Happy Hours vs Harvest
Harvest is a time tracker built for teams, now priced per seat plus usage. Happy Hours is built for one person: time, expenses, invoices, and payments for a flat $10/month.
14 days, no credit card.
Happy Hours
$10/month
Everything included, no usage limits
- Plans
- One plan, every feature
- Usage fees
- None
- Expenses
- Bank sync and AI receipt reading
- ACH fee on a $3,000 invoice
- $5 (0.8%, capped)
- Free trial
- 14 days, no credit card
- Best for
- Solo freelancers and consultants
Harvest
$11/seat/month
Teams plan ($9 billed annually), plus usage fees
- Plans
- Free, Teams, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus
- Usage fees
- Extra projects, clients, tasks, and invoices are billed by usage
- Expenses
- Entered by hand, with receipts attached
- ACH fee on a $3,000 invoice
- $5 through Stripe, plus Harvest’s own fee on some billing options
- Free trial
- 30 days, no credit card
- Best for
- Teams that need approvals and team reports
Happy Hours and Harvest, feature by feature
Both cover the core loop of tracking time and sending invoices. The differences are in what each plan includes, and in who each tool is built for.
| Feature | Happy Hours | Harvest |
|---|---|---|
| Time tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Timesheet view | Yes. Weekly grid, with copy from last week | Yes |
| Calendar view | Yes. Click or drag out blocks of time | Yes |
| Timesheet approvals | No. Built for one person, so there’s no one to approve | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Enterprise plan only |
| Expense tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic receipt parsing | Yes. AI reads receipt photos and PDFs | No. Attach a receipt image, then type in the details |
| Automatic bank & card transaction import | Yes. Bank and card sync via Plaid | No. CSV import only |
| Project management | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited projects & customers | Yes. No caps and no usage fees | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Free plan: 2 projects. Paid plans bill extra projects and clients by usage |
| Time & expense contracts | Yes | Yes |
| Fixed-price contracts | Yes. With milestones | Yes |
| Task granularity | No. Time is tracked per project | Yes. Tasks within each project |
| Budgeting | Yes | Yes |
| Hours budgets | Yes | Yes |
| Dollar budgets | Yes | Yes |
| Retainers | Yes. Monthly retainers that reset each month | Yes |
| Estimates | Yes | Yes |
| Convert approved estimates to invoices | Yes. Or into projects | Yes |
| Invoicing | Yes | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Every plan, but extra invoices are billed by usage |
| Pre-fill line items from time & expenses | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable invoice templates | †Yes, but limited preset options. Four templates with your logo | †Yes, but limited preset options. One template: your logo and colors |
| Multi-currency | No. US dollars only | Yes. One currency per invoice |
| Client portal | Yes. No login needed for your clients | Yes. Client dashboard, no login needed |
| Online payments | Yes. Card and ACH through Stripe | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Stripe on the Teams plan and up, or PayPal |
| Capped ACH fee | Yes. 0.8%, capped at $5 per payment | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Stripe caps ACH at $5, but Harvest adds its own fee on some billing options |
| Financial insights | Yes | Yes |
| Basic profitability & accounts receivable | Yes. Profit by project and customer, plus receivables aging | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Profitability on Enterprise only; no aging report |
| Per-project time reports for any date range | Yes | Yes |
| Expense reports with attached receipts | Yes. PDF reports for any project and date range | Yes |
| Customizable in-depth financial reports | No | *Yes, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees. Up to 4 custom reports, unlimited on Enterprise |
Scroll the table sideways to compare
- *Included, but only in higher tiers or with usage fees.
- †Limited preset options, not fully customizable.
Feature data current as of October 2026.
The key differences
Harvest has been a popular time tracker for agencies and consultancies for years. It’s polished and well integrated, and it’s built around teams: seats, approvals, and team reports. Happy Hours is built for the solo freelancer or consultant, with expenses, budgets, and payments included at one flat price.
Pricing: one flat plan vs seats plus usage
Harvest charges per seat. The Teams plan is $11 per seat per month ($9 billed annually) and Enterprise is $17.50 ($14 billed annually). In 2026, Harvest also started billing paid plans by usage, so additional projects, clients, tasks, and invoices can raise your bill beyond the seat price. The free plan covers one seat and two projects.
Happy Hours is $10/month. Every feature is in the one plan, with no tiers, add-ons, or limits on projects, customers, or invoices, so your bill doesn’t grow as your business does. See pricing.
Expenses that track themselves
In Harvest you type in each expense and attach a photo of the receipt, or import a CSV. Happy Hours connects to your bank and cards through Plaid and pulls transactions in automatically, and its AI receipt reading fills in the details from a photo or PDF. Mark an expense billable, add a markup if you like, and it lands on the next invoice. More on expense tracking.
Getting paid, and what it costs
Both let clients pay invoices online by card or bank transfer through Stripe. In Harvest, the Stripe integration needs the Teams plan or higher, and Harvest adds its own transaction fee on some billing options, on top of Stripe’s.
In Happy Hours, online payments are part of the $10 plan. Bank transfers cost 0.8%, capped at $5, so a $3,000 invoice costs $5 to collect instead of $87.30 by card. Clients pay from a link without creating an account. More on online payments.
Knowing where your money stands
Harvest’s profitability reporting is on the Enterprise plan, and there’s no dedicated receivables aging report. Happy Hours includes financial insights on its one plan: revenue, expenses, and profit by project and customer, receivables aging, 13 weeks of expected collections, and your effective hourly rate on fixed-price work.
When Harvest is the better choice
We’d rather you pick the right tool. Harvest is the better fit if:
- You manage a team and need seats, timesheet approvals, and team reports.
- You track time with a running timer, from desktop apps or a browser extension. Happy Hours has no start/stop timer.
- You track time per task, not just per project.
- You bill international clients in their own currency. Happy Hours invoices in US dollars only.
- You rely on integrations like QuickBooks, Xero, Asana, or Jira.
Switching from Harvest
Moving is quick. Book a free setup call and we’ll import your clients and projects from Harvest and walk you through sending your first invoice. Then try everything free for 14 days, no credit card needed.
Happy Hours vs Harvest FAQ
Is Happy Hours cheaper than Harvest?
For one person, usually. Happy Hours is $10/month with every feature and no usage limits. Harvest’s Teams plan is $11 per seat per month ($9 billed annually), and paid Harvest plans bill extra projects, clients, tasks, and invoices by usage on top of the seat price. Harvest does have a free plan, but it’s limited to one seat and two projects.
Does Happy Hours have a timer like Harvest?
No. Happy Hours doesn’t have a start/stop timer: you enter time afterwards by clicking or dragging blocks on the calendar, or typing hours into the weekly grid. If you live by a running timer and a browser extension, Harvest is the better fit for that.
Can I move my clients and projects from Harvest to Happy Hours?
Yes. Book a free setup call and we’ll import your clients and projects from Harvest, set up your first project, and walk you through your first invoice.
What does it cost to accept ACH payments in each?
Happy Hours charges 0.8% for bank transfers, capped at $5, and 2.9% + $0.30 for cards, only when a client pays online. Harvest connects to Stripe at the same Stripe rates, but its Stripe integration needs the Teams plan or higher, and Harvest adds its own transaction fee on some billing options.
Does Happy Hours work for teams, like Harvest?
No. Happy Hours is built for one-person businesses, so it has no seats, timesheet approvals, or team reports. If several people log time against the same projects, Harvest is the better choice.
Can I invoice in other currencies?
Not in Happy Hours: invoices and payments are in US dollars, for US businesses. Harvest lets you pick a currency for each invoice, so it’s the better fit if you bill international clients in their currency.