The Best Productivity Apps for Freelancers in 2024

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Freelancing is becoming more and more popular and if you’ve landed on our website, it’s likely that you either already are or are considering becoming a freelancer. Freelancers require not only professional skills but also organizational abilities since you are solely responsible for managing your business. This entails attending to existing clients, prospecting for new clients, staying abreast of industry trends, and balancing your personal life.

To accomplish all these tasks effectively, freelancers must possess a suitable set of tools that can enhance their productivity and support their career growth. In this guide, we have curated a collection of the best productivity apps and tools for freelancers in 2024.

To prevent overwhelm and avoid using too many tools, we have narrowed down our selection. In fact, excessive use of tools can create a new problem of chaos in managing these tools, which defeats their purpose of improving productivity.

You can either peruse the guide from beginning to end or use the table of contents to quickly access your desired section.

What are productivity apps?

A productivity app is a tool that simplifies your tasks and enables you to accomplish more work in less time. The term “app” does not necessarily imply that the tool resides exclusively on a smartphone or tablet; it is a general term used to describe any tool that enhances efficiency and enables people to do more in less time or to do more effectively.

Do productivity tools really make you productive?

Productivity apps can enhance your organization, particularly when managing multiple gigs and clients. It’s essential to maintain an organized system and employ tools that streamline your freelancing business, whether you need to send a quick email or handle intricate projects.

It’s important to note that the effectiveness of productivity apps is subjective and what works for one person may not work for another. Hence, it’s crucial to try out different tools and assess which ones suit your needs and workflow best.

What are the best apps and tools for freelancers?

We’ve compiled a list of 14 productivity apps that can help freelancers like you to stay organized, focused, and efficient in 2024. These apps cater to a wide range of freelancing needs, from project management to time tracking, invoicing, and more. Keep reading to discover the productivity apps that you need in your freelancing toolkit.

1. Notion

Notion is a versatile all-in-one workspace that provides a myriad of features to assist freelancers in organizing their work and increasing their productivity. With Notion, freelancers can create custom templates, databases, and task lists that cater to their individual needs, making it easier to manage their workflow. It supports team collaboration, enabling the sharing of information and real-time updates on projects. Notion can also be integrated with other apps, such as Google Drive, Trello, and Slack, allowing for a seamless workflow across multiple platforms. Additionally, it provides tools for task management, note-taking, and project tracking, as well as enabling users to develop a customized dashboard for a quick overview of their progress. With its user-friendly interface and comprehensive features, Notion is an indispensable tool for freelancers looking to enhance their efficiency and organization.

2. Bonsai

For individuals who find invoicing challenging, Bonsai is an ideal tool for simplification. It facilitates the sending of invoices to clients and enables the setting up of recurring invoices, eliminating the need to fret about missing deadlines. Moreover, Bonsai serves as a useful reminder to clients about any unpaid invoices and automatically applies a late fee to invoices that remain unpaid beyond their due date, which is an added advantage.

Read our article about The Best Invoicing Tools for Freelancers for more ideas.

3. SmartSuite

Smartsuite is a comprehensive productivity tool that offers a wide range of features to assist freelancers in managing their workflow. It includes tools for project management, time tracking, invoicing, and expense management, all in one convenient platform. With Smartsuite, freelancers can easily monitor their progress on various projects, track time spent on tasks, generate invoices and estimates, and manage expenses with ease. The platform also offers team collaboration features, making it easier to work with clients and colleagues on projects. Smartsuite provides a user-friendly interface and supports integration with other apps, such as Trello, Slack, and Google Drive, for enhanced productivity. With Smartsuite, freelancers can streamline their workflow and stay on top of their projects, thereby improving their productivity and efficiency.

4. Miro

Miro is an online collaboration tool that provides freelancers with a virtual whiteboard platform for brainstorming, visualizing, and organizing their ideas. With Miro, freelancers can create and share digital whiteboards with their clients and team members, irrespective of their geographical location, making it an ideal tool for remote work. The platform offers various features such as sticky notes, templates, diagrams, and flowcharts that enable freelancers to organize and communicate their ideas more effectively. Additionally, Miro allows users to collaborate in real-time, making it possible to make changes and receive feedback in real-time. It supports integration with other apps, such as Trello, Slack, and Google Drive, enabling seamless workflow management. With its user-friendly interface and comprehensive features, Miro is an indispensable tool for freelancers looking to enhance their productivity and creativity.

5. Trello

You may already be acquainted with the Kanban method, which involves assigning a visual cue to an action. Trello is a virtual collaboration platform that allows teams or individuals to create their own boards and cards for each project. The board represents the overarching project, while the cards signify the tasks required to complete it. Each board can contain an unlimited number of cards, each corresponding to a specific action, and can be further divided into sub-cards for managing sub-projects. As a task is completed, its corresponding card is moved to the appropriate section, ensuring visibility of progress and different stages of the project. This way, you can effectively monitor your project and stay updated on its status.

Trello offers a free version that can be utilized for basic functions, but there are limitations to its usage. However, it can be integrated with other project management tools such as Jira and Confluence for more advanced features.

Read our article about the Best Project Management Tools for Freelancers for more advice on the best organizational tools.

