Harvest alternatives in 2026, including what Winnows doesn’t have

Harvest’s 2026 pricing moved from flat per-seat to a per-seat base plus usage fees, and a lot of ten-year customers are shopping. This is the list they keep comparing, with the question to ask each tool, and a plain account of where Winnows fits.

Start with what you actually need

• Do you invoice from the time-tracking tool, or from your accounting tool?
• Does your history need to come across — and can you verify it did?
• Is there a seat minimum, or a fee on how many projects you run?
• Do you want an app that watches the desktop? (Most people say no.)
• Can you leave with your data, and is that written down?

The tools people are evaluating

Descriptions are from the vendors’ own pages and public discussion; the question is what to verify for your case.

• Clockify

  Broad free tier; invoicing and a Xero integration; a browser timer.

  Ask How fixed-fee projects are handled, and how tax carries into Xero invoices.

• Keito

  Time tracking with invoicing and expenses; AI features.

  Ask Which plan includes the Xero sync, and whether the AI features can be turned off.

• Toggl Track

  A polished timer with reports; many integrations.

  Ask Whether the Xero integration syncs invoices or only starts a timer inside Xero.

• Kimai

  Open source, self-hosted, an API.

  Ask Whether you want to run it yourself, and who upgrades it.

• MyHours, HourCap, Quanta, Timen

  Small vendors aimed at solo practitioners and small teams; several with invoicing.

  Ask Seat minimums, budget alerts, rounding rules, and how the vendor is funded.

• Xero Projects

  Lives inside Xero, which matters if Xero is where you invoice.

  Ask Per-project rates and budget alerts — the two things switchers report missing.

Where Winnows fits

Winnows is time tracking for teams that bill by the hour: clients → projects → tasks, member × project bill rates with effective dates, a week grid and timer, approvals, and reports that reconcile to the cent. It imports a full Harvest account — every client, project, rate and hour — and ends with a reconciliation report that compares every total against Harvest’s, to the cent, so you can check before you cancel anything.

Pricing has no usage dimensions: free for 2 people and 1 active project, then $9 per active member per month, archived people free, no seat minimum. No AI, no screen monitoring. Everything exports, and the exit guarantee is written down.

Where Winnows does not fit

• No invoicing. It exports invoice-ready line items for QuickBooks or Xero. If you invoice from the time tool with your own templates and terms, it is not for you.
• No expenses, estimates, payments or retainers.
• No native mobile apps (a responsive web app) and no browser-extension timer yet.
• No SSO/SAML and no integrations marketplace.