Business planning and operations
Before you design a logo or post on social media, lock in your business planning and operations stack. These digital tools keep your small business organized from day one – so invoices get paid, files stay findable, and teammates know who’s doing what.
Start here to build a user-friendly foundation that supports your launch day and everything you’ll layer on later.
Accounting and finance
1. QuickBooks Online
A small business accounting tool with a broad ecosystem of add-ons, payroll, 1099s, and accountant familiarity. Use it to send invoices, reconcile bank feeds, track expenses and inventory, and close your books quickly.
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Pricing: Simple Start $38/mo, Essentials $75/mo, Plus $115/mo, Advanced $275/mo. New customer promos often discount the first few months.
2. Xero
Clean interface and excellent multi-currency support for collaborative bookkeeping. Great if you invoice internationally or want flexible user access for your bookkeeper and team.
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Pricing: Early $20/mo, Growing $47/mo, Established $80/mo. Note that Xero has announced US price changes effective October 1, 2025.
3. FreshBooks
Client-centric billing with simple time tracking, estimates, and retainers. Ideal for freelancers and service firms that rely on proposals and invoices.
4. Wave
A free core accounting and invoicing tool for side hustles and very small businesses. Paid add-ons for payments and payroll available.
Pro tip: Free vs paid
If you are pre-revenue or validating a concept, start with Wave. Once you hire contractors, add sales tax, or need inventory and robust reporting, upgrade to QuickBooks or Xero. Freelancers who bill time and want clean client portals tend to prefer FreshBooks.
Organization and planning
5. Notion
Get your team wiki, SOPs, docs, and lightweight databases in one workspace. Use it to centralize playbooks, content calendars, and launch checklists, then layer Notion AI for drafting and summarization.
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Pricing: Free, Plus $10-$12 per user/mo, Business $20-$24 per user/mo, Enterprise custom pricing. Notion updated plan pricing and AI access in 2025.
6. Google Workspace
Professional email on your domain plus Drive, Docs, Sheets, Meet, and security controls. A user-friendly base stack for domain email and collaboration.
Pro tip: Free vs paid
Solo builders can start on the Notion Free plan and a single Google Workspace seat on Business Starter. As you add teammates and need shared drives, retention, and advanced security, move to Business Standard or Plus and upgrade Notion to Business for permissions and SSO.
Project management and collaboration
Pick one primary PM tool and one chat app so priorities, deadlines, and communication stay clear.
7. Trello
Visual Kanban boards that are perfect for solo founders and contractor workflows. Drag cards to move tasks across stages and add checklists, due dates, and automations.
8. Asana
Roadmaps, dependencies, goals, and forms for teams that want structure. Use list, board, timeline, and workload views, plus Asana AI and machine learning to save time on status updates.
- Pricing: Free, Starter $10.99 per user/mo and Advanced $24.99 per user/mo if billed annually, with optional AI Studio add-on.
9. ClickUp
An all-in-one hub with tasks, docs, goals, dashboards, and whiteboards that keeps everything in one place.
- Pricing: Free, Unlimited $7 per user/mo, Business $12 per user/mo when billed annually.
10. Slack
Real-time messaging with searchable channels, Huddles for quick calls, and app integrations for alerts and analytics.
- Pricing: Free, Pro $7.25 per user/mo, Business+ $15 per user/mo when billed annually. Enterprise custom pricing available.
11. Zoom
A go-to platform for video meetings, webinars, and virtual collaboration. Zoom offers free and paid plans with add-ons.
- Pricing: Basic free, Pro $13.33 per user/mo billed annually or $16.99 monthly, Business $18.33 per user/mo billed annually or $21.99 monthly.
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Limits: Basic meetings end after 40 minutes, paid licenses allow meetings up to 30 hours.
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Participants: Basic and Pro 100, Business 300 (larger with add-ons).
12. Google Meet
A secure, browser-based tool for video calls and team meetings. Meet is free for personal Google accounts and included with Workspace tiers.
