20+ Best startup tools that you must have and use
Running a startup is like no other. You need a good idea, a great team, and the right tools.
While ideas, teams, and tools seem separate, they are interlinked and play a huge role in the success of your startup. If you have a great team, having the right tools can help your team reach their full potential. If you have a good team, using the right tools can make them great.
In this article, you will get over 20 online tools to use in your startup business, their key features, pricing details, and alternatives that are almost as good as them. Plus, these tools are not solely for startups and can be used in businesses at any stage. In fact, we use many of these tools here at forms.app. Without further ado, let’s get started.
Many tools offer special discounts to startups and N.P.Os, even if it is not stated on their pricing page, you can contact them through live chat and ask about it.
1. forms.app
The homepage of forms.app
forms.app, as its name suggests, is a form builder application for creating various forms and surveys, like feedback forms, satisfaction surveys, or social media trivia. From pre-orders to applications and from feedback to event registrations, a form maker tool like forms.app will come in really handy.
forms.app is best known for gathering feedback and collecting applications.
Key features
- Simple and friendly experience (no coding required)
- AI feature to create forms with a prompt
- Hand-crafted design themes
- Conditional logic forms
- 4000+ free templates
forms.app pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Basic plan: $13.5 per month (when billed annually)
- Pro plan: $16 per month (when billed annually)
- Premium plan: $39 per month (when billed annually)
Notable alternatives to forms.app: Formstack, Typeform, Jotform, Google Forms
2. Trello
The homepage of Trello
Trello is a popular project management tool that every startup needs in their toolkit and workflow. The reason? Simple; you need a project management tool to make things flow in your project, and Trello offers the most needed features for free. As forms.app, we have used Trello to create and track tasks since day one, so it’s tested and approved. 🔬
In their words, Trello is best known for tracking, managing, and completing tasks together.
Key features
- Unlimited cards
- Multi-board guests
- Assignee and due dates
- Card templates
- Card automation
Trello pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Standard: $5 per month/per user (when billed annually)
- Premium: $10 per month/per user (when billed annually)
- Enterprise: $17.50 per month/per user (when billed annually)
Notable alternatives to Trello: Airtable, Asana, Teamwork, Notion
3. Popupsmart
The homepage of Popupsmart
Popupsmart is a no-code popup builder that allows you to create engaging popups in minutes for different business solutions, like increasing conversion, growing email lists, reducing cart abandonment, and more.
Popupsmart is best known for creating customized pop-ups for a web page.
Key features
- Mobile-optimized popup templates
- Advanced segment and targeting options
- Direct integrations with popular tools
- Google Analytics 4 Integration
Popupsmart pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Basic: $32.50 per month (when billed annually)
- Pro: $82.50 per month (when billed annually)
- Expert: $132.50 per month (when billed annually)
Notable alternatives: Poptin, WisePops, OptinMonster
4. Slack
The homepage of Slack
Slack is a communication platform for a digital workplace. No matter your business or industry, you can use Slack to communicate with your team, members, or even customers. Here are forms.app, we use Slack every day for work-related conversations. Plus, you don’t need to pay anything to get a great value out of it. And if you want more, you will know it’s worth it.
Slack is best known for being a workplace communication platform.
Key features
- Public and private channels for conversation
- Voice calls (huddles 🎧)
- Integration with other apps and services
- File uploading
Slack pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Pro plan: $7.25 per month (when billed annually)
- Business+: $12.50 per month (when billed annually)
- Enterprise Grid: Custom pricing
Notable alternatives to Slack: Microsoft Teams, Discord, Mattermost
5. Upmetrics
The homepage of Upmetrics
Upmetrics is an AI-powered business planning app for small businesses and emerging startups. This easy and intuitive tool helps emerging entrepreneurs create stellar business plans, pitch decks, and financial forecasts using Advanced AI functionalities. It also helps with strategic planning and offers a bundle of free guides for business planning and growth.
Upmetrics is best known for AI-powered business plan writing and automated financial forecasting.
