Harvest alternative
A Harvest alternative for firms that invoice in Wave
Harvest's current pricing adds usage-based fees for extra invoices, projects, clients and tasks on top of the seat price, and Harvest doesn't connect to Wave. Swell does one job: it turns reviewed hours into a Wave invoice draft, for $15 a month for one person or $29 for a team of three. If you invoice in QuickBooks Online or Xero, Harvest is still the better fit, and this page says why.
Swell vs Harvest for Wave invoicing
Both tools track time by client and project. The differences are price, how the hours reach Wave, and how much else each product does. Harvest details come from Harvest's own pricing and Wave pages, checked on the date at the bottom of this page.
| Feature | Swell | Harvest |
|---|---|---|
| Price for 1 user | $15/month (Solo) | $0 on Free (1 seat, 2 projects), or from $11/month on Teams |
| Price for 3 users | $29/month (Team, 3 users included) | From $33/month (Teams, 3 seats at $11), plus usage fees |
| Price for 5 users | $43/month (Team + 2 users at $7) | From $55/month (Teams, 5 seats at $11), plus usage fees |
| Price for 10 users | $78/month (Team + 7 users at $7) | From $110/month (Teams, 10 seats at $11), plus usage fees |
| Usage fees | None. Unlimited clients and projects on both plans. | Additional invoices, projects, clients and tasks are billed by use. The rates aren't on Harvest's pricing page. |
| Free plan / trial | No free plan. 14-day trial. | Free plan for 1 seat and 2 projects. 30-day trial of paid plans. |
| Wave invoicing | Yes Creates a Wave invoice draft from reviewed time, with grouped or detailed lines. You approve and send it in Wave. | No No direct integration. Harvest suggests exporting time to CSV or Excel. Zapier lists a Harvest + Wave connector you build yourself. |
| QuickBooks Online and Xero | No Wave only | Yes Syncs invoices and payments on Teams and Enterprise |
| Invoicing without accounting software | No Invoices are created in Wave | Yes Built-in invoices on every plan |
| Timer and manual entry | Yes Timer, or a date and duration, plus saved timer shortcuts | Yes One-click timers, daily and weekly timesheets, calendar imports |
| Apps | Partly Responsive web app; no native app | Yes Web, desktop (macOS, Windows) and mobile (iOS, Android) |
| Billing rates | Yes Per task, project or team member, with a different task price on one project | Yes Each project bills by project, person or task rate, with project-specific prices. Cost rates per person on Teams and Enterprise |
| Time rounding | Yes Nearest or up, to 6, 15 or 30 minutes, applied to reports, exports and the Wave invoice | Not listed on Harvest's pricing page |
| Budgets | Partly Project budgets in hours with a burn bar; no budget alerts | Yes Project estimates and budget insights |
| Expenses, fixed fees and approvals | No Hourly time only | Yes Expense tracking and fixed-fee projects on every plan; timesheet approval on Enterprise |
Prices are monthly list prices calculated from each company's published per-seat pricing. Harvest's figures are its "starting from" seat prices; Harvest offers 20% off on annual billing ($9 a seat on Teams), and usage fees come on top.
Why Wave users choose Swell over Harvest
Swell is built for one job: getting a small firm's billable hours into Wave accurately at the end of each billing period.
The Wave invoice is built from your hours, not retyped
Harvest creates its own invoices. To bill through Wave, you export a CSV, as Harvest suggests, or build and maintain a Zapier workflow. Swell connects to your Wave business and creates the invoice draft itself from the time you reviewed, so nobody copies hours from one system into the other.
A monthly price you can work out in advance
Swell is $15 a month for one person, or $29 for a team with three users included and $7 for each extra user. There are no fees per client, project or invoice. Harvest's Teams plan starts at $11 a seat each month, and extra invoices, projects, clients and tasks are billed by use at rates its pricing page doesn't list.
Review the invoice before it exists in Wave
Swell's review step shows each outgoing line, the hours and rate behind it, and the notes from the underlying time entries. You can edit a line description for that invoice without changing the original entries, then create a draft. The invoice stays a draft until you approve and send it in Wave.
