Software and apps for freelancers
Most freelancer tool lists are one long scroll of three hundred links. This one is organised the way the decision actually gets made: by the job you are trying to do.
- QuickBooks The accounting software most accountants already know, with a tier aimed at one person.
- Xero A cloud ledger built for small businesses and the accountants who work on them.
- FreshBooks Started as invoicing and grew into accounting, so the invoice side is the polished part.
- Wave Free accounting and invoicing, paid for by the payment processing you may not use.
- Zoho Books Full accounting with a free tier for small turnover, inside the wider Zoho suite.
- FreeAgent UK accounting built around self-assessment, free with some business bank accounts.
- Sage Accounting A long-established accounting name with a cloud tier for very small businesses.
- Bench Not software: a bookkeeper does your books each month and you read the result.
- Expensify Photograph a receipt and it reads it, files it and builds the report.
- Dext Receipt and invoice capture built to feed an accountant's ledger cleanly.
- Shoeboxed You post an envelope of paper receipts and they come back as data.
- Hurdlr Tracks income, expenses and mileage in the background and estimates the tax as it goes.
- Keeper Reads your bank transactions and finds the deductions you did not label.
- Wise Local account details in several currencies, with the real exchange rate and a visible fee.
- Payoneer Receiving accounts built around marketplace payouts, widely accepted where banks are not.
- Revolut A multi-currency account with a card, and a business tier for invoicing.
- Airwallex Business accounts with local details in many markets, aimed at companies rather than individuals.
- Grey USD, GBP and EUR receiving accounts for freelancers in Africa and Asia.
- Mercury US business banking for companies, including foreign-owned ones.
- Stripe Card payments you embed in an invoice, a link or your own site.
- PayPal The one every client already has, and the one that costs the most to use.
- Paddle A merchant of record that sells your digital product and handles the sales tax itself.
- Deel Contracts and compliant payouts for contractors, usually set up by the client.
- Remote Contractor and employer-of-record services, again bought by the client.
- Bitwage Takes an invoice or payroll payment and delivers part of it in crypto.
- HubSpot CRM The default free CRM, with a pipeline and contact history that do not expire.
- Zoho CRM A full CRM at a fraction of the usual price, inside a very large suite.
- Capsule CRM A small-business CRM that stays legible instead of adding everything.
- Attio A CRM you shape like a database, built around how your work actually flows.
- Less Annoying CRM One flat price, one feature set, and no upgrade path to worry about.
- Pipedrive A pipeline-first CRM that is about moving deals forward, not storing them.
- Streak A CRM that lives inside Gmail, as columns on your inbox.
- folk A contact-first CRM that pulls people in from your inbox and LinkedIn.
- Copper A CRM built directly into Google Workspace, so it reads your mail and calendar.
- HoneyBook Runs the whole client journey for service work: enquiry, proposal, contract, payment.
- Dubsado A client management suite with deep automation of forms, emails and workflows.
- Indy A freelancer suite covering proposals, contracts, time and invoices in one account.
- Todoist A task list that stays fast as it grows, with natural-language dates.
- Things 3 A task manager for Apple devices, bought once rather than subscribed to.
- Trello Cards on a board, which is enough structure for most freelance projects.
- Asana Task and project tracking with timelines, built for teams and usable alone.
- ClickUp Tries to be every work tool at once: tasks, docs, time tracking and goals.
- Notion Pages and databases you shape yourself, used as a tracker, wiki and client portal.
- Airtable A spreadsheet that behaves like a database, with views for every way of looking at it.
- Basecamp A project space built around client communication, priced flat rather than per seat.
- monday.com Colour-coded boards with automations, aimed at teams that want to see status at a glance.
- Bonsai A freelance suite where projects, contracts, time and invoices sit in one account.
- Plutio A smaller all-in-one with projects, invoices and a white-labelled client portal.
- Motion Puts your tasks into your calendar itself, rescheduling automatically when the day slips.
- Linktree The page that made this a category: a list of links under a social profile, set up in minutes.
- Beacons A link page built for creators, with a store, email capture and booking on the same page.
- Bio.link A minimal link page with a generous free tier and no clutter.
- Carrd One-page sites you build yourself, cheap enough to run several at once.
- Stan Store A link page that is really a storefront: every link can be something you sell.
