I am often asked what it’s like to freelance in design systems. The questions range from how I get my clients to how I structure my projects, the nuts and bolts of running a business, the tools and services I use, and the lessons I’ve learned. In this post, I catalog the tools and associated monthly costs that keep Genoni Studio running.
Tools and services
The current industry standards in the design systems space are… changing. It used to be Tokens Studio for design tokens, Figma for design, and React for development. Until now, with few exceptions, all my projects have involved some combination of these. But increasingly clients have been looking for ways to downgrade Figma and try to rely on new tools, like Claude Design, for prototyping and experimentation.
Claude
Claude has become a central part of my design and development workflows. With each update, its ability to plan, write, and review code, find discrepancies, and make sweeping changes improves significantly. Using its Skills feature I can provide it with highly detailed rules for style, structure, and accessibility, and be confident that it will look for, and correct, any unintended side effects. And Claude Design’s ability to sync a design system to produce on-brand output is impressive.
Zentty
To run Claude, I’m using Zentty, one of many agent-focused terminals now available. I was drawn to Zentty because of its minimalist look, its sidebar that organizes sessions into “worklanes”, and how it tracks agent status if I have multiple projects running.
Figma
Design work happens mostly in Figma. Using several plugins, I build component libraries for teams with variables, styles, and effects that I output to design tokens using a custom plugin.
GitHub
My development setup is standard: Git with GitHub and Visual Studio Code for writing and reviewing code.
Storybook
Coded components are almost exclusively written in React with TypeScript and CSS Modules or Tailwind with Next.js for layout examples and Storybook to document the components.
Vercel
For hosting, I relied on Netlify for years but found Vercel’s interface cleaner and more intuitive. To share ongoing client work, I deploy two sites on genoni.studio subdomains, one with Next.js example pages and one for Storybook. Changes I commit are automatically deployed within a minute, including branches, and the client can view them at all times.
Dia
Arc had been my primary browser but since that’s no longer supported I moved to its successor, Dia. It’s Chromium-based, so the rendering is identical to Chrome’s and it supports Chrome’s extensions. Dia has a number of great features, among them “profiles” that allow me to cleanly divide up, and swipe between, my clients and personal work.
Bear
I switched back and forth a few times between various note-taking applications and ultimately decided to stick with Bear. The feature set and authoring environment is great, but ask me in three months and I’ll probably be on to something else.
Linear
Most of the work for my clients does not require significant project management, but if I need a clean way to assign and track tickets I’ll reach for Linear. Plus, of the clients that do use an issue tracker, it’s always been Linear.
Raycast
While not a design or development tool per se, Raycast is a powerful launcher I use constantly. Its extensive extension library allows many tasks to be completed in Raycast. I use it to open local VS Code projects, start and stop time tracking, trigger text expansions, start meetings, and query its built-in AI tools. If you’ve ever used LaunchBar or Alfred, you’ll quickly understand why Raycast is a worthy successor.
MacBook Pro
I’ve always had Macs, and my current 14” M5 plugged into a 27” monitor is perfect.
Communication
Google Workspace
I use Google Workspace with a custom domain for my email, calendar, meetings, proposals, and contracts. I’ll use Zoom if I have to, but I prefer Google Meet.
Cal.com
For my first year, I used Calendly to manage meetings. However, I always found their UX confusing, and the cost rose once I hooked it up to four or five calendars. I switched to Cal.com and much prefer it. Not only is it easy to use, but for now it’s free. It would be impossible to run my business without it.
Slack
All my clients to date have used Slack. Its account management is bizarrely confusing (how do I leave a Workspace again?), but I can easily manage multiple clients. Pretty much all communication happens there.
PandaDoc
PandaDoc is a DocuSign clone that is slightly nicer for contract signatures and has a more generous free tier. However, I don’t use it often because I usually sign contracts drawn up by the client.
Harvest
I used to manage spreadsheets and invoices manually, but making mistakes was easy and potentially costly. Harvest works perfectly for my use cases and has many excellent features I don’t have to think about, including automatic invoice generation and reminders.
Taxes
An S corp?
One of the most important aspects of working freelance is how you are taxed. Most people, whether full-time or freelance, will pay personal taxes on their earnings. So, if you make $100,000, you are liable for personal taxes on that total amount. However, there is another way (at least in the United States).
Establishing an LLC and filing as an S Corp can significantly reduce your overall tax burden. Essentially, you set up a company with yourself in dual roles: employer and employee. The income earned is paid first to your LLC. Your employee (you) receives a monthly salary from the LLC for IRS purposes, though its owner (also you) can withdraw funds anytime. Ultimately you can save many thousands on taxes. Sound confusing? Well, it is.
Managing it all
For the first few years operating as Genoni Studio, I used Collective, who handle the required paperwork and ongoing accounting and tax filings. Collective’s website, where I would occasionally upload files and fill out forms, isn’t great but mostly acts as a layer between you and accountants on the other side.
In early 2026, however, I switched to Opolis to run payroll and take advantage of their health care options, and use a separate accountant to help with taxes and tax planning. I also switched to doing the bookkeeping myself, tracking expenses, reimbursements, and tax payments, which is less complicated than it sounds.
For my business checking account I use Mercury (great UI) and, for a business credit card, a no-annual-fee Chase Business Ink card because I already had a personal account with them.
Costs
Most services are low-cost or free. Values with an (*) are the calculated monthly costs based on the yearly subscription pricing or expected cost.
| Service | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Claude | $100 |
| Figma | $15* |
| Google Workspace | $14 |
| Cal.com | Free plan |
| Harvest | $12 |
| PandaDoc | Free plan |
| Bear | $3* |
| Raycast | $8* |
| Vercel | Free plan |
| Opolis | $40 |
| Accountant | $40 |
| Total | $232 |
Future tools
Though most of my clients don’t require long-form documentation, I expect paid services like Zeroheight and Supernova to become more common because they provide so much of the web-hosted documentation functionality that teams have historically had to build themselves.
The design token space will also see a lot of new tooling for authoring, management, and distribution as they become increasingly popular, standardized, and (one day) graduate to an official standard.
Originally posted April 13, 2026.