Managing a small business is no easy task. It involves a lot of headache-inducing challenges, such as attracting customers, managing projects, establishing team communication, organizing business files—the list goes on.
Fortunately, a lot of small business apps are now available to make your entrepreneurial life more convenient.
These apps for small business aim to maximize the productivity of the essential backbone of our economy. In fact, over 99% of businesses in the US are small businesses. Just imagine the countless number of small businesses that these remarkable apps have assisted.
In this article, we share the best apps for small businesses that are must-try to improve your business’ productivity and help you achieve your long-term goals.
Here’s what you can learn from this guide:
- Project Management and Collaboration
- Marketing and Communication
- Project Management Apps
- Productivity and Organization
Small Business Apps for Instagram
With over 500 million daily active users, Instagram has become one of the go-to platforms for small businesses to reach potential customers and clients. Here are some of the best small business apps to skyrocket your business’s Instagram presence.
Lift: Reels & Story Maker
Pros:
- 100+ ready-to-use video templates
- Intuitive video editing tool
- Copyright-free stickers and music available
Cons:
- Not ideal for long-form content
Pricing:
- $4.99 a week
Make eye-catching, stunning Instagram content with Lift: Reels & Story Maker. This app for small businesses lets you pick from its massive gallery of customizable templates with astounding animations, images, and music to help you create the best IG reels.
With over 100 pre-designed templates, Lift: Reels & Story Maker covers all your online creation needs. Whether you have to create logos, ad posters, or short video clips, this app has got you covered!
No time to edit your IG reel or story? No problem. This app also has an easy-to-use video editing tool that can help you quickly trim unnecessary footage and automatically add transitions, helping you create top-notch content effortlessly.
On top of that, Lift: Reels & Story Maker is one of the small business apps that lets you track and compare your reels and stories performance in real-time. Keep track of views, clicks, and reactions to your content, enabling you to gauge audience engagement.
Registration for Lift: Reels & Story Maker is free but has limited access to templates. If you want to get full access to its premium version, you can sign up for its three-day free trial and avail yourself of the pro features afterward.
Lift.Bio
Pros:
- Intuitive interface
- Customizable bio links
- Ability to add unlimited buttons or links
- Option to set a unique domain link
- Analytics feature for tracking performance
Cons:
- Inability to add media to pages
Pricing:
- $9.99 per month
Lift.Bio is a convenient tool that allows you to consolidate all your small business' online bio links in one place. Whether you're an entrepreneur, freelancer, or influencer, you can create a single page with all your business links for people to support you.
What also makes Lift.Bio a great app for small businesses is that it comes with easily customizable themes and designs. No graphic design skills are required to create compelling and engaging pages.
Track impressions and clicks to measure online growth. Lift.Bio also has basic analytics that provide insights for improving brand awareness and attracting more followers.
Whether you're using a desktop or a mobile device, Lift.Bio is available in both formats, allowing you to manage your small business links in a versatile manner.
Visit Lift.Bio’s website to learn more and sign up.
Project Management and Collaboration
Maximize your team’s productivity with these apps for small businesses that promote efficient work and convenient goal tracking.
Trello
Pros:
- Comprehensive, customizable project boards
- Coding-free task automation buttons
- Ready-to-use document templates
- Project progress tracker
Cons:
- Inability to see task dependencies
- Projects can become cumbersome as more elements are added
Pricing:
- $5 to $17.50 per month
Trello offers easy-to-use tracking boards that help your team stay in sync with your small business's primary goals.This app for small businessess can be your team’s one-stop spot for monitoring project progress using its detailed timelines, calendars, maps, and dashboards.
Trello also lets you automate basic tasks so your team can focus on what really matters. Absolutely no coding is required to automate; simply set up buttons to execute manual processes.
You can enjoy Trello’s premium features for free with its 14-day trial; no credit card is required. Access tons of board templates, custom fields, and unlimited animation within the trial period.
Slack
Pros:
- Full access to message histories
- Ability to pin up to 100 messages per channel
- RSS Feeds notifications
- Advanced search modifiers
- Integration with external apps
Cons:
- Full feature access is quite pricey
- Limited media storage
Pricing:
- $7.25 to $12.50 per month
Whether your team works in-person or remotely, Slack is one of the best small business apps for consolidating all team communications in one place. It keeps your team members informed of discussions, announcements, and updates, fostering optimal collaboration.
Managing complex information processed by multiple employees can be a cumbersome task. But through Slack’s channels, your team can communicate and ensure the seamless flow of information. Each channel acts like a chat room where members can exchange messages, files, and other media. All channel’s message histories are accessible.
In addition, you can pin over 100 messages, allowing members to access relevant information about the channel's discussions quickly.
Slack also supports integration with Google Workplace apps and other external software such as Microsoft Teams, Asana, Zoom, and more. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds to stay updated on the latest trends in your industry.
Registering to Slack is free, but its paid subscription offers a lot more features than its free version. You can request Slack's free trial by sending its admin an email.
Marketing and Communication
Win the hearts of your potential customers and clients with these best apps for small businesses for marketing and communication.
Mailchimp
Pros
- Email processes automation tools
- Real-time email analytics
- Personalized email messages
- 24/7 client support
- Easy "drag and drop" mechanics
Cons
- Limited flexibility in template designing
Pricing:
- $3.25 to $87.50 per month
Integrated with AI and data tools, Mailchimp can help you create captivating email messages, generate clicks, drive traffic, and increase sales.
Writing emails can be a cumbersome task, but it becomes as easy as pie with Mailchimp’s astounding features. Its automation tools allow you to streamline your email communication processes by setting up automated welcome emails, post-purchase follow-ups, inquiry responses, and even cart check-out reminders.
