Hourbun vs Harpoon
Looking for a Harpoon alternative that bills each client in its own currency? Hourbun tracks your time and invoices each client in its currency, for one flat price for up to 30 people.
By Fred Wu, maker of Hourbun · Checked · Report a mistake
The short answer
Hourbun gives people who bill clients by the hour a currency for each client or project, and one flat price for up to 30 people on its Team plan. Harpoon uses one currency for the whole account, and its $9 Starter plan holds 3 clients. Harpoon fits agencies that want yearly revenue goals and forecasts.
Why switch
Why teams pick Hourbun over Harpoon
- A freelancer with 5 clients pays $15 a month on Hourbun Duo. The $9 Starter plan of Harpoon holds 3 clients, so the same freelancer pays $19 on Harpoon Freelancer.
- A team of 25 pays $99 a month on Hourbun Team, which holds up to 30 people. Harpoon Agency is $99 for 20 users plus $5 a month for each extra user: $124.
- A currency for each client or project: Harpoon uses one currency for the whole account, and online payments follow the currency of your Stripe account.
- Hourly rates by person as well as by client, project and task: Harpoon sets the rate of each task at the global, client and project level.
Head to head
At a glance
| Fact | Hourbun | Harpoon |
|---|---|---|
| Duo, a month | $15 (lower price) Duo | $19 Freelancer |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14 days, with no card | 14 days, with no credit card |
| Client invoices | Yes | Yes |
| Online payment | Yes By card or bank debit, into your own Stripe account | Yes Through Stripe: cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link and Cash App Pay, and ACH bank transfers in the US |
| Desktop or mobile apps | No A web app with a layout for phones | Partly A Mac menu bar app for timers |
Same work, two prices
What you'd pay each month
Hourbun costs less in 3 of 5 examples below.
Hourbun
- One flat price per workspace
- Duo up to 2 seats · Team up to 30
- 14-day free trial, no card
Harpoon
- A monthly price by plan, with a set number of users
- Plus $5 a month for each user above 20 on Agency
- The Starter plan holds 1 user and 3 clients
- 21% off when billed yearly
| Example | Hourbun | Harpoon |
|---|---|---|
| Solo freelancer 1 person · 5 clients | $15 (lower price) Duo Save $4 a month | $19 Freelancer $15 billed yearly |
| Duo 2 people · 8 clients | $15 (lower price) Duo Save $4 a month | $19 Freelancer $15 billed yearly |
| Small studio 5 people · 15 clients | $99 Team | $39 (lower price) Studio $31 billed yearly |
| Agency 10 people · 30 clients | $99 Team | $99 Agency $78 billed yearly |
| Larger team 25 people · 60 clients | $99 (lower price) Team Save $25 a month | $124 Agency $103 billed yearly |
- USD list prices, billed monthly
- Before tax and payment fees
- Highlight = lower price
- Checked 10 November 2026
Pricing details (6)
- Each plan holds a set number of users: 1 on Starter, 2 on Freelancer, 8 on Studio and 20 on Agency. Each user above 20 costs $5 a month.
- The Starter plan is limited to 3 clients; other than that, each plan has all the features of Harpoon.
- Billed yearly: Starter $85, Freelancer $180, Studio $372 and Agency $936 a year.
- Harpoon charges no transaction fee on online payments; Stripe charges its own fees.
- All prices are in US dollars.
- The usage of each example: Solo freelancer: 1 person · 5 clients · 6 projects · 5 tasks · 6 invoices and $7.5k invoiced a month. Duo: 2 people · 8 clients · 10 projects · 8 tasks · 10 invoices and $16k invoiced a month. Small studio: 5 people · 15 clients · 20 projects · 10 tasks · 20 invoices and $40k invoiced a month. Agency: 10 people · 30 clients · 40 projects · 15 tasks · 40 invoices and $90k invoiced a month. Larger team: 25 people · 60 clients · 80 projects · 20 tasks · 80 invoices and $220k invoiced a month.
