Harvest's 2026 price increase: what changed, and what your options are
Harvest publishes lower seat prices than it did a year ago. Renewal invoices went up anyway, in one documented case from $130 a month to $2,110[1], because projects, clients, tasks and invoices are billed on usage and no rate card for that usage is published[4]. Everything below is dated and linked.
What actually changed
Bending Spoons completed its acquisition of Harvest in July 2025. The model that followed keeps a per-seat charge and adds a second charge tied to how much of the product an account uses. Older plans move onto it at their renewal date. Harvest says notice goes out 30 days and 10 days beforehand and that plans can be switched in one click[1].
| Pricing element | Before | Now, read 4 September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Published seat price | Around $12 to $13.75 per seat, per month | Teams $9, Enterprise $14 per seat, per month on annual billing |
| Second charge | None | Invoices, projects, clients and tasks billed on usage |
| Per-unit rate for that second charge | Not applicable | Not published. The calculator returns a total, not a breakdown |
| Legacy plans | Held at the old rate | Moved onto the current model as each term renews |
| Free tier | 1 seat | 1 seat |
The headline seat price going down is the part that catches people out. A renewal quote is that seat price plus a usage figure nobody outside Harvest can calculate in advance.
What accounts are being quoted
These are the cases documented in press coverage and public threads. Each row links to its source at the bottom of the page.
| Account | Before | At renewal | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salentis, UK consultancy | $130 / month | $2,110 / month, about 1,500% | [1] |
| US customer, unnamed | $2,800 / year | $23,000 / year | [1] |
| Mike Martin, web designer, 13 years on the same plan | $211.20 / year | $2,547.60 / year, about 12x | [1] |
| Trustpilot reviewer, 7 users | $69 / month | $821.50 / month, about 1,091% | [3] |
| Hacker News user agsqwe, 13 years on the same plan | Around $100 / month | $2,199.50 / month quoted, or $416.05 on usage billing | [5] |
Customers quoted by the BBC called the increase "daylight robbery"[1]. ResetTech, a digital advocacy nonprofit, described the buy-then-reprice model as "exploitative" and counted increases across ten Bending Spoons properties including Evernote and WeTransfer[1]. Gergely Orosz of The Pragmatic Engineer put it as "Bending Spoons bought Harvest and is 10x'ing pricing. It's their known playbook for most acquisitions."[5]
What Harvest says about it
A Harvest spokesperson told the BBC that customers on "outdated" legacy plans faced larger increases as the product had become "a significantly more powerful" tool, and that customers can change plan or request help finding a better price[1].
That help is real and worth asking for. Salentis was offered a one-year rate of $1,309 a month against the $2,110 quote, conditional on prepaying the year, and turned it down on the grounds that it only deferred the increase[1].
Five options, in the order most accounts should try them
Switching tools costs time that no subscription line shows. Three of these five do not involve moving at all, and one of them does not involve us.
- 1
Ask for the discount
Harvest has offered reduced one-year rates to accounts that pushed back, generally with prepayment attached. This costs one email and it is the only option on the list with no migration cost at all.
- 2
Drop to Teams and cut what you are billed on
Usage is counted on invoices, projects, clients and tasks. Archiving finished projects and dormant clients before the renewal quote is generated lowers the number that quote is built from. This works best for small accounts carrying a long history.
- 3
Move to a cheaper standalone tracker
If what you need is a timer, timesheets and light invoicing, Clockify and Toggl Track are the two named most often by people leaving, and both have free tiers that cover a small team. That is a smaller change than moving your whole operation, and for plenty of accounts it is the right answer.
Optivation vs Toggl Track - 4
Consolidate, if you already pay for the rest of the stack
A renewal shock is one of the few moments when replacing several tools at once costs less than replacing one. This is where Optivation fits, and only here. The next section has the numbers without the marketing.
What a small studio gets, and what it gives up - 5
Export your data now, whatever you decide
Reports, then Detailed Time Report, then Export CSV, plus your client and project lists. Do it while the account is live. It is free, and it takes the deadline pressure out of every other decision above.
Side by side, list price only
On published seat price alone, Harvest is cheaper than Optivation at every team size. The comparison only turns when the usage charge lands on top, or when the other tools in your stack are counted in.
| Seats | Harvest Teams, before usage | Harvest Enterprise, before usage | Optivation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $9 | $14 | $19 Solo |
| 3 | $27 | $42 | $49 Studio, flat |
| 5 | $45 | $70 | $87 Studio plus 2 seats |
| 10 | $90 | $140 | $182 Studio plus 7 seats |
Harvest prices read from getharvest.com/pricing on 4 September 2026, annual billing, before any usage charge[4]. Optivation prices are list, monthly, with no annual commitment. Both exclude tax. The $49 Studio plan covers time tracking, invoicing, project databases, pages, intake forms, booking and client sharing in the same workspace, so the like-for-like line is your whole stack rather than the tracker on its own.
