What Are The Best Tools for Entrepreneurs?

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The popular Q&A forum, Quora, gets several thousand questions every day, and tens of thousands of answers.

Those answers, particularly the ones which revolve around “the best tools for marketers,” are a treasure trove of information.

Let’s look at just a few of them…

The questions on the right, here, have a total of more than 10,000 active followers and more than a million views. They’ve received dozens of responses from businesses and marketers all vying for their link in the spotlight.

Quora has run a bit of code on each question’s answers to automatically compile them into a single list, and they’re valuable lists, don’t get me wrong. In total, they’re probably some of the most valuable resources for entrepreneurs on the web – a compilation of tools, apps and resources to help early-stage businesses succeed.

The problem is in the organization. Quora’s code is only so good, and it’s resulted in Skype, auditing software, and Gmail all being filed under “Web Utilities.”

I thought it would be valuable to entrepreneurs everywhere to take all these tool-based lists, cross-reference, and clean them up a bit. In this resource, I’ve provided links to all the tools within these posts, organized them so you can more easily find what you’re looking for, and given a bit of context for the value of each tool category.

Table of Contents


Online Business Software Marketplaces

If you don’t find what you’re looking for in this resource, use one of these software marketplaces and product review sites to find exactly what you need, how it’s rated, and (with several of them) prices as well.

DiscoverCloud

Search & Compare 3,100 business tools in 119 Categories

Gartner’s Capterra

Read real user reviews, compare products, and get the latest software research.

G2Crowd

Get the right software & services with 211,600+ validated user reviews.

GetApp (Gartner)

Discover, Compare, and Choose the Best Business Apps.

Software Advice (Gartner)

Learn from 100,000+ User Reviews.

Sales Intelligences

These platforms will give your new business a better idea of what your competitors are doing and what’s working for you.

Unomy

Make the Impossible Possible with the Leading Sales Intelligence Platform.

Hoovers

Accelerate sales with strategic targeting and sales and marketing productivity.

InsideView

Put sales and marketing on the same page to create a revenue dream team.

DiscoverOrg

Generate More Revenue With the Most Accurate Marketing & Sales Intelligence

Alexa

Find, Reach, and Convert Your Audience with Marketing That Works.

Google Alerts

Monitor the web for interesting new content.

SimilarWeb

Market intelligence solutions to optimize your digital effectiveness.

WhatRunsWhere

We show you what works so your ads will succeed every time!

AdClarity

Empower yourself with the largest cross-channel programmatic digital ad coverage.

SEMRush

All-in-one Marketing Toolkit for digital marketing professionals

MixRank

MixRank tracks your customers so you don’t miss an opportunity.

Follow

Over 30,000 people use Follow to gain valuable competitive insights

DataFox

Find and win more business with Company Intelligence and CRM Orchestration.

SalesLoft

The Platform for Modern Sales Engagement

Mattermark

Data Enrichment for Modern Sales Teams.

SalesTools

The Modern Standard in Business Data.

Prospxt

Accelerate sales traction. We connect your sales people with the right contact, sooner.

Customer Relationship Management

Track your customer’s interactions with your business by using one of these CRM providers. See their first touchpoint with your business, their last, their lead profile and who within your team is responsible for them.

Salesforce

Sell, service, and market smarter with the world’s #1 CRM platform.

SugarCRM

Don’t be forced into CRM sameness.

Vtiger

Sell, Market, and Support Exceptionally with Vtiger CRM.

ZohoCRM

Get ready to sell. Smarter, Better, Faster.

QuickMail

The simplest way to automate outbound, personalized emails.

Agile CRM

Sell & Market like Fortune 500.

ClinchPad

Close leads faster. Clinch more deals.

Close.io

Close.io is the inside sales CRM of choice for startups and SMBs.

Fusioo

Create your online database and manage leads, your way.

Streak

All-in-one Marketing Toolkit for digital marketing professionals

RedBooth

Redbooth is easy-to-use online task and project management.

Insightly

Grow your business by building stronger customer relationships.

Pipedrive

The leading sales management tool small sales teams love to use.

Prosperworks

Automate tedious tasks & manual data entry so you can sell more, faster.

InviteReferrals

Best Referral Marketing Software for Mobile Application and Website.

Vibes

Vibes empowers brands to engage 1:1 with mobile consumers at scale.

Rebump

The best way to get your emails answered.

Onspring

Your process. Our platform. A perfect match.

LACRM

A simple CRM built just for small businesses.

Attach

Know what happens to your proposals after you hit send.

