spiritflow vs Harvest
spiritflow is a European alternative to Harvest: same project management & productivity use case, headquartered in Germany and governed by EU GDPR, while Harvest (Bending Spoons) is based in Italy.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Tasks, projects, time tracking, invoicing and receipts in one German platform, with Kanban and timeline views, ZUGFeRD e-invoices and Hetzner hosting.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
A timer that lives in the menu bar, the browser and a dozen other tools, feeding straight into invoices, is the workflow freelancers are least willing to rebuild. One seat and two projects are free and Teams is 9 dollars per seat monthly, though usage fees added after the 2025 sale lifted some renewals sharply. The service now comes from Bending Spoons Operations S.p.A., registered in Milan, so it is European.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- GDPR by default
- Yes
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
spiritflow vs Harvest at a glance
| spiritflow | Harvest | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Germany | Italy |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | EU / EEA |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | EU GDPR |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | No |
| Best for | Teams looking for a different project management & productivity trade-off on price, openness and features | Teams already invested in the Bending Spoons ecosystem |
Choose spiritflow if…
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Harvest if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Bending Spoons ecosystem
- Migration costs outweigh the feature and pricing gains for now
About spiritflow
spiritflow replaces a stack of separate subscriptions with one system where tasks, projects and tracked hours feed straight into invoicing and receipt capture. Built for small and medium companies, it holds customer records, billable time, expenses and team chat in one place, so nothing is re-entered or reconciled between tools at the end of the month.
Work is planned in Kanban, list or timeline views, tracked with a one click timer, and turned into ZUGFeRD compliant e-invoices without leaving the platform. Receipts are read by AI assisted OCR and filed against the right project, meetings run over built in audio and video, and a documented REST API with webhooks connects phone systems, ERP and accounting software, and automation tools.
Key benefits:
- Tasks and projects in Kanban, list and timeline views for small teams
- Built in time tracking that turns billable hours into invoices without re-entry
- E-invoicing with ZUGFeRD output for the German e-Rechnung requirement
- Receipt capture with OCR that files expenses against the matching project
- CRM and customer records shared by projects, invoices and conversations
- Chat and meetings with audio and video inside the same workspace
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android with offline sync away from the desk
- Public REST API with webhooks for ERP, accounting and telephony integrations
spiritdev Softwareentwicklung GmbH builds and operates the platform from Reinbek near Hamburg. Application data, backups and the meeting server run on Hetzner infrastructure in Germany, the AI features use Mistral AI in France, and the only documented third country transfer is mobile push notifications. The platform is described as GDPR and GoBD compliant, with a data processing agreement and procedure documentation included.
Ideal for agencies, IT service providers and consultancies that want one German hosted system instead of a patchwork of separate tools.
Why choose spiritflow over Harvest?
Jurisdiction is not the argument here: Harvest is headquartered in Italy, so both products answer to European data-protection law. What separates them is pricing, openness, feature depth and how much of the European ecosystem you want to back.
spiritflow sits on the same side of that line. As a Germany-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.