What moves across, and what does not
- Time entries from the detailed time report
- Clients and projects
- Hourly rates, set per project once imported
- History stays queryable for billing reconciliation
- Native Xero and QuickBooks sync. Invoices export for upload, and the live connection sits on the roadmap rather than shipped.
- Harvest Forecast, which is a separate scheduling product. Focus Board covers sprint-level scheduling, not long-range capacity planning.
If a live accounting connection is a hard requirement, that gap is real. Several people leaving Harvest have named it as the thing that decides where they land, and it is better to know now than three weeks in.
How Optivation bills, in plain terms
- List prices are on the pricing page and apply to every account.
- Billing is monthly, cancel any time. No annual commitment.
- Seats are the only variable. Nothing is billed on how many invoices, projects, clients or tasks you have.
- The Free plan runs one client end to end and stays open rather than expiring after a set number of days.
Send us the export and we will set it up
Export the detailed time report plus your clients and projects, email it to hello@optivation.io, and we will build the workspace and load the history for you. There is no charge for that and nothing to sign first. The import screen takes the same files if you would rather do it yourself.
The same thing is queued for Airtable
On 4 August 2026 Bending Spoons entered a definitive agreement to acquire Airtable, valuing it at $1.285 billion, with closing expected before February 2027[6]. Harvest customers found out about their repricing at renewal. Airtable customers have the deal announcement as advance notice, which is more warning than most repricings give.
Optivation vs AirtableQuestions people are asking
Why did my Harvest bill go up when the price on the pricing page went down?
Harvest publishes a lower seat price than it did a year ago. Teams is $9 per seat per month on annual billing and Enterprise is $14, read from getharvest.com/pricing on 4 September 2026. The seat price is only part of the bill. Invoices, projects, clients and tasks are also billed on usage, and Harvest does not publish a per-unit rate for them. Accounts with a lot of history carry a lot of usage, which is why long-standing customers report the largest increases.
When does the new Harvest price apply to my account?
At your renewal date, not retroactively. A legacy annual plan holds its old rate until that term ends. Harvest told the BBC that customers are notified 30 days and 10 days before renewal and can change plan in one click.
How much are the Harvest usage fees?
Harvest has not published a per-unit rate card for them. The pricing calculator returns a total without an itemised breakdown of what the invoices, projects, clients and tasks each cost. The only way to see your own number today is the renewal quote on your account.
Can I stay on my old Harvest plan?
Not past your renewal date. Legacy plans are being moved onto the current model as each term ends. Asking for a discount is worth doing: one UK consultancy was offered a one-year rate of $1,309 a month against a quoted $2,110, conditional on prepayment.
How do I get my data out of Harvest?
Reports, then Detailed Time Report, then Export CSV. Export clients and projects the same way. Do this while the account is live, whatever you decide afterwards. An export costs nothing, and an expired account is a much harder place to retrieve history from.
What is the cheapest alternative to Harvest for time tracking?
For a timer and timesheets on their own, Clockify and Toggl Track are the two named most often by people leaving, and both have free tiers that cover a small team. Optivation is not the cheapest line item. It starts at $19 a month for one person and $49 a month for a team of three, and it covers time tracking, invoicing, project databases, forms and booking in one workspace, so the comparison only works if you pay for several of those today.
Can Optivation import my Harvest data?
Yes, by CSV. Export the detailed time report plus your client and project lists from Harvest, then upload them on the import screen. Time entries, clients and projects land as records you can filter, bill from and keep for reconciliation. If you would rather not do it yourself, send the export to hello@optivation.io and we will set the workspace up for you.
Does Optivation sync with Xero or QuickBooks?
Not natively today. Invoices export for upload into your accounting tool, and a live two-way sync is on the roadmap rather than shipped. If that connection is a hard requirement, the gap is real and worth weighing before you move.
Sources
- [1]BBC News, August 2026 — UK business hit by "daylight robbery" price hike for invoicing software
- [2]Bloomberg, 13 August 2026 — Bending Spoons customers decry "outrageous" app price hikes
- [3]Subscription Insider, August 2026 — Harvest pricing change sends some renewals up 1,500%
- [4]getharvest.com/pricing, plan prices read 4 September 2026
- [5]Hacker News thread 49374920 — customer accounts of renewal quotes
- [6]Bending Spoons investor newsroom, 4 August 2026 — definitive agreement to acquire Airtable
Harvest is a trademark of its owner and we have no affiliation with it. Figures describing Harvest are quoted from the sources above or read from Harvest's own published pricing on 4 September 2026. Prices exclude tax. If anything here is out of date, tell us at hello@optivation.io and we will correct it.