A-Z of free small business tools to help creators grow in 2024

Small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are relying on software more than ever – which means creators like you have more choice than ever too.

From managing projects to managing payments, I’ve scraped the web and put dozens of tools to the test so you don’t have to.

And so, here it is, the A-Z of small business tools to help you grow.

1. Ahrefs – best business tool for search engine optimization (SEO)

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO platform that helps companies rank higher in search engines and grow traffic. And it also offers a suite of free tools that are perfect for creators.

What’s included for free

Ahrefs offers a wide range of free business tools for SEO, including:

• Keyword generator – get keyword suggestions based on any word or phrase
• Website traffic checker – see search traffic estimates based on any website or web page
• SERP checker – analyze the top 10 rankings for any keyword in any country
• Keyword rank checker – check any site’s ranking position for any keyword in any country

Alternative business tools for SEO

Here are a few other online business tools you can explore for SEO:

• SEMrush
• Moz
• Ubersuggest
• Serpstat

2. Buffer – best business tool for social media

Buffer is one of the most popular social media tools for business. From TikTok to Pinterest, it simplifies scheduling and analytics across all your channels, helping you build a consistent and effective online presence.

What’s included in the free plan

Buffer’s free plan has everything you need to start scheduling social media posts, including:

• Planning and publishing tools – manage up to three social channels and schedule up to 10 posts at a time for each channel
• Landing page builder – create a customizable landing page with your best content that you can insert into your social bios
• AI assistant – generate posts for your content schedule and come up with endless new ideas

Alternative business tools for social media

Looking for other options? Check out these popular social media management tools:

• Hootsuite
• Later
• Zoho Social
• SocialPilot

3. Canva – best business tool for graphic design

Canva is a game-changer for small business creators diving into graphic design. Even if you aren’t a designer yourself, it’ll have you crafting professional-looking visuals and marketing materials before you know it.

What’s included in the free plan

Here are a few ways Canva can level up your design game:

• Drag-and-drop editor – create and edit designs with ease in your web browser
• Templates and graphics – give yourself a head start with 250,000+ templates, 100+ design types, and  1+ million free photos and graphics
• Print your designs – get business cards, flyers, and more printed and delivered to your door

Alternative business tools for graphic design

Here are a few other design tools worth checking out:

• Figma
• PicMonkey
• Snappa
• Text

4. Discord – best business tool for work chat

Over the last few years, Discord has gone from a gaming chatroom to a work-friendly messenger app. Today, it’s the perfect choice for creators who need a free and easy way to chat and collaborate.

What’s included in the free plan

Discord offers everything you would expect from a work chat tool, including:

• Unlimited messaging – chat in channels, send direct messages, and join servers to network with other creators
• File sharing – upload images, designs, and other content up to a 25 MB limit for each file
• Video conferencing – jump on a video call with up to seven other people in your team

Alternative business tools for work chat

Here are four more great platforms for workplace messenger:

• Slack
• Microsoft Teams
• Hangouts Chat
• Rocket.Chat

5. Evernote – best business tool for note-taking

When it comes to digital tools for business, Evernote is a must for on-the-go creators. It’s perfect for jotting down ideas and meeting notes that you may need later, wherever you are.

What’s included in the free plan

Here are a few ways Evernote can help with your note-taking needs:

• Digital notebook – create one notebook and add up to 50 notes
• Attachments – attach PDFs and other file types to give your notes extra context
• Multiple devices – sync your notes across your phone, laptop, and tablet

Alternative business tools for note-taking

Check out these alternatives for taking and managing notes:

• OneNote
• Simplenote
• Google Keep
• Zoho Notebook

6. FigJam – best business tool for whiteboarding

Need a way to run remote (or even asynchronous) brainstorms and workshops? Enter FigJam. Created by the team behind Figma, it gives you a collaborative space to draw, create notes, drop post-its, and more.

What’s included in the free plan

FigJam’s free plan gives you everything you need to make your meetings more dynamic, including:

• Digital whiteboards – create up to three FigJam files for collaborating with teammates, plus unlimited personal files
• Ready-made templates – get access to templates for everything from daily standups to icebreaker games
• Music player – set the tone for your meetings to help get the ideas following

Alternative business tools for whiteboarding

Here are four great alternatives for whiteboarding and post-it exercises:

• Miro
• Lucidchart
• Excalidraw
• Whimsical

7. Google Workspace – best business tool for email and document collaboration

Google Workspace is the home of popular online business tools like Gmail, Drive, Docs, and Meet. This gives you a centralized hub for any content you need to create for your business.

