The answer for this will be different for everyone. None of the answers will be sure to fix your problems.
Dealing with your finances (or anything else you deal with more than once) is a process. Figure out what your process needs to be and then automate the most painful parts with the tools you can find. Rinse and repeat as you locate more pain points.
You'll likely find that a general tool such as Excel is the best way to start. As you gain a further understanding of your problem, then you can trial other tools. As I mentioned above, the best app for you will likely be the one which best handles your greatest pain points.
Apps can still be helpful as a starting point for your processes. Apps have workflows which you can steal for your own workflows. You'll then likely tweak to the point where the tool is no longer a good fit.
The exception to the above is when your greatest pain point is some combination of time and collaboration. It may be best to pick among the leaders in the space and force yourself to adapt. I can track things in Excel, but I may be forced to pick something else if I need other people to use it.
The above is from someone who goes through loads of apps and always ends up going back to basic tools.
I was also having the same dilemma, although not a freelancer. I wanted to track my finances and tried lot of different tools but in the end decided to use plain excel.
But then adding expense on Excel from mobile is real pain, so I wrote a frontend client for it. I've been using it for about 1.5 years now, works like a charm.
I have expense history of almost every cent I spent in last 1.5 years :)
Dealing with your finances (or anything else you deal with more than once) is a process. Figure out what your process needs to be and then automate the most painful parts with the tools you can find. Rinse and repeat as you locate more pain points.
You'll likely find that a general tool such as Excel is the best way to start. As you gain a further understanding of your problem, then you can trial other tools. As I mentioned above, the best app for you will likely be the one which best handles your greatest pain points.
Apps can still be helpful as a starting point for your processes. Apps have workflows which you can steal for your own workflows. You'll then likely tweak to the point where the tool is no longer a good fit.
The exception to the above is when your greatest pain point is some combination of time and collaboration. It may be best to pick among the leaders in the space and force yourself to adapt. I can track things in Excel, but I may be forced to pick something else if I need other people to use it.
The above is from someone who goes through loads of apps and always ends up going back to basic tools.