Best Mobile Apps for Freelancers
An app typically refers to a small software program that can be easily downloaded onto your smartphone. Once installed, their excellent features can help you simplify your life, speed up your daily tasks, monitor your progress, and amplify ordinary goals – all in a matter of seconds.
Think of apps as mini-helpers and time-saving tools, cheering you on and enabling you to micromanage your life in ways you never thought possible.
From searching for new recipes, ordering food home, and tracking your calorie intake to booking a cab, relaxing during a hectic day, and even monitoring your sleep patterns, there’s so much you can do with the right app. Especially if you’re a busy freelancer, consider incorporating some wellness and productivity-boosting mobile apps into your daily life and routine.
Which Mobile Apps are Good for You?
Mobile apps have quickly become an extension of our personalities and an inseparable part of our lives. Come to think of it, our smartphones wouldn’t be all that SMART if it weren’t for these handy apps.
DID YOU KNOW? There are over 3.7 million Android apps available in the Play Store and more than 2 million apps available in the Apple App Store, and these numbers are steadily growing. Talk about variety!
Of course, not all these apps are relevant to you, and finding the right ones may seem like searching for a needle in a haystack.
So how can you find the best apps for you?
The trick is to identify the aspects of your freelance life that you think you need help with, and then download the most appropriate app to address your specific need.
Say, for example, if you forget to stay hydrated, why not download Carbodroid, a simple yet powerful Android mobile app that will remind you to drink water at regular intervals throughout the day? SWEET!
The last time I went phone shopping, I brought home one with a larger storage capacity to ensure there’s enough room for my favourite apps. Don’t get me wrong.
I’m still a huge fan of the humble notepad and pen but when it comes to streamlining and simplifying certain aspects of my daily life, some of my most-liked apps are simply irreplaceable.
Freelancers need all the help they can get to stay on top of their goals and maintain high productivity levels while keeping their motivation intact. It is where the best mobile apps for freelancers come into the picture!
You might also want to check out my list of 10 Best Writing Tools to Write Faster and Better in 2023
Every Freelancer Needs These 10 Handy Mobile Apps
Whether you are a freelance writer, artist, web designer, or consultant, you can benefit from these ten useful mobile apps. Download the ones that cater to your unique requirements and start achieving more.
Wellness Apps for High-Strung, Busy Freelancers
Being goal-driven is excellent, but when we start ignoring our well-being in our pursuit of our goals, it’s time to press the pause button.
Wellness mobile apps enable us to slow down and be present for ourselves, allowing us to live fuller, healthier, and more enriching lives.
#1. HEADSPACE
Being your boss may sound blissful, but it isn’t the easiest thing to do. Freelancers often face significant pressure to succeed on their own.
From pitching, performing, and invoicing to budgeting, marketing, content editing, and reworking, there’s a lot to handle, and burnouts are quite rampant.
The Headspace App waltzes in to save the day and night by offering a welcome respite from stress and anxiety – anytime, anywhere.
Available on Google Play and the Apple App Store, Headspace is a refreshing wellness app that a former Buddhist Monk founded. It promotes a healthier and happier life using the benefits of guided meditation and mindfulness.
You can think of it as your personal meditation guide that you can turn to whenever you are feeling stressed.
Known to provide a sense of calm, stress relief, and improved focus, the Headspace App offers meditation sessions tailored for Work, Kids, Sleep, Focus, Stress, and Anxiety.
Sign up for the 10-day free session and learn the basics of meditation for free. For more in-depth meditation techniques, you can select the 30-day paid packs.
What’s Great?
- Since the app can be accessed from anywhere and at any time, it provides a refreshing technique to calm the mind and live mindfully instantly.
- The 10-day free version is excellent for testing the waters. If you like the Headspace experience, you can move to the paid version.
- The animations add to the restful experience.
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#2. HAPPIER
Don’t we all want to live happier lives? Oh wait, we already live numerous happy moments throughout the day – the only problem is we don’t realize it.
This is where the need for the Happier Mobile App is felt.
Available for iPhone users (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch), Happier is an award-winning app that promotes mindfulness and provides an effortless way to practice gratitude throughout our lives by serving as a gratitude journal.
You can use the app to record every small and significant event that makes you feel happy, positive, and grateful, as they happen in real-time. When you look back at your notes, you will realize just how much you have to be thankful for every day.
When accessed via the Apple Watch, the app presents calming and inspiring quotes, as well as short meditation breaks, to help you relax between stressful days.