What’s included in the free plan

On paper, Google Workspace doesn’t offer a free plan for businesses. But if you’re just getting started or running things solo, you can get all this with your personal Google account:

• Content creation – create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms
• Cloud storage – get 15 GB secure storage with Drive that you can access on any of your devices
• Email account – send and receive emails securely with Gmail
• Video conferencing – set up calls with up to 100 participants using Meet

Alternative business tools for email and document collaboration

Here are four popular alternatives for email and document collaboration:

• Microsoft 365
• Zoho Workplace
• ProtonMail (email only)
• Quip (collaborative documents only)

8. Hemingway Editor – best business tool for writing and proofreading

Hemingway Editor is named after the famously-to-the-point American novelist, Ernest Hemingway. And, like him, it helps you cut the fluff from your copy so you can make every character count.

What’s included in the free plan

Hemingway Editor offers a bunch of features absolutely free, including:

• Readability score – see which parts of your writing are hardest to read and make changes on the fly
• Real-time counter – see how many letters, characters, words, sentences, and paragraphs you’ve used
• Reading time – get an accurate reading time for your content, perfect for articles and newsletters

Alternative business tools for writing and proofreading

Want to compare Hemingway Editor with other options? Here are a few alternative business tools for writing and proofreading:

• Grammarly
• ProWritingAid
• Calmly Writer
• Online Correction

9. Intercom – best business tool for customer service (free trial only)

Intercom is a brilliant choice for creators who are passionate about customer service. It offers live chat, automated chatbots, and even an AI assistant called Fin. But that’s not all! You can also create a help center to answer all your customers’ questions.

What’s included in the cheapest plan

Intercom doesn’t offer a free plan, but they do offer a free 14-day trial. After that, you’ll have to upgrade to their Essential plan for $39/seat per month. Here’s what’s included:

• Basic chatbots – create automated chatbots to triage conversations and qualify leads before diving into discussions
• AI answers – automatically answer customer questions based on support content in your help center
• Website banners – add banner messages to your website or blog pages to highlight offers or other promotions

Alternative business tools for customer service

Here are a few other options worth considering:

• Freshdesk
• Zoho Desk
• Drift
• Help Scout

10. JotForm – best business tool for forms and surveys

JotForm offers a suite of digital tools for business owners and creators. You can build forms, collect data, and even get documents signed – all in one easy-to-use platform.

What’s included in the free plan

Here’s a breakdown of what you get in JotForm’s free plan:

• Form builder – create up to five forms with 100 fields per form and get up to 100 submissions per month
• Templates – get access to thousands of templates, including booking forms, questionnaires, and legal documents
• E-signatures – create, share, and e-sign up to 10 documents per month 

Alternative business tools for forms and surveys

Here are four great alternatives for creating forms and surveys:

• Typeform
• Google Forms
• Wufoo by SurveyMonkey
• Formstack (free trial only)

11. Kaspersky Cloud Free – best business tool for antivirus protection

As a creator, your computer is pretty much your life. So you need to make sure your data (and your customers’ or clients’ data) is protected. Kaspersky Cloud Free is an antivirus tool that helps you do just that.

What’s included in the free plan

Kaspersky Cloud Free has everything you need to create with confidence, including:

• Device security – protect your devices from viruses, malware, and ransomware in real time
• Stalkerware detection – get warnings about apps on your desktop or phone that spy on you and track your activity

Alternative business tools for antivirus protection

Here are a few other antivirus protection tools worth exploring

• Avast Free Antivirus
• Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition
• Avira Free Security Suite
• Sophos Home Free

12. Loom – best business tool for screen recordings

Loom is a brilliant tool for creators who need to present their work to collaborators or clients. You can record your screen and yourself at the same time, all in a few clicks.

What’s included in the free plan

Loom’s free version has everything you need to share video recordings and save time on meetings, including:

• Screen and camera recordings – capture up to 25 videos to share with anyone, anywhere, with a time limit of five minutes per video
• Video transcriptions – get automated transcripts of your recordings to help viewers follow your walkthrough or presentation
• Viewer insights – see who viewed your videos and where they added emojis or comments

Alternative business tools for screen recordings

Here are a few other options for sharing screen and camera recordings:

• Wistia
• Vidyard
• Vimeo
• Snagit by Techsmith

13. Mailchimp – best business tool for email marketing

When marketers think email, they think Mailchimp. It’s the go-to tool for brands and creators to engage with their audience and build a community.

What’s included in the free plan

Here’s what you get with Mailchimp’s free plan:

• Community engagement – send up to 1,000 emails per month to an audience of 500 contacts
• Pre-built templates – create professional-looking emails with templates for newsletters, sales, and more
• Reporting and analytics – track metrics like open rates and clicks to optimize your email content over time

Alternative business tools for email marketing

Here are some other free alternatives for email marketing and running a newsletter:

• MailerLite
• Benchmark Email
• Substack
• Mailercloud

14. Notion – best business tool for project management

Notion is a wiki-style workspace that can turn its hand to pretty much anything – and that includes project management. In its user-friendly, no-code-needed platform, you can build out your projects and centralize tasks in a flash.

