Harvest vs Hubstaff: Full Comparison
Harvest turns tracked time into a client invoice with one click. Hubstaff adds screenshots, activity levels, GPS, and automated payroll for proof of work.
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Our quick verdict on both tools
Pick Harvest if you bill clients hourly and want time tracking, budgets, and invoicing in one simple tool. Pick Hubstaff if you manage a remote or field team and need screenshots, activity tracking, GPS, or automated payroll payouts alongside the hours.
Start tracking freeWhat this comparison covers
Harvest and Hubstaff are both time tracking tools, compared here side by side so you can see how they differ.
Neither Harvest nor Hubstaff is the only option worth a look. If invoicing and project profitability matter more to you than monitoring, TimeTracker is a third option worth checking on our alternatives page.
Compare the two products at a glance
Both tools solve time tracking. Here is what each one includes, side by side.
Harvest
Ties time tracking directly to invoicing: timesheets turn into client invoices with one click, built around the agency billing workflow.
- Best for
- Small to mid-size agencies and consultancies that bill clients hourly and want invoicing built in.
- Pricing
- Free for 1 seat and 2 projects. Paid from $9/seat/mo ($108/seat billed annually) and $14/seat/mo ($168 annually), both with unlimited seats. Harvest's pricing page notes that some features carry usage fees. 30-day trial.
- One-click timers and weekly timesheets
- Auto-converts time and expenses into invoices
- Online payments via Stripe and PayPal
- Two-way sync with QuickBooks and Xero
- Project budgets and profitability reports
- 70+ integrations (Asana, Trello, Jira)
- Free plan for a single user
Hubstaff
Pairs time tracking with built-in workforce monitoring (screenshots, activity levels, GPS geofencing) and automated payroll payouts.
- Best for
- Distributed teams, agencies, and field service businesses that need proof-of-work tracking tied to payroll.
- Pricing
- No free plan, 14-day trial only. Billed annually: Starter $4.99, Grow $7.50, Team $10 per seat a month, all with a 2 seat minimum, and Enterprise $25. So the real floor is $9.98 a month, not $4.99.
- Start/stop timers with idle detection
- Optional screenshots with blur option
- Activity levels from keyboard/mouse use
- GPS and geofencing, a paid Team-plan add-on
- Automated payroll payouts
- App and URL usage tracking
See how they stack up
Pricing, best fit, and top strengths for both tools, side by side.
Pricing checked 2026-07-31. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.
Which one fits your team
Choose Harvest when…
You bill clients by the hour and want an invoice sent with one click.
Harvest turns tracked time and expenses straight into a client invoice, with online payment through Stripe or PayPal.See how
You want your accounting to sync automatically once invoices go out.
Harvest's two-way sync with QuickBooks and Xero keeps your books and your invoices lined up without manual entry.See how
Your team is small and does not want to feel watched while working.
Harvest tracks time and hours, not screenshots or activity levels, so it feels lighter to the people using it every day.See how
You want to see if a project is on budget without a separate reporting tool.
Harvest's built-in project budget and profitability reports show planned hours against real hours as the work happens.See how
You already run your team through Asana, Trello, or Jira.
Harvest connects to 70 plus tools, so time tracking fits into a project setup you already have, instead of replacing it.See how
You want to try it out without paying anything first.
Harvest's free plan covers a single user, so a freelancer or a founder can test the workflow before adding the team.See how
Choose Hubstaff when…
You manage a remote team and need proof that billed hours were actually worked.
Hubstaff can take optional screenshots and track activity levels from keyboard and mouse use, giving you evidence behind the hours.See how
You run a field service team and need to confirm staff were at the job site.
GPS tracking and geofenced job sites confirm a worker clocked in from the right location, not just at the right time.See how
You want hours to turn into a payout without a separate payroll tool.
Hubstaff's automated payroll payouts pay staff directly from tracked hours, cutting out a manual payroll step.See how
You have a mix of office staff and field workers on one team.
