Retainr
Retainr is a client revenue system for niche freelancers and independent experts. Package a service, sell it through one branded link, onboard buyers, deliver inside a white-label portal and bill recurring work. Free forever.
What is Retainr?
Retainr calls itself the client revenue system for independent experts, and its promise is deliberately narrow: turn client work into recurring revenue. It targets niche freelancers, digital creators, independent experts and small specialist teams who already hold recognized expertise but have no system for selling it repeatedly.
The product runs one continuous chain. You package what you do into a fixed offer, publish a single buying link, take payment, onboard the buyer through questions written for that offer, deliver inside a portal carrying your brand, support the work, then extend it into the next service. That chain replaces scattered payment links, intake forms, inboxes, task boards and file folders with one client journey.
Four modules carry it. A unified dashboard holds orders, tasks, files, tickets, payment records, approvals and delivery status. A white-label portal gives clients your logo, brand name, custom domain with SSL and unbranded client emails. An automation layer covers intake, magic signup links, support routing, Zapier and webhooks. A recurring revenue layer tracks billing, renewals and upsells. The site frames all of this as the Retainr Method, six steps on the homepage, Position, Sell, Start, Deliver, Extend and Retain, expanded to seven on the method page, and backs it with 23 specialist playbooks grouped into growth and technology, creative and publishing, coaching and wellness, and client products and operations.
The commercial model is the unusual part. Since 2026 Retainr is free forever: no tiers, no seat fees, no feature limits, 0 USD, and 0% transaction fees on the platform side, although the payment provider you connect charges its own. Unlimited team members, prospects and clients are included, along with the API, webhooks, mobile app access, custom domain and SSL, order feedback and approvals, and storage of up to 1 GB per file.
Mobile apps are published on the App Store and Google Play, first released in November 2024. One announced capability is not shipped: Magic Prospections, a prospecting and lead generation workflow aimed at freelance developers and technical specialists, is described as in development, with scope and availability subject to change. The product is built and run independently by a single maker, Pierre-Henry, who documents the work publicly, and the testimonials describe clearer client operations rather than measured performance gains.
What it does
- Package a service into a fixed-scope, fixed-price offer: flat subscriptions, retainers, one-off projects or paid trials
- Publish one branded buying link that carries scope, payment and onboarding together
- Route each buyer into the onboarding flow matching their offer or niche through magic signup links
- Collect context, files and expectations before delivery starts
- Deliver inside a white-label client portal with projects, tasks, files, tickets, approvals and delivery status
- Collect recurring payments through a connected payment provider and track renewals
- Automate post-sale admin with Zapier, webhooks and the API, and invite unlimited teammates and clients
When to use Retainr / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Retainr is the right fit.
When to use Retainr
- Niche freelancers who already sell one repeatable service and want a single branded buying link for it
- Independent consultants in SEO, growth, AI automation, funnels or Notion selling monthly retainers
- Brand, web and UX designers packaging care plans and recurring design work
- Coaches, nutritionists, dietitians and fitness trainers running paid programs with returning clients
- Small specialist teams and digital creators, from copywriters to video editors and community managers, who need a branded client portal without paying per seat
When not to use Retainr
- Established agencies needing resource allocation, utilization rates, budgets, revenue forecasting and management reporting
- Design and marketing agencies built around request queues, time tracking and many production seats
- Online sellers needing advanced checkouts, payment plans, order bumps, upsells and billing recovery
- Audience creators mainly selling downloads, courses, memberships and bookings from a link-in-bio storefront
- Photographers, videographers and studios needing visual galleries, contracts, bookings and a portfolio website
How to use Retainr
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Create a free workspace at app.retainr.io/signup: there is no plan to choose and no card to enter
- Pick one repeatable client outcome and name it in plain language, with a defined scope and a measurable promise
