FreeAgent Review UK 2026: In-Depth Analysis

FreeAgent is a UK-built cloud accounting platform aimed squarely at freelancers, contractors, micro limited companies and landlords. It is owned by NatWest Group and is offered free of charge to NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank and Mettle business banking customers, which gives it a distribution advantage no other UK accounting product can match. For paying users, the headline price is £19 a month for sole traders, £27 for partnerships and £33 for limited companies, all before VAT and before the standard 50% introductory discount. This review covers the pricing tiers, the bank-bundle freebie, every core feature, MTD compliance for both VAT and Income Tax, integrations, pros, cons and the scenarios where FreeAgent is and is not the right pick.

Quick verdict

• Who it’s for: UK freelancers, contractors, single-director limited companies, landlords, and anyone with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle business account who can claim the software free.
• Who it isn’t for: Larger SMEs with stock and complex inventory (Xero or QuickBooks Online suit better), product businesses needing deep multi-currency (Xero Comprehensive), accounting practices needing a multi-client ledger console (FreeAgent for Practices exists but the depth is below Xero HQ or QuickBooks Online Accountant), and businesses outside the UK (the product is UK-only).
• Headline price: £19/month sole trader, £27/month partnership, £33/month limited company, £10/month landlord. All exclude VAT, all routinely sold at 50% off for the first six months. Free with eligible NatWest group bank accounts.
• MTD status: HMRC-recognised for MTD for VAT and HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax Self Assessment ahead of the April 2026 mandation date for sole traders and unincorporated landlords above the qualifying income threshold.

What is FreeAgent?

FreeAgent was founded in Edinburgh in 2007 by Ed Molyneux, Olly Headey and Roan Lavery, three contractors who wanted accounting software that suited the way freelancers and one-person limited companies actually work. It built its reputation around the contractor and freelancer market in the UK, where double-entry packages aimed at SMEs felt heavy and where high street accountancy software felt dated. The product is cloud-only, browser-based with native iOS and Android apps, and entirely focused on the United Kingdom; HMRC compliance, UK Companies House conventions and UK tax forms are baked in throughout, which is unusual in a market dominated by global products like Xero and QuickBooks.

In 2018 FreeAgent was acquired by NatWest Group (then RBS Group) for around £53 million. That ownership change is the single most important commercial fact about the product today. NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank and Mettle business banking customers can use FreeAgent free for as long as they hold the bank account, which puts the software in the hands of hundreds of thousands of UK micro businesses at zero direct cost. FreeAgent reports more than 200,000 customers across the paying and free user base combined.

The target user is narrower than Xero or QuickBooks Online. FreeAgent is built for sole traders, partnerships, single-director limited companies, landlords and freelancers who file their own VAT, Self Assessment and Corporation Tax (or whose accountant uses FreeAgent for Practices). It is less suited to businesses with employees in double figures, stock-heavy operations, or international trade, where the product simply has not been engineered for that level of complexity.

Pricing breakdown

FreeAgent’s commercial model is unusual because the headline rate card matters far less than whether you bank with NatWest Group.

Plan	Headline price (excl. VAT)	Introductory rate	Annual price
Landlord	£10/month	£5/month for 6 months	£100/year (£50 first year)
Sole Trader	£19/month	£9.50/month for 6 months	£190/year (£95 first year)
Partnership / LLP	£27/month	£13.50/month for 6 months	£270/year (£135 first year)
Limited Company	£33/month	£16.50/month for 6 months	£165/year (£165 first year)
Any plan, free	£0/month	Indefinite	£0

The free option is available to anyone holding a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle business banking account. NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank customers retain free access for as long as they keep the bank account open. Mettle customers (and landlord and sole trader users on the bank-funded plan) need at least one transaction per month through the Mettle account to keep the FreeAgent subscription free; if a month passes with no transactions, the account reverts to a paid subscription until activity resumes.

Every paid tier ships with the same feature set. FreeAgent does not stratify by feature in the way Xero or QuickBooks Online do; there is no “Starter” tier missing multi-currency or no “Essentials” tier missing payroll. The plan you pick simply matches your business structure. The Sole Trader plan covers Self Assessment with the SA103 self-employment supplement; the Partnership plan handles partner-level reporting and SA800 partnership returns; the Limited Company plan adds Corporation Tax (CT600) filing, dividend vouchers and Confirmation Statement preparation; the Landlord plan strips back to property income and SA105 reporting.

