101 Small Business Web Applications You Must Check Out


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Check out these 101 small business web applications — software in the cloud. The selections reflect the breadth of innovative ideas and new business pursuits at play in the small business technology cloud landscape.

From sales to legal to productivity tools, we can attest that the small business technology is alive, kicking and doing extremely well in 2011.

It’s getting much easier and cheaper to operate a business than ever before. Absolutely great news for small business!

Here is the list of categories we will cover on this post:

Business Development
Email Marketing
Event Marketing
Video Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Online Sales
Online Payment
Presentation
Billing and Accounting
Funding
Hiring and Team Building
File Sharing
Legal
Building Websites
Website Testing
Market Research
CRM
Productivity
Customer Service
Team Management
Voice Communication
Online Education

P.S. You will meet some of these companies at BizTech [Small Business] on March 24.

P.P.S. Please feel free to comment if we have missed any awesome small business web applications.

Business Development


Card Munch allows users to take a photo and submit your business card. Each business card will be transcribed, edited and reviewed by virtual workers to guarantee accuracy.
Cost: FREE

NoteLeaf allows users to schedule meetings on your Google Calendar, then gives you information about who you’re about to meet on your phone.
Cost: FREE

Shoeboxed allows users digitize all your receipt, business card and organize everything neatly electronically.
Cost: FREE to $49.95 per month

Bump allows users to use your phone to bump another phone. If both people confirm that the match is indeed correct will the contact information be sent down to the other person.
Cost: FREE

Hashable allows users to track their business relationships record meetings, calls, intros and exchange business cards.
Cost: FREE

Tungle allows users to invite people to schedule with them, without having to sign up and automatically sync with your existing calendar.
Cost: FREE to $4.99 per month

Email Marketing


Vertical Response allows users to self-service email marketing, online surveys and direct mail service which allows you to create, manage and analyze your own direct marketing campaigns.
Cost: FREE to $240 per month

Infusionsoft captures leads, create beautiful emails and automatically follow up using auto-responders.
Cost: FREE to $999 per month

Constant Contact supports email marketing, online survey and event marketing.
Cost: FREE to $240 per month

MailChimp allows users to manage your email campaigns, share them on social networks, integrate with web services you already use, manage subscribers and track your results.
Cost: FREE to $240 per month

Tiny Letter is a free email newsletter platform which allows you to create beautiful landing page and simple email newsletter.
Cost: FREE

GetResponse allows user to create media-rich email marketing campaign.
Cost: $9.95 to $65 per month

Event Management and Marketing


Eventbrite allows users to manage, promote, and sell event tickets.
Cost: 2.5% + $0.99 per ticket

MogoTix allows users to create and manage event mobile ticket.
Cost: 2.5% + $0.99 per ticket

Eventbee allows users to manage and sell event ticket.
Cost: 2.5% + $0.99 per ticket

Video Marketing


Justin.tv allows users to broadcast live video and chat with viewers.
Cost: FREE

Ustream.tv allows users to broadcast video LIVE to the world from a computer, mobile or iPhone.
Cost: FREE

LiveStream allows users to broadcast and live stream your own channel for events, chats or presentations.
Cost: FREE

Social Media Marketing


Crowdbooster allows Twitter analytics and insights. Social Media Marketing Optimization. Schedule and time your tweets. Twitter reports in Excel and PDF.
Cost: FREE

Wildfire allows users to create marketing campaigns like sweepstakes, contests and give-aways on Facebook and Twitter.
Cost: $5 to $250 per campaign

Flowtown allows users to analyze their customer social media profile using their email contacts.
Cost: Unknown

Postling allows users to manage their social media from a single place and let them post, respond and schedule.
Cost: FREE to $34 per month

Online Sales


Big Commerce allows users to sell on Facebook and Ebay, Phones and email.
Cost:  Free – $299.99 per month

zferral allows users to create, track and manage online referrals.
Cost: $49 – $999 per month

Shopify allows users to create, track and manage online referrals.
Cost: $49 – $999 per month

Online Payment


Square allows users to collect credit card payment by plugging a reader into a phone or iPad.
Cost: 2.75% per transaction

Cimbal allows user to pay using your smart phone in the store, online and person-to-person anywhere Cimbal is accepted.
Cost: Free between individual

WePay allows users to collect money from a group and make splitting cost easier. It also makes sharing activity more transparent.
Cost: 3.5% per transaction

Google Checkout allows users to collect payment online using their Google login or any major credit cards.
Cost: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

