FreshBooks vs. Harvest

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
FreshBooks
Score 7.7 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
FreshBooks is an accounting service for small businesses. The solution enables users to send and manage invoices, track billable time and collect online payments. The vendor’s value proposition this that their solution provides a straightforward service that simplifies the billing process.
$19
per month
Harvest
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Harvest is used to track time, gain insights from past projects, and get paid for work. Dedicated apps and integrations with popular tools like Asana and Slack allow Harvest to fit into a team’s workflow. A selection of visual reports are offered to keep projects running smoothly and an organization's team supported. Harvest also helps to turn a team’s tracked time and expenses into professional nvoices and collect payment quickly with integrated online payments.
$0
per user
Pricing
FreshBooksHarvest
Editions & Modules
Lite
$19
per month
Plus
$33
per month
Premium
$60
per month
Select
Custom Pricing
Harvest Free
$0
forever
Harvest Pro (Annual)
$10.80
per month per seat
Harvest Pro (Monthly)
$12
per month per seat
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FreshBooksHarvest
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FreshBooksHarvest
Considered Both Products
FreshBooks
Chose FreshBooks
I had looked at Harvest as a competitor due to their integration with Asana, but ultimately settled on FreshBooks due to how easy the mobile app made it to make time entries, take photos of receipts & assign as expenses to various clients, projects, etc since I'm mobile most of …
Chose FreshBooks
We use QuickBooks for all of our reporting, payroll, taxes, and expenses. But Freshbooks makes invoicing way more user friendly for our clients since it is web based rather than a downloaded program.
Harvest
Chose Harvest
FreshBooks is a great program and I used to use it before my needs changed and I needed different features. When I switched, Harvest had made the most progress versus other platforms of making time tracking easy. This is important for accuracy versus having team members forget …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
FreshBooksHarvest
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
8.4
35 Ratings
11% above category average
Harvest
-
Ratings
API for custom integration8.530 Ratings00 Ratings
Plug-ins8.226 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
9.6
41 Ratings
15% above category average
Harvest
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions9.141 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
7.1
57 Ratings
9% below category average
Harvest
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.357 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports8.255 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports4.82 Ratings00 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
7.3
56 Ratings
5% below category average
Harvest
-
Ratings
Accounts payable7.641 Ratings00 Ratings
Accounts receivable8.955 Ratings00 Ratings
Cash management7.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Bank reconciliation7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Expense management6.351 Ratings00 Ratings
Time tracking7.042 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-currency support7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Regulations compliance5.521 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service portal9.13 Ratings00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
8.8
49 Ratings
14% above category average
Harvest
-
Ratings
Pricing8.339 Ratings00 Ratings
Order entry8.537 Ratings00 Ratings
Credit card processing8.541 Ratings00 Ratings
Cost of goods sold10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FreshBooksHarvest
Small Businesses
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.6 out of 10
Traqq
Traqq
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 7.4 out of 10
TimeClock Plus
TimeClock Plus
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 6.8 out of 10
TimeCamp
TimeCamp
Score 8.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FreshBooksHarvest
Likelihood to Recommend
7.3
(75 ratings)
9.4
(50 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.6
(18 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(20 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.2
(11 ratings)
8.4
(18 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FreshBooksHarvest
Likelihood to Recommend
FreshBooks
I recommend FreshBooks to anyone running a service-based business that needs invoicing, time reporting, and accounting tools. FB is adept in all three of these scenarios and isn't overly complicated like similar accounting packages I have used. I love how I can write estimates and proposals, manage the business development process from the software, and quickly convert prospects to invoiced clients.
Read full review
Harvest
Harvest is ideally suited for a variety of scenarios, particularly in the realms of freelance or consulting work, where accurate hour tracking for billing is crucial. It excels in small to medium businesses managing team projects, allowing for effective resource allocation and time management across multiple concurrent projects. For budgeting and forecasting, Harvest provides valuable data, aiding in accurately estimating the duration and cost of future projects based on past data. It's also highly beneficial for remote or distributed teams, thanks to its cloud-based platform that facilitates seamless coordination. Additionally, its detailed reporting features enhance client transparency, fostering trust through clear communication of time spent on projects. However, Harvest may be less suitable for larger enterprises with complex integration needs or specialized industries requiring more niche features. Small startups or individuals on tight budgets might find the cost challenging, especially if they don't fully utilize all its features. Lastly, for those needing only basic time tracking, simpler or free tools might be more appropriate, making Harvest an unnecessary expenditure for basic needs.
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Pros
FreshBooks
  • Invoicing - FreshBooks basically ensures our accountants spend less time on invoices via its automated invoicing system, which sends invoices to our customers and clients alike and also send them regular reminders for them to pay up their bills.
  • Collecting business insights - FreshBooks enable our company analysts measure our business performances via data reports provided by FreshBooks' intuitive dashboard. Allowing us do a comparative analysis of key business metrics of a current month against past months and determine if the business is growing.
