TimeTracker vs Harvest
The best self-hosted Harvest alternative: free, open source, with no subscription fees. Leave Harvest and keep full control of your time-tracking data.
TimeTracker
$0/month
vs
Harvest
~$11+/user/mo
A 10-person team saves ~$1,320 a year with TimeTracker — and keeps their data.
Harvest
Mature cloud time tracking and invoicing. Strong for agencies—but per-seat pricing adds up, and you cannot self-host your primary database.
- Typical paid plans are ~$11–$12+/seat/mo (annual billing; check current vendor pricing)
- Data lives on Harvest infrastructure
- No fully self-hosted deployment option
TimeTracker
Self-hosted, open source. All features included, no recurring costs.
- Free, no per-user fees
- Data stays on your server
- Built-in invoicing & reports
| Feature | TimeTracker Winner | Harvest |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 / month | ~$11+/user/mo |
| Self-hosted | Cloud only | |
| Open source | Proprietary | |
| Built-in invoicing | Yes (cloud product) | |
| Persistent server-side timers | ||
| Unlimited users | Per-user pricing | |
| Switch today | Switch today — it's free | |
Snapshot — May 2026
Harvest Forecast, expenses, and what maps in TimeTracker
Harvest bundles time, expenses, retainers, and a Forecast add-on aimed at agencies. TimeTracker focuses on deep time + project accounting with invoicing in one deployable stack—great when you already run BI elsewhere but need tamper-evident hours under your roof.
| Harvest capability | Harvest (cloud) | TimeTracker mapping |
|---|---|---|
| Retainers & budgets | First-class project economics | Project budgets + reporting; tune exports for finance |
| Expenses & receipts | Native expense module | Expense tracking in-app; attach workflows that fit your policy |
| Forecasting headcount | Dedicated Forecast product | Feed CSV/API exports into your existing planning tools |
3-year TCO snapshot
Quick sanity check for finance: multiply seats × monthly rate × 36 months. TimeTracker's license is $0; your ops budget is servers and maintenance.
| Team size (billable seats) | Years | Illustrative Harvest cost (~$11+/seat/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | ~$132 |
| 1 | 3 | ~$396 |
| 1 | 5 | ~$660 |
| 5 | 1 | ~$660 |
| 5 | 3 | ~$1,980 |
| 5 | 5 | ~$3,300 |
| 10 | 1 | ~$1,320 |
| 10 | 3 | ~$3,960 |
| 10 | 5 | ~$6,600 |
| 25 | 1 | ~$3,300 |
| 25 | 3 | ~$9,900 |
| 25 | 5 | ~$16,500 |
Illustrative math only—verify current vendor pricing, discounts, and tax in your region. TimeTracker infrastructure cost (VPS, backups) is separate but typically far below multi-year SaaS TCO at 5+ seats.
Practical migration checklist
- Export time entries, clients, projects, and rate cards from Harvest (Harvest → Reports → export or account-level exports (verify current UI labels in your workspace).).
- Stand up TimeTracker via Docker on staging; import or recreate structure—whichever is faster for your volume.
- Run parallel tracking for one payroll cycle; reconcile hours before you decommission the old system.
- Document URLs, API keys (if any), and backup cadence for your self-hosted instance.
Choose TimeTracker if…
- You want predictable cost at 5+ seats without haggling for discounts.
- Compliance or client contracts require data to stay in-house.
- You already run Docker for other internal tools.
- You need invoicing, reports, and audit trails in one codebase you can patch.
Still unsure? Try the live demo and read the full compare hub.
Ready to leave Harvest behind?
Switch today — it's free, it's yours forever, and your data never touches a vendor's cloud again.
No credit card · no per-seat fees · cancel-proof by design