Hubstaff covers both groups on one platform, so you are not running two separate systems for two kinds of workers.See how
You want to see which apps and websites your team uses during work hours.
App and URL usage tracking gives managers a clearer picture of where time actually goes during the day.See how
You are hiring outsourced or offshore staff you have never worked with before.
Screenshots and activity data give a new manager a way to build trust with a team they cannot see in person.See how
Popular features
Employee time tracking your team will actually use
One click starts a timer, or people type hours in by hand. Every entry ties to a client, project, and task, so the record stays clean.
Explore Time Tracking→Bill for every hour you earn
Mark each entry billable or non-billable while you work. Approved hours roll straight into reports you can bill from.
Explore Billing→See where the time really goes
Break hours down by client, project, and team member. Find the work that pays off and the projects that run over.
Explore Reports & Dashboards→Use cases this solves
Project Profitability
See cost against price as hours come in, not after the invoice goes out.
Explore→Utilization Tracking
See how much of your team's time is billable versus spent on overhead.
Explore→Invoicing From Tracked Time
Turn approved hours into an invoice without copying numbers by hand.
Explore→
Frequently asked questions
- Is Harvest cheaper than Hubstaff?
- Harvest's Teams plan runs about $9 a seat a month billed annually, and it has a free plan for one user. Hubstaff has no permanent free plan and starts around $4.99 a user a month for its Starter tier, but its higher tiers with monitoring and payroll cost more. See the billing page for how billing works day to day.
- Does Hubstaff track screenshots by default?
- Screenshots are optional in Hubstaff and can be turned off or blurred, but the feature exists because many managers using it want proof of work. If that feels invasive for your team, Harvest tracks time tracking without any screenshots or activity scoring at all.
- Which tool sends invoices to clients?
- Harvest turns tracked time and expenses into a client invoice with one click, with payment through Stripe or PayPal. Hubstaff does not build client invoices the same way. See invoicing from tracked time for how that flow works.
- Can Hubstaff pay my team automatically?
- Yes. Hubstaff can turn tracked hours into an automated payroll payout, which Harvest does not offer. Harvest instead focuses on turning hours into a client invoice, not a staff payout.
- Does either tool show if a project is still profitable?
- Harvest includes project budget and profitability reports that compare planned hours to real hours as work happens. See how project profitability tracking works. Hubstaff is built more around activity and location data than project financials.
- Does Hubstaff work for field service teams, not just remote office staff?
- Yes. GPS tracking and geofenced job sites confirm a worker clocked in from the right location, which is useful for a field crew. Harvest has no location tracking, since it focuses on time tracking by task for office and remote billing work instead.
- Which tool integrates with more project management apps?
- Harvest connects to over 70 apps, including Asana, Trello, and Jira, so it slots into a project setup you already use. See reports and dashboards for how the tracked hours show up once they are in.
- Is Hubstaff a good fit for an agency that mainly bills clients, not staff monitoring?
- It can work, but Harvest is usually the better fit for that specific job, since invoicing is built in rather than bolted on. See billable hours tracking for how billing-first tracking differs from monitoring-first tracking like Hubstaff's.
- Does either tool handle timesheet approvals before hours get paid?
- Both do, but for different reasons. Harvest locks a timesheet after a manager approves it, so a client only ever sees hours that were signed off first. See timesheet approvals for how that works. Hubstaff approves hours mainly to gate its automated payroll payout, not client billing.
- Are there other tools worth comparing besides Harvest and Hubstaff?
- Yes. Depending on what matters most to you, it is worth looking at more than these two. Our Harvest alternatives page rounds up other strong options, including TimeTracker, which focuses on billing and project profit rather than invoicing or monitoring alone.
Not sure which one fits your team?
See how TimeTracker handles billing, budgets, and invoicing from the same tracked hours, without screenshots or activity monitoring.
See TimeTracker