15 Greatest Apps for Freelance Writers in 2023 (Free and Paid)

There’s an ever-growing variety of apps for freelance writers. Numerous article writing apps and different software program for freelance writers all declare to have the ability to assist you write extra, higher high quality, and in much less time.

Nevertheless, with so many apps and instruments out there, it may be exhausting to know the place to begin. That’s why I’ve put collectively this checklist of the most effective freelance writing apps that will help you determine which of them are literally value utilizing.

Freelance writing is among the finest jobs for digital nomads and anybody else who needs to work for themself and earn a living with a web based job. As a freelance author myself, I’m at all times searching for new methods to make my work simpler and more practical.

Used correctly, the next instruments may also help maintain your work operating easily and effectively and assist cease you from feeling overwhelmed.

When you’re seeking to grow to be a contract author, take a look at my assessment of the Knowadays Freelance Author course. I lately accomplished this course and supplied my trustworthy insights and ideas right here on this assessment.

Greatest Apps For Freelance Writers

From apps for content material writing to plagiarism checkers, and file administration to communication instruments, this publish is all about 15 of the most effective apps and applications for freelance writers.

When compiling this checklist of instruments for freelance writers, I included lots of the applications that I frequently use myself. For the remainder, I picked a few of the hottest and highly-reviewed apps out there on-line. To assist these on a finances, I’ve additionally included a number of free freelance writing apps.

1. Grammarly

Grammarly is among the best-known, and most helpful, instruments to assist writers polish their work as much as a excessive commonplace. I take advantage of Grammarly each day and assume it’s the most effective freelance writing apps on the market.

As a contract author, it’s very important you could persistently ship writing that’s free from spelling errors and grammatical errors. But it surely’s additionally necessary to make sure that your writing flows effectively, is evident, and has the precise tone.

Grammarly delivers this in an easy-to-use, set-and-forget format. It’s easy to put in and arrange and works as a plugin throughout a spread of platforms together with Chrome, Google Docs, Microsoft Workplace, Apple Notes, and extra.

Even higher, the usual model is free to make use of. You may pay for the premium model ($144 per 12 months, $60 per quarter, or $30 per thirty days) which comprises quite a lot of superior options, like superior tone and readability enhancing. However for my part, the essential free model is completely enough.

Professionals of Grammarly

• Broad vary of checks together with spelling, punctuation, grammar, tone, phrase alternative, and readability.
• Actual-time, correct instructed corrections.
• Customizable settings (e.g. you may set it to British, American, or Australian English).
• Nicely-designed person interface.
• Suitable with a broad vary of platforms and different apps, together with Chrome and most typical Home windows and Mac purposes.
• The fundamental model is free (and nice).

Cons of Grammarly

• Often it may be a bit buggy with another purposes (e.g. the WordPress editor).
• Frequent prompts to improve your account (which, I suppose, is honest sufficient because it’s a freemium product).
• It may well’t be taught your voice, so typically makes strategies that don’t match with your personal private model.
• I’ve discovered that often it makes a suggestion that isn’t correct, though this doesn’t occur too usually.

2. Scrivener

Scrivener is one other great tool designed to assist make freelance writers’ jobs simpler. The app acts as a phrase processor, a portfolio, and a scrapbook in your notes. It permits you to handle and manage your entire supplies, analysis, and writing in a single easy-to-access place.

Scrivener has quite a lot of superior options which can be designed to assist create a seamless analysis, writing, and enhancing course of. These instruments embody analysis playing cards, customizable templates and presets, the flexibility to import and index recordsdata, and metatags.

Scrivener is especially helpful for managing long-form writing tasks. Whether or not you’re an aspiring novelist, a scriptwriter, a contract copywriter, or another sort of freelance author, these options may also help enhance your workflow and maintain all the things organized and straightforward to entry.

It really works throughout all main working programs together with macOS, iOS, and Home windows. Price-wise, Scrivener has a one-off charge of $59.99 for Mac or Home windows or $23.99 for iOS. There’s no free plan, though there’s a 30-day free trial so you may strive it out before you purchase.

Professionals of Scrivener

• 30-day free trial with entry to all options.
• Customizable setup and interfaces for a personalised person expertise.
• Quite a lot of pre-set templates for varied totally different genres of writing.
• Offline performance.
• Useful tutorials for mastering the platform.
• Comparatively inexpensive, one-off charge.