Two add-ons are sold separately. Smart Capture Unlimited bumps the receipt-scanning quota from 10 a month to unlimited for £5/month. The Amazon integration, which pulls Amazon Seller transactions in for ecommerce sellers, is £6/month.

Worked example. A typical owner-managed limited company with one director, no employees and a turnover of £80,000 will pay £33/month plus VAT on the standard tariff, or £16.50/month for the first six months on the introductory rate, or £165 on the introductory annual plan. The same business banking with NatWest pays £0. Over a five-year period that is the difference between roughly £2,000 in software fees and nothing.

Core features in depth

Invoicing and accounts receivable

FreeAgent’s invoicing module is one of its strongest areas and reflects the contractor and freelancer DNA of the product. You can create branded invoices in any currency, set recurring schedules for retainer clients, add staged or milestone billing, and attach time entries or expenses straight from the project module. Automated reminders chase late payers on a schedule you define, and a “Pay Now” button on outgoing invoices accepts card payments via Stripe, PayPal or Tyl by NatWest, or instant bank-to-bank payments and Direct Debits via GoCardless. Multi-currency is included on every plan, with daily-updated exchange rates pulled in automatically.

Bank reconciliation and bank feeds

Open Banking feeds connect to the major UK high street banks plus most challenger banks, including Mettle, Starling, Tide, Monzo Business, Revolut Business and the NatWest Group banks. Feeds refresh automatically and require periodic reauthorisation under the Strong Customer Authentication rules. Reconciliation runs through a “Explain Transaction” workflow that lets you tag each line as money in, money out, a transfer, a bill payment or a refund, with bank rules to automate the repetitive ones.

Time tracking and projects

The projects module is the feature that long-time FreeAgent users tend to cite first. You can run a stopwatch in the desktop or mobile app, log time against a project and a task, set a billable rate, and pull those hours straight onto an invoice. Project-level profitability reports show billed time, recovered expenses, costs and margin, which is far more substantial than the project tooling on QuickBooks Online Essentials and is closer to the project add-on Xero charges separately for.

Expenses and receipt capture

The mobile app’s smart capture takes a photo of a receipt, reads it with OCR, and posts it to the expenses ledger with VAT calculated. The standard quota is 10 receipts a month; the Smart Capture Unlimited add-on at £5/month removes the cap. Mileage claims can be logged at the HMRC approved rates with start and end addresses recorded for the audit trail.

MTD VAT and Self Assessment filing

VAT returns are filed direct to HMRC over the MTD API. The system calculates the return, lets you adjust for partial exemption or flat-rate scheme treatment, and submits with one click. For sole traders, partnerships and limited company directors, the Self Assessment module pulls the figures together from the bookkeeping ledger and submits the personal return direct to HMRC, including the SA103 self-employment supplement, SA105 property pages, SA800 partnership return and SA102 employment pages where relevant.

Corporation Tax CT600 filing

For limited companies, FreeAgent calculates the CT600 from the trial balance and submits the return and accounts to HMRC and the iXBRL-tagged accounts to Companies House from inside the product. This is one of the rare pieces of small business accounting software that handles end-to-end limited company year-end without dropping you into a separate tax filing tool. Xero and QuickBooks Online require either an accountant using their respective practice tax modules or a third-party CT filing add-on.

Payroll (RTI)

FreeAgent’s payroll is included in every paid plan and supports up to 10 employees. It handles RTI submissions to HMRC, P60s, P45s, P11Ds and pension auto-enrolment file generation. It is not a substitute for a serious payroll product in a 50-employee business; for that, BrightPay, Sage Payroll or Xero Payroll on Comprehensive plans suit better. For a one or two person owner-managed company, the integrated payroll is more than enough.

Reporting

The standard report set covers Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, Aged Debtors, Aged Creditors, VAT Reports, Self Assessment estimates and Corporation Tax estimates. The Corporation Tax and Self Assessment estimate widgets on the dashboard are particularly useful for owner-managed companies because they give you a live read of the tax bill as the year progresses, rather than a year-end shock.

