create detailed, customizable reports for productivity and time usage.

Overall, DeskTime is a well-rounded time tracking and employee monitoring system. If you need a tool that offers efficient billing, boosts productivity, and monitors employees, DeskTime could be your first choice.

#7 TimeCamp

TimeCamp is a cloud-based time tracking and project management app that is focused on tracking and managing tasks to improve team productivity.

It offers manual AND automatic time tracking features. The automatic one includes a unique keyword-based tracking system that should streamline the time tracking process.

Here are some of the app’s key features:

• You can use a Start/Stop timer for manual tracking or keyword-based time tracking.
• You can track time against specific projects, set project budgets, and monitor team progress.
• You can create customizable invoices with billable hourly rates for each project or task.
• You can get detailed, customizable reports and dashboards to track performance and productivity.
• There’s Kiosk, a tool created for businesses (teams) that includes employee timesheets, invoicing, and payroll integrations.
• All time tracking data is securely stored in the cloud.
• TimeCamp integrates with various project management tools to import projects.

Overall, TimeCamp is a versatile solution to track time efficiently, manage projects, and streamline invoicing and payroll processes.

Wrapping up

I’ll keep it short. You’ve survived quite the read, so I promise not to bother you anymore.

The cards are in your hands. 🤲

Your company can be a full house BUT only if you play your cards right. Get the right tool, stack the deck in your favor, and hand out winning moves. If you are truly diligent about time tracking, maybe you’ll even get a royal flush (of market success).

My final tip is: stop bluffing and deal yourself in. Find the right app (cough… Memtime!), save time, bill clients accurately, and watch your business grow.