Managing clients, mastering invoicing, giving visibility to your activity… The daily challenges of a self-employed person are numerous. However, there are many relevant tools for freelancers, often creative and very comprehensive.
At Codeur, we have a few favorites:
- Brevo, a CRM and email marketing software
- Facture.net, a simple and accurate invoicing software
- Trello, the leader in project management software
- WordPress, indispensable for creating a self-employed business's website
- Canva, the easy and practical graphic design tool
- LinkedIn, the essential social network for professional life
If you want to discover more solutions, here is our selection of the best software aimed at self-employed people !
5 CRM software solutions for self-employed people
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is the tool that allows you to manage client relationships and the data of a company’s commercial portfolio. A real asset for growing a self-employed business, it is essential to find the right CRM.
Brevo
Brevo is an online CRM coupled with an emailing tool. It is designed to boost customer relations through a set of relevant features. By using Brevo, a self-employed person can easily centralize their client data and launch marketing campaigns tailored to their target via different channels. Brevo also focuses on integrating many other digital marketing tools (Prestashop, WordPress, Shopify and many others).
Dolibarr
The open source web suite Dolibarr can meet all the needs of a self-employed person. It is not only a quality CRM, albeit less modern in appearance than some others, but it is also a good ERP. Versatile and flexible, Dolibarr becomes a sales and marketing software depending on the tasks you integrate into it. It is available for free and offers paid features via plugins that can be purchased as needed.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive has made a solid place for itself in the CRM market. Sales-focused, it appeals to self-employed people with a sales activity. It allows you to build a client portfolio and manage your data, but also to develop interactions with buyers and to have precise sales reports. Perfect for analyzing commercial performance, it is offered with five subscription plans.
HubSpot
Behind its intuitive and easy-to-use interface, HubSpot contains many features. It’s no surprise that this very comprehensive CRM is among the leaders. It lets you track sales and customer relationships and can also be used for marketing purposes. HubSpot offers a free basic version and other paid plans with scalable pricing, enriched with many options.
Odoo
Odoo brings many applications together on a single platform. In its free version, this all-in-one CRM offers a full dashboard, but it’s far from limited to that if you subscribe to a paid plan. The self-employed can find modules for accounting, logistics, marketing, reporting… It’s responsive and flexible and integrates with other popular apps like Mailchimp, Outlook, and ChatGPT.
5 invoicing software options for the self-employed
Administrative procedures may be reduced for micro-businesses, but you still need to comply with rules to create quotes and invoices. If you’re looking for good invoicing software to make daily life easier, here are our recommendations.
Facture.net
Created by the Codeur.com team, Facture.net it is perfectly suited to freelancers. Its main purpose is to generate invoices and quotes, but this free online tool is a valuable ally for micro-entrepreneurs since it also lets you manage your client and prospect database. It’s an easy-to-use invoicing software, which ensures you include the correct legal information on invoices.
Henrri
Henrri is a free management tool designed to generate invoices and quotes. It’s collaborative with unlimited users, allowing multiple people to work on accounting documents. Micro-entrepreneurs appreciate it for its intuitive, easy-to-use interface, as well as features like automatic reminders for unpaid invoices and a sales journal.
Indy
Indy is invoicing software aimed at freelancers. With it, create your quotes and generate personalized invoices. With bank account synchronization and its various features, it’s also a good tool for managing cash flow and tracking paid or pending contracts. There is a free plan and some paid features.
Zervant
Online or via an app, Zervant is another software designed for creating invoices and quotes. Its strength is being easy to use and requiring only a few clicks to produce accounting documents, which is perfect for micro-entrepreneurs. More basic than other invoicing tools, it has the advantage of being very clear.
Freebee
Freebee is perfect for managing all aspects of a micro-business. It centralizes cashflow documents, whether sales, social contributions, taxes, or anything that affects turnover. Among the offered features, bank account synchronization is very convenient. Above all, Freebee is specifically designed for freelancers and sole proprietors in particular, and it shows the ceiling not to be exceeded.
5 project management tools for the self-employed
One of the challenges for sole proprietors is managing their activity without being overwhelmed by deadlines. There are very good project management tools that help improve productivity and achieve maximum efficiency in their work.
Trello
A free and very popular project management tool, Trello allows you to organize yourself as you wish. It is perfectly suited to sole proprietors since everyone can create the dashboard that matches their activity, using the most appropriate features: task lists, deadlines to meet, briefs and supporting documents — the usage is totally flexible. And, not insignificantly, Trello is free!
Asana
Asana is another project management software with interesting advantages. Accessible online and free, it allows a sole proprietor to organize tasks and possibly distribute them to external providers by including briefs and deadlines. It also offers automation of certain tasks and proves practical to use.
Notion
In terms of project management, Notion keeps things clear. The dashboard is very well organized and makes it easy to track ongoing tasks. You can also segment work into different spaces and open certain projects, or even only certain documents, to collaborators. The user can also rely on AI to improve their texts.
ClickUp
ClickUp centralizes all kinds of work. Completely free, this platform boosts productivity by organizing tasks clearly. It is especially appreciated for the ability to collaborate on a mission using shared documents and alerts.
