Best Apps for Self-Employed People & Sole Traders in the UK (2026)
There are hundreds of apps aimed at self-employed people, promising to save you time, organise your business and generally make working for yourself easier.
The problem isn’t finding them. It’s working out which ones are actually useful — and which ones you’ll download, use twice and forget about.
I’m Anita — a Chartered Accountant who’s been self-employed for most of my working life. I’ve kept this list focused on the apps I’d actually recommend to self-employed people and sole traders in the UK. You don’t need twenty different apps to run your business. You need a handful of good ones that solve an actual problem.
So whether you’re looking for an app for accounting, invoicing, business banking, time tracking, design or simply keeping yourself organised, these are the ones I’d start with.
Before you pay full price: The Self Employed Club has deals and savings on business tools, services and everyday essentials for UK self-employed people. It’s completely free to join. Browse the current deals →
Table of Contents
Best Apps for Self-Employed People: The Short List
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App |
Best for |
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Accounting, invoicing & MTD |
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Business banking |
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Design & marketing |
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Tasks projects & productivity |
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Time tracking |
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Email, calendar, calls & bookings |
Accounting Apps for Self-Employed People
Xero – Best All-Round Accounting App for Sole Traders
If I were spending money on one business app as a sole trader, accounting software would be high on the list.
Xero keeps your bookkeeping in one place. You can connect your bank account, reconcile transactions, create invoices, keep digital records and get a much clearer picture of what’s going on with your business finances.
It’s also compatible with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which is becoming increasingly important for UK sole traders.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started applying to qualifying sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 from April 2026. The threshold reduces to over £30,000 from April 2027 and over £20,000 from April 2028.
Even if you’re not caught by MTD yet, getting into the habit of keeping your records up to date throughout the year can make life considerably easier than trying to reconstruct everything when January rolls around.
Best for: Sole traders who want their bookkeeping, invoicing and financial records together.
Club deal: Members of The Self Employed Club can currently get 80% off Xero for 6 months.
Read => Xero for Sole Traders: Is It Actually Worth It?
Coconut – Best for Sole Traders Who Want Something Simpler
Not everybody needs – or wants – a full accounting package.
Coconut is designed specifically with sole traders in mind and brings bookkeeping and tax together in one app.
That makes it an interesting option if you want something focused on the realities of working for yourself rather than a larger accounting system designed to cover lots of different types of business.
Best for: Sole traders looking for straightforward bookkeeping and tax tools.
Club deal: Members can currently get 15% off an annual Coconut plan plus a 14-day free trial.
Also worth considering:
QuickBooks – another established option with accounting and invoicing features for small businesses and sole traders.
Banking Apps
Tide – Business Banking Built for Small Businesses
Keeping your business money separate from your personal spending can make bookkeeping much easier when you’re self-employed.
Tide is designed for small businesses and sole traders, with its banking and business tools managed through the app.
As well as the bank account itself, Tide offers features designed around running a small business, so it’s worth comparing if you’re setting up a separate account for your self-employed income and expenses.
Best for: Sole traders and small businesses looking for app-based business banking.
Club deal: New eligible Tide customers can currently get £20 cashback, subject to the offer terms.
There are other business banking apps available, so I’d still compare accounts based on the features you actually need rather than choosing purely because there’s an offer.
Read next: The Best Free Business Bank Accounts for Sole Traders in the UK.
Starling – Free Business Banking App for Sole Traders
Technically, a sole trader doesn’t always need a separate business bank account, but keeping your business and personal money separate can make life a lot easier. Starling’s sole trader account has no monthly fee and is managed through its app.
One of the features I particularly like for self-employed people is Spaces. You can separate money within your account, which is useful if you want to put money aside for your tax bill rather than accidentally treating everything in your account as spendable.
Starling also offers accounting tools for sole traders and connections with accounting software including Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent.
Best for: Sole traders who want a separate business account without another monthly subscription.
Pricing: No monthly fee for the standard sole trader account. Other charges and optional services can apply.
Also worth considering:
Mettle – particularly interesting because it includes FreeAgent, an alternative accounting software.
