Whether you’re starting a new business, or you’ve been in business for years, using tools to save you time, increase your productivity, and bring in more revenue, will change your business.
The goal is to work smarter, not harder, right? That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best tools so that you can focus on the most important tasks to grow your business.
Estimated reading time: 23 minutes
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Table of contents
Communication and collaboration
The following tools are the best for communication or collaboration among your team.
Zoom
For meetings, classes, screen sharing, or any other video conferencing need that you have, Zoom is the answer.
It’s a cloud-based video conferencing tool that allows you to host or record meetings. You can host up to 100 people on a call for free.
Group calls for free users are limited to 40 minutes, but one-on-one calls are unlimited.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Basic for personal meetings: Free.
- Pro for small teams: $14.99 per month per host up to 9 hosts.
- Business for small and medium businesses: Starting at 10 hosts for $199.90 per month.
- Enterprise for large enterprises: Starting at 100 hosts for $1,999 per month.
Try Zoom.
Skype
Skype has been around since 2003, whereas Zoom was released in 2011.
Skype is more user-friendly due to the length of time it’s been around, and it allows you to host or join meetings without signing up or downloading the app.
It’s free unless you’d like to use it to call a phone number domestically or internationally. The subscription will start at $2.99 a month.
Try Skype.
Cisco Webex Meetings
As one of the most popular audio, video, and content-sharing platforms, Cisco Webex Meetings allows you to have secure and productive meetings.
You can host up to 100 participants for 50 minutes at no cost. For more time or participants, you’ll have to upgrade.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Free for personal use.
- Starter for small teams: $13.50 per month per host.
- Plus for mid-sized teams: $17.95 per month per host.
- Business for large teams and businesses: $26.95 per month per host with a minimum of 5 licenses per month.
Try Webex.
Google Workspace
Once you start your business and get a domain, you need to have a professional email.
A separate email for business will make you look more professional. It’ll also build trust with your customers and potential clients.
Google Workspace also allows you to add more users, which will give everyone on your team an email address.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Basic: $6 per month per user.
- Business: $12 per month per user.
- Enterprise: $25 per month per user.
Use promo code “GCWCUMKJLFKADE7” to get 20% off the first year.
Try Google Workspace.
Slack
Slack is a powerful and secure messaging tool that’ll keep your team connected with sense of community.
It’s great for communication and is easy to use. Slack also integrates with more than 2,200 other apps and office tools. It’s a beneficial tool that’ll increase your productivity.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Free for small teams.
- Standard for small to medium-sized teams: $6.67 per month per user when paid annually or $8 per month per user.
- Plus: $12.50 per month per user when paid annually or $15 per month per user.
- Enterprise Grid: If you’re an extra-large business or in regulated industries, you’ll need to contact them for pricing.
Try Slack.
Asana
For a high-quality task management tool, Asana is an exceptional option. It’s intuitive, flexible, and easy to use.
Regardless of your company size, Asana can work for you. It can handle multiple projects at a time and can be integrated with other office apps or tools that you currently use.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Basic for individuals or teams just getting started with project management: Free.
- Premium for teams that need to create project plans with confidence: $10.99 per month per user when paid annually or $13.49 per month per user when paid monthly.
- Business for teams and companies that need to manage work across initiatives: $24.99 per month per user when paid annually or $30.49 per month per user when paid monthly.
- Enterprise for large companies that need additional security, control, and support: Contact Asana for pricing.
Try Asana.
WordPress website
The following tools are the best for creating and maintaining a WordPress website.
TinyJPG
When you upload images to your website, you need to compress them and reduce the file size.
Large images slow down your web pages, which results in a bad user experience. TinyJPG compresses your images while maintaining the quality for free.
Try TinyJPG.
Genesis Framework
It’s the standard for a WordPress framework because it runs efficiently and keeps your security a priority.
The Genesis Framework costs $59.95 and gives your website a solid foundation. We use the Genesis Framework with a StudioPress child theme.
Get the Genesis Framework.
StudioPress
StudioPress makes amazing themes for different types of websites. View the different themes to see which one resonates with you the most.
You can set up a nice homepage, pricing page, blog, about, and contact page. Each theme costs $50 to $75.
Get a theme from StudioPress.
