32 Useful Apps for Freelancers in 2021: What is Taking Over the Market
Freelancers are a booming industry and the market is constantly changing. We have seen an increase in demand for freelancing services over the past 5 years, as companies struggle to find skilled talent. But what does this mean for freelancers? How can they stay ahead of trends while also staying on top of their game? In this article, we will provide you with 32 useful apps that every freelancer needs to be using in 2021!
Who is a Freelancer?
A freelancer is a person who works in or enters into an agreement with another party to provide services independently under that other party. In most scenarios freelancers don’t enjoy the benefits of traditional employees. However, freelancing does have it’s own benefits.
The Future is freelancing. The freelance industry is rapidly growing and evolving. And with that freelancers need apps that can help them manage their daily routines with more ease.
What are some of the most popular apps for freelancers in 2021
There are hundreds if not thousands of apps for freelancers available in the market. Some are great, while others don’t offer much value to the intended user.
In this article we’ll focus on the best apps for freelancers that offer different value, from project management, to time saving and even fitness apps for freelancers.
Project Management Apps for Freelancers
Project management apps are essential for keeping freelancers on track and ensuring that they always have everything available to them. Here are some of the most popular apps in this category:
Trello
Trello is a project management app that allows freelancers to create boards and organize projects. The app is free for all users with a premium account option available for an extra fee.
Trello apps are preloaded with features such as assigning tasks, commenting on posts, adding files from your computer or Dropbox site etc.. This app also have the capability of creating new cards on boards.
ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management app that will help you keep track of tasks, projects and deadlines. It’s an all-in-one software that is perfect for freelancers because it integrates apps like Google Drive, GitHub, Dropbox and Slack.
ClickUp works with the most popular apps in use by freelance workers to offer a seamless user experience across platforms. For example, if your deadline is coming up, you can see it in ClickUp and then track the progress of your project.
ClickUp is a great app for freelancers because you never have to worry about missing another deadline or forgetting what needs to be done next. You’ll always know exactly where all of your projects stand!
Jira
Jira is a popular project management tool for software developers, and it’s one of the apps that freelancers will need to get started.
It helps you plan your project by giving milestones so you can see what needs to be done now, in a few days or weeks etc. You can also use Jira when assigning tasks to collaborators and checking the progress on those tasks.
Monday.com
Like many other project management tools, Monday.com is a project management system, but it has one key difference.
It is designed for project managers to share their work and communicate with the team members while still being able to maintain complete control over deadlines.
Monday.com’s app is specifically geared towards freelancers who need flexibility in how they manage projects on-the-go or at home from any location.
Note Taking App for Freelancers
Note taking apps are apps that allow you to take notes on your phone or tablet. Many note taking apps also have features like drawing, highlighting and text search.
OneNote
This app is perfect for people who are always on the move. It’s available as a free download from Microsoft and it syncs with your other devices so you never lose any notes.
Evernote
Evernote is another great note taking app for freelancers . It has apps for desktop and mobile devices so you can keep your information in one place. They also offer an app called Scannable to take photos of pages, receipts or other documents with a smartphone. It’s available on both iOS and Android platforms. It’s the closest alternative to OneNote.
Simplenote
Simplenote is a note taking app with apps for both iOS and Android. It is not only a way to take notes, but also allows users to share their ideas or work in progress on the go using Simplenote’s collaboration features.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is accessible from PCs, tablets or smartphones. It enables freelancers to share files with colleagues and clients, save files offline in the event of a connection disruption, and have access to apps for email, calendar etc. on all devices without having different apps installed on each device
Microsoft 365 is a suite of apps designed by one company that can consolidate everything you need in one place.
Time Management Apps for Freelancers
Time management apps are essential for freelancers. They help them keep track of their time and know if they are productive or not.
Rescue Time
Time tracking apps like Rescue Time allow you to accurately track your time spent on different tasks, projects and websites so that you can stay productive throughout the day. Rescue Time offers a 14-day free trial so that users can try it out before they commit to buying this app and it is only $9 per month thereafter.
