With most businesses today operating online, having the best tools can gain effective results and level up your game from the rest of the competition. With the advent of COVID-19 providing new challenges in all industries, entrepreneurs and businesses have found online solutions to stay more relevant. These online business tools can help start and grow online businesses a lot faster, allowing you to scale your business even further.Â
In this article, you’ll be introduced to a list of online business tools set in different categories. Whether it’s setting up your online presence, or keeping track of your engagements, to tools for communication and payment, these online business tools can aid you in achieving business success.
Table of Contents
Email Marketing
Brands, advertisers, and employees use email marketing tools to create, send, automate, test, and optimize email campaigns. This includes segregating email lists and A/B testing campaigns. Here are the most commonly used online business tools for email campaigns:
One of the reliable online business tools best known for their marketing automation platform, HubSpot, has a free email marketing tool that businesses can use. It can provide support for any small business’ transactional email needs. And with a promise of an ROI of approximately $44 for every $1 spent, email marketing continues to be one of the most cost-effective marketing channels.
Features:
- Ease of Use. HubSpot’s free email tool is easy to use, with its handy drag-and-drop visual editor. In addition, it comes with ready-made templates you can choose from to get you up and running right from the start.
- Native Integration. HubSpot Email Marketing offers native integration with other HubSpot tools, such as its HubSpot CRM tool. Opening an account with HubSpot provides access to both tools for a centralized contact database and more efficient tracking and organization of email performance.
Price: Free – Sign Up; Paid Account – $25/Month (More than 10,000 emails)
2. Mailchimp
A leader among online business apps, Mailchimp offers free and paid plan options with basic email features such as scheduling and email creation. Companies that send fewer than 12,000 emails can take advantage of impressive features offered on this platform for free but won’t have access to more robust reports providing detailed insights, which you can get with a paid account.
Features:
- Content Manager. Design emails fast and easy with Mailchimp’s drag-and-drop Content Manager, with email templates and storage for images and access to files.
- Built-in Sign Up Forms. Gathering subscribers across the web is easier with Mailchimp’s built-in signup forms, which you can easily attach to your designed content.
- Smart Recommendations. Mailchimp has a smart recommendations feature, providing precious audience insights that can help optimize your efforts.
Price: Free Plan; Paid Account – $2.20 per month for two year Plan + (3 Months Free at CyberGhost VPN) (More than 12,000 emails)
3. Sendinblue
Sendinblue is an online business tool that features email marketing tools and other functions such as CRM and landing page creation. This cloud-based online business software has over 80,000 users in more than 160 countries, sending over 100 million emails per day.
Features:
- Automation. Sendinblue provides excellent assistance in automation efforts, from launching marketing campaigns such as newsletters and SMS campaigns to building automation workflows that send personalized emails.
- Easy and Appealing. It has over 70 design templates you can use, making email creation fun and easy to design. In addition, these responsive templates allow you to preview your end design before sending them so you can be sure of the way it looks on any screen format.
- A/B Testing. After designing your email content, Sendinblue offers A/B testing features and segmented recipient lists so you can target your ideal audiences and optimize campaigns.
Price: Free – Sign Up; Paid Account – $65/month (More than 20,000 emails)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A customer relationship management tool or CRM tool is all about what goes down with customer interactions and any possible sales opportunities. These tools let you store customer information and all customer interactions in a central location accessible to anyone in the company. Here are some examples:
4. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM is one of the most popular and reliable online business tools that focuses on small businesses. It brings together customer service, sales, and marketing tools to access features such as analytics, automation, and lead generation, allowing you to optimize your efficiency. Â
Features:
- CRM Features. It includes all the essential functions from a CRM Software, allowing you to keep track of company activities, company profiles, and contacts, assigning and tracking deals, as well as managing all this data in a unified dashboard.
- Central Hub. HubSpot’s software provides a central hub for stakeholders to access easily. This provides everything your team needs to know, such as insights on traffic, revenue, and prospecting options. Â
- Integration. HubSpot CRM offers integration options with popular apps such as Shopify, SalesForce, and Microsoft Dynamics, as well as other HubSpot online tools.
 Price: Free – Sign Up; Paid Account – $46/month
5. Salesforce
One of the online business tools widely used for its CRM software, SalesForce offers plenty of features, third-party integrations, and add-on options. Unfortunately, Salesforce doesn’t provide any free bundles but is ideal for larger businesses.