Key features
- 400+ business plan samples
- AI Assistance to write business plans
- AI-generated business plans (Entirely AI generated)
- Financial forecasting up to 7 years
- AI to create a pitch deck in less than an hour
Upmetrics pricing
- Starter: $7/ Month
- Premium: $14/ Month
6. HubSpot
The homepage of HubSpot
HubSpot serves as an all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer service platform. Whether you are looking for a CRM, email marketing, or a sales tool, you will see Hubspot one way or another. They offer the whole package for businesses, whether it’s a startup or an enterprise. Of course, this comes with a little and most understandable cost.
HubSpot is best known for its comprehensive packages for marketing, customer service, and sales.
Key features
- Simple CRM at its core
- Marketing automation and analytics
- Email tracking
- Ticketing and help desk
HubSpot pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Starter plan: $20 per month (when billed annually)
- Professional plan: $800 per month (when billed annually)
- Enterprise plan: $3,600 per month (when billed annually)
Notable alternatives to HubSpot: Salesforce, Zoho CRM, ActiveCampaign, Marketo
7. Stripe
The homepage of Stripe
Stripe stands as an established player in the online payment processing arena. If you are looking for a way to collect online payments, billings, or subscriptions, Stripe is a go-to tool for you. At forms.app, for instance, we offer payment collecting features in your forms, and you can do this by connecting your account to, yes, you’re right, Stripe.
Stripe is best known for collecting online payments and making subscriptions easier.
Key features
- Global payments
- Currency conversion
- Real-time reports
- Advanced fraud protection
Stripe pricing
- Free Plan: No ❌
- Standard: 2.9% + $0.3 Commission per successful card charge
- Custom: Available through contacting sales
Notable alternatives to Stripe: PayPal, Square, Braintree
8. Usersnap
The homepage of Usersnap
Usersnap is a tool that you can use to get real user feedback and bug reporting for your startup. This is especially useful if you run a SaaS startup. But you can also get value for any type of website.
Usersnap is best known for gathering feedback and bug reports from users.
Key features
- In-app feedback and bug reporting
- Screenshots
- Browser console logs
- 3rd party integrations
- Customizable widgets
Usersnap pricing
- Free plan: No ❌ (Trial)
- Startup plan: $69 per month (when billed annually)
- Premium plan: $249 per month (when billed annually)
- Enterprise plan: $949 per month (when billed annually)
Notable alternatives to Usersnap: BugHerd, Sentry, Instabug
9. Figma
The homepage of Figma
In the 2010s, anyone would say the best-known and most used design tool belonged to Adobe. In 2023, well… It’s the same. Because Adobe saw that they could not beat Figma at creating, testing, and sharing designs, so they decided to buy it, for $20 billion! This should give you an idea about how Figma captured the designers in a storm. And all is for a reason.
Figma is a great design tool, especially for UI and UX designs, and it is best known for its real-time collaboration features and easy-to-use interface.
Key features
- Real-time collaboration across the team
- Workspaces
- Prototyping
- Plugin and widget support
Figma pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Professional plan: $12 per editor/month (when billed annually)
- Organization plan: $45 per editor/month (when billed annually)
- Enterprise plan: $75 per editor/month (when billed annually)
Notable alternatives to Figma: Adobe XD, Sketch, Photoshop
10. Logomakerr.ai
The homepage of Logomakerr.ai
If you’re looking for a game-changer in logo generation, Logomakerr.ai provides businesses with exceptional logos. Offering customized designs and comprehensive branding kits in mere minutes, users can also access pre-designed templates, fonts, colors, and a vast selection of symbols.
Best known for creating logos with AI and ready-made templates
Key features
- AI-driven logo generation
- Comprehensive branding kits
- Pre-designed templates
- Thousands of symbols to choose from
Pricing
- Basic: 29 USD one-time payment
- Pro: 59 USD one-time payment
- Brand: 99 USD one-time payment
Notable Alternatives to Logomakerr.ai: Canva, Looka, Brand Crowd
11. Zapier
The homepage of Zapier
Whether you want to connect the tools you use or want your users to connect your tool with others, Zapier is the ultimate automation solution. It eliminates repetitive tasks and allows integration across your digital tools. Plus, you can even use its AI feature to automate the automation. 🛠️
Zapier is best known for simple no-code integrations.
