(Newswire.net — August 5, 2020) — Everyone knows that starting a new venture is tough. You spend hours pouring yourself into researching, planning and applying for funds. Once you’ve got past the initial “setting up” phase, it’s time to dive into promoting your start-up and getting into an operational rhythm. While these things take time, they don’t need to be difficult. With a world of business apps available online, start-ups can rely on these apps to support the growth of their business. With that in mind, unless you’ve gotten lucky with a big-time investment, budget may play a big part in the way start-ups choose to invest their money. It’s for this reason that we have compiled some of the best business apps on the market that won’t cost you the earth. Most of these apps are either completely free or offer users a free version which can be scaled as your business grows. Let’s get started.
Finance
PayPal
Price
PayPal is free to use however merchants will be charged for transactions. These fees are different in each country, for example for someone trading in the UK, the transaction cost is 2.90% plus a fixed fee of 0.30GBP.
Pros
- Accept multiple payment types
- Invoicing
- PayPal Here means you can sell offline and receive funds straight to your PayPal account
- PayPal credit allows customers to pay via credit, giving them more options to pay
- Business Loans
- PayPal shipping allows you to instantly create and print shipping labels for customer orders
- Risk reduction with PayPal risk management
- PayPal Business Debit Card
Cons
Businesses must adhere to PayPal’s terms of services. This includes verifying your identity. Failure to do so could result in your money being frozen and unable to withdraw it.
Wave
Price
Wave software is free.
Wave Transaction fees are as follows:
1.4% + 20p per transaction for European issued cards
2.9% + 20p per transaction for non-European issued cards
Pros
- Unlimited expense and income tracking
- Extensive reports
- Create a quote and instantly turn it into an invoice upon approval
- Unlimited receipt scanning
- Add multiple businesses to one account
- Did we mention it’s free?
Cons
Unlike the big accounting solutions Wave doesn’t offer project management. It also has limited tracking and inventory. And some users report that the mobile app could be improved. Despite these disadvantages, Wave is still the best free accounting app on the market.
Hosting
Website Builder
Squarespace
Price
Annually starts from £10 per month. Basic eCommerce plans start at £20 per month.
Pros
- Wide range of customisable templates
- eCommerce and checkout option
- Email Marketing
- Analytics
- Point of Sale option
- Hosting and SSL included in subscription
Cons
To fully customise your Squarespace website you might need to use code which if you don’t know how to create, may require a developer. There is also no phone support option for Squarespace.
Wix
Price
The best for value subscription annual prices start at £8.50 per month. eCommerce options start at £13 per month.
Pros
- eCommerce options
- Scheduling and services booking
- Fully customizable
- Hosting and SSL included in subscription
- Artwork drop shipping option
- Email Marketing
- Analytics
Cons
Wix are known for their website speeds to be slow, particularly on mobile.
CRM
Zoho CRM
Pricing
Zoho allows 3 users to try to before you buy for 15 days. Thereafter, annually the basic subscription costs £10 per user per month pre-tax.
Pros
- Custom dashboards
- Team Collaboration
- Sales Force Automation
- Marketing Automation
- Omnichannel
- Analytics
- Customisation
- Predictive Sales
Cons
The mobile app needs improvement and some users report that the tutorials aren’t helpful.
ActiveCampaign
Price
Annual prices start at $9 per month but users that want to unlock automation features need at least upgrade to the Plus subscription which costs $49 per month.
Pros
- Two year price lock
- Online training and support
- Best for automation tools
- Thorough reports
- Free and easy migration
Cons
Not as user-friendly for beginners or those who aren’t as serious about CRM.
Social Media Management
Buffer
Price
Free version is limited to 3 social accounts, 10 posts and 1 user. The cheapest premium subscription is priced at £15 per month – 8 social accounts, 100 scheduled posts for 1 user.
Pros
- Automated publishing
- Post scheduling
- Content management
- Collaboration
- Analytics
- Multi-account management
Cons
Buffer doesn’t offer brand tracking, customer engagement or social media monitoring.
Hootsuite
Price
Hootsuite does offer a free version which is limited to 3 social media accounts, 30 posts and 1 user. Priced plans start at £25 per month which allows for unlimited posts across 10 social profiles for 1 user.
Pros
- Post scheduling
- Bran tracking
- Analytics
- Multi-Account management
- Social media advertising
- Contact management
- Content management
- Trend tracking
- Engagement management
Cons
Users report a lower reach and engagement on Facebook when using Hootsuite. It can also be pricey if you need to scale up.
Collaboration & Storage
OneDrive
Price
Basic subscription included in Office365 and Outlook subscriptions. Users can scale up if they need more users or more storage.
Pros
- Includes 5gb
- Document management
- Access permissions
- Asset library and sharing.
Cons
OneDrive doesn’t feature reporting or analytics, workflow management or real-time synchronisation.
GSuite
Price
Basic subscription included in Gmail subscription. Users can scale up if they need more users or more storage
Pros
- Includes 30gb of storage
- Wide range of tools including docs, sheets,
- Easy file sharing
- Collaboration tools
- Easy file management
- Easily integrates with you other Google products (Google Drawings, Google My Maps, Google Forms)
Cons
Using GSuite does mean you are limited to gmail accounts only and for the most part relies on an internet connection.
Content Creation
Canva – Graphic Design Tool
Price
Free but users can upgrade to unlock features such as, premium templates and transparent backgrounds
Pros
- Great for graphic design beginners
- 8000+ free templates for multiple purposes
- Extensive library of free graphics, fonts and photos
- File organisation
Cons
Users need to upgrade to access transparent backgrounds and upload custom fonts and logos.
Unsplash Stock Images
Price
Free
Pros
- Thousand of free royalty free images but users are encouraged to credit photographers
- Find images for current trends with featured images
Cons
Unsplash is one of the safest free stock image sites to use but there is always a small danger of users unknowingly using stolen images which could result in an infringement of copyrights.
Grammarly
Price
Free but users can upgrade to unlock premium features. The best value plan will annually cost users $11.66 per month.
Pros
- Check spelling and grammar mistakes
- Integration with your web browser
- Installs with Windows or Mac
- Receive performance stats
- Integrates with Microsoft Office
Cons
Users need to upgrade to unlock and they are quite aggressive with their upgrade advertising. When they say they want to upgrade, they really do want you to upgrade.
SEO Tools
Google Analytics
Price
Free
Pros
- It’s completely free
- Website visitor segmentation
- Identification of most visited pages and links clicked
- Identification of where and how your website was located
- Extensive integration options
Cons
One of the most common issues that users report about Google Analytics is the lack of support when users run into an issue.
Ubersuggest Keyword Tool
Price
Free
Pros
- Check your competitors domain and website
- Keyword suggestions
- Keyword comparisons (X vs Y)
- Domain overview
- Backlink data
- Content ideas
- Highest ranking SEO pages
- Easily broken down for beginners
Cons
Ubersuggest doesn’t have a mobile app so if you want to do some keyword research on the go, you’ll have to stick to their mobile version.