Here’s a tough truth about freelancing: no one tells you how much of your time you’ll be spending on actually running your business. Lucky for you, there’s no shortage of tools for freelancers to help you be more successful.

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We’ve broken down the list of top tools by categories that might impact you as a freelancer. We only included the only best options for a creative freelancer, so you don’t have to spend time looking through all of the choices.

BEST PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS FOR FREELANCERS

What every freelancer quickly learns is just how taxing and time-consuming it can be to manage so many projects at once.

𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 (Free Personal Plan!)

Perfect for collaboration, team management, and task management. Notion is the absolute favourite and used by many creators, including the entire Wishu team. It’s very easy to use and beautifully designed. 

Try Notion

𝗔𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗮 (Basic Plan is free!)

A web and mobile application designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work.

Try Asana

BEST SALES, OUTREACH, AND BUSINESS DEV TOLLS

These are tools for freelancers who are ready to scale their outreach and finally kill the feast/famine cycle.

𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆 (Free for email search + Free 14 days trial)

Reply is one of the most amazing tools freelancers can use to scale their outreach via email.

Try Reply

𝗣𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 (Free trial)

Another tool we use to manage sales here at Wishu is Pipedrive. Pipedrive uses a simple “board” style setup to help you manage your client conversion flow.

Try Pipedrive

𝗛𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿.𝗶𝗼 (Free)

Helps you find specific email addresses when you want to pitch a prospect and would prefer to go straight to the decision-maker.

Try Hunter.io

BEST WAYS TO LEARN NEW SKILLS & IMPROVE AS A FREELANCER

UDEMY

Udemy provides an extensive library of over 65,000 classes to choose from and grow your knowledge. From design and business, to health and lifestyle, there’s something for everyone.

Try Udemy

SKILLSHARE

Skillshare has become a well-known leader in online education. Just like Udemy, Skillshare also offers a number of free courses, although their pricing is structured on a monthly.

Try Skillshare

CREATIVELIVE

CreativeLive is the go-to site for premium online courses. Heavily catered around photography and design.

Try CreativeLive

BEST MARKETING & PROMOTION TOOLS FOR FREELANCERS

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗸𝗶𝘁 (Free version)

Convertkit is an email marketing company the prides itself on caring for its people. Built for creators by creators.

Try Convertkit

𝗕𝗨𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗥 (Free)

Social media scheduling. Buffer helps with scheduling individual posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Google Plus.

Try Buffer

PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS FOR FREELANCERS

It’s one thing to run your freelance business. It’s a whole different issue to run your freelance business well.

𝗠𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 (Free trial)

Mural is a visual collaboration tool designed specifically for creative freelancers.

Try Mural

𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 (Free option)

FocusBooster helps freelancers do things in a timely manner. Using the popular Pomodoro technique, the app will ensure you maintain focus and manage your distractions so you can get more done.

Try FocusBooster

𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗹𝘆 (Free trial)

Feedly let’s you keep all your online finds in one place. If you ever see something online and wonder if you should take the time to read it now or bookmark it for later, then Feedly is the perfect app for that.

Try Feedly

𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘅 (Chrome Plugin) – (Free option)

Right Inbox saves you time on repetitive tasks and helps you to send better emails.

Try Right Inbox