Key features
- No code automation
- Complex workflows with multi-step Zaps
- Free integration templates
- Integration building with AI
Zapier pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Starter plan: $19.99 per month (when billed annually)
- Professional plan: $49 per month (when billed annually)
- Team plan: $69 per month (when billed annually)
Notable alternatives to Zapier: Make, Microsoft Power Automate, IFTTT
Here's ready-made templates to see how Zapier works:
12. Grammarly
The homepage of Grammarly
Grammarly started as a grammar-checking app, but it grew into a much bigger tool. If you are writing emails, web content, or anything at all, you can use Grammarly to fix grammatical errors, misspelled words, and punctuation.
What’s more, you can use Grammarly to learn how your writing sounds like and get personalized suggestions. More recently, you can now use Grammarly's AI feature, Grammarly GO, to re-write sentences, analyze content, or write an entire copy.
Grammarly is best known for fixing grammar mistakes and giving you suggestions for better content.
Key features
- Sophisticated grammar and punctuation checker
- Style and tone guidance
- Plagiarism detection
- Language preference settings
- Integration with email, documents, and social media
Grammarly pricing
- Free version: Yes ✅
- Premium: $12 per month (when billed annually)
- Business: $15 per member/month (when billed annually)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Notable alternatives to Grammarly: ProWritingAid, Word.ai, Hemingway App
13. Notion
The homepage of Notion
Notion is a tool that started off great and followed this up with awesome. With a promise to revolutionize how people take notes, Notion developed into an all-in-one workspace for creating and tracking notes, tasks, and databases. It’s one of the best free business tools for startups right now. You can always use Notion for your personal use to start taking notes or use it for your startup to manage projects and documentation.
Notion is best known for its simple and versatile uses for many purposes (From note-taking to habit tracking and planning to project management).
Key features
- Being able to create pages inside pages (Nested pages)
- Rich element and media embedding library
- Customizable templates
- Collaboration in real-time
- Databases and lists
Notion pricing
- Personal plan: Free ✅
- Plus plan: $8 per month/user (when billed annually)
- Business plan: $15 per user/month/user (when billed annually)
- Enterprise plan: Custom pricing
Notable alternatives to Notion: Onenote, Evernote, Trello, Confluence
14. Udemy
The homepage of Udemy
While Udemy is not technically a tool, it is a great education platform where you can find comprehensive courses. Plus, everything is a tool if you know how to use it. Whether for personal growth or professional development of your team, Udemy provides valuable knowledge at your fingertips.
Udemy is best known for its detailed and countless courses that will help your team get new skills.
Key features
- Over 155,000 courses in various categories
- Lifetime access to purchased courses
- Learn at your own pace with on-demand videos
- Certificate of completion for courses
- Course quality assurance with student feedback
Udemy pricing
- Free plan: No ❌
- Standard: Different prices for each course
- Udemy for Business: Custom pricing
Notable alternatives to Udemy: Skillshare, Coursera, Udacity
15. GoDaddy
The homepage of GoDaddy
You have quite a few options for web hosting services. GoDaddy is a powerhouse in web hosting and domain registration. With GoDaddy, you can easily find the perfect domain name, build a professional website, and host it without worrying a dime.
GoDaddy is best known for domain registrations and web hosting services.
Key features
- Domain name registration with TLD options
- Website builder with customizable templates
- Secure web hosting services
- SSL certificates for website security
- Email hosting with domain-based addresses
GoDaddy pricing
- Free plan: No ❌
- Web hosting economy: $6.99 per month (when billed annually)
- Web hosting deluxe: $9.99 per month (when billed annually)
- Web Hosting Ultimate: $14.99 per month (when billed annually)
- Web Hosting Maximum: $21.99 per month (when billed annually)
- Web Hosting Plus Launch: $21.99 per month (when billed annually)
- Web Hosting Plus Enhance: $39.99 per month (when billed annually)
- Web Hosting Plus Grow: $54.99 per month (when billed annually)
- Web Hosting Plus Expand: $74.99 per month (when billed annually)
Notable alternatives to GoDaddy: Namecheap, Bluehost, Wix
16. Brex
The homepage of Brex
Brex's accounts payable automation software helps startups and scale-ups digitize invoices, route approvals, and pay vendors with fewer errors. It integrates with the company's broader spend stack and provides finance teams with tighter control as the company grows.
