vs Harvest
Looking for a Harvest alternative?
Harvest is a long-established time tracking and invoicing tool. Hoursmith is newer and intentionally narrower: a focused time-and-billing tool with flat-fee pricing, your-Stripe payments, and your-domain email. Both do the core job; the differentiation is in the pricing model and the payment / email stack.
Free for solo freelancers · No credit card required
Harvest is good for
- · Teams already on Harvest with workflows built around its expense tracking, integrations, and reporting.
- · Customers who need its rich integration catalogue (QuickBooks, Xero, Slack, dozens more).
- · Larger teams where the per-seat math still works because seat headcount is stable.
Free for 1 user / 2 projects, then per-seat pricing on paid plans. See getharvest.com/pricing for current rates; both tools' prices can change.
Hoursmith is good for
- · You're feeling the per-seat squeeze and your headcount fluctuates with project pipeline.
- · You want online payments to land in your own Stripe account, not be routed through a billing tool's processor.
- · You want invoices to send from your own domain via SMTP / SES / Resend with credentials encrypted at rest.
- · You don't actually use Harvest's expenses, integrations, or approvals — and the per-seat bill funds features you ignore.
Flat-fee pricing. Free for solo, Studio $15/mo annual up to 10, Agency $31/mo annual up to 25.
At a glance
Compared on 2026-05-27. Both tools change fast — if you spot something out of date, email hi@hoursmith.app and we'll fix it within 48 hours.
| Feature | Harvest | Hoursmith |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free 1-user tier, then per-seat | Flat fee per workspace (Studio $15/mo annual up to 10; Agency $31/mo annual up to 25) |
| Time tracking (timer + manual) | Yes | Yes — all plans, including Free |
| Invoicing from tracked time | Yes | Yes — all plans |
| Online payments destination | Stripe / PayPal — verify in their current docs how funds settle | Stripe Connect direct charges — funds settle directly to your own Stripe account, Hoursmith never holds them |
| Bring-your-own email | Custom from-address available; verify current Harvest docs for plan availability | Studio+: SMTP / Amazon SES / Resend; credentials encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM |
| Expenses | Yes — receipts, reimbursement, mileage | No — flat-fee line items can capture expenses, but no dedicated expenses module |
| Integration catalogue | Large — QuickBooks, Xero, Slack, dozens more | Smaller — focused on the core loop. CSV export covers most accounting/data needs |
| Importer from prior tool | Harvest is the prior tool here | CSV/Excel importer (clients, projects, time entries); 24-hour undo. Free on every plan |
| Free tier | Free: 1 user, 2 projects | Free forever: up to 3 members, unlimited clients/projects, 5 invoices/mo |
Choose Harvest if…
- · You rely on Harvest's expenses module (receipts, reimbursement, mileage) — Hoursmith doesn't have one.
- · Your accounting team needs the Harvest → QuickBooks / Xero direct integration (CSV would be a downgrade).
- · You're at >25 active users and the per-seat math still pencils out.
- · Your team has Harvest workflows / Zaps / time approval flows that would cost more to rebuild than the price difference saves.
Choose Hoursmith if…
- · You're feeling the per-seat squeeze and your headcount fluctuates with project pipeline.
- · You want online payments to land in your own Stripe account, not be routed through a billing tool's processor.
- · You want invoices to send from your own domain via SMTP / SES / Resend with credentials encrypted at rest.
- · You don't actually use Harvest's expenses, integrations, or approvals — and the per-seat bill funds features you ignore.
Switching questions
Can I import my Harvest data?
Yes, via CSV/Excel. Harvest exports clients, projects, and time entries to CSV; Hoursmith's importer accepts them with auto-detected column synonyms. The importer is free on every plan with 24-hour undo. The Paymo importer doesn't apply here — that's a different tool.
Will my historical invoice numbers stay continuous?
The CSV importer doesn't currently import invoice history — only clients, projects, and time entries. New invoices in Hoursmith start from your chosen prefix and number. If preserving invoice number continuity is critical, archive historical invoices in Harvest as PDFs and start fresh in Hoursmith on the same calendar boundary.
Does Hoursmith have an expenses module?
No. You can capture expense reimbursements as flat-fee line items on an invoice (manual lines pass through exactly as entered), but there's no dedicated receipts / mileage / reimbursement workflow. If that's central to your work, Harvest is the better tool.
Can I run both side by side during evaluation?
Yes. Most teams keep Harvest running for a billing cycle, run Hoursmith Free in parallel against a few clients, then cut over when the math reconciles. Free tier is enough to test the whole loop without a card.
Related
Try it free for 14 days.
No card up front. Import your data from Paymo, CSV, or Excel in a few clicks. Cancel any time — we prorate.
Free for solo freelancers · No credit card · Cancel any time