Paypal allows users to collect payment online using their Paypal account or any major credit cards.
Cost: 2.9% + $0.30 USD per transaction

Bill Me later allows users to pay without using a credit card and pay later.
Cost: Unknown

Venmo allows users to pay with your iPhone, Android or Blackberry.
Cost: FREE

Presentation


Slideshare allows users to upload and share your presentation for free.
Cost: FREE

Keynote Remote allows users to control your Keynote (Apple) slide presentation on your Mac from your iPod touch or iPhone.
Cost: $0.99

Prezi allows users to create web based presentation and allows you to zoom in and out to see the big picture and small details.
Cost: FREE to $59

Imageloop allows users to create, save, share slideshow online.
Cost: FREE

280 Slides allows users to create and share presentation online.
Cost: FREE

iCharts allows users to present raw survey data in a attractive visual and interactive format.
Cost: Unknown

 

Billing and Accounting


Bill.com allows users to save and cost of business bill pyament and invoicing.
Cost: FREE to $24.99 per month

Freshbook helps users to track time, organizer expenses and invoice customers.
Cost: FREE to $39.95 per month

Indinero provides users insight into their business health.
Cost: FREE to $99 per month

Outright allows users to get an instant snapshot of where you stand financially. It keeps track of your profit and loss, income, expenses, etc
Cost: $9.95 per month

Expensify allows users to import expenses and receipts from credit card or bank account ad submits PDF expense reports by email, and reimburses online.
Cost: $9.95 per month

Recurly helps users with recurring billing operations in a secure and cost-effective manner.
Cost: $69 per month and up

Raising Funds


Kickstarter allows users to fund raise for creative projects.
Cost: 5% on the money you raise

Profounder allows users to raise the capital that they need, and the tools to manage all of the associated book-keeping, legals and compliance fillings.
Cost: Varies

Prosper connects users who want to invest money to users to want to borrow money.
Cost: 0.50% to 4.5% on the money you raise

IndieGoGo allows users to create and fund ideas.
Cost: 4% on the money you raise

Hiring and Team Building


Elance allows users to hire, manage and pay your virtual team.
Cost: You name your own price

oDesk allows users to hire, manage, and pay remote freelancers or teams.
Cost: You name your own price

Rent A Coder allows users to get freelance programmers and find freelance jobs.
Cost: You name your own price

99Designs allows users to find freelance designers.
Cost: You name your own price

TaskRabbit allows users to get hire local people to get specific physically tasks done.
Cost: You name your own price

CrowdFlower allows user to takes large, data-heavy projects and breaks them into small tasks, then distribute to an on-demand workforce around the world.
Cost: Varies

Guru allows users to find high quality freelancers online.
Cost: You name your own referral fee

Amazon Mechanical Turk allows users to access to on-demand workforce and performance human intelligence task.
Cost: You name your own referral fee

Redbeacon allows users to get price quotes, compare professionals, and book appointments online for any office need.
Cost: FREE

File Sharing


Dropbox allows users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization.
Cost: FREE to $19.99 per month

YouSendIt allows users to send, receive and track large files via email.
Cost: FREE to $14.99 per month

Box.net allows user to store documents, media and all of your content online, so you can access, manage and share them from anywhere.
Cost: FREE to $15 per month

Egnyte supports file storage, backup, sharing and collaboration everything on the cloud.
Cost: FREE to $89.99 per month

Legal

Law Pivot allows users to crowd source confidential legal advice.
Cost: Free

Right Signature allows users to sign contracts, NDAs, forms online.
Cost: Free to $249 per month

Docu Sign allows users to sign and send documents and signatures and support full audit trail.
Cost: Free to $22.99 per month

Echo Sign allows users to performance online, fax, biometric and mobile signature.
Cost: Free to $499 per month

Building Websites

Yola allows users to create a professional, ad-free website.
Cost: Free to $8.33 per month

Wix allows users to create flash based website.
Cost: Free to $15.9 per month

Weebly allows users to create free website with no technical skills required.
Cost: Free to $4.58 per month

Webvanta allows users to CMS based website with no technical skills required.
Cost: Free to $99 per month

Intuit allows users to create website based on predesigned websites.
Cost: Free to $4.95 per month

Website Testing


Usertesting.com takes video of a visitor speaking their thoughts describing the problems they encountered while using your site.
Cost: $39 per use

Gazehawk keeps track of where your users look on your website which allows you to test landing pages, registration/checkout flows, homepages, etc.
Cost: $495 and up

