Kimai vs Harvest: Which Is Better for Tracking Billable Time in 2026?

Harvest is the easier pick for most freelancers billing clients. It has native Mac, Windows and mobile apps, invoices with online payments, and a free plan for one seat and two projects. Kimai wins if you want open source, self-hosting or German hosting, with Cloud plans from €2.99 per user a month billed annually. Dayflow, our Mac app, records what you did but does not invoice.

Harvest is a hosted service with native apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, and it turns tracked hours into invoices that clients can pay online. Kimai is open-source software that you can run on your own server for free, or rent as a low-cost cloud service hosted in Germany. Kimai gives up some convenience in exchange for control.

A disclosure: Dayflow, which appears below as a third option, is our product. This comparison is based on each vendor’s own documentation as checked on October 4, 2026. Dayflow’s details come from a review of version 2.2.0 on September 6, 2026. It is a comparison of published documentation, not of our own use of the tools.

The job this article covers is narrow: tracking time you will bill a client for, then getting that time onto an invoice. If you are still weighing the wider field, our guide to choosing a time tracker for Mac covers more tools.

Quick comparison

Tool	Best for	How it tracks	Price	Platforms
Kimai	Freelancers and teams who want open source, self-hosting or hosting in Germany	Manual timers in a web app, with multi-timer and punch-in punch-out modes	Self-hosted: Free. Cloud: from €2.99 per user & month on annual billing	Web (self-hosted or Kimai Cloud)
Harvest	Freelancers and teams who want invoices with online payments and native apps	One-click timers, daily and weekly timesheets, or a connected calendar	Free: $0 forever (1 seat, 2 projects). Teams: $9 seat/month billed annually	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, browser extensions
Dayflow (ours)	Remembering what you actually worked on, on a Mac	Records the screen at one frame every 10 seconds, then AI writes a timeline	$0 (MIT). Optional Pro at $20 a month	Mac (macOS 14 or later)

Key takeaways

• Harvest gives you the smoother path from timer to paid invoice. Invoices come straight from tracked time, clients can pay online, and the free plan includes invoicing and expenses for 1 seat and 2 projects.
• Kimai is the only one of the two that is open source (AGPL 3) and self-hostable. Its Cloud plans also cost less per user than Harvest’s paid plans, though they are priced in euros and exclude tax.
• Neither tool lists automatic activity capture or AI features. Both depend on you starting a timer or filling in a timesheet.
• Harvest runs natively on a Mac. Kimai is a web app, and desktop or mobile apps were not confirmed on the vendor pages checked.
• Dayflow does not invoice and has no team reports. It keeps a record of your day that you can use to fill in Kimai or Harvest. It does not replace either one.

What Kimai does better

You can own the whole thing. Kimai is licensed AGPL 3 and its source code is on GitHub. The vendor publishes Docker images for self-hosting, so the database holding your clients, rates and invoices sits on a server you control. Harvest is closed source and runs only as a cloud service.

Rates follow the work. Kimai supports rates per user, per customer and per project. For billable work, this means the same hour can carry a different rate depending on the client or the person doing it, without workarounds.

More ways to log time. Besides a standard timer, Kimai offers a multi-timer and a punch-in punch-out mode, plus tags. If you switch between several clients in one afternoon, running more than one timer can be easier than stopping and restarting one.

Invoices and data on your terms. Invoicing uses configurable templates, and Kimai offers data exports and a JSON API. If you want to script your own reports or feed hours into another system, the API is the way in.

Login and language options. Kimai lists SAML and LDAP login, two-factor authentication, over 30 translations and a plugin marketplace. On Kimai Cloud, SSO is part of the Professional plan.

A clear answer to “where is the data?” Self-hosted, the data lives on your server. On Kimai Cloud, the vendor states the service is hosted in Germany and GDPR compliant. The company describes itself as “Made in Austria.” For a European consultancy whose clients ask where timesheets are stored, that is a simple answer to give.

Lower cost per seat. Cloud Standard is €2.99 per user and month on annual billing. Harvest Teams is $9 per seat a month on annual billing. The currencies differ, so this article does not convert them, but the gap is wide.

Is self-hosting Kimai worth it for a freelancer?