And with the help of AI, Mailchimp can aid in writing personalized emails that are based on your customers' buying behavior, chat interactions, and survey responses. You can also compare your emails to top-performing industry campaigns for improvement.
Mailchimp offers a one-month free trial of its Standard and Essential subscription plans, which come with over 5,000 monthly email sends and 24/7 customer support.
Hootsuite
Pros
- Streamlined and centralized social media management
- Intuitive post-scheduling calendar
- Suggest campaigns based on current online trends
- Allows analysis of trends based on geolocation
Cons
- Can't send media from Hootsuite cloud storage
- Steep initial learning curve
Pricing:
- $99 to $739 per month
Does managing multiple social media handles drive you insane? Fret not. With Hootsuite, you can easily manage your small business’ Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn accounts in one place.
What people love about Hootsuite is its intuitive interface that allows you to schedule and publish content on any of your business's social media accounts. This app also comes with a calendar to help you plan your future posts and automatically notifies you when the posting date arrives.
On top of that, Hootsuite also allows you to keep track of the latest trends among social networks, enabling you to connect with people more effectively. You can also track your posts' performance in real-time using customizable dashboards and identify which ones are performing the best.
Considered one of the best apps for small businesses, Hootsuite is a must-try to keep your business’s social media presence on point.
Project Management Apps
Make your project deliverables easier to achieve with these project management apps that can assist you in planning, executing, organizing, and scheduling tasks.
Google Keep
Pros
- Seamless Google Apps integration
- Voice note-taking feature
- Supports collaboration
- Set reminders to notify you
Cons
- Limited web clipper function
- No separate desktop/mobile app version
Pricing:
- Free
Google Keep is one of the most prominent note-taking small business apps known for its simplicity and versatility. From writing quick reminders, setting to-do lists, and creating an outline to voice and image recording, Google Keep can make your tasks as easy as pie.
But what makes Google Keep a handy project management app is its integration with other Google services. For instance, you can open Google Keep through a sidebar panel while you’re using Google Docs or Google Sheets. It provides you with quick access to your Google Drive to seamlessly integrate your saved files into your tasks.
To open Google Keep in your Google Docs document, just click its icon at the right portion of your screen.
Google Keep is totally free. You can use its full features without paying a cent.
Asana
Pros:
- 200+ external app integration feature
- Absolutely no-coding automation tools
- Workflow builder to streamline work processes
- Intuitive and engaging Kanban boards
Cons:
- Limited time-tracking feature
- High initial learning curve
Pricing
- $10.99 to $24.99 per month
Asana is a popular project management app widely used by remote teams. It provides a centralized platform for managing all project-related tasks, ensuring team members stay on track throughout the project's lifecycle.
This app is also one of the best apps for small businesses that deal with multiple software applications to manage workloads. Asana supports the integration of over 200 productivity tools like the MS Suite, Zoom, Google Drive, and Jira.
Just like Trello, Asana also lets small business owners create automation buttons to perform manual processes. This automation feature can help you automatically adjust schedules, delegate tasks, and notify team members.
Signing up for Asana will not cost you any cent, but you can only access its basic features plus 100 MB per file and unlimited storage. But you need to avail of Asana Premium if you want to access its advanced features like custom rules and workflow builders.
Asana offers a generous 30-day trial period, giving new users ample time to explore and familiarize themselves with the app.
Productivity and Organization
Finish more workloads and achieve more milestones with these small business apps that are best for maximizing productivity.
Evernote
Pros:
- Advanced Web Clippers
- Quick note creation using templates
- Ability to set tasks within notes
- Sync across multiple devices
Cons:
- The free version is very limited in features
- Few text formatting options
Pricing
- $4.99 a week
Note-taking apps for small businesses are essential tools for startup entrepreneurs to organize pertinent information, files, and reminders. Launched in 2008, Evernote is a well-known note-taking app among small businesses because of its simple interface, helpful features, and compatibility with any device.
One of Evernote's standout features is its advanced web clippers, which allow you to save content directly from the web to your notes. Whether it's an online article, an image, or a screen capture, simply click the "Save" button, and it will be stored in your notes.
Evernote also has pre-designed templates for different purposes — work, school, small business, meetings, lifestyle, and more. For instance, if you need to create a marketing plan, Evernote has a dedicated template with complete marketing plan elements.
Google Workspace (G Suite)
Pros:
- Up to 2 TB of cloud storage
- Productivity tools for different purposes
- Integrated grammar checkers
- Automatic backup saving
- Customizable business email
Cons:
- Limited offline functionality
- Costly pricing model
Pricing
- $5.40 to $10.80 per month
Google Workplace is a one size fits all integration of Google productivity apps for all your small business needs.
Formerly known as “G Suite,” Google Workplace consists of 14 Google online apps, including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Drive. It also comes with four security and management tools to keep your files protected.
With Google Workspace, team members can easily collaborate and stay in sync with your small business's workflow, regardless of which app they are using. All shared files can be accessed by anyone on the team, enabling seamless information exchange.
Just like some apps for small business, Google Workplace also has built-in grammar checkers to help you create compelling and error-free content.
When you subscribe to Google Workspace's premium plan, you will have a custom and unique business email address. Additionally, your business will enjoy generous cloud storage of up to 2 TB.
The basic features of Google Workspace apps are available for free. However, for advanced features and larger storage capacities, you will need to upgrade to one of the premium plans.
Wrap Up
That’s it! We hope our list of the most efficient small business apps can help you work more efficiently. While many of these apps offer advanced features behind a paywall, their free version is already sufficient to lighten your workload. Don't forget to also take advantage of their free trial periods to see if they're worth investing your time in.
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