Free · No signup · Nothing to install
You're great at the work. The hard part is the money: what to charge, how to invoice, what to put in a contract. FreelanceGuide is a growing kit of free tools that handle exactly that — no account, no upsell wall, no spreadsheet wrangling.
The toolkit
Work backward from the take-home you want to the hourly, daily, and monthly rate you need to charge — taxes, time off, and expenses included.
Fill in the work, hit download, send a clean PDF invoice in under a minute. No QuickBooks, no monthly fee.
Generate a plain-English freelance contract with the clauses that actually protect you — scope, payment terms, kill fee, IP.
Turn a rough scope into a polished, persuasive project proposal you can send the same day a lead comes in.
Paste a project's pay and hours and see your true effective rate after scope creep — before you say yes.
Thinking of going freelance, or going back to a job? See what a salary really equals as a freelance rate, and vice versa.
A client paying late? Work out exactly what they owe — flat fee or interest per day, week, or month.
Price a monthly retainer that actually works — included hours, a fair discount, and an overage rate.
Time to charge more? See your new rate, the annual impact, and the bare minimum just to keep up with inflation.
Estimate the 15.3% self-employment tax on your freelance profit, the half you can deduct, and what to set aside each quarter.
Work from home? Compare the simplified and regular methods and claim the bigger write-off — the math for both, side by side.
Drive for work? Compare the 2026 standard mileage rate and actual expenses, and claim the bigger deduction — both methods, side by side.
A client asks "how much?" Build a quote you can defend — hours, costs, a scope-creep buffer, deposit, and your true effective rate.
Stripe and PayPal skim their fee off the top. Work out what to charge so you still keep what you wanted — or what a charge really nets you.
Gross income isn't pay. See what you actually keep after expenses, self-employment tax, and income tax — the whole waterfall, in plain sight.
No employer is withholding for you. See what to send the IRS each quarter, the due dates, and the safe-harbor minimum that dodges a penalty.
A 40-hour week isn't 40 billable hours. See how many you can really bill in a year, your true utilization, and what it's worth.
Salaried job or contract gig? Compare both after self-employment tax, lost benefits, and expenses — and see the rate the contract needs to break even.
Self-employed? See the most you can shelter for retirement in 2026 under each plan, side by side — and which one lets you save more.
No paycheck, no severance, no safety net. Size the cash cushion that gets you through dry spells — and see how long your savings would really last.
No employer 401(k), no match. Project how your SEP-IRA or Solo 401(k) compounds into a nest egg — in future and today's dollars — and what it could pay you.
Subcontracting or passing through costs? Price from a markup or a target margin — and see why 50% markup is only a 33% margin.
Pick the income you want and see what it costs in work — how many projects or billable hours a year, a month, and a week to actually get there.
Turn a lumpy freelance month into a plan — set aside taxes, cover business costs, then split the rest into needs, wants, and savings.
Punch in your start and end times for the week and get total billable hours to the minute — then exactly what to invoice at your rate.
Quoting by the day? Convert your hourly rate to a day rate and back — plus the half-day, week, and yearly numbers, all in sync.
Build your rate from the ground up — total your overhead, pay yourself a salary, add tax, and see the revenue and floor rate your business really needs.
No paid vacation when you freelance? See how much to bank — and what % of every payment — to take paid time off and still hit your income.
Add tax to a price for the total to invoice — or reverse it out of a tax-inclusive total to see what's really yours and what to remit.
What does "Net 30" actually mean on the calendar? Get the exact due date, days to go, and what an early-payment discount is really worth.
Price writing by the word: convert cents-per-word, project price, and per page — and see the effective hourly rate the job really earns.
Earning enough to wonder about an S-corp? Compare self-employment tax to payroll tax on a salary, and see your real saving after the cost of running one.
Stop calling the leftover "profit." Allocate your real revenue into profit, your pay, taxes, and expenses by target percentage — and pay yourself first.
Take a percent or amount off a price, or find the discount between two prices — then see what that client discount really costs your profit.
Did that course, ad, or tool pay off? Get the return on investment, net gain, annualized ROI, and the payback period for an ongoing return.
How many projects cover your costs before you make a cent? Find the break-even point — or the price each sale needs — and what a profit target really takes.
Financing gear or working capital? See the monthly payment, the total interest it really costs, and how much an extra payment each month would save.
Why free
Most "freelance resources" are a thin blog wrapped around an email capture and an affiliate link. FreelanceGuide is the opposite: the tools are the point, they're free, and they work without an account. If something here saves you an afternoon or wins you a better rate, that's the whole goal.
New tools ship regularly. Got one you wish existed? It probably belongs here.