Invoiced time cannot drift or be billed twice
When Swell creates a Wave invoice, it links every included time entry to that invoice and freezes the hours and amount. Linked entries can't be edited, deleted or picked for a second invoice. One rounding rule (nearest or up, to 6, 15 or 30 minutes) applies to the timesheet, reports, CSV exports and the invoice, so your totals match what the client was billed.
Honest tradeoffs
Where Harvest is the better choice
Harvest does much more than Swell. If any of these matter to you, it is likely the better fit, even at its new prices.
- You invoice in QuickBooks Online or Xero
- Harvest syncs invoices and payments with QuickBooks Online and Xero on its Teams and Enterprise plans. Swell only connects to Wave. If your books are in QuickBooks Online or Xero, Swell can't create your invoices today, and switching to it would add a manual step, not remove one.
- Expenses, fixed fees and approvals
- Harvest tracks expenses, handles fixed-fee projects, builds project estimates and profitability reports, and offers timesheet approval on Enterprise. Swell tracks hourly time and turns it into Wave invoices. Agencies that bill a mix of retainers, fixed fees and expenses will find more of that built into Harvest.
- Native apps and a free plan
- Harvest has desktop apps for macOS and Windows and mobile apps for iOS and Android, plus a free plan for one person with two projects. Swell runs in the browser, works on a phone but has no app to install, and has a 14-day trial instead of a free plan.
Not on Wave?
Invoice in QuickBooks Online?
Swell connects to Wave only, and we haven't committed to a QuickBooks Online integration or a date. If you'd move from Harvest to Swell once it connected to QuickBooks Online, email us. Your email goes to our support inbox, and we'll only use it to reply and to tell you if we build it.
Email us about QuickBooks OnlineHarvest alternative FAQ
Does Harvest integrate with Wave?
Not directly. Harvest's own page for Wave users says it doesn't integrate with Wave and suggests exporting your time to CSV or Excel. Zapier also lists a Harvest + Wave connector, with Wave actions such as creating customers and invoices, which you set up and maintain yourself. Swell connects to Wave directly and creates the invoice draft from your reviewed time.
How much does Harvest cost in 2026?
On Harvest's pricing page, checked October 20, 2026: Free is $0 for 1 seat and 2 projects. Teams starts at $11 per seat a month, or $9 billed annually. Enterprise starts at $17.50 per seat a month, or $14 billed annually. On Teams and Enterprise, extra invoices, projects, clients and tasks are billed by use. The page doesn't list those rates, so ask Harvest for your own figure.
Did Harvest raise its prices?
Harvest's pricing page now combines a per-seat base rate with usage-based billing for extra invoices, projects, clients and tasks. How much that adds depends on how your account is used, and the rates aren't published there. We don't quote other people's bills here because we can't verify them. Swell's price depends only on the number of users.
Can I move from Harvest to Swell?
There's no Harvest importer. When you connect Wave, Swell reads your Wave customers and products and lets you create clients from them or match them to clients and projects you already set up. Switching at the start of a billing period lets you finish the current period's invoices in Harvest.
Does Swell work with QuickBooks Online or Xero?
No. Swell creates invoices in Wave only, and there is no date for other accounting software. If you invoice in QuickBooks Online and would switch to Swell if it connected, email hello@swelltimetracking.com with the subject "QuickBooks Online waitlist".
Which Wave plan do I need for Swell?
Connecting Swell to Wave requires Wave Pro or Wave Advisors, because Wave only allows third-party apps on those plans. Your Swell trial lasts 14 days, so you can connect Wave and create a draft from real hours before you pay.
More on Swell: time tracking for Wave Accounting, features, time tracking for consultants and plans from $15/month.
Try Swell on your next Wave invoice
Start a 14-day trial, connect your Wave business and create a draft from real hours before you decide.
Harvest details checked October 20, 2026 from: Harvest pricing , Harvest for Wave users , Zapier: Harvest + Wave . Harvest is a trademark of its owner. Swell is not affiliated with Harvest.