What Software Do Small Businesses Use?
If you're running a small business, you know that software is a key ingredient for success. The right solution will save your team considerable time, streamline your operations, and help your business grow.
However, it's not easy to identify the most important types of software to invest in, or the best solutions.
It turns out that there are a few types of software that are used by almost all small businesses – accounting software, document management software, and HR software.
Beyond these must-have software tools, small businesses frequently use the following types of software:
- Collaboration software
- Electronic signature software
- Marketing software
- Project management software
- Website builder software
Below, we explain what each of these software types is used for, along with our top recommendations of individual solutions for small businesses.
The analysts at SoftwarePundit have spent months researching each category, and hand-testing each of the solutions that we recommend. To learn more about how we research and rate software tools, read about SoftwarePundit’s review methodology.
Table of Contents
- Must Have Small Business Software
- Nice to Have Small Business Software
- Industry Specific Software
- Final Thoughts
Must Have SMB Software: Accounting, Document Management & HR Software
There are three types of must-have software for small businesses – accounting software, document management software, and HR software. Almost all small businesses use these systems to manage foundational functions.
Accounting Software
Accounting software is one of the most widely used among small businesses. For less than $100 per month, it's possible to get a system that automates the collection and organization of financial data, generates insightful reports, and streamlines tax preparation.
Accounting software typically comes with several of the following features:
- Accounting Reports
- Invoicing
- Expense Tracking
- Inventory Management
- Payment Processing
- Customer CRM
- Vendor CRM
- Payroll
- Tax Form Generation
- Time Tracking
- Receipt Capture
If you're interested, you can learn more about why you need accounting software to manage your business.
Most Popular Accounting Software: QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks online is the most popular accounting tool for small businesses. It includes all features a small business needs to keep track of its financials, and most accountants are very familiar with using the tool. QuickBooks Online has over 70 financial reports, integrations with many third-party tools, and a powerful payroll add-on.
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Best Solution for Business Owners: Xero
Xero is an accounting software that's used by more than 2 million customers worldwide. It includes all essential accounting features like reporting, invoicing, inventory management, and tax form generation. It's a great option for most small and medium businesses in any industry.
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Most User-Friendly Accounting Software: Wave
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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Document Management Software
Document management software is another core system that's almost universally used. If you want to create and store digital files, or send business emails, you'll need one of these. The two most popular systems are Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
These systems have many functions including document creation, document sharing, document storage, and team collaboration. Google Workspace also includes Gmail, Google Meet, Google Groups and Google My Business.
Our Top Choice: Google Workspace
Overall, Google Workspace is a powerful document management solution used by a diverse range of businesses. It’s best for businesses interested in content creation and team collaboration. Businesses looking for an entire suite of business tools rather than simple document storage features will find Workspace particularly beneficial.
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Best for Microsoft Office Enthusiasts: Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a full featured document management solution used by a wide range of businesses. Microsoft 365’s suite of tools help your business manage not only your documents but your team as well. We highly recommend Microsoft 365 for any business that prefers Microsoft over Google, and wants to take advantage of internal chat and team management tools like Microsoft Teams.
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HR Software
HR software is critical for managing any business. While HR software has several functions, payroll processing and compliance are the two most necessary. All businesses need to pay their employees and maintain compliance with state and federal government policies.
HR software typically comes with several of the following features:
- Recruiting
- Onboarding and offboarding
- Payroll
- Time tracking
- Compliance support
- Benefits
- Performance management
- Expense management
- Analytics and reporting
Best All-Around Solution for SMBs: BambooHR
BambooHR is a human resource software solution best for businesses with 25 to 300 employees. It is primarily used by businesses to create job postings and time track employees. Its standout features are its recruiting capabilities, as well as its onboarding and offboarding features.
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Best HR Software for Payroll: Gusto
Gusto is a human resource software solution used by more than 100,000 businesses. Gusto started as a payroll solution, but has since added a variety of HR features including benefits and compliance support. Gusto is generally used by small businesses with less than 500 employees.
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Nice to Have SMB Software: Collaboration, Electronic Signature, Marketing, Project Management & Website Builder Software
There are dozens of types of software used by small businesses. However, there are a handful of categories that are more popular than the rest, and more valuable.
These are the nice-to-have software tools: collaboration software, electronic signature software, marketing software, project management software, and website builder software.
Collaboration Software
Collaboration software is used to facilitate team communication. There are different types of collaboration software including team chat, video conferencing, and email clients.
If you decide to use Google Workspace as your document management system, you'll be happy to learn that it comes with a chat application as well as video conferencing. In contrast, Microsoft 365 comes with Microsoft Teams, which competes with Slack.
Best Internal Communication Software: Slack
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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Electronic Signature Software
Electronic signature software is used to create, execute and store legal documents. While many businesses still use pen and paper to manage physical documents, it's not recommended.
