19 Best Business Tools that Every Business Needs in 2023

I have reviewed and shortlisted the top 19 useful business tools to help you choose the one that fits right to your business needs. I have took into account their key features, pros, cons, and pricing.

“I want to work as effectively as successful organizations do.” 

“I want to achieve the workflow sophistication and operational efficiency that big organizations have.” 

“I want to run my organization at high sustainable profit margins.”    

All business owners have these similar desires in some corner of their heart, but only a few are able to function in that manner. 

Business tools play a key role in making that happen. They provide you with a platform to facilitate your business operations effectively and efficiently. 

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 93% of small business owners use at least one type of business tool to help run their business, and of those, 94% report that technology helps them run their business more efficiently.

Working in the SaaS industry for over 13 years, I can provide you with expert recommendations on the essential business tools that can help you run your business as sophistically as large organizations.

I have explained later in detail how I picked the tools and features you should look for while choosing a business tool so that you can make an informed decision.

By the end of this post, you will be able to decide which business tools you need for your business.

Top business tools list to use in 2023

Work management tools

1. ProofHub
2. Desk Time
3. Evernote  
4. Zapier  

Team Communication tools

5. Slack  
6. Calendly  
7. Zoom 

Document Collaboration tools 

8. Google Drive
9. Loom 
10. Grammarly  

Marketing tools

11. WordPress 
12. Canva 
13. Mailchimp 
14. Sprout Social  
15. Google Analytics

CRM tools

16. Zoho CRM
17. ZenDesk

Accounting & HR tools

18. FreshBooks
19. BambooHR

What are business tools?

Business tools are software that provides you with a platform to perform business functions easily and effectively.     

Business tools help you:  

• Streamline, standardize, and optimize the work processes
• Make it easy for you and your team to do the daily tasks
• Help you and your team work efficiently and productively
• Give you better control of the work management  
• and provide you with better insights into your business for informed decision making

Types of business tools

On average, a business uses three different business tools to manage day-to-day work operations. 

Business tools can be categorized in the following categories based on the business function:

• Work management tools: help you manage projects and tasks and create reports  
• Communication tools: help you facilitate team communication with both remote and office team 
• Document collaboration tools: help you collaborate on documents for efficient working  
• Marketing tools: help you design, execute and track marketing campaigns  
• CRM tools: help you manage relationships with clients and provide customer support   
• Accounting & HR tools: help you manage finances and human resources

19 Most popular online business tools to use in 2023

I have shortlisted tools for businesses in this list based on my hours of research, real user reviews from top websites, and industry-leader insights. For easy decision-making, I have categorized tools into different categories based on the business function. I hope it helps.    

Best work management tools 

1. ProofHub

Best for project management and team collaboration

ProofHub is an ultimate productivity platform that helps you work efficiently, collaborate with a team effectively, and avoid workplace conflicts by creating a centralized source of truth for everyone in the organization.  

The thing that differentiates ProofHub from others is it provides team collaboration along with work management under one roof. 

I have researched many project management tools. They either excel in project management or team collaboration. One aspect is often ignored. 

But ProofHub balances both that help you collaborate effectively with a unified interface to work efficiently with the team.  

Here is how ProofHub can help you address all the workplace productivity challenges:

• Bring all the projects to one place (delegate tasks without wasting time): No more wasting time on emails or maintaining spreadsheets to manage your projects and create & delegate tasks. With ProofHub’s all-in-one platform, you can bring all of your projects to one place for easy work management. You can create and delegate tasks easily from your task dashboard.

• Improve your workflow efficiency (with custom workflows): No more ad hoc and inefficient business processes. With ProofHub’s custom workflow builder, you can standardize and streamline your business processes to improve work efficiency and the quality of products or services. Everyone knows what steps to follow and how to work. 

• Manage your teamwork like a real manager (with a bird’s eye view): No more guesswork or remaining in the dark about work status. With ProofHub centralized task management, you can have a bird’s eye view of all the tasks in real-time in multiple views Kanban, Calendar, Gantt, and Table to track progress. You can also view the tasks of team members that help you plan your resources to maximum efficiency.