Read next => The Best Free Business Bank Accounts for Sole Traders in the UK
Join the Club — it’s completely free
Members get handpicked deals and discounts on the tools, services and everyday essentials UK self-employed people actually use. Free to join, no catch.
Design Apps
Canva – Best Design App for Non-Designers
Canva is one of the easiest business apps for me to recommend because I use it constantly.
Social media posts, presentations, PDFs, flyers, price lists, proposals — if you need something to look decent without hiring a designer every time, Canva makes it incredibly easy.
There’s a free version, which will be enough for plenty of self-employed businesses.
Canva Pro adds additional features including premium content and brand tools, which become more useful once you’re creating things regularly for your business.
Best for: Social media graphics, marketing materials, presentations and everyday business design.
Pricing: Free plan available, with Canva Pro as the paid option.
Task and Project Management Apps
ClickUp — Best for Keeping Your Business Organised
When you work for yourself, you’re not just doing the actual work. You’re also remembering invoices, following up leads, planning content, answering emails, managing projects and trying not to forget the thing you scribbled on a Post-it three days ago.
I use ClickUp to keep all of that in one place.
You can use it for simple task lists or build out projects, recurring tasks, calendars and workflows as your business becomes more complicated. It also includes time-tracking functionality, which means some sole traders may not need a completely separate time-tracking app.
That’s another reason I like it: one useful app can sometimes replace several smaller ones.
Best for: Managing tasks, projects, recurring admin and your general self-employed workload.
Pricing: Free plan available, with paid plans for additional features.
Club deal: Check The Self Employed Club for the current ClickUp offer before upgrading.
Read next: 10 Ways I Use ClickUp as a Self-Employed Business Owner
Time Tracking Apps
Toggl Track – Best Free Time Tracking App
f you charge by the hour, Toggl Track is a simple way to keep track of how much time you’re actually spending on each client or project.
It’s also useful even if you don’t bill hourly.
Tracking your time for a week can be quite revealing when you’re self-employed. That “quick bit of admin” may turn out to be taking considerably longer than you thought.
Toggl has a free plan that’s suitable for freelancers and solo users, and you can use it across different devices.
Best for: Freelancers, consultants and anyone who bills by time or wants to understand where their working day goes.
Pricing: Free plan available
Email, Calendar, Calls & Booking Apps
Google Workspace – Best All-Round Communication App
Google Workspace is another good example of one subscription doing the job of several different apps.
It’s the system I use to run The Self Employed Club.
You can have Gmail using your own business domain, Google Calendar for appointments, Google Meet for client calls and Google Drive for storing and sharing your files.
Google Calendar also includes appointment scheduling features, so depending on how you take bookings, you may not need to pay for a separate scheduling app either.
That’s why I’d recommend looking at Google Workspace before automatically signing up for separate email, storage, video-call and booking tools.
For me, having everything connected is one of its biggest advantages.
Best for: Business email, calendar, client calls, simple appointment scheduling and file storage.
Club deal: Members of The Self Employed Club get 10% off Google Workspace for the first year plus a 14-day free trial.
Read next: Google Workspace for Sole Traders UK: Is It Worth It?
Join the Club — it’s completely free
Members get handpicked deals and discounts on the tools, services and everyday essentials UK self-employed people actually use. Free to join, no catch.
Free Apps for Self-Employed People
You don’t need to pay for the premium version of every app you use.
Several of the apps in this guide have free options, and in many cases that’s exactly where I’d start.
Canva has a free plan.
ClickUp has a free plan.
And plenty of other useful business apps have free versions that may be perfectly adequate while your business is small.
My rule is simple:
Start free where it makes sense. Pay when you can clearly explain what the paid version is going to do for you.
If you’re upgrading because you genuinely need a feature, great.
If you’re upgrading because an app has spent three weeks showing you a shiny button, perhaps not.
The App Setup I’d Choose for a Sole Trader Starting Today
If I were starting a self-employed business today, I’d keep the setup simple.
For accounting: Xero or Coconut, depending on how much functionality I needed.
For banking: Tide, or another dedicated business account that suited the way I work.
For design: Canva
For organisation: ClickUp
For email, files, calls and bookings: Google Workspace.
The goal isn’t to build an impressive collection of business software. It’s to have a few useful tools that make working for yourself easier.