PandaDoc has one of the best free software plans in the world. Its free plan allows you to upload and send an unlimited number of documents.
Most Powerful Solution: DocuSign
DocuSign is the most popular electronic signature tool used by over 500,000 customers to automate their document agreement processes. It is the most robust software solution in the market, but remains very easy to use. Overall, it is an ideal solution for companies of all sizes that should definitely be on your short list.
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Best Free Plan: PandaDoc
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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Best Value: signNow
signNow is one of the most popular electronic signature tools with over 45,000 customers. The application is robust – it includes many nice-to-have features and options not found in most other solutions. signNow is also reasonably priced compared to its competitors. It is an ideal solution for companies that need an advanced electronic signature solution, and prefer to save money by not purchasing DocuSign.
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Marketing Software
There are thousands of marketing software tools for small businesses. These systems help small businesses engage potential and existing customers across all marketing channels.
When selecting marketing software for your business, the first thing you should determine is the marketing channel you want to invest in. Email marketing is an extremely valuable channel that most small businesses begin with. After that, you might decide to invest in search, social media, live chat, or SMS marketing.
Best Email System for SMBs: Mailchimp
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Atlanta, MailChimp has quickly grown into one of the most recognized email marketing services in the world, and is currently used by over 14 million businesses. One of MailChimp's primary selling points is that it requires minimal technical expertise, and no coding capabilities, in order to create professional marketing campaigns.
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Best Customer Engagement Platform: Podium
Podium is an Interaction Management™ Platform used to generate and manage online reviews, streamline customer interactions through messaging, and monitor customer sentiment. The company has over 45,000 customers in healthcare, home services, retail, auto services, professional services, and hospitality.
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Best Online Search Software: Semrush
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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Best Social Media Management Software: Sprout Social
Sprout Social
Best Overall ProductSprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform used by over 20,000 organizations to manage Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and other social media channels. In addition to basic features, Sprout Social includes advanced features such as a chatbot and digital asset library. Sprout Social is the best overall solution for SMBs, but is priced at a premium to other options.
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Best SMS Software: SlickText
SlickText is an all-in-one SMS marketing tool that has been used by over 70,000 businesses. It is ideal for small and medium sized businesses looking for a SMS marketing solution with flexible subscriber data collection and powerful list building options. Although SlickText is an all-in-one tool designed for all types of businesses, ecommerce stores might prefer more specialized solutions for their use cases.
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Best All-round CRM Software: HubSpot
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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Project Management Software
Companies with more than five employees benefit from project management software. These tools help you keep track of the different projects and tasks happening at your business.
When evaluating them, it's important to decide how complex of a project management system you need. Smaller companies with more basic needs are a perfect fit for a simple, cheap solution like Trello. Larger companies managing complex projects are better off with a solution like Asana.
Best Overall: Asana
Asana is a cloud-based project management software system that helps companies assign, prioritize, and manage tasks across teams. Used by organizations like Pinterest, NASA, Spotify, and Airbnb, Asana offers a wide range of customizable options and features—more functionality than most teams will need—but enables users to pick and choose which features they prefer to utilize in order to increase productivity and create the most effective workflow for their needs.
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Best for Technical Teams: Jira
Jira Software is a powerful project management tool designed for Agile software development teams. Launched in 2003, Jira Software is primarily used by software development teams, and it's one of the most popular project management systems in technology companies. Incorporating customizable Scrum and Kanban boards, users can plan and organize tasks at a project level, set priorities for each task, and collaborate with team members. Teams can also establish processes by building custom workflow maps, which helps to standardize workflows across projects.
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Best for Small Teams: Trello
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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Website Builder Software
Small businesses use website builder software to create and publish websites. These systems require very little technical ability, and come with beautifully designed website templates.
Website builders typically come with the following features:
- Website page builders
- WYSIWYG blog editors
- Ecommerce tools
- Plugins, applications, and extensions
- Online search & SEO tools
- Analytics dashboards & reports
- Social media marketing tools
- Email marketing tools
- Contact forms
Best Overall: Wix
Wix
Free TrialWix is a website builder with over 200 million users. Its main features include highly customizable website builder, a WYSIWYG blog editor, ecommerce tools, SEO tools, and analytics dashboards. Overall, Wix is design-friendly and can support beginner website builders.
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Best Designs: Squarespace
Squarespace is a website builder with one million paying customers. Its main features are highly customizable website builder, a WYSIWYG blog editor, ecommerce features, SEO customizations, email marketing, and traffic, sales, and engagement dashboards. Overall, Squarespace is the best solution for design-forward websites and displaying visual work.
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Easiest to Use: Weebly
Weebly is a website builder solution that supports over 50 million websites. It offers an easy to use website builder, a WYSIWYG blog editor, ecommerce tools, email marketing tools, and analytics dashboards. Weebly is one of the most user-friendly solutions available in the market and best for beginner website creators and ecommerce store owners.