• Communicate with your team instantly: You can immediately request a status update, talk to your team member, share ideas, and find answers to queries with ProofHub’s built-in chat. You can chat one-to-one and create a group also for team discussion. It also provides you with a platform for interdepartmental communication.

• Share documents easily and save time on finding information: 19.8 % of an employee’s work time is wasted on finding files. With ProofHub, your team can share the work by attaching files directly to the tasks from a computer or cloud storage such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, and DropBox. It keeps everything organized and makes it easy to find files.

• Get real-time insights into your team performance: Take complete control of performance management with ProofHub’s powerful time-tracking software and reporting. You can review the project progress in real time with easy-to-read pie charts and measure employee performance with timesheets and productivity reports.

Apart from these features, you can also use:

• Recurring tasks to save time by automating task creation and delegation of repetitive tasks.
• Gantt chart to set task dependencies and visualize projects.  
• Project discussions to keep clients engaged throughout the project.
• @mentions task comments to request updates.
• Online proofing to review the work. You can add comments, use annotations, and create file versions for effortless proofing.          
• Use notes for sharing important project-related information.
• In-built forms and shareable links for stakeholder engagement.
• Announcements for celebrating team success and recognition.    

What do users like about ProofHub?

• A wide range of features under one roof eliminates the need to invest in multiple apps  
• Intuitive user interface and minimal learning curve 
• No per-user fee. Flat pricing structure for unlimited users  
• Customization permissions to users: owner, admin, and normal user  
• Ability to set task priorities and add multiple assignees to task 

I really like how easy ProofHub is to use. It just makes your life easy with its intuitive and user-friendly interface. Despite a range of features for task management, project planning, resource management, time tracking, project reporting, and team communication, it does not get complex. – Alona S. 

What users don’t like about ProofHub? 

• Overwhelming notifications
• Limited integration capabilities but useful such as QuickBooks, Slack, and Google Calendar    

It has fewer integrations than some other project management tools. – Dharvi S. 

Pricing

ProofHub offers two plans: Essential and Ultimate Control. The essential plan costs you $45 per month for unlimited users when billed annually. 

The best thing about ProofHub pricing is flat pricing. There is no per-user fee which makes it highly suitable for businesses.

2. Time Doctor

Best for time tracking 

Time Doctor is an employee-friendly time-tracking software that tracks employees’ activity throughout the day to provide you with actionable insights to improve performance.

It makes an important part of the tech suite of a business with a remote workforce.

Time Doctor helps you track the time spent by an employee on each project, non-work related sites, and away from the computer and breaks to provide you insights to improve productivity.

I really like the distraction alert feature of Time Doctor. It sends you a popup alert when someone sits idle on a computer for too long or spends excessive time on YouTube, Facebook, or personal/non-work related sites during work hours. 

Key features 

• Time tracking and employee monitoring for increased visibility and work insights 
• Productivity measuring and summary reports to analyze the performance
• Screenshot, screen recording, and activity levels to record activity  
• Distraction alerts to stay focused on tasks
• Online timesheets and payroll for accurate and easy payment

What do users like about Time Doctor?

• Accurate time tracking  
• Intuitive and user-friendly interface 
• Details report and insights

Time Doctor is invaluable for anyone looking to manage their time more effectively. – Mohamed Y. 

What users don’t like about Time Doctor?

• Inaccuracies in screenshots and activity levels   
• Poor customer service 
• Not easy to cancel a subscription

Screenshots were not always accurate and customer service took a long time to get a hold of. – Andrew B. 

Pricing

TimeDoctor Basic plan costs you $5.9 per user per month. You get a 14-day free trial to test the tool.    

3. Evernote

Best for individual work organization

Evernote is an amazing app to organize your work life. It helps you take notes to remember everything, organize your work, and prioritize tasks so that you can work effectively. It makes it easy to find information when you need it.  

But it is more than a note-taking app. You can turn your notes into to-dos and create and assign tasks inside your notes with due dates, flags, and reminders. 

The thing that differentiates Evernote from other apps is you can add text, images, audio, scans, PDFs, and documents to make notes useful and easily convert them into tasks. 