BigScoots
BigScoots is our go-to hosting platform. You can purchase your domain through them as well.
They offer exceptional customer service and are quick to respond. BigScoots will set up your WordPress site, which is the best website platform.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Starter: $34.95 per month, includes 1 WordPress install.
- Professional: $98.95 per month, includes up to 10 WordPress installs.
- Business: $248.95 per month, includes up to 20 WordPress installs.
- Enterprise: Talk to BigScoots for pricing.
Try BigScoots.
WP Rocket
If your website has a slow load time, people will immediately leave. Google has said that page speed is a signal used to rank pages. WP Rocket allows you to speed up your website and enhance its performance.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Single: $49 per year for 1 website.
- Plus: $99 per year for up to 3 websites.
- Infinite: $249 per year for an unlimited number of websites.
Get WP Rocket.
Titan Anti-Spam
CreativeMotion created the Titan Anti-Spam plugin as a free defense to protect your website. It includes anti-spam, firewall, malware scanner, site accessibility checking, security, and threats audits for WordPress websites.
Get the Titan Anti-Spam plugin.
Productivity and project management
The following are the best productivity and project management tools.
Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects cloud-based project management tool that helps you plan your work, track it efficiently, and collaborate with your team. It has excellent features, an easy-to-use interface, and perfect for time-tracking.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Standard: $3 monthly per user for 6 to 10 users. This includes 5GB of file storage.
- Express: $4 monthly per user for 12 to 50 users. This includes 20GB of file storage.
- Premium: $5 monthly per user for 15 to 100 users. This includes 100GB of file storage.
- Enterprise: $6 monthly per user for 20 or more users. This includes 120GB of file storage.
Try Zoho Projects.
Trello
Whether you’re a solopreneur, or have a team, Trello will help you get more done and stay organized.
You can work collaboratively, or use it to manage your tasks. It has a helpful drag-and-drop feature, which makes it easy to move around items on your boards.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- The free plan is great for personal use.
- Business Class: $12.50 monthly per user, or $9.99 per month per user if you pay annually.
- Enterprise: Starts at $17.50 monthly per user for 100 users, and increases with a sliding scale.
Try Trello.
Harvest
Harvest is a web-based time tracking and reporting tool. You can track the amount of time that you spend working to stay accountable or to bill clients.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Free: Perfect for 1 person and 2 projects.
- Pro: $12 monthly per person, includes unlimited people and projects.
Try Harvest.
Marketing and design
The following tools are the best for marketing and design.
Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe CC comes with the tools you need to edit photos, create videos, create logos, ebooks, and PDFs. If you only want Lightroom and Photoshop, the Photography Plan is a cheaper option.
Cost: $52.99 per month for individuals or $59.99 per month per user for businesses.
Get Adobe Creative Cloud.
Canva
Canva is an excellent graphic design tool for creating visual content and has many templates that you can personalize or use for ideas. You can upgrade to Canva Pro, which will open up many features.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- The free plan is intended for individuals and small groups.
- Pro for individuals and small teams who need more customization: $9.95 per month per user when billed annually, or $12.95 per month per user.
- Enterprise for larger teams who need advanced brand and collaboration control: $30 per month per user when billed annually. If you’d like to do the monthly plan, you’ll have to contact Canva.
Try Canva.
ConvertKit
Email marketing is an important part of your marketing strategy. Grow your email list with ConvertKit because it’s user-friendly, and allows you to segment your subscribers.
By upgrading to the paid plan, you’ll have access to powerful automation tools, which can help you increase your conversion rate.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Free: $0 up to 1,00 subscribers. Includes forms and email broadcasts.
- Complete: Starts at $29 per month or $290 per year. The price will increase as you grow your email list.
Try ConvertKit.
MailerLite
MailerLite is designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It’s an affordable email marketing and management tool that has an intuitive automation feature.
You pay for the number of subscribers you have and they have excellent customer support if you need assistance.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- 1 to 1,000 subscribers: Free for 12,000 emails per month. If you want unlimited emails, it’s $10 per month.
- 1,001 to 2,500 subscribers: $15 per month.
- 2,501 to 5,000 subscribers: $30 per month.
- 5,001 to 10,000 subscribers: $50 per month.
Try MailerLite.
