Are you a small business owner and need better software to run your business? Do you want to know where to find free small business software and how to manage your online business using these free business software for small business owners?
Business owners and office workers can use free time to improve their work efficiency. It is really helpful for small business management and online business administration. Most of the offices and organizations do not need huge budget to take advantage of software for business management. By using the free software and concept you can easily manage and extend your business.
Airtable
Source: YouTube
Use it to: Store, organize, and modify information in spreadsheets format.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start $10 per user per month, paid annually.
If you’re a “spreadsheets person” and you’re outgrown Excel or Google Sheets, take a look at Airtable.
This part spreadsheet, part database tool allows you to store different data types in a cell. Want to attach a document or image? It takes only a few clicks.
You can use Airtable in numerous ways.
Plan your editorial calendar, log interactions with customers, track your physical assets, you get the picture. You don’t even need to create these spreadsheets from scratch, as Airtable provides them in its template library.
Are you looking for a spreadsheets-based collaboration tool for your team and clients? Airtable is your ticket to get there.
Deskera
Use it for: Consolidating your accounting, invoicing, payroll, CRM, and more in one place.
Pricing: Startup plans start at $29 per month per power user. For limited time, you can grab the Professional Plan ($99/month) in an AppSumo annual deal at $149.
Running a business is complex. You have to:
- Get new leads & convert them to paid customers
- Process and fulfill orders on time
- Send invoices and get paid on time
- Keep bills and expenses in check
- Ensure proper staffing
- Pay your staff and contractors on time
- Comply with local, federal and tax laws
- Track and anticipate customer interactions
How many apps do you need for all of the above? Just one!
Deskera simplifies & automates day to day running of your business. From your laptop, tablet or phone. And it comes with multiple features like custom fields, custom pipelines and template designer should you want to tweak the system and make it your own.
Asana
Source: Asana
Use it to: Streamline multiple complex projects that involve different team members.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $10.99 per month per user, billed annually.
If you want to manage tasks across different projects without dropping a Slack message here and there, look no further than Asana.
This project management tool allows you to communicate with collaborators, set tasks and deadlines for individual members, and share files and updates all in one place. It also boasts an impressive template library.
With Asana, you can create separate threads for specific projects. This means that members outside of these projects won’t ever receive irrelevant notifications in their dashboard.
Another cool feature of Asana? You can view project status in various ways: Lists, boards, Gantt charts, your pick.
Simply put, Asana is collaborative task management at its best.
Trello
Source: Trello
Use it to: Manage simple projects with small teams.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $9.99 per user per month, billed annually.
Trello works similarly to Asana — that is, in terms of scheduling and organizing tasks, tracking progress, and assigning them to relevant team members.
One of the significant differences between these two project management rivals? Asana is more suited for managing multiple complex projects. Trello, on the other hand, works better for more straightforward one-off projects.
With its accessible UX and customizable templates, it’s easy to get started on Trello right away.
Just take it from Trond Nyland. Immediately after using the workflow management tool, the founder and CEO of Mattress Review noticed a big improvement in his productivity.
Back then, it would take him five working days to create long-form content. With Trello, it takes only two to three days.
Proofhub
Source: YouTube
Use it to: Manage workflows and speed up the project approval process for big teams.
Pricing: 14-day free trial available. Paid plans start at $45 for unlimited users per month, billed annually.
Proofhub may not be a household name like Asana and Trello, but this underdog’s worth a look as it gets the job done efficiently.
One of Proofhub’s best features is its user-friendly online proofing tool. Annotating files takes a few clicks. You’ll never have to experience endless rounds of revision as Proofhub’s markup and file versioning tools simplify the project review process.
Note: Asana also offers online proofing, but it’s only available for Business and Enterprise plans (they charge per user). Proofhub allows you to add as many users as you want without paying extra.
Other stand-out features of Proofhub include built-in time tracking, Gantt charts, and customizable project templates.
Stackby
Like your tables in Excel and Google Sheets? Then you’ll love Stackby, which combines the best of three worlds — spreadsheets, databases, and business APIs.