ReQtest helps users to do web-based testing and bug reporting on the cloud.
Cost: FREE to $30 per user

Unbounce allows users to create, publish and optimize landing pages for testing purposes.
Cost: $25 to $500 per user

Feedback Army allows users to start simple usability testing for their website.
Cost: $15

Optimizely allows users to improve their website through A/B testing.
Cost: $19 – $399

Market Research


Survey Monkey allows users to create web-based survey.
Cost: Free – $64.99 per month

Wufoo allows user to create contact forms, web surveys, and invitations so they can collect the data, registrations and online payments they need without being technical
Cost: Free – $199.99 per month

Google Forms allows users to create an online form from any spreadsheet.
Cost: Free

Ask Your Target Market allows users to write surveys and send them to their target market segment.
Cost: Free – $119 per month

Survey Gizmo allows users to online surveys.
Cost: Free – $159 per month

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)


Highrise allows users to to manage contacts, keep track of who said what when, schedule follow-ups, set reminders, and convert leads.
Cost: FREE to $99 per month

Sugar CRM allows users to automate sales force and customer support on the cloud.
Cost: FREE to $600 per user per year

Salesforce allows users to keeps all the contacts, messages, e-mails, files, events and tasks.
Cost: FREE

Heap allows users to broadcast and live stream your own channel for events, chats or presentations.
Cost: FREE to $9 per user

Productivity

Evernote allows users to save ideas, photos and voice note on any computer and mobile device.
Cost: FREE to $5 per month

Meeting Agenda allows users to create online agenda and minutes template that you can share with attendees.
Cost: FREE to $9.95 per month

Workflowy allows users to organize their thoughts.
Cost: FREE

Rescue Time shows users how spend time & provides tools to help them be more productive.
Cost: FREE to $9 per month

Customer Service


Zendesk allows users to do customer support online.
Cost:$9 to $49 per month

Zopim allows users to do livechat with your customers online.
Cost: FREE to $99 per month

Assistly allows users to consolidate all customer service conversations into one screen where service requests are collected, prioritized, and handled by team members.
Cost: FREE to $99 per month

Olark allows users to chat with visitors on your website from desktop, laptop or mobile device.
Cost: $15 to $149 per month

Team Management and Collaboration


Teamly allows users to manage their team by helping them focus on the top 5 priorities for the day, week and month.
Cost: FREE to $8 per month

Huddle allows users to manage projects, files and people in the cloud.
Cost: FREE to $15 per month

Yammer allows users to create their own Twitter and Facebook-like communication environment, but for internal employee only.
Cost: FREE to $5 per month

Voice Communication


Grasshopper allows users to get a toll free or local number, set up voicemail extensions and get other voice features online.
Cost: $9.95 to $199 per month

Ring Central allows users to setup 800 numbers, toll free numbers, virtual pbx, internet fax and virtual phone system.
Cost: FREE to $39.99 per month

Google Voice allows users to create one phone number so it will ring anywhere. It also transcribe the voice messages into email.
Cost: FREE

Online Education

Mindflash allows users to convert existing training materials into online courses.
Cost: FREE to $999 per month

Udemy allows users to create an online course.
Cost: FREE

Learnable allows users to create their own online courses.
Cost: FREE

81 Comments ▼

EdithYeung Edith Yeung is the Founder of BizTechDay and SFentrepreneur. Edith is a lecturer at UC Berkeley International Program in Entrepreneurship and board member of the San Francisco Small Business Week.

81 Reactions
  1. All I can say is WOW! What a great list.

    I would also add http://www.Qualtrics.com as a great market research tool with very robust features.

  2. Yes just when I was going to delete another best of list I found some new useful sites. I am still finding google has a lot of these tools if you really read the features of some of their products in Labs.

    • I agree totally: it is really not necessary to duplicate Google Contacts or Calendar (to name a few)! However some apps have deliberately chosen not to duplicate existing Google tools but to complement them. I can recommend SaaSt which is an ERP with lots of modules (invoicing, inventory, project Management, CRM, e-commerce…).

  3. This is the best list of ANY small business/technology applications I have ever seen.

    Ever. Thanks you, Edith…

    The Franchise King®

  4. Wow, great list, Edith. I learned a few new ones and enjoyed clicking through. I like the online education category, too, could be some practical uses for small companies to use those for training or even for marketing. Thanks.

  5. CRM list looks little light.
    CapsuleCRM
    TactileCRM
    Batchbook
    Solve360
    Bantam Live (recently bought by Constant Contacts

    Some other major Team Management & Collaboration Apps are missing:
    Basecamp (the industry leader)
    Torch
    Pelotonics

    And finally for document storage and sharing, check out SugarSync.