Feature by feature
Features
- Yes
- Partly
- No
- Only the rows that we could check on a page of Harpoon
| Feature | Hourbun | Harpoon |
|---|---|---|
| Time tracking | ||
| Timer | Yes | Yes |
| Billable and non-billable time | Yes | Yes Hourly and non-billable projects |
| Hourly rates by client, project, task and person | Yes | Partly A rate for each task, at the global, client and project level |
| Desktop or mobile apps | No A web app with a layout for phones | Partly A Mac menu bar app for timers |
| Invoicing and payments | ||
| Invoices from tracked time | Yes | Yes |
| Invoice lines of your own (a fixed fee, a product) | Yes | Yes Line items with categories such as Hours, Deposit and Fee |
| Recurring invoices | Yes | Yes |
| Estimates or quotes that a client accepts online | Yes | Yes |
| Credit notes | Yes | Partly A credit balance of a client, applied to invoices |
| Expenses with receipts, billed with a markup | Yes | Partly Receipts, and the expenses of a project added to an invoice |
| A currency for each client or project | Yes | No One currency for the whole account |
| A tax on each line, and a second tax | Yes | Yes One or more taxes on each line |
| Invoices in your client's language | Yes | Yes A language for each client |
| Email reminders of late invoices | Yes | Yes |
| Online payment of an invoice | Yes By card or bank debit, into your own Stripe account | Yes Through Stripe: cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link and Cash App Pay, and ACH bank transfers in the US |
| No fee of the app on online payments | Yes Only the fees of Stripe | Yes Only the fees of Stripe |
| Projects and reports | ||
| Project budgets in hours or money | Yes | Yes Budgets in hours or a fixed fee, with resets |
| Fixed-fee projects | Yes | Yes |
| Cost rates and profit | Yes For admins and the owner | Yes |
| Reports with a CSV export | Yes | Yes PDF or CSV |
| Weekly capacity of each teammate | Yes | Yes |
| Team | ||
| Team roles | Yes Member, manager, admin and owner | Yes Owner, admin, manager and staff |
| Integrations and data | ||
| A public API | No | Yes An API and Zapier |
| Import from any app by CSV, with past invoices and expenses | Yes Time, clients and projects too; a format guide with a prompt for an AI agent | Partly Clients |
Which one fits
Hourbun or Harpoon?
Choose Hourbun if
- You bill clients in more than one currency.
- You work alone with more than 3 clients, or your team has 21 to 30 people.
- You want hourly rates for each person as well as for each client, project and task.
- You move from Harpoon or Harvest: Hourbun imports a CSV of time from any app, and a whole Harvest account.
Where Harpoon is better
- Financial planning: yearly revenue goals in monthly targets, a revenue forecast from your projects and a yearly schedule of projects.
- Expenses from bank imports and syncs, with expense budgets, mileage tracking and recurring expenses.
- A Mac menu bar app for timers, recurring auto-billing of cards, Peppol e-invoicing, Zapier and an API.
Switching
Switch from Harpoon to Hourbun
Hourbun imports a CSV of time entries from any app: upload a CSV of your time, check the columns and the people that Hourbun proposes, and see a preview before anything is added. Your clients, projects, expenses and past invoices can come too: give the Hourbun format guide and your Harpoon exports to an AI agent, and upload the files that it makes. The 14-day trial of Hourbun needs no card.
Questions
Questions and answers
Is Hourbun cheaper than Harpoon?
It depends on your team. A freelancer with 5 clients pays $15 a month on Hourbun and $19 on Harpoon, and a team of 25 pays $99 on Hourbun and $124 on Harpoon. A team of 5 pays $39 on Harpoon Studio and $99 on Hourbun Team.
Does Harpoon charge per user?
Harpoon charges a flat price by plan: 1 user on Starter, 2 on Freelancer, 8 on Studio and 20 on Agency, then $5 a month for each user above 20. Hourbun charges a flat price by plan too: 2 people on Duo and up to 30 on Team.
Can Harpoon and Hourbun bill clients in different currencies?
Hourbun sets a currency for each client or project. Harpoon uses one currency for the whole account, and online payments follow the currency of your Stripe account.
Can I move from Harpoon to Hourbun?
Yes. Hourbun imports a CSV of time entries from any app, with the clients, projects, tasks and people that it names, after a preview. Export your Harpoon reports as CSV files to keep your history, and start with the 14-day trial, which needs no card.
Which is better for freelancers, Harpoon or Hourbun?
Hourbun suits freelancers who bill several clients by the hour, also in more than one currency: Duo is $15 a month for 2 people. Harpoon suits freelancers who want yearly revenue goals and forecasts; its $9 Starter plan holds 1 user and 3 clients.
Sources
- From the pages of Harpoon, unless a source says otherwise
- A feature that we could not check has no row
- Prices change: check the pricing page of Harpoon
All sources (26)
- Harpoon plans and pricing
- Harpoon features
- Harpoon planning
- Harpoon invoicing
- Harpoon time tracking
- Harpoon projects
- Harpoon expenses
- How do I track time for a project?
- How do I create a project?
- How do I customize my hourly rate?
- How do I add a project's recorded hours to an invoice?
- How do I create an invoice?
- How do I create a recurring invoice?
- How do I create an estimate?
- How do I manage credit for a client?
- How do I add a project's expenses to an invoice?
- How do I record an expense?
- What currencies does Harpoon support?
- How do I create a client?
- How do I collect online payments from my clients?
- How do I accept ACH bank transfers as payments from my clients?
- How do I track the internal hourly cost rates for my team members?
- How do I track the weekly hours capacity of my team members?
- How do I generate a Project Summary report?
- How do I invite a team member to my account?
- How do I import clients into my Harpoon account?
Harpoon is a trademark of FlexBillPro LLC, and Hourbun is not affiliated with it.