20+ Best tools for small businesses in 2024

Running a small business can be really challenging sometimes. Limited resources, tight schedules, and the constant need to stay ambitious can be overwhelming for company leaders. 

The internet is full of resources like project management tools and accounting software. They help small business owners and entrepreneurs solve specific business tasks like planning the company's work, organizing your sales team, creating a website, and more. But many of these tools are inconvenient, hard to understand, or just useless. 

In this article, we've created a list of the 20+ best software for running a small business in 2024, ranging from project management and communication platforms to marketing and productivity issues. These marketing tools are accessible, simple, and easy to use.  Some of them even offer a free version. Discover them to help your small business grow and succeed in the upcoming year!

Why do small business owners need tools?

Numerous tools for small businesses are designed to make an entrepreneur's life easier by handling routine tasks. After all, it's not enough to develop an idea and create a product – you need to present it to potential customers, build communication with the audience, and deal with the accounting. 

💡You can also check startup tools, special software, and resources designed to help entrepreneurs manage and grow their businesses more effectively.

Below, you will explore why these startup tools are not just beneficial but essential for the success of small businesses in today's competitive world. Here's a list of some perks for small business owners using them: 

Essential reasons for small businesses to use tools

20+ Essential tools for small businesses

Now that you understand the importance of these tools for small businesses, it's time to explore and discover them for yourself. You will even find some free tools for small business owners in our 20+ must-have list. So, let's explore what they have to offer!

1. forms.app

The homepage of forms.app

Let’s start our list with forms.app. forms.app is an excellent software for small businesses designed to create forms, surveys, and tests. It provides users with a user-friendly interface and features to build and customize different types of forms based on specific requests. Small business owners or their employees can easily create various forms tailored to their needs. 

Highlights

💡Best known for gathering valuable feedback and essential data.

forms.app pricing

2. WordPress

The homepage of WordPress

WordPress is a web content management tool. It is perfect for small business owners aiming to enhance their online presence. WordPress makes website creation simple, catering to beginners and experienced users. Its user-friendly interface and powerful content creation tools make it the go-to platform for customizable websites, offering a solution for businesses looking to attract and engage with their customers effectively.

Highlights

💡Best known for being an easy tool for creating website content.

WordPress pricing

3. Wix

The homepage of Wix

Wix, a user-friendly website development platform, offers many benefits to small business owners. Its drag-and-drop website builder simplifies creating a personalized and professional online presence. Wix ADI, powered by Artificial Design Intelligence, makes the design process easier. The platform also includes SEO and analytics tools, empowering small businesses to attract a larger audience. Why not try it out today?

Highlights

💡Best known for crafting and designing websites.

Wix pricing

4. Dropbox

The homepage of Dropbox

As you can guess from the name Dropbox, it is like a digital storage space where you can keep your music, photos, and documents. For small business owners, Dropbox has prepared seamless file organization and accessibility. If you have any kind of business, you should try Dropbox, one of the best tech tools for small businesses. 

Highlights

💡Best known for providing organized online storage.

Dropbox pricing

5. Circleboom

The homepage of Circleboom

Circleboom is the most intuitive social media management tool where you can curate the best content for Instagram, schedule your posts on Google My Business, and manage multiple social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest from a single dashboard. Circleboom helps you boost your brands or personal social presence with comprehensive social media management.

Highlights

Best known for providing an easy-to-use dashboard for multiple social media channels.

Pricing

6. SEMrush

The homepage of SEMrush

SEMrush is a powerful tool for business owners or entrepreneurs who pay attention to digital marketing. SEMrush is your digital marketing assistant, helping you understand your online performance, find the right keywords, and stay competitive. Take the time to explore each function to build your digital marketing strategy effectively.

Highlights

💡Best known for practical SEO tools and keyword insights.

SEMrush pricing

7. HubSpot

The homepage of HubSpot

Now, let's look at another great CRM and digital marketing service. HubSpot is a platform that includes marketing, sales, content management, and customer service tools. This helpful tool offers unlimited data storage, a free plan, and extensive integrations with popular productivity apps. Don't wait any longer - test it out!

Highlights

💡Best known for providing a user-friendly CRM system.

HubSpot pricing

8. Wistia

The homepage of Wistia

Wistia is a valuable video marketing platform for small business owners seeking an efficient, easy solution. It offers many features, including video creation, management, and webinars, addressing your needs and requests.

Highlights

💡Best known for helping businesses easily create, manage, and share videos.

