We may earn a commission if you buy through links on this page. It never changes a score or a ranking. How we make money
It's a split decision.
Choose Asana if you need shared project plans, goals, dependencies, and workflows for people and AI agents. Its Starter plan starts at $10.99/user/month billed annually, with no seat limit listed. Choose Harvest if tracking billable time, expenses, invoices, and project profitability matter more. Teams starts at $9/seat/month billed annually, but additional invoices, projects, clients, and tasks are usage-based. Both offer free plans; their caps differ, so pick by workflow, not headline price.
01Side by side
| Asana | Harvest | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $10.99/user/month billed annually | From $9/seat/month billed annually |
| Free plan | 2 users; unlimited tasks and projects | 1 seat; 2 projects |
| Best for | Project planning, goals, dependencies, and shared workflows | Time tracking, client billing, expenses, and profitability |
| Core strength | Connecting tasks, projects, goals, and people | Turning tracked time and expenses into invoices |
| Learning curve | Ease-of-use review score: 7/10 | Ease-of-use review score: 7/10 |
| Integrations/data | 100+ free integrations on Personal; Enterprise+ data residency | Accounting/payment integrations on Teams; custom integrations on Enterprise Plus |
| Team/seat costs | Starter: $10.99/user/month billed annually; no seat limit listed | Teams: $9/seat/month billed annually; usage-based extras |
| Support | Review score: 5/10; support details not provided | Review score: 5/10; support details not provided |
Asana Choose Asana if
- Choose Asana if projects need goals, dependencies, and shared plans.
- Choose Asana if AI agents should work inside team workflows.
- Choose Asana if two people need a free plan with unlimited projects.
Harvest Choose Harvest if
- Choose Harvest if billable time and client invoices are central.
- Choose Harvest if you need expense tracking and project profitability reports.
- Choose Harvest if the lower annual per-seat starting price matters.
02Pricing compared
Both have free plans, but the limits target different users. Asana Personal costs $0 and includes 2 users, unlimited tasks and projects, and 100MB per file. Its Starter plan is $10.99 per user/month billed annually, or $13.49 with monthly billing; no seat limit is listed. Starter includes unlimited automations and guests.
Harvest Free is for one person and caps usage at 2 projects, while including time tracking, invoicing, and expense tracking. Teams costs $9 per seat/month billed annually, or $11 monthly. The annual rate reflects a 20% discount. Teams adds unlimited seats, but additional invoices, projects, clients, and tasks are billed based on use. So Harvest has the lower listed starting price, but usage charges can change the bill. Asana’s extra AI Studio credits are also paid, with pricing not published.
03Features and depth
Asana is the stronger fit when the work itself needs structure. Its Work Graph connects people, tasks, projects, goals, and dependencies; project planning turns briefs into plans with owners and timelines. Shared workflows give people and AI agents the same plan and context. AI Teammates work inside workflows, while enterprise plans add controls such as audit logs, SAML, or data residency, depending on tier. Goals and resource management are listed on Advanced.
Harvest is built around time and money attached to client work. Teams can track hours with timers, timesheets, or calendar events; record expenses and receipts; and create invoices from time and expenses. Its reporting covers billable hours, profitability, and team utilization. It also supports hour or fee budgets, capacity planning, and time-off planning. Enterprise adds unlimited custom reports, profitability reporting, timesheet approvals, and SAML-based SSO.
These products overlap in project planning, but they are not close substitutes: Asana organizes delivery; Harvest accounts for effort, costs, and billing.
04Ease of use and learning curve
The published reviews score both products 7/10 for ease of use, so there is no clear winner on that measure. The learning curve depends more on the job you need done. Asana’s plans, goals, dependencies, and workflows offer more ways to structure work; teams adopting those features will need to agree on how to use them. Harvest centers on time, expenses, invoices, and project reporting, so its scope is more focused for teams that mainly need billable-work tracking. That does not make it a replacement for Asana’s project and goal structure. We’d choose based on the workflow people need to maintain, not on an assumed difference in simplicity.
Questions people ask
Which is better, Asana or Harvest?
Choose Asana for shared project plans, goals, dependencies, and workflows for people and AI agents. Choose Harvest for billable time, expenses, invoicing, and project profitability. Both have free plans, but Asana Personal supports 2 users while Harvest Free is limited to one seat and 2 projects.
Why choose Asana over Harvest?
Asana is the better fit when teams need to connect tasks, projects, goals, owners, and dependencies in shared workflows. It also lists AI Teammates and, on higher tiers, features such as resource management and enterprise governance. Harvest focuses more on tracking time and handling client billing.
Can Harvest replace Asana?
Not if your main need is Asana’s project and goal structure. Harvest supports project planning and team capacity, but its listed strengths are time tracking, expenses, invoicing, budgets, and profitability reporting. A team may use Harvest for billing and time records alongside a separate work-management tool.
Which is cheaper, Asana or Harvest?
Harvest Teams has the lower annual per-seat starting price: $9/month versus Asana Starter at $10.99/user/month. Both list higher prices for monthly billing. Harvest also bills for additional invoices, projects, clients, and tasks based on use, so the starting rates alone do not determine your total cost.