Harvest vs Tempo Timesheets (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Harvest if

• Fits if you run an agency or consultancy and bill clients for tracked hours
• Works for solo freelancers with one or two active projects, who can stay on the free plan

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you're staying free with more than 2 projects or a second person
• Pricey if you need timesheet approvals, profitability reports or SAML SSO, which sit on Enterprise at $14 a seat
• Skip it if you want scheduling included, since Harvest Forecast is billed separately at $5 a person
• Watch out: $9 a seat is a starting price, and extra invoices, projects, clients and tasks are billed on use
• Not for you if you want automatic tracking or a Linux app, as neither is listed

Pick Tempo Timesheets if

• Fits if your team already lives in Jira and wants time logged there
• Works for admins who need team approvals and reports on Jira work

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you don't use Jira, as it runs only inside it
• Watch out: the licence must match your Jira user count, not the number who log time
• Watch out: project approvals and revenue reports are separate Tempo products
• Tight if you use Data Center, which has no calendar, IDE or AI suggestions
• Pricey if your team passes 10 users, as the flat $10 becomes about $5.99 a user

Harvest

• The free plan is limited to 1 seat and 2 projects.
• Paid prices are shown as starting prices: the pricing page says additional invoices, projects, clients and tasks are billed based on use.
• Timesheet approvals, profitability reporting and SAML-based SSO need the Enterprise plan.
• No Linux desktop app is listed, and scheduling needs the separately billed Harvest Forecast.

Tempo Timesheets

• It runs only inside Jira, and the license must match your Jira user count, not the number of people who log time.
• Project-level approvals, revenue reports and planned-versus-actual views need other Tempo products.
• The calendar, IDE and AI suggestion features are not available on Data Center.
• Prices are for Jira Cloud and Data Center licenses bought through Atlassian Marketplace.

Harvest

Timers and timesheets

One-click timers, daily and weekly timesheets and calendar imports in the browser, desktop and mobile apps, with automated reminders to submit time.

Invoicing and online payments

Invoices are generated from the tracked time and expenses already in the account, and clients can pay them through the PayPal and Stripe integrations.

Expense tracking

Receipts and reimbursable costs are logged alongside time, so they can be added to the same client invoice.

Budgets and reports

Project budgets update as time is logged. Team capacity and utilization reports start on Teams, and profitability reporting is limited to Enterprise.

Approvals and audit trail

Enterprise adds timesheet approval before hours are billed, an activity log of every time entry and edit, and the option to require notes on entries.

Harvest Forecast

A companion scheduling and capacity planning tool that connects to Harvest. It is billed separately at $5 per person a month on annual billing.

Tempo Timesheets

Logging from where work happens

Log time from Jira issues, a calendar view, a timesheet view or a list view, with Cloud suggestions from calendars, IDEs and connected work systems.

Team-level approvals

Organize people into Tempo teams whose leads approve timesheets; once a period is approved, no more time can be logged or changed.

Accounts and work attributes

Group worklogs by customer or cost center, mark them billable or non-billable, and add custom fields such as overtime or travel.

Reports and exports

Logged-time reports by team, project, account or user, with export to CSV or XLS, PDF summaries and a Tempo API with webhooks.

Holiday and workload schemes

Define holidays and working-week lengths per country or office so expected hours are right for each team.

Financial and capacity add-ons

Project-level approvals and revenue reports need Financial Manager, and planned-versus-actual views need Capacity Planner, both sold separately.

Harvest

• Free$0

  1 seat and 2 projects, with time tracking, invoicing, expense tracking, project estimates and basic reports.

• Teams$9

  per seat / month, billed annually ($11 billed monthly)

  Unlimited seats, billable and cost rates, team capacity reporting, CSV import, and accounting and payment integrations. Listed as a starting price.

• Enterprise$14

  per seat / month, billed annually ($17.50 billed monthly)

  Adds unlimited custom reports, profitability reporting, timesheet approvals, an activity log, SAML-based SSO and required notes.

• Enterprise PlusCustom

  Adds custom integrations, product customization, a dedicated customer success manager, assisted data migration and white labelling.

Tempo Timesheets

• Cloud, 1 to 10 users$10

  per month for up to 10 users, billed monthly ($100 billed yearly)

  Flat fee for the whole Jira site. Yearly billing is listed at $100 for 1 to 10 users.

• Cloud, 11 to 100 users$5.99

  per user / month, billed monthly, for 11 to 100 users

  Price falls with size, to $4.21 at 101 to 250 users. Yearly: $898.50 for 11 to 15 users, $5,990 for 51 to 100.

• Data Center$2,622

  per year for up to 50 users

  Self-managed Jira. $5,245.15 a year for 51 to 100 users; calendar, IDE and AI suggestions are Cloud only.

Harvest

• Annual discount

  20% off when paying for the year up front

  Harvest's pricing FAQ states a 20% discount for yearly payment. Enterprise is listed at $14 per seat a month annually against $17.50 monthly, and Teams at $9 against $11.

Tempo Timesheets

• Annual discount

  Yearly billing option

  The pricing page offers a yearly billing toggle: $100 a year for 1 to 10 users on Cloud, against $10 a month on monthly billing.