Running a small business involves wearing many hats and managing countless tasks across marketing, accounting, operations, HR and more. Juggling it all without the right tools wastes time, impacts productivity, frustrates employees and stunts growth.
The good news is, advancements in software now provide customizable solutions specialized for key business functions. Integrating these technologies empowers entrepreneurs to work smarter, access accurate real-time insights, and collaborate across teams.
Based on my experience consulting over 500 SMBs, these 20 apps consistently drive the best results across core operational areas:
Project & Task Management
1. Asana
Asana is one of the most popular apps for managing workflows, projects and tasks in a shared workspace. Key features include:
- Custom statuses, priorities, due dates and reminders
- Conversations and notes attached directly to tasks
- Milestone and portfolio views for executives
- Reporting around deliverables, timelines and productivity
We generally recommend Asana for product and marketing teams that need to plan roadmaps, launch campaigns and track progress across initiatives. It brings much needed visibility. Average pricing runs $10/month per user.
2. Trello
Trello takes a kanban approach to task management with customizable boards, lists and cards that can represent projects from start to finish. Benefits include:
- Intuitive drag and drop interface
- Attaching files, images, spreadsheets
- Color coding for categorization
- Integrations with tools like Slack, Salesforce and Zendesk
From hiring to product launches, Trello adds clarity for business processes that have distinct stages. It‘s easy to use and free for basic needs, with $12.50/month for business class features like advanced checklists and custom fields.
3. Airtable
Airtable combines spreadsheets and databases to help collect, organize and track data. Standout features:
- Customized bases with different views like grids, calendars, galleries or kanban boards
- Automatic linking and relationships between records
- File attachments like images, videos and documents
- Zapier integration to connect hundreds of other apps
We recommend Airtable for gathering lead contact info, managing product inventory, building customer databases and more. It‘s highly flexible to meet diverse needs with pricing starting free for up to 1,200 records and $20/month as usage scales.
Client Communication
4. Front
Front brings all your communication channels – email, SMS, WhatsApp, social media messaging and more – into one collaborative inbox for managing customer conversations.
For service teams, Front is transformative. Benefits include:
- Conversations automatically routed to right agent
- Canned responses to speed up replies
- Snoozing conversations until more info arrives
- Tagging for tracking issues
- Performance analytics around speed of response, resolution time and customer satisfaction
Pricing starts free for one mailbox and 3 teammates, scales to $35/month per seat.
5. Zendesk Suite
Zendesk consolidates ticketing, call center capabilities, and self-service customer support content in one platform. Features include:
- Ticketing workflow automation
- SLAs and priority flagging
- Natural language search to easily find relevant articles
- Identifying frequent questions to base content on
- Mobile SDK so customers can access help center from iOS or Android apps
For early stage startups, Zendesk competes with Front providing more channel flexibility and knowledge base support but at added cost with seats starting at $49/month.
6. Intercom
Intercom specializes in conversational interfaces using chatbots and automation to engage users real-time when they visit your website or app. Core features:
- Chat pop ups with customized triggers
- User tracking across devices
- Live chat for sales and support
- Chatbots for qualifying leads or handling common questions
- Team inbox with lead routing
Pricing starts at $49/month for 1 seat and 100 monthly active users. The ability to engage anonymous site visitors directly makes Intercom truly differentiated.
Internal Communication
7. Slack
Nearly 50% of SMBs rely on Slack for security-focused messaging that connects distributed teams. Benefits include:
- Organized channels, direct messages
- Robust integrations with popular apps
- Advanced search, file sharing, screen capture
- Video calling for up to 15 participants
Slack replaces email for recurring status updates, quick collaboration and spontaneous conversations in aligning flexible workforces. Pricing starts free for basic usage and scales $8-15/month per active user for upgrades like unlimited search history, custom retention policies and identity management.
8. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams consolidates chat, video meetings, file collaboration and app integration within a common Microsoft 365 experience. Highlights include:
- Scheduling capabilities through Outlook integration
- Private channels and guest accounts
- Information protection and compliance
- Shared cloud storage within SharePoint
- Integrated Office apps for real-time co-authoring
Alongside Dropbox and Box, Teams provides secure content collaboration and storage alternative to Slack. Teams pricing bundled with Microsoft 365 licenses starts at $5/month per user.
Financial Management
9. Quickbooks
From invoicing and reporting to inventory and order tracking, no financial app is more ubiquitous for SMBs than QuickBooks. Core features:
- Invoicing automation with recurring billing
- Tracking receivables and payables
- Reporting P&Ls, cash flow, reconciliations
- Integrations with POS systems, banks and payment processors
- Budgeting based on accounting data
QBO basic plans start at $27/month, scale to $55/month for inventory tracking and advanced reporting. QuickBooks (Desktop) also available for advanced use cases.
10. Bill.com
Bill.com simplifies accounts payable through invoice processing automation and seamless payments. Benefits include:
- Invoice capture options – email forwarding, uploads, snail mail
- Approval workflows to validate and code invoices
- Sync directly with bank accounts for single click payments
- Mobile expense reporting and reimbursements
Bill.com reduces invoice processing costs by over 50%. Prices range $29-$39/month per user based on number of monthly transactions.
11. Pleo
Pleo streamlines expense reporting for employees needing to cover travel, meals, supplies and other costs. Key perks:
- Prepaid debit cards eliminate out-of-pocket spend
- Snap purchase receipts easily via mobile app
- Enforce granular spend policies and category coding
- Configure automated approval workflows
- Integrate reporting directly with QuickBooks or Xero
Pleo drives efficiency, accountability and visibility overspending. Plans start free for up to 5 users and scale $7 per member for Pro features like detailed analytics.