Stackby lets you organize information from unique data types like attachments, dropdowns, and more. You can collect data automatically from various services via connecting columns with APIs, collaborate with your team from anywhere, and even automate your end-to-end workflows.
Source: YouTube
The possibilities are endless with Stackby. Build your custom CRM, manage orders from your e-commerce store, plan your SEO content calendar, streamline your video production, and even automate custom Google Analytics reports.
You don’t have to build everything from scratch, either. Choose from the numerous templates from the template gallery or start by importing your spreadsheets.
Get yearly access to Stackby for $199 (retail value: $648) on AppSumo today.
Quickbooks
Source: YouTube
Use it to: Maintain your bookkeeping records with your in-house or freelance bookkeeper.
Pricing: 30-day free trial. Paid plans start $25 per month (50% off for three months).
Quickbooks lets you do everything from sending invoices to managing cash flow and analyzing your financial statements.
Julia Spahiu, founder and CFO of Edi and Sienna Group, picks Quickbooks as her favorite accounting solution as it comes with extensive features.
“Quickbooks has a fuller package. You can also run payroll and get workers compensation insurance, which makes it easier when you’re reconciling your accounts at the end of the month.”Julia Spahiu, Founder and CFO of Edi and Sienna Group
A word of caution: Quickbooks comes with a steep learning curve. Unless you work with a professional bookkeeper or accountant, it’s best to skip it and opt for a simpler option (I’ll get to this in a minute).
Source: Reddit
Freshbooks
Source: YouTube
Use it to: Send invoices and maintain bookkeeping records on your own.
Pricing: 30-day free trial. Paid plans start $6 per month, billed annually. Currently offers a limited time 50% offer for three months.
Freshbooks makes financial management easy as pie.
Like all bookkeeping tools, Freshbooks helps make sure you’re financially on track.
This beginner-friendly tool allows you to send invoices in seconds and offers various essential features such as expense tracking, time tracking, and reporting.
It’s extremely easy to understand Freshbooks’ profitability dashboard. Right away, you can tell if your business is making progress.
That said, give Freshbooks a shot if you’re new to bookkeeping.
Zoho One
Source: Zoho
Use it to: Streamline different departments (e.g. sales, marketing, support, human resources, etc.) in one platform.
Pricing: 30-day free trial available. Paid plans start at $30 per employee per month, billed annually.
Zoho One is an all-in-one management system that enables you to track every aspect of your business.
Boasting 40+ integrated applications, you can easily manage and automate multiple processes across your entire organization.
SalesIQ allows you to see how customers behave on your website. Books enables you to track and prepare your finances. And Social helps you to grow your presence on social media. And these are just a few of its standout features.
Overwhelmed by your messy business workflows? Zoho One could be the one-stop management solution you need.
G Suite
Source: G Suite
Use it to: Oversee essential tasks from emailing to running meetings and creating documents and spreadsheets in one complete business management solution.
Pricing: 14-day free trial available. Paid plans start at $6 per user per month.
G Suite provides the essentials to get your business up and running, and at an affordable price to boot.
You get your professional email address, run meetings with your teams and clients, and collaborate on files in real-time.
Plutio
Agency owners and freelancers, listen up! If you’re looking to wow your clients, look no further than Plutio.
This project management and customer relationship management (CRM) tool rolled into one is something else.
Source: YouTube
Plutio enables you to manage everything your business needs from collaborating on projects and creating proposals to organizing timesheets and sending invoices — without ever leaving the platform.
That’s right, you get to create a remarkable client experience from beginning to end!
Get the Plutio team plan yearly access for $199 (retail value: $360) on AppSumo today.
Ahrefs
Use it to: Create SEO-driven content and analyze and build backlinks, especially if content marketing is part of your inbound strategy.
Pricing: 7-day trial costs $7. Paid plans start at $82 a month + two months free, billed annually.
Ahrefs is a must-have tool if you want to grow your small business organically.
This SEO powerhouse software solution allows you to monitor your competitors and identify the type of content you need to create to blow them out of the water.
James Canzanella, owner of Isolated Marketing Nights, does this by finding low-competition keywords on Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and Keyword Explorer.
