11 Best Harvest Alternatives

Margarita Aranza

February 4, 2023

Harvest is a popular agency management software, but it might not be ideal for your agency’s needs.

Harvest is a popular time tracking software that’s mostly been used by freelancers, small business owners, and agencies for many years. However it might not be the perfect fit for everyone. But don’t worry, this article has got you covered. 

Fortunately, since there’s a growing demand for such tools, there are many effective alternatives available. Whether you just want to keep track of time or you’d like to have a more comprehensive agency management software, we’re bringing you a handy list with a mix of popular tools that offer the essential features and some software with more advanced features.

In this blog post, we’ll be exploring the top 11 Harvest alternatives in 2023. 

1. Productive – The Best Harvest Alternative for end-to-end Agency Management

If you’re looking for a reliable tool that can replace Harvest, you should definitely check out Productive. It offers all the same features Harvest has and more.

Productive is a one-stop shop for agencies. It’s an all-in-one agency management software that helps you run a profitable agency business. It offers a wide range of features that include time tracking, project management, forecasting, comprehensive reports and many more.

Productive’s features are meant for the entire team to use: from project managers to designers and your agency’s CEO. It’s a platform that will give you real-time insights into your agencies business processes. With powerful reports, project tracking and invoice creation from billable hours, you have everything you need in a single tool. 

Related: Rietta Leads Its Distributed Team With Productive

Time Tracking

Productive’s simple time tracking allows you to focus more on the work that you’re doing than trying to remember what you did at the end of the day or the week. There’s a built-in time tracker in Tasks and Projects. To track time, all you need to do is press the icon and it’ll start tracking your time on project. This option gives you the most accurate time you spent working on a specific task or project. You can also input your own time entries once you finish a task. 

source: productive

Project and Task management

With Productive you can manage project progression through Tasks, To-Dos and comments. You can have unlimited projects open, choose people who need to do parts of the project, and assign them tasks or to-dos. Comments are great for task-level communication because all your key information is available to those working on a project or managing it.

With Docs, you can collaborate in real time with colleagues. You can simultaneously work in the same document with your coworkers, keep all of your valuable information in on place and up-to-date and without a need for another tool.

Related: Joi Polloi’s Teammates Have More Autonomy Since Using Productive

source: productive

Resource Planning

Employee scheduling and resource planning are really important parts of business management. Knowing which team or employee is overworked or who can take on more work plays a crucial role in project planning as well as overall team and individual performance. Time-off management is another essential feature for resource planning and it’s integrated in Productive’s Scheduling.

Related: Guide to Resource Planning for Agencies

Budgeting and Reporting

With Productive’s Budgeting, you can set up and track budgets and profitability across projects or on a higher level, which makes it easier to gain valuable insights and optimize business processes.  

source: productive

With Productive’s Reporting feature, you can easily create detailed reports using data from time sheets and budgets. You can choose some of the preset report templates or customize your own template. With insightful reports you can forecast expenses, resources and budgets more accurately and be sure your agency is on the right track.

Billing

Billing dozens of clients and projects doesn’t have to be a pain or take days. With Productive’s Billing feature, you can see invoice history and check if any of your clients have outstanding payments that need to be settled.

Integrations

Productive has a lot of active integrations including those with Xero and QuickBooks accounting Software, Jira and Slack.

Pricing

  • Plans start with the Essential plan at $9 per user per month, which includes essential features such as budgeting, project & task management, docs, time tracking, expense management, reporting, and time off management.
  • The Professional plan includes custom fields, recurring budgets, advanced reports, billable time approvals, and many more for $24 per user per month.
  • The Ultimate plan has everything that the Essential plan and Professional plan offer, along with the HubSpot integration, advanced forecasting, advanced custom fields, overhead calculations, and more for a custom price.
  • You can also check out the Enterprise Plan with custom pricing for companies that would include more than 50 active users per month.

You can go for a free 14-day trial before you decide to check out a paid plan.

