What it's for
The tracker behind 13 of our research notes, and free.
- Tracking clients, income and links
- Content calendars
- Simple reports
Plans and prices
| Plan | Price (USD unless shown) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Google Sheets (personal account) | Free | Included with a free Google account |
| Workspace Business Starter | $7/user/mo, billed monthly (optional, for business email) | Custom business email; 30 GB per user |
| Workspace Business Standard | $14/user/mo, billed monthly | 2 TB per user; meeting recording |
| Workspace Business Plus | $22/user/mo, billed monthly | 5 TB per user |
Read on the official pricing page on . Prices change; check before you buy.
Free plan in real output
Sheets is free with any Google account. Workspace is only needed for business email and admin. The pricing page showed a limited-time discount for the first 3 months and 'save 16% with 1 year commitment'.
- Free: unlimited spreadsheets for tracking clients, income, affiliate links and content calendars.
- Workspace Business Starter adds an email on your own domain; it isn't needed to use Sheets.
Cost at your stage
| Plan | Monthly cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 (testing, low volume) | Free | $0 |
| Month 12 (working volume) | Free | $0 |
Break-even: Free.
Month-12 plan is our estimate of what a solo seller at steady weekly output needs, based on the plan limits above. Costs exclude tax.
Commercial use and output rights
Not a content generator. A spreadsheet; your data stays yours.
Your data and AI training: Not checked.
This is a summary of public terms, not legal advice. Terms change; re-read the clause before client work.
First-hour setup
- Create a sheet with one row per item (client, link, post).
- Freeze the header row and add filters.
- Use data validation for status columns.
- Add a SUMIFS summary tab for monthly totals.
- Share view-only links with clients.
Competitors compared
| Tool | Pricing model | Free plan | Starting price | Difficulty | Output rights | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Sheets | Free | Yes | Free · then $7/user/mo, billed monthly (optional, for business email) | 1/5 | Not a content generator | Free tracking, data and reports |
| Airtable | Free plan + paid plans | Yes | $0 · then $20/seat/mo billed annually ($24 monthly) | 2/5 | Not a content generator | Organizing client and product data |
| Microsoft Excel | Free plan + paid plans | Yes | See official site | – | – | Heavy models and client spreadsheets |
| Notion | Free plan + paid plans | Yes | $0 · then $10 per seat/mo (billing period not stated) | 2/5 | Not a content generator | Client portals, templates and wikis |
Learning difficulty
1/5: Spreadsheet basics.
When not to use it
If several people edit linked records (clients ↔ projects ↔ invoices), Airtable handles relations better.
Cheaper or free alternatives:
- Airtable: Organizing client and product data (yes free plan)
- Microsoft Excel: Heavy models and client spreadsheets (yes free plan)
- Notion: Client portals, templates and wikis (yes free plan)
Which of our hustles use it
- Affiliate content for AI tools: Tracking programs, links and commissions
- AI cold-email setup service: Lead review and client reporting
- AI data annotation / model evaluation: Logging hours and pay per platform
- Bookkeeping with AI tools: Reconciliation checklists
- Grant writing assistance: Deadline and requirement tracking
- Programmatic SEO site: The dataset you start from
- Prolific research studies: Tracking hourly rate per platform
- Website flipping: Valuation and traffic checks
- Zapier automation freelancing: Common data source in client Zaps
- AI consulting for a specific industry: Task-time audits and ROI models
- AI trainer roles on Remotasks/Scale: Logging rates, hours and payouts
- Make.com automation freelancing: Simple data stores and client reports
- Lead generation with AI research: Delivering and deduplicating lead lists
Price history
Each monthly check adds rows here. Older rows are never edited, so you can see when prices changed.
| Checked | Plan | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 October 2026 | Google Sheets (personal account) | Free | Source |
| 17 October 2026 | Workspace Business Starter | $7/user/mo, billed monthly (optional, for business email) | Source |
| 17 October 2026 | Workspace Business Standard | $14/user/mo, billed monthly | Source |
| 17 October 2026 | Workspace Business Plus | $22/user/mo, billed monthly | Source |
Sources
- Google Workspace pricing (read 17 October 2026)
Last verified . Anything we couldn't confirm on an official page is marked "not published", "not shown" or "not verified".