Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

CakePHP VS Harvest

Compare CakePHP VS Harvest and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

CakePHP logo CakePHP

The Rapid Development Framework for PHP

Harvest logo Harvest

Simple time tracking, fast online invoicing, and powerful reporting software. Simplify employee timesheets and billing. Get started for free.
  • CakePHP Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21
  • Harvest Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-08

CakePHP features and specs

  • Structured MVC Framework
    CakePHP follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern, which provides a clear separation of concerns, making the application more organized and maintainable.
  • Built-in ORM
    CakePHP includes a powerful Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) system which simplifies database interactions and promotes the use of PHP objects instead of writing raw SQL queries.
  • Convention Over Configuration
    CakePHP follows the 'convention over configuration' philosophy, which reduces the need for extensive configuration and allows developers to quickly set up new projects.
  • Security Features
    The framework comes with built-in security features like input validation, SQL injection prevention, and CSRF protection, which help in building safer applications.
  • Active Community
    CakePHP has an active and supportive community, which provides a wealth of plugins, tutorials, and help through forums and other online resources.

Possible disadvantages of CakePHP

  • Learning Curve
    For developers who are new to MVC frameworks or the conventions used by CakePHP, there can be a steep learning curve initially.
  • Performance Overhead
    Due to its extensive features and abstractions, CakePHP can sometimes have a higher performance overhead compared to lightweight frameworks, especially in high-traffic applications.
  • Limited Flexibility
    While conventions can be beneficial, they may also limit flexibility for developers who prefer to structure their projects differently or need to implement custom solutions.
  • Updates and Compatibility
    Major updates to the framework might introduce breaking changes, requiring existing projects to undergo significant modifications to stay up-to-date.

Harvest features and specs

  • User Friendly Interface
    Harvest offers an intuitive and clean interface that makes it easy for users to navigate and utilize various features without extensive training.
  • Comprehensive Time Tracking
    It provides detailed time tracking capabilities, allowing users to log hours spent on various tasks and projects, which helps in accurate billing and productivity analysis.
  • Seamless Integrations
    Harvest integrates with numerous third-party applications such as Asana, Trello, Slack, and QuickBooks, enhancing its functionality and fitting into existing workflows effortlessly.
  • Invoicing and Payments
    The platform supports invoicing and payments, enabling users to generate invoices directly from tracked hours and receive payments through different payment gateways.
  • Detailed Reporting
    Harvest offers robust reporting features that provide insights into time usage, project progress, and team performance, aiding in decision-making and resource allocation.

Possible disadvantages of Harvest

  • Cost
    Harvest's pricing can be relatively high for small businesses or freelancers, especially when additional features or seats are needed.
  • Limited Mobile Functionality
    While Harvest does have mobile apps, they are not as fully featured as the desktop version, which can limit usability for those who need to manage tasks on the go.
  • Manual Time Entry
    The process of manually entering time can be cumbersome for some users, especially in scenarios where automatic time tracking would be more efficient.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    Although the basic functionality is easy to use, there can be a learning curve when it comes to mastering more advanced features and reporting tools.
  • Limited Customization
    Harvest offers limited options for customization in terms of the user interface and report formats, which can be a drawback for users who need tailored solutions.

Analysis of Harvest

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Harvest is a reliable and efficient tool for businesses that need meticulous time tracking and effortless invoicing. Its well-rounded feature set and ease of use make it a solid choice for those looking to improve their workflow and financial tracking.

Why this product is good

  • Harvest is considered a good choice for many businesses due to its user-friendly interface, robust time-tracking capabilities, and seamless integration with various project management and accounting tools. It offers features like invoicing, expense tracking, and detailed reporting, which make it a comprehensive solution for freelancers, small businesses, and larger teams looking to streamline their time management and billing processes. The software's ability to provide insights on project profitability and team performance has made it a popular option among companies prioritizing efficiency and productivity.

Recommended for

  • Freelancers who need to track time and bill clients effectively
  • Small to medium-sized businesses seeking streamlined project tracking and invoicing
  • Teams looking for integration with other project management and financial tools
  • Organizations that require detailed reporting and analytics on time usage and project profitability

CakePHP videos

CakePHP 3.7 Standards and MySQL Database Review

More videos:

  • Tutorial - CakePHP 3 Tutorial - part 1: Introduction & Installation

Harvest videos

I TRIED DAILY HARVEST FOR A WEEK // HONEST DAILY HARVEST REVIEW

More videos:

  • Review - Harvest Review - with Tom Vasel
  • Review - I Tried Daily Harvest for a Week | Brutally Honest Daily Harvest Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CakePHP and Harvest)
Web Frameworks
100 100%
0% 0
Time Tracking
0 0%
100% 100
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Invoicing
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using CakePHP and Harvest. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare CakePHP and Harvest

CakePHP Reviews

CakePHP vs CodeIgniter: Which PHP Framework is Best for Development?
CakePHP: CakePHP was released in April 2005 by Larry Masters. It is influenced by the concepts of Ruby on Rails and emphasizes convention over configuration, aiming to make web development fast and easy. CakePHP has undergone significant evolution, with the latest versions providing advanced features while maintaining backward compatibility.
Top 5 Laravel Alternatives
CakePHP is less complicated to work with than Laravel. CakePHPโ€™s stated goal is to streamline the processes of developing, deploying, and maintaining Web Apps. The clean MVC layout makes it easy to pick up and use.
Top 10 Phoenix Framework Alternatives
CakePHP offers multiple features like code generation and app scaffolding that accelerates production speeds and saves development costs.
The Most Popular PHP Frameworks to Use in 2021
For example, the CakePHP framework has the Bake command-line tool which can quickly create any skeleton code that you need in your application.
Source: kinsta.com
Top 9 PHP Frameworks For Web Development In 2021
CakePHP is an open-source web development PHP framework. Itโ€™s ranked 6th in PHP Benchmarks, just above the Laravel web development framework. The newly released v4.0 comes with a renovated skeleton design and provides APIs to enable developers for rapid application development. On GitHub, it has 8.3k+ stars and 555 contributors. For commercial support, you have cakeDC....

