Verbial vs Harvest
Harvest alternative for marketing agencies
Verbial is a Harvest alternative for marketing agencies that bill monthly retainers and need the time tracked against them to pace by department, not only by project. Time tracking, projects, invoicing and proposals are on every plan from $79 per month, and the migration hub imports every Harvest client, project, task and time entry with history intact. Harvest remains a good choice if you want a simple timer with hourly invoicing and nothing else.
14-day trial. No card, no sales call. Your workspace is ready in a few minutes.
Credit where it is due
Where Harvest is stronger
- One of the simplest timers on the market, with a long record of reliability.
- Apps for every platform, including desktop and mobile timers.
- A large integration list, including Asana, Trello, Slack and QuickBooks Online.
- Free plan for a single seat.
Built for the agency's own business
Where Verbial fits better
- Retainers are the first-class object: department allocations, pre-paid overages, carryover and period history, paced live from time entries.
- Invoicing that fits agency billing: retainers in advance, hourly from approved time, media pass-through.
- Profitability from contracted revenue and absorbed salaried cost, not hours times rate.
- Harvest history comes with you: clients, projects, tasks and every time entry, with people matched by email.
Side by side
Capability by capability
Checked against the public documentation and pricing of Harvest on 2026-09-03. Every row is checkable.
| Capability | Verbial | Harvest |
|---|---|---|
| Timer and timesheets | Timer, weekly timesheet, approvals, reminders | Timer, timesheets, approvals, mobile and desktop apps |
| Retainer budgets | Per department, with pre-paid overages, carryover and monthly period history | Project budgets in hours or fees; retainers are a per-project budget reset |
| Budget alerts | Thresholds by client and department, sent in-app, by email or Slack | Budget alerts by project |
| Invoicing | Retainers in advance, pre-paid overages, hourly from approved time, media pass-through, usage statements | Invoices from tracked time and expenses, paid by card through Stripe or PayPal |
| Proposals and e-signature | Native, with the first invoice generated at signature | Not a Harvest featureSeparate tool |
| CRM | Included on Growth and above | Not a Harvest featureSeparate tool |
| Utilization and capacity | Utilization by person and department, capacity against retainer allocations | Capacity reports by person |
| Profitability | Contracted revenue, absorbed cost, idle time and servicing gap, admin-only | Billable amount versus cost rate per project |
| Client reporting | White-label reports and a client portal on your own domain | Not a Harvest featureSeparate tool |
| Roles | Members see hours, account managers see budgets, admins see cost and margin | Member, manager, administrator |
| Pricing basis | Flat plan price with seats included; no usage fees | Per seat plus usage-based fees for invoices, projects, clients and tasks above plan limits |
| List price | From $79 per month with 4 seats included. Configure yours. | $9 per seat per month, Teams, billed annually ($11 monthly), plus usage-based fees for invoices, projects, clients and tasks above the plan's included amounts |
What you would use
The Verbial modules that replace Harvest
Time tracking
Timers, plain-language entry, weekly sheets, approvals, locked periods, utilization by person and retainer pacing by department.
Invoicing
Retainer, overage, hourly and pass-through billing, pay links, receipts, reminders and a bookkeeper workflow into QuickBooks.
Profitability
Reads hours from time tracking and revenue from invoicing, which every plan includes, so it works the day it is turned on.
Questions
Why do agencies move from Harvest to Verbial?
Most move because Harvest tracks time against projects while the agency sells retainers with a scope per department. Verbial paces each department's allocation live, invoices retainers in advance, and computes margin from contracted revenue and absorbed cost. The rest of the operation, proposals, CRM and client reporting, is in the same record.
What happens to our Harvest history?
It comes with you. The migration hub connects with your Harvest account id and token, or reads Harvest's CSV exports, and imports clients, projects, tasks and every time entry with dates, notes and billable flags. People match your team by email, so utilization history is intact from day one.
Does Verbial have a timer?
Yes. A running timer, weekly timesheet, approvals and reminders. Time tracking is included on every plan.
How does the price compare?
Harvest Teams lists at $9 per seat per month billed annually, plus usage-based fees above the plan's included invoices, projects, clients and tasks. Verbial Starter is $79 per month with 1 full and 3 contributor seats included, then $29 per active full seat and $9 per contributor, and includes invoicing, proposals and e-signature. See /pricing.
Agency operating software
Try Verbial next to Harvest for a billing cycle.
Import what you have with a dry run, keep the old tool read-only, and compare the numbers on real work.
14-day trial. No card, no sales call. Your workspace is ready in a few minutes.