70 Tools Freelancers Rely on Most
Posted December 16, 2008 in Tools/Resources
As freelancers, we belong to a broad group of people: writers, designers, programmers, consultants, etc. Despite our variety, though, we all use similar tools on a regular basis.
A little while back, when we first launched the forums, someone started a thread to share all of the tools we each rely on most. After three pages of great responses, I decided to compile a list of the most used tools. To see the topic that inspired this post, click here, otherwise read on for the full list.
Hardware
Obviously, we all require a computer to do our jobs (especially if you’re reading this blog). This first list of tools speaks to the very basics of operating a freelance business.
- Windows Desktop
- Apple Desktop
- Windows Laptop
- Apple Laptop
- Two Monitors (or more)
- Good, fast, wireless Internet Connection
- Wacom Tablet
- Good mouse and keyboard
Design Software
At least some sort of design software was basically a must for all types of freelancers, even many of the writers. There’s no surprise here that the Adobe Creative Suite dominates, but GIMP was mentioned several times too!
Photoshop
Illustrator
Flash
Acrobat
inDesign
GIMP
Document Handling
Word processing and document management is another category that almost every freelancer will need some of, no matter what their specialty. Understandably, there wasn’t too much variety in these responses.
Microsoft Office
Google Docs
Pages
CMS / Blogging
Content management systems were a favorite item for many freelancers, especially WordPress. There were a few big proponents of ExpressionEngine also, and a mention or two of Joomla.
WordPress
Expression Engine
Joomla
FTP
File transfer is another important category, one that is vital to developers and web designers. There were a surprisingly large number of good programs mentioned, so we trimmed this list to the most common ones.
FileZilla
Cyberduck
Transmit
FireFTP
CuteFTP
Code Editors
The development group really came out strong with these suggestions, offering numerous choices for editing code. Check out the forum thread for some more juicy details.
Dreamweaver
PSPad
UltraEdit
TextMate
E-Text Editor
Notepad++
Coda
Bluefish
TextEdit
Development
A few more recommended tools for anyone in freelance development:
Ruby on Rails
WampServer
GIT
GITHub
E-mail Clients
Here’s another category that is universal to almost all freelancers. Given the number of available choices, it was a bit surprising how popular some of these clients are (I’m looking at you, Gmail).
Gmail
Microsoft Outlook
Thunderbird
Invoicing, Accounting, Bookkeeping
Administrative stuff, ugh! Freshbooks and Quickbooks were the two most mentioned in this category, both receiving a lot of praise. There were also some other good picks:
Freshbooks
Quickbooks
Harvest
Trac
Billable
BambooInvoice
LessAccounting
ZohoInvoces
Collaboration
Collaboration software is another favorite among Freelance Folder readers. Basecamp and ActiveCollab were the most mentioned by far.
Organization/To-Do
With the amount of information freelancers are required to juggle on a regular basis, it’s no surprise that organizational software ranks among the most important. Here are the favorites:
BackPack
Remember the Milk
Google Calendar
Moleskine Notebook
HighRise
Social Networking
I don’t think it’s even necessary to say which of these was mentioned the most (twitter).
Chat
Chatting seems to be an integral part of many a daily routine, and there are thankfully a few great programs that make it much easier.
Skype
GTalk
Yahoo Messenger
Pidgin
Music
Listening to music while working is one of the perks of freelancing — here are a few suggested ways to go about it:
Some other necessities…
Dogs (or pets in general)
Coffee
Chocolate
That’s it for the list of our forum responses, but as you can imagine this is only a few of the many tools freelancers rely on. Which ones do you use? Do you have any recommendations that aren’t on here?
Related posts:
- 40+ Networking Tools For Freelancers
- Top 6 Most Useful Color Tools For Designers
- Mega List of Web Based Font, Text, & Type Tools
- Handy Designer’s Tools “On The Fly”
- 12 Tools I Use Every Day as an Independent Web Designer
About the author: Natalie is an organizer and an entrepreneur. She works behind-the-scenes at FreelanceFolder, and she played a major role in bringing The Unlimited Freelancer into existence.
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46 Comments
Brandon
December 16th, 2008 at 5:34 pmWhat an awesome list – you’ve put your time in here. Looking into some of the productivity tools now, which is my main need at the moment. And the coffee, gotta agree there!
Jennifer
December 16th, 2008 at 7:45 pmThis is such a great list.
Derek
December 17th, 2008 at 7:37 amWonderful list! Thanks Natalie. Of the invoicing packages mentioned, BambooInvoice is the only one that allows you to host your own data (no trusting others with your financial information) AND is free and open source. Thanks for listing it!
Keith Johnson
December 17th, 2008 at 9:37 amGreat post Natalie :)
Also, lots of people use Open Office when they cannot afford the Microsoft Office Suite. Thanks for this great list.
Keith Johnson
Technical Writer
Hallandale, Florida
http://greatdocuments.net
Emily
December 17th, 2008 at 11:01 amI recently discovered this wonderful open-source photo editing program called Paint.net. I love it! For non-professional photographers who just need to tweak or enhance photos, it’s easy to use and an inexpensive investment. I just wrote a guest post on it at http://www.bonavita.wordpress.com.
Melek
December 17th, 2008 at 11:22 amIm on a Mac, and for FTP I use Transmit (panic.com/transmit). Love it! Oh, and Entourage for email…which I guess is MS’s version of Outlook for Mac.
for another option on DB, spreadsheet, documents and invoicing, check out Zoho.com. Great free tools there.
