It runs on hosting you already pay for
PHP and MySQL on ordinary cPanel shared hosting. No Node, no build step, no container, no separate database service. If your hosting can run WordPress, it can run this.
Self-hosted · Pay once
Your studio,
Your studio,
on your own server
Jobs, projects, timeslips, invoices, budgets, a client portal and a public portfolio — one app, running on the shared hosting you already pay for. No subscription, no seat count, and no copy of your client list on somebody else's server.
- Runs on cPanel shared hosting
- No monthly fee, ever
- No tracking, no analytics
Brand film
Why we built it
A minute on what happens when the tools that run a freelance business are six subscriptions and a spreadsheet that breaks every January.
Fortan Software — the case for owning your own tools.
The short version
Three things that make it different
You pay once
A single licence, not a monthly bill that grows with your client list. The software is yours and it keeps working whether or not you ever talk to us again.
Your data stays on your server
Client records, invoices and files sit in your own database on your own hosting. Nothing is mirrored to us. There is no analytics script, and the fonts are served from your install rather than fetched from Google.
Everything included
Ten modules, one licence
Nothing is held back for a higher tier, because there isn't one. Every module below is in the download.
Jobs
Every enquiry, from first email to paid invoice.
Projects
Timeslips, expenses, estimates and invoices on one record.
Clients
One record per client, and a dashboard for each.
Annual Budgets
Six income and expense sheets a year, adding themselves up.
Calendar
Everything on one month grid, and in the calendar you already use.
Credits Board
Your work history as a public, filterable grid.
Video Portfolio
Showreel pages with hover-to-play video.
CV & CV Builder
A public CV page, and AI matching against a job advert.
Client Portal
Deliverables behind the client's own login.
Branding & Settings
Your colours, your fonts, your logo — including on the public pages.
Screenshots
What you actually get
The arithmetic
Pay once, not every month
The comparison that matters is not feature lists, it is what you have spent by year three.
| Total paid by | Fortan Software | A £25/month tool |
|---|---|---|
| Year one | £149 | £300 |
| Year two | Nothing further to pay | £600 |
| Year three | £900 | |
| Year five | £1,500 |
You still pay for hosting either way — and if you have a website, you are paying for it already.
Installing it
Four steps, about twenty minutes
Create a database
In cPanel, make an empty MySQL database and a user, and give that user All Privileges on it. Two minutes, and the only part that touches your hosting control panel.
Upload the folder
Unzip and upload to your web root. Turn on hidden files in your FTP client first — the .htaccess files are dotfiles, and they are what keep the private folders private.
Run the installer
Visit install.php and follow four screens. It checks your PHP version and extensions before it commits to anything, writes the config, creates the tables, and offers to load demo data so nothing is empty while you look around.
Delete install.php
It offers to delete itself when it has finished. Then set your branding, add your details, and start entering work.
Try it before you buy it
The demo is the real application with demo data in it. Every button works, and it resets itself every night — so change whatever you like.