9 Top Free Tools Every Start-Up Needs in 2024

So you started your own business—first of all, congrats! Second of all, wow, you’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed (to say the least!). 

Whether you already have a small team, or it’s just you for now, you need tools to help you get things done, keep things organized, and move your business forward.

Lucky for you, you don’t have to dip into your savings just yet! There are plenty of solid free options on the market, ranging from social media and graphic design tools to banking and scheduling software. 

Scroll through the list below and choose the tools that’ll help you gain a competitive edge without spending a dime. 🥳

Here’s to growing your business—you’ve got this!

1. YouCanBookMe—Best free booking software for small businesses

YouCanBookMe is a booking system for small businesses that allows customers, clients, and team members to schedule meetings with you in seconds. It syncs with your online calendars and automates scheduling to ensure you never double-book or miss an important meeting. YouCanBookMe is known for being highly customizable, letting you highlight your brand and adjust it to your specific needs. 

Why you need it 👉 Time is money, and that’s exactly what YouCanBookMe’s scheduling app saves you. It completely eliminates the back-and-forth hassle of trying to find a time to meet by letting people book straight into your calendar in just a few clicks. 

Bottom line—you can’t grow if you’re stuck chasing down appointments. YouCanBookMe can handle that for you so you can focus on more important things, like growing your business!

Noteworthy free features: 

• Unlimited bookings
• Syncs with Google, Microsoft, and Apple calendars
• Personalized booking link
• Configurable booking form to collect info before every meeting
• Booking page with your branding, including photos and logo
• Automated and customizable email confirmations
• Set prices and take payments for bookings 
• Paste suggested meeting times into emails and messages
• Auto-detect timezone and languages (40+ available)
• Access to booking records
• Chrome extension

2. Novo—Best free online banking solutions platform

Novo is a free online banking solutions platform for entrepreneurs and small business owners. It eliminates the hassle of traditional banking by combining a free online business checking account with automated tools, debit cards, and invoices so you can focus your time and energy on what really matters.

Why you need it 👉Cashflow is the lifeblood of any start-up. Novo simplifies your finances with no hidden fees, easy transfers, and instant insights into your spending. It’ll let you manage your money like a pro without needing an MBA—but if you already have one, props to you! 👏

Noteworthy features: 

• Business checking account with no minimum balance or sneaky fees
• Unlimited, customizable invoices with versatile payment options, including credit card, PayPal, and Google and Apple Pay
• Physical and virtual debit cards
• ACH, mailed checks, and incoming wires with express ACH available
• Integrations with with Xero, QuickBooks, Etsy, and Stripe, and other top business tools

3. Trello—Best free project management tool

Trello is a project management tool that uses boards, lists, and cards to help you organize tasks and projects. It allows for real-time collaboration, making it easy for start-ups to stay aligned and productive. With features like labels, checklists, and due dates, Trello ensures nothing falls through the cracks.

Why you need it 👉 Juggling multiple projects and deadlines isn’t easy, and, as a start-up, you’re probably knee deep in them. Trello’s intuitive boards and lists help you visualize your tasks and progress, and let you finally sort them out. It’s like having a digital command center that keeps your team aligned and projects on track.

Noteworthy free features: 

• Unlimited project/task cards
• Up to 10 Trello boards
• Unlimited storage (10MB/file)
• Option to add assignees and due dates
• iOS and Android mobile apps
• 250 Workspace command runs/month
• Custom backgrounds and stickers
• Unlimited activity log

4. Google Analytics—Best free analytics app

Google Analytics is an analytics app that gives in-depth insights into your website’s performance. It tracks traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates, helping you get to know your website inside and out. Google Analytics essentially gives you the data you need to optimize your SEO and marketing strategies. 

Why you need it 👉 Without concrete data, you’re basically stumbling around in the dark. Data is crucial for determining the right direction for growth and improvement, and that’s what Google Analytics gives you! In a nutshell, its real-time reporting and audience demographics help you understand and boost your online presence.

Noteworthy free features: 

• In-depth website traffic analysis
• Real-time reporting to monitor visitor activity as it happens
• Audience demographics
• User lifecycle reporting
• Event tracking (clicks, downloads, video views, etc.)
• Funnel analysis
• Audience segmentation
• Organic traffic reports

5. Canva—Best free graphic design software

Canva is a graphic design software that lets users create stunning visuals without design expertise. It has an extensive library of fonts, templates, and photos to choose from to nail your brand image and style. You can even design printable products and have them shipped to you!

Why you need it 👉 First impressions count, and the first thing that catches many an eye is your graphics. While you may not be in a place to hire a designer yet, Canva will help you get along just fine in the meantime. With its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, you’ll be able to easily create social media posts, marketing materials, and presentations—no design degree required. 

Noteworthy free features: 

• 1M+ professionally-designed templates
• 5GB of cloud storage
• Easy drag-and-drop editor
• 1,000+ design types (i.e. social media posts, videos, websites, brochures, etc.)
• 3M+ ready-to-use stock photos and graphics
• AI-generated writing and designs

6. Mailchimp—Best free marketing campaign software

Mailchimp is a marketing campaign tool that simplifies email marketing for small businesses. Step one: use their easy-to-use templates, automation features, and audience segmentation to set up and monitor email campaigns. Step two: take a look at Mailchimp’s detailed analytics to track engagement and refine your strategies for maximum impact.

