Users of the time tracking and invoicing software Harvest are reporting sharp increases in their renewal bills. Richard Hardenby, who leads the UK consulting firm Salentis, said his monthly fee climbed from $130 to $2,110, while one US-based user noted their annual cost went from $2,800 to $23,000. That represents an increase of about 1,500% in some cases. After the Italian technology group Bending Spoons acquired the company in 2025, a new pricing structure combining seat fees with usage-based charges took effect in 2026, leaving many annual subscribers to discover the new rates only at renewal time. Harvest has not yet provided a detailed response to inquiries.

How the price changes happened

Harvest previously charged a relatively stable monthly or annual fee per seat, letting customers add or remove accounts based on their team size. Under the new model introduced after the acquisition, usage fees are applied on top of the base seat price for invoices, projects, clients, and tasks that exceed set quotas. Analysts note that the per-unit usage rates are not fully listed on the public pricing page, so customers often only learn the final amount after the bill is generated.

Hardenby said his company had relied on the product for roughly 15 years. Accepting the new quote would nearly double his IT spending for the year, which he found unaffordable. After he declined, the vendor offered a discounted rate of $1,309 for the following year with a one-time prepayment, but he still plans to migrate to another tool. Pricing consultant Mark Peacock believes the lack of transparency makes it difficult for customers to estimate costs in advance.

Multiple similar complaints have appeared on platforms like Trustpilot: monthly fees rising from $69 to $821.50, from $180 to $2,145, or annual fees moving from about $2,000 to $22,000. The scale of the increase varies with the number of projects, clients, and invoicing volume, with highly active consulting and agency firms feeling the impact most sharply.

The acquirer and industry context

Bending Spoons, headquartered in Milan, has been steadily acquiring established software brands in recent years, building a portfolio that includes Evernote, WeTransfer, Vimeo, AOL, and Harvest. The Harvest acquisition closed in July 2025. The company went public on Nasdaq in July 2026, with second-quarter revenue growing significantly year over year, driven largely by acquisitions.

Market observers describe the strategy as: buy products with a stable user base and slowing growth, then adjust pricing and free tiers to boost revenue per user. After Evernote and WeTransfer were acquired, they similarly tightened free features and moved paid tiers upward. Damian Fox of the consulting firm Valueships says the Harvest adjustment looks less like "scaling up" and more like "improving monetization."

Real impact on small and medium businesses

Harvest's core users are consulting, design, legal, and other professional service firms that rely on the software to log hours and generate invoices. For small teams, the tool's cost was previously a predictable line item; now that usage fees are tied to active projects, costs rise in step with business growth and are hard to lock into a budget ahead of time.

Some customers are exporting their data before renewal and switching to alternatives like Toggl or Clockify. Others are accepting a one-year discount while they evaluate their options. The annual billing cycle has concentrated disputes in the summer of 2026: many accounts were still on old pricing in the first year after acquisition, only to face the new rules at the second renewal.

For business finances, this represents a shift in software-as-a-service cost structure: from a predictable seat-based subscription to variable spending tied to business volume. For small firms that depend heavily on the tool, a single renewal can change their annual profit margins.