I really like the web clipper to save web pages, articles, or PDFs to help you go beyond bookmarks.   

Key features

• Quickly take notes by adding visual elements and files  
• Sync notes to all devices to work anywhere  
• Find notes easily with a powerful search   
• Built-in templates to create better notes  
• Connect notes to your Google Calendar

What do users like about Evernote?

• Ease of use and intuitive user interface
• Versatile note-taking capabilities 

I love how easy to use and versatile Evernote is. I can quickly add notes, photos, or audio recordings and organize them using tags to ensure my workflow is efficient. – Joey W.

What users don’t like about Evernote?

• Restricted free plan and overpriced paid plans  
• Sharing capabilities are limited   
• Not powerful software for task management  

The app is very slow, many functions have been canceled, and there is no good support. – Carsten S. 

Pricing 

Evernote is free for use with limited features. Evernote Personal plan for individuals costs $14.99 per month and Evernote team plan costs $24.99 per user per month.  

4. Zapier  

Best for app integration 

Zapier is your go-to tool to create a custom workflow for your organization. It connects your business apps to streamline and automate your work processes for better efficiency and higher work productivity.

The best thing I like about Zapier is its no code workflow builder. You do not require coding knowledge to build a custom workflow. You can simply use basic if/then logic. 

Key features 

• Build custom workflows using custom logic, conditions, filters, and more.
• Multi-step Zaps to maximize productivity
• Transfer to move the bulk data easily from one app to another 
• Tables to manage your database
• Integrate with over 5000 apps

What do users like about Zapier?

• No code automation
• Ease of use
• Integrate with all of your daily use apps  

Zapier is a very easy-to-use platform, even if I don’t have a lot of knowledge about coding experience I can create Zaps with just a few clicks. – Brandonn G.  

What users don’t like about Zapier?

• Price increase. It has become too expensive. 
• Unreasonable billing practices
• Poor customer support     

Unreasonable billing practices and unhelpful support. Cancellation issues.  – G2 Reviewer  

Pricing

Zapier Starter plan costs $ 19.99 per user per month. It is good for individuals with simple, multi-step automation needs.

Best team communication tools

5. Slack 

Best for team communication   

Slack is a dedicated team communication app that makes it easy to work for you and your team in the organization. It provides you with a platform to send instant messages, make audio and video calls, and share files to collaborate effectively.            

The purpose of this tool is to bring your team together and align them for efficient collaboration. You can create channels for every project, topic, or team where you can share files, talk about projects, and share tasks to have a shared view of the work being done.

Key features 

• Chat, voice calling, and video calling for interactive communication with team members  
• Share files and media in the chat 
• Slack Huddles for live calling 
• Slack Clips to share audio and video messages 
• Workflow automation to automate routine communication   

What do users like about Slack?

• Easy to navigate and intuitive use interface  
• Know team availability with Slack work status messages  
• Seamless integration with over 2000 apps  

Slack has transformed how teams communicate, collaborate, and stay connected in the digital workplace. – Peter C. 

What users don’t like about Slack?    

• Expensive than other tools in the same category 
• Audio and video call quality needs improvements
• Poor customer support 

There are better solutions than Slack. – Jamie M. 

Pricing

Slack offers a free plan but comes with limited features and integrations. You need to upgrade to ProPlan to access premium features. It costs $7.25 per user per month when billed annually.    

6. Calendly 

Best for scheduling appointment  

Calendly is an online appointment scheduling platform that helps you automate meeting scheduling to eliminate back-and-forth communication. 

You can connect your calendar with Calendly, create scheduling links for meetings and share with others to schedule meetings. It automatically sends reminders, follow-ups, and links to reschedule meetings. 

I find Calendly’s embedded meeting links into call-to-action buttons quite useful when it comes to marketing. It is quite a useful workplace tool for businesses. 

Key features 

• Share your Calendly availability with others for automated meeting scheduling
• Automatic reminders, follow-ups, and links to reschedule meetings 
• Integrate with most of your daily use software such as CRM, PMS, Calendar, payment platform, and video conferencing apps 
• Schedule a team based on the availability

What do users like about Calendly?   