Features:
- Comprehensive Business Ecosystem. Salesforce seamlessly integrates with a range of business products, from different categories that include Sales Cloud Services, Marketing Services, and other cloud-based features.
- Productivity Features. Salesforce’s built-in project management feature offers highly manageable and easy-to-build workflows for more efficient assigning and monitoring tasks and confirming permissions.
- Popular Integrations. Being one of the CRM online business applications that are widely used, SalesForce maintains easy integrations with other broadly used apps. Using AppExchange, end users can access Jira, Outlook, Zapier, and other data and development tools. These can be easily imported and integrated into a user’s Salesforce CRM.
Price: Essentials ($25/month/user); Professional ($75/month/user); Enterprise ($150/user/month); Unlimited ($300/month/user)
6. Zoho
Zoho CRM is a top-notch online business tool that enhances productivity and offers advanced customization and automation while providing reasonable pricing options for tiered businesses.Â
Features:
- Contact and Deal Management. Zoho’s core CRM captures valuable data on prospective leads, including contact details, deal status, and communications. It also includes a segmented Kanban view or a customizable Canvas view for easier reference.
- Zia Intelligent Assistant. Zoho has Zia intelligent Assistant functionalities, which help pull contact data or automate tasks and follow-ups. Zia also enables you to decide through recommendations without any manual oversight needed.
- Customizable Dashboard. Zoho CRM assists in making dashboards and reports customizable, helping you gain vital insight to make decisions. For example, you can create from various chart types and metrics to visualize your customer segment or export specific deals using chosen filters.
Price: Free (up to three users); Paid Plans ($14 to $52 per month per user);Â Zoho CRM Plus ($57/month/user)
Sprout social is highly regarded for the platform’s usability, analytics across all significant social medial platforms, and publishing features. It also provides a lengthy 30-day free trial, so you can take your time in deciding before signing up for a paid plan.
Features:
- Social Media Optimization Tools & Analytics. Sprout Social has efficient Social Media Optimization Tools that aid in your social media management activities. Its analytics and reports also help you monitor user engagement and ROI on your campaigns.
- All-In-One Management. Sprout Social supports all major social media platforms, including Meta (formerly Facebook), Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. This provides the convenience of an all-in-one platform for your social media management.
Price: Free (30-day Trial); Standard ($89/month); Professional ($149/month);Â Advanced ($249/month)
8. MeetEdgar
A standout choice for seamless scheduling and automation features, MeetEdgar provides an efficient way of organizing and setting content to automate publishing. MeetEdgar helps you create, schedule, and post content through one easy interface, while consistently uploading items so you’ll never fall behind.
Features:
- Category-Based Scheduling. Each post you schedule through MeetEdgar will be assigned to a specific category. This helps you systematically plan out your social media content within your schedule.
- Import Unlimited Content Feeds. MeetEdgar provides you the ability to import an RSS (RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) feed so you can automatically import content that you can review later on. You can connect your blog, Youtube Channel, 3rd Party content, and industry blogs while choosing relevant content to automatically go straight to your platforms.
Price: $49 / month, with a 30-day trialÂ
9. Sendible
Sendible is one of the most straightforward and easy-to-use online business tools we genuinely recommend. It offers plenty of functionality, with a clear and intuitive dashboard with practically no need for any learning curve to use.Â
Features:
- Lead Generation. Sendible has advanced social listening capabilities that allow users to generate and nurture precious leads.
- Platform Integrations: Sendible is highly regarded for the sheer number of tools and platforms you can use it with. This online business app integrates with 192 social media and publishing platforms.
Price: $29/month with a 14-day trial
Project Management / File Sharing
As the name suggests, project management tools help a team and its members manage and share files more efficiently. These tools are also used for storing and sharing files, which help in productive collaboration.Â
10. nTask
One of the most newly introduced online business tools available, nTask continues to develop the platform to offer newer features such as AI incorporation. This allows intuitive capabilities for easier operations.
Features:
- Task and Project Management. nTask offers easy operations for task and project management, providing access to task checklists, updates, and a reliable progress meter.
- Issue and Risk Management. Using the risk matrix, you can identify and assess potential risks that can hamper operations. You can then address issues with customizable priority and status options.
Price: Free Plan (up to 100MB Storage); Pro Plan ($2.99/month; Unlimited)
11. ProofHub
This multi-function project management software comes highly recommended by many leading business organizations, with its powerful features that aid in the efficiency of your projects. ProofHub can oversee teams from as small as 10 to as many as 500 project members as a scalable solution for project activity management.