MTD and HMRC compliance

FreeAgent is HMRC-recognised for MTD for VAT and has been throughout the rollout since 2019. Submissions go direct over the HMRC API; there is no bridging spreadsheet step required. The product handles flat-rate scheme, cash accounting, annual accounting and standard VAT, with manual adjustments for partial exemption. Group VAT registrations are not supported.

For MTD for Income Tax Self Assessment, FreeAgent appears on the HMRC list of recognised software for the April 2026 mandation date. Sole traders and unincorporated landlords with qualifying income above the threshold can submit the quarterly updates and the year-end declaration from inside FreeAgent. The product has been part of the HMRC pilot since the early phases and is one of the more mature MTD ITSA implementations in the market.

For Corporation Tax, the CT600 filing route uses the HMRC corporation tax API and the Companies House accounts filing API, and the iXBRL tagging is generated automatically from the trial balance. This is genuinely uncommon in the SME accounting software market; most competitors expect you (or your accountant) to use a separate corporation tax module or third-party CT filing tool.

PAYE and RTI submissions go direct to HMRC over the RTI gateway as part of the integrated payroll module. CIS contractor reporting is not built in; FreeAgent users in the construction sector typically run CIS through a separate add-on or move to a product like Xero with the CIS add-on or QuickBooks Online with CIS turned on.

Integrations

The FreeAgent app marketplace is smaller than Xero’s 1,000-plus ecosystem or QuickBooks Online’s marketplace, but the integrations that exist are well chosen for the freelancer and micro-limited-company audience.

Payments. Stripe (with a dedicated Stripe bank feed for automatic reconciliation), PayPal, GoCardless (Direct Debit and instant bank pay), Tyl by NatWest (in-person card terminal), and the FreeAgent native pay-by-card option on outgoing invoices.

Bank feeds. Open Banking feeds across NatWest, RBS, Ulster, Mettle, HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays, Santander, TSB, Starling, Tide, Monzo Business, Revolut Business and most other UK high street and challenger banks.

Receipt capture and bill management. Native Smart Capture in the mobile app, plus integrations with Receipt Bank/Dext, AutoEntry and Hubdoc for higher-volume document workflows.

CRM and time tracking. Capsule CRM, HubSpot via Zapier, Toggl, Harvest and Tsheets.

Ecommerce. Native Amazon Seller integration (£6/month add-on). Shopify, WooCommerce and Etsy through Zapier or the third-party syncing tools A2X and Link My Books.

Practice tools. FreeAgent for Practices is the accountant-facing console, free for accountants whose clients are on FreeAgent. It gives a multi-client view, basic workflow management and bulk year-end submission tools, though it is lighter than dedicated practice management software.

Zapier. A general Zapier connector covers thousands of long-tail integrations including Slack, Trello, Asana, Mailchimp, Google Sheets, Airtable and most marketing automation platforms.

Pros

• Free with NatWest Group banking. A NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle business account gets the full product, every feature, no time limit and no feature restriction. For a limited company on the £33/month tier, that is roughly £400 a year saved at headline pricing or £200 a year on the introductory rate.
• Direct Self Assessment filing inside the software. SA100, SA103, SA105, SA800 and SA102 supplements all submit direct to HMRC from within FreeAgent, with no separate tax software required.
• Direct Corporation Tax CT600 filing. Limited company year-end accounts and CT600 file direct to HMRC and Companies House without a third-party tax module.
• Project profitability and time tracking included on every plan. No upgrade tier required, unlike Xero (Comprehensive plan) or QuickBooks Online (Plus plan).
• Multi-currency on every plan. No tier restrictions, unlike Xero or QuickBooks Online.
• Built for the UK. Companies House conventions, HMRC tax forms, UK terminology, UK VAT schemes and UK banking are first-class throughout, not a localisation layer over a global product.
• Recognised by HMRC for MTD VAT and MTD ITSA. Live integration tested through the pilot programmes.
• Single flat tier per business structure. No surprise upgrade once you hit a feature limit. The plan you pick on day one is the plan you stay on.
• RTI payroll included for up to 10 employees. No add-on charge for the typical owner-managed company size.
• Strong contractor heritage. IR35-aware, dividend voucher generation, director’s loan account tracking and Confirmation Statement preparation are first-class features rather than afterthoughts.