What’s included in the free plan

Here’s how Notion helps keep your projects on track:

• Unlimited pages and blocks – set up and manage all your projects with a choice of list, timeline, and Kanban views
• Guest collaborators – invite up to 10 collaborators, perfect for giving clients access to their projects while keeping everything else private
• Swipe files – upload files and add links to digital scrapbooks that you can revisit later for creative inspiration

Alternative business tools for project management

Here are four great alternatives for project management:

• Asana
• Trello
• ClickUp
• MeisterTask

15. Odoo – best business tool for customer relationship management (CRM)

Odoo is an all-singing, all-dancing software platform that covers everything from accounting to HR. But today we’re focusing on CRM. This is perfect for creators who need to track product sales and negotiations with customers.

What’s included in the free plan

Odoo’s free plan gives you access to one app (in this case their CRM) absolutely free. Here are the best bits:

• Pipeline builder – set up a custom pipeline with deal values to track leads through the stages of new, negotiation, and sold
• Activity log – keep a record of conversations in the sales process and include notes to help get deals over the line
• Automated quotations – select products from your database and Odoo will generate a professional-looking quote that’s ready to send to your customer

Alternative business tools for customer relationship management (CRM)

Here are a few other great business tools for managing leads and sales:

• SuiteCRM
• Zoho CRM
• Hubspot CRM
• Freshsales

16. PayPal – best business tool for accepting payments

PayPal has been a household name in online payments ever since the dial-up days. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about but you’re curious, ask your parents.) And, always moving with the times, it has everything creators need to accept online and in-person payments.

What’s included

The beauty of PayPal is that there’s no set-up fee, monthly fee, or cancellation fee. You only pay when you get paid. Here’s what’s included:

• E-commerce integration – connect PayPal’s checkout solution with your online store on platforms like Shopify, Wix, and OpenCart
• Installment options – give customers flexible payment options so they can spread the cost of their purchases 
• Zettle app – use the PayPal Zettle app to take contactless payments on your phone

Alternative business tools for accepting payments

Here are a few other options for accepting payments from customers and clients:

• Square
• Stripe (free trial only)
• Authorize.Net (free trial only)
• Wise

17. Quora – best business tool for community research

Quora is kind of a cross between Google and forums like Mumsnet – sort of. It’s a place where you can post questions and get answers to help grow your business.

What’s included

Quora is a totally free question-and-answer tool. Here’s what’s included:

• Search engine – look up questions or topics to find answers from experts
• Asking questions – post your own questions for members of the community to respond to
• Sharing answers – offer your own insights to build a reputation in your topic area

Alternative business tools for community research

Looking for more places to ask questions and get answers from the community? Here are some other online business tools to consider:

• Reddit
• Stack Exchange
• Answers.com
• Ask MetaFilter

18. RescueTime – best business tool for time tracking (free trial only)

Are you the sort of creator who overburns on clients or forgets how much time you spent on each project? Then RescueTime is here to save your day!

What’s included

RescueTime costs $6.50/month, but you can try it out for 14 days to see what you think. Here’s what’s included:

• Automated time tracking – get an auto-generated timeline of how you spent your day based on which window or tab is active
• Focus sessions – block out distracting websites with timed sessions to keep your projects on track
• Personalized insights – track how much time you spend on focus work, communication, or distractions

Alternative business tools for time tracking

Here are a few other options for time tracking and staying focused:

• Toggl
• Clockify
• Harvest
• Hubstaff

19. Shopify – best business tool for e-commerce stores (free trial only)

Shopify is the perfect business tool for creating an online store to sell your creations. Design your website, list products, manage your inventory, and process payments – all in one easy-to-use interface.

What’s included

Shopify doesn’t have a free plan. But you can get a free 3-day trial, followed by an extended 3-month trial for $1/month. After that, you’re looking at $29/month for the Basic plan. Here’s what’s included:

• Online store – create your own online store and add unlimited products
• Sales channels – list your catalog across top social media platforms to expand your reach
• Reports – get basic reports to track and analyze your store’s performance

Alternative business tools for e-commerce stores

Here are four other options for creating your own ecommerce store:

• Squarespace
• Wix
• Sellfy
• WooCommerce

20. Todoist – best business tool for to-do lists

Todoist is an online list tool that helps chaotic creators manage their tasks. 

What’s included in the free plan

Here’s what you get with Todoist’s free plan:

• To-do lists – create to-do lists for up to five active projects 
• Customizable views – toggle between flexible lists and kanban board views
• Integrations – integrate with your email, calendar, and other tools to pull meetings and tasks into your to-do lists

Alternative business tools for to-do lists

Here are a few other options for to-do lists and task management:

• Microsoft To Do
• Any.do
• Google Keep
• Remember The Milk

21. Upwork – best business tool for freelance work

Whether you’re looking for freelance talent or want to offer your own creative services as a freelancer, Upwork is worth a look. 

