Over the last month I built 25 free browser-based tools for UK freelancers. No sign-up, no paywall, no email capture wall. Just open and use.
Here are the ones that actually get traffic — and the ones that don't.
The hits
🏆 Day Rate Calculator
Far and away the most popular. You put in your target salary, expenses, and tax situation — it tells you what daily rate to charge.
Turns out "what should I charge?" is the question every freelancer asks first.
→ Try it
🏆 Self-Employed Tax Calculator
Second most popular. People want to know how much tax they'll actually pay. The breakdown showing Income Tax + NI + student loan side by side seems to be what people find useful.
→ Try it
🏆 Late Payment Interest Calculator
This one surprised me. Turns out a LOT of freelancers are owed money and want to know how much statutory interest they can claim. (Spoiler: it's 8% + Bank of England base rate. Currently 12.5% total.)
→ Try it
The solid performers
- Invoice Generator — create + download PDF invoices. Steady traffic.
- VAT Threshold Calculator — checks rolling 12-month turnover. Useful but niche.
- MTD Readiness Checker — 8-question quiz on Making Tax Digital readiness. Very timely (MTD starts April 2026).
- Freelancer Client Tracker — full CRM in your browser with localStorage. No sign-up.
The ones nobody uses
Honestly? The tools with longer names and more specific use cases get almost zero traffic:
- Statement of Account Generator
- Payment Terms Generator
- Mileage Allowance Calculator
Lesson: simple, broad tools beat specific, clever ones. "How much tax do I pay?" beats "Generate a payment terms clause" every time.
What I learned building them
localStorage is underrated. The expense tracker and client tracker use it for persistence. Zero backend, zero auth, works offline. Users love not signing up.
UK-specific beats generic. Generic "invoice template" tools are everywhere. "UK invoice template with VAT toggle and HMRC-compliant fields" — that's a gap.
Calculators > generators. People trust tools that show them numbers more than tools that generate text. Probably because calculator output feels objective.
Mobile matters more than you think. Over 60% of traffic is mobile. Every tool had to work on a 375px screen.
The full list
All 25 are at landolio.com/tools. Everything's vanilla HTML/CSS/JS, no framework, no build step. Hosted on Cloudflare Pages (free tier).
If you're a UK freelancer, have a play. If something's broken or you want a tool I haven't built yet, let me know.
What tools do you wish existed for freelancers? I'm always looking for the next one to build.
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