- Package that outcome as a product with scope, price, turnaround, deliverables and next steps, then publish the offer
- Connect your own independent payment provider so you can collect money
- Publish the offer's signup link and share it from calls, emails, webinars and niche pages
- Set the onboarding questions, required files and expectations for that offer or niche
- Brand the workspace with your logo, name, custom domain and SSL, and unbranded client emails
- Deliver in the white-label portal, with tasks, updates, requests, files and approvals attached to the client relationship
- Invite teammates and clients with no seat limit, and wire Zapier, webhooks or the API to automate admin after each sale
- Offer the next service while the result is still fresh, track billing, renewals and client signals, then turn repeated questions and deliverables into a named program
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Free forever, with no plans, no seat fees and no feature limits
- 0% transaction fees taken by the platform on client payments
- Fully white-label portal with custom domain, SSL and unbranded client emails
- Unlimited team members, prospects and clients
- One continuous path from offer to renewal, instead of stitching five apps together
- API, webhooks and Zapier included, with no higher tier to buy, plus mobile apps on both stores
- Explicit data ownership statement, 23 documented specialist playbooks, and a dated comparison page that sends readers to a competitor when it fits better
Cons
- No legal entity name, no postal address and no legal notice published anywhere on the site
- The GDPR is never mentioned: no Article 27 representative, no data processing agreement, no sub-processor list
- No data hosting location disclosed beyond a reference to cloud infrastructure, and no security certification such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001
- No published position on training models with customer data, and no documented opt-out
- API and webhooks are advertised but no public API documentation was found, and a single email address handles legal, privacy and support
- No payment provider is supplied or named: you connect your own and absorb its processing fees
- Maintained by one person with no direct revenue, a very thin knowledge base that points to YouTube, an English-only interface, and a 1 GB cap per file
Pricing & Plans
Retainr operates on a permanent free plan. The pricing page states 0 USD forever, with no plans, no seat fees and no feature limits, so there is no paid entry point and no time-limited trial period. The platform itself takes 0% in transaction fees, while the independent payment provider you connect applies its own processing charges. Under the terms, any legacy Retainr subscription ends at the close of its billing period, with no further billing and no refund for the current period.
- unlimited team members
- unlimited prospects and clients
- branded offer portal
- white-label client management portal
- 0% Retainr transaction fees
- projects
- ticketing
- tasks and boards
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Retainr handles your data.
GDPR overview
Retainr never mentions the GDPR. The regulation is not named once across the site, the terms or the privacy policy. What the policy does offer is adjacent language: it names legal bases for processing, including consent, performance of a contract, legitimate operational needs and legal obligations, and it lists individual rights, stating that depending on applicable law people may request access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, portability or withdrawal of consent, subject to identity verification and to security, contractual, retention or legal limits. The building blocks European buyers look for are missing: no Article 27 EU representative, no data protection officer, no data processing agreement, and no sub-processor list. Governing law is stated as the laws of the United States, and every privacy request goes to a single address, contact@retainr.io.
Who owns the data?
Retainr answers the ownership question directly on its pricing page: you do. Client data, customers, orders and subscribers belong to your business. The terms make you responsible for the legality, reliability, accuracy and permissions of any content you upload, which you must own or have the authority to use. In return, the service takes a limited license to host, reproduce, display, transmit and otherwise process that content, only as far as needed to operate and provide Retainr. The product itself, its features, branding and non-customer content remain the property of Retainr or its licensors. When you collect information from your own clients, you set the purpose and they must contact you; Retainr states it does not sell customer contact data.
