Most people arriving at this comparison in 2026 are not shopping. They have had a renewal quote from Harvest and want to know what their options are.
So start there. Harvest was acquired by Bending Spoons, which closed the deal on 31 July 2025, and during 2026 the way the bill is calculated changed. On the Flex billing mode, a per-seat rate is joined by usage on active projects, active clients, active tasks and invoicing, counted from the previous billing period. The allowances and the overage rates for all four are published nowhere: Harvest's own help centre confirms they exist and gives no numbers, and you can only read your rates from inside a paying account. We have written that up in detail in what actually changed in Harvest's 2026 pricing, including the part almost every article gets backwards, which is that Flex and Unlimited are billing modes rather than plans.
The narrower TimeSubmit vs Harvest question is the one this page answers: how the two compare for a consultancy that bills clients for hours and needs those hours signed off before an invoice goes out. We build TimeSubmit, so read the pricing sections with that in mind and check both vendors' pages before you sign anything.
Where Harvest sits in 2026
Four tiers, per seat per month, read from Harvest's pricing page on 7 September 2026.
| Tier | Annual | Monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 1 seat, 2 projects |
| Teams | $9 | $11 | |
| Enterprise | $14 | $17.50 | Timesheet approvals, activity log, SAML SSO |
| Enterprise Plus | Custom | Custom |
The line worth reading twice is the third one. Timesheet approvals are an Enterprise feature. If your consultancy cannot raise an invoice until a manager has formally approved the hours, then approval is not an extra on your list, it is the middle of your billing process, and on Harvest it starts at $14 a seat billed annually rather than $9.
Quick comparison
| TimeSubmit | Harvest | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | A base fee covering a block of team members, plus a rate for each member above it | Per seat, billed as either Flex or Unlimited |
| What else is metered | Nothing. Clients, projects, tasks and invoices are not counted | Under Flex: active projects, clients, tasks and invoicing, from the prior period |
| Can you work out the bill before you buy | Yes, every rate is on the pricing page | Not on Flex. Allowances and overage rates appear only in Settings, inside a paying account |
| Timesheet approvals | On every plan | Enterprise |
| Invoicing | Generated from approved timesheets, with PDF download | Included, and the approval step that would precede it is Enterprise |
| Audit trail | Audit log on Margin and Enterprise | Activity log on Enterprise |
| Single sign-on (SAML) | Not available | Enterprise |
| Custom report builder | No. Standard reports on Core and above, plus CSV export of everything | Yes, shipped in 2026 with the old 100-row limit removed |
| AI and MCP access | Not available | Harvest MCP, connecting to Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT |
| Expenses | Not available | On every tier, including Free |
| Desktop apps | Browser only | macOS and Windows |
| Entry price | Core, $42 a month covering 3 members, $33 a month billed annually, then $14 a member | Teams, $9 a seat billed annually or $11 monthly |
| Cheapest way in | Practice, $39 a month covering 5 members with 1 client and 1 project. The first two months cost nothing and a card is needed to start | Free, 1 seat and 2 projects |
Harvest figures come from its pricing page and help centre, read on 7 September 2026. TimeSubmit figures come from our own pricing page. Software pricing moves quickly, so check both before you decide.
How time tracking compares
Harvest is built around a timer. Consultants start and stop it through the day, or type hours in against a project and task afterwards. It suits people who work in short bursts across many things, and the interface has been liked for years for good reason.
TimeSubmit is built around a submission. A consultant fills in a weekly or monthly timesheet spanning every project they touched, with the date, hours, a billable flag and a description on each line, and submits the whole thing for review. That is closer to how consultancies actually report time to a client: not as a running timer, but as a period of work someone signs off.
Which model fits is mostly a question of what happens next. If the hours go straight onto an invoice, a timer is fine. If they go to a reviewer first, multi-project timesheet entry makes the reviewer's job one document rather than forty entries.
Approvals, and why the tier matters
Harvest has timesheet submission and reporting on every plan. The structured approval step, where a named reviewer approves or rejects, is on Enterprise. Harvest also shipped automatic timesheet locking during 2026, which closes a period so nothing can be edited after the fact, and for some consultancies locking is genuinely what they wanted rather than approval.
