30 Brilliant Apps for Small Business Owners

Are you a small business owner who wants to make it in 2021? We got you covered!

It’s a great time to be a business owner today because of modern technology and brilliant options ready available to us. I dare say there’s no better time to make your products and services accessible to the global market through online platforms than right now! Taking advantage of online resources means saving time and money in the long run, too. It’s a win-win situation; you just have to do it!

In theory, it seems intimidating, but really, it’s not! There are so many options out there, and you don’t even have to shell out a lot of money. Some are even completely free it boggles my mind why people are not using them yet! If you don’t have any idea where to start, check out this list of what we think are the best programs and apps for small business owners this year.

Check out our list of the best project management apps for small businesses, too!

*Prices are in AUD

Table of Contents:

1. Communication Apps
2. Best Website Platforms for Small Businesses
3. Financial & Bookkeeping Apps
4. Project Management Apps
5. Email Marketing Apps
6. Social Media Marketing Apps
7. Photo Editing Apps
8. Best Time Tracking Apps
9. Best Cloud Storage Apps
10. Business Moderating Apps

1. Best Communication Apps

Slack

Slack is an essential app for environments where communication across remote teams and networks happens all the time. It also boosts your team’s productivity by helping streamline your workflow.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Skype

One of the most reliable video call software out there, Skype is obviously still one of the top choices for communication. You can also use it to call an external phone number.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Monday

I have only just discovered this team management app, and I can’t help but fall in love with the simplicity of it. You can communicate with your team, manage their workload, even add files all in one place.

Pricing: Starts at $32.40/month

 

2. Best Website Platform for Small Business

Shopify

Shopify is probably one of the most well-known e-commerce website builders and for good reason. It’s not just a website builder, it also has its own POS, retail, and enterprise options. You can even embed the products in your Shopify to another website!

Pricing: Starts at $29/month

WordPress

It’s honestly difficult to come up with another website creation software that is as powerful as WordPress. With so many features and themes and over 55,000 user-contributed plugins, the possibilities are endless with WordPress.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Wix

Another contender is Wix, a free website builder that prides on letting its users design their websites exactly the way they want it by using a drag-and-drop system.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Subly

3. Financial and Bookkeeping Apps

Wave

Wave is growing in popularity as a 100% free finance app that can take care of your accounting, invoicing, payments, and pay roll needs! It also allows you to bill repeat customers recurrently and scan receipts. All this…for free.

Pricing: FREE

Expensify

Expensify is a feature-rich expense management app that is certainly worth checking out. It does expense reports real time, reimbursements, tax-tracking, duplicate expense detection, even travel solutions!

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Square

This simple but efficient POS (point of sale) software may look basic but is actually heavy in features like receipt and tipping options, split tender and open tickets, feedback management, employee management, email marketing, and more.

Pricing: Request a quote

Quickbooks

 

4. Project Management Apps

Wunderlist

Say goodbye to your old to-do list apps and say hello to apps like the Wunderlist. Make lists and group them into folders, add anything from the web straight into your Wunderlist, collaborate with other people, comment on lists, write notes, and more.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Omnifocus

Omnifocus is unique because it helps you stay focus only on the relevant tasks at hand by using perspectives and reviews for goal and project tracking. For multi-taskers, there’s the split-view option and workflow automation.

Pricing: Starts at $51.85

Google Calendar

Despite the fact that there are prettier-looking calendars, Google Calendar is still the best option for me. The integration with Google Mail is seamless, syncing with other calendars is easy, and sharing is a breeze.

Pricing: FREE

5. Email Marketing Apps

MailChimp

The world’s biggest marketing automation platform, MailChimp is no doubt one of the best options to go for. It will help you create great emails, integrate your e-commerce websites to your promotions, gather leads, and advertise.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Campaign Monitor

A contender in this industry is the up-and-coming Campaign Monitor. You can create gorgeous emails using a drag-and-drop system, grow your email list using signup forms, analyse your strategy, automate your marketing processes, and more.

Pricing: Starts at $11.67/month

GetResponse

GetResponse is also another leading option when it comes to automated email marketing. Aside from emails and automated processes, you can also create engaging landing pages, market webinars, and manage leads and CRM.

Pricing: Starts at $19.45

6. Social Media Marketing

Hootsuite

Hootsuite helps you save your precious time by scheduling your social media posts in advance. You also have the option to track your social ROI and develop reports, monitor topics relevant to your business, and manage your social media team.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Buffer

Buffer is another great option for social media management. Aside from content scheduling across various platforms, you can also add and schedule posts on the go using a browser extension. Plus, there’s the analytics and a lovely image creator included.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Facebook Pages Manager

There’s virtually no business nowadays that doesn’t come with its own Facebook page, making a dedicated manager app necessary. Using this, you can monitor your page, reply to messages, respond to notifications, and check insights more easily.

Pricing: FREE

7. Best Photo Editing Apps

Canva

Canva is a graphic design web program that almost anyone can use — no design skills necessary! Using drag-and-drop, you can create anything from social media images to invitations, from pamphlets to full magazines.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

PhotoScape X

PhotoScape X is a free, brilliant alternative to Photoshop and other photo editing software. Not only does it have virtually all the features of its paid counterparts, the interface is gorgeous and professional-looking.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Crello

You must try Crello if you are into interactive social media advertisements and graphics, email headers, posters, and more. There’s an endless amount of free resources available, and there’s an option to created animated designs, which are cool.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

8. Best Time Tracking Apps

Hubstaff

Hubstaff provides a great way to manage a remote team, track time, and measure productivity levels. Features include payroll, scheduling, online invoicing, project budgeting, and more.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Homebase

Another good option for online employee scheduling is the relatively newer app, Homebase, which also offers a communication feature within the platform. You can also be alerted whenever someone misses a clock-in or goes overtime.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Doodle

Doodle is another interesting app to look into as it radically simplifies planning, appointment-setting, event-scheduling, and more. Using a rather simple process, where participants vote on the best option, it does the job efficiently.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

9. Best Cloud Storage Apps

Dropbox

Dropbox is one of the most popular options when it comes to cloud storage. More than just a mere place to store your files in, it also allows you to collaborate on documents, brainstorm, and collect ideas.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Google Drive

You don’t need to wander that far especially if you already have a Google account (which is very likely). You get to have 15GB worth of space for free, you can scan documents, and you can even make your files available offline.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Box

Box is becoming one of the most user-preferred storage apps because of the features available. You can collaborate with your team, stream files to your desktop, upload directly from your phone, develop applications completely in the cloud, and more.

Pricing: Starts at $7.53/month

10. Overall Business Monitoring

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is focused on the selling part of your business, and using a visual sales pipeline, it helps you track your leads, make followups, and — the ultimate goal — close deals.

Pricing: Starts at $16.22/month

Cyfe

Cyfe prides itself on being an all-in-one business dashboard where you can monitor several facets of your business at once. This includes your clients, website analytics, social media efforts, finance, projects, and more.

Pricing: FREE (with paid options)

Google Analytics

If there’s one thing that this list proves, it’s how indispensable Google is to small businesses, and Google Analytics is another reason. It monitors your entire website, produces meaningful reports and figures, and helps you improve your overall customer experience.

Pricing: FREE

What programs and apps do you use for your business?

*Prices are in AUD

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