That depends on whether you already run a server. Self-hosting needs a web server, PHP 8.2 or newer, and MariaDB or MySQL. You are also responsible for updates, backups and uptime. If a lost database would mean a lost month of billable hours, backups are not optional.

If that sounds like a second job, Kimai Cloud is the easier route, and it comes with a 30-day free trial. One plan detail matters for billing. On Kimai Cloud, working hour accounts, expenses, custom fields and SSO are part of the Professional plan. A freelancer who passes expenses on to clients therefore needs Professional, not Standard.

What Harvest does better

Native apps everywhere you work. Harvest lists apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, plus browser extensions. You can start a timer on your Mac and stop it from your phone on the way out of a client meeting. Kimai’s pages describe a web app only.

Getting paid, not just invoicing. Harvest creates invoices from tracked time and supports online payments, so the step from “hours logged” to “money received” happens in one tool. It also lists accounting integrations such as QuickBooks and Xero.

Expenses on the free plan. Harvest’s Free plan includes time tracking, invoicing and expense tracking for 1 seat and 2 projects. That covers a freelancer with one or two retainer clients at no cost.

Calendar-based tracking. Harvest can track time from a connected calendar. If much of your billable time happens in scheduled calls, this saves you from entering each one by hand.

Team reporting and approvals. Harvest lists team reporting. The Enterprise plan adds profitability reporting and timesheet approvals, which matter once someone has to sign off on hours before they are billed.

A trial without a card. Harvest offers 30 days free with no credit card required.

Two caveats. The site footer reads “Bending Spoons Operations S.p.A.”, so Harvest is now owned by Bending Spoons. The pricing page also shows plans named Teams and Enterprise, while its FAQ still refers to “pro” and “premium” plans, and prices are listed as “starting from.” Check the current pricing page before you commit.

Head-to-head table

Capability	Kimai	Harvest	Dayflow (ours)
Automatic capture	No automatic app or website tracking	None listed. Uses timers, timesheets or a calendar	Yes, one screen frame every 10 seconds
Timers	Yes, including multi-timer and punch-in punch-out	Yes, one-click timers plus daily and weekly timesheets	Not its approach. The timeline comes from recordings
Invoicing	Yes, with configurable templates	Yes, from tracked time, with online payments	No
Team reports	Vendor says it serves teams of dozens or hundreds of users. Offers data exports and a JSON API	Team reporting. Profitability reports and approvals on Enterprise	No
Website blocking	Not listed	Not listed	No
AI summaries	None stated	None listed	Yes, though they can miss or misinterpret work
Data location	Your own server, or Kimai Cloud hosted in Germany	Cloud web service	Recordings and timeline stay on your Mac. Analysis runs locally, through your own provider, or through Pro
Free tier	Self-hosted version is free	1 seat, 2 projects	Free app at $0
Platforms	Web (self-hosted or Kimai Cloud)	Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, browser extensions	Mac, macOS 14 or later
Open source	Yes, AGPL 3	No	Yes, MIT

Which one makes invoicing easier?

Both tools turn tracked time into invoices. The difference is what happens after the invoice exists.

Harvest carries the process through to payment. Clients can pay online, and the accounting integrations mean a bookkeeper working in QuickBooks or Xero sees the result without re-entering it. If you want as few steps as possible between the timer and the bank, Harvest is built for that.

Kimai focuses on control over the invoice itself. You configure the templates, set rates per customer, project and user, and pull data out through exports or the API. Online payments were not mentioned on the Kimai pages checked, so plan on collecting payment some other way.

Before you set rates in either tool, the real hourly rate calculator shows what a billed hour needs to cover once unbilled time is counted.

Pricing compared

Plan	Price	Note
Kimai Self-hosted (open source)	Free	You provide and maintain the server
Kimai Cloud Standard	€2.99 per user & month on annual billing, or €3.99 per user & month on monthly billing	Excludes tax. 30-day free trial
Kimai Cloud Professional	€3.99 per user & month on annual billing, or €4.99 per user & month on monthly billing	Includes working hour accounts, expenses, custom fields, SSO
Harvest Free	$0 forever (1 seat, 2 projects)	Includes invoicing and expenses
Harvest Teams	$9 seat/month ($108 per seat, billed annually), or $11 seat/month billed monthly	Shown as “starting from”
Harvest Enterprise	$14 seat/month ($168 per seat, billed annually), or $17.50 seat/month billed monthly	Profitability reporting, timesheet approvals
Harvest Enterprise Plus	Custom pricing	See the vendor’s pricing page
Dayflow (ours)	$0, MIT licensed	Mac only
Dayflow Pro	$20 a month	Dayflow manages the cloud analysis

What does one person pay per year?