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Pricing: Free, Workspace Business Starter $7 per user/mo annually or $8.40 monthly, Business Standard $14 or $16.80, Business Plus $22 or $26.40
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Limits: Free meetings capped at 60 minutes, paid plans allow up to 24 hours.
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Participants: Free up to 100, Business Starter 100, Business Standard 150, Business Plus 500.
Best fit quick guide:
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Freelancers → Trello + free Slack.
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Small teams → Asana or ClickUp + Slack.
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Growing organizations → Slack plus Asana for project alignment, Zoom or Meet for video.
Marketing and sales
Build a digital marketing engine that turns ideas into a fantastic customer experience across multiple channels.
Design and creative
13. Canva
Create brand kits, social media graphics, one-pagers, short videos, Instagram reels, and presentations quickly with a user-friendly editor and team collaboration.
- Pricing: Free, Pro $15 per user/mo, Teams $10 per user/mo with a minimum of three people.
Email, CRM, and lead capture
14. Mailchimp or 15. Brevo
Both offer an easy start for lead generation, forms, and simple automations. Set up a 3-5 email nurture sequence for trials and new subscribers to turn clicks into conversations.
Brevo includes WhatsApp and SMS on lower tiers and adds landing pages as you upgrade. Mailchimp scales with advanced journeys and testing.
Pricing:
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Mailchimp: Free plan includes up to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails/month with a 500/day send limit. Paid tiers have a 14-day free trial. Essentials starts at $13/month, Standard starts at $20/month, and Premium starts at $297.50/month for the first 12 months, then $350/month. Pricing scales by contact count.
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Brevo: Free plan sends 300 emails/day with unlimited contacts. Starter begins at $9/month (from 5,000 emails/month). Business begins at $18/month (adds automation, landing pages, phone support). Enterprise custom pricing available.
CRM
16. HubSpot CRM
A generous free plan to centralize contacts, deals, meetings, live chat, and basic customer engagement. Add hubs for marketing or sales automation as you grow.
- Pricing: Core CRM is free, premium hubs are optional from $15/mo per seat.
SEO and research
17. Ahrefs and 18. Semrush
Deep keyword research, competitor analysis, content optimization, and rank tracking to power search engine optimization and content marketing. This gives marketers a clear roadmap for what to publish next.
Pricing:
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Ahrefs: Starter $29/mo, Lite $129/mo, Standard $249/mo, Advanced $449/mo, Enterprise $1,499/mo (annual saves up to ~17%, regional currency varies).
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Semrush SEO Toolkit: Pro $139.95/mo, Guru $249.95/mo, Business $499.95/mo. Local add-ons from $30/mo for Base, $60/mo for Pro.
Social scheduling
19. Hootsuite or 20. Buffer
Schedule posts, plan calendars, and report performance across social media. Use built-in listening to spot trending topics, identify relevant social media influencers to amplify reach, and understand customer behavior before you spend.
Hootsuite is great for teams and analytics at scale. Buffer is simple and affordable per channel.
Pricing:
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Hootsuite: Standard $99/user/mo and Advanced $249/user/mo when billed annually. Enterprise custom.
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Buffer: Free, Essentials $5/month per channel ($60 billed yearly), Team $10/month per channel ($120 billed yearly).
AI content support
21. ChatGPT 22. Claude 23. Jasper
Use AI to write content, brainstorm, outline, draft social media posts, and edit for clarity and tone. Helpful for marketing teams and freelance writers collaborating on drafts.
ChatGPT
Pricing:
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ChatGPT: Free, Plus $20/mo, Pro $200/mo, Business $25/seat/mo annually or $30 monthly.
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Claude: Free, Pro $17/mo, Max from $100/mo.
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Jasper: Pro $59/mo (annual) or $69/mo (monthly), Business custom.
Why these tools work together:
Put a signup form on your landing page, send contacts into HubSpot, and nurture with Mailchimp or Brevo. Use Canva for campaign assets and schedule via Buffer or Hootsuite. Ahrefs or Semrush informs your content strategy so every blog post supports lead generation and customer engagement, driving more leads.
