Harvest Just Got a Lot More Expensive. What Are Your Alternatives?
A recent BBC news story highlighted customer outrage at a 1500% price hike for customers of Harvest, a time tracking and invoicing software provider.
“It’s a classic example of corporate greed over valuing customers,” Richard Haldenby, head of UK consultancy firm Salentis and a Harvest customer told the BBC.
“We have used Harvest in our three companies for at least 15 years and have been loyal and enthusiastic advocates of it,” he said. “But if we were to accept this increase it would double our IT spend for the year, which is completely unaffordable.”
When a routine software renewal turns into a staggering increase in cost of up to 1500 percent business owners have every right to feel outraged. The customer described the situation as “corporate extortion”, while the article also discussed concerns around “predatory renewal rates”. For companies relying on time tracking software and producing invoices we understand that being hit with a 15-fold cost explosion feels like corporate extortion.
“Harvest has completely failed at the transparency test,” the BBC reported Mark Peacock, head of the UK consultancy firm PriceMaker, as saying. “There is no way for a customer to work out how much it’s going to cost them until they get their bill at the end of the month… it is entirely unacceptable.”
But what if the alternative to Harvest is not a compromise?
Behind these sudden spikes lies a familiar corporate story: a popular utility tool gets acquired by a massive overseas private tech conglomerate and the new parent company immediately restructures pricing to squeeze existing users.
For leaders of small and medium-sized consultancies, scrambling for an exit strategy can feel like jumping out of the frying pan and into a fire. Many fear migrating to an alternate system to escape predatory renewal rates will cause onboarding issues. What if you could upgrade your operations easily while dramatically cutting costs?
Why Timewatch is an excellent alternative to Harvest
For organizations searching for a professional, robust, time tracking automation tool with full customer service in the US and the UK and with transparent pricing, Timewatch is an excellent alternative.
Timewatch’s products do the exact same job as Harvest, but with stronger and deeper Teams and Google integration, and without a pricing policy of harvesting customers.
Timewatch Outlook & Teams integration is so tight, it actually runs within Outlook.
Why Timewatch is the best Harvest alternative
- Superior Integration: If your company uses Outlook, Teams or Google, our superior integration automates and streamline time tracking. It turns routine appointments directly into draft timesheet entries and can even automate entry. Timewatch also runs within Outlook & Teams, so users can do everything in Outlook & Teams as they manage their time. Superior integration saves employees hours every week, eliminates administrative friction and increasing timesheet accuracy.
- Data Migration: We can help you migrate from Harvest. You keep as much of your previous data as you want and can be up and running before you need to renew with Harvest (now owned by Bending Spoons)
- Unmatched Flexibility: While legacy systems lock you into rigid structures, Timewatch is highly configurable. It adapts to your specific workflow, rules, and analytics needs rather than forcing your team to bend to rigid software limitations.
- True Cost-Effectiveness: Timewatch delivers a rapid return on investment through genuine transparency. You get powerful enterprise-grade features—from resource scheduling to custom reporting—without worrying about arbitrary, punishing price hikes waiting for you at your next annual renewal.
| Feature | Harvest | Timewatch |
|---|---|---|
| Time tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Timesheets | ✓ | ✓ |
| Projects & tasks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Billable time | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reporting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Expenses | ✓ | ✓ |
| Approvals | ✓ | ✓ |
| Outlook integration | Limited | Deep integration |
| Teams integration | ✓ | |
| Time Tracking inside Outlook | ✓ | |
| Time Tracking inside Teams | ✓ | |
| Automatic calendar → timesheet | ✓ | |
| AI time allocation | ✓ | |
| UK-based company | ✓ | |
| GBP pricing | ✓ | |
| Human support | ✓ | |
| Pricing philosophy | Significant price increases to existing customers | Success should make Timewatch better value — not more expensive. |
A growing customer base should decrease not increase prices
Suppliers should become more efficient and be able to offer better value as their customer base increases, not increase costs. Timewatch can’t promise never to increase prices – but we promise not to surprise you with them. This philosophy is built into our contracts, with increases limited to a sensible low cap and include new functionality, not charge more for it as add on modules. Timewatch rewards customer loyalty, not take advantage of it.
Timewatch may not be for everyone. It’s main market is medium to large enterprises, but it is just as applicable to small companies. The main differences with Timewatch are the deeper integration with Microsoft Outlook & Teams, and the higher level of configurability, which requires more initial – once off – setup effort. The higher level of initial setup not only ensures a “optimal fit” to businesses, it allows more flexibility to change in the future as company rules, methodology and structure changes.
Take back control of your software budget with Timewatch
You don’t have to accept opaque billing models or punishing legacy plan phase-outs as the cost of doing business. If you are tired of absorbing shocking invoices and looking for an intuitive, reliable alternative that respects your bottom line, it is time to look at Timewatch time tracking software. Discover how Timewatch professional services can streamline your timesheets, secure your data, and give your business the stability it deserves.
Who is Timewatch?
Timewatch specializes in professional services timesheet solutions, resource scheduling, and professional services automation software. Our unique selling proposition (USP) is that our solutions are designed to be configured and customized to each organization’s specific requirements while maintaining a single continuously evolving codebase common to all customers. With our enterprise features, we offer a pricing plan that caters to various needs, ensuring that each client can optimize their usage billing effectively.
Timewatch provides the perfect blend of systems configured to each customer’s unique requirements with all the benefits of an off-the-shelf solution, as well as customization options for truly unique features, rules, workflow and AI training. Timewatch is ISO 9001 and 27001 certified, we provide public cloud, private cloud and on-premises solutions in the UK, US, Europe and the rest of the world.
See what replacing Harvest with Timewatch would cost
Contact us to see what a Timewatch pricing plan would cost your organization.
Get a Quote to Upgrade from Harvest
Discover how Timewatch’s Outlook and Teams timesheet app enhances productivity and efficiency.
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 | Outlook Calendar Analytics and Reporting with OutlookOpticsOutlook Optics™ enhances your Outlook implementation by providing eye-opening analytics, team calendar views, and centralized calendar management. You can dig deep into employee activities, utilizing multiple calendars to analyze productivity and future capacity, which is impossible with Outlook alone. |
 | How Outlook AI helps companies analyze what employees are working onMany companies using Microsoft Outlook want to understand what everyone is working on, but don’t want to burden employees with timesheets. What they need is a simple way to view calendar events through their Outlook calendar accounts without disrupting anyone’s daily work. This is exactly what our Outlook Optics and Microsoft Azure AI provides. |