• User interface. The booking page is quite intuitive. 
• Support desktop and mobile devices. You can schedule meetings on the go.      
• Secure platform to schedule meetings 

The Calendly platform is very user-friendly and intuitive. It makes the scheduling process so simple when I’m coordinating with people outside of my organization. – Marissa M. 

What users don’t like about Calendly? 

• Calendly has sync issues when connected with multiple calendars
• Customer support is very slow and hard to reach   

No customer support to work out bugs…Support tickets handled only through email. – Phyllis H. 

Pricing

Calendly Essentials plan costs $8 /seat/month for individuals with more sophisticated scheduling needs. It also offers a free plan for everyone but with limited features. 

Did you know? Every business needs to schedule meetings with clients and team members. And you might be surprised to know the average delay per meeting for employees is 10 minutes and 40 seconds. 

7. Zoom 

Best for video conferencing

Zoom is a dedicated video conferencing platform that you can use for audio and video calling with your team and clients.

From single-session events to online webinars, community events, and group events, Zoom is your one-stop app for virtual video and audio communication.

The thing that differentiates Zoom from regular video platforms is its features: in-meeting chat, screen sharing, whiteboarding, transcripts, backgrounds, file sharing, meeting recording, and much more. 

I really like to use Zoom for its online whiteboarding capabilities.   

Key features 

• HD video and audio calling up to 1,000 participants in a meeting  
• Screen Sharing, online whiteboarding, and file sharing
• Zoom Chat to communicate with the team  
• Zoom VoIP calling 
• Email and Calendar invitations and appointment scheduler  

What do users like about Zoom?

• Easy to use and user-friendly interface 
• Versatile video conferencing platform
• Integrate seamlessly with most daily-use apps  

The software is very easy to learn and is beginner friendly. – Keion L. B.  

What users don’t like about Zoom? 

• Expensive paid plans
• Bugs in some features 

So many bugs! There are known user issues dating back years which are still plaguing me as a user today. – G2 Reviewer    

Pricing 

Zoom has a vast range of product plans. Zoom Basic plan is free for everyone. Zoom Pro plan costs $149.90 per user/year.

Collaborate and Communicate with your team instantly

Best document collaboration tools 

8. Google Drive

Best for creating documents and cloud storage 

Google Drive is a cloud-based storage platform that makes it easy to find, share, organize, and store information in a centralized place. You can create, share and co-edit various types of documents for effective content development and collaboration.

The purpose of Google Drive is to make collaboration easy. With enhanced document organization and management, your teams spend less time finding and sharing information and more time working together.

I am a huge fan of Google Drive file versioning. It makes it easy to track the changes made by every contributor.    

Key features

• Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for creating documents 
• Share documents easily with shareable links and manage permissions
• Powerful search capabilities embedded in Drive to easily find documents
• Co-edit documents in real-time, share feedback with review comments and track changes with file versions 
• Integrate seamlessly with other tech stacks 

What do users like about Google Drive?

• Easy to use 
• You can use it on mobile device, tablet, or computer  
• Smart compose to help you with writing 

Very easy to use and access from anywhere. There are mobile apps to make it easier to open files that are stored on your mobile device while away from the office or studio. – Dan O. 

What users don’t like about Google Drive?

• Large file sharing is not easy
• There is no password protection for docs 
• Limited offline editing capabilities

Larger files sharing is difficult with google drive. Without internet connection, I cannot able to visit my drive. – Mahmudul Islam S.

Pricing 

Google Drive Business Standard plan costs $12 per month per user for 2TB of storage space. However, you can use Google Drive for free up to 15 GB of storage.   

Did you know? An average employee spends 19.8% of work time just finding information to work.

9. Loom  

Best for video messaging  

Loom is one of the best online tools for businesses to share async video messages to share feedback. It allows you to record your screen and camera to create a video message.

The purpose is to help you save time by creating one video to explain everything clearly and effortlessly rather than sending thousands of messages to and fro to share feedback remotely.  

You can use it for free though with limited features and video messages.

Key features 

• Record your screen and camera to create a video message 
• Respond to videos with interactive features such as emoji reactions and time-stamped comments
• Share video with a link and recipients can watch a video without logging in or creating an account. 

