The Best Free Apps for Small Business Owners

Best Tools for Small Business: The Basics

To get started you’re most likely going to need an email address, I probably don’t need to elaborate on why, but very quickly email is where you’ll deal with nearly all of your suppliers, customer sand pretty much all other communications. For email there are a few free options:

Proton Mail - Security and privacy focused.

Proton Mail is a Swiss email provider focused on privacy and security, they claim, unlike other providers, they don’t scan your emails to build a profile of you which others sell to marketers. They also provide end to end encryption, so only you can see your emails. They state they cannot view the contents of your emails or attachments. The downside of the free plan, is you can’t use a custom domain. So you’ll end up with an email @proton. Proton in my opinion is one of the best apps for small business, it’s as easy as Google to use and it’s nice to know your data is more protected.

Gmail - The tried and true.

The best thing about Gmail is, it’s incredibly easy to use, you’ve probably used it before. So no learning curve when it comes to doing all the email related things you need to do. The downside, is the free Gmail only lets you use @gmail addresses. So if you need a custom domain, you’ll need to look elsewhere, most providers charge to use @yourdomain.com. However there is one provider we’ll cover next who has a limited free account.

Zoho - The full package.

Zoho is one of the best tools for small business. They offer an incredible array of products, from CRMs, to form and website builders, survey tools, ecommerce and shop builders, VoIP and local numbers/calling credits, booking, sales, inventory, invoicing, finance, billing, e-signature software and much much more. (I mean that’s probably not even 20%.) The upside of Zoho is you run a very small business all the way up to more complicated businesses from one place. I’ve personally used Zoho and did find the UI can be a tad outdated so it can be complicated at times to use, however they have been proactively updating everything. Zoho, unlike the aforementioned email providers, offers a “forever free plan” which allows 5GB email storage, up to 5 users, with email hosting for your domain. So your email can be @yourwebsitename.com.

The next most import apps for small business, would be free calendar apps and whilst we’re at it video conferencing, since they often go hand in hand.

Google Calendar - Simplest small business calendar and calls app.

Gcal is one of the best calendar apps out there, especially if you’re using their free web email service, as it all syncs up. The calendar also use Google’s native video conferencing software Meets, a pick for me for call software as it’s pretty reliable and free. Being able to send calendar invites with a Meets link, just makes life way easier when scheduling meetings.

Apple Calendar is a great alternative to Google, if you use a Mac or iPhone, since it natively integrates with their operating systems. The only downside is that Apple Calendar doesn’t have a professional video conferencing tool. Although your data is certainly safer with Apple than Google.

Zoho Calendar - Packs a lot of punch for free, lots of features.

Zoho is one of the best apps for small business, it’s a market leading calendar tool, especially if you use their suite of tools or have opted to use their free email, this would be my pick. Like Apple and Google, they also offer native iPhone and Android apps. Their angle, unlike Google, is less to make money from your data, but to have you upgrade from their free plans. Which are perfect tools for small business , but will be too limited as your company scales. Zoho also offersZoho Meeting which is free for up to 100 attendees for 1 hour. If you need more than that you’ll need to upgrade. If you use other Zoho tools it’s a great alternative to Meets as it syncs with the rest of Zoho’s tools.

Zoom - Universal video conferencing software.

Zoom is one of the best known video conferencing platforms in the world, unlike Zoho or Google, Zoom is strictly video conferencing and does not offer an integrated calendar. Meaning if you choose Zoom, you’ll need to use a seperate calendar app. Zoom’s free plan offers calls for up to 40 mins. After which you need to end and restart or upgrade.

Best Free AI Tools for Small Business

Some of the best tools for small business are new AI tools, each one excels in different areas, and these days there’s tens of thousands of players. We’ll just note some of the top ones.

Perplexity - Best AI tool for search that provides sources.

Perplexity is one of the best free apps for small business owners, for me it is one of my go to free tools. It’s really fantastic to ask questions where I need sources I can review, so I can be sure the information is correct. For example, today I needed help understanding how to making an online filing at Companies House. I asked Perplexity and it gave a concise accurate answer. Which saved me hours of looking at documentation, reddit and elsewhere. It can handle all kinds of question, so next time you have a complex question that Google can’t handle, try it out. Like most AI providers, you get a certain number of free prompts before you need to pay, but the free tier for now has worked pretty well for me.

Claude - Best AI tool for reasoning, coding and translations.

Claude is pretty good at a few things, but it certainly can reason pretty well, and is used by many coders for its code output, which is better than GPT. It’s also pretty good at translating language too. Claude has the least amount of prompts free though.

ChatGPT - Best AI tool for longer form answers and number of prompts.

ChatGPT is still a go to for a lot of tasks, it tends to generate the most content versus the last two (although Claude can too.) GPT’s custom GPTs are really useful as you can scope each GPT to a task or use pre-made ones. GPT also has some of the most free prompts, making it much better for a back and forth conversation that requires further inputs from your side.

Midjourney - Best AI tool for image generation.

Midjourney is arguably the market leader at free image generation via prompt. It’s a great tool to generate free images you can use for your business, opposed to paying for stock images or worrying about copyrighted images. The free option does leave you waiting for some time though as you enter a queue.

Synthesia - Free video production app for small business.

Synthesia has a limited free plan, but enough to generate 3 minutes of video a month, more than enough for a small business’ marketing needs. The tool is pretty fun to use, you just add a prompt and generate a video from set prompt.

Best Free File Hosting Apps for Small Business

Dropbox - Easiest file storage tool to use.