Reuse rights
Nothing in the published terms restricts what you do with your own client records. The data, customers, orders and subscribers are described as belonging to your business, so you can export, reuse, migrate or market to them without asking Retainr for permission. The real constraint sits at the exit: both the privacy policy and the terms warn that closing an account can result in deletion of messages, files, content and account records, and that you should export anything you are required to retain before ending the service. Information you send to a third-party site or integration is then governed by that provider's own terms rather than by Retainr's.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
Retainr does not publish where its data is hosted. No country, no region and no hosting provider is named anywhere on the site. The privacy policy says only that the service uses cloud infrastructure and operational safeguards to protect information against accidental loss, unauthorized access, alteration or disclosure, with access limited to people who have a genuine business need and are bound by confidentiality. It adds that no internet service can guarantee absolute security, that suspected breaches are investigated, and that notification follows where the law requires it. Third parties may be used to host, support, secure, analyze or process payments, receiving only what is reasonably necessary, but no sub-processor list is published and no data processing agreement is offered or mentioned. There is no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 claim. The terms state that the governing law is that of the United States. A network lookup shows the public marketing site resolving to an anycast address on a US network, but that describes the brochure site, not where the platform stores client data.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Retainr.
- Concentrating the whole client relationship in one tool: offer, payment, onboarding, delivery, support and billing sit in the same place, so any outage or shutdown hits every part of the business at once
- Account closure can delete messages, files, content and account records, and exporting what you must keep is entirely your responsibility
- The product is maintained by a single person and earns no direct revenue, so the continuity of the service rests on one individual
- No identifiable legal entity or address on the site makes contractual recourse hard to exercise, while the terms name the laws of the United States as governing law
- With no GDPR mention, no data processing agreement, no sub-processor list and an undisclosed hosting location, a user handling personal data for clients becomes a controller without the usual contractual framework
- The white-label portal hides the publisher from end clients, who hand over data without knowing which provider actually holds it, and a third-party chat tool receives technical information from visitors
- The service is provided as is, with liability broadly excluded and no availability or defect-correction commitment; the announced prospecting feature is not shipped, and nothing is published about whether customer data is used to train models beyond a promise not to sell contact details
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Low for the basics. You sign up with a work email, with no plan to choose and no card required, and every feature is open from the start. Creating a package, connecting a payment provider, sharing the signup link and starting delivery are simple actions. More effort goes into connecting your own independent payment provider, setting up the custom domain and SSL, and writing niche-specific onboarding questions. Webhooks, the API and Zapier scenarios are optional and suit more technical users. The knowledge base is thin and tutorials point to YouTube, with support by chat and email.
Deployment
Apps stores
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind Retainr
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Alternatives
Tools that compete with or complement Retainr.
Frequently asked questions
Is Retainr really free forever?
Does Retainr take a cut of my client payments?
Can the client portal carry my own brand?
Are there limits on team members or clients?
Who owns the data, the customers and the subscribers?
Is there a mobile app and an API?
Does Retainr mention the GDPR?
Where is my data hosted?
What is the minimum age to use Retainr?
What happens to my data if I close my account?
Should you pick Retainr?
Retainr is unusually coherent for a product that costs nothing. It runs one path from packaged offer to renewal: a single buying link, offer-specific onboarding, delivery inside a portal that carries your brand, then the next service while the relationship is still warm. Everything is included at 0 USD, with no seat fees, no feature tiers and no transaction cut on the platform side. For a niche freelancer or a small specialist team tired of stitching payment links, forms and task boards together, that is a serious proposition.
The reservations concern the publisher rather than the product. There is no company name beyond a footer copyright, no postal address, no legal notice, no mention of the GDPR, no data processing agreement, no sub-processor list, no hosting country and no security certification, while governing law is stated as the United States. The mobile apps are published under SimpliXio Pte. Ltd., an entity that appears nowhere on the website, which leaves a gap between the identity shown on the site and the one filed with the stores. The business model carries its own risk: no direct revenue and a single maker mean continuity rests on one person.
Two details cut the other way. The comparison page names sixteen competitors, dates its review and openly points readers elsewhere when a rival fits better, which is rare candor. And the flagship prospecting feature, Magic Prospections, is still announced as in development, so it should carry no weight in an adoption decision.
In short, Retainr is worth trying for independent experts who want to structure client delivery without a subscription, and worth approaching carefully for anyone handling sensitive or regulated client data, where the missing contractual and hosting disclosures matter more than the feature list.
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