Cons

• Limited beyond 10 employees on payroll. Businesses with larger headcounts need to bolt on Brightpay, Sage Payroll or move to Xero Payroll.
• No native CIS contractor module. A meaningful gap for construction subcontractors and contractors, where Xero with the CIS add-on or QuickBooks Online with CIS suit better.
• Smaller integration marketplace than Xero or QuickBooks Online. The core integrations are present, but the long tail is much shallower.
• Stock and inventory features are basic. Goods-in / goods-out, batch tracking, bills of materials and manufacturing workflows are not the product’s strength. Product businesses with meaningful stock should look elsewhere.
• No multi-entity consolidation. Group structures with multiple trading companies need a separate FreeAgent subscription per entity and will not get a consolidated view.
• UK-only. Businesses trading in multiple jurisdictions or needing US sales tax, Australian GST or EU VAT OSS handling will find the product narrow.
• Practice management depth is light. FreeAgent for Practices is fine for a sole practitioner with a small client book on FreeAgent, but firms running 200-plus mixed-software clients will find it underpowered next to Karbon, Senta or AccountancyManager.
• Smart Capture quota is tight. 10 receipts a month on the standard plan runs out quickly for businesses with even moderate expense volume; the £5/month Unlimited add-on is effectively a near-mandatory upgrade for many users.
• Mettle account requires monthly transactions to keep the freebie. Dormant Mettle accounts lose the free FreeAgent subscription until activity resumes.
• The product evolves slowly. Big new features land less frequently than on Xero or QuickBooks Online, where roadmap velocity is significantly higher.

When to pick FreeAgent

Pick FreeAgent if you are a UK freelancer, contractor, single-director limited company, landlord or partnership and any of the following are true.

You bank with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle. The free subscription removes the entire commercial argument against FreeAgent versus alternatives, and you get a UK-built product engineered around exactly your business type at zero cost. If you are weighing up opening a Mettle account specifically to claim the freebie, the maths is straightforward: a single monthly transaction keeps the £33/month limited company subscription at £0.

You want HMRC-direct Self Assessment filing without leaving the bookkeeping product. FreeAgent is one of the few platforms where SA100 and supplements submit direct from inside the software. For sole traders who do their own returns, this is the single biggest workflow simplification on the market.

You run a single-director limited company and want CT600 and Companies House filing inside the same tool. FreeAgent is one of very few small business accounting products where end-to-end limited company year-end happens without a separate corporation tax module or filing add-on.

You bill by the hour against projects. The integrated time tracking and project profitability tooling is more substantial than QuickBooks Online or the standard Xero plans and removes the need for a separate time tracking tool.

You are a landlord with one or a small number of properties. The £10/month Landlord plan (or the free Mettle-funded version) is the cheapest credible HMRC-recognised MTD route to compliance for the April 2026 mandation date.

When NOT to pick FreeAgent

There are situations where FreeAgent is the wrong choice, even with the free bank-bundle option on the table.

Pick Xero if you are running a growing SME, employing more than 10 people, trading in multiple currencies on a serious scale, need a deep app marketplace, or work with an accountant whose practice runs Xero HQ. Xero scales further, integrates wider and is the default ledger choice for the majority of UK accounting practices.

Pick QuickBooks Online if you are a UK sole trader or limited company who values a polished mobile experience, integrated payroll for slightly larger headcounts, or a CIS module out of the box. QuickBooks Online’s Sole Trader and Simple Start tiers are competitively priced against FreeAgent’s paid rate, although the bank-bundle freebie still tips the maths if you bank with NatWest Group.

Pick Crunch if you want bookkeeping software bundled with a real accountant rather than a self-service tool, particularly as a contractor running a single-director limited company. Crunch’s accountant-included model takes the year-end work off your desk in a way no software-only product can.

Pick Ember if you want a similar “all-in-one” feel to FreeAgent for a single-director limited company but with bookkeeping handled for you and pricing structured around an accounting service rather than a software subscription.

Pick a banking-first product like Tide, Starling Business Toolkit, ANNA Money or Coconut if you only need very light bookkeeping bolted onto the bank account and do not need full double-entry, project profitability or RTI payroll.