Project Management Systems

Keep your team on the same page with these project management tools. See the progress of your campaigns, assign ownership and deadlines, and track success or failure.

Acteamo

Acteamo is the one place where all work is done, together.

Aha!

We help you build products customers love and be happy doing it.

Asana

Asana is the easiest way for teams to track their work—and get results.

Basecamp

Grow without growing pains.

Bitrix

Your company. United.

Breeze

A simple tool for project management.

Blossom

Project tracking for distributed companies.

Brightpod

Take the chaos out of managing team projects.

Chime

Chime helps you track time and evaluate the real cost behind your work.

daPulse

Project management is better when it’s visual.

Freedcamp

The entirely free way to collaborate more efficiently with groups of people.

Hellofocus

Built to help you and your team get more done.

HiveFlux

Real-time task management and planning

Nostromo

The all-in-one project management tool for teams.

Proofhub

The one place for all your projects, teams and communications.

Redmine

Redmine is a flexible project management web application.

Sprint.ly

Don’t ask how projects are going. Watch how they’re going in real time.

Onspring

Your process. Our platform. A perfect match.

SandGlaz

Lean project management for your agile team.

Standupmail

Simple status reporting for highly productive teams.

Taiga

A project management platform for developers and project managers.

Taskulu

Collaborative, simple task management that will improve your team’s productivity.

Team.do

Master Tasks and Projects Like You Never Thought You Could.

Trello

Trello lets you work more collaboratively and get more done.

Wiplo

A clean, collaborative workspace for teams

Wrike

Collaboration and project management software that scales across teams.

Customer Service/Live Chat

Engage with your visitors and your customers with these customer service tools. Trigger automated messaging based on visitor behavior and reach out to your customers when they’re ready to buy or about to cancel.

Casengo

Customer service software for growing teams…

Keeping

Deliver better customer support from your current mailbox.

UserTalk

Let your users call you. Embed our call button into your website or app.

Clickdesk

Convert your visitors to happy customers.

Freshdesk

Customer support is everybody’s business.

Comm100

Enterprise Level Live Chat for Online Customer Support and Sales.

SuperReceptionist

Your Plug N Play Cloud Virtual Assistant.

Inline Manual

Light the way to success for your users.

WhatFix

Deliver Experience Your User Deserves

ClickDesk

Convert your visitors to happy customers.

Olark

Olark is easy to use live chat software that lets you talk to customers on your website.

LiveChat

The fastest way to help your customer.

LivePlan

Pitch, plan, and track your business. Anywhere.

Nickelled

User Onboarding Walkthroughs That Lead New Users To Victory.

Ruby Receptionists

Answering calls is smart. Delighting callers is Ruby..

Redmine

Talk to your customers in real-time.

Zendesk Chat

Don’t ask how projects are going. Watch how they’re going in real time.

Helpjuice

Easy-to-use knowledge base software that guarantees
50% less support emails


Subscription Management

Payment and subscription management are crucial elements of a successful business. Make it all easier by using one of thse tools to see everything in one place and track the success or failure of your user’s payments.

Braintree

Powering More Than Just Payments.

Chargebeee

The smartest way to set up your subscription billing.

Recurly

Powering Subscription Success. Trusted by Thousands of Companies.

Stripe

The new standard in online payments.

Communication

Keeping an open line of communication between each one of your colleagues and employees is essential to a smoothly-running business as well as employee happiness and productivity. Use these internal-communication tools to make it happen.

Partyline

Turn your Slack Conversations into project tickets.

Ginger

A modern discussion platform for online teams & communities.

Jostle

Workplaces should be extraordinary. So we’re doing something about it.

Slack

Where work happens.

Skype

Skype keeps the world talking, for free.

Google Hangouts

Hangouts lets you video call, phone, or message the people you love.

SalesHandy

Email Tracking, Live Meeting and File link sharing

Rizzoma

Communicate and collaborate in realtime.

Industry News

These publications lead the way when it comes to keeping entrepreneurs up-to-speed on what’s happening in their industry. And you need to keep on top of any changes that might be occurring in order to take advantage.

File Sharing & Team Collaboration

Modern workplaces are fast-moving places with remote or freelance employees and a constant need to collaborate, review or co-create.
These file sharing and collaboration tools enable your business to easily share and work together to accomplish your business goals.

Clipboard

Web-based alternative to Evernote

Collatebox

Online file sharing.

Contriber

Chat and Task management for small teams (2-40+ users).

Creately

Realtime Diagram Collaboration.

Doodle

The scheduling tool you’ll actually use.

Dropbox

Reinventing teamwork.

Evernote

Get organized. Work smarter.