Klaviyo
Klaviyo is one of the most popular email marketing tools for e-commerce because it integrates seamlessly with many platforms.
It has a clean, organized, and user-friendly interface, which makes it easy to use. Klaviyo also offers SMS marketing with 2-way messaging.
Klaviyo’s pricing calculator will allow you to calculate the cost per month. You can select email, SMS, or both.
Try Klaviyo.
SEMrush
SEMrush is an exception SEO tool. It offers in-depth keyword research, backlink tracking, and domain analytics.
It also gives you a checklist to improve your on-page SEO. By improving your content and rankings, you can organically drive more traffic to your site, which may help increase revenue.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Pro: $99.95 per month.
- Guru: $199.95 per month.
- Business: $399.95 per month.
- You can save 16% by switching to annual billing.
Try SEMrush.
Planoly
If your business has an Instagram account, you need to be on Planoly because it’ll allow you to prepare posts in advance. You can plan and curate your Instagram feed to make it look visually appealing, too.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Free: $0 but limited to 30 uploads per month, so you can’t prepare multiple months in advance.
- Solo: $7 per month when billed annually or $9 monthly.
- Duo: $15 per month when billed annually or $19 monthly.
- Custom: $23 per month when billed annually or $29 monthly.
Try Planoly.
Accounting and legal
The following are the best tools for accounting and the legal aspect of your business.
iubenda
iubenda generates privacy and cookie policies to stay compliant with online regulations. It also has terms and conditions generator, cookie solutions, consent solutions, and internal privacy management.
Their motto is to provide attorney-level solutions to make your websites and apps compliant with the law across multiple countries and legislations.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Personal: $29 per year includes 1 license.
- Business: $9 per month includes 5 licenses.
Try iubenda.
Cookiebot
Cookiebot offers cookie consent, cookie monitoring and cookie control. It ensures that your website is compliant with GDPR legislation and EU ePrivacy Directive 2009/136/EC.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Free: 1 domain and less than 100 subpages.
- Premium Small: $10 per month per domain, needs to have less than 500 subpages.
- Premium Medium: $24 per month per domain, needs to have less than 5,000 subpages.
- Premium Large: $41 per month per domain, can have more than 5,000 subpages.
Try Cookiebot.
Wave Financial
When it comes to accounting and organizing your expenses into categories, Wave is a great tool.
The invoice and transaction management systems are user-friendly and work well. It’s perfect for small businesses or freelancers.
If you have a medium to large-sized business, you may want to use Xero or Quickbooks.
Cost: Accounting is free. You can upgrade to other services, which will cost a fee.
Try Wave.
HelloSign
For legally binding eSignatures, HelloSign is the solution. It makes the document-signing process much faster, simplified, and secure.
It also complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standards, which is great if you’re in that industry.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Free: $0 and you get 3 signatures per month.
- Pro: $15 per month or $156 annually.
- Business: $50 per month or $480 annually.
- Enterprise: Contact HelloSign.
Try HelloSign.
Stride
Stride helps you automatically track your business miles and expenses to save money on your tax bill. It’s built and designed for self-employed and 1099 workers.
Try Stride.
Expensify
Expensify is great for receipt and expense management. Another benefit is that it integrates with Quickbooks.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Individuals get 25 free SmartScans per month for $4.99 monthly.
- Groups that want to automate receipt collection and reimbursement will be $5 per user per month.
- Groups that need expense reporting, card management, approvals, and reimbursements pay $9 per user per month.
Try Expensify.
Customer support
The following are the best tools to support your customers.
Typeform
Typeform makes online forms and surveys incredible. It has a beautiful interface and is user-friendly.
One of the most highly-praised aspects of Typeform that businesses have received feedback about from consumers is the effortless process.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Essentials: $35 monthly, or $30 per month when billed annually. This plan includes 1,000 responses per month.
- Professional: $50 monthly, or $35 per month when billed annually. This plan includes 5,000 responses per month.
- Premium: $70 monthly, or $59 per month when billed annually. This plan includes 10,000 responses per month.
- If you want a free survey tool, use Google Forms for personal.
Try Typeform.
Zendesk
Zendesk is one of the highest-rated and most used customer service software. It’s a fully customizable help desk that’s scaleable, which is perfect as you grow.