Cons of Scrivener

• Requires separate licenses for every platform (so, if you wish to apply it to each Mac and Home windows, you’ll want to buy two licenses).
• No free model.
• Big selection of options is likely to be difficult for some individuals to grow to be accustomed to.

3. Evernote

Evernote is actually a strong note-taking software that provides a easy but efficient means for jotting down concepts, conducting analysis, drafting articles, organizing your notes, and even creating to-do lists.

Many individuals (myself included) can discover the method of writing considerably chaotic and overwhelming at instances. That is the place Evernote comes into its personal, making the artistic course of extra structured and manageable. This system has a spread of templates that will help you kickstart your note-taking course of.

It’s a really versatile platform and permits you to incorporate hyperlinks, tables, attachments, photographs, audio recordings, and even sketches into your notes. You may even use it as a fundamental challenge administration system and it’s suitable with each Home windows and Mac.

Evernote has a free model with restricted options (together with a most be aware dimension of 25 MB and a restrict of 60 MB uploads per thirty days). There’s additionally a Private plan (at the moment $10.83/month or $129.99/12 months) or a Skilled plan $14.17/month or $169.99/12 months) with a better vary of performance.

Professionals of Evernote

• Easy, intuitive interface.
• Glorious software for note-taking and conserving your notes organized.
• There’s a free plan.
• Doc scanner function for digitizing handwritten notes or paperwork​.
• Highly effective search perform makes it fast and straightforward to navigate by means of intensive notes.

Cons of Evernote

• The free model has restricted performance.
• Paid plans are comparatively costly for what you get.
• Often it may be a bit buggy when syncing throughout a number of gadgets.

4. Google Docs

All people’s heard of Google Docs, proper? This implausible free software is tremendous helpful for freelance writers, particularly those that frequently work in collaboration with shoppers and others.

Google Docs is mainly like a free model of Microsoft Phrase, besides all the things is saved within the cloud and you’ll collaborate with a number of different customers concurrently. That is one other app that I take advantage of on a near-daily foundation and would suggest it to any freelance author.

Having the ability to share a doc together with your consumer and see edits and feedback in real-time is extremely useful. It makes the method of communication and revision a lot faster and simpler in contrast with “conventional” back-and-forth by way of e-mail.

As a result of all the things is cloud-based, your entire work is saved routinely and will be accessed from any gadget (Home windows or Apple) at any time. The model historical past function additionally permits you to monitor modifications over time, which may turn out to be useful when engaged on a number of revisions.

Professionals of Google Docs

• It’s free.
• Actual-time collaboration so a number of individuals can edit paperwork concurrently.
• Cloud-based, so all the things is saved routinely and will be accessed at any time (and from any gadget).
• It’s tremendous intuitive and user-friendly.
• A great deal of useful options and settings from easy to superior.
• Suitable cross-platform, so you may edit the identical doc on an iPhone, an Android cellphone, a PC, and a Mac all on the identical time!

Cons of Google Docs

• Lacks some superior formatting and enhancing options in contrast with Microsoft Phrase.
• You may work offline, though real-time modifications are solely synced when you’ve gotten an web connection.

5. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is a strong software for freelance writers, serving as each a writing editor and a private writing coach. There’s a (restricted) free model, or you may pay $30 per thirty days, $120 per 12 months, or $399 for lifetime entry to the premium model.

Much like Grammarly, ProWritingAid helps to boost the standard of your writing by figuring out and fixing any spelling errors and grammatical errors. It additionally checks for plagiarism in addition to any contextual errors in your writing.

Top-of-the-line options of ProWritingAid is its capability to revise obscure or unclear writing, providing useful strategies to enhance the standard of the textual content.

It’s a flexible platform and is suitable with Home windows and Mac by means of browser extensions (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and many others.) in addition to plugins for different apps comparable to Microsoft Phrase, Scrivener, and Google Docs.

Professionals of ProWritingAid

• In-depth grammar, spelling, and magnificence checks to enhance writing high quality.
• Plagiarism checker to make sure content material originality.
• Simple to make use of.
• Suitable with many different writing instruments.
• Browser extensions for straightforward entry and value.
• Reasonably priced pricing (should you pay yearly) plus a free model out there.
• There’s a lifetime plan, which is cost-effective in the long term.

Cons of ProWritingAid

• The free model has restricted performance.
• The premium model is comparatively costly should you pay month-to-month.
• Often suggests incorrect amendments.
• No cell app.

