Business tips
9
min read
Running a startup on a budget doesn’t mean compromising on quality tools. This guide breaks down 25 of the best free software solutions for business, marketing, design, and AI — all chosen to help small teams work smarter, save time, and grow faster.
Startups often operate on tight budgets, so saving money always sounds nice. Fortunately, various free tools exist to streamline operations for small business owners, execute marketing strategies, and facilitate design tasks. These tools, despite having limited features, save startups thousands of dollars annually and let them scale efficiently.
Not all of them can replace the industry-standard paid products, and even less so — the skilled professionals who work with them — but they are a good start. So, in this guide, we will list the best free tools to pay attention to when launching a new business.
Before moving to the details, here’s a snapshot of all the free tools featured in this guide. This quick list makes it easy to scan the names and purposes of each tool so you can jump straight to the ones you need most.
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Running a startup means wearing many hats and doing it all on a budget. The right tools can help you plan, organize, and operate more efficiently without draining your resources. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the best free solutions to cover essential small business needs.
Enloop is an excellent tool for startups looking to create comprehensive business plans. It assists in crafting professional business plans by providing templates, financial forecasting, and the ability to assess the viability of your business idea. The app even generates the text for each section, so your business plan just writes itself. Enloop offers four package options: Free, Basic, Advanced, and Professional. The main downside of the Free package is that you can't share your work with teammates.
Resource planning is crucial for startups to ensure efficient allocation of personnel and equipment. Ganttic offers a free resource planning tool that allows you to schedule and manage resources effectively, helping you optimize your operations.
Ganttic offers very varied pricing options. With the free plan, you can manage up to 10 "resources" (people, machinery, rooms, any assets you might need). Even the free plan offers team collaboration.
Trello is a highly intuitive tool that uses visual boards, lists, and cards to streamline tasks and project organization. It's a popular choice for startups due to its simplicity and adaptability. Teams can easily track progress, assign tasks, and collaborate in real time, making it an ideal solution for efficient project management and task delegation.
Paid options allow for simultaneous visualization of different projects in various ways (Kanban boards, timescales, calendars, and so on) and increase the number of users you can share the projects with. For a small team, a free plan will be more than enough.
Notion is an all-in-one workspace tool that can serve as a knowledge base, project management platform, and collaboration hub for startups. It's highly customizable, making it versatile for various business operations. Learning how to use Notion at the beginning might be a bit tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it's super user-friendly. But there are many standard and community-made templates you can download and adjust to your needs. Taking your time to get acquainted with Notion will definitely be worth it.
The free plan allows you to invite up to 10 guests to collaborate, while for $8 a month, the number increases to 100.
Calendly is a user-friendly schedule management tool that simplifies the process of booking appointments and meetings. It eliminates back-and-forth emails by allowing users to share their schedules and let others choose convenient time slots. Similar to Google Calendar, but with far more automation and customization, it offers features that make it a valuable free software for startups seeking efficient schedule coordination and time management.
With a free plan, you're restricted in the types of events and collaboration. Still, it allows calendar integrations, customizable booking links, and embedded scheduling on your site, which can be a great way to streamline your appointments.
Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your website’s presence in search results. It provides detailed reports on keyword rankings, indexing status, and website performance, making it essential for any startup looking to improve SEO. You can also use it to identify technical issues, submit sitemaps, and see how Google’s crawler views your site — all crucial for attracting more organic traffic.
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The right tools can help you plan campaigns, reach your audience, and measure results without spending a fortune. If you’re managing social media, automating emails, or tracking performance, these free marketing solutions can give your startup a professional edge and help you make the most of limited resources.
ClickUp is a versatile project management and productivity tool. It helps teams streamline work, collaborate efficiently, set tasks, and chat. Marketing teams specifically use ClickUp for publishing, scheduling, and other marketing-related tasks.
The free plan offers chats, collaborative docs, whiteboards, and more. Paid options offer emails, time tracking, resource management, and AI support.