There are several options depending on what you need. Prices can range from $5 per agent per month to $200. Visit Zendesk’s pricing page to view all of the options.
Try Zendesk.
Helpwise
Keep all of your customer conversations in one place. Helpwise keeps emails, SMS, WhatsApp messages, social media messages, or live chat conversations in one inbox.
This allows you to easily collaborate with your team and provide great customer service.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Standard: $15 monthly per user, and $12 monthly per user if billed annually.
- Premium: $25 monthly per user, and $20 monthly per user if billed annually.
- Enterprise: Contact Helpwise for pricing.
Try Helpwise.
HubSpot
HubSpot is a full platform of marketing, sales, customer service, and CRM software. They’re intuitive and have a tool for businesses of all sizes.
It offers many tools including customer relationship management, marketing, sales, and service hubs.
It can range from $40 per month to more than $1,000. For specific pricing information, visit their pricing page.
Try HubSpot.
E-commerce
The following are the best tools for e-commerce.
Shopify
Shopify is an excellent platform for e-commerce. It’s powerful, user-friendly, and scalable for businesses of any size.
Whether you sell online or have a physical location, Shopify is the best e-commerce platform on the market.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Basic Shopify: $29 per month.
- Shopify: $79 per month.
- Advanced Shopify: $299 per month.
- View the details of each plan on Shopify’s pricing page.
Try Shopify.
WooCommerce
If you have a WordPress website, WooCommerce is the best platform for you because it integrates easily, is great with SEO, and is an open-source plugin.
It’ll give you a robust online store with plenty of flexibility to make adjustments.
It’s free to install, with no setup fees or monthly fees. Starting from 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.
Try WooCommerce.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce isn’t as widely used as Shopify, but it’s still a popular choice. It has well-built features, plenty of payment options, and can be scaled easily. The themes offered by BigCommerce are modern, professional and responsive.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Standard: $29.95 monthly.
- Plus: $79.95 monthly.
- Pro: $299.95 monthly.
- Enterprise: Contact BigCommerce for pricing.
- You can save 10% on the Plus and Pro plan by paying annually.
Try BigCommerce.
Magento
Magento is another popular open-source e-commerce platform. The features and customization options are exceptional. It also has advanced technology.
When compared to Shopify, it’s more technical. It can be difficult to get the most out of using it unless you’re familiar with it.
You’ll have to contact Magento for pricing, but it starts around $2,000 per month.
Try Magento.
Cloud storage and file transferring
For cloud storage or transferring file, check out the following tools.
Dropbox
Dropbox is an excellent solution for any business that needs cloud file storage. It’s trusted by over 300,000 companies around the world and offers a remote-wipe feature for security.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Professional: $19.99 for one user. This plan includes 3TB of storage space.
- Standard: $15 per user per month, starting at three users. This plan includes 5TB of storage space.
- Advanced: $25 per user per month, starting at three users. This plan includes as much space as you need.
Try Dropbox.
Microsoft OneDrive
If you’re already using other Microsoft solutions, OneDrive is ideal for you. It’s secure, simple, and easy to use.
The following are the plans and pricing details:
- Plan 1: $5 per month with an annual commitment.
- Plan 2: $10 per month with an annual commitment. This plan offers advanced security.
Try Microsoft OneDrive.
Google Drive
Google Drive one of the best cloud collaboration tools out there. Anyone on your team can work on a document at the same time from anywhere around the world. Anything you create with Docs, Sheets, or Slides won’t use up any of your storage.
If you already have Google Workspace, you get 30 GB. You can upgrade to 100 GB for $1.99 monthly or $19.99 annually. The following is how much it costs for TB’s:
- 1 TB: $9.99 per month.
- 2 TB: $19.99 per month.
- 10 TB: $99.99 per month.
- 20 TB: $199.99 per month.
- 30 TB: $299.99 per month.
Get Google Drive.
Good reads
The following books will inspire and help you grow your business:
- Start with Why by Simon Sinek.
- The Crossroads of Should and Must by Elle Luna.
- Daring Greatly by Brené Brown.
- Grit by Angela Duckworth.
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
- Ca$hvertising by Drew Eric Whitman.
- Purple Cow by Seth Godin.
- The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor.
- Influence by Robert Cialdini.
