If your startup is at an early stage and you believe in the power of the Internet, if you think internet is the only thing which is the core of your startup and you aren’t aware about how to get more out of it. Then you have just come at the right place and this is a must read piece for you today. It is just a straightforward list of all the popular online tools a startup can’t grow without. Most of them are free and the rest gives free demos to try and then buy.
Start With
1. MockFlow
A super easy tool to make professional wire frames in minutes. Before you start building a website, make a wireframe of how your website should look like by using simple drag & drop components.
2. Lean Stack
Lean Stack is your startup blueprint which makes a 1-page business plan in less than 20 minutes.
3. Launchrock
A best platform for creating a Coming soon page for your startups, products & ideas. Engage your sign ups, customize your code and get insights by using the easy analytics tool.
4. Kickstarter
Founded in 2009 Kickstarter is the world’s largest crowdfunding platform for inspiring ventures. If you need to get funded and you think your startup is one of the most creative I the world then try Kickstarter.
Management Tools
5. Dropbox
Dropbox lets you store any file on cloud for free and download them anytime from anywhere.
6. Google Docs
A complete service from google to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations and access from anywhere.
7. OrangeHRM
OrangeHRM is one of the world’s most popular Human Resource Management tools. An open source and fully customizable tool which lets you manage fundamental organizational assets.
8. Sugar CRM
World’s most used free, easy and open source customer relationship management tool which lets you manage customer in the most effective way.
9. Basecamp
The most popular online tool to manage projects & people. Get started with 60 days free trial and manage all your ongoing projects at one place.
10. Asana
Another project management tool and replacement of emails. The tool is absolutely free for teams of up to 15 members. For Little Things
11. Pixlr
An online tool which allows you to edit images for free. Pixlr includes a number of effects, overlays and frames to beautify your photos.
12. Infogram
A simple web-based data visualization tool for non-professional designers to design professional infographics. Infogram now allows making video infographics as well, which is one of the world’s first tools of its kind.
13. Fiverr
And if there is something you want to get done for five bucks then fiverr is the place you can go. From logo to web design and making posters to great marketing stunts, everything is here. Browse Fiverr, meet great folks & experts and ask them to get work done in $5.
Email & Communication
14. MailChimp
World’s largest email marketing service provider which comes in both versions, free and paid. It manages email ids in a better way, send emails, design & share email newsletters and track your campaign performance.
Logging in to webmail client persistently or using offline email client might be a bit annoying for you. Setting up your professional email address with Google apps will definitely minimize your work time and maximize your productivity.
16. SurveyMonkey
You can create online surveys in Survey Monkey within minutes and embed in web pages. Design surveys, collect responses via weblink, email or export as a portable PDF.
17. Skype
Nothing need to be said about Skype. Half of the world uses it for communication.
Marketing & Analysis
18. Hootsuite
One of the best social media dashboard which can manage your multiple social media campaigns at a single place. Start using your all social media profiles at a single place for the sake of your precious time. Popular social media profiles supported by Hootsuite are Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, G+, Wordpess & more.
19. Google Analytics
Nothing can’t replace this free awesome when it comes to tracking visitors of the website. Location, technology, traffic sources, behavior and real time traffic, you can track each and everything about the visitors. With a little customization you can also track e-commerce sales performance with Google Analytics.
20. KISSmetrices
Google Analytics tells you what is happening on your website and KISSmetrics tells you who is doing it. It is an event based tracking tool which is supposed to be far better than Google analytics in terms of business analysis and knowing customer behavior.
21. SimilarWeb
If you ever feel like to know your competitors website traffic or want to know the ways your competitors get traffic from. Use this tool and I am damn sure it will give your almost accurate data free of cost. And if you want to get more data, purchase a pro package to get more insights and uncover any website’s online marketing strategies.
22. Bitly & Goo.gl
The two most used URL Shortener services which are absolutely free to use. Both tools allow you to track URLs in real time. Bookmark these tools for next time you need to short URL for twitter.
23. Alexa Alexa knows the secrets about all the big websites exists in the world. Know internet traffic stats & metrics, links, targeted geographic information and search analytics of any website. Alternatively, you can use the Alexa toolbar to see facts and figures about website as you surf.
Tech Essentials
24. WordPress
World’s most favourite free CMS which helps you create professional blogs and website with little knowledge of technology. 22% of all websites are built in WordPress and it is used by 60% of all that websites that uses CMSs to build websites.
25. Visual Website Optimizer & Optimizely
If not today, then the day when your website visitors will grow to thousands you will definitely need these tools to A/B test to improve conversion rate and eventually sales from your website. I personally recommend you to get a free trial account on Visual Website Optimizer and see how these tools can help you generate more leads.
26. BrowserShots
An essential and must use online tool after your website is ready. A cross browser testing tool to test compatibility of website with all popular web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera and mobile browsers.
27. Builtwith
If you see any awesome website anytime, anywhere and you wish to know the technologies used behind the same if you want to know the all the websites powered by a definite technology. Builtwith is one of the top internet research tools.
28. Pingdom
An outstanding free application to check website speed, which gives data with detailed flow and performance grade. A straightforward tool to help developers & tech experts optimize the performance of a website.
29. Notepad++
An easy WYSIWYG editor which supports quite a lot of programming languages. Next time when you need to make little changes in HTML or CSS pages of your website, use it. It is awesome!
30. Unbounce
Generic pages on website might not be striking enough to grab attention of visitors, but Unbounce allows you to put up the high converting landing pages even after you don’t have the technical knowledge. You can even A/B test the pages and add connect to marketing & management tools like Zoho, Mailchimp, Analytics and more.
If one of your favourite tools is not in the list, feel free to drop in a comment. I make sure to include that next time I update the list. Or give the lowdown if you think some tool is not appropriate and should not be added in the list.