What do users like about Loom?

• It is easy to use
• It works on all devices: computer, browser, and mobile device

Loom is very easy to use. Press record, and you record. Done. I appreciate that the editing tools are also easy to use for people with limited tech backgrounds. – Emily Y.

What users don’t like about Loom?

• It crashes often. You need a good hardware configuration.
• Bad customer support experience 

It crashes, you can see the recording time and buttons on the recording. – Verified G2 reviewer    

Pricing 

Loom Business Plan costs $12.50 per user per month.   

10. Grammarly 

Best for grammar check 

Grammarly is one of the best tools for online businesses to create grammatically error-free content. It provides you with a range of features to enhance your writing such as grammar, tone, clarity, intent, and more. 

I really like the Grammarly editing. It helps me cut out fluff from my writing and make my content free. 

Grammarly also has a generative AI that helps you write, rewrite, get ideas, and quickly reply. 

Key features 

• Grammar Checker to make content grammatically correct    
• Plagiarism Checker to make your content unique  
• Paraphrasing tool and AI Writing to help you generate ideas  
• Tone Detector to provide you insights into content  
• Suggestions to improve your content style 

What do users like most about Grammarly? 

• Easy to use and user-friendly interface  
• Availability across devices mobile, computer, and web
• Integrate with most daily-use software to make corrections such as Google Docs, Gmail, Twitter, and LinkedIn 

Grammarly is a great tool. We used the tool to ensure our writing for clients has no plagiarism, syntax, or grammar errors. –  Thandolwethu Gulwa

What users don’t like about Grammarly? 

• Limited features in the free plan
• Plagiarism checks and AI writing are basic   
• Expensive paid plan 

Somewhat expensive. Grammarly itself does not guarantee 100% correctness. Its MS Office version faces some issues with plagiarism detection. – Aniket K

Pricing  

You can use Grammarly with limited features for free. Grammarly Business plan will cost you $15.00 per member per month. 

Best marketing tools

11. WordPress 

Best for website content management  

WordPress is a great content management system (CMS) to create, modify, and publish website content. Without a CMS, it is hard to make changes to website content. You need to write codes for every change you make.   

WordPress provides you with a wide range of features to save time on content management. You can make changes to the website content and publish it without writing long codes. It helps you to publish content easier and faster and reduces the time you spend managing your website.

I really like the content scheduling feature of WordPress. It helps businesses schedule a content calendar.

Key features

• Create, edit, and publish website content
• Track each piece of content’s revision history
• Add and modify user roles and permissions
• Content scheduling, plugins, rich text editor, themes, and more
• Search through your repository of content

What do users like about WordPress?

• Ease of use and beginner-friendly 
• WordPress plug-ins to help with content management 

I like how easy it is to design a website and have it published in very little time…With WordPress, choose a theme, put on some content and your website is online. – Will V.

What users don’t like about WordPress?

• Lack of phone support and optimization 
• Requires technical knowledge to use advanced function  

Coding knowledge is required for more advanced customization. – Forbes Review 

12. Canva 

Best for graphic designing 

Canva is a popular free graphic design software for small businesses to create professional designs for visual content. You can create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos, and more for free with Canva. 

I am a huge fan of the Canva library of thousands of design templates, images, and quality content. It helps you create professional designs in no time.

Key features

• Create professionally designed visual content  
• Keep your work organized with team folders
• Built-in templates to create professional designs    
• Plan, create, schedule, and publish social media posts directly from Canva
• Collaborate with team using built-in comments to communicate, keep content moving, and resolve suggestions in real-time

What do users like about Canva?

• Ease of use
• It’s free 
• Built-in templates 

The best I like about Canva is that I’m able to make designs, reports, logos, and a lot more graphics within a few minutes without asking for help from a professional graphics designer. – MIRAJ K.

What do users don’t like about Canva?   

• Customer support is poor
• There are bugs  
• Billing practices are not fair  

It has the worst billing and customer support system. – Anjali S.  

Pricing 

Canva for Teams starts at a monthly flat rate of $14.99 for up to 5 people.