Before You Pay Full Price, Check The Club
Business apps have a habit of looking cheap individually. £8 here. £12 there. Another £15 for something else. Then suddenly you’ve built yourself a very expensive pile of monthly subscriptions.
The Self Employed Club brings together deals and savings for UK self-employed people across business tools and everyday life. It’s completely free to join for eligible UK self-employed people.
So before you sign up for a new app, software package or service at full price check The Club first.
FAQs
What is the best app for self-employed people?
There isn’t one app that’s best for every self-employed person because it depends on what you need help with.
For accounting, I’d look at Xero or Coconut. Tide is worth considering for business banking, Canva for design, ClickUp for organising your workload and Google Workspace for business email, calendars, calls and file storage.
The best approach is to choose a small number of apps that solve specific problems in your business.
What are the best apps for sole traders in the UK?
Some of the most useful apps for UK sole traders are accounting and bookkeeping apps such as Xero and Coconut, business banking apps such as Tide, Canva for design, ClickUp for tasks and Google Workspace for email, calendars and files.
Which ones you need will depend on the type of business you run.
What are the best free apps for self-employed people?
Canva and ClickUp both offer free plans that can be useful for self-employed people.
There are also free or no-monthly-fee options available across areas such as business banking, invoicing, time tracking and password management. You don’t need to pay for every business app from day one.
What is the best accounting app for a sole trader?
For a full accounting package, Xero is the one I’d recommend looking at first.
If you want something more specifically focused on sole traders and straightforward bookkeeping and tax, Coconut is also worth considering.
The right choice depends on your business, your income, whether you’re affected by Making Tax Digital and how much functionality you actually need.
Do sole traders need accounting software?
Not every sole trader is legally required to use accounting software. However, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is being introduced in stages.
From April 2026 it applies to qualifying sole traders and landlords with annual qualifying income over £50,000. The threshold reduces to over £30,000 from April 2027 and over £20,000 from April 2028.
If you’re affected, you’ll need to use compatible software to meet the MTD requirements.
Even if you’re below the threshold, accounting software can still make record keeping and invoicing easier.
Do I need a separate invoicing app?
You may not if your accounting software already includes invoicing. Check what you’ve already got before adding another app or subscription.
Do I need a business bank account as a sole trader?
Sole traders aren’t generally legally required to have a separate business bank account, although your bank’s own terms may restrict using a personal account for business.
Having a separate account can also make it much easier to keep your personal and business transactions apart.
Do I need Calendly if I have Google Workspace?
Possibly not.
Google Calendar includes appointment scheduling features, so if you only need straightforward client bookings, you may find that Google Workspace already does what you need.
If you have more complicated booking requirements, a dedicated scheduling platform may offer additional features.
What apps do self-employed people actually need?
Most self-employed people don’t need dozens of apps. I’d start with something to manage your finances, somewhere to keep your business money, a way to organise your workload and the tools you need to communicate with customers or clients. Then add other apps only when there’s a clear reason to.
Where can I find deals on apps for self-employed people?
The Self Employed Club brings together deals and savings for UK self-employed people, including offers on business apps, software and services. It’s free to join for eligible UK self-employed people.
Want More Useful Guides for Working for Yourself?
If you found this guide useful, you might also like these guides:
- Xero for Sole Traders: Is It Actually Worth It? (Honest Review)
- Google Workspace for Sole Traders UK: Is It Worth It?
- 10 Ways I Use ClickUp as a Self Employed Business Owner
- The Best Tools for Self-Employed People in the UK (What I Actually Use)
- Deals and Discounts for Sole Traders: What’s Available in 2026
- The Best Free Business Bank Accounts for Sole Traders in the UK (2026)
About the Author
Anita Forrest
Chief Deal Hunter
Anita is a Chartered Accountant, self-employed business owner and the person behind The Self Employed Club. She created the Club to help UK self-employed people spend less and keep more of what they earn, by bringing useful deals for their business and everyday life together in one place.
She writes about the things you actually need to know when you work for yourself, in the way she would want someone to explain them to her - clearly, simply and without the usual business waffle.
Join the Club — it's completely free
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