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Both cover accounting & tax and creator finance. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Harvest | Xero | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $9 | From $25 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 30 days | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web, macOS, iOS | Not stated |
| Covers | Accounting & Tax, Creator Finance, Project Management | Accounting & Tax, Creator Finance |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Time tracking that turns into an invoice
Harvest counts hours against a project and then bills them, which removes the worst half hour of any freelance month: reading a timesheet back and typing it into an invoice. Expenses and receipts attach to the same project. The free plan covers one person and two projects, and for a solo creator that is often where it stops.
Our note
Harvest is the pick when the hours are the invoice. If work is billed as a fixed project fee, Moxie or Bonsai cover more of the job for similar money and the time tracking is the smaller part of what you need.
Only on this side
Accounting a freelancer can run without help
Xero covers the parts of bookkeeping a creator actually meets: invoices, bank reconciliation, expenses and the reports an accountant asks for in January. Nothing in it assumes you have taken an accounting class. There is no free plan, and the cheapest tier stops at twenty invoices a month, which a busy freelancer clears by the third week.
Our note
Pick Xero over Wave when you have contractors to pay and a real filing to make, and Wave over Xero when you mostly need invoices to look professional. The invoice cap on the entry plan is the thing people hit and get annoyed by, so count last year's invoices before choosing it.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.