Zapier is a powerful process automation platform enabling startups to connect and automate workflows between web applications. With Zapier, startups can create "Zaps" linking other apps and services, and allowing seamless data transfer and task automation. This simplifies repetitive tasks, enhances productivity, and streamlines processes, making Zapier a convenient tool for startups looking to optimize their operations and save time.
The free plan lets you create one-step "Zaps" with 100 tasks a month and a no-code editor.
And now that we've covered some basic tools, let's move on to what specific departments might need.
GetResponse is an email marketing platform with a free plan suitable for startups, small businesses, and other business types. It allows you to create and automate email campaigns, build landing pages or simple web pages, and analyze campaign performance. You can even pair it with Google Docs to draft and refine your campaign copy before importing it into GetResponse for design and scheduling
The free plan includes up to 2,500 newsletters a month, a list of up to 500 contacts, and more, while with the paid ones, you also get AI help, sign-up forms and pop-ups, push notifications, and so on.
Understanding user behavior is crucial for optimizing your business website or app. Hotjar provides heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys to help startups gain insights into user interactions and make data-driven decisions, and improve productivity.
The free plan allows you to track 35 sessions per day, get up to 20 monthly responses, and conduct up to 60 interviews a year.
Buffer is a versatile social media scheduling tool that empowers startups to effectively manage their social media presence. It allows users to plan, schedule, and post content across various social media platforms, ensuring a consistent and well-timed online presence. Buffer also provides analytics and performance insights to help startups refine their social media strategies for better engagement and growth.
The free plan limits you to 3 channels but still provides comprehensive planning and scheduling tools, as well as AI assistance.
Moz is a renowned SEO software and analytics platform that provides startups with valuable insights and tools to improve their online visibility. With features like keyword research, link analysis, and site auditing, Moz helps startups optimize their websites for search engines and compete effectively in the digital landscape. It's an essential tool for enhancing SEO strategies and driving organic website traffic.
MOZ is mostly tailored for paid options. Still, you can use various free tools, including a backlink checker.
Mailchimp is a popular and user-friendly platform that empowers startups to create, send, and analyze email campaigns effectively. With its drag-and-drop email builder, automation features, and audience segmentation, Mailchimp simplifies reaching and engaging customers through email. It also provides detailed analytics to track campaign performance, making it an essential tool for startups aiming to build and nurture their customer relationships through email marketing.
The free plan limits you to one user and 1,000 emails per month. Pre-built templates and potential audiences are also limited, but still, the functionality is versatile.
Great design can make your startup stand out, but high-end software often comes with an equally high price tag. The good news is that you don’t need expensive licenses to create professional, eye-catching visuals. Here are some free design tools that make it easy for everyone, without advanced graphic design skills and creative teams alike, to bring ideas to life without breaking the budget.
Canva is a versatile graphic design tool that simplifies the creation of marketing materials, social media graphics, and visuals. It offers a vast library of templates and easy-to-use design features.
The free plan offers thousands of free templates, 100+ design types (for example, posters vs. presentations vs. letters, and so forth), collaboration, and even AI-powered tools. With drag-and-drop features, it's extremely easy to use for non-designers.
Figma is a collaborative design tool that enables teams to create and prototype user interfaces in real time, no matter where they are located. Its browser-based platform eliminates the need for constant file transfers and version control headaches, making collaboration seamless for remote startups.
Figma is most famous as a UI/UX design tool, but it can also be used for vector design and illustration instead of Adobe Illustrator.
Adobe Express is a simplified version of Adobe's renowned design software, built for speed and ease of use. It offers basic design and photo editing tools that can come in handy for startups without access to more advanced design software.
With a library of templates, stock photos, icons, and fonts, it’s perfect for creating social media posts, flyers, and quick marketing visuals. The platform also includes features like background removal and simple video editing, making it a versatile choice for small teams.
Piktochart is an intuitive and user-friendly tool for creating visually appealing infographics. Startups can use Piktochart to design and customize infographics that convey information and data in a visually engaging way. With a wide range of templates and design elements, Piktochart simplifies the infographic creation process. It is ideal for startups looking to communicate their ideas, statistics, and concepts effectively through compelling visuals.
