Toggl Track vs Harvest

The short answer

Both track time. The question is whether you also want the invoice to come out of the same tool.

Choose Toggl Track if tracking is the job and you already invoice somewhere you like. It is free forever for a limited number of users, tracks on web, desktop and mobile with more than 100 integrations, and adds billable rates and estimates at $9 per license per month.

Choose Harvest if the monthly invoice is also a chore. Tracked hours and expenses become an invoice inside the same product, free for 1 seat and 2 projects, then $9 per seat per month on Teams.

Where Toggl Track wins

Toggl wins on the tracking experience itself. The browser extension puts a timer inside more than 100 other tools, so time gets recorded where the work happens rather than in a separate tab, and that friction difference is what decides whether tracking survives a busy week.

It wins on the free tier for teams. Free forever for a limited number of users with tracking on every platform means a small team can build the habit before anyone pays, where Harvest's free plan is a single seat with two projects.

And it wins on reporting depth for people who care about time rather than billing: project estimates with alerts as you approach the budget, and on Premium fixed-fee project handling and profitability analysis.

Where Harvest wins

Harvest wins on closing the loop. Hours and expenses become an invoice that can be paid online, without exporting a report and retyping it into another tool, which is the step where under-billing happens.

It wins on the accounting connection. Teams at $9 per seat per month integrates with QuickBooks, Xero and Stripe, so a paid invoice does not need entering twice, and there are more than 50 integrations including Asana and Slack.

And it wins on the free tier for a specific person: a freelancer with two clients gets tracking, expenses and invoicing at no cost, which is a complete billing operation rather than half of one.

Verdict

If you are a team and invoicing already lives somewhere you are happy with, use Toggl Track, start free, and upgrade when you want billable rates and estimates.

If you are a freelancer or a small agency where invoicing is a monthly job you resent, use Harvest, and note that its free plan covers exactly that starting case with 1 seat and 2 projects.

One caution for both, and it matters more than the choice: profitability reporting, the feature that changes how you price, sits on the higher tier of each, at $14 per seat per month on Harvest Enterprise and on Toggl Premium at $14 rising to $18 after the first year. That is the number worth paying for, so compare the plans that include it rather than the entry ones.