The fastest way to lose your billable hours is to keep them in someone else's cloud.
DockTodo vs Harvest
A local-first alternative for freelancers who bill by the hour — your timer, timesheet and invoices on your own machine, free forever.
If you're here, the renewal invoice probably surprised you
Since the acquisition, Harvest users have reported usage-based charges stacking on top of seat prices — with forum accounts of renewals climbing from around $12 a month into four figures. When a tool you've trusted for years can reprice the thing you depend on, the problem isn't the number on this month's invoice; it's that the number is set on someone else's server, and you're not the one holding the switch.
Harvest is genuinely good — at something else
Credit where it's due: Harvest is a polished product with deep integrations and solid team invoicing, and for an agency running approvals, expenses and multiple projects across a team, it earns its keep. DockTodo isn't trying to replace that. It's built for one person who bills by the hour and wants the hours-to-invoice path to be a single, private, offline record — not a subscription that can move under them.
Where DockTodo wins for a solo hourly biller
| What matters to a freelancer | DockTodo | Harvest |
|---|---|---|
| Your data lives on… | your own device | their cloud |
| Works fully offline | Yes | No |
| Account required | None | Yes |
| Per-seat & usage fees | Never | Both, and rising |
| Timer → invoice | One tool, one click | Built in, on their terms |
| Price you can count on | $0, in writing | Set server-side |
| Anything uploaded | Nothing | Everything |
This table only lists what a solo hourly freelancer cares about. Harvest does more on integrations and team workflows — if you need those, it's the better fit, honestly.
The right question isn't "which does more today?"
It's "who owns your data and your hours a year from now?" A cloud tool can be acquired, add a usage fee, or move a feature behind a wall — and the answer changes without you. A local-first app can't: the free tier never shrinks because there's no server bill that could ever force it to, and your records are a plain JSON file you can read and take anywhere.
Bring your Harvest history in one click
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Export a time report from Harvest.
In Harvest, export your detailed time report as CSV — the format with one row per entry, including hours and billable rate.
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Import it into DockTodo.
Open DockTodo, click Import, and choose the file. It detects the Harvest format and maps clients, projects, hours and rates automatically. Some project mappings may need a quick review — you'll see a preview before anything is added.
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Confirm, and you're tracking locally.
Review the preview, confirm, and your history is in — on your device, ready to invoice. One click undoes it if you change your mind.
Choose the one that fits how you actually work
Choose DockTodo if you bill by the hour and want your data on your own machine. Choose Harvest if you run a multi-seat agency that needs deep integrations, expenses and approvals. No hard feelings either way — this is an honest fork, not a takedown.
The free local app is live today and its feature list never shrinks — a published commitment, not a promotion.