Best Small Business Software of 2023

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According to a 2016 survey, the average entrepreneur spends 68% of the time tackling day-to-day tasks and only 32% of the time on long-term goals, strategic planning, and other tasks that can help their business grow. Due to their limited operating budgets and small staffs, small businesses usually can’t afford the tools and systems that will help them streamline their daily operations.

We reviewed dozens of software platforms built specifically to help small businesses take care of the tasks that will help them thrive. We chose the best based on common business needs, quality of the platform, ease-of-use, and affordability. Here are our top picks.

Best Small Business Software of 2023

Best Free Software: Wave Accounting
Best Website Builder: Wix
Best Email Marketing Software: Mailchimp
Best Project Management Software: Trello
Best Team Communication Software: Slack
Best Document Management Software: Google Workspace

Best Free Software : Wave Accounting

Wave Accounting was created in 2010 by co-founders Kirk Simpson and James Lochrie who were frustrated by the lack of free and easy-to-use financial software for small businesses. Today Wave has more than 250 employees serving small businesses around the world. We chose it as the best accounting software because it lets small businesses track income and expenses, send invoices, scan receipts, track sales taxes, and more, all for free.

Wave helps users connect multiple bank accounts and credit cards and set up profiles for multiple businesses to help keep track of income and expenses. The software organizes accounts, payments, and invoices to make tax time easier and also offers robust reports to help identify cash flow trends.

Users can create and send professional, branded invoices from Wave’s dashboard or mobile app. The invoicing software can set up recurring invoices and automatic credit card payments for repeat customers and automatically syncs invoice and payment information with its accounting software.

Wave’s mobile app lets users scan receipts anywhere and sync them seamlessly with their Wave account to help keep track of business expenses. Users can also scan receipts offline to be synced the next time the device is online.

Although Wave is completely free to use, it also offers additional paid services, including accepting credit cards and bank payments and setting up payroll for employees and contractors.

Wave Accounting

Free accounting
Free invoicing
Free receipt scanning

Wave Payments

All Wave Accounting features
2.9% + 60¢ per transaction for Visa, Mastercard, Discover
3.4% + 60¢ per transaction for American Express
1% per ACH transaction ($1 minimum fee)

Wave Payroll

All Wave Accounting features
$40 plus $6 per employee/contractor per month (tax-service states)
$20 plus $6 per employee/contractor per month (self-service states)

Best Website Builder : Wix

Wix was founded in 2006 by three entrepreneurs frustrated with the difficulty and expense of creating a website. Today, the company has a staff of 5,000 employees worldwide and 200 million users in 190 countries. We chose it for the best website builder since it lets users create professional-looking websites with no coding knowledge for an affordable price.

Wix comes with hundreds of professional templates and a drag-and-drop editor, making it easy to create a professional business site in just minutes. Every website is designed to look great on mobile devices and features engaging effects including animation, video backgrounds, and scrolling.

Businesses that want to sell online can take advantage of Wix’s advanced e-commerce features. Users can set up an online store, manage inventory and orders, and get revenue and conversion rate reports using a simple, intuitive dashboard. Wix also lets store owners accept payments via Wix Payments, PayPal, and Stripe and integrates with Instagram and Facebook.

Although creating a basic website is free, upgrading to a paid plan is the only way to unlock Wix’s business and e-commerce features. All of Wix’s paid plans include a 14-day free trial, free hosting, Google Analytics, and the ability to link a custom domain.

Business Basic Plan

$27 per month
Accept online payments
Unlimited bandwidth
50GB storage
Connect your domain
Remove Wix ads
Five video hours
Google Analytics
Free domain for one year
$600 ad vouchers
Visitor Analytics app

Business Unlimited Plan

$32 per month
100GB storage
All Business Basic Plan features
10 video hours

Business VIP Plan

$59 per month
Accept online payments
Unlimited storage
All Business Unlimited Plan features
Unlimited video hours
Priority Response
VIP Support

Best Email Marketing Software : Mailchimp

Mailchimp was created in 2001 by web design agency owners Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius who wanted to create an affordable email marketing service for small businesses. It has grown into a full-fledged marketing platform offering landing pages, websites, postcards, and more. We chose it as the best email marketing software because it offers small businesses high-level email marketing with both free and affordable paid plans.

