Harvest Free Gives One Seat and Two Projects, Forever
Two projects is not a free tier for a business. It is a free tier for someone deciding whether to bill by the hour.
Harvest's free plan includes one seat, two active projects, unlimited clients, time tracking, invoicing, expense tracking and the Mac and iOS apps, permanently and without a card. Teams starts at $9 per seat a month billed annually, or $11 monthly, and removes the project and seat caps after a 30-day trial.1
Harvest is a time-tracking tool that invoices, not an invoicing tool that tracks time. The free tier reflects that priority.
Two projects is a very small allowance, and it is the honest one: Harvest wants to be evaluated on a couple of pieces of real client work, then paid for.
What you actually get
| Free | Teams | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 forever | $9/seat/mo yearly |
| Seats | 1 | Per seat |
| Active projects | 2 | Unlimited |
| Clients | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Time tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Invoicing | Yes | Yes |
| Expense tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Team reporting | No | Yes |
| Card required | No | No, 30-day trial |
Above Teams, the tiers raise the analytics and administration ceiling, with billing at $14 to $17.50 per seat depending on the tier and term.
Two projects, liberally counted
The cap is on active projects. Archiving a finished project frees a slot, so a freelancer working sequentially can run indefinitely.
Anyone running three clients in parallel cannot. That is the dividing line, and it is drawn precisely where a hobby becomes a business.
Clients, by contrast, are unlimited, which means you can hold a long customer list while only two engagements are live.
Unlimited clients and invoices
There is no client cap and no invoice cap on the free plan, which puts Harvest ahead of Zoho Invoice and Invoice Ninja on those two axes.
Invoicing pulls directly from tracked time, so the workflow is coherent: run a timer, produce an invoice from it, get paid.
Expense tracking is included too, which most free time trackers leave out. Billable expenses can be attached to a project and pulled onto the invoice alongside the hours, which is the workflow that makes hourly billing bearable.
What the paid tier actually buys
Team reporting and administration are the substantive additions, along with removing the seat and project caps.
At $9 per seat billed annually, a three-person studio pays $27 a month, which is modest against the billing it supports.
The 30-day trial on paid plans requires no card, so the paid features can be tested properly before committing.
Where the free tier is thin
No team reporting, so a solo user cannot see utilisation or profitability across a period.
No team members at all, which is the definition of one seat.
Two projects is genuinely restrictive for an agency, though not for the freelancer the tier is built for. An agency that keeps two retainers running and takes on project work is paying from the second week.
How it compares
ZipBooks has unlimited invoices and customers free, but one bank connection and no time tracking.
Wave offers full bookkeeping and unlimited invoicing at zero, funded by card fees.
Zoho Invoice includes time tracking free but caps projects at three and invoices at 500 a year.
Harvest is the only free tier here built around billable hours as the primary object.
When it is enough
A freelancer billing by the hour on one or two engagements at a time, who wants timers that turn into invoices.
Anyone with many past clients and few concurrent projects, since clients do not count against the cap.
A solo consultant testing whether hourly billing suits them before paying for a team plan.
When it stops being enough
The third concurrent project, which for an agency is the first working week.
The first collaborator who needs their own seat or their tracked time included.
When reporting on utilisation becomes necessary to price work correctly, which is the Teams tier.
Frequently asked questions
Is Harvest free forever?
Yes. The free plan has one seat and two active projects with no expiry.
How many projects can I run?
Two active projects. Archiving one frees a slot for another.
Are clients limited on the free plan?
No. Clients are unlimited.
Does the free plan include invoicing?
Yes. Invoicing from tracked time is included on the free plan.
How much does Harvest cost for a team?
Teams starts at $9 per seat a month billed annually, or $11 billed monthly.
Is there a free trial of paid plans?
Yes, 30 days with no credit card required.
Seat and project limits, unlimited clients, included features and tier pricing verified against Harvest's pricing page on 20 October 2026.
Sources
- Harvest pricing: www.getharvest.com/pricing. Used for: Free is one seat, two projects, forever.
All sources are the vendor's own plan or documentation pages, checked on 20 October 2026. Plan terms change without notice, so confirm current limits before you rely on them.
