Harvest
Time tracking and invoicing: timer, expenses, invoices and payments, with more than 50 integrations. Free plan for 1 user and 2 projects; Teams at $9 per user per month.
Time tracking and generating PDF invoices from the hours can be built in a few days. What you lose: online payment of invoices, reconciliation with Stripe, QuickBooks or Xero, and above all the compliance of invoices with local law. In France, continuous numbering and mandatory mentions are up to you; electronic invoicing will eventually require an approved platform.
What you lose
- Online payment of invoices
- Reconciliation with Stripe, QuickBooks and Xero
- Compliance of invoices with local law
- The 50+ integrations
Existing alternatives to Harvest
- KimaiOpen source
Free time tracking (AGPL-3.0), self-hostable, with clients, projects, rates and exports for invoicing.
- solidtimeOpen source
Open-source time tracking (AGPL) for freelancers and teams, with per-project billing.
- ActivityWatchOpen source
Automatic tracking of time spent on the computer (MPL-2.0), data kept locally.
The prompt to build it yourself
Build me a time tracking and invoicing tool for a freelancer, to replace Harvest. Stack: Next.js, TypeScript, SQLite. Data at my place, secrets in .env, no telemetry. To do: - Clients, projects, timer, manual entry, hourly rate per project, re-billable expenses with receipt. - Creating an invoice from the unbilled hours and expenses of a period, with editable lines. - Invoice and quote as PDF: continuous numbering with no gaps, mandatory mentions, VAT per line, deposit. To be validated by my accountant. - Invoices are never deleted or edited: a mistake is corrected with a credit note. - Payment tracking and reminder by email (configurable SMTP); Stripe payment link as an option, in test mode to start with. - CSV export of invoices for my accountant; simple backup. - Tests on numbering and totals; README with the limits. Out of scope: teams, timesheet approval, accounting, and the transmission of invoices through an approved platform that electronic invoicing reform will eventually require (timetable to be checked). Never state that the documents comply with that reform.
Frequently asked questions
- Can Harvest be replaced by a custom-built tool?
- casevibecode verdict: Partly replaceable. Time tracking and generating PDF invoices from the hours can be built in a few days. What you lose: online payment of invoices, reconciliation with Stripe, QuickBooks or Xero, and above all the compliance of invoices with local law. In France, continuous numbering and mandatory mentions are up to you; electronic invoicing will eventually require an approved platform.
- What is Harvest used for?
- Time tracking and invoicing: timer, expenses, invoices and payments, with more than 50 integrations. Free plan for 1 user and 2 projects; Teams at $9 per user per month.
- What alternatives to Harvest already exist?
- Kimai (open source), solidtime (open source), ActivityWatch (open source). Options to compare before committing to a custom build.
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