What’s included

Upwork doesn’t charge a fee to sign up to its platform. Instead, you pay a 10% service fee on anything you earn or pay to other freelancers. Here’s what that gets you:

• Personal profiles – build a profile with work examples and service packages to attract new clients
• Talent pool – find everyone from developers, to logo designers, to data analysts to help grow your business
• Secure payments – pay and get paid securely using Upwork’s secure platform

Alternative business tools for freelance work

Here are some other great alternatives for finding freelance work or hiring freelancers:

• Freelancer
• Fiverr
• PeoplePerHour
• Toptal

22. Veed – best business tool for video editing

Veed is an online video editing tool that works in your browser. With a generous time limit of 10 minutes per video on the free plan, you can use it for everything from product demos to social snippets.

What’s included in the free plan

Veed’s free plan has everything creators need to get started with video editing, including:

• Video editing – add text, annotations, animations, and voiceovers to your content and export up to 10 minutes of video per project
• Automated subtitles – add up to 30 minutes of subtitles to your videos per month without needing to write them out yourself
• Screen and camera recording – capture your screen, yourself, or both to make your videos dynamic and engaging
• Stock templates – take advantage of a range of templates to make your videos more professional and fast-track your editing time

Alternative business tools for video editing

Here are some great alternatives for video editing:

• Shotcut
• DaVinci Resolve
• Lightworks
• HitFilm Express

23. WordPress – best business tool for blogging

WordPress brags that more bloggers and creators choose their platform than any other blogging tool. And you can see why. It’s intuitive, flexible, and free to get started. And when you throw in a bit of coding know-how, the sky’s the limit in terms of customization.

What’s included in the free plan

The free plan of WordPress is the perfect way to get a taste for blogging. Here’s what you get:

• Free subdomain – get your own subdomain that you can share far and wide
• Unlimited pages – publish as many pages and articles as you want to your site
• Revision history – roll back your posts to previous versions if you spot any errors or bugs

Alternative business tools for blogging

Here are four other great options for building a blog:

• Blogger
• Wix Blog
• Weebly
• Write.as

24. Xero – best business tool for accounting (free trial only)

If you ever find the admin side of business tying you in knots, you need Xero. It makes everything from invoicing to account reconciliation a breeze.

What’s included in the free plan

Xero doesn’t have a free plan, but it has a 30-day trial so you have plenty of time to try it out. The cheapest plan, Early, is $15/month. Here’s what you get:

• Quotes and invoices – send unlimited quotes and up to 20 invoices per month
• Receipt tracker – capture bills and receipts to stay on top of all your expenses
• Reconcile transactions – reconcile payments with invoices and use automated suggestions to speed up your admin

Alternative business tools for accounting

Here are some other great online business tools for accounting and invoicing:

• Wave
• ZipBooks
• Invoice Ninja
• FreshBooks (free trial only)

25. YouTube Studio – best business tool for video distribution

When you’re ready to switch from publishing occasional videos to growing your channel, YouTube Studio is the place to go. You can edit videos, track analytics, and engage with your audience – all in one place.

What’s included

YouTube Studio is totally free. Here’s what’s included:

• Detailed analytics – monitor your videos, watch time, and audience demographics
• Built-in editor – make basic edits to your YouTube videos without the need for expensive software
• Manage your channel – get one centralized hub for uploading videos, creating thumbnails, and responding to comments

Alternative business tools for video distribution

Want to double down on video? Here are four more great video distribution tools for creators:

• TikTok
• Instagram
• Twitch
• Pinterest

26. Zapier – best business tool for automations

Imagine if you could publish your content in one place, then have it magically appear on all your other channels. Introducing Zapier – the automation tool for creators who would rather focus on the fun stuff.

What’s included in the free plan

Here’s what you get with Zapier’s free plan:

• Single-step Zaps – create up to five single-step Zaps (Zapier’s word for automations) that you can use for up to 100 tasks per month
• Templates – use pre-built templates to integrate your tools in a couple of clicks
• No-code editor – build your own automations with ease using the intuitive editor

Alternative business tools for automations

Here are four great alternatives for integrating your tools and setting up automations:

• IFTTT (If This Then That)
• Make
• Workato (free trial only)
• n8n (free trial only)

Final thoughts

If you want to make money as a digital creator, the free business tools in this list are a pretty good place to start.

I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. But, let me tell you, it wasn’t easy! Do you know how many great online business tools begin with M? Mailchimp, Monday, Microsoft Teams, Miro, the list goes on.

Still, I feel like I’ve covered all bases. But if you have other ideas and want to see something else in this A-Z, let me know in the comments!

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