If you bill one or two clients, Harvest Free costs $0 a year and already includes invoicing and expenses. That is hard to beat.

Once you need a third project, Harvest Teams costs $108 a year on annual billing, or $132 over twelve months on monthly billing.

Kimai self-hosted costs nothing for the software. Your real cost is the server and your time, which depend on your host. Kimai Cloud Standard comes to €35.88 a year on annual billing, or €47.88 over twelve months on monthly billing, both before tax. If you need expenses, Cloud Professional is €47.88 a year on annual billing, or €59.88 over twelve months on monthly billing. Kimai’s page shows two figures per plan without labeling them. The lower one is taken as the annual price because the page says annual billing saves 20% compared to monthly.

Dayflow is $0, or $240 over twelve months if you choose Pro. Because Dayflow does not invoice, it adds to the cost of a billing tool rather than replacing one.

When to choose Kimai

• You want your billing data on your own server, or with a vendor that says it hosts in Germany.
• Open source matters to you, or your organization requires it.
• You bill different rates per customer, project or person, and want that built in.
• You have several users and per-seat cost matters. Kimai Cloud starts at €2.99 per user and month on annual billing.
• You want SAML or LDAP login, an API, or a plugin to fit Kimai into existing systems.
• Working in a browser on your Mac is fine for you.

When to choose Harvest

• You want native apps on Mac, Windows and your phone, plus browser extensions.
• You want clients to pay invoices online, and your books are in QuickBooks or Xero.
• You are a freelancer with one or two clients and want to pay nothing. Harvest Free covers 1 seat and 2 projects.
• Much of your billable time is in calendar meetings.
• Your team needs timesheet approvals or profitability reporting, both of which are on the Enterprise plan.
• You do not want to run or maintain a server.

Where both fall short

Kimai and Harvest both trust you to record time as it happens. Start the timer, switch the timer, stop the timer. When you forget, the hours either go unbilled or get rebuilt from memory on Friday afternoon.

Harvest’s calendar tracking helps with scheduled meetings. It does not help with the unscheduled work between meetings: the quick fix for one client, the half hour reading another client’s brief. Kimai lists no automatic app or website tracking, Harvest lists no automatic activity capture, and neither lists AI features. Nothing in either vendor’s documentation covers this gap.

Can Dayflow fill the gap on a Mac?

Partly, and only on a Mac. Dayflow is our free, MIT-licensed app for macOS 14 or later. It records the screen at one frame every 10 seconds and has AI write the day into a readable timeline. When a timer was never started, you can look at what you were actually doing and enter the hours in Kimai or Harvest. Our walkthrough on building a Mac timesheet without manual entry shows that workflow. To pull a week out at once, you can export a date range as Markdown from Settings → Export.

Three things to know before you rely on it for billing:

• It is a record, not a ledger. Kimai or Harvest still holds the billable entries and sends the invoice.
• AI summaries can miss or misinterpret work. Check the timeline before any hour reaches a client.
• Client work appears in the recordings. Recordings and the timeline are stored on your Mac. Analysis can run on-device with a local model through Ollama or LM Studio. You can also send selected screenshots to a cloud provider you configure, or use Dayflow Pro, which deletes screenshots after processing under our privacy policy. The details are in local and cloud processing.

Where Dayflow is the wrong pick

• You need to send an invoice. Dayflow has no invoicing. Harvest wins if you want online payments and accounting integrations. Kimai wins if you want templates on your own server.
• You manage a team’s hours. Dayflow has no team reports or payroll approvals. Harvest Enterprise lists timesheet approvals and profitability reporting.
• You track time on Windows, Linux or a phone. Dayflow is Mac only. Harvest covers Windows, iOS and Android, and Kimai runs in any browser.
• Your billing data must stay on infrastructure your organization runs, for every user. Self-hosted Kimai is built for that.
• Clients expect start and stop entries made at the time of work. A timer in Harvest or Kimai produces that record directly. Dayflow produces a reconstruction that you then verify.

