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.

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.

Key features

forms.app pricing

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. 🔬

Key features

Trello pricing

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. 

Key features

Popupsmart pricing

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.

Key features

Slack pricing

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.

Key features

Upmetrics pricing

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.

Key features

HubSpot pricing

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.

Key features

Stripe pricing

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. 

Key features

Usersnap pricing

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. 

Key features

Figma pricing

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.

Key features

Pricing

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. 🛠️

Key features

Zapier pricing

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.

Key features

Grammarly pricing

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.

Key features

Notion pricing

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.

Key features

Udemy pricing

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.

Key features

GoDaddy pricing

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.

Key features

Brex pricing

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 🥳).

Key features

Mailchimp pricing

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.

Key features

Miro pricing

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.

Key features

Google Workspace pricing

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.

Key features

Google Analytics pricing

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.

Key features

Product Hunt pricing

Free to launch products ✅

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.

Key features

Fiver pricing

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.

Key features

Canva pricing

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.

Key features

Social Champ pricing

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

Hubstaff pricing

26. Warp

The homepage of Warp

Warp helps businesses easily manage payroll, HR, and compliance. With Warp, you can simplify operations, automate repetitive tasks, and stay fully compliant across states and borders. It provides flexible solutions that scale as companies grow, so both startups and enterprises can easily integrate it into their operations.

Key features

Warp pricing

Basic Plan: $25 per person/month 

Pro Plan: $35 per person/month

Premium Plan: $50 per person/month 

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:

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!