6. Dropbox

I’ve been utilizing Dropbox for so long as I can keep in mind, since effectively earlier than I began working as a contract author. Nevertheless, it’s a very great tool for freelance writers who must retailer, backup, share, and entry their work from anyplace, together with on the go.

Dropbox is seamless and tremendous simple to make use of. It’s primarily a drag-and-drop system the place you choose the recordsdata and folders you need it to entry and the platform does the remainder for you.

There’s a free plan that gives as much as 2GB of storage. When you want extra, you may pay $22/month (or $18/month should you pay yearly) for as much as 3TB of information.

I take advantage of Dropbox to again up my most necessary photographs, paperwork, and recordsdata. It’s additionally an effective way to share bigger recordsdata (like high-res photographs) with others, particularly if these recordsdata are bigger than the restrict that you just’re in a position to ship by e-mail.

Professionals of Dropbox

• Actual-time syncing of recordsdata throughout varied gadgets.
• Simple option to collaborate and share recordsdata/folders with others.
• Safe technique of backing up necessary work.
• There’s a free model with as much as 2GB of storage.
• Suitable on all main working programs, together with iOS.

Cons of Dropbox

• The free plan gives solely 2GB of storage which is likely to be inadequate for some.

7. Freedom

Freedom is a superb app for freelance writers who need to be free from distractions throughout their working hours. And in flip, being extra productive.

The app blocks out distracting web sites and apps in your gadgets (Instagram, information web sites, and many others.) permitting you to work in a quiet, conducive digital atmosphere.

You may customise the web sites/apps that it blocks, and schedule “blocked” periods throughout which all distractions are stored at bay. It even has a “locked” mode for individuals who is likely to be tempted to attempt to disable the blocker.

The app is suitable with most main working programs (each cell and desktop) and prices $8.99/month should you pay month-to-month, or $3.33/month should you pay yearly.

Professionals of Freedom

• Effectively blocks distracting web sites and apps.
• Nice for individuals who battle with productiveness due to distractions.
• You may pre-schedule “blocked” periods.
• “Locked” mode for stricter enforcement of the blocking guidelines.

Cons of Freedom

• It’s comparatively costly for what it’s (particularly should you pay month-to-month).
• It is likely to be too restrictive for some, particularly should you prefer to take common breaks and browse different issues on-line when working.
• Not needed for everyone.

8. Hemingway Editor

Hemingway Editor is one other common software for freelance writers seeking to improve the standard of their written output. In addition to containing an ordinary spelling and grammar checker, it additionally gives enhanced insights on readability, sentence complexity, and energetic vs. passive voice.

Hemingway Editor helps make sure that your writing is evident, partaking, and simply digestible. It makes strategies the place needed to assist enhance the readability and tone of your writing.

This can be a notably great tool for individuals who discover themselves writing overly advanced sentences, or utilizing an excessive amount of passive voice, which may typically have a adverse affect on the readability of the message being conveyed.

The on-line model of Hemingway Editor is free, making this an excellent choice for freelance writers on a good finances. The offline desktop model is accessible for a one-off charge of $19.99, making it the most effective low-cost freelance writing apps out there at this time.

Professionals of Hemingway Editor

• Effortly improves your writing model, making textual content clearer and extra partaking.
• Assesses readability and sentence complexity.
• Nice for individuals who battle with readability and overuse of passive voice.
• The net model is free.
• The offline desktop model is inexpensive ($19.99 for lifetime entry).
• Suitable with each Home windows and Mac.

Cons of Hemingway Editor

• It could typically oversimplify advanced concepts or matters.
• Is probably not appropriate for sure technical or advanced genres of writing (e.g. science, regulation, engineering, and many others.).
• Some individuals may discover the strategies unhelpful, particularly when you have a definite writing model.

9. Canva

Canva is a superb software for freelance writers who additionally must create visually interesting content material, comparable to social media posts, displays, posters, ads, official firm publications, and the like.

With an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and an enormous variety of customizable templates and design varieties, it makes the in any other case lengthy and (dare I say it) tedious technique of graphic design tremendous simple, fast, and satisfying.

I take advantage of Canva pretty usually and notably like its wealthy library of photographs and graphics. I additionally love how simple it’s to format and customise your personal templates, permitting you to supply constant designs at scale.

You may entry the essential model of Canva without cost. Canva Professional gives a spread of extra superior options, templates, and pictures and prices $119.99 for an annual subscription, or $14.99 if paid month-to-month.