Brex is known for its automation capabilities for accounting.
Key features
- AI-assisted invoice capture (OCR) to extract the data you need and reduce manual entry.
- Custom approval workflows and automated routing to the right stakeholders; scheduled payments to keep cash flow smooth.
- Real-time visibility into spend and invoice status via a centralized dashboard.
- Integrations with accounting systems like QuickBooks Online and NetSuite.
- Part of a unified spend platform that connects AP with cards, expense management, and reporting.
Brex pricing
- Plans start at $0 per user/month
- Advanced features available at $12 per user/month.
17. Mailchimp
The homepage of Mailchimp
Email marketing is almost a must for every business nowadays. Mailchimp is the main champ in the email marketing area. It helps businesses manage their mailing lists, create custom emails, and automate their email campaigns. Plus, it has great integrations with other tools (like forms.app 🥳).
Mailchimp is best known for creating targeted email campaigns.
Key features
- Email campaign management
- Audience segmentation and behavioral targeting
- Pre-built and customizable templates
- Automated marketing workflows
Mailchimp pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Essentials: $13 per month
- Standard: $20 per month
- Premium: $350 per month
Notable alternatives to Mailchimp: Constant Contact, Sendinblue, ConvertKit
18. Miro
The homepage of Miro
In the Startup phase, you need lots of ideas and filter them correctly. Miro offers an online whiteboard for your team to use together. It’s super user-friendly, and you can create everything from agile workflows to design thinking sessions. In addition, it’s one of the best startup tools for free. We use it all the time for brainstorming all the time here at forms.app.
Miro is best known for creating mind maps and workflows.
Key features
- Infinite canvas for brainstorming and mapping ideas
- Pre-built templates for workflows, diagrams, and more
- Real-time collaboration and communication tools
- Integration with popular apps and services
- Comprehensive facilitation and moderation tools
Miro pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Started: $8 per user/month (when billed annually)
- Business: $16 per user/month (when billed annually)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Notable alternatives to Miro: Lucidchart, Mural, Conceptboard, Jamboard
19. Google Workspace
The homepage of Google Workspace
Without online “office” tools, this list would be lacking. Google Workspace is a suite of cloud-based apps powered by Google. It includes Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, and everything in between. If you have a remote working team, using Google Workspace or its alternatives will make things so much easier for you.
At forms.app, having a cloud-based solution is a must for us, so we use Google Workspace tools each and every day.
Google Workspace is best known for offering essential office tools that every business needs.
Key features
- Custom business email with Gmail
- Shared calendars for scheduling
- Collaboration in Docs, Sheets, and Slides
- Secure cloud storage with Drive
- Advanced admin controls for user management
Google Workspace pricing
- Business Starter: $6 per user/month (when billed annually)
- Business Standard: $12 per user/month (when billed annually)
- Business Plus: $18 per user/month (when billed annually)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Notable alternatives to Google Workspace: Microsoft 365, Zoho Workplace
20. Google Analytics
The homepage of Google Analytics
You must have already heard that “Data is king.” You just know that’s just so true, especially if you are starting out. Only with proper data and understanding can you develop an effective marketing strategy and user experience. Google Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks your website and creates reports.
It's an essential tool for marketers and business owners to understand customer behavior, evaluate the performance of content and campaigns, and drive data-driven decisions.
Google Analytics is best known for gathering and analyzing website data, such as traffic, conversions, and more.
Key features
- Traffic and user behavior analysis
- Real-time reporting
- Custom goals and conversion tracking
- Audience demographics and interests data
- Integration with Google Ads for advertising analytics
Google Analytics pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Google Analytics 360: Custom pricing
Notable alternatives to Google Analytics: Mixpanel, Matomo, Clicky, Microsoft Clarity
21. Product Hunt
The homepage of Product Hunt
If you are looking for a way to get recognition and find new users who are enthusiastic about your startup, Product Hunt is the way. Product Hunt is a community-driven platform where new technology products are showcased and discovered daily.
