175+ Best Free Tools for Business (2020)

Strategy State Free Business Tools

The team at Strategy State have a great set of free business tools to help grow and develop your company. These tools cover business planning, marketing strategy, 100-day plans, KPI’s and much more.

• Strategy State – Business Plan Template
• Strategy State – Marketing Plan Template
• Strategy State – Big 5 Business Growth Calculator
• Strategy State – Productivity Calendar
• Strategy State – Pain Points Chart
• Strategy State – Marketing Tactics Template
• Strategy State – Essential Business KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators)
• Strategy State – 100 Day Business Development Plan Template
• Strategy State – 70+ Free Chrome Extensions For Business
• Strategy State – Sales Flowchart Template
• Strategy State – Candidate Interview Tool
• Strategy State – Social Content Plan
• Strategy State – Time Efficiency Tracking
• Strategy State – Discounting Calculator
• Strategy State – Competitor Analysis Tool
• Strategy State – Business Idea Validation Checklist
• Strategy State – Break-Even Analysis Calculator 
• Strategy State – Profit and Loss Statement Template
• Strategy State – Balance Sheet Template
• Strategy State – Cash Flow Statement
• Strategy State – Lean Canvas Template
• Strategy State – Free Email Signature Generator
• Strategy State – Daily Motivation Quote

Team & Project Management

These tools will help you manage projects more effectively while working across teams. They’re great for keeping everyone on the same page.

• Asana – https://asana.com
• Trello – https://trello.com
• Slack – https://slack.com
• Airtable – https://airtable.com

Time Management

Tools to help you manage your time more effectively. Some of these tools block specific website for defined periods of time.

• RescueTime – https://www.rescuetime.com/plans
• Airtable – https://airtable.com/

Password Management Tools

If you’re like most people and have dozens of different accounts across different platforms, then keeping track of usernames and passwords can be a challenge. These tools can help with that.

• Dashlane – https://www.dashlane.com –  Store passwords and personal information
• StickyPassword – https://www.stickypassword.com – Password Manager

Communication & Meetings

Tools to help you communicate via video. Enabling you to work with people out in the field and from around the world.

• Skype – https://www.skype.com/en/
• Google Hangout – https://hangouts.google.com/
• TeamViewer – https://www.teamviewer.com/en/
• Evernote – Free Note Taking, Organizing and Archiving App – https://evernote.com/
• Appointlet – Free Online Appointment Scheduling – https://www.appointlet.com

Networking

These networking sites are great for meeting like-minded people.

You can find your target audience, create events or your own club to help support your endeavors.

• Meetup – https://meetup.com/
• Eventbrite – https://www.eventbrite.com/

CRM

Having a Client Relationship Management system is essential for all modern-day business.

Here is a list of some free CRM’s to get you started.

• Streak – https://www.streak.com/
• Hubspot CRM – https://www.hubspot.com
• Workbooks.com – https://www.workbooks.com/
• Zoho CRM – https://www.zoho.com
• Zoho Contact Manager – https://www.zoho.com/contactmanager/
• Really Simple Systems – https://www.reallysimplesystems.com/
• Insightly – https://www.insightly.com
• Apptivo – https://www.apptivo.com
• Capsule CRM – https://capsulecrm.com/

Customer Service

These tools are great for collecting feedback from customers, testing and validating new ideas for products and services.

• Survey Monkey – Free Survey Tool – https://www.surveymonkey.com/
• Typeform – Data collection tool – https://www.typeform.com/
• ClassMarker – Quiz Maker for Business & Education – https://www.classmarker.com/
• Jotform – Form generator – https://www.jotform.com

Email Marketing

Email marketing is the backbone for many small businesses.

It also boasts one of the highest ROI’s of any marketing initiative. Use these tools to maximize your email marketing.

• MailChimp – https://mailchimp.com/
• Mailerlite – https://www.mailerlite.com/
• Send in Blue – https://www.sendinblue.com
• Email Cloud HQ – https://www.cloudhq.net/

Google Products

Google is always coming out with new products. Most of them are free, it’s just that many people don’t know about them.