Features:
- Organized Task Management. ProofHub provides the means of disseminating tasks in a more detailed and organized manner. Task sheets contain vital context points such as due date, billed time, assignees, files, and comments for reference.
- Â Collaboration. With various project management tools under one platform, ProofHub makes it easy to collaborate with different team members in real-time. All this can be done on the same window, from editing the same document to sending messages and updating tasks.
 Price: Free Plan (14-day Trial); Paid Plan ($89/month)
12. Filestage
This online business tool is an enterprise-ready project management software that helps entire processes run faster. It streamlines, organizes, and automates processes while reducing errors and ensuring compliance standards.
Features:
- Consistency. Filestage is a reliable solution that provides consistent review and approval processes.
- Real-Time Communication. Users can provide comments on documents, images, videos, and audio files in real-time.
Price: Paid Plan ($120 / month)
Graphic Design
Graphic design is an essential part of marketing and branding. Some brands DIY their branding and marketing collaterals and these tools make designing a tad bit easier.
13. Procreate
A complete art studio, Procreate is made specifically for iPad and Apple Pencil support. It has a wide array of fonts, templates, and customizable brushes you can use while also importing your favorite Photoshop elements into the app.
 Features:
- 3D. Procreate stands out with its ability to work in 3D while allowing you to preview it in AR in real-time.
- Editing Tools. There are more than 200 customizable brushes already accessible upon signing up.
Price: Paid Plan ($10 – one-time fee)
14. Canva
This comprehensive solution is used by millions for creating projects such as web design, infographics, or even basic t-shirt designing. It has various images, backgrounds, templates, and fonts to get your projects going.
Features:
- Drag and Drop. Canva’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to start any project, simply drag and drop onto your canvas and design away.
- Social Media Integration. Designs created on Canva can be scheduled for posting straight onto popular social media platforms.
Price: Free Plan; Canva Pro ($12.99/month); Canva Enterprise ($30/month)
15. Gravit Designer
Gravit Designer is an image editing software, a GNU image manipulation program, and vector illustration software. It comes with premade design templates, fonts, and other assets.
Features:
- Cloud Storage. Gravit Designer comes with 500MB of cloud storage for free plan users and unlimited storage for pro users.
- User Support. This online business software has comprehensive documentation and helpful tooltips to maximize useability.
Price: Free Plan; Pro Plan ($99/year)
Analytics
Analytics lets you monitor your marketing campaigns, which is essential in modifying advertisements that provide better reach, engagement, and conversions. You can’t do advertising without one of these online business tools.Â
16. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service that provides robust web analytics to determine statistics on those visiting your website. It is used by over 50 percent of the top 10,000 websites worldwide.Â
Features:
- Traffic Report. Google Analytics provides insight into how many people visit your website every day. You can also track trends, which can influence your decision-making.
- Keyword Referrals. Google Analytics allows you to determine the keywords that brought people to your site, helping you support your website’s SEO strategies.
Price: Free
17. Tableau Public
One of the top business analytics tools in the industry used by various businesses, Tableau public, can work on big data that are now essential to gain insight to stay competitive.Â
Features:
- Insights. Connect Tableau Public to any data source, and you can create maps, dashboards, and data visualizations with real-time updates.
- Easy to Use. This powerful tool is easy to use and understand, allowing non-technical users to gain the information they require.
Price: Free Plan; Viewer Plan ($15/month/user); Explorer Plan ($42/month/user); Creator Plan ($70/month/user)
18. RapidMiner
A powerful data science platform, RapidMiner is a centralized solution for predictive analysis for businesses. It provides predictive analysis and advanced analytics with easy to understand useability.
Features:
- Robust Features. RapidMiner offers tools and features with a user-friendly interface so you can maximize productivity right from the start.
- Data Exploration. Gain valuable insights from any data through descriptive statistics, graphs, and visualization to create models and form a basis for decision making.
Price: Free (30-Day Trial); Rapid Miner Studio (starts from $7,500 to $54,000/month/user)
Communication/Collaboration Tools
Communication is also another essential factor in increasing workplace productivity. Moreover, communication is vital for remote teams to ensure real-time collaboration and progress. Try these online business tools to make communicating with team members easier:
19. Ryver
A top-rated messaging platform that aims to help teams communicate better, Ryver unifies chat efficiency and discussions in threads to achieve efficiency for faster communication and collaboration. In addition, these company posts can be easily found on a newsfeed similar to Facebook, ensuring that everyone is in the loop.