The free version limits the number of your projects and storage space, but allows collaboration and downloads of visuals.
Choosing the right fonts is essential for branding and design consistency. Google Fonts provides a vast collection of free, web-ready fonts to enhance your design projects and help drive traffic.
Every font has a specific license you should get acquainted with before using it. Finding ones that are free for commercial use might take longer, but it's not impossible.
Snappa is a versatile online graphics tool that empowers startups to handle content creation and design various digital graphics effortlessly. Whether social media posts, blog headers, marketing materials, or presentations, Snappa offers a user-friendly interface and a library of templates and stock images to create visually appealing content quickly. It's an excellent choice for startups seeking a streamlined and efficient solution for all their online graphic design needs.
The free version doesn't come with the ability to add integrations and limits you to 3 downloads per month, but it still offers 6,000+ templates for all your needs.
Today, AI has become a daily necessity for startups looking to stay competitive without stretching their budgets. They are so popular because they save hours of work and help small teams achieve big results. Plus, many of them offer powerful free plans that are more than enough for small businesses.
Here are some AI-powered solutions to boost your startup’s productivity, creativity, and customer engagement.
ChatGPT is a conversational AI that can help with just about anything — from brainstorming startup ideas to drafting emails, social media posts, and even customer support responses. Its free tier provides quick access to a powerful writing and research assistant that’s available 24/7.
In case you need fresh ideas, problem-solving, or a second opinion on your content, ChatGPT can deliver it in seconds.
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Perplexity is an AI-powered research tool that combines search engine capabilities with conversational responses. It finds reliable sources, summarizes them, and gives clear, concise answers to your questions. For startups, it’s perfect for competitor research, industry trend analysis, and gathering data to support strategic decisions without hours spent digging through search results.
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Otter.ai uses AI to record meetings, create transcripts, and summarize findings in real time. This ensures that nothing important is missed, even when your team is moving fast.
The free plan includes live transcription, searchable notes, and integration with popular video conferencing tools like Zoom and Google Meet. It’s a time-saver for busy startup teams who need to focus on discussion instead of note-taking.
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Grammarly is an AI writing assistant that helps make your communication clear, concise, and mistake-free. Beyond grammar checks, it suggests better word choices, tone adjustments, and formatting improvements. For startups crafting pitches, emails, and marketing copy, Grammarly’s free plan is a simple way to make sure every word looks professional.
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Lumen5 transforms blog posts, scripts, or plain text into engaging videos with AI. It automatically selects visuals, adds transitions, and generates captions, making video marketing accessible even for non-editors. Startups can use the free plan to create social media videos, explainer clips, and product promos quickly — no video production team required.
The platform offers a vast library of stock footage, images, and music tracks to help customize your videos for different audiences. Its intuitive drag-and-drop editor lets you fine-tune colors, fonts, and branding so your content feels professional and on-brand without extra cost.
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Tidio AI combines live chat with an AI chatbot to handle customer inquiries around the clock. It can answer FAQs, qualify leads, and even integrate with email or Messenger for a seamless customer experience. For startups, this means better support without hiring a full customer service team. The free plan covers essential chatbot features and basic automation to get you started.
You can also track customer interactions and chatbot performance through built-in analytics, helping you refine your support strategy over time.
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While these tools offer free versions, they often provide premium options with advanced features. Startups with more extensive requirements or budgets should consider them, as they can significantly enhance results and productivity.
To start with, you can try a monthly subscription rather than committing to a long-term plan. This way, you can test whether the additional features are worth the investment before scaling up.
As well, you might want to explore different free options and other tools, especially when it comes to design. If your budget doesn't allow for pricey software and an in-house designer to use it, outsourcing might be a good choice for you. With TodayMade, you get all your design needs covered for a monthly fee with less effort, as you would get the Adobe package for yourself or spend time and money on traditional agencies. Contact us today for more info!
