Hey PH! I'm Akshat, and I built Stackivo after watching Indian freelancers myself included run their entire business on WhatsApp screenshots and Excel sheets.
The real insight: it's not that Indian freelancers don't want professional tools. It's that every tool out there ignores Indian GST, Indian payment gateways, and Indian pricing.
Stackivo fixes that. GST invoices + Razorpay collection + e-signed contracts + client portal all in one workspace, starting at 0.
Would love your honest feedback. What would make you switch from your current setup?
How does the e-signature flow handle cases where a client is not comfortable with digital signing and still insists on a physical copy, especially for higher-value contracts?
@eslempaiy Good question. Every signed contract gets a tamper-evident audit trail baked in — signer's name, email, IP, device, timestamp, and a hash of the document, wrapped in a signature certificate. Once signed, you can download it as a PDF, so if a client wants a printed copy for their records, you just hand them that PDF to print. For genuinely high-value or regulated stuff (property sale, wills, POA) e-signatures are actually excluded from electronic execution under the IT Act, so for those we point users to a certified DSC/Aadhaar eSign instead — Stackivo's e-sign isn't meant for that category.
does the e-signature part hold up legally under the IT Act for client contracts, or do freelancers still need to get things notarised separately?
@kayrahyua Yes — Stackivo's signing feature creates a valid electronic signature under the IT Act, 2000. Before signing, the client explicitly consents to signing electronically, and we log an audit trail (IP, device, timestamp, doc hash) into a signature certificate to make it tamper-evident. For standard freelance/consulting contracts, no separate notarization needed. The one caveat: a specific list of documents (negotiable instruments, POA, wills, property conveyance) are excluded from e-signature under the IT Act's First Schedule — those still need a proper DSC/Aadhaar eSign and a lawyer, not us. We're upfront about that in the terms rather than overpromising enforceability in every case.
Finally something built for the Indian freelancer chaos, not just adapted from US templates. The GST invoice flow actually made sense without me hunting for tutorials.
@demircinur18625 Really glad the GST flow clicked without needing a tutorial — that was the whole point, building for how Indian freelancers actually invoice instead of bolting GST onto a US template. Thanks for trying it out!
Finally something built for Indian freelancers specifically, the client portal feature alone is a huge upgrade from sending PDFs on WhatsApp. The GST invoice + time tracking link feels like the workflow I have been piecing together manually for years.
@erdisleyma3t11 This is exactly the gap we built for — WhatsApp PDFs + spreadsheets held together with hope. Glad the portal + GST invoice + time tracking combo is already replacing that stack for you. Appreciate you calling it out.
The branded client portal idea is genuinely smart — pulling clients out of messy WhatsApp threads and into something that actually feels professional is a real upgrade for solo operators here.
@aziyegeliikkld Thanks, Şaziye! That was the goal — a solo operator shouldn't look less professional than a big agency just because they're a team of one. Glad the portal lands that way.
First 50 sign-ups from Product Hunt get Stackivo Pro free for a year — code "PHLAUNCH50" at checkout. Would love real feedback once you've run an actual invoice or contract through it.