Professionals of Canva

• Big library of templates, photographs, and graphics.
• Fast and easy to create stunning visuals and professional-looking designs.
• Customizable templates for model consistency.
• Consumer-friendly drag-and-drop editor.
• Simple to make use of, even for these (like me) with none background in graphic design.
• Suitable with Mac and Home windows.
• The free model is nice and has numerous performance.

Cons of Canva

• You have to pay for some superior options.
• The massive variety of options and templates is likely to be overwhelming for some.
• Not more likely to be helpful for text-only freelance writers.

10. Yoast Website positioning

When you’re a contract author who wants to write down Website positioning-friendly content material (eg. web site copy, weblog posts, and many others.), Yoast Website positioning is among the finest and most helpful instruments round.

Yoast analyzes your writing and supplies actionable insights and proposals on how one can optimize your content material to make sure that it complies with Website positioning finest practices. It has a beginner-friendly interface, making it an excellent software even for these unfamiliar with Website positioning.

Yoast Website positioning is a plugin for WordPress, which is a standard platform for managing on-line content material on web sites. The fundamental model is free and there’s additionally a paid Premium model that prices $99 per 12 months.

I take advantage of the free model on a regular basis and would extremely suggest it to any freelance author producing on-line content material.

Professionals of Yoast Website positioning

• Simple to make use of and intuitive interface.
• Supplies sensible insights and proposals for on-page Website positioning optimizations.
• Focus key phrase function helps you optimize content material round particular key phrases.
• Common updates and good buyer assist.
• The free model is nice.

Cons of Yoast Website positioning

• Suggestions could be a bit overly prescriptive and mechanical.
• Solely helpful for freelance writers who want to write down Website positioning-optimized content material for on-line publication.

11. Copyscape

Copyscape is among the finest applications for plagiarism detection and is a superb software for any freelance author to make sure that the content material you produce is authentic and free from any type of plagiarism.

It’s a web based platform the place you enter the writing you need to examine and it rapidly scans the content material and allows you to know the way a lot (if any) of this materials seems anyplace else on-line.

Copyscape is affordable and simple to make use of. You may both copy and paste content material into the software or just add complete PDFs or Phrase paperwork and the software program scans it for you routinely.

Copyscape is accessible by way of an online browser so isn’t depending on any working system. Pricing is predicated on the variety of phrases checked, beginning at 3 cents for the primary 200 phrases and 1 cent for every extra 100 phrases.

Professionals of Copyscape

• It’s pretty low-cost so long as you don’t must examine very massive volumes of content material.
• Helps checking whole paperwork in PDF and Phrase format.
• There’s a WordPress plugin for these writing on-line content material.

Cons of Copyscape

• The free model of Copyscape solely permits you to examine for plagiarised variations of your content material already on-line.
• To examine whether or not your content material comprises plagiarism itself, you’ll want to pay.
• The price can rapidly add up for bigger paperwork/tasks.
• It’s web-based so that you want web entry to make use of it.

12. Otter

Otter is an app that provides professional-quality speech-to-text dictation. It’s an excellent software for freelance writers preferring dictating their concepts reasonably than writing them down and works in seconds to transcribe your spoken phrases into textual content.

There are many totally different speech recognition software program on the market all providing comparable issues. I’ve personally used Otter and it’s one of the crucial correct instruments I’m conscious of, significantly better than the speech-to-text perform constructed into my iPhone or MacBook.

Otter is accessible as an app for smartphones (iOS and Android), so it may be used anyplace, together with on-the-go. My accomplice is a journalist and he or she additionally makes use of Otter to create transcripts of interviews and different conferences. It’s fairly versatile.

There’s a free model that provides you entry to fundamental options, in addition to a Professional model that prices $10/month (billed yearly). Otter Professional permits you to transcribe longer conversations, add colleagues to your workspace, import and transcribe audio and/or video recordsdata, and extra.

Professionals of Otter

• Very correct voice recognition.
• You may add customized phrases like technical phrases, firm jargon, slang, and many others.
• Integrates with different apps together with calendars, Slack, Groups, and many others.
• Consumer-friendly interface that’s simple to make use of.

Cons of Otter

• You must pay to entry premium options (like transcribing audio and video recordsdata).
• The price is likely to be a deterrent for some.
• It does often errors (though, in equity, that’s true of all transcription software program, and Otter is unquestionably the most effective choices).

13. Slack

Slack is a well-liked software amongst freelance writers and different groups to remain in contact with their colleagues and shoppers.

