Technology can support all parts of your company and help you plan, grow, market, organize, and operate more efficiently. Being in a business that revolves around technology, we’re a little obsessed with it. We’ve explored just about every tool out there.
For organizations just starting out and wondering what to use, or established and looking for better solutions, here’s our list of the best business technology and resources available for any need.
ADVERTISING AND MARKETING
Website
HTML5 UP (Free): Access to tons of HTML5 website templates that are responsive and customizable
Bootswatch (Free): Website themes for Bootstrap, just download and install
Strikingly (Free, paid options up to $16/month): Drag-and-drop website design and hosting with mobile-optimized templates and no coding skills needed
WordPress (Free): Popular, open-source software that supports thousands of website themes and plugins
Bootstrap Zero (Free): Open-source Bootstrap template resource that currently has 184 free themes
Flatlogic (Free with premium options): Web and mobile application templates including Bootstrap templates and web themes, mobile apps, and both front- and back-end templates
Wix (Free with paid options up to $25/month): Simple, drag-and-drop webpage creator with tons of free features
ClickMinded Digital Marketing Templates (Free): Downloadable templates and guides for SEO, landing pages, advertising, content and email marketing, social media, and more
WebsiteSetup (Free): Free resource for helping beginners to build, manage and grow their websites
Writing/Blogging
Grammarly (Free with paid options up to $12.50/month): A browser extension that gives you spellcheck features anywhere you’re writing – emails, social media, and more
EssayOnTime (Free): Paste in your content and this website will find and correct grammar and punctuation errors
Hemingway (Free): Input your text and it will help you find mistakes and areas to improve grammar and flow
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer (Free): Input the blog or news headline you want to use and this tool will analyze its structure and give improvement recommendations to attract readers
Free Summarizer (Free): Summarize any text into a length of your choosing
Hubspot Blog Idea Generator (Free): Input a few subjects you’d like to write about and this tool will output blog ideas
Buzzsumo (Free with paid options up to $239/month): Analyze what content is performing best around a topic or competitor
Portent Content Idea Generator (Free): Enter a subject and get blog title ideas for it to spark your writing
Social Media
CoSchedule Click-to-Tweet (Free): Create click-to-tweet boxes within your content to promote social shares
Later (Free with paid options up to $49/month): Visually plan and schedule your Instagram posts
Crowdfire (Free): Connect your social media accounts to get pre-made posts with curated content relevant to your business goals and industry; manage social accounts and get customized recommendations to grow
Buffer (Free with paid options up to $399/month): Curate, schedule, manage, and get analytics for your social media posts across multiple accounts
ShareThis (Free): Various tools to grow your business and following including embeddable website sharing and reaction buttons, social post a/b testing, viral notifications, and an email list builder
BUSINESS PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
U.S. Small Business Association (Free): Straightforward business advice and tools from a reliable source
OnlineMBA (Free): Business education resources for future entrepreneurs, including guides and state-specific resources
HubSpot Business Templates (Free): High-quality templates for business plans, invoices/receipts, project management, proposals/estimates/quotes, and agendas/schedules.
Bplans (Free): Guides on everything you could imagine about planning and running a business; ideas, plans, templates, courses, pitching, funding, starting, managing, and various tools
enloop (Free with paid options up to $39.95/month): Quickly create bank- and investor-ready business plans and financial forecasts
Microsoft for Startups (Free): Helps startups succeed by giving them access to technical resources, free cloud and other services, Azure credits, business enablement and marketing, and other resources
IBM Global Entrepreneur (Free): Designed to provide technology startups with access to technology usage credits, industry experts, and enterprise-grade cloud, data, IoT, Blockchain, and AI technologies to develop with
Naminum (Free): Find the perfect company name based on a word of your choosing
Wordoid (Free): Generates made-up, but nice-sounding words to help you find a unique name for your company, product, or domain
Lean Domain Search (Free): Enter a word to quickly find available domain names containing it
COMMUNICATION
Skype (Free with paid options up to around $8/user/month): The first internet calling service, Skype allows for text, voice, and video chats, along with document sharing
Slack (Free with paid options up to $12.50/user/month): Helps you manage internal conversations across multiple platforms and channels
MailChimp (Free with paid options up to around $200/month): Create great-looking emails and newsletters quickly using drag-and-drop features and templates; get analytics and extra features to help drive your email campaigns
Campaign Monitor ($9 – $149/month): Another great, affordable email and newsletter creator with templates, analytics, and drag-and-drop functionality
MailTracker (Free): Simple and free email tracking for Gmail to see when your emails are opened and how many times