Features:
- Email Alternative. Given the need to provide a more effective alternative to common email threads, Ryver is great for internal communication for departments and teams.
- Unlimited Teams and Groups. Ryver users can create as many groups as they need on the platform. Members can discuss things in private or open communications with the whole group.
- API Integration. Ryver seamlessly integrates with many business systems and tools such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Zapier, and many others.
Price: Free Trial (14 Days); Paid Plan ($99/month for more than six users)
20. Zoom
When the market was plummeting due to the onslaught of the global pandemic, this app’s stock soared to as much as 730 percent in the last year. Remote conferencing company Zoom became the business story of 2020 and continues its mainstream appeal with the app’s widespread use. This cloud-based service combines video conferencing, online meetings with chat and mobile collaboration functionalities that can be used with ease.Â
Features:
- High-Quality. Zoom’s main thrust has always been its clean, high-quality audio and video, elevating the overall video conferencing experience.
- Collaboration. This online business tool lets you collaborate with up to 300 users, extending helpful functions such as chat, annotation, whiteboarding, and breakout rooms.
- Video Clip with Audio. While it may seem somewhat unbelievable, Zoom happens to be the only video conferencing platform that lets you screen share a video clip with its native audio intact. No one else can share both video and audio during screen sharing.
Price: Free Plan; Pro ($149.90/year); Business ($199.90/year); Enterprise ($240/year)
21. Slack
Slack is a user-friendly collaboration tool that’s easy to set up and access for both public and private channels. This messaging app is one of the innovative online business tools that aim to innovate the way people are connected to the information they need. It allows you to message anyone from within your organization or outside while collaborating just as you would in person.
Features:
- Channels. Slack provides dedicated spaces called channels that people can work in. These channels make accessing the relevant information needed within important conversations easier.
- Flexibility. Slack understands that not everyone works at the same time. Utilizing the differently organized channels, people can access the correct information in their own time. This makes it easy to catch up on new developments and obtain updates without coordinating specific schedules.
- Faster than Email. Sharing files through Slack, including photos and videos, can be done in a fraction of the time it usually takes through conventional email. This is why survey shows that it reduces work email by up to 48.6 percent.
Price: Free Plan; Pro ($6.67/month); Business+ ($12.50/month); Enterprise Grid (For Quotation)
Scheduling
Scheduling tools provide a better customer journey because of their ease of use and efficiency. If you’re offering product or service demos, or training, you can use scheduling tools for more organized customer support. Moreover, you can also use scheduling tools for internal meetings with your team members. These are the most commonly used ones:
22. Calendly
Calendly is a convenient, fully-featured appointment scheduling software that’s easy to use. This online business tool is handy to eliminate the commonly problematic back-and-forth of important scheduling appointments, meetings, and events. The app carries the manual work of scheduling for you, automatically placing your meeting time so you can focus on other aspects such as collaboration and task management.Â
Features:
- Flexible Preferences. Blending simplicity with flexibility, your Calendly account is guided by your set preferences, ensuring that your calendar fits your liking. For example, you can set caps on the number of meetings per day, add buffer times for before and after, or disable last-minute meetings so you’ll never be caught unprepared.
- Metrics. The app offers metrics on your invitee engagement and scheduling activity so that you can find a more efficient approach.
- Voting. This new feature allows people to vote on times to schedule and book meetings, all within the app itself.
Price: Free Plan; Essentials ($8/month/user); Professional ($12/month/user);Â Teams ($16/month/user)
This flexible online booking website is an excellent tool for businesses while providing a simple means for clients to book appointments. Clients can book from wherever, with you able to oversee and track multiple schedules and locations on the app. It’s also an all-in-one point of sale for booking, payments, and other services.
Features:
- Payment Feature. The service focuses on payment, with Square Appointments being a part of the Square payment processing software. You can set payment at checkout or require pre-payment once a booking is made and send invoices for these transactions.
- Square Assistant. Square Appointments offers its digital messenger, Square Assistant, which can communicate with clients on your behalf. The Square Assistant can confirm, cancel, or reschedule appointments depending on your preferences.
