Free in this category means three different things and they are not interchangeable. A free tool computes and keeps nothing. A free trial keeps everything and then stops. A free tier keeps a capped amount forever. Only the third is free in the sense an owner means, and the difference is worth establishing before you spend an evening moving a customer list into something that will ask for a card in fourteen days.
Telling the three apart in under a minute
Does it ask for a card before you can use it? Then it is a trial whatever it is called. Does it store anything at all? If not it is a tool, which is genuinely free and genuinely limited. Does it publish a cap, in customers, visits or users? Then it is a tier, and the cap is the honest part. A product that will not answer these questions plainly is answering them anyway.
A free download is a different risk
Software you download and run yourself has no subscription and no vendor keeping it working. The cost lands as your problem when the operating system changes, the machine fails or the person who set it up leaves. For a business whose records are its customer list, that is a larger exposure than a small monthly fee, and the honest comparison includes a backup you actually test.
What should never be behind a paywall
Arithmetic. Working out what a clean costs and what to charge for it is a calculation on figures you already own and costs the vendor nothing per use. Both sheets on this site are free and need no account for that reason. What costs money to provide is storage, sending and support, and that is what any honest free tier caps.
Questions people ask about free cleaning company software
Is there genuinely free cleaning company software?
Genuinely free tools, yes, including the two on this site. Genuinely free full products that hold your schedule and customers are rare, because they cost the vendor money every month.
What is the catch with a free plan?
Usually a cap and the vendor's branding on your documents. Neither is a catch if it is published before you commit.
Can I export if I outgrow the free plan?
Ask before you start. A free plan you cannot leave is a deposit, not a gift.