Freelancer Tools Directory

General Business Tools

Novo This is where I handle my business checking — it's seriously perfect for freelancers. It's got built-in invoicing and credit card processing using best-in-class Stripe payment processing technology. Novo also has a built-in envelope system where you can set aside your tax liability.

eSignatures.io Super duper easy tool for managing contracts and SOWs with eSigning. I LOVE how simple and fast this tool is and how you don't have to mess with creating your contracts/SOWs in another tool and then have to import those files into the eSign tool. The other thing I really like about this particular tool is that you only have to pay per use so instead of paying for an ongoing subscription, you can load $10 worth of credit into your account and use that credit when you need it to send documents. Use my referral link and get an extra 50% worth of credit on your first purchase!

Wave Free accounting platform to manage your business finances. I've been a user of Wave for five years and counting and it gets better every year.

William & Harricks Need to send a demand letter for an unpaid invoice? Fiverr’s got you covered. (And next time, require upfront payment, friends!!)

Sales Tools

Streak CRM My favorite CRM! It sits INSIDE your Google Workspace email account so that you don't even have to leave your inbox to manage your pipeline. It's also got a killer iOS app so you always have access to your CRM data.

Hubspot Free CRM Super duper awesome FREE CRM that will do everything you need it to do as you're crushing your freelance sales pipeline.

RightInbox RightInbox is a Google Chrome extension that allows you to track and schedule emails as well as keep notes on specific contacts/emails and create templates for quick responses. It also has a handy 'chase' feature that allows you to schedule follow ups to your emails if the recipient doesn't respond to the initial email.

GetProspect GetProspect is a great tool for lead generation to build lead lists for your sales outreach. You can search Linkedin, upload contact lists to get their email addresses in bulk, or look up individuals by name/company/Linkedin URL. This is a great tool to get started with prospecting!

Snovio I absolutely love Snovio because it combines a lot of the tools that you need to get started with sales outreach at scale like list-building and prospecting, an email outreach tool, and a CRM. Can't recommend this one enough and it's very intuitive and easy to use.

Productivity Tools

Google Workspace Google's G-Suite (now known as Workspace) is the professional tier of gmail. For $12/month you get access to all of the foundational tools you need to run your business including email, cloud storage, docs, presentations, spreadsheets, and much more.

Google Docs Forget version control nightmares, just share a link to your Google Docs with your client. Based on the permissions you enable, they can comment or edit your docs in real-time while you watch.

Google Slides Don't just think of Slides as a free presentation tool – it's an AWESOME tool for creating visual content like ebooks, cheatsheets, infographics, etc. It's also super handy for creating visual documents like proposals and portfolios.

PDF Escape Free and easy PDF form utility with lots of neat features like creating fillable PDFs.

Miro Ever wish you were able to whiteboard alongside a client who isn't in the same room as you are? Or that you had a digital whiteboard where you could gather ideas, keep notes, and plan visually? This is it!

GoFullPage Chrome Extension One of the neat features of GoFullPage chrome extension is that it keeps a full catalogue of all of the screenshots you've taken with it. It's saved my butt more than once when I've lost the saved screenshot and I can go back and retrieve it from the log.

World Time Buddy Do you work with clients across multiple time zones? Sometimes figuring out what time to meet can get hairy – I use World Time Buddy at least once a week to help me calculate time zone differences!

Toby Chrome Extension For ongoing/retainer clients, I like to create a folder with links to the platforms and websites I need to log into frequently. This is an easy way to do that so that you can open relevant tabs while you're working on a specific client's workload.

Kiwi Kiwi is a Mac app that sits neatly in your dock so you can just pop open your email inbox to check whenever you need to... no more fussing with a browser. If you have multiple email accounts to manage, it makes life even easier. Don't waste time with trying to set up syncing to Mac Mail or Outlook or any of those types of apps.. Kiwi is painless.

Fantastical for Mac & iOS I like having my calendar open as a window all the time – Fantastical is a super smooth and user-friendly calendar client for Mac. I also really like that you can create appointments using natural language like "Meet with Sherry at 3pm on Tuesday" and Fantastical will translate that into a correctly-formatted calendar event and invite.