Mailtrack (Free with paid options up to $6/month): Track your sent email opens and get real-time notifications, link tracking, reminders, and other features
Canned Emails (Free): If you need to quickly create a commonly-used email type, this website loads up a pre-written message directly into your email program
Unroll.me (Free): Quickly bulk unsubscribe from all of those newsletters and emails you don’t care about
Uberconference (Free with paid options up to $10/month): Simplifies the conference call process with options to run from a web interface to see who’s talking and mute noisy participants, automatic dialing out to participants when the conference is about to start, share screens and documents, and choose your own hold music
DATA MANAGEMENT
Dropbox (Free with paid options up to $20/user/month): Free storage up to 2GB with the free plan, and paid options offer more storage with the ability to share and collaborate on files
Box (Free with paid options up to $15/user/month): Offers 10GB of free personal storage, with sharing and collaborating on files made easy
Google Drive (Free with paid options up to $99.99/month): Offers 15GB of free personal storage along with file sharing and collaborating
DESIGN AND BRANDING
Canva (Free with paid options up to $12.95/month): Quickly and easily design graphics for anything you could think of; social media banners, logos, blog graphics, infographics, flyers, business cards, ads, invitations, postcards, and more
Piktochart (Free with paid options up to $29/month): Quickly create professional infographics with templates and provided graphics
Logaster (Free with paid options up to $29.99): Generate and customize a logo for your company
Signature Maker (Free): Create a professional email signature with your business details
Placeit (Free): Drag-and-drop designer to quickly create mockups for digital products, clothing, print, and other media
Previewed (Free with paid options up to $20/month): A device mockup generator to create 3D image shots and animations for your app
Free Stock Images & Graphics
Foter – Photos
Stock Up – Photos
Pexels – Photos
Pixabay – Photos, vectors, illustrations, videos
Wunderstock – Photos
Pikwizard – Photos, with an emphasis on people
StockSnap – Photos
AllTheFreeStock – Photos, mockups, videos, sound effects, icons, website and email templates, fonts
Unsplash – Photos
Foodiesfeed – Food photos
Splitshire – Photos
New Old Stock – Vintage photos from public archives
PicJumbo – Photos
Gratisography – Modern and quirky photos
Bucketlistly – Travel photos
Free Nature Stock – Nature photos
EDUCATION
Coursera (Free): Take a breadth of courses from well-known universities for free
Khan Academy (Free): Online courses over a variety of subjects
Codecademy (Free): Learn to code interactively
StartupClass (Free): An online course from Stanford University with information and lectures about launching a startup business
Udemy ($10-200 one time fee/course): Cost-effective courses in a broad range of topics
FINANCING
StreetShares (Free): Connects you with peer-to-peer lenders for small business funding; share your story and demonstrate the value of your business idea to recruit lenders
Kickstarter (5% of funding total): Crowdsource your business funding or idea with micro-donors and without giving away equity
Fundera (Free): Answer some questions about your business and need and get matched with lenders
LEGAL
Docracy (Free): Find open-source, customizable legal documents for any kind of business need
Legalzoom (Varies based on need): Legal advice, prep, document creation, and filing at affordable prices
Shake (Free): Create, sign, and send legally binding agreements digitally
MONEY MANAGEMENT
Expensify (Free with paid options up to $9/user/month): Automate expense tracking and reporting with smart receipt scanning, mobile and travel expense tracking, and reimbursement features
Paypal (Free with paid options up to $30/month): Take payments and automate eCommerce needs
TSheets (Free with paid options up to $4/user/month + base fee): Tracking and management of employee time
Gusto ($6/user/month + $39/month base price): Automated payroll, benefits, and HR
ORGANIZATION AND PRODUCTIVITY
Evernote (Free with paid options up to $12/user/month): Create, store, and share detailed notes
Indy (Free to try then $5.99/month): Marketing, workflow, and payment tools along with essential information and news, designed for freelancers and independent workers
Trello (Free with paid options up to around $20/user/month): Keep track of project requirements, activities, and goals with your team
Yanado (Free with paid options up to $15/user/month): Manage projects within Gmail and create task lists directly from emails
Pocket (Free): Save articles, videos, and webpages to view later
LogSpace (Free with paid option of $4/person/month): Time tracking, invoicing, and expense management
SCHEDULING
FreeBusy (Free with paid options up to $20/user/month): Automate meeting scheduling with calendar synchronization and availability viewing for people both within and outside your company
Clockify (Free with paid options up to $450/month): Time tracker and timesheet app with unlimited free users, can pay for additional features and security
Doodle (Free with paid option of $99/month): Easily schedule meetings, sync to your calendar, and view availability
When I Work (Free): Employee scheduling software that makes shift management easy and quick; includes features like employee notifications, managed time off requests, and mobile use