Pick a desktop product like Sage 50 if you need offline working, a UK product manager’s familiarity with the legacy Sage Line 50 workflow, or you operate in an industry where local-install software remains the norm.

Comparable software

The closest direct alternatives to FreeAgent for a UK freelancer or micro-limited company are QuickBooks Online (broader integration ecosystem, larger market share, similar pricing), Xero (more headroom for growth, deeper app marketplace, weaker on direct CT600 filing), Crunch (bundles a real accountant with the software), Ember (similar all-in-one positioning for single-director companies), and FreshBooks (strong invoicing and time tracking but a US product with thinner UK MTD depth). The cards below pull the most relevant comparable products from the directory based on tag overlap with FreeAgent’s category set.

FAQs

Is FreeAgent really free with a NatWest, RBS or Mettle account?

Yes. NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank business banking customers get FreeAgent free for as long as they hold the bank account, with no time limit and no feature restriction. Mettle customers get FreeAgent free as long as they make at least one transaction per month through the Mettle account. The free version is the full product, not a stripped-down trial.

Is FreeAgent HMRC-recognised for MTD?

Yes. FreeAgent is HMRC-recognised for MTD for VAT (since the 2019 rollout) and is on the HMRC recognised software list for MTD for Income Tax Self Assessment ahead of the April 2026 mandation date for sole traders and unincorporated landlords above the qualifying income threshold.

Can FreeAgent file my Self Assessment direct to HMRC?

Yes. FreeAgent files SA100 personal returns with the SA103 self-employment supplement, SA105 property pages, SA800 partnership returns and SA102 employment pages direct to HMRC from inside the software, without needing separate tax filing software.

Can FreeAgent file my Corporation Tax return?

Yes. The Limited Company plan files the CT600 corporation tax return direct to HMRC and the iXBRL-tagged accounts to Companies House from inside FreeAgent, which is uncommon for SME accounting software.

Does FreeAgent include payroll?

Yes. RTI payroll for up to 10 employees is included on every paid plan and on the free bank-funded version, at no extra charge. Pension auto-enrolment file generation is supported.

Does FreeAgent handle CIS?

No, not natively. Construction Industry Scheme contractor reporting is not built in. Construction businesses typically need a separate CIS add-on or a different product such as Xero (with the CIS add-on) or QuickBooks Online (with CIS enabled).

How does FreeAgent compare to Xero?

Xero is broader, scales further and has a much larger app marketplace; FreeAgent is narrower, UK-only, includes direct Self Assessment and Corporation Tax filing, and is free with NatWest Group banking. The right pick depends on the size and complexity of the business and on banking arrangements.

Can my accountant use FreeAgent?

Yes. FreeAgent for Practices is the accountant-facing console, free for accountants whose clients are on FreeAgent. It provides a multi-client view, bulk year-end tools and basic workflow management.

What banks integrate with FreeAgent?

Open Banking feeds cover NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank, Mettle, HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays, Santander, TSB, Starling, Tide, Monzo Business, Revolut Business and most other UK high street and challenger banks. Feeds refresh automatically and reauthorise periodically under Strong Customer Authentication.

Is FreeAgent suitable for landlords?

Yes. The £10/month Landlord plan (free with eligible NatWest Group banking) covers SA105 property income reporting and is HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax for unincorporated landlords above the qualifying income threshold from April 2026.

Final summary

FreeAgent is the most natural fit on the UK market for freelancers, contractors, single-director limited companies and landlords who want a UK-built product with HMRC-direct Self Assessment, Corporation Tax and VAT filing all in one place. The product’s commercial story is dominated by NatWest Group ownership: a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank or Mettle business banking customer gets the full product free, with every feature, no time limit and no upsell. For paying customers, the rate card is competitive against Xero Ignite and QuickBooks Online Sole Trader, especially with the standard 50% introductory discount, and the project profitability tooling and direct CT600 filing are genuine differentiators against both.

The product is not the right answer for businesses with larger headcounts, deep stock requirements, multi-entity structures or significant international trade, where Xero and QuickBooks Online have more headroom and a wider integration ecosystem. For its target market, though, FreeAgent is one of the most coherent and UK-specific products available, and the bank-bundle freebie is the single most generous deal in the UK accounting software market in 2026.