Harvest vs SmartSuite Comparison

Why choose Harvest

• Has a free plan (SmartSuite does not)
• Lower estimated cost for 10 users: $110/mo vs $200/mo
• Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 7/10)
• Higher Integration score (8/10 vs 7/10)
• Better fit for freelancers (7/10 vs 3/10)

Why choose SmartSuite

• Higher Customization score (9/10 vs 4/10)
• Higher Security score (9/10 vs 6/10)
• Better fit for marketing teams (7/10 vs 4/10)
• Better fit for mid-market (8/10 vs 5/10)
• Includes Gantt charts, which Harvest lacks

Harvest

Pros

• Time entries flow straight into client invoices, and the billing integrations include QuickBooks Online, Xero, Stripe and PayPal.
• About 68 listed integrations, including Asana, Jira, Trello, ClickUp, Linear, Slack and Zapier, plus a public API.
• A free forever plan with invoicing for a single freelancer.
• Enterprise adds timesheet approvals, profitability reporting and SAML SSO for firms that need tighter control.
• A 30-day trial of the paid plans with no credit card required.

Cons

• Since the Bending Spoons acquisition, usage-based fees with undisclosed rates have produced reported bill increases of 1,500 percent or more.
• No Gantt charts or kanban boards, and you cannot assign tasks to individuals, so it does not replace a project management tool.
• Scheduling needs the separately billed Forecast app.
• You cannot remove seats mid-cycle, and data is stored only in the US.
• Reviewers mention manual steps when matching timesheets to invoices, and reminders that arrive too late.

SmartSuite

Pros

• The same records can be shown as grid, Kanban, Gantt, timeline, calendar, map and dashboard views without duplicating data.
• Its compliance coverage is unusually strong for the category, with ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR audits plus a choice of US or EU data residency.
• Read-only users, commenters and form submitters are free, which lowers the cost of involving stakeholders.
• It ships more than 200 templates and an AI solution builder to speed up setup.
• Reviewers describe the support team as responsive.

Cons

• Team, Professional and Enterprise carry 3-, 5- and 25-seat minimums, and there is no free plan.
• The Team plan allows only 5,000 records per solution, and automation runs plus API calls are hard-capped each month.
• SAML SSO and SCIM are available only on Enterprise and Signature plans.
• There is no team chat or whiteboard, and external access is limited to read-only shared views.
• Reviewers say complex workflows and large data imports take real setup effort, and there are no native desktop apps.