13. Mailchimp 

Best for email marketing 

Mailchimp is one of the best email marketing automation platforms to win new customers and provide exceptional customer care to your existing customers. 

It helps you run effective email marketing campaigns for your brand with customer behavioral insights and assistance from AI. 

You can deliver personalized emails to the right audience based on your customer’s buying behavior, survey responses, chat interactions, and other key analytics.

It is a great tool for sending mass emails, but be aware that its prices get steep pretty quickly. It even charges for unsubscribed and inactive contacts.

Key features 

• Create automated personalized email campaigns with market segmentation
• Insights to deliver personalized emails based on buying behavior, survey responses, and predictive analysis 
• Market automation to trigger emails based on customer behavior 
• Templates and content creation to create emails 
• Reporting and analytics for insights  

What do users like about MailChimp? 

• Intuitive user interface 
• Robust features 
• Marketing automation to save time and efforts   

Mailchimp’s intuitive interface and robust feature set allow anyone to easily build mailing lists and create campaigns perfectly suited for newsletters and promotions. – Jim N.

What users don’t like about MailChimp?

• Learning curve. Needs time to get used to the software
• Poor customer service

I try to email and call and is impossible to talk to customer service. – Angie G.   

Pricing

Mailchimp Essentials plan costs $2.34 per month when billed annually. 

14. Sprout Social  

Best for social media management 

Sprout Social is a complete social media management software that helps you create, schedule and publish content on social media, manage your social media engagement, and track your social media journey with data-driven insights using analytics. 

You can manage all your business social media accounts including YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest from one single place. This is a great tool to manage your social media presence.

Key features 

• Create social posts and easily share
• Schedule your posts across all platforms at once 
• Analytics for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and more to measure performance
• Engagement to view all conversations in one platform   
• Detailed reports to provide you with insights

What do users like about Social Sprout? 

• Easy to use, learn, and set up  
• All features under one platform 
• Automated chatbot to interact with the audience 

Sprout has everything you could possibly need from a social scheduling and reporting tool. – Alyssa L.

What users don’t like about Social Sprout?

• Poor onboarding experience 
• Overpriced

The customer service is absolutely abysmal and the pricing structure is deliberately over-complicated. – G2 Reviewer  

Pricing

Sprout Social Standard plan costs you $249 per month for 5 social profiles.     

15. Google Analytics

Best for website analysis 

Google Analytics is your free website analytics tool that helps you analyze data of the users on sites and apps to better check the performance of your marketing campaign. 

It is among the best tools for an online business to take control of its marketing campaign. The most impressive thing about this tool is it combines insights with advertising. This helps you drive results for your business.

Even beginners can use this tool to produce better marketing campaigns. I have also used this tool to craft high-ROI marketing campaigns. 

Key features

• Data insights and reports to see how customers interact with your sites and apps   
• Set goals and track conversions 
• Modeling and AI to predict user behavior
• Integration with Google Suite of advertising products
• Data collection and management for better insights such as Bounce Rate, and Engagement Rate

What do users like about Google Analytics?

• Real-time data about site visitors
• User-friendly interface 
• It is free

Google Analytics empowers me to make data-driven decisions and optimize marketing strategies for maximum performance. – Sai P.

What users don’t like about Google Analytics?

• It gets complex for beginners 
• Customer support is not so good 

It’s really hard to use and by the time you get used to your workflow, they change the user interface. – G2 Reviewer 

Pricing 

Google Analytics is free of charge.

Best CRM tools 

16. Zoho CRM

Best for client relationship management  

ZohoCRM is a competent CRM platform to manage the sales, marketing, and customer support activities of your organization. 

It helps you manage a large customer database, automate marketing, sales, lead management, and customer experience to improve work efficiency, and provide business intelligence to make informed decisions.          

The ability to create a joined business system is what I really look for in a CRM. Zoho CRM provides you with that capability by unifying business data across departments to deliver a more compelling customer experience and effective business communication for profitable operations. 

Key features

• Salesforce automation to run sales operations efficiently  
• Customer service to resolve all your customer issues    
• Multichannel marketing to manage marketing campaigns from one place   
• Improve customer experience with multichannel support   
• Business intelligence to make an informed decision

What do users like about Zoho CRM?