Wistia pricing

9. Mailchimp

The homepage of Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a top email and marketing tool for small businesses. With a free plan for up to 2,000 contacts, you can send 12,000 emails monthly. It integrates with Facebook and WordPress, perfect for managing your email campaigns.

Highlights

💡Best known for simplifying email campaigns for small businesses.

Mailchimp pricing

Marketing platform price for 500 contacts

10. FuseBase

The homepage of FuseBase

As a client collaboration platform, FuseBase focuses on nurturing the natural rhythm of business relationships and centralizing all your project information and client communications in one place. Key features include secure internal workspaces powered by AI and external hubs or portals that you can customize with your branding.

Highlights

💡 Best known for creating and designing all-in-one collaborative workspaces

FuseBase pricing

11. Canva

The homepage of Canva

Canva, an online graphic design service, is a perfect tool for small business owners facing design challenges. This platform benefit for small business owners is an opportunity to create professional-looking visual content, including social media graphics, posters, presentations, and more.

Highlights

💡Best known for its user-friendly design options.

Canva pricing

12. Simplified

The homepage of Simplified

Simplified is an all-in-one tool designed for small businesses, streamlining marketing, design, and content creation. With an intuitive interface, it offers AI-driven solutions for graphic design, video editing, social media management, and copywriting, empowering entrepreneurs to efficiently manage their brand's presence and engage with their audience, all from one platform.

Highlights

 💡Best known for generating short clips from long-form videos in a click

Simplified Pricing

13. Krisp.ai

The homepage of Krisp.ai

Krisp.ai is a game-changing AI noise-reduction tool that enhances online communication for individuals and businesses. It effectively removes background noise from calls and meetings, ensuring clear audio quality regardless of your environment. With Krisp.ai, enjoy distraction-free conversations and increased productivity. Experience seamless communication like never before!

Highlights

💡Best known for background noise cancellation during meetings.

Pricing

14. HopperHq

The homepage of HopperHq

Hopper HQ is a refreshingly simple social media scheduling tool perfect for small teams. You can cross-schedule posts between several platforms like Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Pinterest. With its native editing features and integrations, you can create, plan, and track your profiles all in one place. 

Highlights

💡Best known for being a visual-first easy to use social media scheduler 

Pricing

15. Adobe Lightroom

The homepage of Adobe Lightroom

We added another tool to help your company solve visual and design issues. Adobe Lightroom is your go-to tool for enhancing visual content. Easy design tools and one-click presets make it perfect for small businesses. It offers flexibility to edit on both computers and mobile devices, creating stunning images for websites and social media.

Highlights

💡Best known for making photo editing easy with simple design tools.

Adobe Lightroom pricing

16. Apploye

The homepage of Apploye

Apploye is a widely used time-tracking software popular for its team, task & employee monitoring features. It's great for managing both remote and in-office teams, helping to keep track of work hours, managing projects, sending invoices, and ensuring no deadline is missed. It's simple, efficient, and perfect for small organizations looking to boost productivity. 

Highlights:

💡Best known for employee monitoring & time tracking

Apploye Pricing:

Standard Plan: $5 

Elite Plan: $7

17. Google Analytics

The homepage of Google Analytics

In the world of startups, data plays a huge role, and Google Analytics provides a solution for tracking website performance and your customer's behavior. It's like having a personal detective for your client's online activity!

Highlights

💡Best known for tracking website traffic.

Google Analytics pricing

18. Evernote

The homepage of Evernote

Evernote is a note-taking app that allows users to create, organize, and synchronize notes across multiple devices. You can capture ideas in text, images, or audio, create to-do lists, and effortlessly assign tasks. It's user-friendly, handy, and perfect for boosting team collaboration and productivity.

Highlights

💡Best known for capturing ideas and managing them.

Evernote pricing

19. Predis.ai

The homepage of Predis.ai

Predis.ai is an AI-powered content generator for stunning social media posts in seconds. Predis.ai generates ready-to-publish social media creatives, videos, carousels, memes, captions, and hashtags. Through Predis, you can also carry out comprehensive competitor analysis to gauge the kind of content that performs well for them. 

Highlights

Best known for: Being used for crafting short videos for social media platforms

Predis.ai Pricing

20. Udemy

The homepage of Udemy

Udemy is an online learning platform that opens educational opportunities for individuals globally. This site is a hub for people seeking courses to improve their professional and personal skills. This tool is valuable for small business owners who are looking for specialized employee or client training. Ready to raise your skills and elevate your business? Udemy is the perfect decision for you and your team! 

