Software & platform cost calculator
Subscriptions and marketplace commission are easy to underestimate. List your stack, add any platform fees, and see the annual total, the after-tax cost and the share of turnover it consumes.
Your stack
Typical marketplace fees range from 5% to 20%.
Total annual cost of doing business
£1,692
3.8% of turnover
Subscriptions
£792
£66 per month
Platform commission
£900
Tax relief on costs
£440
Real cost after relief
£1,252
You work roughly 8 days a year purely to cover tools and platform fees. Feed this figure into your day rate as overheads so clients — not you — pay for them.
Subscription creep is a margin problem
Each tool is justified on its own: £12 here, £29 there. Together they can quietly take a low-single-digit percentage of turnover — which, at typical margins, is often a week of work a year. Auditing the stack annually is one of the fastest ways to improve profit without finding a single new client.
Annual versus monthly billing
Annual plans usually save 15–20%, but they lock in a tool you may outgrow. Pay annually only for products you've used consistently for at least six months; keep everything else monthly so cancelling is painless.
Frequently asked questions
Keep planning
Self-employed take-home pay calculator
Estimate income tax, Class 4 National Insurance and student loan deductions on your sole trader profit.
Freelance day rate calculator
Work out a realistic UK freelance day rate from your income target, billable days and overheads.
Annual income target calculator
Work backwards from the take-home pay you need to the turnover, day rate and client count required.
These tools give a general illustration only. They are not personalised financial advice and are not FCA-regulated — always check current rates and rules before making a decision.