Automation and productivity
Automate repetitive tasks so your business can focus on high-impact work.
24. Zapier
Connect your apps and automate workflows without code. Send form leads to your CRM, post alerts to Slack, and tag contacts by behavior.
- Pricing: Free plan with 100 tasks per month, Pro from $19.99/mo billed annually, Team and Enterprise tiers available.
25. Make
A powerful visual builder for multi-step scenarios with branching logic and granular error handling. Great for complex operations and data flows.
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Pricing: Free plan available, Core $9/mo, Pro $16/mo, Teams $29/mo when billed annually. Enterprise custom.
26. Calendly
Let people book time with you automatically through a single link. Embed it on your site or landing page to reduce scheduling back-and-forth.
- Pricing: Free, Standard $10 per seat/mo billed annually, Teams and Enterprise available.
27. Grammarly
Polishes sales decks, proposals, and support replies so every message builds trust and sticks to a consistent brand voice.
2025 AI updates: Microsoft 365 and Google are deploying AI into the apps you already use. Workspace includes Meet, Docs, and Sheets with AI features in paid tiers, and Microsoft offers Copilot in 365 plans.
Workflow example:
A lead fills out a landing page form, Zapier enriches the record, adds it to HubSpot, drops a task in Asana, and Calendly sends a booking link. You can save hours each week and deliver a smoother customer experience.
Website and eCommerce
Your website is your online storefront. Map the visitor’s journey and create a simple funnel from landing page to checkout.
28. Shopify
Beginner-friendly eCommerce platform that gets you selling fast with templates, payments, shipping, and a huge app store. Ideal for a quick launch and a small business storefront.
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Pricing: Starter $5/mo, Basic $39/mo, Grow $105/mo, Advanced $399/mo. Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/mo on a 3-year term. Promo offers appear periodically on the pricing page
29. WordPress + WooCommerce
Flexible, open-source stack where you own your data and can tailor checkout, subscriptions, and SEO for content marketing.
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Pricing: WordPress software is free, but you pay for hosting, themes, and extensions. Learn about typical WooCommerce costs on their website. Managed WordPress hosting is also available via WordPress.com.
30. Squarespace or 31. Wix
Beautiful templates and guided setup for design-driven brands without developers. Start on a lower plan and upgrade when you need eCommerce features.
Pricing:
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Squarespace: Basic $16/mo, Core $23/mo, Plus $39/mo, Advanced $99/mo (annual billing).
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Wix: Light $17/mo, Core $29/mo, Business $39/mo, Business Elite $159/mo.
Payments – 32. Stripe and 33. PayPal Business
Accept cards and wallets globally. Stripe is excellent for subscriptions, recurring revenue, and invoice links. PayPal can help increase conversions with buyers who prefer paying through digital wallets.
Pricing:
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Stripe (US): Online card payments 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge, in-person via Stripe Terminal 2.7% + $0.05, manually keyed 3.4% + $0.30, currency conversion typically +1% when applicable.
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PayPal (US): PayPal/Venmo Checkout 3.49% + $0.49, standard online credit/debit card payments 2.99% + $0.49, PayPal Pay Later 4.99% + $0.49, QR code transactions 2.29% + fixed fee.
On-demand fulfillment – Printful
Sell custom products without holding inventory. Printful produces and ships on demand, integrates with major eCommerce sites, and helps you validate designs before you scale.
Ready to test your first product without inventory risk? Start free with Printful, launch today, and unlock Growth perks as you scale.
Get started
How these work together:
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WordPress + WooCommerce gives long-term flexibility and plugin options for content marketing and more.
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Squarespace and Wix give beginners ease to launch with polished website designs.
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Stripe makes it easy to set up payments, subscriptions, and trials, so you can experiment with pricing strategies and optimize offers faster.
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Printful removes logistical and financial risk at launch so you can focus on marketing, sales, and customer engagement.