- Retail and Inventory. This online business tool allows you to sell products to complement your services, from scheduling a service to adding a product into the cart in the same transaction, to creating a shoppable website so customers can browse your other products and initiate more sales.
Price: Individual Plan (Free); Two To Five Users ($50/month); Six To Ten Users ($90/month) All tiers include a 2.5 Percent to 2.6 Percent plus 10 Cents per in-person payment fee for payment processing.
24. Appointment
Appointment is an online business software that lets users set appointments based on preferred availability without having to worry about double-booking. The app also provides access to data analytics for easier understanding of scheduling and appointment trends, customer spending patterns, among others.
Features:
- Multiple Appointments. Setting up appointments for businesses in multiple locations with many people and different service offerings can be pretty challenging, with Appointment being your total solution. The app can help you set up a schedule that can be amenable to everyone involved, no matter the various elements you need to consider.
- Control. Appointment provides admins with a lot of control. Admins can choose which calendars can be viewed or edited and by whom, to avoid possible confusion.
- SSL Technology. This online business tool supports encrypted and secure transactions via SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology, ensuring that customer transactions are secured and safe.
Price: Monthly Booking Plan ($29 to $74 per month)
Payment Processing Tools
Payment processing tools provide services between the merchant and client or financial institution. These tools allow virtual transactions and authorization for payments, refunds, money transfers, and more. Try these payment processing online business tools:
25. PayPal
Highly regarded as a market leader since its early days back in 1998, PayPal continues to be a reliable platform for merchants and customers worldwide, accounting for nearly 55 percent of the current market. In addition, this online business app offers a relatively low charge per transaction with no hidden monthly costs or setup fees, making it a common choice for businesses.Â
Features:
- Privacy and Confidentiality. PayPal is trusted by its customers when it comes to data privacy and security. They’ve developed security software to assure utmost confidentiality for any sensitive information, such as credit cards and bank accounts included in payment transactions.
- Multiple Currency and Automated Conversion. A feature that’s unique to PayPal is its ability to support multiple currencies of different countries with an automated currency conversion process. It’s also based on the current exchange rate, eliminating the unwanted add-on fees.
- Bill Me Later. This feature helps buyers who don’t currently have immediate cash in their account for payment make a purchase and have the amount be debited later through a credit card.
Price: Free App (Standard fees and charges may still apply)
26. Sezzle
Sezzle is a new payment gateways player founded only in 2016 and is a highly rated shopping solution for many people. It offers a unique payment solution that lets you purchase and pay later, with no interest. Sezzle is also mainly used as an alternative payment method when offering shoppers installment payments.
Features:
- Ease of Use. Running an e-commerce website while implementing Sezzle into your system is easy with its no-hassle API works with plugins enabling customers to experience the ease of use.
- Buy Now, Pay Later. When a user makes a purchase, a unique approval system determines a repayment plan. Typically, a 25 percent “downpayment” is required, with the remaining amount divided into three installments. Sezzle pays the merchant in total so that you can receive the order immediately. There’s no interest, no up-front or hidden fees. Just make sure to fulfill the scheduled payments.
- Wide Integration. Sezzle is integrated with many popular e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, OpenCart, BigCommerce, and many more.
Price: Free; Finance fee of 6 percent + $0.30 fee per transaction
27. Venmo
Venmo for business is an easy and affordable way to help grow your business, regardless of the scope of your trade. From dog walkers to street cafes, Venmo helps you supercharge your word-of-mouth marketing with reliable business profiles and simple setups.
Features:
- Business Profile. Venmo helps businesses get discovered through business profiles that appear prominently in customers’ feeds. Images in your profile’s gallery provide the full context of your business offers.
- Easy to Use. Switching between personal profiles to business accounts can be done with one tap. In addition, you can track business transactions separate from your personal ones, allowing you to manage your bookkeeping and gain customer insights to sell better.
- Low Fees. Venmo lets you keep more of your hard-earned money with no setup fee and a low transaction fee of 1.9 percent plus a $0.10 fee per transaction, with no monthly fees. You can even turn on tipping features in your business profile to provide customers with an easy way to add gratuity.
Price: Free; Finance fee of 1.9 percent + $0.10 fee per transaction
Conclusion
Online business tools provide the ease and convenience of achieving efficiency and reliability in your systems while helping you gain a competitive edge. With the changing markets constantly providing challenges, businesses can rely on online business tools to improve performance, helping your business grow to achieve more success.
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