Harvest Pricing 2026: What’s Changing for Sole Traders and 5 Best Alternatives

The Harvest price increase rolling out in 2026 has quietly restructured how the app charges, and long-standing solo accounts are the ones taking the biggest hit.

Here's what's actually going on, why it's hitting sole traders specifically, and what to look for in a Harvest alternative if you're ready to switch.

Why is Harvest increasing its prices?

Harvest was acquired by a new parent company in 2025. 

Since then, the Harvest app has moved away from a simple flat per-seat rate and introduced a three-tier structure (Free, Teams, and Enterprise) with usage fees layered on top of the base seat price for things like invoices, projects, clients, and tasks.

For teams that were already paying for Harvest's higher tiers, this mostly means a gradual increase. 

But for users on the legacy Solo plan who often signed up years ago and just kept renewing, the change has been anything but gradual. 

Accounts with a long history of data (lots of stored projects, clients, or invoices) are being automatically migrated to the Enterprise tier, where usage-based fees apply. 

The jump in price can be dramatic: some sole traders have reported renewal quotes that are 5, 10, even 50+ times their previous annual cost.

As one former user told us:

“My $232/year plan is switching over to $2,547/year in August. Suffice to say, I’ll be cancelling Harvest and moving to Rounded. I’m hopeful that more Harvest users find you guys.”

Not to mention that Harvest charges its users strictly in USD, meaning you’re paying conversion rates and international transaction fees on top. 

Is Harvest time tracking software still built for sole traders?

Harvest is a time tracking and invoicing app used by everyone from freelancers to large agencies. Although it is commonly used by sole traders, it 

The Enterprise tier itself makes sense for businesses that genuinely need profitability reporting by client and project, timesheet approval workflows, audit trails, and single sign-on.

But if you're a sole trader who was only ever using the Harvest time tracker to send invoices and log hours, you're now paying for agency-grade compliance tooling that is far more complex than what you probably need.

What a sole trader actually needs from a time tracking app

Strip away the team features, and most solo operators using Harvest are really looking for:

• An accurate record of hours against each client or project (billable and non-billable)

• The ability to add tracked time to an invoice with a click

• Easily exportable client timesheets

To keep things simple inside one app, most sole traders will either look for an invoicing and accounting software that has built-in time tracking, or a time tracking app that integrates with their existing solution.

Most importantly, your time tracking app shouldn’t come with usage fees, seat pricing, or an Enterprise tier waiting to swallow you the moment your account has some history behind it.

Harvest alternatives: Which ones are best for sole traders in Australia?

Most of the options you’ll find when searching for alternatives are either built for larger teams or will require you to pay for another subscription on top of your time tracking app just to get all the functionality you need. 

Rounded is the exception here: an invoicing and accounting app built just for Australian sole traders, with time tracking included on all plans. 

Harvest vs Rounded: How do they compare?

Harvest does time tracking and invoicing well, but leaves expense tracking and tax prep to something else. 

Rounded covers all four in the same flat-rate plan, including the time tracking, which most sole-trader-focused tools treat as an afterthought or a paid add-on.

Best of all, you don’t have to worry about your subscription cost quietly creeping up in the background, or pricing that shifts to prioritise larger businesses. 

Rounded has been supporting sole traders in Australia for over 10 years, and is fully focused on building tools to help make it easier to run a solo business. 

Making the switch from Harvest

Most users can start invoicing and time tracking with Rounded in a few minutes.

Need to bring over data from Harvest or your accounting software? We’ve got you covered.

Shoot us a message to find out more about our free data migration services.

See why Rounded is the best Harvest alternative for Australian sole traders

Try free for 14 days. No credit card required.