• Zia AI feature of Zoho for predictive analysis
• Intuitive and user-friendly interface   
• Onboarding assistance
• Integration with most daily-use apps  

A great CRM with good integration. – Gartner Reviewer

What users don’t like about Zoho CRM?

• Limited features in the free plan 
• Slow speed and bugs 
• Poor customer support 

The platform has too many known bugs and they do nothing to solve them. – G2 Reviewer  

Pricing

Zoho CRM Basic plan costs $49/organization/month when billed annually.

17. ZenDesk

Best for customer service and ticket management 

ZenDesk is customer service software that helps you run your business customer support like a pro. It provides you with a centralized platform to track, organize, and solve all your tickets. 

You can run multi-channel support with ZenDesk. It used the power of AI to send tickets to the best agent for the job, solve customer issues faster, and turn data into useful insights.

I find the ZenDesk Bot quite impressive which is built on billions of real customer service interactions to deliver exceptional personalized support. You can run lower-cost support from day one.  

Key features 

• CRM to see your customer data in one place 
• Ticketing system to track, organize and solve all your tickets.   
• Messaging for personalized conversations across channels. 
• Speak directly to customers with voice calling  
• AI and automation to solve customer issues faster with AI. 

What do users like about ZenDesk? 

• Routing and intelligence that send tickets to the best agent for the job 
• It integrates with most of your daily use software  
• Easy to use and navigate 

Zendesk was able to offer an omni-channel support system with custom workflows, customer self-serve options, and paths. – Kevin L.

What users don’t like about ZenDesk?

• Poor customer support 
• Expensive paid plans 

The product has good offerings, but customer support/account management teams are terrible to work with. – Jeffrey B.  

Pricing 

ZenDesk Basic Plan starts at $19 per user per month.       

Best accounting & HR tools 

18. FreshBooks

Best for accounting  

FreshBooks is your one-stop accounting software to manage the finances of your business. It helps you with almost everything: accounting, bookkeeping, time tracking, payroll management, invoices, project estimates, reporting, and client management. 

You can make entries, track expenses, and analyze the business’s financial health with profitability reports, cash flow health, and details of your spending. It is an accounting software built for business owners.

Key Features of FreshBooks

• Create professional invoices and send automated payment reminders
• Time tracking to keep track of logged time and automatically add it to invoices 
• Automated online payment options (like automated recurring billing) to receive payments from clients 
• Import expenses from your bank account and track every dollar spent for tax time
• Take control of your accounting with easy-to-use accounting tools 

What do users like about FreshBooks?

• Versatile tool with loads of features under one roof
• Easy to use 

FreshBooks has improved our accounting and expense management…It is excellent, very useful, and easy to use…Its interface is well-designed. – Mindi M. 

What users don’t like about FreshBooks?

• Expensive paid plans 
• Poor customer support  
• Interface issues with upgraded version and bugs

The New FreshBooks results in lower productivity. They have stopped answering my emails. – G2 Reviewer   

Pricing 

FreshBooks Lite Plan costs you $17/month for 5 billable clients.           

19. BambooHR

Best for HR and Payroll management 

BambooHR is your complete software to manage all the HR tasks from hiring and onboarding employees to performance management, employee experience, payroll management, and more.   

It provides you with all the tools you need to make hiring fast and effective, such as Applicant Tracking System (ATS), New-Hire Onboarding, Offboarding employees, and Electronic Signatures. 

I find the performance management and employee satisfaction with eNPS quite impressive because once your business grows, you need to pay attention to employee satisfaction to retain people. 

Key features 

• Hiring and onboarding platform.
• Payroll management and time tracking.
• Employee experience and performance management. 
• HR data management and reporting.

What do users like about Bamboo HR?

• Ease of use. Everyone can easily learn to use it.
• Versatile features such as E-signatures, employee wellness surveys, and admin controls.

I love how easy Bamboo HR is to use. As a small organization that does not have dedicated HR, it makes it easy for everyone from the administrators to managers to the employees to use. – Lara W

What users don’t like about Bamboo HR?

