If your Harvest renewal notice landed at three or four times what you paid last year, you're not imagining it. In July 2025, Bending Spoons, the Italian software company known for buying up beloved apps and restructuring their pricing, acquired Harvest. Since then, freelancers and small agencies have been searching for Harvest alternatives in numbers that weren't happening a year ago.
Here's what actually changed, why it hits solo freelancers harder than you'd expect, and what to switch to if time tracking was never really the point.
What changed with Harvest's pricing
Before the acquisition, Harvest charged a simple flat rate per seat. You knew your bill before you saw it. That changed. Harvest's current plans are Free (one seat, two projects), Teams at $9 per seat per month billed annually, and Enterprise at $14 per seat per month billed annually. On the surface, that looks like a modest increase.
The real cost is in what got added underneath: usage fees. Once your account passes the number of invoices, projects, clients, or tasks included in your base plan, you start paying more, on top of your seat cost. Two freelancers with the exact same one-seat plan can end up with very different bills depending on how many projects and invoices they actually run each month, which for most working freelancers is the entire point of using the software in the first place.
G2 reviewers have reported increases as high as 600% after their first post-acquisition renewal. Some of that comes from checkout flows defaulting people into Enterprise. Some of it comes from usage fees nobody budgeted for.
This isn't Bending Spoons' first time doing this. The same pattern showed up after its acquisitions of Evernote, Meetup, WeTransfer, FiLMiC Pro, and Komoot: buy an established tool, then restructure pricing around usage instead of a flat fee. If you've been through one of those before, the Harvest playbook will feel familiar. (Source: Wikipedia, Harvest (software))
Why this hits solo freelancers harder than agencies
Agencies negotiate. They have a finance person who reads the renewal email, calls Harvest, and finds a workaround. Solo freelancers usually don't have that leverage, or the time. You open the invoice, see the number, and either eat the increase or start looking for an alternative that fits how you actually work.
There's also a mismatch in what Harvest was built for versus what most solo freelancers need it for. Harvest is a time tracker first, with invoicing bolted on. If you're a designer, developer, consultant, or coach who bills by project or retainer rather than the hour, you were probably never using most of what Harvest does. You were paying for a full time tracking and project management suite to send a handful of invoices a month.
What to look for in a Harvest alternative
Before you switch, get clear on what you're actually paying for. Most solo freelancers need three things.
A way to turn a scope of work into a proposal the client can accept online, without a back and forth over email.
An invoice that goes out automatically once that proposal is accepted, with a payment link the client can actually use.
Follow-up that happens without you having to remember to send it. This is the piece that flat per-seat time trackers never solved, since chasing a late payment isn't a time tracking problem.
If you genuinely bill by the hour and need granular time tracking across a team, a dedicated tool like Toggl Track paired with lighter invoicing software might still make sense. But if you're one person sending a manageable number of invoices a month, the usage-fee model that made Harvest painful is exactly the thing to avoid in whatever you switch to next. If you're also evaluating other invoicing software after a similar price hike, see how Bonsai's current pricing compares or check what an AI-built invoice generator looks like.
A simpler way to handle invoicing without the usage fees
This is where Nvoyce is built differently. There's no per-invoice fee, no per-project fee, and no per-client fee stacked on top of your subscription. Solo is $19.99 a month (or $15.99 a month billed annually for your first year) and covers unlimited invoices and proposals. Team is $39.99 a month for three seats if you're not solo anymore.
You write a proposal, the client accepts it online, and the invoice with a Stripe payment link goes out automatically. If they don't pay, Nvoyce follows up on a schedule so you're not the one keeping track of who owes what. It's the same "get paid without chasing" job Harvest was never really built to do, without the surprise usage bill at renewal. Payments run through Stripe's standard checkout, so your clients aren't handing you card numbers directly. (Learn more about Stripe payment links)
If you're not sure whether switching is worth it, the honest test is this: open your last three Harvest invoices and count how many of them used time tracking at all. If the answer is close to zero, you've been paying for a feature you don't use, and the usage fees on top of it are the least of your problems.
Nvoyce offers a 7-day free trial with full access, no credit card required. If Harvest's new pricing pushed you to actually compare your options, see what a straightforward invoice and proposal tool looks like.
Related Reading
- Bonsai Alternatives in 2026: What Freelancers Are Actually Switching To
- The Best AI Invoice Generator for Freelancers in 2026
- From Proposal to Paid: The Best Freelance Software That Handles the Whole Flow in 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Harvest's pricing change so much?
Harvest was acquired by Bending Spoons in July 2025. The company restructured pricing from a flat per-seat rate to a per-seat base plus usage fees for invoices, projects, clients, and tasks beyond what's included in your plan. This is a pattern Bending Spoons has repeated across other acquisitions, including Evernote and WeTransfer.
Is Harvest still free for solo freelancers?
Harvest's Free plan covers one seat and two projects. Most working freelancers outgrow two active projects quickly, at which point you're on the Teams plan starting at $9 per seat per month, plus any usage fees.
What's the difference between Harvest and an invoicing tool like Nvoyce?
Harvest is built primarily as a time tracker with invoicing added on. Nvoyce is built around the proposal-to-paid flow: you send a proposal, the client accepts it, an invoice goes out automatically with a payment link, and follow-up happens without you doing it manually. If you don't need detailed team time tracking, you're likely paying for more tool than you use with Harvest.
Do I need time tracking software if I bill by project or retainer?
Not necessarily. If your invoices are based on a scope of work or a monthly retainer rather than hours logged, a proposal and invoicing tool covers what you need without paying for time tracking you're not using.
Will I lose my invoice history if I switch from Harvest?
Most invoicing tools, including Nvoyce, let you export your Harvest data (client list, past invoices) as CSV before you cancel. Keep a copy of your historical invoices for your own records and tax filing regardless of which tool you land on.
What should I look for in any Harvest alternative, not just Nvoyce?
Check the pricing page for usage-based fees before you commit, not just the advertised starting price. A tool that charges per invoice or per client can end up costing more than Harvest did once you're actually using it.