Natalie
December 17th, 2008 at 12:10 pmThanks for the great feedback everyone! What I think is great about this list is that it comes directly from real people who actually use each and every one of these tools. Thanks to everyone who participated on the forums beforehand and in the comments now :)
Rayanne Langdon
December 17th, 2008 at 2:57 pmThis is awesome! Thanks to everyone who thought of FreshBooks while this list was being built : )
Rayanne Langdon — Marketing Coordinator, FreshBooks.com
Koka
December 17th, 2008 at 6:41 pmGreat collection of tools. What makes this even better is that you give me 4-5 options for each category. Thanks!
John
December 17th, 2008 at 7:25 pmFreelancers may also want to check out Intervals, a web-based project management tool that includes time tracking and task management functionality. It’s an ideal comprehensive app for freelancers who want to run their business with one tool.
Serena Carcasole
December 17th, 2008 at 10:42 pmGreat list!! I would like to add in one of my must haves!
http://www.roboform.com/
This is the best password manager and I can’t live without it. If I had to keep track of all my passwords and clients passwords etc I would be spending hours a week of unnecessary work!
Serena Carcasole
http://www.vbsondemand.com
Your 1STOP Business Service Shop
Outsource your way to success!
Keith
December 18th, 2008 at 10:49 amIt baffles me as to why VIM (http://www.vim.org) is not in that list of editors…..
aalmeida71
December 18th, 2008 at 1:31 pmReally cool stuff I use most of them on my daily duties and fun, like dreamweaver, google etc.. you can check out the results I get at http://www.artdigitalonline.com
Television Voyeur
December 18th, 2008 at 10:50 pmGood stuff, really impressed by variety.
michael(UA)
December 19th, 2008 at 12:23 amWeb developers who using WAMP(AppServ) or such like that all in one are not perceived seriously. Web dev must know basics how to config webserver. Don’t advised that for beginners
Sorry, but it’s true
Malte
December 19th, 2008 at 3:10 amI am not sure such a list is very useful.
Adding linux, linux, linux, eclipse, VisualStudio 2008, Subversion, BibbleLite, netradio, xterm, LAMP would make it appeal to me. I am quite certain that the list would depend on geography as well.
Malte
December 19th, 2008 at 3:11 amAh, I forgot cygwin for projects where I am forced to use Windows.
Melanie
December 20th, 2008 at 2:07 pmThanks for the list…This has helped out a lot.
Paul the Knight
December 20th, 2008 at 6:00 pmGreat list, well done. WordPress especially is outstanding.
For firefox, I reccomend trying FireFTP, its a super sweet FTP client, I’ve never looked back since I used it for the first time. Plus its free. Woo :)
John Dawson Photography
December 21st, 2008 at 1:35 pmGood list… One good text editor I like to use is NoteTab… It is worth a look.
Paul Moore
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:52 amLooks like a free lancer has quite the array of tools to choose from. I have not had to deal with one yet, but I know I will soon. I am currently working on my online income success blog, and it is great to know that there are people here to help. Any advice on finding someone that can help edit code on my site?
Alice
January 8th, 2009 at 11:32 pmI found a desktop tool to remind me for the new coming jobs from several big sites, works great. http://www.easynth.com/profriend
Mat
January 9th, 2009 at 9:07 amThere is a category of online proofing / collaboration missing.
Lots of freelance designers are starting to use web tools like http://www.proofhq.com to manage feedback from their clients.
4rtifexCr2stinus
January 16th, 2009 at 1:56 pmhttp://www.Lala.com should be added to the music category. SO cheap and more buying options that anyone else!
4rtifexCr2stinus
January 16th, 2009 at 2:00 pmOh, yewha, and GigaTribe is a really great app for FTP for those that only know how to set up port forwarding. Other FTPs are just too confusing.
Jarno
February 25th, 2009 at 2:57 pmAs a music source, there is no real challenge for Spotify (www.spotify.com). Pretty much all music, free, legal. Don’t know if it works in the States, but for fellow Europeans it’s a must. You can get invites quite easily by Googling.
Ronald
November 28th, 2009 at 4:00 amI would like to suggest HourDoc Time Tracking Software. It is useful for freelancers. http://www.HourDoc.com is right treatment for time tracking of virtual assistants, has to be an easy-to-administer and affordable solution for Freelancers.They offer free application to Freelancers/companies less than 50 Users. You must Try it!
Stas
February 16th, 2010 at 11:51 amI suggest to add free code editor – Codelobster PHP Edition
Amit Sodha - The Power Of Choice
May 12th, 2010 at 3:38 pmGreat list, I’ve seen the word joomla around but I’ve never really known what it is. Is it essentially a blog platform like wordpress?
Warszawa nieruchomości
October 21st, 2011 at 12:36 amPretty very good publish. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I ve genuinely enjoyed reading your weblog posts. Any way I ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again quickly!
Vincent
October 28th, 2011 at 8:38 amI would like to recommand OroTimesheet for time tracking. It is an excellent for invoicing and keeping track of the time you spend on your projects.
Krysha Thayer
February 8th, 2012 at 8:22 pmWow this is awesome! I’m so glad I found this old blog post, as there are some great resources here that I didn’t even know about!
china gps
April 9th, 2012 at 8:16 amYour amazing posts are quite beneficial.
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