Scopie Check for spinach in your teeth before hopping on a Zoom call. :)

Muzzle Mac menubar app that automatically mutes incoming push notifications to your computer while you're screensharing so you don't have distractions or embarassing texts from your spouse popping up while you're on a client Zoom and showing your screen.

Fluid If you use a website/tool frequently, you might wish there was a desktop app for your dock – Fluid is a great tool to be able to create your OWN desktop app in just a few clicks.

Email Me for iOS Sometimes you just think of something or remember something you need to keep track of – just tap the icon and write your note and click 'send' – it'll shoot itself directly to your email inbox of choice so you can remember to tackle it when you're working through your emails.

Picter Make it easy-peasy-pumpkin-squeezy to get client feedback on visuals and docs with this free feedback and annotation tool. LIFESAVER!!!

Droplr Sometimes it's much faster and easier to quickly record a screenshare for your client to SHOW them something rather than typing out a long email or trying to explain it over the phone. Record and link to the recording in less than five minutes – clients LOVE this!

Zapier Integrate thousands of different apps so you can push/pull data back and forth automatically. Great for running YOUR freelance business or for using on your client projects and engagements.

Toggl Super solid freemium product – the free tier is plenty fancy enough to get you started without adding cost to your bottom line.

Feedly Avoid the distraction of other reading platforms and craft custom feeds based on your subject matter area interests like local news, your client's industries, etc.

Overdrive + Kindle Don't PAY for Kindle books, get them for free from your local library system using Overdrive – visit your local library system's website to get access to Overdrive through your library card membership. You can read Kindle books on your phone or computer through the Kindle apps, or Kindle device, which are relatively inexpensive these days.

Creative Tools

Canva We all know and love Canva... sign up using my referral link and get free stock credit!

BeFunky Another free and "quick and dirty" photo editing/collage/design tool you can use in the browser without signing up.

PhotoPea Quick and dirty FREE Photoshop/Illustrator in the browser – no need to sign up either. Open, edit, and save Photoshop files AND vector files.

Creative Market Why recreate the wheel when you can buy beautiful, designer-created templates, fonts, stock media and so much more?

ColorSlurp An awesome color picker plug-in for Mac. Create and store your client's color palettes so those color codes are only a click away in your menu bar.

MockupBro Gorgeous free mockups!!!

SmartMockups Another site for GREAT mockups to use in your client projects – I really like this one because it makes life so much easier than having to m @ess with design software to create mockups.

Grammarly Proof that grammar, y'all.

This Person Does Not Exist Need a fake person stock photo? Use a deepfake AI-generated person from this free generator.

National Today See what "social media" holidays are coming up and plan your posts and campaigns to leverage those opportunities! There are lots of calendars like this, but this one seems to be the most comprehensive so I use it the most.

Social Media Tools

Facebook Creator Studio Schedule your clients Facebook and Instagram posts (and see previews!) using the free platform that is created BY Facebook. For 'lightweight' social media clients, this is where you should start.

Later.com I have been a big fan of Later for at least a few years now. The interface is – in my opinion –one of the easiest to work with and it makes the most sense to me in terms of usability so that I can quickly upload, manage, and schedule content. When I'm managing a client with a high volume of social media content to publish, this is my favorite option.

Client Management/Portal Tools

Bonsai Send proposals, contracts, and invoices and use Bonsai as a client hub with chat, messaging and the ability to view current tasks for their project.

Honeybook Another option for managing your proposals, contracts, invoices, and client communication all in one place.

Email Marketing Tools

ActiveCampaign I've tried literally every marketing automation and email marketing platform under the sun – ActiveCampaign is THE best. My clients love it and it's my favorite platform.

Website CMS, Landing Page, & Page Builders

Carrd — $19 per year for up to 10 websites with custom domains... you literally can't beat that!

Squarespace — I am a big fan of Squarespace and have been a customer personally on and off for the past 10+ years.

Shopify — if you are building an ecommerce-driven website, Shopify is truly the best-in-class CMS.

Shogun Shopify Page Builder — Really good page builder tool for Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento and Commerce Cloud.

Affiliate Disclaimer: Some of the links above are affiliate links for which I receive commission if you become a paying customer of those services. I am very selective about what products I will promote and do my best to share my knowledge and resources. If you find value in my content, please consider using the links above!