  • Expense tracker - We have recently embraced FreshBooks as an expense tracker for teams at our company branch. Thusfar, FreshBooks has performed very well, making our expense management a perfect operation; ensuring teams do not exceed their planned budget and also eliminating the need for tracking expenses on excel spreadsheets.
Read full review
Harvest
  • Offers several options on using the tool, for example, you can use the app on your phone, the app for desktop, or simply have the website open.
  • The timer integrates with other platforms. For example, our team uses Asana as our project management tool. Now, in real-time, I can know which projects my team is working on and whether we're implementing good time management strategies to meet our goals.
  • The summary break downs are wonderful! You can view an individual's hours as well as project hours. There are even notifications you could receive when your team is getting close to reaching the allotted time for a client's project.
Read full review
Cons
FreshBooks
  • I can brand invoices with my business logo, but I might like to change colours of the invoices themselves to match the rest of my business documents. That isn't a major point at all, but it's something that I'd like to see.
  • Freshbooks doesn't remember the categories that similar expenses were previously assigned to. It would be nice if Freshbooks would suggest a category for an already saved vendor, to ensure the consistency of expense reporting.
  • The home page of a Freshbooks account has a great graph display of expenses and income, but it only shows the last 6 months. This is still very useful, but I'd like to be able to see this kind of graph for different periods of time.
Read full review
Harvest
  • I’m still trying to figure out how tasks best associate to a specific project. There’s a couple different places to edit that and I’m a little confused as to best practice.
  • Does not integrate into basecamp which is our project management system
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Likelihood to Renew
FreshBooks
At the current needs of our business, FreshBooks suits us perfectly - it allows online access by our accountant to the system for GST purposes, easy input of expenses and tracking of Profit and Loss statements. FreshBooks customer service is great as well - very understanding and accommodating.
Read full review
Harvest
No answers on this topic
Usability
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is very easy to use even for novices. If you're looking for an online accounting software that is full of features, has great aesthetics and is user-friendly, then this is definitely the software for you. I've been using it for several years now and despite being tempted to switch by other vendors, I like the feel of FreshBooks and it's mobile features.
Read full review
Harvest
Although Harvest is excellent for the functions that we are currently using it for, including Estimate Tracking, Invoicing, Project Management and receivables - I would like to be able to easily upload Payroll/Time Information to each project, as well as a bulk Expense report to each project on a weekly or monthly basis
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Reliability and Availability
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is easy to use and always works!
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Harvest
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
FreshBooks
I think the support level for FreshBooks is on par with a 6 because the folks behind this application do a fairly good job at providing support for their customer base. I still don't think they are at an elite level when it comes to supporting but are getting there although too slow in my opinion.
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Harvest
They're very responsive and do their best to answer whatever questions we've had. Sometimes, the question or request we've made is for a feature that doesn't yet exist, however in most cases those features have been built later and did eventually address our need.
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Implementation Rating
FreshBooks
I haven't changed my mind since my first evaluation. Freshbooks is still meeting my needs, easy to use, etc.
Read full review
Harvest
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
FreshBooks
FreshBooks does very well in comparison, especially since it is free software for Barclays bank users. Sage software is much worse than FreshBooks. However, Xero and QuickBooks, the market leaders, are still ahead with usability, additional features, reporting, and connection with third-party software providers. We chose FreshBooks as it does everything we require from this type of software.
Read full review
Harvest
Harvest is significantly better than Jira. I think Jira's is not originally intended to be used as a time logging/management system, but we had been previously using it as that. It was much clunkier, and many employees had a difficult time using it as a user interface goes. Harvest is much more user friendly and has simplified the daily time-logging process for everyone in our office
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Return on Investment
FreshBooks
  • In reality, we do not implement all of its use at the moment in order to determine an adequate ROI.
  • In our approach to the use of the system, it seems to us a considerable time saving by achieving the integration of the Mexican subsidiary with its parent located in the US.
  • Financial reports meet the necessary USGAAP requirements.
Read full review
Harvest
  • Harvest has improved our payment schedules. Since we switched, we get paid for projects much sooner.
  • Harvest has saved us a ton of time with payroll. We are able to track our users time and pay them appropriately based on their billable hours.
  • Harvest is becoming a lifesaver around tax time. The reporting features have allowed us to pull reports for our tax accountant.
Read full review
ScreenShots

FreshBooks Screenshots

Screenshot of the dashboardScreenshot of an invoice overviewScreenshot of an example of a customizable invoiceScreenshot of an invoice appearing across devicesScreenshot of expensesScreenshot of time tracking

Harvest Screenshots

Screenshot of the time tracking experience in HarvestScreenshot of project progress tracking, with budgets and costsScreenshot of team capacity trackingScreenshot of a visualization displaying where a team's time is goingScreenshot of Harvest invoicing, that turns tracked time and expenses into invoices so users can get paid online