From entrepreneurs to tech enthusiasts and, of course, to investors, everyone visits here to find the latest innovations, give feedback, and connect with the makers.
Product Hunt is best known for showcasing online products and services.
Key features
- Daily curation of new and trending tech products
- User feedback and discussions
- Upvoting system to surface popular products
- Product launch analytics
Product Hunt pricing
Free to launch products ✅
Notable alternatives to Product Hunt: Indie Hackers, BetaList, Launching Next, Founders Network
22. Fiverr
The homepage of Fiverr
For startup founders, using the existing workforce effectively is more important than anything else. As a startup, you need to get things done and get things done fast. That’s where outsourcing comes in. Fiverr is a freelance hiring platform that makes it easy to find suitable people for your job. From graphic designers to voice actors, you can find anyone for a specific job.
Fiverr is best known for finding and hiring freelancers online.
Key features
- Vast freelance marketplace
- Multiple payment methods
- Messaging
Fiver pricing
- Free version: Yes ✅
Notable alternatives to Fiverr: Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour
23. Canva
The homepage of Canva
Whether you want to create a poster, mockup, business card, social media post, or any other design, Canva can help you do it without any complex process. Canva is an online design tool that every marketer or designer can use in their marketing campaigns.
Canva is best known for offering a vast library of templates and a simple way to design assets.
Key features
- Photo effects
- Image enhancer
- Video trimmer
- Video Background Remover
Canva pricing
- Free plan: Yes ✅
- Canva Pro: $119.99 annually per member
- Canva Teams: $300 annually for 5 members
Notable alternatives: Adobe Express, Visme, VistaCreate
24. Social Champ
The homepage of Social Champ
To remove all the hassles and make things much easier, Social Champ can be your savior. With a vibrant UI and sleek user dashboard, the tool allows you to post all your content across nine major social media platforms, including Mastodon. You can easily create content, schedule posts, and track the performance of all your social media profiles using platform-specific metrics.
Social Champ is best known for managing multiple social media platforms with a unified dashboard.
Key features
- Content publishing
- Monitoring & Analytics
- Social Inbox
Social Champ pricing
- Free plan
- Champion plan: $29/month
- Business plan: $99/month
- Agency plan: Custom
Notable Alternatives to Social Champ: Hootsuite, Buffer, SocialPilot
25. Hubstaff
The homepage of Hubstaff
Imagine having a powerful tool at your fingertips that streamlines your workforce management and earns accolades like the Forbes Best of 2023 award. Meet Hubstaff! Whether you're a small startup or a global enterprise, Hubstaff's pricing structure is designed to accommodate the unique needs of businesses across various industries.
Key features
- Time Tracking and Productivity Metrics
- Automated Team Management
- Project Cost Management
- Integration with Over 30 Apps
Hubstaff pricing
- Free Plan: Yes ✅
- Basic Plan: Starting at $7/user/month
- Premium Plan: $10/user/month
- Enterprise Plan: Custom Pricing
Notable alternatives to Hubstaff: Toggl, Time Doctor, RescueTime
How can I choose the right tools for my start-up?
While there are many tools that can be commonly used by startups, you have to consider that every startup is unique and has its own needs. So, you need to first identify what is your needs and what you are trying to solve. For example, if you are looking for a tool for customer support, you need to search CRMs and find the one that suits you the best. Here’s a quick list of what you need to consider when choosing tools for startups:
- Find out your business needs
- Do your research
- Consider the budget
- Consider the learning curve
- Make sure your team can use it as well
Final words
All in all, startups need the right tools to create the right environments for their teams. Today, you can easily find many free online business tools to make things easier for you. Just make sure not to go overboard and use only the ones you need.
In this article, we have covered twenty tools for startup founders and employees, explained how you can use them, listed their pricing details, and given some alternatives to them so you can look up them before choosing a tool. If you find this content useful, make sure to check out our other blog posts and give forms.app a try!