Harvest Reviews

  1. Handy helper app

    Harvest has significantly improved our workflow. Its reporting make project management a breeze.

  2. Elle Bennett
    ยท Webmaster at UK Landlord Tax ยท
    Excellent for tracking hours

    A nice simple interface and plenty of rich features really make this application essential.

    ๐Ÿ Competitors: Pomodone
  3. stevezapalac
    One of the best Time Tracking App I have ever used.

    Has a lot of features when compared to it's competitors out there.


What Are the Best Bill.com Alternatives?
Invoicing used to take me a couple of days and was one of my most dreaded activities. However, since we started using Harvest (getharvest.com) for our time-tracking and invoicing, it takes less than an hour. Harvest is easy to set up, simple to use, and ideal for freelancers or small businesses.
10 Best RescueTime Alternatives for Time Tracking in 2024
Harvest is an easy-to-use time-tracking platform to create invoices, generate reports, monitor budgets, and track costs. The app integrates seamlessly with accounting and project management tools like Asana, Trello, Basecamp, Quickbooks, Slack, Xero, and Stripe.
Source: clickup.com
10 Top RescueTime Alternatives for 2024 [Detailed Overview]
Harvest turns your billable time tracked and expenses into accurate invoices. Through its integrations with Stripe and PayPal, Harvest lets you accept client payments online.
Source: toggl.com
Discovering rescuetime alternatives for high productivity (2024)
Additionally we also have Harvest in the list as yet another time tracking tool that can be used as an alternative to Rescuetime!
Harvest vs Clockk: 2023 comparison
โ€œHarvest is just really really really easy to use. Setting it up is fast and painless, administering jobs is easy, filling out timesheets is easy. Our team had a hard time tracking time prior to Harvest, and once we started using this software it became (almost) painless overnight.โ€
Source: clockk.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Harvest might be a bit more popular than CakePHP. We know about 14 links to it since March 2021 and only 10 links to CakePHP. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

CakePHP mentions (10)

  • How to Use ServBay to Create and Run a CakePHP Project
    CakePHP is an open-source PHP web framework designed to help developers build web applications quickly. It is based on the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture and provides a powerful toolkit to simplify common development tasks such as database interactions, form handling, authentication, and session management. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Top 12 PHP Frameworks For Web Development in 2024
    CakePHP is an open-source PHP framework for web development with 8.7k stars and 3.5k forks on GitHub. It offers APIs that enable developers to develop applications quickly. It allows you to create highly secure and scalable web applications, including social networks, eCommerce, and online collaboration platforms. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Any suggestions for lighter frameworks than Laravel?
    Give https://cakephp.org/ a try. It also is one of the oldest ones out there, so quite mature and stable while being rather lightweight. Serving JSON API seems like a good fit. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Which PHP Framework Should You Use in 2023?
    You can download it and review the documentation here: https://cakephp.org/. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • My Workflow
    As the name of the service says it will work best with Laravel but it is not a problem to modify code from other frameworks to make it work the same way. I have several applications created this way in CakePHP. I have this set to manual after clicking the deploy button, but if you want you can turn on quick deploy and then it will publish the application after a push to the main branch (or another one, depending... - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
View more

Harvest mentions (14)

  • software for planning upcoming months work
    If thatโ€™s not enough, Iโ€™ve had good experience with http://getharvest.com (and accompanying tools from them). Source: about 3 years ago
  • Software Developer Mac Apps
    Https://getharvest.com/ : time tracker for contract work. Source: about 3 years ago
  • What do you guys for invoicing outside Upwork?
    I use getharvest.com to track hourly and convert them to invoice. The only thing I don't like is that I have to add the task in the web dashboard rather than entering directly in the desktop app. There is 'note' field, but it won't show up in the invoice detail, so it is useless for me. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Need help learning, can anyone suggest search terms so I can wrap my head around what I would like to do? Thanks
    I think for your business the best way to go is with a premade app for time logs and invoicing. My wife uses Harvest for her business: https://getharvest.com. Source: over 3 years ago
  • New to graphic freelancing, how to take payments/send invoice?
    I use Harvestto invoice and track time. You can also use QuickBooks. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing CakePHP and Harvest, you can also consider the following products

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

Toggl - Toggl is an online time tracking tool. It features 1-click time tracking and helps you see where your time goes. Free and paid versions are available.

CodeIgniter - A Fully Baked PHP Framework

TimeCamp - Simple and robust time tracking app to help you stay on the same page with your team while working from home.

Ruby on Rails - Ruby on Rails is an open source full-stack web application framework for the Ruby programming...

RescueTime - Time management software that shows you how you spend your time & provides tools to help you be more productive.