• Limited payroll management capabilities 
• Limited integrations with other software 
• Limited reporting and customization capabilities 

I wish there was an integration between Bamboo and QuickBooks. Hopefully, that will happen eventually and make our payroll lives even easier! – Sally C. 

Pricing 

BambooHR has two plans Essentials and Advantage. You can request a free price quote to know more about pricing.

How I picked these business tools 

No, it wasn’t just these tools that I reviewed. I have gone through almost 50 tools and after a thorough review and analysis, I picked 11 business tools on the basis of some important parameters such as price, user interface, features, and real user reviews. 

Here are some of the important key factors I took into account to finalize this tools list:

• Features

Every tool in the list is good enough to deliver its intended purpose whether it is a work management tool, document collaboration tool, or HR tool. I evaluated the features of every tool and made sure each tool has sufficient capabilities to help you with managing your business processes.  

• User interface            

I believe the user interface is the most important factor next to features. Because if a tool is not easy to use, users will not use it. I only pick tools that have an intuitive and user-friendly interface.

• Learning curve      

Everyone needs to learn how to use a tool. I kept in mind that a tool should be easy to learn so that everyone can use it. I also take into account onboarding support and training resources. Most tools in the list have dedicated resources to help you get easily onboard.

• Price

I know new businesses have very tight budgets to work with. I have taken into account factors like features, customer support, integration capabilities, scalability, and per-user fee to ensure the tools provide you with high value for money.

• User reviews and critics insights   

I took into account the real user reviews from top websites such as G2, Capterra, and Software Advice, and industry-leading critics’ insights from Gartner, Forbes, and PC Mag to learn about first-hand experience of tools users. It helps you make an unbiased and informed decision.   

Factors to consider when choosing business tools 

Choosing business tools is a big responsibility, especially for new businesses with limited budgets and time. It has a direct impact on performance, efficiency, adaptability, and convenience. 

I have mentioned some important factors that you should take into consideration while choosing business tools: 

• Ability to deliver the intended purpose: A tool should be powerful enough to deliver the intended purpose. Make sure it has all the features you need to manage your business function. If you need some additional features, take that into account too.      
• Ease of use and easy to learn: If it is not easy to use, people will not use it. A tool should have a user-friendly and intuitive interface and be easy to learn and use.  
• Scalability & Security: Most of the tools are scalable and secure. However, the scalability and security needs of an enterprise would be different from a small business. Choose the tool that can serve your organization’s current and future needs.  
• Price: Business tools can range from free to expensive. You need to evaluate the value you are getting out of it, which includes support, training resources, offers, and per-user cost. Evaluate all the options and choose the one that offers the best value.       
• Customer support: You need support from time to time. Many good tools even lack support. I am not saying you should look for the best customer support in the world, but it should be good enough to help you when you need it.          

Importance of business tools in business

Business tools can help your startup or new business get started in the right direction. They help in managing various aspects of the business efficiently and effectively. Here are some of the key reasons why business tools are important:

• Improved Productivity: Business tools help in automating several repetitive tasks resulting in saving time and allowing the team to focus on critical tasks. This helps in improving productivity and overall efficiency of the business.
• Improved Communication: Communication is key to the success of any business. Tools for startups such as messaging apps, video conferencing software, and project management tools help in improving communication between team members and stakeholders.
• Cost-Effective: Most business tools are available at a reasonable price, which makes them an affordable solution for startups. By investing in the right tools, businesses can save time and money in the long run.
• Better Decision Making: With the help of business tools, startups can easily collect and analyze data related to their business. This data can be used to make informed decisions about the future of the company.
• Promote Growth: As businesses grow, they need tools that can scale with their business to fulfill changing needs. It supports business growth by empowering workers to work efficiently.

Get started with ProofHub 

The first step is always the difficult one. So, why not make it worth all the effort?

I am not saying to get you started with ProofHub because I work here, but you see the value yourself. It is one tool that serves many operations of your business: work management, team communication, document management, accounting, time tracking, online proofing, and client management.

With ProofHub, you can stay on top of your work management, keep everyone on the same page, and make it easy for everyone to work with the least resistance.

FAQs about business tools