Business tips
9
min read
Startups often operate on tight budgets, so saving money always sounds nice. Fortunately, various free tools exist to streamline operations, execute marketing strategies, and facilitate design tasks. These tools 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 business.
Here’s our list of tools that cover various niches and help you get your processes going.
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 project management 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 simultaneously visualizing different projects in various ways (Kanban boards, timescales, calendars, and so on) and increasing 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 needs. Learning how to use Notion at the beginning might be a bit tricky. 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. With its integration capabilities and customization options, Calendly is a valuable tool for startups seeking efficient schedule coordination and time management.
With a free plan, you're restricted in 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.
Efficient marketing takes a village. Or one skilled person armed with specialized tools. Here are some of them:
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 various apps and services, and allowing seamless data transfer and task automation. This simplifies repetitive tasks, enhances productivity, and streamlines processes, making Zapier a valuable 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 that offers a free plan for startups. It allows you to create and automate email campaigns, build landing pages, and analyze campaign performance.
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 website or app. Hotjar provides heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys to help startups gain insights into user interactions and make data-driven decisions.
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 traffic to websites.
MOZ is mostly tailored for paid options. Still, you can use various free tools, including backlink checker.
Mailchimp is a popular and user-friendly email marketing 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.
Writing your content is half the trouble. You also have to make sure it looks good. Fortunately, free design tools can help you with this as well. What are they?
Adobe products are industry standard but also infamously expensive, especially if you're just starting out. If visuals are not something you specialize in, you might want to check out these products:
Canva is a versatile graphic design tool that simplifies the creation of marketing materials, social media posts, 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. Its real-time collaboration features make it an excellent choice for remote startups.
Figma is most famous as a UI/UX design tool, but it just as well might be used for vector design and illustration instead of Adobe Illustrator.
Adobe Express is a simplified version of Adobe's renowned design software. It offers basic design and photo editing tools that can come in handy for startups without access to more advanced design software.
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 your projects' numbers 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.
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 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 6000+ templates for all your needs.
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.
You might want to explore different options, especially when it comes to design. If your budget doesn't allow for pricey software and an in-house designer to use it, but you still have a large number of ongoing marketing design tasks, outsourcing might be a good choice for you. With TodayMade, you get all your design needs covered for a monthly fee – no need to get the Adobe package for yourself or spend time and money on traditional agencies. Contact us today for more info!
