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CalculatorAI

Comparison

Best Free Client Tracker & CRM

Compare the ways to keep track of clients — a spreadsheet, a paid CRM like HubSpot, HoneyBook or Dubsado, or CalculatorAI's Client & Project Tracker, which reads what each client paid from the invoices you already keep.

Open Client Tracker Handbook

CalculatorAI

Client & Project Tracker

AIFree

What each client paid, owes and how fast they pay — read from your invoices, bookings and income, not typed twice

Free with no limit on clients, deals, projects or hours

Real hourly per client and per fixed-fee project, after costs like mileage

One timer, hours per project, and an invoice of the unbilled hours in one click

SpreadsheetPaid CRM apps
Most CRMs are built to sell you the next plan. HubSpot's free tier is capped at 1,000 contacts and pushes upgrades; HoneyBook and Dubsado start around $35 a month and raised prices in 2025; Bonsai, Pipedrive and Folk charge per seat, so a three-person studio pays three times. And almost all of them make you type the money twice: once on the invoice, once in the CRM.
CalculatorAI's Client & Project Tracker is free with no limits. It keeps clients, deals, projects, tasks, hours and a timeline — and it reads what each client paid, owes and how fast they pay from the invoices, bookings and income you already record on the site. It also sends contracts for an e-signature, gives each client a private portal, takes enquiries from a form on your website and files forwarded e-mail on the right client. An Analytics tab shows which source and campaign brings paying clients, with the cost per lead and the return; it also keeps clients' subscriptions and reviews, starts projects from templates, keeps files on each card and merges duplicates — and with Pro you can e-mail a client straight from their card. What it does not do is send automated e-mail sequences; if those are the core of your business, a dedicated tool is the honest answer.

What a client tracker has to get right

Money without typing it twice

Paid invoices, paid bookings and P&L income are matched to clients by e-mail, phone or name. Each client shows what they paid, what they owe and how many days they take to pay.

A pipeline you design

Your own stages with a chance to close each. Drag deals across, see the weighted forecast, the win rate and the deals past their date.

Projects that show real hourly

Fixed fee, hourly or retainer, with budgets and deadlines. A fixed fee spread over too many hours shows its real hourly rate before it hurts.

Hours and a timer

A timer on the server's clock, hours per client and project, and what the unbilled hours are worth — invoiced in one click.

Follow-ups that do not slip

A follow-up day per client, deadlines and quiet clients go to your calendar and the morning summary.

Everything yours to change

Rename and reorder every stage and status, add your own fields, import Google Contacts or a phone's vCard, export everything free.

AI Assistant

Ask who owes you, add a client from a sentence

The site assistant reads the same book the tracker shows — what each client paid and owes, the pipeline, today's follow-ups. Tell it about a new client or a call and it opens the form filled in for you to save.

What it helps with

A1

Answer 'who owes me?', 'who should I call this week?' and 'which client is least profitable?' from your own book.

A2

Add a client, a deal, a task, a note, hours, a subscription or a review from one sentence — the form opens filled in, you save.

A3

Set a follow-up day: 'remind me to call Atlas Fitness next Tuesday'.

A4

Explain a number: why the real hourly of a fixed-fee project is lower than the rate.

CalculatorAI Copilot

Client assistant

Live
Who owes me money right now, and add a note to Lumen Studio: called about the overdue invoice, they pay Friday.
Lumen Studio owes $1,360, 20 days past due — they usually pay about three weeks late. The note is ready on their timeline: a call today, "called about the overdue invoice, they pay Friday". Press Add to save it.

Paid · 12 months

$26,100

Still owed

$4,960

Pipeline, weighted

$4,860

The assistant quotes the tracker's figures and never saves anything on its own — you press Save.

Live Product Preview

Who pays, who owes, who to call

What clients paid in twelve months, what is owed and overdue, the weighted pipeline, the win rate, hours this month and the list of what needs you today.

Who pays, who owes, who to call

Comparison Table

CalculatorAISpreadsheetPaid CRM apps
Clients as people and companies, with your own fieldsManual
No limit on clients or contacts on the free planCapped
Pipeline with your own stages and a weighted forecast
What each client paid, read from your invoicesManualSome
Days to pay and a late-payer flag
Real hourly per client and per fixed-fee projectManual
Projects, tasks, milestones and deadlinesManualPaid plans
Time tracking with a timerSome
Invoice the unbilled hours in one clickSome
Follow-up days on a calendar and a morning summary
Import Google Contacts, Outlook, HubSpot CSV or vCardManual
Free export of every fieldSome
Team book with roles — no per-seat price for viewersManualPer seat
Ten languages, any currencySome
E-mail inbox syncForwarding address
Client portal and e-signature contractsPaid plans
Enquiry form builder for your website
Analytics: lead sources, conversion, campaign cost per lead and returnManualPaid plans
Client subscriptions and retainers with renewal remindersManualSome
Client reviews with star ratingsManualSome
Project templates with dated tasksPaid plans
E-mail a client from their card, with templatesPro
Files on each client's card
Merge duplicate clientsManualSome
PriceFreeFree$0 – $129 / mo