What’s Great?
- The Happier App is available for free.
- You can connect with other Happier users and become a part of the uplifting Happier community.
#3. PEDOMETER STEP COUNTER & CALORIE COUNTER
If your job profile involves sitting at a desk and working long hours, like most freelancers, it can be a challenge to know just how active you’ve been throughout the day.
To experience a state of well-being, we must also be mindful of our physical state and feel good about ourselves.
The Pedometer Step Counter App comes in handy here.
It is a simple, clean, and easy-to-navigate App that you can use to count your steps and keep track of your movements every day. The app has a built-in sensor that records the kilometers covered, calories burned, and your walking time.
Depending on your preferences, you can define your daily Step Goal, the preferred degree of sensitivity (low to high), and a daily reminder. The Report Graphs show how you fared in the last 24 hours, in a week, or during a month.
The app does not require GPS and continues to function even when your screen is locked.
However, since the app counts your steps based on your movements, press the Start button to begin recording (pause when needed) and ensure that your phone is either in your hand, pocket, or handbag.
What’s Great & What’s Not?
- You don’t need to sign in to use the app, and all the features are completely free.
- If you select high sensitivity, the app starts recording even the smallest movements, such as hand movements, so make sure to adjust the sensitivity settings based on your needs.
#4. HEBBAR’S KITCHEN
They say variety is the spice of life.
If you love to see lots of variety on your plate, you will need much more than a handful of tried and tested recipes to satisfy your taste buds – especially after a long and tiring workday.
This is where Hebbar’s Kitchen steps in!
Offering a collection of Indian vegetarian recipes with supporting pictures and videos, Hebbar’s Kitchen recipe app is your go-to resource for all things food.
In addition to Indian recipes, the app also lists some interesting International vegetarian recipes and worldwide cuisines.
You’ll find breakfast recipes, curry recipes, snacks and sandwich recipes, rice and paratha recipes, cakes, salads, and dessert recipes, among many others.
What’s Great?
- The app works offline as well.
- If you’re not up for cooking anything fancy, the app will help you create instant and straightforward recipes using ordinary ingredients that are easily found in your kitchen.
Productivity Apps for Time-Deprived Freelancers | Getting More Done
Time is money, we all know that. Still, when distractions come calling, the best of us lose focus and end up wasting time doing unnecessary things.
Productivity apps are a tremendous help when you want to cut through the clutter, organize yourself, minimize distractions, and enhance your speed, focus, and overall performance.
#5. FOCUS BOOSTER
Working from a home office or a cafe has its rewards. You don’t have a boss watching over your every move. On the other side, however, it is easier to fall prey to distractions and waste a sizeable number of hours doing nothing substantial.
The Focus Booster App puts things in perspective and makes you more accountable for your time.
Available on Apple Store and Google Play, this app is based on the famous Pomodoro Technique of time management, which promotes 25 minutes of focused work followed by a five-minute break.
The built-in timer ensures undivided focus on one task and cuts down distractions. At the same time, the time-tracking feature is great for boosting overall productivity and understanding how your time was spent.
What’s Great?
- You can try the starter plan for 30 days at no cost. Paid subscriptions are available for as low as $2.99 per month.
- This system of taking monitored breaks between work can help reduce burnout and ensure that the user returns to work refreshed and motivated to do more.
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THE POMODORO TIMER is another hassle-free and straightforward mobile timer that I use all the time. Although the recommended Pomodoro duration is 25 minutes, you can adjust the long break and short break durations to suit your preferences.
Enter the task you are working on and set the timer. Now that Pomodoro is running, it’s time for you to focus and get the job done until the timer goes off (reminding you that it’s Party Time) – time to take a short break.
You can choose to take a break or skip it if you’re feeling motivated to keep going!
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#6. EVERNOTE
When I look back at my school/college days, I remember slogging behind the desk, making unending notes. Times have changed but maintaining notes is still an important part, now of my work life.
Luckily, today it’s not my pen or my hand doing all the work.
Evernote simplifies notetaking in any format.
An article, Web Page, Audio, Excerpts, Pictures, Bookmark, Screenshot- you name it!
Using Evernote, the productivity app, you can ‘capture what’s on your mind’ and ‘remember everything’ across any device.
Organize your essential notes into relevant notebooks (and tags) and access them as well as share them from any device, anywhere – hassle-free. Since all your notes are automatically synchronized, no information is out of your reach.
