alt Hacker NewsThe Harvest website lists the following (annually billed) plans:
- Free (obviously free)
- Teams $9 a month
- Enterprise unlimited $14 a month
The writer of this article claims they got upgraded to $133.98 a month plan, but looking at the site, such plan does not even exist.
Something is a bit fishy here or they accidentally added an extra 3 to the $13.98 or mistook the yearly price for a monthly price.
Replies
Those are seat fees, which do not include the new usage fees. I got this email:
> “Looking at your account, you're currently on the Basic plan at $40.00/month with 5 seats, and you're scheduled to renew … on the Enterprise Unlimited plan at $586.50/month…”
So, from $40 to $586.50 for “unlimited” use. Same product. I think the goal was to force everyone onto usage based plans. I dropped spare seats and shifted off unlimited, and its about $75/mo per seat.
But if someone wanted to take over angry Harvest customers, it would probably be a good little business. Guess I just need to rip the bandaid off, and let a prompt run overnight.
I think it's including pay for usage. From the pricing page, beneath both Teams and Enterprise:
> Your base rate includes core features. As your team grows, additional invoices, projects, clients, and tasks are billed based on what you use, so you're never overpaying.
That's a bit bewildering, lol. Especially since they have annual plans.
This clarifies it:
> On Flex billing your first (sign-up) invoice usually covers seats only, because no projects, tasks, clients, or invoices have been tracked yet. Usage-based charges are calculated from the previous billing period, so they first appear at your renewal — not at sign-up. This is why a bill can jump (e.g. from a seats-only $44 to $404 once usage is added).
https://support.getharvest.com/hc/en-us/articles/31447072608...
That's roughly a 10x multiplier, just like aphyr's jump from $13.32 to $133.98!
You're right something doesn't ad up, and seems fishy (to me, bizarre even). But that isn't the author, it's Harvest after the Bending Spoons aquisition.
You need to read the “Starting from” text on their pricing page right before those prices you see.
You can have those lower monthly fees if you pay a higher percentage of your billings.
The article acknowledged that.
> There’s also a “flex” plan which costs $12.65/mo… but that plan now skims an additional 2% on top of the usual ~3% card transaction fees.
The problems with the Harvest acquisition driving up prices has been discussed a lot among consultants and contractors. This isn’t one person reading their billing page wrong. This is happening to all of their customers.
It’s how the acquiring company operates: Acquire companies, increase billing, accept that most customers will leave but some will stay and make up for the losses.