Freelancers are on the rise. They are more in demand than ever before, and they are carving out a niche for themselves in the workplace.
Freelancing has become a popular choice for many people who want to work from home. It’s a good way to earn some extra money on the side or to pursue their passion without the pressure of a 9-to-5 job. But freelancing can also be difficult and stressful, which is why it’s important to have the right tools in your arsenal.
This is not surprising, given that freelancers can offer unique skillsets and expertise to a company that isn’t offered by full-time employees. However, freelancers also come with their own set of challenges. Namely, the need to manage their time and finances without any help from an employer or HR department.
This article will explore some of the best SaaS tools for freelancers that have been designed to make life easier for these professionals – from invoicing to scheduling, tracking time and expenses to managing client relationships.
Recently, most individuals have been venturing into freelancing for different reasons. Though the number keeps increasing almost every day, it’s upon for the freelance to manage everything involved, from proposing to closing any deals. Doing this task manually can be a lot for you and may reduce your productivity. However, if you want to maximize or increase your productivity, then you have to start using freelancing tools.
Disclaimer: Our content is reader-supported, which means we may earn a small commission if you click on some of our links.
It is one of the best software in this SaaS tools list is the Google Calendar. Understanding why this tool is a must-use tool is why people love Apple products. One of the major reasons is that the products can sync with one another easily. This concept will also apply to google calendar. So long as you have a google account, it acts as one of the best tools for calendar, project, or task management to meet the timeline for a given project.
The tool has features for business productivity, so using it will be a plus. For instance, you can work with a team or clients and share some events or use it as your personal virtual assistant.
Key features
- Setting alerts for your appointment.
- Providing key details about a location or a meeting.
- It comes with rich formatting features.
- Sharing tool for your notes for your presentation.
- Scheduling and time management.
- Virtual assistant.
Pricing
- Free – $0.0/month
- Business – $5.0/month
Pro Tip: Save up to 20% on any paid plan with the annual billing option.
Dropbox is another productivity tool that can save you a lot of hassle as a freelancer. It is a platform that acts as a storage tool. With the platform, apart from the storage as a major function, there are other features that you can use and enhance your productivity. For example, you can organize the files, and at the same time, you can share them with your clients or your team. The remote working or collaboration features help you remain productive because even if you do not have your device when you are on a trip, you can access the files online from this platform as long as you have an internet connection.
Here the platform is productive and secure, so you will have nothing to worry about in terms of your data or client’s critical information.
Key features
- Store, organize, and share files.
- Collaborate and organize a team.
- Sync your device.
- Reliable security.
- Remote working.
- Automatic backup.
- Send and track.
Pricing
- Plus – $9.99 / month, 2 TB, 1 user
- Family – $16.99 / family / month, Shared 2 TB, 1- 6 users
- Professional – $16.58 / month, 3 TB, 1 user
- Standard – $15 / user / month, Shared 5 TB, 3+ users
- Advanced – $24 / user / month, custom storage, 3+ users
- Enterprise – Custom pricing, custom storage, 3+ users
It is another best Freelance tool that you can use to maximize your productivity. For instance, if you always use the google products like google calendar, then it is an ideal option also to use Spinbackup. This tool will help you to back up your work, files, and other things so that even if the other platform you are using lose the data, you will still have somewhere to back up your data.
You may say that you do not need to back up your data; however, many things can lead to data loss, loss as your account is hacked, deleting the data accidentally permanent, and other things. Therefore, ensure that your documents, emails, photos, and other data are backed automatically so that you cannot have any inconvenient moments not meeting the client’s deadlines.
Key features
- Automatic data backup.
- Data leak and loss protection.
- Data migration.
- Data recovery and restoration.
- Detail reporting tools.
- Central management data from different channels.
Pricing
- Spin backup -$3.0/month/user
- Spin security – $5.0/user/month
- Spin one – $ 9.0/user/month
In this SaaS tools list, Boomerang is one of the best tools to help you with email communication.
With this tool, you can manage and automate some of the email communication or marketing. For instance, you can schedule when to send emails and how many times. For instance, when your clients want to receive feedback during the weekend, which might be your free time then, rather than postponing sending the pending responses, you can schedule them, and then the response will be sent based on your preference.
Another good feature that can be useful to you is that you will be able to see the status of the emails if they are read, opened, or clicked by the clients; this will help you to follow-ups and scale your marketing selling.
Key features
- Email scheduling.
- Email status.
- Follow-ups reminders.
- One-click calendar management.
- Writing perfect emails.