Mailchimp’s free email software makes it easy for business owners new to email marketing to get started. The platform offers premade email templates, opt-in popups and signup forms, audience segmentation, and basic personalization. Users also get a mobile app that lets them view campaign performance and send emails with just a few clicks.

Mailchimp’s drag-and-drop templates let users create professional, branded emails with no design skills. A built-in analytics tool also keeps track of open rates and clicks, and segments data to help show what’s working and what’s not. Users can automatically send out targeted emails based on user behaviors, like a welcome message for new signups or a related product recommendation for a recent buyer.

Most small businesses can get pretty far using Mailchimp’s free plan. The paid plans add more subscribers and lists as well as more detailed automations:

Free Plan

FREE
500 subscriber limit
1,000 emails per month
Basic email templates
Integrations with 300+ apps
Landing pages and popup forms
Single-step automations
Segmentation
Basic reports

Essentials Plan

$13 per month (based on the number of subscribers)*
50,000 subscriber limit
Monthly email sends: 10x plan’s contact limit.
All Free Plan features
Access to all email templates
A/B testing
Remove Mailchimp footer
24/7 email and chat support

Standard Plan

$20 per month (based on the number of subscribers)*
100,000 subscriber limit
Monthly email sends: 12x plan’s contact limit.
All Essentials Plan features
Behavior-based automations
Multi-step automations
Send time optimization
Delivery by time zone

* Use the Mailchimp calculator to determine pricing based on the size of the email list.

Mailchimp also offers a premium plan that starts at $350 per month, but this is geared more toward larger businesses.

Best Project Management Software : Trello

In 2011, a company called Fog Creek Software launched a prototype of a project management tool designed to solve high-level planning issues. Later named Trello, the software grew to over 500,000 users in just one year and 4.75 million by 2014. We chose it as the best project management software because it offers a free, flexible, and visual way to manage projects.

Trello uses Kanban-style boards for task and project tracking and makes it easy to manage both individual projects and ongoing workflows. Its simple and intuitive interface lets users create custom boards and lists with cards that can include images, files, links, checklists, due dates, and more.

Users can get started in seconds with a blank board or choose from hundreds of categorized templates created by other users that can be modified as needed. Trello offers integrations with Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, and dozens of other third-party platforms as well as mobile apps to streamline collaboration and workflows.

Trello offers a lot with its free plan including unlimited personal boards, lists, and cards. The free plan is limited to 10MB per file attachment, 10 team boards, and one third-party integration (Power-up) per board. Three additional plans add features:

Free Plan

Free
Unlimited cards
Up to 10 boards per workspace
Unlimited power-ups per board
Unlimited storage (10 MB/file)
250 workspace command runs per month
Custom backgrounds and stickers
Unlimited activity log
Assignee and due dates
iOS and Android mobile apps
Two-factor authentication

Standard Plan

$5 per user per month
All Free Plan features
Unlimited boards
Advanced checklists
Custom Fields
Unlimited storage (250MB/file)
1,000 Workspace command runs per month
Single board guests
Saved searches

Premium Plan

$10 per user per month
All Free and Standard plan features
Views: Calendar, timeline, table, dashboard, and map
Workspace views: Table and calendar
Unlimited workspace command runs
Admin and security features
Workspace-level templates
Collections
Observers
Priority support
Simple data export

Enterprise Plan

Up to $17.50 per user per month, depending on total number of users
All Free, Standard, and Premium plan features
Unlimited workspaces
Organization-wide permissions
Organization-visible boards
Public board management
Multi-board guests
Attachment permissions
Power-up administration
Free SSO and user provisioning with Atlassian access

Best Team Communication Software : Slack

Slack was originally built as an internal communication tool for a game development company started by Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield in 2009. Launched in 2014, it has millions of users in over 150 countries. We chose it as the best team communication software because it offers real-time messaging, feedback, and collaboration in a free, online platform.

Slack was developed to eliminate the inefficiencies and delays of email communication. The software lets users create channels that can be organized around a topic, team, project, or even a client. Channels can be public and open to all users of a Slack account or private and accessed by invitation only.