The bottom line

For most freelancers billing clients, Harvest is the more practical choice. It has native apps on Mac and phone, invoices clients can pay online, and a free plan that fits one or two clients.

Choose Kimai if ownership and cost per seat matter more than polish. It is open source, can be self-hosted or hosted in Germany, and has flexible rates.

Neither tool tracks time on its own. If forgotten timers are costing you billable hours, Dayflow can sit beside either one on your Mac as the record you check before you fill in the timesheet. The billing still happens in Kimai or Harvest.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kimai free?

The self-hosted version of Kimai is free and open source under AGPL 3, and the vendor provides Docker images. You need a web server, PHP 8.2 or newer, and MariaDB or MySQL. Kimai Cloud is paid after a 30-day free trial. It starts at €2.99 per user and month on annual billing, or €3.99 on monthly billing, excluding tax.

How much does Harvest cost for a freelancer?

Harvest's Free plan costs $0 forever for 1 seat and 2 projects. It includes time tracking, invoicing and expense tracking. If you need more than two projects, the Teams plan is $9 per seat a month billed annually ($108 a year), or $11 a month billed monthly. Harvest shows its prices as 'starting from', so confirm them on its pricing page.

Does Kimai have a Mac app?

Kimai is documented as a web app, either self-hosted or on Kimai Cloud, so on a Mac you use it in a browser. Native desktop or mobile apps were not confirmed on the vendor pages checked for this article. If a native Mac app matters to you, Harvest lists apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, plus browser extensions.

Can clients pay Harvest invoices online?

Yes. Harvest creates invoices from tracked time and supports online payments. It also lists accounting integrations such as QuickBooks and Xero. Invoicing is included even on the Free plan, which is limited to 1 seat and 2 projects. Kimai also does invoicing, with configurable templates, but online payments were not mentioned on the Kimai pages checked.

Where does Kimai store my timesheet data?

That depends on how you run it. Self-hosted Kimai runs on your own server, so timesheets and invoices stay in your own database. Kimai Cloud is hosted in Germany and GDPR compliant, according to the vendor, and the company is based in Austria. Harvest, by comparison, is a cloud web service with desktop and mobile apps, so your data is stored with Harvest.

Can Dayflow replace Harvest for billing clients?

No. Harvest is the better tool for billing. It creates invoices from tracked time, takes online payments, tracks expenses and connects to accounting tools such as QuickBooks and Xero. Dayflow, our Mac app, has no invoicing, payroll approvals or team reports. It can help you remember what you worked on, but the hours still have to go into Harvest or Kimai to be billed.

Does Harvest track time automatically?

Not in the sense of watching which apps you use. Harvest tracks time with one-click timers, daily and weekly timesheets, or entries from a connected calendar, and it lists no automatic activity capture. Kimai works the same way, with manual timers, a multi-timer and punch-in punch-out modes, and no automatic app or website tracking. If you forget a timer, both leave the gap to you.

Who owns Harvest now?

The footer of Harvest's website reads 'Bending Spoons Operations S.p.A.', which indicates Harvest is now owned by Bending Spoons. The current pricing page names the paid plans Teams and Enterprise, while the pricing FAQ still mentions 'pro' and 'premium' plans. If you are reading older reviews, check plan names and prices against Harvest's own pricing page.

Can I use Dayflow alongside Kimai or Harvest?

Yes, as a record you work from. Dayflow records your Mac screen at one frame every 10 seconds and has AI write a timeline of the day. You can read that timeline, or export a date range as Markdown from Settings → Export, and then enter your billable hours in Kimai or Harvest. Check the AI summaries before billing, because they can miss or misinterpret work.

Is Kimai or Harvest better for a small agency?

That depends on what the agency needs. Harvest offers team reporting, accounting integrations and, on Enterprise at $14 per seat a month billed annually, profitability reporting and timesheet approvals. Kimai Cloud costs less per user, starting at €2.99 per user and month on annual billing, lists SAML and LDAP login, and can be self-hosted. Agencies that want native apps and approvals should lean toward Harvest.