- Behance Adobe's portfolio network, where design work is posted as full case studies.
- Dribbble A design community built around single shots rather than full projects.
- Adobe Portfolio A portfolio site builder included with a Creative Cloud subscription.
- Format A portfolio builder for photographers, with galleries and client proofing.
- Journo Portfolio A portfolio for writers that pulls in published articles by URL.
- Authory Finds everything you have published, backs it up and keeps the portfolio current by itself.
- Contra A profile and portfolio that also handles proposals and payment, without taking a cut.
- Webflow A full site builder with real design control, and a real learning curve.
- Squarespace Templates that look finished out of the box, with a store and scheduling attached.
- Upwork The largest general marketplace, with both hourly contracts and fixed-price projects.
- Fiverr You publish packaged services at a set price and buyers order them without writing a brief.
- Freelancer.com A large bidding marketplace that also runs paid contests for design work.
- PeoplePerHour A marketplace with a strong UK and European client base, priced on a sliding scale.
- Guru A general marketplace where a paid membership buys you a lower cut and more bids.
- Toptal A vetted network that screens hard and then charges the client, not you.
- Braintrust A vetted network owned by the people who use it, which takes nothing from the talent side.
- Arc.dev A vetted network for developers, matching remote contract and full-time roles.
- Codeable A vetted network for WordPress work and nothing else.
- We Work Remotely A remote job board where employers pay to post and you apply directly.
- Remote OK A high-volume remote job board with salary ranges shown on most listings.
- Wellfound A startup job board, formerly AngelList Talent, with contract and part-time roles alongside full-time.
- Malt A European marketplace with a strong base in France, Germany and Spain.
- BELAY A US staffing company that places virtual assistants with clients on ongoing contracts.
- Time Etc A virtual assistant company that matches experienced assistants to recurring client work.
- Toggl Track One-click timer with browser extensions and reports, built to add as little friction as possible.
- Clockify Time tracker and timesheet app whose free tier has no cap on users, projects or tracked hours.
- Harvest Time tracking that turns tracked hours directly into client invoices and online payment links.
- TimeCamp Tracks app and website use in the background, then lets you assign that activity to projects and bill it.
- Everhour Time tracking that lives inside the project tool you already use, rather than in its own tab.
- Timely Records everything you work on in the background and drafts your timesheet from that record.
- Memtime Offline desktop app that records which programs and documents you used, minute by minute.
- RescueTime Measures where your attention goes during the day and scores it, rather than billing it.
- Hubstaff Time tracking with screenshots and activity levels, used when a client wants evidence of hours worked.
- Paymo Project management, time tracking and invoicing in one app rather than three.
- My Hours Project time tracking with client rates, aimed at people who bill by the hour.
- EARLY Formerly Timeular. An eight-sided physical tracker you flip to switch tasks, paired with a tracking app.
- Accounting, tax & expenses Bookkeeping, receipt capture and getting the year-end done.
- Payments & getting paid Cross-border payouts, multi-currency accounts and payment methods.
- CRM & client management Keeping track of leads, clients and everything you promised them.
- Project management Task boards, client portals and the tools that keep work moving.
- Portfolio & link-in-bio Places to show the work and collect enquiries from it.
- Freelance platforms & job boards Marketplaces, niche job boards and where the work actually is.
- Time tracking Timers, automatic trackers and timesheet apps for anyone who bills by the hour.
Nothing matches that yet. The categories below are still being filled in.
90 tools compared 7 categories no paid placement, no affiliate links
Categories
Each category compares a short list of tools on the things that differ between them, including what the free plan really covers.
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Accounting, tax & expenses
Bookkeeping, receipt capture and getting the year-end done.
+813 compared -
Payments & getting paid
Cross-border payouts, multi-currency accounts and payment methods.
+712 compared -
CRM & client management
Keeping track of leads, clients and everything you promised them.
+712 compared -
Project management
Task boards, client portals and the tools that keep work moving.
+712 compared -
Portfolio & link-in-bio
Places to show the work and collect enquiries from it.
+914 compared -
Freelance platforms & job boards
Marketplaces, niche job boards and where the work actually is.
+1015 compared -
Time tracking
Timers, automatic trackers and timesheet apps for anyone who bills by the hour.
+712 compared
Free tools you can use right here
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Whatever stack you land on, the invoice is the part that has to work
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