Why We Built RateRun

Freelancing is brilliant. You pick your clients, set your hours, and work on things you actually care about. But the admin? That part is a nightmare.

Spreadsheets for time tracking. A separate app for invoices. Another one for expenses. And when a client asks how many hours you logged last month, you end up scrolling through a mess of tabs trying to piece it together.

That is the exact problem RateRun was built to solve.

The tools that already exist are not built for us

Most time tracking and invoicing tools were designed for agencies with 50 employees and a dedicated accounts department. They come with features you will never use, onboarding flows that take half an hour, and pricing that assumes you have a team.

If you are a solo freelancer or a small team of two or three, you do not need project boards, Gantt charts, or resource allocation. You need to know: how much did I earn today, what do I need to bill, and where is my money going?

What we set out to build

RateRun started with a simple idea: one dashboard that shows your financial health as a freelancer. Not a project management tool that happens to have a timer bolted on. A purpose-built tool where time, money, clients, and invoices all live in one place.

Here is what that looks like in practice:

• Start a timer, select your client and project, and watch your earnings tick up in real time
• Generate an invoice straight from your tracked hours — or add line items manually
• Log expenses so your profit numbers are actually accurate
• See your dashboard and know exactly where you stand — daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly

No setup wizards. No 14-day trials. You sign up and start tracking within 30 seconds.

And then there is the Directory

Once we had the app sorted, we noticed something else: freelancers struggle to get found. You can be the best developer or designer in your city, but if clients cannot discover you, it does not matter.

So we built the RateRun Directory — a business listing platform specifically for freelancers and agencies. You create a profile, add your skills and location, and potential clients can find you through search, categories, and filters.

The two products work together. You get discovered in the Directory, clients message you, and you manage the work inside the app. Everything connected, nothing duplicated.

Built for speed, not complexity

We are deliberately opinionated about keeping things simple. RateRun loads fast, works on mobile, and does not ask you to configure anything before you can start using it. There are no integrations to set up, no webhooks to configure, no API keys to generate.

You open it. You track time. You get paid. That is the whole point.

Free by default

The core of RateRun is free — and it will stay that way. The Cloud plan gives you cloud sync, multi-device access, and a Directory listing at no cost. Pro adds premium features like expense tracking, emailed invoices, and a portfolio gallery for $7.99 a month.

We would rather have thousands of freelancers using the free tier and genuinely finding it useful than lock basic features behind a paywall. If you need more, Pro is there. If you do not, free is properly free — not a time-limited trial.

Where we are headed

RateRun is still early. We ship features every week and we listen to what freelancers actually need rather than guessing. If something is useful, we build it. If it is not, we skip it.

No feature bloat. No dark patterns. No investor-driven roadmap. Just a tool that helps you track your work, bill your clients, and understand your numbers.

Give it a try — it takes 30 seconds to set up.