Best Free Software for Small Businesses in 2021
Good software is expensive, and free software is typically full of bugs or not secure. However, high-quality, free software tools do exist. They're hard to find, but worth searching for – these solutions can provide a big boost to your business at an unbeatable ROI.
Most often, software vendors offer these free plans as a way to acquire new customers. They hope that you'll enjoy their products, and eventually decide to pay for a more advanced, full-featured version of their software.
We've tested each of the free plans listed below. In fact, we use many of these small business tools ourselves. While you might choose to upgrade to a paid plan in the future, these free plans provide enough functionality that you likely won't need to.
Table of Contents
- What Software Do Small Businesses Need?
- Is There Any Free Accounting Software?
- The Best Free Software For Small Businesses
What Software Do Small Businesses Need?
Software is quickly becoming a necessary ingredient to running any small business. Today, software exists to support every major business function. In addition, small businesses have been increasingly forced to use software to acquire & engage customers through the Internet and digital communication channels. The major types of software used by small businesses are:
- Website software
- Marketing software
- Customer relationship management (CRM) software
- Helpdesk software
- Project management software
- Recruiting & HR software
- Electronic signature software
- Accounting software
- Payroll software
- Document management software
- Team communication software
Is There Any Free Accounting Software?
Accounting software is one of the most universally used among small businesses. Fortunately, there is high-quality, free accounting software. The best free accounting software plan is offered by Wave. Here's an overview of the features available in Wave's free plan:
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| Accounting software |
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| Invoicing |
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| Receipt Scanning |
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The Best Free Software For Small Businesses
Below is our list of the best free software for small businesses. Our team of analysts has reviewed hundreds of software products – those below are highly rated, and happen to be 100% free. In fact, we use the majority of these tools ourselves.
Podium Starter
Podium is a highly popular customer engagement tool that is used by over 50,000 small businesses of all types. Major features include two-way text messaging, web chat, customer review management, and payment processing.
The full product is expensive – it starts at about $400 per month. However, Podium recently launched a free version of its product, known as Podium Starter. Podium Starter includes most major features found in Podium's paid plan – each is just more limited. For example, Podium Starter only includes 250 review invites.
Podium Starter is a free reputation management tool with features like webchat, review management, and payment processing. While there are limits to how many messages and review invitations can be utilized per month, the tool has fantastic value for a free product. We highly recommend Podium Starter for small businesses and to anyone looking to try a reputation management software.
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PandaDoc
PandaDoc is one of the leading electronic signature software vendors in the world. They also happen to offer the best free plan in their market. PandaDoc's free plan allows you to create and send an unlimited number of documents each month. We take advantage of this plan ourselves.
PandaDoc is an electronic signature tool used by over 20,000 companies. While PandaDoc can be used for any type of legal agreement, it does have a specific focus on supporting the deal process for sales professionals. This solution is best for sales professionals, and any organization that has a more complex document workflow.
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SEMrush
SEMrush is one of the most popular software platforms used by search marketers. If you invest in search engine optimization (SEO) or paid search ads on Google, SEMrush can help. The software comes with many useful features to help you find target keywords, build search ads, track your performance in online search, and learn about your top competitors.
The company doesn't really advertise its free plan – but it exists. Read our guide on how to get a SEMrush free plan.
Semrush
Best Overall SEO SoftwareSemrush is the best all-in-one search software tool for keyword research, competitive analysis, position tracking, and more. It will save you hours finding new high-volume keywords to target in paid and organic search, give you visibility into your competitors' online marketing tactics, and help you monitor your website's SEO performance.
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SMSBump
SMSBump is a popular SMS marketing tool ideal for Shopify and BigCommerce stores looking to build powerful campaigns centered around customer retention and engagement. Over 90,000 businesses have used SMSBump for their ecommerce stores. Standout features like campaign flows, segmentations, and diverse automations help both new and experienced ecommerce businesses build successful SMS marketing campaigns.
SMSBump's free plan includes features like SMS campaigns and automations, primary subscription tools, audience segmentation, ROI and performance analytics, a Yotpo integrations and 24/7 email and chat support.
SMSBump is a SMS marketing platform for Shopify and BigCommerce used by over 90,000 businesses. Standout features like campaign flows, segmentations, and automations make SMSBump the most powerful text marketing solution for ecommerce businesses.
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Gist
Gist is a leading live chat application. Gist offers a host of support and marketing features. Support features include live chat, chat triggers, chatbots, and agent performance reports. The marketing features include contact management, email marketing, and website popups. The free plan includes two seats and basic live chat capabilities.