Dropbox is one of best apps for small business, however the free storage plan is pretty limited at 2GB, but it’s UX is great, you can just select a folder on your hard drive or login to their app. For team folders you can also get end to end encryption meaning much more security conscious users should opt for Dropbox.

Google Drive - More generous free limit file storage.

Google Drive is another one of the best tools for small business, its free storage (comes with every gmail account) is 15GB which is a lot more generous than what Dropbox offers. However it’s a bit more fiddly to setup and requires you to use their web app. A good option if you have a lot of bigger files you need access to anywhere you have an internet connection.

Best Free Payments Apps for Small Business

Payment providers like PayPal or Stripe are one of the only areas that don’t really offer free. In every case you’ll pay a percentage and a set fee. Some providers do let you pass this cost onto your customers. So for example if you’re selling something for $20, the customer could pay the fees on top of your price, inflating the costs. Given that this area of tools has been extensively covered by other publications I’ll point you to a Forbes article that compares them all.

Best Free Analytics Apps for Small Business

Mixpanel - Best analytics tool for product based data.

Mixpanel is a really powerful analytics tool, but it’s really designed for product and engineering teams. So if you don’t run a software business or have digital “products” it may not be as powerful as some of the other tools in this list. They offer a 1M monthly events free.

PostHog - Best analytics tool for event driven data and engineers.

Posthog isn’t the easiest to setup, so if you don’t have a developer on your team, jump to Matomo. PostHog is what we use at EchoDash and it is incredibly powerful, especially if you want to create funnels. For example, how many site visitors came back within a week, and then how many of these return users then setup an account. They also offer 1M free monthly events.

Matomo - Best tool to replace Google Analytics.

Matomo is one of the best apps for small business, it’s designed with content and marketing teams in mind. Any business can use Matomo, especially if you’re looking to understand traffic volume to your site and where this traffic is coming from. Their interface is more intuitive than Google Analytics too. Matomo is open source, meaning if you set it up on a server you control it’s free forever. If you can’t you can opt to pay for their cloud version.

EchoDash - Best free tool to understand everything inside, outside, nearby and around your business.

EchoDash, the tool we’re working on, is being built for any business owner to understand what’s going on across their business. Our focus is on being the place you understand what’s happening across any of the tools you use, like the ones mentioned in this piece. Meaning you can check all of the things that have happened across all the tools, you use to run your business, in one place: EchoDash.

Best Sales, Finance and Marketing Apps for Small Business

Hubspot - The CRM Godfather.

Hubspot is one of the most well known CRMs in the world, and unlike other providers offers a free tier that allows up for 1000 customer records. So for small businesses a pretty large contact book before you need to think about paying. Its free tier makes it one of the best small business management tools.

Airtable - CRM, spreadsheet, accounting and more.

Airtable is one of the best free apps for small business owners. I’ve been using Airtable for a long while now, and they offer a similar limit of 1000 rows. However you can always make a new base free, giving you more room for customer data than Hubspot. Airtable isn’t a dedicated CRM, it’s an all-in-one built what you like tool. You can use it for a CRM, a website backend, a logistics and inventory solution, or like me, use it to map out your financials. Airtable has also thousands of automations so you can setup complicated sales or manufacturing processes inside of Airtable.

Wave - Invoices and accounting for free.

Wave is a great free tool for small business, you can create unlimited estimates, quotes, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records all for free. They also offer a cashflow and customer management tool free as well. They do offer payments too but charge a percentage of any income.

Wise - All your money needs.

Wise is another of my favourite apps, they provide a free bank account that you can take in invoice payments free, and hold money or be paid in multiple currencies, all free. They do charge to exchange currencies but at a much better rate than any bank and pretty much everyone else on the market.

Best Business Management Systems?

Business management systems can be nearly anything as it’s pretty broad term. That said there are some vital things that I’d consider core to any business management, largely a central repository of documents, plans, boards, e-signature software for any contracts and communications.

Notion - The centralised business management system.

Notion in my opinion is the best business management software for small business. I’ve used a lot of tools in the past and since using Notion, I’ve ditched 5x services and now just use Notion. You can easily organise and store key contracts, legal documents or other documents in one repository. Have a spreadsheet of suppliers in another base, and use their calendars, pages and other tools to have everything you need in one place. It’s also really designed to collaborate, so setup roadmaps, KPIs, Trello boards or any other product or management workflows to manage your business.

Slack - The market standard collaboration tool.

Slack is the granddaddy of business management systems. They’re the ears and mouth of any business, every team I’ve worked on uses Slack. Be it huge teams or small, Slack can handle it. It’s the place for remote teams and even in person teams to ask questions, talk, collaborate, ask for help, share ideas and generally communicate. Im certain it’s made us more productive, it bets emails 100x for instant communications. Slack has a free tier too, which limits the history you can view and number of accounts, but it’s pretty generous and we’ve not yet need to upgrade. Which makes Slack the best business management software for small business.

Docusign - Free e-signature software.

Docusign is a fantastic app and should definitely be included in any small business management tools list. It’s a free e-signature tool that allows for 3 free signatures a month, the free plan has limited space to store your signed documents but you can download and use one of the free files storing sites listed above. Given many platforms have no free tier, Docusign is one of the best options for small business management.

That about rounds up our ideas of the best small business management tools and apps around. That said if there’s an area you think we missed, fire an email to Alex at Echodash.com or leave us a comment and we’ll be sure to update our list to include your interest area.