Why you need it 👉 One of the #1 priorities for any new business is gaining customers, and that’s what Mailchimp is for! It’ll help you reach your audience with targeted email campaigns and automated messages to grow your customer base without breaking the bank. 

Noteworthy free features: 

• Up to 500 contacts
• 1,000 emails per month (daily limit is 500)
• Basic segmentation
• iOS and Android mobile apps
• Audience insights
• Ability to send surveys
• Basic email templates
• Subject line helper
• Integrations with 300+ apps 

7. Later—Best free social media software

Later is a social media management tool for planning, scheduling, and analyzing your social media posts. It allows you to connect all your accounts in one place, helping you build a streamlined and consistent social media presence. With Later, you can easily organize your posts and gain insights into what you’re doing right, and what you can improve. 

Why you need it 👉 Without an online presence, start-ups are virtually invisible. But you also don’t exactly have the time to be logging on to your social media apps every day—enter Later. It’s free plan allows you to schedule posts, track engagement, and manage multiple social media accounts from one dashboard. 

Noteworthy free features: 

• One social set (including one Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and LinkedIn profile)
• 12 posts per month per social platform 
• Photo, video, and Reel scheduling
• Saved captions
• Unlimited media storage
• A Linkin.bio page 
• Visual Instagram planner
• Chrome extension

8. Zapier—Best free automation software

Zapier is an automation software that connects your apps and automates workflows, saving you countless hours on repetitive tasks. By connecting with over 3,000 apps, you can create custom workflows for your start-up without any coding knowledge. For example, you can add Zaps that will automatically add every new newsletter subscriber to your CRM, so that you don’t have to be the one doing that manually. 

Why you need it 👉 Zapier essentially lets you work smarter, not harder. It’ll connect your ride-or-die apps to automate routine tasks that eat up your time, leaving you free to strategize, gain new clients, and grow your business. 

Noteworthy free features: 

• Allows one user
• Basic interfaces and tables
• 100 tasks per month
• Unlimited Zaps 
• Two-step Zaps 
• AI-powered Zaps
• Library of 7,000+ apps to create Zaps with

9. Slack—Best free messaging platform

Slack is a messaging platform for seamless team collaboration and communication. With real-time messaging and the ability to call team members, Slack lets you work together effortlessly, no matter where you are. Plus, the tool’s integrations with popular apps, searchable archives, and easy file sharing keep your team productive and connected.

Why you need it 👉 Clunky email chains are just not it. If you need to quickly get in touch with your team, a messaging app is the way to go. Slack will keep your team in sync with instant messaging, file sharing, and screen sharing. 

Noteworthy free features: 

• One Slack workspace
• 10,000 messages
• One-to-one audio and video calls with screen sharing
• Integrations with 10 tools
• Can message outside organizations
• 90-day messaging history
• Send audio and video clips
• 5GB of storage

⭐️ Bonus tool: ChatGPT

As a start-up, sometimes it’s just you, yourself, and…well, you. 

If you find yourself without the funds to build a team (yet), but still need a sounding board or brainstorming partner, then ChatGPT is your girl robot. It’s an AI-powered assistant and chatbot that you can use for anything and everything.

ChatGPT is akin to having an extra team member who’s always on call, never takes a break, and is always ready to help. Although it’s definitely not a substitute for the real thing, it’s very handy for when you hit a wall and need a push in the right direction. 

Noteworthy free features: 

• Natural language understanding for generating human-like text (a bit creepy, but useful!)
• Capable of answering a wide range of queries and providing detailed explanations
• Available 24/7 for immediate support and idea generation
• Continuously learning and improving to give more accurate and relevant assistance

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Are these tools really free, or do they have hidden costs?

Yes, these tools are genuinely free, with no hidden costs for their basic features! Some of these tools, such as Novo, are always free, unless you want to add a paid service, which in Novo’s case would be their payroll feature. Most of the other tools on this list have free and paid versions of their plan, but the free versions are more than enough for most new start-ups! 

A few of these apps also offer very affordable paid plans for when you start scaling your business and need more from your tools. For example, YouCanBookMe’s booking software for small businesses only costs $10.80/per month/per calendar. That price includes access to all its powerful scheduling features, such as unlimited reminders, follow-ups, and appointment types.

How do I know which tool is right for my start-up?

It all depends on your specific needs! If you need better financial management, Novo is ideal. YouCanBookMe’s scheduling app offers excellent features for booking meetings. Trello is perfect for project management, and Canva is great for graphic design. Assess your requirements and choose tools that address your immediate challenges. Take your time, and remember you don’t need to start using all of these at once!

Do these tools integrate with each other?

Yep, many of them do! For instance, YouCanBookMe’s scheduling software connects to Google Analytics to track engagement on booking pages, Trello can integrate with Slack for project updates, and Mailchimp can sync with Later for coordinated social media campaigns. Zapier can then connect all these even further to create an integrated web of your most-used tools.