OneNote

The digital note-taking app for your devices.

Papaly

Bookmark Manager to help organize and collaborate with others.

Teamgum

Knowledge Discovery & Sharing tool for teams.

Wunderlist

Simple and easy-to-use task management tool.

Ziteboard

Lightweight Online Whiteboard for Collaboration.

Ruby Receptionists

Answering calls is smart. Delighting callers is Ruby..

Redmine

Talk to your customers in real-time.

Zendesk Chat

Don’t ask how projects are going. Watch how they’re going in real time.

Startup Help

Getting started with a new business is a stressful (though exciting) time. These websites and tools make it just a little easier to get rolling.

oDesk

Freelance talent marketplace.

Founder2Be

Find a co-founder for your startup

Domize

Domain name search.

Krifty

Find like-minded entrepreneurs and co-founders

Prototyping, Website, & Product Design

Your app, website or software needs to look great in order to compete. Whether you’re creating it all yourself or sending it to a designer or web developer, use these protopying and website design tools to ensure it looks and works as well as it can.

UXPin

UX Design & Wireframing Tools As Beautiful As Your Work.

Founder2Be

The world’s leading prototyping, collaboration & workflow platform.

Skitch

Get your point across with fewer words so that your ideas become reality faster.

UX Software

Your site and platform users won’t stick around very long unless you consider their experience. Use these UX tools to optimize and design for user experience as well as check how you’re already doing.

Testize

Instant website testing for issues impacting visitors.

UsabilityTools

Better user experience (UX) and higher conversion.

Usersnap

Accurate screenshot feedback.

Usersthink

Landing page feedback.

Web App Device Simulator

Test how your web app look-and-feels on different mobile devices.

Marketing Software

You don’t need to do it all yourself (in fact, you probably can’t). Tapping into these marketing software platforms to create your campaigns saves you time, frustration, and, ultimately, serious money.

AI-powered automated Google Ad management software

Mobile Marketing Automation Software

Localytics

Draw users into your mobile app with push notifications.

Qualaroo

Voice of Customer Surveys.

Urban Airship

Blast Marketing Is Out. Customer-Centric Messaging Is In.

WebEngage

On-Site Customer Engagement Suite

Wishpond

All-in-one marketing suite. Landing pages, contests, list-building, email & automation.

Email Software

Using Gmail or Outlook only works when you’re talking to your Mom about Christmas. If you’re serious about starting a business, you need to find an email tool which makes sending high-volume emails easy. And (if you’re really serious about finding success)
you’ll want one which can send email automatically.

Autosend

Send email and text messages to customers.

Casengo

Email and live chat from one central inbox for your team.

Hunter

Hunter lets you find email addresses in seconds.

MailChimp

Build your brand. Sell more stuff.

Sanebox

Clean up your Inbox.

Content Creation & Promotion

Content and inbound marketing is, officially, the most affordable way for most businesses to increase brand awareness and drives leads and sales. Use these content creation and promotion apps to facilitate the process.

Canva

Easily create beautiful designs & documents.

Insighter

A new better way to share articles and drive traffic.

Sezion

Create a personalized video for every customer, content and occasion.

VideoRascal

Create animated videos for your website in minutes.

Visually

Specialized creative talent, online and on-demand

Scheduling & Planning Tools

Keeping track of your own time, and that of your team, is an essential step in keeping costs low for an early-stage business or entrepreneur. Use these apps to keep everything in line.

Everhour

Simple time tracking tool

RescueTime

Find your ideal work-life balance.

Timedoctor

Smart employee time tracking.

Focusalot

Task planner & time tracker.

Dashboards & Analytics

There’s nothing more important than making sure you’re not wasting your hard-earned money. Keeping a close eye on accurate analytics (whether through an analytic platform or a live dashboard) ensures you catch a problem as soon as possible.

Chartbeat

See your audience in a whole new light.

CrazyEgg

Visualize what’s making your visitors leave.

Cyfe

All-In-One Online Business Dashboard.

Datadog

Monitoring that tracks your dynamic infrastructure and applications.

Geckoboard

Live TV Dashboard Software for Businesses.

Google Analytics

Analytics tools to measure website, app, digital and offline data.

Kissmetrics

Behavioral analytics and engagement platform.

Mixpanel

Deeply understand every user’s journey with instant insights.

Neatly

Get to know your data and grow your business.

Visual.ly

Specialized creative talent, online and on-demand

Ptengine

Improve your website with all-in-one heatmaps & analytics.

Woopra

Track your website, apps, emails, and more to truly understand your customers.

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