Marketing Automation
12. Mailchimp
With email marketing adoption over 90% for SMBs, Mailchimp makes campaign creation, contact management and analytics simple for any size business. Core features:
- 70+ templates for newsletters, announcements etc.
- Drag and drop builder to customize designs
- Segment contacts for targeted messaging
- Automate sequences tied to customer behavior
- Track key engagement metrics for optimization
Mailchimp plans start free for under 500 contacts and 2,000 emails/month, then scale from $14-$299/month tiers as send volumes increase.
13. SEMRush
SEMRush provides end-to-end support for digital marketing efforts through competitive intelligence, SEO audits, backlink tracking, rank monitoring and ad campaign management. Benefits:
- Research keywords and opportunities
- Identify links/mentions earned by competitors
- Audit site for errors, speed and SEO enhancements
- Track rankings across 750M+ domains globally
- Evaluate text and visual ad performance
SEMRush advertising toolkit and backlink analytics differentiates it as an all-in-one marketing intelligence solution. Plans range $99-$399/month.
14. Buffer
Buffer simplifies social media publishing through composing, scheduling and analyzing performance all from one platform. Highlights include:
- Content suggestions based on interests and trends
- Post recycling to re-promote evergreen content
- Comment tracking and responds to engage followers
- Hashtag recommendations and performance
- Conversion tracking to monitor website traffic driven
Buffer publishing plans start free for 3 accounts and 10 schedules per profile. Upgrades add 8-25 accounts and 100-300 schedules/month for $15-$90/month.
Sales Enablement
15. Hubspot CRM
HubSpot CRM builds contact and company databases while tracking interactions automatically across email, meetings, and calls. Features include:
- Email templates and sequencing
- Meeting scheduling and recording
- Call logging integrated with phone system
- Contact timeline and deal tracking
- File sharing and email sync
Freemium access makes HubSpot compelling for early customer relationship management needs with paid tiers at $50-$800/month adding marketing automation, email rendering, meetings transcription and more.
16. Outreach.io
Outreach.io enhances sales engagement through tools tailored for prospecting, communications and reporting. Benefits:
- AI sequencing based on prospect activity
- Email templates with tracking and reminders
- Call/text capabilities from one platform
- Activity capture eliminating manual entry
- Sales analytics and forecasting views
Starting at $90/month per user, Outreach.io pricing places it as a premium solution for sales teams needing enterprise grade capabilities.
17. Chili Piper
Chili Piper transforms calendar scheduling by integrating meeting booking directly into your website. It enables 24/7 lead conversion through self-service appointment setting.
We generally recommend Chili Piper alongside customer relationship management (CRM) platforms. having face-to-face meetings is critical for sales, client success and support teams. Chili Piper makes it easy for prospects to self-schedule based on rep availability.
Priced per seat, Chili Piper starts at $29/month including 150 booked meetings. Volume tiers extend up to $299/month.
HR Management
18. Gusto
Gusto enables easy onboarding, payroll, benefits admin and employee record keeping – everything HR teams need for people management in one modern platform. Key features:
- New hire paperwork and self-onboarding
- Payroll processing with direct deposit
- Benefits enrollment and changes
- PTO tracking
- Employee database including compensation history and performance reviews
Gusto‘s all-in pricing aims to consolidate point solutions with plans from $39-$149/month based on number of team members.
19. BambooHR
BambooHR also provides consolidated HR capabilities for SMBs focused on an intuitive employee experience. Highlights include:
- Mobile app for document signing
- Customizable self-service portal
- Automated tracking for time off allowances
- Configurable approval workflows
- Reporting around compliance, turnover risk and compensation
Starting at $99/month for up to 50 employees, BambooHR delivers strong general HR platform for basic SMB needs with Gusto offering more financial/payroll depth.
20. Culture Amp
Culture Amp specializes in assessing and improving company culture through data-driven employee surveys, action planning and benchmarking. Features include:
- Custom and standard survey templates
- Anonymous response collection
- Analytics identifying strengths and growth areas
- Goal setting and tracking
- Compare results across companies
With its dedicated focus on experience management, Culture Amp complements broader HRIS platforms like Gusto and BambooHR. Pricing starts at $7 per employee survey respondent.
The above solutions show the breadth and depth available to streamline management, measurement and optimization of critical business operations including project management, customer experience, marketing, human capital, sales and finance.
While individual capabilities abound, consolidating systems is equally important for efficiency. Supporting seamless integrations between tools ensures smoother data flows, eliminates repetitive manual entry and maintains context.
Through right-sizing operational functionality at each stage of business growth, new technologies enable entrepreneurs to focus energy on big picture planning, people management and service delivery rather than getting bogged down trying to manage tactical tasks in spreadsheets or disjointed tools.
Key Takeaways and Recommendations
Here are my top four recommendations for bringing business systems together based on lessons learned advising over 500 SMBs:
Start with the end user experience – Evaluate through the lens of employee workflows. Identify highest friction touchpoints to target first.
Integrate finance early – Centralize invoicing, reporting, budgeting to enable real-time decision making.
Unify martech and salestech – CRM linking email, chat and phone provides complete customer records and interaction history to enhance personalization.
Consolidate incrementally – Connect 2-3 apps covering related processes initially over trying to boil the ocean. Build confidence for greater integration over time.
The above 20 tools enable entrepreneurs to connect capabilities tailored for their evolving organizational needs. Through embracing digital transformation one process at a time using the roadmap this guide provides, the payoff in performance can be profound.
Approaching new solutions practically and patiently to drive adoption ensures the time and cost investments pay dividends allowing small businesses to accomplish more than ever before.