On TimeSubmit, approval workflows are on every plan. Admins set approvers per project, timesheets move through submit, review, approve or reject, a rejection carries a comment so the consultant knows what to fix, and an admin override needs a written reason. Approvers hold their own accounts and see the hours without seeing billing rates or invoice totals.
Two honest qualifications on our side. Approvers are team members and count towards your plan, so a five-person Practice organisation might be one admin, two consultants and two approvers. And approval reminder emails are on Core and above, not on Practice.
One more, which is the sort of thing that only shows up after you have bought: TimeSubmit supports several approvers on a project, and every one of them must approve. By default they act independently. A sequence, where a project manager must approve before a finance lead can, is available on Margin and Enterprise and not on Practice or Core.
Invoicing
Harvest creates invoices from tracked time and expenses, with customisable appearance and payment terms, and takes online payment. If you take card or ACH payments through Harvest there is an additional transaction fee, which the help centre describes without publishing a rate. A figure of 0.5% circulates and comes from a worked example rather than a rate card, so treat it as a question to ask rather than a number for your spreadsheet.
TimeSubmit's invoicing starts at the other end. Approved timesheets are the raw material: one click turns them into an invoice, or several into one invoice. The PDF carries your logo, terms, footer, bank details including sort code, IBAN, SWIFT and routing number, and a tax type you name yourself with a registration number. Invoicing supports GBP, USD, EUR, AUD, CAD, NZD and ZAR.
The real difference is the gate. On TimeSubmit you cannot invoice hours that have not been approved. That is a constraint, not a feature, and whether you want it depends on whether unapproved hours reaching a client has ever cost you an argument.
TimeSubmit does not send invoices, track whether they were opened, or take payment. It produces the document, and you send it however you send documents now.
What Harvest does better
This section exists because a comparison where one side wins everything is not a comparison, it is a brochure. Harvest had a busy 2026 on the product side, whatever was happening on the pricing side.
Start with reporting, because it is the clearest gap. Harvest shipped a custom report builder this year and removed the 100-row limit that used to cap exports. TimeSubmit has standard reports on Core and above and CSV export of everything, which covers "give me the numbers" and does not cover "let me design the report".
Then AI access. There is a Harvest MCP, so Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT can query a Harvest account directly. TimeSubmit has no MCP, no API and no webhooks. If you want to ask a model how utilisation looked last quarter, that is a real gap on our side and it is not a small one.
Harvest tracks expenses on every tier, including Free. TimeSubmit does not track expenses at all, so a consultancy that recharges travel to clients has to handle that somewhere else. SAML single sign-on is on Harvest Enterprise, and TimeSubmit has none, which rules us out of a fair number of procurement processes before the conversation starts. Harvest has had macOS and Windows applications for years, where TimeSubmit runs in a browser.
Departments, bulk actions and custom cost rates by project all landed in 2026 as well, and they matter most to exactly the larger organisations Harvest's Enterprise tier is aimed at.
Age counts for something too. Harvest has an integration ecosystem, an established support operation and a decade of accumulated behaviour that a smaller product does not. If accounting sync is a requirement, check Harvest's integration list against ours: TimeSubmit has no Xero or QuickBooks sync, so on that specific point we are not in the running.
Pricing, compared properly
The two models are not the same shape, so headline rates tell you almost nothing. Harvest charges per seat. TimeSubmit charges a base fee covering a block of members, then a rate per member above the block.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | Covers | Each further member |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practice | $39 | not sold annually | 5 members, 1 client, 1 project | capped at 5 |
| Core | $42 | $33 | 3 members | $14 |
| Margin | $110 | $90 | 5 members | $22 |
| Enterprise | from $800 | from $800 | 25 members | $32 |
Two things to notice, because the second one has confused readers of the older version of this page. Annual billing saves a flat amount on the base fee, $108 a year on Core and $240 a year on Margin, rather than a percentage per person, and members above the block cost the same either way. And the two Margin figures are the same plan: $110 a month is the monthly rate, $90 a month is the annual one.
