Everything a small studio used Harvest for, from $19 a month
Track time against the job, set the rate per client, then turn the month's hours into a branded invoice with a payment link on it. That is the loop, and it runs in the same workspace as your project records, intake forms and booking page. Seats are the only thing the bill moves on.
Monthly, cancel any time. Billing moves on seats, not on how many invoices, projects, clients or tasks you have.
The eight things you actually did in Harvest
A small studio uses a fraction of what a time-and-billing tool ships. Here is that fraction, and where each step lives once you move.
The part that is not a like-for-like swap is where it all sits. The project record, the intake form that created it, the page holding the brief and the booking link the client used are in the same workspace as the timer, so the hours attach themselves to the work instead of to a second tab.
What it costs, next to what Harvest publishes
On published seat price Harvest is cheaper at every size on this table. The figures below are the seat price only. Harvest also bills usage on invoices, projects, clients and tasks, and publishes no per-unit rate for it, which is where the renewal quotes people are posting come from.
| Seats | Harvest Teams, before usage | Harvest Enterprise, before usage | Optivation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $9 | $14 | $19 Solo |
| 2 | $18 | $28 | $49 Studio, flat |
| 3 | $27 | $42 | $49 Studio, flat |
| 5 | $45 | $70 | $87 Studio plus 2 seats |
Harvest prices read from getharvest.com/pricing on 4 September 2026, annual billing, before usage. Optivation prices are list, monthly, no annual commitment. Both exclude tax.
What the $49 covers besides the timer and the invoice
Project databases with kanban, calendar and table views. Pages for briefs and scopes. Intake forms that land as records. A booking page. Document templates. Client sharing at no per-guest charge. A unified inbox. The comparison that decides this is your whole monthly tool bill, not the tracker line on its own.
Add up your current stackThe billing details a small shop hits in week one
- Rounding per job to 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes, so 7 minutes bills as 15 if that is how you quote.
- Minimum billable duration per job, for the calls that would otherwise bill as 3 minutes.
- The rate is snapshotted onto the entry when it is logged, so raising your rate does not rewrite last quarter.
- Fixed-fee line items sit on the same invoice as tracked hours, priced by quantity.
- Tax rate and tax name per job, and a currency per job for overseas clients.
What Harvest does that Optivation does not
If one of these is load-bearing in how you run the business, Optivation is the wrong move. Better to find that here than three weeks into a migration.
Most of that list is what Harvest Enterprise sells to teams of ten and up. For a team of one to five billing hourly against named clients, none of it usually bites.
Moving across
- 1In Harvest: Reports, then Detailed Time Report, then Export CSV. Export your client and project lists the same way, and download the invoice PDFs you want to keep.
- 2In Optivation: upload those files on the import screen. Time entries, clients and projects land as records.
- 3Set the hourly rate, rounding and minimum duration on each job.
- 4Connect Stripe, then generate the first invoice from the unbilled hours.
Send the export to hello@optivation.io and we will build the workspace and load the history for you instead. There is no charge for that and nothing to sign first.
What changed in Harvest's 2026 pricing, with sourcesNot moving today?
We will send the migration checklist: which Harvest columns map across, what comes with them, and the two things that do not move at all. Read it before you commit to anything.
One email with the checklist. Nothing after that unless you ask.
Questions people ask before moving
Is Optivation a good Harvest alternative for a freelancer or a small studio?
That is the size it is built for. One person is $19 a month and a team of three is $49 a month flat. It covers the Harvest loop end to end: a timer on the job, a rate per client, rounding rules, an invoice generated from the unbilled hours, and a payment link on it. Above roughly five people the gaps start to matter, particularly the absence of timesheet approval and profitability reporting.
What does Optivation cost compared to Harvest?
Harvest publishes Teams at $9 per seat per month and Enterprise at $14 on annual billing, read from getharvest.com/pricing on 4 September 2026, plus usage charges on invoices, projects, clients and tasks that have no published per-unit rate. Optivation is $19 a month for one person and $49 a month for a team of three, then $19 per extra seat. On published seat price Harvest is cheaper at every size. Seats are the only variable in the Optivation bill.
Does Optivation have timesheet approvals?
No. Time entries are logged and edited, and there is no submit-and-approve step for a manager to sign off before invoicing. If your process depends on approvals, Optivation is the wrong move and it is better to know that now.
Can I bill fixed-price work as well as hourly?
Yes. A job can be set to a lump-sum rate rather than hourly, and fixed-fee line items can sit on the same invoice as tracked hours, priced by quantity. Mixed retainer-plus-overage invoices are assembled by hand rather than generated on a schedule.
How do I move my Harvest data across?
Export the detailed time report plus your client and project lists from Harvest as CSV, then upload them on the import screen. Time entries, clients and projects land as records you can filter, bill from and keep for reconciliation. Send the export to hello@optivation.io if you would rather we set it up for you.
What happens to my old invoices?
Download the PDFs from Harvest before the account lapses. Optivation generates new invoices from the hours you import forward, and it does not reconstruct historic invoice documents from a CSV.
Start on the Free plan and run one client through it
Time one job, generate the invoice, and see whether the loop fits how you bill. Solo is $19 a month and Studio is $49 for three seats when you want the rest of your clients in there.
Harvest is a trademark of its owner and we have no affiliation with it. Harvest prices and plan names read from getharvest.com on 4 September 2026. Prices exclude tax.