FreeAgent is accounting software built specifically for freelancers and small businesses, with invoicing, expenses, banking, projects, time tracking and deep UK tax functionality.
Worklyn starts with the client relationship itself. Proposals become contracts. Contracts become projects. Projects create time, costs and invoices. Payments, expenses and transactions stay connected to the work that created them.
If UK accounting and tax compliance are at the center of what you need, FreeAgent is exceptionally strong. If running the client business is the center, Worklyn starts earlier.
Your day revolves around clients, proposals, contracts and projects.
You want the commercial relationship, delivery and financial outcome to stay connected from the first proposal to the final payment.
You primarily need accounting software for a UK business.
FreeAgent combines bookkeeping with invoicing, expenses, bank feeds, projects and time tracking, alongside UK-specific functionality for areas such as VAT, Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital.
You want Worklyn to run the client-work and pre-accounting layer while FreeAgent maintains the formal accounts and UK tax records.
FreeAgent turns it into accounting records.
Worklyn keeps the business context.
FreeAgent is accounting software first. Income, expenses, invoices and bank transactions become part of the formal financial records of the business.
Around that accounting core, FreeAgent also provides projects, time tracking, invoicing, estimates, expenses and cash-flow tools.
For UK freelancers and small businesses, it goes further with tax and compliance workflows designed around the UK system.
Worklyn begins before something becomes an accounting record.
The business context is there before bookkeeping begins.
| Worklyn | FreeAgent | |
|---|---|---|
| Client workspace | Contacts | |
| Proposals | Estimates | |
| Contracts & e-signing | — | |
| Project management | ||
| Project tasks | ||
| Time tracking | ||
| Invoicing | ||
| Expense tracking | ||
| Bank feeds | ||
| Transaction reconciliation | ||
| Receipt capture | ||
| Project profitability | ||
| Cash-flow visibility | ||
| Pre-accounting workflow | — | |
| Double-entry accounting | — | |
| Financial statements | — | |
| VAT workflows | — | |
| Making Tax Digital | — | |
| UK tax functionality | — | |
| Payroll | — |
FreeAgent has substantial operational functionality around its accounting core, including project income and expenses, project profitability and built-in time tracking.
Comparison reflects each product's public positioning as of mid-2026 — check their site for current details. These are good products serving a different shape of customer; this is about fit, not quality.
This is important. FreeAgent is not simply an accounting system where everything begins with an invoice. A FreeAgent project can contain:
That makes it particularly capable for freelancers who want project financials alongside their accounting. So Worklyn's difference is not that we have projects and FreeAgent does not. The difference is what surrounds the project.
For many client businesses, a project is not the beginning.
Worklyn keeps that commercial lifecycle intact, and once the work begins it continues through time, invoice, payment and margin.
The project sits in the middle of the relationship instead of being primarily a container for financial records.
FreeAgent includes estimates that can be sent to customers and converted into invoices. For many straightforward engagements, that may be all you need.
Worklyn treats proposals as a richer stage of the client lifecycle. The proposal explains what you intend to deliver. Once accepted, it can lead into a dedicated contract, and the contract becomes the commercial foundation for the project.
That gives you continuity between what you proposed, what you agreed, what you delivered, what you invoiced and what you actually earned.
Not every client relationship ends with someone accepting an estimate. Consulting and professional service engagements often involve terms, responsibilities, deliverables and agreements that continue to matter while the work is being delivered.
Worklyn keeps contracts as a first-class part of that flow, between the proposal and the project. The agreement does not become a forgotten PDF once work begins. It remains part of the context behind the project.
FreeAgent can show income and costs at project level and calculate profitability. It can also include billable and unbillable time in that picture.
So again, the distinction is not simply whether a margin exists. It is the context behind that margin. Worklyn already knows:
Profitability becomes the financial conclusion of the whole client lifecycle.
FreeAgent has mature banking functionality. Bank feeds import transactions, which can then be explained and categorized against the accounting records of the business.
Worklyn also brings transactions into the workspace. But its primary question is not how the transaction should be accounted for. It starts one step earlier: what did this transaction belong to?
Worklyn keeps that operational explanation attached before formal accounting takes over.
