Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review I would recommend Upwork to a colleague as a solution to workplace issues. Our company has utilized Upwork to vet out potential competitors as well as partners in a lengthy data analysis project, as well as given our engineering team extra hands when implementing new products, projects, and features. This has allowed our company to stay on track with projects without in-house manpower.
Read full review Pros 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 Allows us to filter freelancers by location. This is especially important when working across time zones. Upwork is one of the only freelancing websites that actually provides a filter for US based contractors; and they rigorously verify this. Huge candidate pool. You're almost guaranteed to find a few individuals who specialize in whatever you're looking for. Allows both fixed bid and hourly. Each one is useful for different kinds of projects. Read full review Cons 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 Read full review In my opinion the worst customer service. It is impossible to contact them via phone, and they are not transparent about their decisions. I feel they don't have the freelance community's best interest in mind. Their focus is on the companies that pay. Freelancers are disposable. They charge ridiculous fees to the freelancers that are the ones that need the money the most because they are the ones starting their businesses. It is like if your employer charges you for coming to work. Read full review Support Rating 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 Support has been great. Rarely have I ever had an issue that has required support but when I have they have been great. I did have to interact with support to confirm my identity and the process was easy and quick and support was helpful to know what I needed to do to accomplish that task.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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 Upwork is better suited for finding contractors that you can have ongoing relationships. Compared to
Fiverr , it's a much easier process to find qualified designers rather than one-time contractors to design simple things for you. The interface is easier to use as well and the billing management makes it so much cleaner and easier to know how much we're spending and how contractors are logging work hours.
Read full review Return on Investment 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 We have gotten close to 50% of all of our clients through the platform. Upwork backs the work done through the platform, so no matter what the client or person you are working with does, you get paid for the work that you do. You aren't left hanging after doing hours of work for a client and then never getting paid for it. Made it easy to communicate with clients from different parts of the world and set up partnerships and agreements in an easier fashion. I would highly recommend it to anyone with a unique skill set. Read full review ScreenShots