Now put real team sizes through both. All four columns are annual rates, and the Harvest columns exclude any Flex usage charge, because there is no published rate with which to include one.
| Team | Harvest Teams | Harvest Enterprise | TimeSubmit Core | TimeSubmit Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 people | $45 | $70 | $61 | $90 |
| 10 people | $90 | $140 | $131 | $200 |
| 15 people | $135 | $210 | $201 | $310 |
Read those rows honestly. Harvest Teams is the cheapest column at every size, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The comparison that matters is against Harvest Enterprise, because Enterprise is where approvals live, and there TimeSubmit Core is a little cheaper at every size while Margin is dearer and buys the audit log and the analytics.
The other half of the comparison is the part the table cannot show. A Harvest Flex bill also carries usage on projects, clients, tasks and invoicing, at rates nobody outside a paying account can read, calculated from last period. TimeSubmit charges for people and nothing else: opening a project, adding a client or raising an invoice does not change the bill. Which of those is worth more to you depends on whether your consultancy grows by adding people or by adding clients.
Harvest has a permanent free option for one person with two projects. TimeSubmit has nothing equivalent: Practice is two months at no cost, then $39 a month, and a card is required to start.
Who should choose which
Choose Harvest if you want a timer rather than a submission, you need expenses, SSO, desktop apps or accounting sync, you want to query your data from an AI tool, or you are large enough that departments and bulk actions are the daily reality. Also if the seat price is the whole decision and you have few enough clients and projects that the Flex meter stays quiet.
Choose TimeSubmit if approvals are the point rather than an upgrade, you want the person approving hours not to see the rates attached to them, you want invoices that can only be built from approved time, and you would rather a bill that moves when you hire than one that moves when you win work.
If you need ordered sign-off, look at the plan before the product. Harvest does not sell it below Enterprise, and TimeSubmit has it on Margin and Enterprise.
Frequently asked questions
Does Harvest have timesheet approvals?
Yes, on the Enterprise tier, which is $14 per seat billed annually or $17.50 monthly. The activity log and SAML SSO sit on the same tier. Teams, at $9 a seat annually, includes timesheet submission and reporting but not a formal approve or reject step.
Is TimeSubmit cheaper than Harvest?
Usually not on seat price. Five people on Harvest Teams is $45 a month billed annually; the same five on TimeSubmit Core is $61. Against Harvest Enterprise, which is where approvals are, TimeSubmit Core is the cheaper of the two at $61 against $70. Where the comparison changes is the Flex meter: Harvest's per-seat figure is not the whole bill unless you are on Unlimited, and TimeSubmit's is.
Can approvers on TimeSubmit see billing rates?
No. The approver role sees the timesheet, the hours and the projects, and no money at all. Approvers do hold accounts and count towards your plan as team members, so they are neither free nor unlimited.
Can I import my Harvest data?
There is no automated import. Export your time entries from Harvest before you cancel anything, since that is the asset that cannot be rebuilt, then set up clients, projects, consultants and approvers by hand. Running the first two months of TimeSubmit alongside Harvest is the sensible way to do it, which is what the two months at no cost are for.
What does TimeSubmit not have that Harvest does?
Expenses, single sign-on, an API, webhooks, an MCP, a custom report builder, Xero and QuickBooks sync, desktop apps, and any way to send or take payment on an invoice. That list is worth reading before a trial rather than during one.
The short version
If your consultancy's problem is that hours need approving before they are billed, Harvest puts that step on its Enterprise tier and TimeSubmit puts it on every plan, and that single difference decides most of these comparisons. If your problem is anything else, reporting, expenses, integrations, SSO, or an AI tool that can read your account, Harvest is the more complete product and has spent 2026 getting more so.
The pricing question is separate from both. Harvest's Flex mode charges for clients, projects, tasks and invoices at rates you cannot see until you are a customer. Whatever you choose, ask for the Unlimited quote in writing before your renewal notice lands.
For the wider field, we keep a roundup of Harvest alternatives for consultancies, and the mechanics of the repricing are in what actually changed in Harvest's 2026 pricing.
Want to run the approval and invoicing cycle before you commit? Start with two months at no cost, then $39 a month.