Review what products google offers and see what is useful to your business.

• Google My Business – https://www.google.com/business/
• Think With Google – https://apac.thinkwithgoogle.com/index.html
• Google Analytics – https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/
• Google Search Console (Previously known as Webmaster Tools) – https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
• Google Tag Manager – https://tagmanager.google.com/
• Google Ads – https://ads.google.com/
• Google AdSense – https://www.google.com/adsense/
• Google Merchant Center – https://www.google.com/retail/solutions/merchant-center/
• Google Trends – https://www.google.com/trends
• Google Forms – http://www.google.com/forms/
• Google Drive – https://www.google.com/drive/
• Google Keyword Planner – http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
• Google Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts
• Google Books – https://books.google.com
• Google Calendar – https://www.google.com/calendar/
• Google Hangouts For Business – https://hangouts.google.com/
• Google Scholar – https://scholar.google.com
• Google Drawing – https://docs.google.com/drawings
• Google PageSpeed Insights – https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
• Google Mail (Gmail) – https://mail.google.com/
• Google Translate – http://translate.google.com/
• Google DataStudio – https://datastudio.google.com/

Website Platforms

Here are a few platforms to help you build a free website, landing page or blog.

• WordPress – https://wordpress.com
• Wix – https://www.wix.com
• Blogger – https://www.blogger.com

eCommerce and Lead Generation:

The free tools listed below will help you generate leads and convert more sales on your website.

• WooCommerce – https://woocommerce.com/
• Sumo – Free Tools to Automate Site Growth – https://sumo.com/
• Hello Bar – https://www.hellobar.com/
• Prove Source – Recent Sales pop up – https://provesrc.com/
• Freshchat – Free Customer Live Chat Software – https://www.freshworks.com/
• ManyChat – Visual bot builder for Facebook Messenger – https://manychat.com
• Jotform – Form generator – https://www.jotform.com

Website Audit

Every website needs to be regularly audited to keep it healthy and up to date.

These tools will help you analyze your website and provide recommendations to help optimize it.

• SEMrush – https://www.semrush.com/siteaudit
• GTmetrix – https://gtmetrix.com
• Google Analytics – https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web – Web analytics service
• Google Search Console – https://search.google.com/search-console/about – Web service by Google for webmasters
• Responsinator – https://www.responsinator.com – test responsive websites on different device resolutions.
• SSL Checker (By Website Plant) – https://www.websiteplanet.com/ssl-checker – Check if your SSL certificate is installed properly & trusted by browsers

Website Speed Test

Ensuring your website speed is as fast as possible is vital to reducing your bounce rate.

Use these tools to test your website speed, then find out what needs to happen to improve it.

• GTmetrix – https://gtmetrix.com
• Google PageSpeed Insights – https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights
• Google Test your mobile speed – https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com

SEO Tools

Here is a list of tools to help you with your Search Engine Optimization, including keyword research, competitor analysis, and many other useful tools.

• SEO Spider Tool – https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/
• Duplicate Content Tool – http://www.siteliner.com/
• Free Moz Tools – https://moz.com/free-seo-tools
• MOZ Tool Bar – https://moz.com
• Moz Keyword Explorer: https://moz.com/explorer
• Moz Link Explorer: https://moz.com/link-explorer
• Moz Local Search Engine Tool – https://moz.com/local/search
• Moz Permission Management for Google My Business – https://moz.com/local/mybusinessconsole
• Moz Local Category Optimizer – https://moz.com/local/categories
• Google Keyword Planner – https://ads.google.com/intl/en_au/home/tools/keyword-planner/ – Keyword Tool
• Uber Suggest – https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/ – Keyword Tool
• SEMrush Keyword Planner – https://www.semrush.com/lp/keyword-research/en/ – Keyword Tool
• AnswerThePublic – https://answerthepublic.com – Keyword Tool
• LSI Graph – https://lsigraph.com – LSI keywords Tool (Latent Semantic Indexing)
• Subscribers – https://subscribers.com/ – Push browser notifications
• HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator – https://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator – Gives you a year’s worth of blog post ideas

FTP Application

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used to transfer files between two computers over a network and Internet.

