Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
FreshBooks
Score 6.2 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.
$15
per month
Harvest
Score 8.7 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
$15
per month
Plus
$30
per month
Premium
$55
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
NoYes
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
1.2
32 Ratings
142% below category average
Harvest
-
Ratings
API for custom integration1.327 Ratings00 Ratings
Plug-ins1.223 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
6.4
38 Ratings
20% below category average
Harvest
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions2.938 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
4.5
52 Ratings
51% below category average
Harvest
-
Ratings
Dashboards4.652 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports4.150 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
4.7
51 Ratings
45% below category average
Harvest
-
Ratings
Accounts payable1.236 Ratings00 Ratings
Accounts receivable2.650 Ratings00 Ratings
Cash management7.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Bank reconciliation7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Expense management3.146 Ratings00 Ratings
Time tracking3.739 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-currency support7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Regulations compliance1.218 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service portal9.13 Ratings00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
FreshBooks
3.9
44 Ratings
62% below category average
Harvest
-
Ratings
Pricing2.334 Ratings00 Ratings
Order entry1.334 Ratings00 Ratings
Credit card processing2.136 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 9.1 out of 10
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 8.3 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 8.2 out of 10
TimeCamp
TimeCamp
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FreshBooksHarvest
Likelihood to Recommend
1.4
(70 ratings)
9.0
(47 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.6
(18 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
4.8
(15 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
4.6
(11 ratings)
8.4
(18 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FreshBooksHarvest
Likelihood to Recommend
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is the perfect tool for businesses who have hundreds of clients and customers whom they invoice regularly. It removes the need to manually send invoices to clients and customers, by streamlining inputted information to create an automated invoicing system which keeps clients and customers up to date with their bills. It is also a great tool for managing expenses, especially for companies with different teams working on varying projects, ensuring these teams do not exceed the budget ceiling.
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
  • FreshBooks is pretty intuitive to use. I did have some questions when I first started using the system, but it wasn't a long learning curve.
  • FreshBooks provides more capability than other billing applications such as PaySimple or BlinkSale. FreshBooks does provide an easy invoicing function. It's easy to create invoices that can be sent via email or snail mail to one or more individuals (for example, the decision-maker and the accounting dept). Clients can pay online or send a check and then I note that the payment has been received. If paid by credit card, the system automatically marks the invoice paid. Your business accounts such as bank accounts can be linked to FreshBooks. Then, the system can automatically draw in expenses and will create simple P&L reports, overdue invoices, client history, etc. If you don't have inventory and complex payroll, etc. FreshBooks provides just the right level of capability to make financial tracking simple.
  • FreshBooks integrates with a number of credit card companies. I use Stripe, which has fees similar to Paypal, but much more reliable processing. I can accept all credit cards, including American Express, for a reasonable fee.
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.
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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.
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Harvest
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
FreshBooks
I haven't changed my mind since my first evaluation. Freshbooks is still meeting my needs, easy to use, etc.
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Harvest
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
FreshBooks
We do not consider other options since our client wants the implementation of this platform in order to use it in the two countries where it has operations.

At the moment, full integration was not possible and we still share the information with a Mexican system to complete everything necessary.
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
Read full review
Return on Investment
FreshBooks
  • Freshbooks saves me time compared to when I managed to invoice without an app.
  • Freshbooks make keeping my invoices organized which saves me time.
  • Freshbooks helps me to know who is late on payments. When I was doing this by hand, some invoices would get lost in the clutter and I would not find out I haven't been paid until much later.
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 DashboardScreenshot of Invoice OverviewScreenshot of Beautiful, Customizable InvoicesScreenshot of Invoice seamlessly 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