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Industry Specific Software
All of the solutions listed above are horizontal software tools that work for businesses in any industry. There are also industry-specific software tools built for companies in a given industry.
Here's a list of industry specific software:
If you manage a business in one of the industries above, you're likely better off finding the right industry-specific software rather than purchasing a number of general software solutions. Industry-specific software is typically the foundational software tool that supports the most critical business functions.
A few examples of outstanding industry-specific software is listed below.
Course Creation: Thinkific
Thinkific is a best-in-class course creation platform that you can use to create and sell online courses.
Thinkific is an online course creation solution with approximately 50,000 instructors. It helps course creators build and market their online courses and websites. It’s not the most advanced solution, but it’s powerful and easy-to-use. Overall, it’s ideal for ambitious beginners and established course creators.
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Dental: CareStack
CareStack is our top rated dental practice management systems. It is cloud-based and comprehensive – customers of CareStack might not need to purchase patient engagement software.
CareStack
Best Cloud SoftwareCareStack is an all-in-one cloud-based dental practice management system that is ideal for dental practices with multiple locations. CareStack dental software comes with HIPAA-compliant, integrated modules for patient engagement, scheduling, charting, claims & billing, and business analytics. In a few short years, CareStack has emerged as a leader in dental practice management software, and has a great reputation for being extremely customer-focused.
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Field Service Management: ServiceTitan
ServiceTitan is our top rated field service management system used by professionals in numerous industries including plumbing, HVAC, pest control, lawn care, and more.
ServiceTitan
Best Enterprise SoftwareServiceTitan is a popular field service management solution used by over 4,400 service businesses and over 100,000 contractors. ServiceTitan initially was used in electrical, HVAC, and plumbing, but now serves a variety of industries including garage door, chimney sweep, and pool service. ServiceTitan is best for large businesses that are willing to invest in a robust system to differentiate themselves from competitors.
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Fitness: Glofox
Glofox is our top rated fitness management system that is used to operate gyms, studios, and salons.

Glofox stands out from the competition with its ease of use and customization; each client receives a custom branded mobile app, which customers can download to view, book and pay for classes, courses and memberships. A booking and payment portal can also be integrated with your website or Facebook page. This level of customization makes Glofox a top solution for smaller gyms and fitness studios looking to save time, grow their community and promote their brand. Designed specifically for the fitness industry, Glofox offers a feature-rich product at a competitive price.
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Legal: Clio
Clio is the most popular practice management system for law firms.
Clio Manage is a popular legal practice management solution used by over 150,000 legal professionals. Clio Manage includes features that help legal professionals automate key tasks and grow their law firms. These features include contact management, a calendar, document management, time tracking, billing, and online payment processing. Clio Manage offers more third-party integrations than any of its competitors. We recommend Clio Manage for small to medium sized law firms with a complex tech stack that needs a solution with a high volume of integrations.
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Mental Health: SimplePractice
SimplePractice is our top rated practice management system for health and wellness clinicians.
SimplePractice
Best Overall PMSSimplePractice, founded in 2012, is SoftwarePundit's best overall practice management system. It features one of the most user-friendly, modern interfaces on the market and has a complete set of features including flexible EHRs, telehealth, and robust mobile applications. Starting at $49 per month for a single clinician, SimplePractice is a reasonably priced high-quality option.
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Property Management: Buildium
Buildium is a leading property management system that residential property owners use to manage the rental of their homes.
Buildium is a property management solution used by over 16,000 property managers. This platform is used to manage a variety of portfolio types including community associations, student housing, affordable housing, and residential properties. Buildium a powerful end-to-end solution equipped with tools to manage the entire property management lifecycle from the initial marketing of your units to inspecting your properties after tenants move out.
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Vacation Rental Management: Guesty
Guesty is our top rated vacation rental management system used by property owners to manage rental properties.
Guesty is an advanced vacation rental management software that's used in the management of over 100,000 properties. With advanced automations and API connections with the major OTAs, it'll benefit those who are looking for an intensive and advanced tool to manage a large number of properties.
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Final Thoughts
Figuring out the best mix of software tools to implement for your business is challenging. However, there's really only a handful of software types that most businesses use.
To get started, we recommend implementing an accounting solution, document management solution, and an HR solution. For a small business, these systems will almost certainly cost less than $150 per month in total.
After getting those must-have solutions in place, start researching the other common software types. There's no rush to implement several tools at once – it's better to pick one or two new software types, become an expert, and test your favorite solution. Over time, you'll become highly knowledgeable about software, and build your company's technology stack.
Finally, don't forget to research the industry-specific software that is a fit for your business. Typically, this all-in-one software can support several of your key functions, and save you money.