Essential Freemium Tools for Small Businesses

What is freemium? Freemium is a term used to describe any pricing plan that includes a free level or option. Most freemium tools allow you to use the basic or essential features of the tool for free. Best of all, most freemium tools also have inexpensive options to choose from once you need additional features or access.

In this post, we’re going to look at some essential freemium tools small businesses can use to manage different aspects of their business. Note that these are by no means all of the freemium tools out there – these are just some of the essentials that small businesses will need. We’ll show you how to find more at the end of the post.

Hiveage: Freemium Invoicing

Do you need to send one-time invoice to clients that can be paid via PayPal? Hiveage allows you to send an unlimited number of invoices to an unlimited number of clients for free. This means you can create professional invoices for as many clients as you have at no cost.

You only have to pay for plans starting at $6.95 a month if you want additional features such as time tracking, estimates, recurring billing, team access, and additional payment gateways.

MailChimp: Freemium Email Marketing

Do you need to start building an email list? MailChimp allows you to send 12,000 emails to up to 2,000 subscribers per month for free. That’s six emails per month if you have the maximum 2,000 subscribers, twelve emails if you have 1,000 subscribers, twenty emails if you have 500 subscribers, and so on at no cost.

You only have to pay for plans starting at $10 a month if you want additional features such as automation, spam filter diagnostics, and support or $30 a month if you go over 2,000 subscribers.

HootSuite: Freemium Social Media Management

Do you need to manage your social media accounts and incoming messages? HootSuite allows you to manage up to three social media profiles for free. It’s especially good for businesses that want to monitor their posts on multiple networks in one dashboard.

You only have to pay for plans starting at $9.99 a month if you want to manage more profiles or have additional features such as team access, advanced post scheduling, enhanced analytics, and more.

Canva: Freemium Image Creation

Do you need great images for your social media or blog? Canva allows non-deseigners to create customized images for their business for free. This includes designs for cover photos, social media updates, blog posts, infographics, presentations, business cards, posters, and much more.

You only have to pay $1 for any images created with stock photography backgrounds. You will see a watermark overlay on stock photography backgrounds before you go to customize your image so you can choose a different design or to upload your own background.

Slack: Freemium Messaging

Do you need a platform where your team can communicate with each other? Slack allows unlimited team members to create a private network with unlimited messaging for free. You can search up to 100,000 archived messages and use their mobile apps for seamless communication.

You only have to pay for plans starting at $8 a month if you want additional features such as the ability to search all of your messages, get usage statistics, give guest access, get priority support, and more.

Wrike: Freemium Project Management

Do you have a small team that needs a project management tool? Wrike allows up to five team members to manage tasks, folders, files, and project activity for free. This gives small businesses the opportunity to get their projects organized at no cost.

You only have to pay for plans starting at $49 for more users or additional features such as sub-tasks, deeper folder hierarchies, time tracking, reports, and more.

SEO Powersuite: Freemium SEO

Do you need to research the websites linking to your competitors so you can build links to your own? Do you need to check keyword rankings or perform an SEO audit of your website? SEO Powersuite allows you to do these SEO tasks and more for free.

You only have to pay for the software editions starting at $299 if you want additional features such as saving your projects, create automated tasks, send reports to clients, review ranking history, data exports, and more.

Fruition: Freemium Google Penalty Checker

Do you need to check to see if Google has placed a penalty on your website? If you’ve noticed your search engine traffic has decreased, you will want to know if Google is to blame. Fruition’s Google Penalty Checker will allow you to check and monitor two domains for Google penalties for free.

You only have to pay for plans starting at $75 a month for additional features including additional domain monitoring and data on the latest Google algorithm changes.

Other Freemium Tools

Are you curious about the other freemium tools that you can use for your business? You can start by performing a Google search for intitle:pricing free. While this search isn’t full proof, it will lead you to a lot of pricing pages with free plans. You can add additional keywords to your search, such as project management intitle:pricing free to find specific freemium tools.

When you are on the hunt for new tools to help you with a specific aspect of your business, be sure to look at pricing plans carefully. While some tools will have their free option in their main pricing table, others like to hide their free plan beneath their main pricing options.

Some may have free pricing options in exchange for a review.

Some may still give you limited access to their tool for free after your free trial has expired.

If you’re looking for a good deal on online tools, these are the things you need to be on the lookout for!