6. LogMeOnce

LogMeOnce is a comprehensive password management and identity verification solution that enables individuals and organizations to secure their digital identities. It offers a wide range of features, including passwordless authentication, single sign-on, password generation, and management, secure sharing of credentials, multi-factor authentication, and more. With LogMeOnce, users can protect their accounts from unauthorized access, identity theft, and data breaches. The platform is designed to simplify and streamline the process of managing passwords and identities, thereby enhancing productivity and efficiency. Additionally, it offers a user-friendly interface and supports integration with multiple platforms, making it a versatile solution for businesses and individuals alike.

LogMeOnce is free to use for desktop and mobile. You can upgrade to the Premium version as well.

7. StayFocusd

If you are always struggling against time and get easily distracted, StayFocusd is the perfect app for you. It is in fact an extension of Chrome that blocks access to certain sites or services based on parameters that you can set directly in the configuration panel. Access can be blocked for the single service or site or for everything that has nothing to do with your work: for example, you could block access to the Web globally if you don’t need to consult it while you work or you can block access to social networks, throughout the day or for a defined period, in case you do not need to access it for work.

StayFocusd is free to use.

8. RescueTime

Suppose you work on multiple projects, each with different deadlines. In that case, RescueTime is the perfect solution: a free management system that monitors how long it takes to complete a certain task or to perform a certain action. For example, you can monitor the time spent converting documents to another format or the time spent, even passively, on the Internet. The detailed report will allow you to understand what and where you can improve, if possible also helping you to delegate or automate operations that take too long and that can otherwise be completed in other ways. It is also a good tool to analyze if your rates match the time you spend on the tasks; you may review your fee and change them accordingly if they don’t match.

Start for free and then choose the best plan for your business.

9. Todoist

Creating lists is an effective method of organizing tasks and keeping track of what needs to be done. With Todoist, users can generate multiple lists, each dedicated to a particular task. For instance, one could create a to-do list for work and include another list related to a specific project that needs completion. Alternatively, one could develop a shopping list and link it to a to-do-list dedicated to household tasks. Todoist can be regarded as a mini-project management tool, accessible through both computers and mobile phones, that helps users structure and prioritize their tasks, deadlines, and objectives.

You can start for free and choose the plan you prefer, from $3.00 a month.

10. KanbanFlow

KanbanFlow is widely recognized as an exceptional project management and tracking system that provides a free app for freelancers seeking to enhance their productivity. With KanbanFlow, you can create bulletin boards for a project and set deadlines for each activity. By consulting these boards, you can plan your activities based on their deadlines, minimizing the risk of missing deliveries or overlooking essential steps required to complete a project. Furthermore, KanbanFlow supports the Pomodoro Technique, allowing you to allocate a maximum time of 25 minutes for each task in a project. When a break is due within 25 minutes, KanbanFlow sends you a notification, helping you remain focused and productive.

KanbanFlow offers free and Premium versions at $5 per user per month.

11. GMail Canned Responses

Gmail provides a plethora of functions that go beyond the ones typically utilized, with one standout feature being smart replies. This feature in Advanced Settings enables users to create and save response templates for recurring situations requiring the same answer. For instance, if you need to send a monthly report to customers or partners, you can draft a message and use it for subsequent monthly emails. When combined with the Filter for e-mails function, incoming emails can be categorized by the recipient and directed to the appropriate folder, streamlining your inbox in an efficient and easy-to-manage manner.

Gmail is free with limited functionality; GSuite is the paid version.

12. Grammarly

Grammarly is a digital writing assistant that offers a suite of writing tools to help users improve their writing skills. It uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing algorithms to check for spelling and grammar mistakes and provide suggestions for enhancing writing style, tone, and clarity. Grammarly can be accessed through a web browser extension or a mobile app, and it supports a wide range of writing styles and genres, including academic writing, business writing, creative writing, and more. Additionally, it offers a plagiarism checker, making it an ideal tool for students, professionals, and writers looking to improve the quality of their work. With its user-friendly interface, powerful algorithms, and extensive features, Grammarly is an indispensable tool for anyone looking to refine their writing skills.

13. Slack

When it comes to boosting team productivity, Slack is undoubtedly the most widely recognized and utilized option. This instant messaging system enables teams, including remote ones, to communicate and stay connected seamlessly. One of the most valuable features of Slack is the ability to integrate it with nearly every other app used for work, granting users access to multiple services with just one click, all interconnected and accessible. Slack also supports file-sharing, enhancing workflow efficiency.

Slack is available in the Free, Standard, and Plus version.

14. Google Drive

It’s easy to get lost when you have a lot of projects and documents to manage. And it is even easier to forget to properly store your documents in a way that is easily accessible, it’s safe, and it allows you to keep a copy of what you do on your computer in case of emergency. Google Drive is the perfect solution in this regard: it allows you to store files, collaborate with clients, and access your work from anywhere. It is also great to backup automatically your computer, so you don’t have to worry about losing data.

How to choose the best productivity tools for freelancers?

As a freelancer, it’s crucial to find the right tools that align with your unique needs and workflow to maximize productivity. Experimentation is key; what works for one freelancer may not work for another. The suggested apps may be a good starting point, but it’s essential to customize them to your business needs and objectives. Matching the right tools to your goals can significantly increase productivity and efficiency in your work.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that we may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.