How to Run Your Business Entirely on Free or Very Low-Cost Tools
Start your online business on little to no budget!
Starting a business can be expensive, especially when it comes to purchasing the tools and resources you need to manage it successfully. Organizational tools, project management platforms, CRM solutions… It all adds up!
But here’s the good news: It’s entirely possible to run a business with free or low-cost tools. By leveraging the tools available online at little to no cost, you can save tons of money, effectively manage your business, and focus on growth rather than worrying about the cost of expensive software and resources.
To make matters easier for you, we’ve put together this list of free and low-cost tools that can help you run your business on a budget.
Productivity, Organization & Project Management
Notion
Notion is a productivity and organization tool that allows users to create workspaces where they can manage several different aspects of their business, including their customer projects, their content strategy, their calendar and tasks, and more. Some of its best features include the ability to create customizable pages and templates, collaborate with team members in real-time, and integrate with other apps and services.
In terms of pricing, Notion offers a free plan that includes basic features and allows you to collaborate with up to 5 team members. Its paid plans, which start at $8 per month, include additional features such as advanced formatting options, unlimited file uploads, and up to 100 guests.
Asana
Asana is a project management and collaboration tool that helps teams organize and manage their work. It’s perfect for small businesses and solopreneurs looking for an all-in-one solution to plan, organize, and track projects, tasks, and team performance. Asana allows you to create projects, assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and track progress, as well as seamlessly communicate and collaborate with everyone involved.
The free Asana plan includes basic features for 15 team members — more than enough for those who are venturing into a new project. If you have a larger team, the Premium starts at $10.99 per user per month and includes additional, more advanced features
Team Management
Slack
Slack is a real-time messaging, archiving, and search platform for modern teams. It serves as an all-in-one platform for communication and collaboration among team members, where they can share files and documents and create channels for specific topics or projects. Slack also integrates with other business tools, such as Google Drive, Trello, and Salesforce, to boost productivity to the max.
The free version of Slack comes with basic features, and it works like a charm. But if you need more advanced functionalities, there are paid subscription plans with additional features such as unlimited app integrations, unlimited message history, and guest access.
ClickUp
ClickUp is a team management platform where entrepreneurs and small businesses can create and assign tasks to team members, as well as collaborate with them using features such as real-time chat and commenting. It’s perfect for streamlining workflows, organizing roadmaps and sprints, and managing talent all in one place.
ClickUp offers a free version with basic but super useful features, unlimited members, and unlimited tasks. It also offers paid subscription plans that start at $5 per member with additional tools.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Hubspot
Hubspot is a customer relationship management tool that allows companies and entrepreneurs to organize and track interactions with their customers to provide them with a seamless experience. It offers features such as lead capture, sales, and marketing automation. It also allows users to automate tasks and workflows to improve efficiency and use data to improve sales and customer service.
Hubspot has a massive suite of free CRM tools available, which includes live chats, conversational bots, team email, mail tracking and notifications, a reporting dashboard, a deal pipeline, custom properties, and much more.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a sales management platform that enables entrepreneurs and small businesses to manage all sales-related tasks from a unified platform, drive more sales, nurture leads, automate administrative sales tasks, and get actionable insights from their data. It features a simple, user-friendly interface, custom reports, and outstanding features.
Although this is not a free tool, Pipedrive’s sales CRM software offers users the best value for money out there. Its basic plan starts at $12 and offers 3000 open deals, customizable pipelines, and lead and deal management, among other features.
Social Media Management
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a marketing and social media management tool that allows you to schedule and publish content, track metrics, and engage with your followers across different channels. It offers integrations with multiple social media platforms and has a free plan that allows you to connect up to three profiles and streamline your content strategy.
If you want to use advanced features or use more than three social media accounts, paid plans start at $29 per month.
Buffer
Buffer is a social media management platform for scheduling social media content and analyzing relevant metrics. With Buffer, entrepreneurs and small businesses can schedule and publish social media posts across multiple platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, analyze the performance of their posts using data and analytics, and collaborate with team members.
The free version of Buffer allows you to schedule posts on up to three different channels and comes with a landing page builder. If you need to automate content on more channels, it costs $5 per month per new channel.
Email Hosting & Marketing
Zoho Mail
Zoho Mail is a cloud-based email service that allows you to create and manage professional email accounts for your business. It’s a secure, encrypted, privacy-guaranteed, and ad-free email hosting solution and it offers features such as calendar and task management and integrations with other Zoho apps.
Zoho Mail has a free forever plan for up to five users, with 5GB storage each, and paid plans starting at $1 per month per user.
Mailerlite
Mailerlite is an email marketing tool that allows you to create and send newsletters and automated campaigns. It offers a variety of templates and design tools for newsletters, including a DIY drag-and-drop solution. It also allows you to build your own landing page.
Mailerlite has a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers that includes 12,000 monthly emails and 10 landing pages, as well as paid plans starting at $10 per month.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email marketing platform with amazing automation, segmentation, and AI tools, as well as several possible integrations and templates, and designs. This suite of marketing solutions allows companies and entrepreneurs to grow their revenue with targeted and engaging emails.
Mailchimp has a free plan for up to 500 subscribers and 2500 email sends per month. It’s the perfect plan for new entrepreneurs with big ideas who just started building an audience for online growth.
Digital Products & Courses
Podia
Podia is a platform that allows you to build a sales page, set up your offering, and sell your digital products and courses online in a matter of minutes. It’s packed with valuable features that range from customizable landing pages and full-blown websites to email marketing and integrations with payment gateways.
Podia has a free plan that allows you to build a website and sell one digital product and one coaching product. With the free version, you can also draft workshops and courses to get a better feel of the platform and decide if you’d like to upgrade to a paid plan, which starts at $39 per month.
Thinkific
Thinkific is an online platform where you can create and sell online courses, build solid communities, and monetize memberships to scale your business. Among its many features, it allows creators to set up and nurture learning communities around their expertise and skills, turning their interactions with their audience into real business traction.
You can test-drive Thinkific for free and begin building your first online course and community with their free plan. Paid plans start at $36 per month.
Graphic Design
Canva
Canva is a graphic design tool that allows you to create professional-looking graphics and designs for social media, marketing materials, and more. It makes design simple and more accessible to everyone with a variety of templates, graphic elements, and tools to help you create visually appealing content.
Canva has a free plan that offers several useful features, but if you want to take your design capabilities to another level, paid plans start at $6.49 per month.
Adobe Express
Adobe Express is a free mobile photo editing app for iOS and Android. It features a variety of filters and effects to enhance your photos, adjustment tools, the ability to add text and stickers to your photos, and cropping and resizing features. While it’s a relatively simple tool, it’s great value for money.
Their free plan includes thousands of unique templates, design assets, royalty-free photos, thousands of fonts, and more. Its Premium plan starts at $9,99 a month and includes tons of additional, more advanced features.
Creators and entrepreneurs shouldn't have to worry about the cost of starting an online business. These free or low-cost tools can help you kick-start and run your business efficiently and effectively while saving money until you can afford to go premium.