• FileZilla – https://filezilla-project.org
• Cyberduck – https://cyberduck.io

Code Editor

Code editor tools will help you edit text and source code easily. These tools support plain text and several programming languages.

• Notepad++ – Text editor and source code editor – https://notepad-plus-plus.org
• Atom – A free and open-source text and source code editor – https://atom.io
• Visual Studio Code – https://code.visualstudio.com

Content Tools and Plagiarism Checker

Below are tools that help with your content creation. These tools analyze your content for plagiarism along with other quality measures.

• Grammarly – https://www.grammarly.com – Grammar and spelling checker
• CopyScape – https://www.copyscape.com – Plagiarism Checker: Is your content original or copied
• Quetext – https://www.quetext.com
• Dupli Checker – https://www.duplichecker.com
• PaperRater – https://www.paperrater.com
• Word Counter – https://wordcounttools.com – Word count tool to analyze content
• Word Counter Tool Online – https://www.wordcounteronline.net – Counting characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, and pages

Competitor Research and Market Intelligence

Analyzing your competitors and gaining market insight is vital to remaining competitive.

Use these free tools to help you improve your performance and stay ahead of the pack.

• SimilarWeb – https://www.similarweb.com/home – Online competitive intelligence tool
• Buzzsumo – https://buzzsumo.com
• BuiltWith – https://builtwith.com – Web technology lookup tool
• SEMrush – https://www.semrush.com – SEO tool & competitors’ analysis
• Alexa – https://www.alexa.com/find-similar-sites – Similar sites based on shared audience and keyword overlap

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) Tools

Below are tools that will help you with your Search Engine Marketing and PPC Ad management.

• Google Ads Editor – https://ads.google.com – Google Ads application to work offline and make bulk changes
• Broad Keyword Converter – http://tools.acquisio.com/AdwordsBroadKwConverter – Convert to Google’s Modified Broad Match format
• TitleCap – http://titlecapitalization.com – Automatically capitalize your title

Social Media Channels

Here are the leading social media channels.

Target your relevant audience using the channels what work best for you.

• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/
• YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/
• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/
• Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/
• Twitter – https://twitter.com/
• Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com.au/
• Snapchat – https://www.snapchat.com/
• WeChat – https://web.wechat.com/ – Chinese social media & messaging
• Tumbler – https://www.tumblr.com/
• Weibo – https://s.weibo.com/ – Chinese microblogging website
• Qzone – https://qzone.qq.com/
• Flickr – https://www.flickr.com/

Forums

Forums can be a great way to interact with your target market.

The below forums receive thousands of visitors each month.

• Reddit – https://www.reddit.com/
• Quora – https://www.quora.com/
• Ask.fm – https://ask.fm/

Social Media Management and Tools

These tools will help you manage and track your social media more efficiently and extract as much value from your social initiatives as possible.

• SocialBlade – https://socialblade.com/
• Ninjalitics – https://www.ninjalitics.com/
• Buffer – https://buffer.com/
• VSCO – https://vsco.co/
• Crowdfire – https://www.crowdfireapp.com/
• SMHack – https://smhack.io/
• SocialOomph – https://www.socialoomph.com/
• Tweetdeck – https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/
• Friends+Me – https://friendsplus.me/
• Dux Soup – https://www.dux-soup.com/ – LinkedIn connection generator
• Free Web Automation App – Zapier – https://zapier.com/
• Quote Cover – https://quotescover.com/ – Free Simple Quote Maker
• Hootsuite – Manage all your social media accounts in one place – https://hootsuite.com
• Freshchat – Free Customer Live Chat Software – https://www.freshworks.com/
• ManyChat – Visual bot builder for Facebook Messenger – https://manychat.com
• Zoho Social – Social media management platform – https://www.zoho.com/social
• IG Audit – Evaluate an Instagram account’s followers and estimate if they are fake or not – https://igaudit.io

Copyright Free Images / Royalty Free Images

Before you spend your hard-earned money on stock images, check to see if there is something you can use that is royalty free.

