It can be tough as a startup when you’re in the testing and growing stage, especially if you want to keep costs and time spent to a minimum. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of 8 amazing free tools startups can use to help with your business goals. The list covers design, social media, analytics, reporting, web app development, email marketing, video creation and online collaboration.
If you want to improve your marketing efforts, read our blog on free marketing tools you should be using.
Check out these free tools startups on a budget should be using:
Placeit
Designers can be expensive, while learning the skills needed to create beautiful graphics can take weeks. That’s why Placeit is so great! This graphic design template tool makes it super easy to create consistent visual content for all your business needs. From logos to products to videos…there’s a template for almost anything; over 50,000 to choose from with 600 new ones added weekly!
The platform offers free templates to get creative with here. With a paid subscription you get unlimited downloads for everything you create on our site.
Hootsuite
Every startup will need to build its presence on social media, but posting across multiple platforms daily can eat into your day. With Hootsuite, you can connect your social accounts and schedule posts using their publisher calendar feature. Their streams feature allows you to monitor different areas of your channels, from user engagement to crisis management. For instance, you can monitor mentions on your Twitter, view your posts on Facebook, and track hashtag activity on Instagram! This reduces your time dipping in and out of each social media app.
Hootsuite offers a free plan for three social accounts, and up to 30 scheduled posts at a time.
Mixpanel
One of the most important things a startup needs to understand is your users and their behaviour on your product, and what features have the potential to up-sell. Mixpanel is a tool to understand your product analytics which helps you convert, engage, and retain your users. This tool is based on events tracking; ideal for understanding how users interact with you, your product and its features. It keeps track of button clicks, scrolling, and navigation, and monitors the health and performance of each account. You can even tweak product in-app messaging via Mixpanel to ensure you can easily improve the product. Identify the areas your customers are engaged with most and focus your product-led strategy on this.
Mixpanel offers a free account for up to 100,000 users per month.
Xtensio
Building reports can be a mammoth task if you haven’t got a lot of experience in it. That’s where Xtensio can help you out. It has a database of report templates which you can use to create, manage and share professional documents for every part of your business! From pitch decks to annual reports to employee handbooks, its all there. You can also access toolboxes for the strategic framework you need for different stages of your process.
The free plan allows you to try the editor and templates. If you love it you can pay $8 a month for basic access.
Bubble
If you’re thinking about building a web app but have no web design experience, you can use Bubble to create your web app with no coding needed. Build your product-led app in a matter of days, perfect to visualise your idea for testing. Create mobile-friendly layouts and dynamic content for a polished product that you’ll be proud to show off to your prospects, customers, or investors.
The free account gives you basic features with bubble branding.
Email Finder by Hunter
One of the most cost-effective ways to promote your startup is through email marketing. With the help of Hunter’s Email Finder, you can find professional email addresses and use it for cold outreach.
Just add the first and last name of the person you need to reach out to and the website’s domain. You’ll get the result in seconds. This tool also comes with a Chrome extension that can find the email addresses of a website in a single click. It can also perform bulk email lookups for a list of people and is available in the API.
Sign up for a free account and get 25 free email searches, and 50 free email verifications per month.
Moosend
Looking to grow a community of followers or customers? A proven method is by building a mailing list, and we think we’ve found the best free version! Moosend offers a very generous 1000 subscribers and unlimited emails with all features included. As an added bonus, they don’t plaster their branding on your emails either.
Try their free plan now.
Powtoon
If you think video is king when it comes to content and engagement, then you’re thinking is correct. With Powtoon, you don’t need to be a videography to produce creative and visually appealing videos and animations. With its library of pre-created projects, elements and characters, you can easily manipulate them to produce unique and on brand videos every time.
Sign up with a free account to start creating; to remove watermark you’ll need to upgrade.
Miro
Speed up your team collaboration with Miro – the online whiteboard platform. Make it super easy for you and your team to work together; from brainstorming with digital sticky notes to planning and managing agile workflows. It also makes working together produce visually appealing boards rather than messy notes and illustrations!
Sign up for free now and create up to three boards.
PitchMe
When it comes to growing your team you’ll want to hire the right people for the role and your company culture. You’ll also want to reduce the cost and time it takes to hire. That’s where we come in. At PitchMe, you can sign up and post a position using our job description generator which takes around 5 minutes compared to 45! Our platform will match and rank suitable candidates based on your role and company, ensuring you don’t need to screen and can interview the right people every time.
Sign up and post a position free now – each position unlocks three candidates to meet.
If you have free tools startups would benefit from using, email us or speak to our live chat.