Gist is a customer messaging software with over 10,000 customers. Its notable features include event tracking and cross-channel campaigns. It is ideal for anyone looking for an affordable mid-tier customer messaging solution.
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Tawk.to
Tawk.to is another leading live chat application. Installing its live chat widget on your website will allow you to engage your website visitors in real time. Tawk.to gives away its software for free – you only need to pay if you want to remove their branding, or use one of their value-add services. For example, you can hire an agent to chat with your web visitors for as little as $1 per hour.
Tawk.to is a free live chat solution with over 3 million users. It focuses solely on live chat, with features like ticketing and screen sharing, and tawk.to also allows customers to directly hire virtual assistants and chat agents. Tawk.to is the best free live chat software and would benefit any company searching for a free option.
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Doxy.me
Doxy.me is one of the world's most popular HIPAA compliant video conferencing solutions. Over 200,000 healthcare professionals use Doxy.me for telemedicine. If you're a medical professional, or just want a well-built, secure video conferencing tool, we recommend trying Doxy.me's free plan.
Doxy.me
Best Telemedicine ToolDoxy.me provides a HIPAA and HITECH compliant platform that streamlines the delivery of telemedicine for over 40,000 providers. Doxy.me differentiates from the competition through a focus on reducing cost and complexity. They offer a fully functional free version of the software that is HIPAA compliant and can be used for unlimited sessions. We recommend it for therapists looking to expand into telemedicine who cannot do this through their current practice management systems.
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Google Drive
You've probably heard of Google Drive. It's the cloud storage and document product that contains Microsoft competitors such as Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. The business plan starts at $8 per person per month. However, Google Drive is completely free for individuals.
Google Drive is a suite of apps similar to Microsoft Office, only it relies on the cloud to store files rather than saving them to your hard drive. In addition, you can store up to 15 GB in the cloud for free. We strongly recommend Google Drive for individuals and SMBs.
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Slack
Slack is a widely-used team collaboration software platform. Organizations use it to streamline person-to-person communication – you might think of it as similar to AOL Instant Messenger, if you're old enough to remember it.
Slack's free plan comes with all of its major features – team chat, 1:1 voice and video calls, 10 integrations with other apps like Google Drive or Office, and 10,000 saved messages. We are satisfied customers of the free plan at SoftwarePundit.
Though Slack isn't a project management system on its own, it can be a powerful tool to help teams collaborate more closely on projects, and can serve as an excellent supplement to your project management system. By facilitating more collaboration within the team, team members will be able to quickly tackle any roadblocks that may prevent them from delivering their work on time. In addition, Slack integrates with most major project management systems, which makes it a powerful collaboration tool that every team should consider using.
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Trello
Trello is a highly popular project management software used by organizations around the world. Its product helps teams stay organized and finish projects on schedule. We use the free plan's kanban-style board to track the progress of tasks for various projects.
Trello is a popular project management tool that enables teams to organize projects, break them down into manageable tasks, assign deadlines, and track projects in a visually appealing, easy-to-use drag-and-drop user interface. Since Trello connects to other apps in your workflow, such as Slack, Google Drive, and Jira, you can effectively communicate and collaborate throughout every stage of your projects, from start to finish.
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Avail
Avail is built specifically for property managers. While it's not for all small businesses, this property management software is a good tool to be aware of. The free plan does not include payment processing fees, property marketing tools, or credit checks.
Avail is a popular property management solution used by over 200,000 independent landlords nationwide. Avail is best suited for landlords managing 1 to 15 units. This platform includes property marketing tools, automatic rent collection, maintenance request tracking, and eLeasing.
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Wave
Wave is a freemium accounting software that’s ideal for service-based small businesses. The accounting reports, invoicing, and business bank accounts are offered for free; services like payroll and bookkeeping must be purchased. With a streamlined dashboard, easy-to-navigate interface, and add-on features like payroll and tax filing, Wave is a fantastic choice for any small business with standard accounting needs.
Wave is a freemium accounting tool designed for freelancers and small businesses. With features like invoicing, accounting reports, payroll, and bookkeeping services, Wave is a great option for service-based businesses with standard accounting needs.
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Hubspot
HubSpot is an intuitive, advanced CRM solution that is best suited for larger companies with complex workflows. We also recommend it to those who would prefer to use an all-in-one platform and prioritize having in-platform digital marketing tools in their CRM.
HubSpot is a feature-rich CRM software solution used by over 114,000 customers. It's ideal for those who need an advanced, all-in-one platform with high-quality marketing tools.
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