Startup Tools
Here is our handy list of tools for startups to help get you started and manage your business.
Accounting
Adminsoft, free, ad-supported accounting software
Money Manager Ex, open-source, full-featured financial software
Wave, financial/accounting/payment/invoicing software
Zipbooks, accounting and online invoicing
Expensify, expense reporting with mobile tracking and receipt scanning
Valuation, free business valuation reports based on revenue, costs, cash, market success, and other factors.
Efficiency
Bitly, a link shortener that can also create custom URLs
Envoy, an open-source edge and service proxy, designed for cloud-native applications
Google Trends, trend search with interest level graphs
Notion, A great tool for organizing and collaborating on almost anything you can think of
OnlineGDB – online compiler and debugger tool for multiple languages
Pomodoro Timer, a tool to stage work in time increments to work more effectively, for longer
QR Code Generator – Link QR codes to various different links/files
Thonny – Python IDE for beginners
TinyURL, URL shortener
Data
Google Data Studio, a dashboard and report creator for data
Google Forms, a way to quickly create forms for surveys, events, and more.
Qualtrics, a tool for surveys, research and customer discovery that can capture customer, product, and brand insights
/r/startups, a platform to get unbiased feedback and advice through a subreddit of entrepreneurs
Statista, a leading data portal that is an online repository of statistics, consumer survey results and industry data
Surveymonkey, online survey tool
Typeform, an interactive form building tool, without code.
Communication
ChatWoot – Free chatbot (self hosted) and communication software
ezTalk, video, audio and IM chat for teams
FortKnoxster, military-grade encryption online communication platform
Google Hangouts, online meetings and conferencing with Google accounts
GoToMeeting, online meetings and web conferencing for teams
Hunter, Chrome extension to find email addresses from a webpage
HyperWrite AI, an AI powered technology platform to help you communicate more effectively and efficiently
Join.me, screen sharing, online meetings, team collaboration
OthersideAI, AI technology to help communicate more efficiently
Patchwork, Direct messaging for Google Chrome. Share and have conversations without ever leaving your page.
Skype, full-featured online meetings software
Slack, collaboration software platform to communicate, collaborate and manage workflows
TinyLetter, a tool to create personalized newsletters
Trello – A notion alternative, Collaborate and manage your projects.
UberConference, web conferencing and online meetings
WebEx (Cisco), enterprise video conferencing and online meetings/webinars
Whereby, free, high-quality video conferencing
Zoom, online meetings software
Management & Operations
Apollo, Target your ideal buyer with precision, and get verified emails and direct dials phone numbers instantly on 200M people and 10M companies.
FreeConferenceCall, free HD audio/video/screen conferencing and sharing with up to 1000 participants
Grammarly, proofreading and plagiarism checker
Psiphon, a VPN tool that provides open access to the Internet for anyone, allowing users to create a community
RocketReach, Find a persons contact information from their name
Sales QL, Find contact details for the people you want to approach on LinkedIn, even if you haven’t yet connected with them
Startup Checker, a comprehensive website with over 500+ startup tools for small businesses — huge free directory, although some of the apps listed may have a fee to use. Extremely well organized and easy to navigate with hyperlinked resources in many categories
TeamViewer, remote computer access software
Design
Affinity, a creative suite for graphic design, photo editing, publishing
Beautiful.ai, an AI-powered pitch deck designer
Bubble, no-code platform for creating digital products & web-apps without code
Canva, a simple-to-use design tool for easy slide, logo, social post (and more) creation
Coolors.co, Color palette generator
DaVinci Resolve, video-editing, color correction, visual effects, and motion graphics software
Epidemic Sound – Add music to your content creations
Figma – online platform for UI/UX design. Great for creating mockups for websites and mobile apps.
FlatIcon, a source for icons for pitch decks, websites, etc.
Flowmapp – UI/UX/Information Flow Design
FreePik, website with fantastic mockups, just make sure to set the filter to “free”
Gravit Designer, a full-featured vector design tool
Inkscape, an online replacement for Illustrator.
InShot, free app to create Reels or TikToks to market your business
InVision, digital product design platform powering the world’s best user experiences.
Jitter – Simple and clean motion design
Justinmind, platform to create web and mobile app prototypes and wireframes with a UI tool
Laws Of UX, Good rules to follow when building apps/websites
LucidChart – intelligent diagramming application for mind maps, diagrams, and visualization
Lunacy – Incredibly powerful Sketch alternative for windows
Pexels, free stock photos
Piktochart, an easy way to create high impact infographics for free, with templates and easy to use tools to communication information in a visual way
Pixabay, free stock photos
Pixlr Editor, free online Photoshop clone.
Polarr, iOS and Android online photo editing
Sketch, Full-spectrum design toolkit.
Slides Carnival, free PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes that are customizable
Solidworks – solid modeling computer-aided design and computer-aided engineering computer program
TinkerCad – Easy to use 3D design, electronics, and coding software
Thingiverse, 3d models for 3d printing
Unsplash, free stock photos
UX Archive, UX software platform to inspire ideas
Vectr, 2D vector creator.
Web/Marketing
Ahrefs – Ahrefs offers some of their SEO tools for free but they offer a surprisingly robust collection of data
Amazon Drive, back up photos, files, documents, and other company files
Answer the Public, Customer insights based on Google Data, SEO, etc
Box, store, organize and manage company and personal content
CoSchedule, a WordPress add-on to help organize all marketing in one place and help with collaboration
Dictionary Domains, a source of unregistered dictionary words to help create domain names
Flickr, upload, store, and share photos
Google Drive, store and share files
GTMetrix – Website speed testing tools
OneDrive, store and share files
Bensound, royalty-free music
Brandmark, a machine learning-based logo creator
Buffer, social media scheduling tool
Feedly, news and content aggregator around specific topics and influencers
Hootsuite, an easy social media management tool
Hubspot, a marketing, sales, and CRM management software platform that is especially good for startups that are scaling
Hunter.io, find professional email addresses in seconds
Later, free platform to plan a feed and schedule social media posts
Mailchimp, an easy to use email marketing platform.
Medium, blog/publication website
NameBounce, free domain name generator that helps you find domain ideas
Namelix, a machine learning-based company name creator
Pickaxe – helps you find key contacts at app & game publishers
SEMRush, a SEO tool for auditing and optimizing social media and digital content
Springboard Enterprises, a connection platform for female founders
Tepfu, a marketing agency platform for startups and companies
Tube Buddy, a management and optimization tool for YouTube creators
Drupal Commerce, e-commerce for Drupal CMS
Shopify, e-commerce website builder.
Smylelytics, website performance monitoring
Square Online Store, e-commerce website builder leveraging Square payments
Squarespace, a code-free website builder for startup websites
UberSuggest, SEO and Keyword Research
UptimeRobot, monitor digital assets for downtime and get notified if there are any issues
VS Code, Great code editor for Mac/Windows
Webflow, a code-free HTML/CSS generator to build great websites
Wix, a code-free website builder for startup sites
WooCommerce, WordPress plugin for e-commerce
WordPress, open-source website CMS software.
Funding
AngelList, a search platform for potential investors, early hires and team members
BuiltIn – startup and tech hub information with salaries
F6S, a tool to find and apply to accelerators (including Techstars), along with other startup resources
FounderSuite, a CRM for raising investment capital
Fundera, a one-stop marketplace to connect with the right business loan for your needs – like the kayak.com for business loans
Fundwurx, connecting fundraising projects with donors
Kickstarter, a way to crowd source your funding without giving away equity
SBA.gov, truly the one-stop for writing business plans, creating financial projections, finding advice on how to finance your business, and straightforward business information to start and grow a business