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 Multi-currency accounts, card payments and the platforms clients pay through.
- 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 paid 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. -
Payments & getting paid
Multi-currency accounts, card payments and the platforms clients pay through. -
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 paid by the hour.
Free tools you can use right here
Built by Ruul, free, and no account needed to use them.
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Freelance rate calculator
Price your work by the hour, the project or the month, from your field, level and country. -
Quote template
Send a quote as a PDF or as a live link your client can accept. -
Contract templates
Make an NDA, a service agreement or a statement of work, and download it as a PDF or a Word file. -
Time tracker
Give every task its own timer, label your clients and see what the hours are worth. -
Invoice generator
Make an invoice with line items, tax and your bank details, then download the PDF or share a live link.
Your stack is set. Now get paid.
No setup cost · No monthly fees