Download Evernote via the Apple App Store or Google Play, sign up for free, and start organizing the most valuable information with ease.
What’s Great?
- With your Basic (free account), you get a monthly storage space of 60 MB. If you use up this space, you can try their Premium or Business plans.
#7. TOGGL
Have you ever looked back at your day and wondered where all the time went? Keeping a record of your activities helps you become more organized and goal-driven, especially when you’re part of a team.
The Toggl App makes time tracking hassle-free and reporting easy.
Press the START timer button, and you’re on your way to tracking the time you spend on any given task or project.
Once you’ve tracked your time, you can utilize the app’s reporting functionality to view detailed graphical representations (weekly/monthly) of the time spent on various tasks. This way, you can know exactly where your hours are going.
The export feature is quite handy as it lets you share your reports in different formats with other people, such as your team members and clients.
Toggl is useful for individuals, freelancers, and teams of all sizes, including larger enterprises.
What’s Great?
- Toggl works on multiple platforms and devices – Android, iPhone, Desktop – Windows, Mac, Chrome, etc.
- The 30-day free trial is great for understanding the usability and effectiveness of the app. If you’re interested in its advanced features, you can sign up for the paid versions.
#8. LASTPASS
There was a time not too long ago when the two most important things a person needed to memorize were their address and phone number. Oh, what an uncomplicated world it was!
Fast-forward to today and there is no dearth of things we must manage if we wish to function in the digital world. Of these, passwords top the list.
Considering the number of online accounts and services freelancers sign up for, remembering so many complex passwords is no easy feat.
The LastPass Mobile App makes a grand entry as your password manager.
It asks you to remember just one master password, and LastPass remembers all your other passwords for you. Awesome, right?
The app is available for free download on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Windows Phone.
Download the app to your favourite devices and log in with your LastPass account details. Once synchronized, you can access your saved passwords from your LastPass vault anywhere, at any time.
For added security and to safeguard your data, the app offers fingerprint support and uses strong encryption algorithms, local-only encryption, and two-factor authentication. The app offers personal and business plans.
What’s Great?
- At $2 / month (LastPass Premium), you can share passwords, Wi-Fi logins, and memberships with other people.
- At $4/ 4/month, you can organize, secure, and share the digital details of your entire family (up to 6 users).
#9. ASANA
For a freelance professional, collaborating on a large project with a large team of people can be quite overwhelming.
With so many opinions to consider, feedback to process, and emails to respond to, it can all become overwhelming. After all, most freelancers are accustomed to working on their own.
This is where Asana offers much-needed respite.
Sign up with your work email address, and you will be connected with your team in Asana.
Once connected, you can assign and receive tasks for a project, check reminders and due dates, complete and upload your work, and communicate with your team members, all in a matter of seconds.
Since everything can be managed from within your inbox, dashboard, and home screen, collaborating on projects from start to finish and tracking the progress of your team is easy and hassle-free.
You can also create and manage your projects within Asana, saving you a lot of time on organization.
What’s Great?
- Asana is completely free for teams of up to 15 people. Using the basic dashboard, you can create unlimited tasks and projects.
- You don’t have to be online to track your work when using Asana on Android.
#10. ZOHO INVOICE
Invoicing is a crucial part of a freelancer’s work life.
You must do it efficiently and on time if you want your clients to take you seriously and receive timely payments.
However, when there are numerous clients to manage, the straightforward task of creating an invoice and following up with them can seem overwhelming.
Zoho Invoice is a 100% free and secure invoicing software that enables freelancers and small businesses to manage their invoicing and payment collection easily.
Its mobile app is handy for busy freelancers on the go. Since Zoho invoices can be customized, you can select any format and tailor it to represent your brand. You can also set up sending physical copies of your invoices through the mail.
As a busy freelance SEO Copywriter, I use ZOHO invoices to stay efficient with invoicing.
What’s Great?
- From time/expense tracking, real-time progress tracking, currency and payment gateway integration, and setting up payment reminders, Zoho is one of the best invoicing software options for freelancers in 2024.
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If you are a freelance writer, designer, or busy professional trying to simplify your work life and boost your performance, you can definitely benefit from the right mobile apps at your fingertips.
One size does not fit all, so I suggest researching to find the right apps that meet your specific needs and preferences. I’m sure the experience will be worth it.
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Are you a freelancer using a Mobile app that you love? Would you like to see an app listed on this page? Let me know in the comments section below.
First Published: Jun 2018; Last Updated: Sept 12, 2025
