A few weeks ago, I set out to build a collection of genuinely useful tools for UK freelancers — the kind of things I wished existed when I started freelancing.
No sign-ups. No paywalls. No "enter your email first" gates. Just open-the-page-and-use-it tools.
Here's the full list, what each one does, and what I learned building them.
The tools
Tax & Money
- Self-Employed Tax Calculator — Income tax, National Insurance, student loan, and take-home pay breakdown for 2025/26
- Self-Assessment Penalty Calculator — See exactly what penalties you owe if you missed the January deadline
- VAT Threshold Calculator — Check if your rolling 12-month turnover means you need to register
- Mileage Allowance Calculator — HMRC rates for cars, vans, motorcycles, bicycles
- Day Rate Calculator — Work out your ideal day rate from target salary + expenses + tax
- Profit Margin Calculator — What you actually take home from every pound invoiced
- Business Expense Tracker — Track expenses by HMRC category, export CSV. Uses localStorage.
- Cash Flow Forecast — Month-by-month income vs expenses with gap alerts
Invoicing & Getting Paid
- Free Invoice Template UK — 3 styles, VAT toggle, download as PDF
- Invoice Generator — Create, preview, and save professional invoices
- Payment Reminder Generator — Generate chase emails: friendly, firm, or final notice
- Late Payment Interest Calculator — Statutory interest + compensation under UK law
- Should I Chase This Invoice? — Enter details, get an urgency score and action plan
- Late Payment Letter Generator — Professional letters at three escalation levels
- Statement of Account Generator — Printable statement of all outstanding invoices for a client
Making Tax Digital
- MTD Readiness Checker — 8-question quiz: does MTD apply to you, and what do you need?
- MTD Penalty Calculator — The new points-based penalty system explained
- MTD Cost Calculator — Estimate your annual MTD compliance costs
- MTD Countdown & Checklist — Live countdown to April 6 with 15-step progress tracker
Business Management
- Freelancer Client & Project Tracker — Track clients, projects, invoices, revenue. Dashboard with stats. CSV export.
- Do I Need an Accountant? Quiz — 10 questions to figure out if you need a professional
- Project Quote Calculator — Price projects with phases, expenses, and scope creep buffer
- Tax Year-End Planner — Plan your year-end tasks with deadlines
Contracts
- Freelance Contract Generator — UK-compliant contract covering scope, payment, IP, and IR35
- Payment Terms Generator — Recommended terms and clauses for your situation
What I learned
1. localStorage is massively underrated
Most of these tools use localStorage to save user data between sessions. No backend needed. No accounts. No GDPR headaches with storing user data on a server.
For tools like the expense tracker and client tracker, people can use them for months without ever creating an account anywhere.
2. Static HTML + vanilla JS is enough
Every tool is a single HTML file with inline CSS and vanilla JavaScript. No React. No build step. No npm. Deploys to Cloudflare Pages in seconds.
The entire site (150+ pages) deploys in under 2 seconds. Try that with Next.js.
3. The boring problems are the valuable ones
"How do I chase an overdue invoice without sounding aggressive?" isn't a sexy problem. But it's a problem that 2 million UK freelancers face regularly. The tools that solve embarrassing, awkward, or tedious problems get the most engagement.
4. Free tools are the best marketing
Every free tool is also a landing page. Someone searching "freelance tax calculator UK" finds the tool, uses it, and discovers the rest of the site. Zero ad spend required.
Tech stack
- Hosting: Cloudflare Pages (free tier)
- Build: None. Static HTML files.
- JS: Vanilla. No frameworks.
- Data: localStorage on the client side
- Deployment: Wrangler CLI
- SEO: Schema.org markup, IndexNow submissions
Total cost: £0.
Try them out
All tools are free at landolio.com/tools
If you're a UK freelancer or know someone who is, I'd genuinely appreciate feedback on what's useful and what's missing.
Built with AI assistance for content generation and code. Full transparency — I believe in being upfront about that.
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