Recommended Tools for UK Freelancers

Curated by the FreelanceToolkit UK editorial team · Updated regularly ·

The tools we actually use and recommend to other UK freelancers. Honest pros and cons of each. No "top 47" lists; just the four or five options worth your time per category.

Affiliate disclosure: Some of the links below earn us a small commission if you sign up — at no extra cost to you. We only list tools we'd recommend even without the commission, and we'll always tell you when something has a better free or cheaper alternative we don't earn from.

Accounting software

If you're a sole trader earning under ~£50k profit, you can run the entire show on a spreadsheet plus our expense tracker. Once you're earning more, or you've gone limited, accounting software pays for itself in saved time and missed-deduction recovery.

FreeAgent

The UK-grown option, originally built for freelancers and contractors. Strongest UK fit — handles Self Assessment, VAT MTD, and dividend records natively. Free if you bank with Mettle (NatWest) or Tide on their paid tier.

Best for: UK sole traders and contractors who want the smoothest Self Assessment path. Watch out for: the interface feels a generation behind Xero if you're coming from a non-UK tool.

Xero

The polished, international default. Cleaner interface, huge integration ecosystem, used by most UK accountants. Worth it if you're scaling toward employing other people or running a limited company.

Best for: limited companies or freelancers whose accountant is already on Xero. Watch out for: overkill (and overpriced) for a £30k-profit sole trader.

QuickBooks Self-Employed

Cheaper than Xero, Self Assessment-focused. Strong mobile app. Slightly clunky on the desktop side.

Free option: Wave + spreadsheet

Wave is genuinely free invoicing and basic accounting. Tax returns happen elsewhere. Combined with our calculators it covers a first-year freelancer with no monthly cost.

Business bank accounts

Sole traders don't legally need a separate business account, but it makes bookkeeping enormously easier. Limited companies are required to have one. The UK challenger banks all run on a similar model: free or near-free, app-first, no branch.

Tide

The most popular freelancer choice. Free tier for basic banking, paid tiers (£9.99–£49.99/month) add bookkeeping integrations and more transactions. Bundles with FreeAgent on the higher tiers.

Starling Business

The UK's most loved business banking app, full stop. Free for sole traders (limited companies pay £7/month). Includes invoicing, savings spaces, and integrates with Xero/FreeAgent.

Mettle (NatWest)

Free, with FreeAgent included at no extra cost. Underrated for sole traders who want UK-bank backing without the fees.

Anna Money

Strong for sole traders who want a built-in bookkeeping assistant. Tiered pricing.

Invoicing & getting paid

If all you need is to send polished invoices and accept card payments, you don't need full accounting software. The free tools here cover 90% of solo freelancers.

FreelanceToolkit Invoice Generator (free, no sign-up)

Our own invoice generator creates HMRC-compliant invoices with VAT, multi-currency, and a downloadable PDF — all in your browser. For freelancers who don't want yet another subscription.

Wave

Free invoicing and basic accounting; card processing fees are the catch (~1.4% + 20p in the UK). Solid for low-volume invoicing.

Zoho Invoice

Free up to a small number of customers, with recurring-invoice support.

Stripe Invoicing

If you take card payments anyway, Stripe's invoicing layer is free and excellent. Fees are on the card processing, not the invoice.

AI tools for freelancers

The honest take in 2026: two general-purpose AI assistants do almost everything a freelancer needs. Specialist tools matter at the margins.

Claude (Anthropic)

Best-in-class for long-document work — proposals, contracts, briefs, technical writing. The 200k-token context window means you can paste an entire client brief and have it answer questions about it.

ChatGPT (OpenAI)

Stronger ecosystem of plugins and image generation. Often the better choice for quick research or summarisation.

Notion AI

If you already live in Notion, the built-in AI is enough for most freelance writing tasks without needing a separate subscription.

Specialist tools worth knowing

For copywriters: Jasper or Copy.ai. For transcription: Otter or Whisper. For image generation: Midjourney or DALL·E.

Productivity & project management

Solo freelancers don't need enterprise project software. You need a place to keep client work organised and a calendar that doesn't lie to you.

Notion

The single most flexible tool for one-person businesses. Build a client database, a content calendar, a project tracker, and a CRM in one workspace. Steep learning curve, infinite payoff.

ClickUp

More structured than Notion out of the box. Better for freelancers who prefer "the system is already set up" over "I'll customise everything."

Trello

Still the simplest kanban tool. Free tier covers most freelancers forever.

Cal.com

Open-source alternative to Calendly. Free tier is generous, hosted option is cheaper than the competition.

Website builders

You need a website. You don't need it to be impressive — you need it to convert. The three options that consistently win for freelancers:

Carrd

The cheap one. £19/year, one-page sites, ridiculously simple. Perfect for a portfolio + contact form. Good enough for most freelancers in years 1–2.

Squarespace

The polished one. Templates that look like a £5k agency build. Strong for visual freelancers (designers, photographers, illustrators).

Webflow

The flexible one. Designer-friendly, no-code but with real code output. Steeper learning curve; pays off if you'll iterate often.

Freelancer insurance

If you give advice or produce work that clients rely on (design, dev, consulting, writing, coaching), professional indemnity insurance covers you if something goes wrong. £100–£300/year for typical sole traders.

Hiscox

The household name in UK freelancer PI. Wide cover, decent online quote tool, premiums on the higher side.

PolicyBee

Specialist broker for freelancers and consultants. Frequently cheaper than direct insurers.

Superscript

Monthly cancellable cover — useful if your client mix changes a lot. Online-first.

Markel

Direct insurer, strong for tech/IT freelancers and contractors.

Contracts & proposals

PandaDoc

Strong all-rounder for contracts and proposals. Free tier exists for basic e-signing.

HelloSign (Dropbox Sign)

Minimal, fast e-signing. Free for 3 documents/month — enough for many sole traders.

Bonsai

All-in-one freelance suite (contracts, proposals, invoicing, time tracking). Pricier than picking single tools, but the integration is genuinely good if you handle multiple clients monthly.

Better Proposals

Built for high-ticket project proposals. Great-looking templates, analytics on opens and reads.

How we choose what to recommend

Three rules:

We've used it, or we've watched a fellow freelancer use it. No tools listed purely on affiliate value.
It works for solo operators. Enterprise-leaning tools (Salesforce, etc.) are explicitly out of scope.
The free or cheap alternative is named. If you don't need to pay, we tell you.

If there's a tool you think should be here — or one listed that's let you down — drop us a line. The list gets reviewed quarterly.