HubSpot
Image Source: hubspot.com
HubSpot is a business management system built with specialized features for inbound marketing, including a marketing hub, sales hub, CMS hub, and service hub. In short: it’s definitely one of the most powerful tools for managing a business out there.
Hubspot really seems to have it all. Not only can you manage your content and PPC marketing, but also sales pipelines, lead relationships, and support tickets without any issues whatsoever. It also tracks every one of your customer interactions into amazing detail, helping you save time on sales management.
Additionally, by offering features such as email tracking, email sequencing, and prospect profiles, this business management software is there to help you automate all of your tasks faster than ever.
However, one of the main complaints is that it has quite a bit of a learning curve, so if you opt for Hubspot, be sure to set aside some time to learn how to use it.
Key Features
- Lead Generation
- Sales Automation
- Lead Management
- Pipeline Management
- Marketing Automation
- Email Automation & Tracking
- Support Tickets Management
- Analytics
- Meeting Scheduler
- Click to Call Function
- Sales Email Templates
- Knowledge Base
- Customer Feedback
- Ads Management Dashboard
- Blog Management Dashboard
- SEO Management Dashboard
- Social Media Management Dashboard
- Content Management System
- Document Tracking
Pricing
Hubspot’s pricing depends on which hub you choose, but it generally starts around $45 per month. It also offers free tools which you can use to get a better sense of what this software can do for you.
Bitrix24
Image Source: bitrix24.com
If you’re looking for the best business management software for CRM, task management, and collaboration, then Bitrix24 is the perfect tool for you.
Bitrix24 offers a suite of awesome tools for management, communication, and social collaboration, meaning your team will lack for nothing when it comes to working on different projects. You get features for managing support, sales leads, online stores, creating landing pages, a CRM, and all the bells and whistles that come with it.
There’s even an HR system that you can make use of, which is all kinds of cool.
Some of the main issues users have had with this business management platform is that their customer support is limited and that the UX gets a bit clunky from time to time. However, the good news is that the learning curve isn’t steep so you’ll get to figure it out fast.
Key Features
- Team Communication
- Task & Project Management
- Kanban Planner
- Gantt Charts
- Notifications
- Quotes & Invoices
- Reminders
- Task Time Tracking
- Task Templates
- Rate Task
- HR System
- Report Builder
- CRM, Workflow, Calendar & Drive Integration
- Task Dependencies
- Project Workgroups
- Template Sharing
- Sites & Landing Pages
- Data Import/Export (CSV)
Pricing
Bitrix24 currently has a free plan for an unlimited number of users, while the first paying plan starts at $14.40 per month for 2 users if you opt for a two-year period plan.
nTask
Image Source: ntaskmanager.com
Just like the title states, if you’re a solopreneur or small business with five or fewer projects at a time, then you can definitely manage your whole business with nTask.
While more focused on task planning, this business software can still help you efficiently manage your business and your team. With features such as prioritization, scheduling, and tracking you’ll be able to get a hold of all of your planned projects and tasks. Add to the mix reporting and visualization features, as well as collaboration and you’ve got yourself a tool worth checking out.
One of the major downsides of this tool is that it tends to be too complicated for users to understand, plus features don’t come out as fast as people would like them, too. Still, if you’d like a business management tool that’s free and functional, this is the one.
Key Features
- Gantt Charts
- Time Tracking
- Project Issues
- Project Risks
- Project Budgets
- Risk Analytics
- Cost Estimates
- Checklists
- Assign Tasks
- Recurring Tasks
- Public Links
- Task Management in Grid, List, or Calendar View
- Meeting Management Tool
- Calendar Integration
- Third-Party Integrations
- Activity Log
- Built-In Custom Search
- Notifications
- 2-Factor Authentication
- iOS and Android Mobile Apps
Pricing
nTask is completely free for up to five team members and 100MB of storage. The pricing plans start at $2.99 per user per month, if paid annually. There’s also a 14-day trial you can use if you want to give it a go without commitment.
Conclusion:
Small business management software has come a long way over the years. The look and feel of the software, and everything it does, seem to keep up with the times and its users. From CRM to accounting and inventory management to more specific areas of business, there is a software out there that will fulfill your every need.