Freelance writers can use it to speak with their shoppers, share paperwork (briefs, drafts, feedback, and many others.), and talk about and collaborate in actual time. You should use it to make calls, host video conferences, and for one-on-one or group on the spot message chats.

Slack is accessible as each an app (smartphone and desktop) in addition to by way of an online browser. It integrates with quite a lot of different apps and instruments (together with Google Suite) which additional enhances its performance.

I take advantage of the free model of Slack fairly frequently. There’s additionally a paid model that begins at $7.25 per person per thirty days (billed yearly) and has much more superior options.

Professionals of Slack

• Seamless communication with shoppers and colleagues.
• The free plan has loads of helpful options.
• The paid model is pretty inexpensive.
• Integrates with a lot of different apps and instruments.
• A number of built-in communication choices cater to numerous communication wants.
• Simple-to-use and extremely customizable interface.

Cons of Slack

• Many individuals may not just like the “at all times out there” nature of on the spot messaging.
• I personally discover it may be difficult to maintain monitor of ongoing conversations and the message historical past can get buried.
• The online browser model is usually fairly sluggish to load.

14. Notion

I’ve lately began utilizing Notion and it’s been a sport changer for me. Notion markets itself as a unified workspace that permits you to maintain your entire notes, tasks, duties, and to-do lists in a single place.

Reasonably than having a number of tabs open on the high of your browser for every of your ongoing duties, you may file these all effectively inside Notion in an easy-to-access format.

It’s an effective way to prepare your ideas, handle your schedules and deadlines, and maintain all the things operating easily. For me, as a freelancer and small enterprise proprietor, it permits me to juggle a number of tasks concurrently with out feeling overwhelmed.

The fundamental model is free and comes with an excellent vary of options. There’s additionally a paid model, though I don’t actually assume it’s needed given how good the free model is. Notion additionally has apps for desktop and smartphones, though personally, I favor the web-based model.

Professionals of Notion

• An effective way to prepare your notes, duties, deadlines, and to-do lists.
• It’s an all-in-one workspace.
• Extremely versatile with a variety of helpful options.
• The free model is nice.
• Obtainable in web-based format in addition to by means of apps (for smartphone, desktop, Mac, Home windows, and many others.).
• Cross-platform performance.

Cons of Notion

• There’s a little bit of a studying curve once you first begin.
• Not everybody may discover it helpful, it is dependent upon the way you prefer to work (however I’d nonetheless suggest making an attempt it – I find it irresistible!).

15. Pocket

If, like me, you at all times have an intensive “to learn” or “to look at” checklist, you’ll love Pocket. This nice little app permits you to save articles, web sites, documentaries, movies, and extra multi functional place, permitting you to entry them later.

For freelance writers, it is a nice option to retailer analysis and different supplies collectively, to assist maintain all the things organized and straightforward to handle. You may file issues away into folders, permitting you to refer again to them rapidly at any time when you’ll want to, together with once you’re offline.

It’s additionally nice for private suggestions, no matter you’re fascinated with. At any time when any individual says, “You need to learn X” or “Watch Y, it’s nice”, I save the suggestions in Pocket after which learn/watch them later at any time when I’ve time (e.g. on a protracted flight or practice trip).

The fundamental model of Pocket (which I take advantage of) is free. There’s additionally a Premium model that comprises extra options (like a everlasting library, superior looking, note-taking, annotating and highlighting supplies, and many others.) and prices $5 per thirty days or $45 per 12 months.

Professionals of Pocket

• The fundamental model is free (and nice).
• It’s a extremely environment friendly option to retailer and manage content material that you just need to learn later.
• The app additionally recommends extra content material so that you can learn based mostly in your private pursuits.
• Offline entry to saved content material (written solely, not video).
• Premium model gives extra options together with superior looking, limitless highlighting, and a everlasting library.

Cons of Pocket

• You may’t save movies for offline playback.
• You must pay for Premium options (though it’s nonetheless comparatively inexpensive).

Should-Have Freelance Writing Instruments: FAQs

Conclusion

I extremely suggest benefiting from these apps for freelance writers to assist maximize your productiveness, handle deadlines, and optimize the standard of your writing.

I take advantage of many of those instruments each day. They’re all nice and assist me enormously, I hope you discover them helpful too. When you’re contemplating turning into a contract author, take a look at the course with Knowadays. I lately accomplished this course and extremely suggest it. Use this hyperlink and promo code GOATS25 for 25% off.