Focus Keeper
Focus Keeper is a time management app that focuses on focus, deep work and productivity. The app is designed for creativity-driven professionals who deal with time management issues and limited attention span.
Remember The Milk
This is an app that will allow you to store and organize your tasks in a way that makes it easy for you to complete them. For example, if I have a task of “pay bills” and I know when the bill is due, then all I need to do is create an event with the date/time on Remember The Milk so that every time it comes up, you’ll be reminded. It syncs with your Google calendar to make it easier.
Toggl
Toggl is a time-tracking app that will help you track your hours. This way, freelancers can accurately calculate their pay and make sure they are paid fairly for the work they do. Toggl also helps by automatically sending invoices to clients with all of the information needed on it – like when payment was charged or when payment is due.
Productivity Apps for Freelancers
Not everyone can stick to a specific task until completion. And that’s where productivity apps come in handy.
Todoist
Todoist is an apps for freelancers that has been around since 2007. It is a task management app and it offers synchronization across devices such as phones, tablets, and computers. Todoist also provides different functions like time-tracking which helps with optimizing work hours when working remotely or on the go.
Forest
Want to plant some trees and stay productive? Forest is a productivity app that encourages you to work in increments of just ten minutes per day. You can set specific times for your Forest sessions, track the amount of time spend away from apps and even get notified when it’s time to start a new session with an email or phone notification.
Forest is designed around one big idea: To help people fight distraction by planting trees around the world. The trees are a metaphor for focus. One tree planted will act as a reminder that you’re working towards your long-term goal of more focused work by being less distracted in the short term.
Freedom
We all love some freedom! Freedom is a productivity app that connects to your calendar apps and lets you set up different types of freedom zones. For example, if you want some time away from the office, just schedule a work-free zone for that day!
Freedom is a great app because it helps freelancers manage their priorities while they are working remotely. It’s also helpful in scheduling free days. Freedom lets you customize the apps or websites you want to block during your zones, it has apps to block and timers for apps.
Freedom is available on the app store or on Google Play Store !
Habitica
Habitica is a good alternative productivity app for freelancers. Like Forest, Habitica will help you stay focused by adding a reward system. Input your desired habits and daily goals into the app in the form of a to-do list.
Habitica will then reward you with gold for every day that you complete your goals and penalize you if not completed on time, but this isn’t as harsh as Forest where it kills the apps background process until done.
Habitica is available in both Android and iOS apps
Invoice Apps for Freelancers
If you are working as a freelancer, you definitely want to get paid after putting in the work. Invoicing apps come in handy for this.
Invoice Ninja
The first app on our list is Invoice Ninja.
It’s for freelancers who need to create invoices, and it helps you save time by automating things like calculation of sales tax or printing a PDF document with the invoice ready-to-go.
Apart from that, this apps also has templates which allow freelancers to attach third party files to invoices. And what’s more, you can intergrate with 40+ payment gateways including stripe, paypal, wepay, bitpay among others.
Akaunting
Akaunting is a great app for freelancers who need to get organized.
The multi lingual app allows you to keep track of all your freelance clients in your native language and easily switch between languages.
It also has alerts that can remind freelancers of deadlines or important tasks such as sending invoices via email.
Akaunting will help any busy freelancer stay on top the latest billable expenses.
Freshbooks
Freshbooks is a popular app for accounting and invoicing. The apps comes with features like sales reports, time tracking, expenses report.
It also integrates well with other apps such as Google sheets and Dropbox making it easy to access documents on the go.
The app has a free 30 day trial and you can upgrade to any of their paid plans starting at $6 per month or cancel your subscription.
Invoice Simple
Invoice Simple is a simple invoicing apps that lets you create professional-looking invoices and quotes for your clients. Invoice Simple also tracks the time spent on each invoice, so it’s easy to generate reports of how much work you’ve completed in the past month or year – perfect if you’re trying to keep track of your finances.
Communication Apps for Freelancers
Ever since apps started taking over the world, it has become impossible to work without them.
Communication apps are just one example of how apps have changed our lives for better.
Nowadays there is at least one app on your phone that you use every day and probably even more when you need some company or information about something specific. So what communication apps do we recommend for freelancers?