These free sites offer thousands of royalty free images you can use.

• Unsplash – https://unsplash.com/
• Gratisography – https://gratisography.com/
• Morguefile – https://morguefile.com/photos/morguefile/1/pop
• Pixabay – https://pixabay.com/en/
• Stockvault – https://www.stockvault.net/
• Pexels – https://www.pexels.com/
• Picjumbo – https://picjumbo.com/
• Pikwizard – https://pikwizard.com/
• Rawpixel – https://www.rawpixel.com/
• Reshot – https://www.reshot.com/
• For an in-depth and detailed review on the best Free Stock Photo Sites, read Stock Photo Secrets.

Photo Editor and Drawings Tools

If you require photo editing tools, here are a few free options to get you started.

• AutoDraw – https://www.autodraw.com/
• Funnelytics – https://funnelytics.io/
• Photopea – https://www.photopea.com/
• Photoshop Express – https://www.photoshop.com/products/photoshopexpress
• GIMP – https://www.gimp.org/ – Image Editing
• Giphy – https://giphy.com – Gifs online database and search engine
• Lightshot — Screenshot tool for Mac & Win – https://app.prntscr.com
• Compress PNG/JPG (By Website Plant) – https://www.websiteplanet.com/imagecompressor – Compress jpeg or png image and allow you to keep the quality as is while decreasing the size.

Royalty Free Music

Every marketer and business owner needs music for their promotional videos.

Try these free options before you open your wallet.

• Bensound – https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music
• Artlist – https://artlist.io/lp/Royalty-Free-Music-For-Video
• Filmstro – https://filmstro.com/music

File Sharing & Storage

Here is a list of some free file sharing and storage platforms.

• Google Drive – https://www.google.com/drive/
• DropBox – https://www.dropbox.com/
• We Transfer – https://wetransfer.com – Sharing big files

Security

Maintaining computers free of malware and virus is important for all business owners.

These free tools will help you protect your computers and allow for a safer browsing experience.

• McAfee WebAdvisor – https://www.mcafee.com/mcafee-web-advisor.html – Security check, safe download, blocks malware and phishing sites.
• TotalAV – https://www.totalav.com/free-antivirus – Free Antivirus & Internet Security.
• Dashlane – https://www.dashlane.com –  Store passwords and personal information
• StickyPassword – https://www.stickypassword.com – Password Manager

Print and Stationary

These tools will allow you to obtain free business cards, and provide an improved printing experience.

• Vistaprint – https://www.vistaprint.com – Free Business Card (with their branding on the back)
• PrintFriendly & PDF – https://www.printfriendly.com  – Optimize webpages for Print and PDF

PDF Converter

Convert your PDF files into word files with these free converters.

• WPS – https://www.wps.com/pdf-to-word
• Online ORC – https://www.onlineocr.net
• Uni PDF – http://unipdf.com
• PDF Sam – https://pdfsam.org/download-pdfsam-basic – Split, merge or rotate PDF’s
• Free File Convert – https://www.freefileconvert.com

Infographics Tools

Below are some useful tools to help you build and design infographics for your business.

• Snappa – https://snappa.com
• Canva – https://www.canva.com/create/infographics
• Google Charts – https://developers.google.com/chart
• Infogram – https://infogram.com

Video Editing Software

If you need to edit video, then these free tools are a great place to start.

Some of the tools are basic and easy to use, while others like Davinci Resolve is incredibly advanced.

• Shortcut – https://shotcut.org
• FXhome – https://fxhome.com/express
• Davinci Resolve 15 – https://www.blackmagicdesign.com (advanced)
• VSDC – http://www.videosoftdev.com
• Blender – https://www.blender.org
• Openshot – https://www.openshot.org

Click on the button below to download this list as PDF:

If you found this article useful, sign up to our blog list for more awesome content.

What have we missed?

What free tools do you think we should add to the list? Let us know?

The web moves at a tremendous pace if any of the above links have stopped working or are no longer free tools. Please contact us at info@strategystate.com and let us know.