Highlights

💡Best known for offering a huge library of courses at affordable prices.

Udemy pricing

21. Zoom

The homepage of Zoom

Zoom has become a leading video conferencing solution, especially gaining popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. You may ask what its benefit is to my business. This communication tool has become essential for businesses, connecting distributed teams, making one-on-one and group meetings, and collaborating through features like screen sharing, chat, and video call recording. 

Highlights

💡Best known for its easy-to-use video conferencing features.

Zoom pricing

22. Buffer

The homepage of Buffer

Buffer is one of the best social media management tools for small businesses, allowing easy scheduling of posts on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and more. It simplifies content planning and offers valuable features.

Highlights

💡Best known for making it easy to schedule posts on social media platforms.

Buffer pricing

23. Google Drive

The homepage of Google Drive

Google Drive is a cloud-based storage platform that seamlessly integrates with other Google services, offering a collaborative environment for business owners. With 15GB of free storage, you can create, edit, and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with your team members in real-time. Don't miss out – it's definitely a helpful tool for your business!

Highlights

💡Best known for being an easy-to-use platform for managing documents.

Google Drive pricing

Google Drive is a part of Google Workspace. If you want to start using the Google Drive tool, take a look at these pricing plans below:

24. Zoho Recruit

The homepage of Zoho Recruit

Zoho is a must-have tool for small business owners. This tool will help you streamline your recruitment process. It is helpful for businesses of all sizes and industries. Also, Zoho has special AI capabilities, including a dedicated CV inbox and applicant grading.

Highlights

💡Best known for offering recruitment services. 

Zoho pricing

25. Synder

The homepage of Synder

Synder is a powerful accounting automation tool designed for online sales bookkeeping. It excels in importing, categorizing, and syncing sales transactions from multiple platforms straight into accounting software. With features like multi-currency handling, customizable bookkeeping flow with Smart Rules, and seamless integration with over 25 platforms, Synder is aimed at simplifying financial processes for online businesses.

Highlights

💡Best known for automating online sales bookkeeping.

Pricing

26. LastPass

The homepage of LastPass

LastPass is a widely used password manager. A reliable password manager is crucial for data security for small business owners. LastPass presents apps for both Android and iOS, ensuring accessibility and ease of use across devices. The mobile apps come with features like AutoFill and Password Generator, simplifying password management on the go.

Highlights

💡Best known for keeping your passwords secure. 

LastPass pricing

Billed annually only

27. Yanado

The homepage of Yanado

Yanado is a helpful assistant for your email, which works directly in the Gmail platform and helps you turn emails into tasks, set deadlines, and keep track of important things. It's an easy way to manage projects, collaborate with your employees, and stay organized, all without leaving your Gmail inbox. Also, Yanado integrates with popular services such as Slack, Google's Contacts, Calendar, and Drive. 

Highlights

💡Best known for managing tasks directly in Gmail.

Yanado pricing

28. LinkedIn

The homepage of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a popular platform for professional networking purposes. LinkedIn is a valuable tool for small business owners. It offers an online space to connect with potential clients, explore future team members, and stay informed about industry trends.

Highlights

💡Best known for connecting individuals and businesses.

LinkedIn pricing

29. Fyle

The homepage of Fyle

Say goodbye to tedious expense tracking! Fyle simplifies expense management for everyone. Employees can ditch paper receipts and submit them instantly from popular apps like Gmail, Outlook, or Slack. You don't have to manually upload card statements or rely on unreliable bank feeds because Fyle works directly with Visa and Mastercard credit cards.

Highlights

💡Best known for easy expense management on credit cards.

Pricing

30. vcita

The homepage of vcita

vcita is a powerful CRM tool that helps small business owners manage their customer relationships, schedule appointments, and send out automated reminders. vcita integrates with various platforms such as Google Analytics, Zapier, PayPal, and Zoom making it easy for business owners to seamlessly manage their customer interactions.

Highlights

💡Best known for its user-friendly interface and the ability to automate daily tasks.

vcita pricing

Key points to take away

Navigating small business management's challenges is easier with the right tools. These applications help with all needs, from creative parts to social media management. It was a really long list, so how can you find the right tools for your business? To choose the best service: 

With these 20 must-have tools, small businesses can grow and succeed in 2024. Simply put, these platforms will save your resources and allow you to always stay on top!