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2. Hubstaff – A Good Choice for Creative Agencies

Hubstaff is a time tracking software that allows users to track time, manage projects, and monitor employee productivity. A cool feature is the ability to track time on desktop, web, and mobile apps, which makes it easy to stay productive even if you’re on the go.
 
Key Features:

  • Time tracking 
  • Project management  
  • Customizable reports 
  • Automatic payroll integrations with popular accounting software

SOurce: hubstaff

All in all, Hubstaff is a fair choice for agencies looking for Harvest alternatives. You have all the basic features and integrations that’ll make your day-to-day agency management easier. Users like Harvest because of its easy-to-use interface and helpful customer support. Some customers complain about occasional glitches in the software and difficulties with payroll integration. 

3. Wrike – A Solid Solution for Medium-sized Companies

Wrike is a project management software that includes time tracking features. The software is known for its intuitive user interface, customizable workflows, and lots of integrations. Wrike allows users to keep track of time spent on tasks, create reports, and set up billing rates for each project. 

Key Features:

  • Time tracking with automatic timesheets
  • Customizable billing rates 
  • Real-time collaboration 
  • Customizable dashboards 

Source: wrike

Wrike is a solid Harvest replacement that offers many of the same features. Customers like the flexibility for various types of teams and intuitive user interface. However, users have mentioned issues with customer support response times and the steep learning curve for new users.

4. Everhour – A Good Choice for Creative Agencies

Everhour is a simple time tracking tool and budgeting software that integrates with popular project management tools like Asana, Trello, and Jira. The software allows users to track time on tasks, set up budgets, and create custom reports. 

Key Features:

  • Time tracking with automatic timesheets
  • Budget tracking 
  • Customizable invoicing feature with billable rates 
  • Customizable dashboards and reports 

source: everhour

Everhour is a good Harvest alternative option since it allows employees to track hours across projects and tasks. Customers are generally happy with the project management software integration and time tracking, but some users mention occasional glitches in the software and difficulty setting up certain features.

5. Timecamp – A Fair Tool for Marketing Agencies

Timecamp is a cloud-based time tracking solution with project management features that offers good support for businesses of all sizes. The software allows users to track time on tasks, set up project budgets, and create custom reports. Additionally, Timecamp offers features for invoicing, payroll management, and team management so you can monitor your team productivity.

Key Features:

  • Time tracking with time budgets
  • Customizable invoices with billable hourly rates 
  • Customizable dashboards and reports 

source: timecamp

Timecamp is a solid option for agencies since it offers a free basic plan for unlimited users so you can see if the tool works for you. Users highlight the user-friendly interface and affordability. There have been complaints about occasional technical issues and limited integrations, though.

6. DeskTime – A Good Tool for Time Tracking

DeskTime is a time tracking and productivity monitoring software that allows users to track time on tasks, monitor employee activity, and create custom reports. The software offers a variety of features for businesses of all sizes, including employee monitoring which is useful for monitoring remote teams. 

Key Features:

  • Time tracking with automatic employee timesheets
  • Employee productivity monitoring 
  • Customizable reports 
  • Offline time tracking for remote workers

source: capterra

DeskTime is a good choice for a productivity tracking and alongside customer support, that’s what user like the most. Customers have complained about occasional technical issues and difficulties with project management features.

7. TMetric – A Solid Time Tracking Tool

TMetric is a time tracking software that offers a variety of features for businesses of all sizes. The software allows users to track time on tasks, set up project budgets, and create custom reports. Additionally, TMetric offers features for invoicing, team management, and productivity monitoring which is especially helpful with assessing employee performance.

Key Features:

  • Time tracking with automatic time capture
  • Resource management 
  • Employee productivity monitoring 

source: tmetric

TMetric is a solid tool that covers most of the basic features you need for your daily agency operations. Customers like the tool’s ease of use and flexible time tracking options, but have expressed dissatisfaction with software glitches and difficulty with invoice generation.