Besides communicating in real-time, Slack offers tons of integrations letting teams share files, create polls, schedule meetings, and connect to third-party project management, cloud storage, and productivity tools. The platform offers free, one-click voice and video calls and even lets users spin-off discussion threads to keep larger conversations focused and uncluttered.

One of Slack’s most useful features is its search function. No more sorting through emails or written notes hoping to find that one valuable piece of information. Slack lets users search for a conversation, mention, or user and share or bookmark it no matter how long ago it took place.

Businesses that only need a single workspace, one-on-one video calls, and only a few app integrations can get by with a free Slack account. The free account also limits searches to 90 days of message history:

Free Plan

FREE
Access to up to 90 days of message history
Up to 10 third-party app integrations
One-to-one video and voice calls

Pro Plan

$7.25 per user per month
Unlimited message search
Unlimited third-party app integrations
One-to-one video and voice calls
Group video calls up to 15 people
Screen sharing
10GB storage per user
Guest accounts and shared channels
24/7 support

Business+ Plan

$12.50 per user per month
All Pro Plan features
20GB storage per user
User management
24/7 support with four-hour first response time

Best Document Management Software : Google Workspace

Formerly Google Suite, Google Workplace is a collection of online office tools, including email, document creation and management, cloud storage, calendars, chat, video meetings, and more. We chose it as the best document management software because it offers secure, branded, cloud-based document creation, storage, collaboration, and sharing.

Google Workspace is a great option for small businesses that want to create an efficient, collaborative, cloud-based work environment without having to pay for expensive software or worrying about everyone having the same computer. Because every tool in the Google Workspace platform is a Google product, users can move seamlessly from app to app.

Businesses can start by creating a branded email address using Gmail, one of the most popular mail apps on the marketplace. Other tools include Google Calendars for team scheduling; Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with real-time collaboration; Google Drive for cloud storage; Google Chat for team messaging; and Google Meet for video meetings.

Aside from the integrations between each app, Google Workspace also lets users connect to hundreds of third-party platforms, including Zoom, DocuSign, Salesforce, Trello, Asana, and many more. Google Workspace add-ons only access the minimum required data needed to complete an action to ensure that each business’s information stays secure.

Although anyone can get access to all Google Workspace apps by signing up for a free Gmail account, Google Workspace paid plans allow businesses to create business email addresses, get more cloud storage, and increase security. Google also offers a 14-day free trial on any Google Workspace paid plan:

Business Starter

$6 per user per month
Business email accounts
Google Chat and Google Meet
Shared calendars
30 GB Google Drive cloud storage per user
Admin controls
24/7 standard support

Business Standard

$12 per user per month
All Business Start Plan features
2 TB Google Drive cloud storage per user
Cloud Search 1st party data

Business Plus

$18 per user per month
All Business Standard Plan features
5 TB Google Drive cloud storage per user
Vault and advanced endpoint management
eDiscovery and Retention Policies

Enterprise

All Business Plus Plan features
Customizable with no limit on storage
Cloud Search 1st & 3rd party data
Security Center
Enhanced management and compliance tools
24/7 enhanced support

What Are Software Programs for Small Businesses?

Software programs for small businesses are designed to make small businesses more efficient by streamlining work, automating processes, and helping with day-to-day tasks which may be taking away from the business owner’s more important duties. These software programs are specifically designed to meet the needs of small businesses owners, who can use them to link banks and credit cards, set up business profiles, manage accounting and payroll features, and store documents.

How Much Do Software Programs for Small Businesses Cost?

Software programs for small businesses vary in their functions, features, and capabilities. They also vary in price. There are some free small business software programs. For paid programs, you can expect the cost to range from $5 per user per month to around $20 per user per month. Credit card transaction fees are billed separately.

Are Software Programs for Small Businesses Worth the Cost?

Software programs for small businesses are worth the cost if they increase efficiency and allow the owner or managers to focus more on tasks that bring in money, help the business grow, and meet long-term revenue goals. Software that helps with automation is typically worth the cost so that the owner can focus less on mundane tasks and have more time for serving customers and managing employees.

How We Chose the Best Software Programs for Small Businesses

We thoroughly reviewed and researched the best software programs available to small businesses before deciding on our top choices. We eventually narrowed it down to the best options based on cost, features, functions, integrations, compatibility, and more.