If you ever worked online at least once you’ll appreciate this post and will love these free online tools. All of these tools are free, online and you don’t even need to register to use them.
To do list – Time tracker – Invoice generator – Collaboration – Docs – and more
A must have free online tools every freelancer needs to increase productivity, stay organized and focused on the tasks.
What is more important these online tools are free and some work fine even without registration, right in your browser, everywhere, just have to be online.
To do list
Basic way to stay organized is to create a to do list. With Flask.io you can create to do lists simply by typing the task and pressing Enter. Then add more tasks.
You’ll notice that the URL has changed. That is the URL location of your recently created to do list. You can share the URL or keep the browser window opened but to save your to do list will have to register/log in after all.
Another option a bit more complex would be the task list from Projoodle.com
Time tracker
A 100% free time tracking app for freelancers & contractors. Calculate billable hours and hourly rates. Manage your time with ease and get more work done as a freelancer with Famewall.io time tracker
Invoice generator
If running a business it is suggested to use a professional software (paid one running on your computer or in the cloud). But if you need to create an invoice on the go check the Invoice-generator and download the generated invoice as PDF.
Another free alternative with lot of extras and ready made templates for different industries we strongly suggest to check is Freeinvoicebuilder.com . You can receive payments through Payoneer for your invoices when register for it.
Collaboration
When it come to collaboration there are many great platforms with lot of options that you might not need and may even be costly if have many team members. Alternative would be to use several simpler solutions instead:
- You can make a screenshot and send it.
- Use a real time chat and screen sharing from Deadsimplescreensharing
- Draw something and share it with Draw.to
- Coders can share their code with Codeshare.io
- Or if you have to broadcast yourself or your surroundings in an instant, use TinyChat
Create and edit documents online
While Google Docs/Sheets/Slides are free (for personal use) these alternatives don’t even need to log in:
- Wordonline.info a simple online word editor allow to write and save your text documents in word format (.DOC)
- https://ethercalc.net/_new is a handy fully featured online alternative to Excel and Google spreadsheets. Supports excel format, ODS, CSV and HTML
- Much more you may ever need can be found on TinyWow website
Few more things
This list of free online tools every freelancer needs to boost their productivity doesn’t stop here. There are few more things that you’ll need in your sleeve especially if working with international clients and outside of popular freelance marketplaces.
- Having clients in a different time zones can be hard to keep up. Missing an online meeting is very common if a team member or a client is on other side of the planet. Be aware of your schedules in different Time zones
- If need to accept payments in different currencies may want to check the exchange rates on XE.com
- Accept payments in crypto after checking current value at Coinmarketcap.com
- Will have to calculate costs and taxes. Maybe something else too so you’ll need a calculator
These are just the essential free online tools every freelancer needs. Actually, you’ll need many more free or paid services. But nothing beats a spreadsheet with a list of sites you’ve joined, projects list, credentials, invoices paid and other sensitive information stored on a memory stick, hidden on safe place out of sight (and internet). But, this is another story for another post.