Pricing
- Basic – free, ten message credits
- Personal – $4.98/month unlimited credits with other features
- Pro – $14.98/month, unlimited credits with other features
- Premium – $49.98/month, unlimited credits with custom features.
It is a tool that helps for signing the deals is the legal documents. If you would do this working manually, then it may end up consuming a lot of time. Another option is to have a lawyer who will stand for you whenever there is any legal matter. Rather than dwelling on the two options which are not that effective, you would opt to use freelance tools like LegalZoom.
With LegalZoom, you can get started and do all the legal requirements without a lawyer’s help. For instance, you can have legal template documents that you can use and fill in the information; therefore, you can enter into a contract with a client’s knowing that all of you are legally governed by the agreements that you stated in your agreements.
Key features
- Invoicing template.
- Different categories of legal forms.
- Billing functionality.
- Contract drafting.
Pricing
Legal advantage plan – $9.99/month
One of the other tools that can help you to maximize your productivity is the Bonsai. A bonsai is a tool that acts as an invoicing and contract creation tool. It is an easy tool for freelancers since you can create the contract and revise it with your clients, and when the client is ready, he can legally e-sign the contract. With this software, you will not have to design your invoice or contracts from scratch since it allows you to fill in the blank space and you can easily edit or customize.
The software has integrated with payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Coinbase, so it allows you to be paid through the software and has low fee payment. It is a productive tool that already, there are a lot of freelancers using it.
Key features
- Structured proposal.
- Vetted ready-made contract template.
- Organizing files, documents, and payments.
- Task tracking.
- Creating and customizing invoices.
- Automatic reporting, estimation, and expense tracking.
Pricing
- Starter – $24/month for contractors and freelancers.
- Professional – $39/month for independent business.
- Business – $79/month for agencies and small businesses.
HelloSign is a robust tool used by millions of users for signature purposes. Suppose you want your agreement to get signed quickly and securely, then this is one of the tools you need to use as a freelancer. Note that if you already have a contract template, then for the e-signing requirement, you can use the HelloSign, which will give the features best for signature.
Key features
- Reliable and secure.
- Streaming proposal signing and sales contracts.
- Legal binding.
- Automation of paperwork.
- Embed signature to your app or website.
Pricing
- Essentials – $15.0/month, 1 user
- Dropbox Professional – $24.99/month, 1 user
- Standard – 25.0/month, 2-4 user
- Premium – Custom pricing and features
It is one of the tools that you can use to increase your productivity. Especially if you are freelancing in graphic design like logo making, photo editing, and other graphic designing work, note that this tool gives you some of the functionality that you can accomplish some tasks very easily. For instance, removing an image background with this tool can do it at just a click of a button.
Note that it comes with an inbuilt template and other tools that you can use and build or create interactive or creative work from the template rather than using a lot of time to design the client’s work from scratch.
Key features
- Pdf editor.
- All-in-one design tool with numerous templates.
- Online Photo editor.
- Creating teams and collaboration.
- Professional printing services.
Pricing
- Free – $0.00/month, over 250000 templates
- Pro -$12.99/month, unlimited professional designs and access, 1-5 people
- Enterprise – $30.00/month, unlimited tools, resources, up to 25 people
So long as you are freelancing, you will have to handle all the accounting or invoicing. Rather than doing this on paperwork then, software like Freshbooks is the best option that you can use. With it gives you all the invoicing and accounting on one platform. Note that you can get premium features like invoice making, customization or invoice templates, time tracking, online payments, bank transfers, tax computation, estimates, expense management, and many other features. So to simplify your work in invoicing and accounting, it is one of the best options to pick.
Key features
- Advanced reporting tools.
- Automated payments.
- Time tracking.
- Project management.
- Professional invoicing.
- Expense tracking.
Pricing
- Lite – $4.50/month, five clients
- Plus – $7.50/month for 50 clients
- Premium – $15.00/month, unlimited clients
- Select – custom pricing, unlimited clients with customized features.
It is another best in the SaaS tools list. It gives you a queue mechanism to help you add content and publish a post based on the order or the date you have set. Therefore, for instance, if you are managing someone’s blog, then it is one of the productivity tools you can use to automate some of the activities like publishing the post.
Key features
- Analysis of the engagement.
- Planning and scheduling of publishing.
- Collaboration.
- Engagement with the user.
Pricing
- Free – $0/month
- Essentials – $5.0/month
- Team – $10.0/month
Frequenly Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is the best project management tool for small teams?
One of the best project management software for small teams is Taskworld. It is a tool with a collaboration platform that cuts through all the project activities like scheduling, time management, communication, budgeting, and many other useful project management modules.
