Harvest Raised Prices 10x — Here's What Freelancers Actually Need From an Invoice Tool

If you're a freelancer who used Harvest for time tracking and invoicing, you probably got the email: Bending Spoons acquired Harvest and raised prices from $12/mo to as high as $1,900/mo.

Meanwhile, FreshBooks caps you at 5 clients on their Lite plan. Toggl tracks time but can't generate invoices. And QuickBooks is an accounting degree disguised as software.

Freelancers don't need enterprise tools. We need something dead simple.

What Freelancers Actually Need

I talked to dozens of freelancers on Reddit (r/freelance, r/consulting, r/webdev). The pattern is crystal clear:

1. Track time — start/stop timer or log hours manually
2. Generate invoices — turn time entries into professional PDFs
3. Get paid — Stripe link on the invoice, client clicks and pays
4. No client limits — seriously, why is this even a thing?

That's it. Not a CRM. Not an ERP. Not a "business management platform." Just time → invoice → money.

The Current Options (And Why They Fall Short)

Harvest (RIP affordable pricing)

• Was great at $12/mo
• Now owned by Bending Spoons, pricing unpredictable
• Users report bills jumping 10-100x overnight

FreshBooks ($17-55/mo)

• 5 client limit on Lite. Need a 6th client? Pay double.
• Increasingly bloated with features freelancers don't use
• Annual billing locks you in

Toggl Track ($9-18/mo)

• Excellent time tracker
• Zero invoicing capability — you still need a separate tool
• Export to CSV, format manually, send as PDF. Every. Week.

Wave (Free)

• Free is great, but the UX is clunky
• More of an accounting tool than an invoicing tool
• Recently acquired, future uncertain

What I'm Building: SlimInvoice

I'm building SlimInvoice based on one principle: do three things perfectly, nothing else.

• ✅ One-click time tracking
• ✅ Instant invoice generation (professional PDF)
• ✅ Stripe payment link on every invoice
• ✅ Unlimited clients, unlimited invoices
• ✅ $19/mo — one plan, no tiers, no surprise price hikes

No CRM. No project management. No expense tracking. Just time → invoice → paid.

I also built 20 profession-specific invoice templates (graphic designers, photographers, consultants, web developers, etc.) — because a photographer's invoice looks different from a copywriter's invoice.

It's not launched yet. If this sounds like what you need, join the waitlist. First 50 signups get 30 days free.

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What's your current invoicing setup? I'd love to hear what's working and what's broken in the comments.

Comments

[Shivam Kumar]

Same pattern playing out as with HoneyBook — the sticker price is never the real price. The fee math is what pushed most people I know away from tools like HoneyBook: $29/mo looks fine until you add the 3% platform fee on top of card fees — on $30k/year that's roughly $900 gone before Stripe takes its cut. And the Harvest story here shows the other risk: when a tool gets acquired, the price can jump 10x overnight. The bigger blocker for non-US creatives is simpler: HoneyBook payments are US/Canada only, so international freelancers literally cannot collect through it. What actually matters in a replacement: (1) payments that work in your country, (2) contracts + invoices in one flow, (3) your templates exportable — no lock-in. I'm researching/building in this space with VisionQuantech; if you're switching, the export-your-data-first step is the one everyone skips and regrets.