Zoom
Zoom is a virtual meetings platform that offers the opportunity to have video and audio conferencing on any device with no download needed.
The app’s key features include automatic translation, document scanning for both uploading or importing, and more.
It also has apps available on iOS and Android devices as well as Web browsers for use. The free version allows users to make calls for up to 40 minutes.
Google Meet
Google Meet is a meeting app for the workplace.
It is ideal for freelancers who are running their business from home and want to be able to meet with clients on the go.
The apps allows you to have group video meetings, share screensharing capabilities and chat inside of the same call or outside of it.
Slack
Slack is a real-time messaging app that lets you communicate with your team members. It can be used for both work and personal communications which makes it a great professional tool.
Slack has apps for iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Windows PC and web browsers so there is no shortage of ways to use this amazing app!
Discord
Discord is an communication app that was originally made as a chat application to keep gamers in touch with each other, but it has grown into one of the most popular apps on the market for freelancers!
Discord is free and can be both accessed through desktop or apps.
Storage App for Freelancers
Freelancers need apps to store their work. An app that allows them access to their files on the go.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud storage company that allows users to access their files via apps or the Web. This app is useful for freelancers because it keeps all of your work in one secure location, and you can share folders with clients as well. Additionally, Dropbox has apps for both iOS and Android devices which makes this tool easy to use while on the go.
Box
Box is an online collaboration and file sharing service. It is the go-to apps for freelancers who need to share content with their clients or teams from anywhere in the world. Box offers a large range of features, including document storage, folders, shared google drive links, ability to grant others access to files on your account (by inviting them), track work and so much more.
Google Drive
Everyone’s favorite apps, Google Drive for iOS and Android is a free cloud storage app that allows you to add files from your phone or computer. It also has the ability to handle presentations in some cases with apps such as SlideShark which can be downloaded separately. These features are beneficial because it provides easy file access anywhere on any device through the internet.
Zoho Docs
Zoho Docs is a popular cloud-based office suite that can be accessed anywhere. This apps allows freelancers to store documents in one place, collaborate with others on projects while working remotely, and share files without having to send them via email or fax. There are many features included like an online word processor for creating documents/spreadsheets.
Apps for Freelancers to Find Work
All these apps won’t be useful if as a freelancer, you don’t have any clients to work with. After all, freelancing is about making money online. If you are looking to grow your freelance business, let’s take a look at some apps to find freelance work.
Upwork
Upwork is one of the most popular apps for freelancers. It’s basically a freelance marketplace where you can find work that suits your skills, apply to jobs and get paid in US dollars or euro via PayPal after completing them.
The app has been around since 2014, but it experienced exponential growth as more people are turning to independent work instead of the 9 to 5. Whatever skill you have, you’ll definitely find a suitable project on Upwork.
Fiverr
Fiverr is one of the apps that freelancers can use to produce high-quality content. It has a wide variety of services from graphic design, writing and audio production all for $50 or less which makes it perfect for those who are just starting out with freelance work. The app also provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs to sell their products. You can list your gig for as low as $5.
People Per Hour
People Per Hour is a website and mobile app that allows freelancers to post projects, set prices per hour for their skillset, collect payments through the platform and deliver work. The app’s goal is to give clients access to high-quality professionals at affordable rates with no project management headaches or upfront fees.
99 Design
99 Design is an app for freelance designers. It provides professional design apps for individuals and small businesses to help them create, share and sell their designs.
Having a good portfolio is essential for any freelancer who wants to be successful in the industry. This app helps you showcase your work more efficiently by creating one place that contains all of your images, screenshots and videos together with descriptions about them.
The world of freelancing is constantly changing, and it’s important for you to stay up-to-date on the newest trends.
In 2021, there will be new apps that are specifically designed with freelancers in mind – take advantage of these resources!
Whether it’s time management software or a tool to help you store all your files securely online, there are plenty of options available so that you can focus more on what matters most – building your freelance business and taking care of your clients.
We hope this list has been helpful!
What other useful app do you use as a freelancer?
Let us know below in the comments section.