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Where CalculatorAI Wins

  • What each client paid, owes and how fast they pay — read from your invoices, bookings and income, not typed twice
  • Free with no limit on clients, deals, projects or hours
  • Real hourly per client and per fixed-fee project, after costs like mileage
  • One timer, hours per project, and an invoice of the unbilled hours in one click
  • Every stage, status and field is yours to rename, reorder, hide or add
  • A team book with roles; viewers never pay, and each member's own invoices stay private
  • Connected to the invoice generator, Client Booking, the P&L, Mileage and the Shift tracker
  • Analytics that show which source and campaign brings paying clients — cost per lead and return, counted from the clients themselves

Considerations & Limitations

  • Two-way inbox sync (Gmail, Outlook) — instead, a personal forwarding address files the e-mails you Bcc or forward on the client's timeline
  • Payment inside the client portal — the portal shows invoices; the client pays from the invoice itself
  • No automated e-mail sequences or bulk mailing — you write to a client one letter at a time from their card; campaigns are tracked for their cost and return, not sent from here
  • Money from your other trackers appears in your personal book; a shared team book counts its own hours and deals
FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about how the tracker reads the money, the pipeline, hours, import, teams and what it does not do yet.

01What is the best free CRM for freelancers?
One you will actually keep up to date. If you send invoices on CalculatorAI, the Client & Project Tracker is the one that needs the least typing: it already knows what each client paid. If your business runs on automated e-mail sequences, a paid tool such as HoneyBook or Dubsado does those today.
02Is it really free with no limits?
Yes. Clients, companies, deals, projects, tasks, hours, the timeline, analytics, subscriptions, reviews, import and export are free with no cap. Pro adds a client book shared with a team, scanning a business card and e-mailing clients from their card.
03How does it know what a client paid?
It matches your paid invoices, paid bookings and P&L income to clients by e-mail first, then phone, then the full name — ignoring case, punctuation and 'Inc.' or 'LLC'. A record that could belong to two clients is left out rather than guessed. You can add other names a client is invoiced under.
04Can I import my contacts?
Yes — a CSV from Google Contacts, Outlook, HubSpot or any spreadsheet, or your phone's address book as a vCard (.vcf). You see every contact before it is saved, and the ones already in your list are marked.
05Can my team use it together?
Yes, with a shared client book: owners and admins manage it, editors add and change, viewers read. Editors need Pro; viewers do not. Each member's private invoices stay private.
06Can I see which marketing channel brings paying clients?
Yes. Give each client a source, or mark them with a campaign — on the client form, or automatically from a website form — and the Analytics tab shows new clients, how many became paying and the revenue for every source and campaign, with the cost per lead and the return on the budget. A campaign is judged over its whole life; nothing but its budget is typed by hand.
07Can I e-mail a client from the tracker?
Yes, with Pro. Write on a client's card sends a letter under your name from a ready template — a follow-up, a proposal, a thank-you, a payment reminder or a request for a review — and replies come to your own mailbox. A copy stays on the client's timeline. It is one letter at a time, not automated sequences.
08Can I keep files and retainers on a client's card?
Yes. Each card keeps files — briefs, papers signed elsewhere, photos, up to 25 MB each — and the subscriptions, memberships or retainers the client pays you, with the next renewal on your calendar. Nothing is charged automatically: one button opens a filled invoice for the cycle.
09Does it replace my invoicing tool?
It works with CalculatorAI's own invoice generator: invoice a client's unbilled hours from their card, and the tracker sees the invoice when it is paid. It does not send invoices or take card payments itself.

See your clients' real numbers

Open the tracker and look at the example: a web designer with two companies and their contacts, a pipeline in every stage, a fixed-fee website, an hourly landing page that is over its deadline and a client who pays three weeks late.

Open Client Tracker

Guides

How-to guides that use this tool

All 9 guides
InvoicingNet 30 Payment Terms: What They Mean and What Waiting Costs11 min readInvoicingBlack Friday Discounts: How Deep Can You Go Before You Lose Money?9 min readInvoicingIEEPA Tariff Refunds: How Much Your Business Gets Back, the Deadlines, and the Tax11 min read

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