Optivation vs. Harvest
Harvest is a focused time-and-billing tool. Its published plans are Teams at $9 per seat per month and Enterprise at $14 on annual billing, with invoices, projects, clients and tasks billed on usage on top of that, and no per-unit rate published for the usage part. Optivation covers time tracking, invoicing, project databases, intake forms and booking in one workspace at $49 per month flat for a team of up to three, where seats are the only variable.
- You only need standalone time + invoicing and use it across many disconnected tools.
- Your team has a long-running, working integration to Asana/Trello/Basecamp.
- You do not need rich project management or client collaboration in the same app.
- You want the timer where the work is — on the database row, not in another tab.
- You also want pages, kanban, forms, and a unified inbox in the same place.
- You would rather have one bill for the whole workflow than a seat price plus a usage charge.
Time tracking that lives where the work happens.
Harvest is a separate tab. Every Friday, your team reconstructs a week of billable hours from memory. Optivation puts the timer on the same database row as the project, the page, the conversation. Hours capture themselves.
- 1. Open project in Asana/Trello/Basecamp
- 2. Switch to Harvest tab to start a timer
- 3. Switch back to do the work
- 4. Forget to stop the timer
- 5. Reconstruct hours on Friday
- 1. Open the project record in Optivation
- 2. Hit play right there — work happens
- 3. Click Generate Invoice — done.
Feature-by-feature
No checkbox fluffing. Where Harvest is genuinely better, we say so.
| Feature | Optivation | Harvest |
|---|---|---|
| Start/stop timer with desktop and mobile apps | ||
| Per-project / per-task hourly rates | ||
| Branded invoicing with tracked hours | ||
| Stripe payment links on invoices | ||
| Timer lives on a project record, not a separate app | ||
| Harvest is by design a standalone tracker. Optivation keeps the timer in the same view as the work. | ||
| Project management built-in (databases, kanban, pages) | ||
| Client sharing of project records (free) | ||
| Harvest does not provide client-facing project workspaces. | ||
| Forms that collect client briefs into your database | ||
| Expense tracking attached to projects | Basic | |
| Harvest has more polished expense tracking. Optivation covers basics. | ||
| Quickbooks/Xero export of invoices | Roadmap | |
| Harvest wins for legacy accounting integrations today. | ||
| Pricing for a 10-person team | $182/mo (Studio + 7 seats) | $90–$140/mo published, plus usage |
| On published seat price Harvest is cheaper at every team size. Optivation $182/mo also covers pages, databases, forms, kanban, unified inbox and free client sharing, so the like-for-like line is the whole stack. Harvest usage charges on invoices, projects, clients and tasks sit on top of the figures shown. | ||
Harvest is a trademark of its owner and we have no affiliation with it. Prices and features read from getharvest.com on 4 September 2026.
Migrating from Harvest
- 1Check whether you need to move at all. The 2026 Harvest price increase, what changed and your options covers asking for a discount and cutting what you are billed on.
- 2In Harvest, export your time entries (Reports → Detailed Time Report → Export CSV).
- 3In Optivation, create a database for projects and clients. Import the CSV — entries become time-entry rows.
- 4Set hourly rates per project on the new database.
- 5Connect Stripe in Settings → Billing.
- 6Send your first invoice in 60 seconds — your first month often pays for the switch.
What would switching from Harvest actually save you?
Drop in your team size and see your monthly stack cost (with the typical companion tools) vs Optivation, plus annual savings. It takes about 10 seconds.
Run the numbersFrequently asked
The questions teams ask before switching.
Can I import my Harvest history?
Yes. Export the detailed time report and your client/project list to CSV, then import into Optivation. Historical hours stay queryable for billing reconciliation.
Does Optivation support team timesheets?
Yes — every team member sees a personal timesheet and managers can approve / unapprove batches before invoicing.
Will I lose Harvest Forecast?
Forecast is Harvest's separate scheduling product. Optivation Focus Board covers sprint-level scheduling; for long-range capacity planning we are catching up.
Does the math work for a small team?
A 5-person team on Harvest Teams is $45/mo at the published seat price, before usage charges. The same team on Optivation Studio is $87/mo (Studio $49 plus 2 seats at $19). That is more than the Harvest line on its own, and it replaces the separate project management tool, forms tool and client portal alongside it. The break-even is whether you pay for one of those today.
Is there a free alternative to Harvest for agency time tracking?
Harvest has a free tier of 1 seat. Optivation has a Free plan that runs one client end to end and stays open rather than expiring after a set number of days, then $19/month for one person and $49/month for a team of up to three. It covers the same core as Harvest (time tracking, invoicing, Stripe payment links) and adds project databases, kanban, intake forms and free client record-sharing. Prices read from getharvest.com on 4 September 2026.
How does Harvest pricing compare to Optivation for a small agency?
Harvest publishes Teams at $9 per seat per month and Enterprise at $14 on annual billing, so a 5-person team is $45 or $70 before usage charges on invoices, projects, clients and tasks, which Harvest does not publish a per-unit rate for. Optivation Studio is $49/month flat for up to three seats, then $19 per extra seat, so the same team is $87/month with no usage component. Harvest is cheaper on published seat price at every team size. The comparison turns on the usage charge and on how many other tools Optivation replaces. Prices read 4 September 2026.
Other tools people weigh against Harvest
Most teams shortlist two or three before they switch. Here are the rest of the 15 head-to-heads.
Try Optivation free, no card required.
Solo $19/mo. Studio $49/mo for up to 3 seats. 30-day free trial replaces Harvest and the rest of your stack.