Worklyn starts before there is anything to bookkeep. Client, proposal, contract, project, invoice, payment, margin: that sequence is the core product model.
The financial side grows directly from the commercial and operational side of the business.
A client is more than the person attached to an invoice. It is the context around proposals, contracts, projects, files, tracked time, invoices, payments, expenses and financial history.
Worklyn makes the relationship itself the starting point.
Accounting software naturally asks what financial impact a project had. Worklyn also asks what you are actually doing:
Operational and financial questions stay beside each other.
FreeAgent's depth comes partly from being deeply aligned with the UK accounting and tax environment. Its product includes workflows around HMRC, VAT and Making Tax Digital. That specialization is a strength.
Worklyn is deliberately less tied to one tax system. Its role is to organize the business before local accounting and tax rules take over.
That makes the question less about which product has more features and more about which layer you need software for.
Suppose €2,800 arrives in your bank account. Accounting eventually needs to know how that money should be recorded. But before that, someone needs to know:
Worklyn focuses on preserving those relationships. Once that context is clean, accounting software has better information to work with.
This is FreeAgent's home territory. It is built specifically around accounting and bookkeeping for UK freelancers and small businesses.
If you need your software to maintain the formal books, FreeAgent is the stronger product. Worklyn deliberately does not attempt to become a general ledger.
FreeAgent supports UK-specific tax workflows including VAT, Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital functionality. That is a fundamentally different capability from pre-accounting.
If your primary reason for choosing software is managing and filing your UK tax obligations, FreeAgent should be high on your list.
FreeAgent can take the financial records through to accounting reports and business-level financial statements. It also provides project-level Profit & Loss reporting and wider business insights.
Worklyn gives you operational financial visibility, but it is not intended to replace formal accounting reports.
FreeAgent also reaches into areas such as payroll and wider financial administration that Worklyn deliberately leaves to accounting and specialist systems.
If you want those functions inside the same accounting environment, FreeAgent has the advantage.
If you are a UK freelancer with relatively straightforward client work and your main needs are:
you may not need Worklyn. FreeAgent already covers that combination very well, and that is especially compelling if you are eligible to receive it through a participating banking relationship: FreeAgent is currently included for qualifying customers of NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank, and qualifying Mettle customers can also receive it without a separate subscription. Worklyn becomes more relevant when the client and delivery workflow itself needs to be the center of the system.
For a UK business, there is a very natural division of responsibility.
Clients, proposals, contracts, projects and time.
Invoices, payments, expenses, receipts, transactions and reconciliation.
Margins, cash flow and the financial context around the business.
Bookkeeping, formal accounting records, UK tax workflows, VAT, Making Tax Digital and financial reporting.
The first system explains the business. The second records it correctly.
Worklyn is a good fit for:
Yes, for some workflows. Both products cover invoicing, expenses, bank transactions, projects, time tracking and financial visibility. FreeAgent goes much deeper into formal accounting and UK tax. Worklyn goes further into the commercial lifecycle around proposals, contracts, project delivery and connected business context.
Yes. FreeAgent projects can contain invoices, estimates, expenses, tasks and tracked time and can show project income, costs and profitability. Worklyn's difference is the broader workflow before and around the project.
Yes. FreeAgent includes built-in billable and unbillable time tracking, and tracked time can be used to create invoices.
Yes. FreeAgent provides project-level profitability and Profit & Loss views based on income and costs associated with a project.
Yes. UK accounting and tax functionality is one of FreeAgent's main strengths, including support for VAT, Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital workflows.
No. Worklyn is a business operations and pre-accounting workspace. It keeps the client, project and financial context organized before formal bookkeeping and tax accounting.
Yes. For a UK business, the products can serve different layers. Worklyn can manage the client-work and pre-accounting workflow while FreeAgent handles formal accounting and UK tax requirements.
If your biggest problem is invoicing, bookkeeping and UK tax compliance, FreeAgent is likely the stronger choice. If your business needs a deeper workflow around proposals, contracts, project delivery and connected financial context, Worklyn addresses a different part of the business. And if you need both layers, using both can make sense.
Worklyn connects the client, the project and the money before accounting begins. Start free, no credit card.