8. Clockify – A Popular Choice for Businesses of All Sizes

Clockify is a time tracking software that offers a variety of features for businesses of all sizes. The software allows users to track time on tasks, set up project budgets, and create custom reports. Additionally, Clockify offers features for invoicing, team management, and productivity monitoring.

Key Features:

  • Time tracking with automatic timesheets
  • Project budget tracking 
  • Customizable invoicing with billable hourly rates
  • Resource management

source: clockify

Clockify is a good option because the basic time tracking features are free, so if you’re just getting started it’s nice to have the option to try out a tool for free. Customers like its user-friendly interface, time tracking and reporting features. Customers have complained about limited customization options for certain features and a lack of project management functionality.

9. QuickBooks Time – A Fair Tool for Enterprises

QuickBooks Time is a cloud-based time tracking solution that offers a good balance of many features that adjust to businesses of all sizes. The software allows users to track time on tasks, set up project budgets, and create custom reports. Additionally, QuickBooks Time offers features for team management, scheduling, and productivity monitoring.

Key Features:

  • Time tracking on tasks 
  • Customizable invoicing with payment integrations 
  • Employee activity tracking 
  • GPS tracking for field teams

source: quickbooks

QuickBooks is generally a fair choice when it comes to tracking time and billing, since it integrates so well with QuickBooks. Still, customers have complained about its lack of automation features, difficulty with navigation and organization of data.

10. Replicon PSA

Replicon PSA (Professional Services Automation) is a cloud-based software designed specifically for professional services organizations. Replicon PSA includes features such as time tracking, project billing, and resource planning.

Key Features:

  • Time and expense tracking 
  • Project management
  • Billing features with custom rates and billing options
  • Forecasting 

source: replicon

Replicon PSA is a good choice for organizations that offer professional services thanks to its fair amount of features. Users like the reporting feature and their customer support, but some have complained about the steep learning curve and difficulty with optimization options.

See also: Replicon Alternatives & Competitors: Top Picks for Agencies

11. Paymo – A Fair Choice for Medium Companies

Paymo is a cloud-based project management and time tracking software designed for small and medium-sized businesses. The software offers a range of features that help businesses manage their projects, team collaboration, and finances. 

Key Features:

  • Time tracking on tasks
  • Task and project management 
  • Invoicing with custom rates  
  • Customizable reports 

source: paymo

Paymo is a solid choice for medium-sized companies since it covers more than basic time tracking. Customer like the value for money they get, but some have complained about software glitches and customer support taking too long to respond.

Takeaway

There are loads of great alternatives to Harvest in 2023, each with their own unique set of features aiming to help you run your agency more efficiently.

It’s important to consider what the specific needs of your are, as well as alignment with your long-term goals and plans before you decide to settle on a time tracking software. It’s essential to educate your employees on how to properly use the software you decide on, so they can use it to its full potential. 

There are great options for simple time tracking like DeskTime or Clockify, but if you’re looking for an end-to-end agency management software, you might want to consider Productive. See how easy it is to migrate from Harvest to Productive and sign up for a free trial today. 

FAQ

What software is better than Harvest?

It’s difficult to say what is a “better” software than Harvest because it all depends on the specific needs and preferences you have for your agency’s teams. You definitely have other time tracking tool options such as Productive, Clockify, and DeskTime. These tools offer the same capabilities and even some additional features, so you can be sure you’re going to find a tool that suits your agency.

Are there free software like Harvest?

Yes, there are free time tracking tools available similar to Harvest, such as Wrike and Timecamp. These tools offer time tracking but also some other features like tracking billable hours, generating invoices, and tracking projects and productivity. 

Is Harvest a legitimate software?

Harvest is a legitimate software that’s been around since 2006. It offers features that’ll help you with managing the basic tasks and pain points in your daily agency life. The features include: time tracking, invoicing, project management, and reporting to help businesses manage their workflow and finances efficiently.

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Margarita Aranza

Marketing Assistant

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