2026-09-16
The renewal is the price: Harvest’s twelvefold quote and Toggl’s renewal fine print
The price of a time tracker is the number on the renewal, not the number on the pricing page. Two tools show the gap: Harvest loudly, Toggl in its help articles.
Harvest: roughly twelve times, at renewal
In August, Bloomberg reported on a freelance Harvest customer whose annual subscription was set to renew at roughly twelve times the price: from around $211 to more than $2,500.
Harvest’s pricing page does not show a number like that. It lists Teams at $9 a seat a month billed annually and Enterprise at $14, then says: “Your base rate includes core features. As your team grows, additional invoices, projects, clients, and tasks are billed based on what you use, so you’re never overpaying.” The amounts for those are not on the page. The seat price is the only figure it gives you. (What each of those lines charges for.)
Harvest’s explanation came from a spokesperson, to the BBC: customers on “outdated” legacy plans, some dating back to 2011, faced larger increases as the product became “a significantly more powerful” tool. Customers are notified “30 days and 10 days before their renewal date”, and can switch plans “in one click” or ask for help finding a better price.
The UK consultancy in the same report pushed back and was offered a discount for the next year, down to $1,309, paid up front. Its head said the offer would just “delay the inevitable”. A discount for one year is a price for one year. (What that kind of offer is.)
What the thirty days are for
By Harvest’s own account, the first notice comes 30 days out. That is the whole decision window, so spend it in this order.
- Divide the renewal total by last year’s total. That multiple is the price change, and the seat price on the page will not tell you it.
- Ask for the options in writing, and ask about the year after next as well as next year. A one-year discount does not answer that.
- Export before the date, whichever way you decide. Harvest’s exports come in separate parts, and we listed them in order.
Import your Harvest account and read the reconciliation
Free for 2 people and 1 active project; $9 per active member per month after that, no usage fees on anything. The import runs on the free plan.
Toggl: the renewal terms are written down
Toggl publishes its billing rules in its help center. Three of them decide what a renewal costs.
The first is which price. Toggl’s pricing page shows Premium at $16 per user per month, beside a billing toggle whose annual option reads “Save 33.3%”. Toggl’s help article on pricing, updated 15 July 2026, lists “Premium Annual: 18 USD/EUR” and “Premium Monthly: 20 USD/EUR”. That may be a change the help article has not caught up with, or a rate for new sign-ups. Neither page explains the difference. If you are signing up at $16, ask what the renewal is billed at, and keep the answer.
The second is what gets counted. “On your renewal date, you’re charged for your license count, not your active user count,” says Toggl’s article on monthly and annual billing. Removing a member frees them from their license, but, in the pricing article’s words, “the license itself stays on your subscription — and stays billed — as a vacant license until an admin manually removes it.” A team that shrank during the year renews at its license count, empty seats included, unless someone removes them first.
The third is when a discount stops. Toggl’s discounts for non-profits and education (for non-profits, “typically 30–50% off paid plans”) are “granted for a set period: 6 months for monthly subscriptions, or 12 months for annual subscriptions”. They “do not renew automatically”, and “If a subscription renews after the discount period lapses, we cannot provide a refund for the missed discount.” For an annual customer on a discount, that is a year-two rise written into the terms, unless someone asks Toggl to renew the discount before it runs out and gets a yes.
The warning is short. Toggl says it sends a reminder “a few days before the renewal”. Harvest’s first notice is 30 days out.
What to check before any renewal date
- The renewal rate per seat, in writing, including the year after a discount ends.
- What is counted: active people, licenses including empty ones, or projects, clients, tasks and invoices.
- When the notice arrives, and whether that leaves time to export and move.
- When any discount ends, and whether it ends on its own.
- Whether your history leaves with you in a form you can use. The exit test has the questions.
Where Winnows sits
Winnows counts active members: $9 per active member per month, free for two people and one active project, and nothing per project, client, task or invoice. An archived member is not billed. There is no usage line on the bill at all.
If you are leaving Harvest, the import brings the whole account across and ends with a report that reconciles every total to Harvest’s (how that works).
Import your Harvest account and read the reconciliation
Free for 2 people and 1 active project; $9 per active member per month after that, no usage fees on anything. The import runs on the free plan.