Wrike
The platform Wrike simplifies processes by centralizing tasks and providing an accurate view of the time dedicated to each. Through an agile strategy and AI-powered features, this software offers powerful, 360° project management.
5 website-building tools for the self-employed
It is not always easy to stand out as a self-employed worker. In some sectors, creating a website is essential to get known. To achieve this at lower cost, there are quality, easy-to-access software options.
WordPress
Leader in website creation, WordPress has established itself thanks to its ease of use. The theme library is extremely large, which allows it to meet the needs of all self-employed workers, whatever their field. Some site templates are free and many paid plugins can enrich your build.
Shopify
Shopify is the ideal tool for creating a showcase site and enabling a self-employed person to find clients. Using Shopify requires a subscription, but it includes useful features like inventory management and site security. Take the time to study all these options to ensure they are useful to you; otherwise a cheaper alternative may be a better choice.
PrestaShop
Often compared with Shopify, PrestaShop also allows you to create an online store and a showcase site. PrestaShop is an open-source, free tool, but with paid themes and modules. That means it is highly customizable, but each user must fix any bugs themselves.
Figma
For self-employed people who want to go further with their website's graphics, Figma is the essential tool. Free for occasional use or available by subscription to benefit from unlimited history, this collaborative platform meets all design and prototyping needs. A designer will have no trouble creating mockups and graphics with Figma, taking advantage of many user-friendly options.
ChatGPT
If ChatGPT is the leader among AI tools, it's because it can be used for multiple tasks. For a self-employed person, it proves to be a very valuable ally for creating a website. You can consult the software for writing, correcting spelling mistakes, analyzing the market, finding new marketing ideas… Its use is endless and fully customizable.
5 everyday tools for the self-employed
In 2025, there are many excellent programs to help self-employed people with their daily activities. Document management, graphic creation, producing text or videos… When you work independently, you need to surround yourself with the right tools.
Canva
For easy, low-cost access to graphic design, Canva is the most popular solution right now. Anyone can let their imagination run free by using existing templates and numerous graphic elements, many of which are free to use. For a self-employed person with limited means, it’s a great tool to create a visual identity and give their business visibility with quality social media content. However, there are limits to how much you can customize.
Photoshop / Illustrator
If Canva is a good low-cost alternative, Photoshop and Illustrator are photo and graphic design programs of a much higher level. They belong to the Adobe suite, which offers different photography, creativity and design plans. The range of tools is extremely rich and the features very advanced, making them versatile programs. They are recommended for imaging professionals or self-employed people seeking a refined visual identity.
Google Workspace
Google Workspace is the Google suite that brings together many useful tools for the daily management of a professional activity. You can generate a professional calendar for free (Google Calendar), create documents (Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides), and store them (Google Drive). It’s also possible to compartmentalize access to certain files to share them with your clients or subcontractors. Beyond the already very popular email inbox, it’s a whole set of productivity tools.
MerciApp
MerciApp (or MAIA) is a free online proofreader. Based on AI, the software is a great help for spelling, but also for producing original and relevant writing. With style optimization and intelligent autocorrection, the tool can correct and rephrase any text. If you’re not comfortable with writing or simply want to save time, consider it!
Loom
Loom can be both a creativity and a practicality solution. This software allows you to create videos by recording your webcam and computer screen (Mac and PC). A self-employed person could therefore use it to showcase a service or create tutorials for clients. Otherwise, it’s a useful tool for sharing video screen captures and sending them to collaborators, who can then comment on them. There is a trial version to try it out, followed by several subscription plans.
5 tools to generate business as a self-employed professional
How do you get your business off the ground when you're self-employed? There are also very effective platforms that are a great help for finding clients and giving visibility to your activity.
LinkedIn is the undisputed leader among professional social networks. It is primarily used for networking, which is particularly valuable when you are independent. Users create a profile to showcase their career and skills, after which they can connect with professionals relevant to their activity. The platform also brings together numerous job offers and freelance assignments, as well as blog posts.
Codeur.com
Our site, Codeur.com, is today the largest freelance portfolio in France: it is THE platform you need to sign up to in order to find clients. Codeur connects service providers from many sectors with new clients. Small side gigs or large contracts, self-employed people can easily apply to a wide variety of projects.
Mailjet
Mailjet is a reliable and powerful solution for email marketing. Easy to use, the platform is designed to create marketing campaigns and send newsletters, automated or not. Even without much experience, you can create attractive content optimized for all mail providers and screen types. A good tool to maintain relationships with clients.
Calendly
Does your self-employed activity lead you to organize a lot of meetings? If so, Calendly is made for you. This tool is designed to manage appointments and schedule meetings of all types (one-off or recurring, private or group). You can integrate multiple external calendars into Calendly, enjoy a clear view of your agenda via the dashboard, and set up alerts.
Tally.so
Tally.so is an alternative to Google Forms for creating forms and surveys. Its features are very appealing (notably unlimited responses) and yet the tool is very simple to use. Tally has also developed another use: creating landing pages, admittedly basic but potentially useful for a self-employed person.