  6. This is quite the list Edith and thanks for including Grasshopper on here! There are definitely some apps on here that I’ll be looking into. I’d also add the list Chargify and Spreadable, our sister companies. Chargify is a recurring billing app for Web 2.0 and SaaS companies. Cost: $39/month. Spreadable is a word of mouth marketing tool to increase word of mouth referrals. Cost: $24/month. Thanks again for the list!

  7. wow, very cool, Ian. thanks for the additions.

  8. Nice list. Please consider adding ManageWith.us it’s a great free task manager, there’s no sign-up required and you can see other people’s changes in real-time!

    Andy

  9. Really informative list. Thank you for putting this together.

  10. Good list but I would add swift marketing because of the extras it gives Act! Users. And simpleinvoices because its free and very useful.

  11. Another favorite option for file sharing is File Apartment (http://www.fileapartment.com). Easy to use, no software to download or registration, up to 1 GB, free option, safe, and secure.

  12. If you’d like a tool for managing your time and projects, you can use this web-application inspired by David Allen’s GTD:

    http://www.Gtdagenda.com

    You can use it to manage and prioritize your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
    Syncs with Evernote, and also comes with mobile-web, Android and iPhone apps.

  13. FYI — Your Udemy link currently points to grasshopper NOT udemy!

  14. Hi Edith,

    I really appreciate you putting this list together. There are several categories here that I have been looking for tools to make life a bit easier.

    I am off to try a few of them out. Have a great day!

  15. Wow, what a list! – For people in the UK, I would also recommend http://freeagentcentral.com as something similar to FreshBooks but more UK oriented.

  16. I’m surprised to see WORKetc hasn’t made this list, as it effectively combines multiple separate management aspects together in a very clean fashion.

    Perhaps that’s why; it can do so much of what’s on this list that it can’t be put into some specific area! Anyways, great list.

  17. Stephanie LH Calahan (@StephCalahan)

    Thanks for compiling such a great list. You gave a great amount of detail in a very easy to read format! I’ll be sharing your post in my LinkLineup on Wednesday.
    To your success!
    Stephanie

  18. Interesting list! Also you may add Doolphy as a useful tool for team management and collaboration.

    Regards!

  19. Very nice list indeed and some tools here I have never heard of but I am surprised that you have listed GetResponse but not listed Aweber. As someone who has used both services in my honest opinion Aweber is a lot better and offers great integration into many ecommerce packages.

  20. Edith! This list is AMAZING. Thank you for putting it together. I’m going to refer people to this now whenever they ask me about good tools to use.

  21. Edith, thanks for listing Eventbee in the list, but our pricing is $1 flat, regardless of ticket price and currency.

    Hope you can correct the pricing.

    Thanks,
    Angela,
    Eventbee

  22. Edith
    Thanks for your presentation tonight at NARPM – great info.
    Diane Marr
    Redmond OR

  23. Thanks for this amazing list of tools. Where is the free version of Infusionsoft?

    You put a lot of my favorites on this list. Good job?

  24. Thanks for the list. Please consider PipeDrive.com as Sales Management Software. Pipedrive is a sales pipeline management tool made by people passionate about sales. It centres the sales process around deals and helps team members focus on the right thing. Sales people see which deals to concentrate on to reach their objectives, and managers have a clear view of the team’s overall sales pipeline. It shows you the money, if you will.

  25. Ingvar gudmundsson

    Those providing services can build their business up and/ or increase their revenues with tools like SimplyBook.me, a simple to use appointment planning tool and free to use.

  26. Some new ones I haven’t heard of.

    If you’re new to web business, don’t forget Skype.

    Skype: pjbrunet

  27. Great list – one of the best ones that I have seen. I am looking forward to checking all these out.

  28. GREAT resource! – Thanks for sharing.

    Also like (not on the list?): Zoho.com for Accounting, Billing, File Sharing, CRM, Email, Doc Storage, Project Planning, Tasks, Notes, Online Meetings, Recruiting, Office Suite, and much more – all in one! Cost: Free (up to three users on most apps) to up to $200 per additional user/month ala cart. Nice feature for independent and micro businesses is Zoho’s business/mail dashboard, with all of your favorite apps easily accessible from one browser window. And, it’s smart phone friendly! (calendar, mail and dashboard)

    zoho.com/pricing.html

    And, loving CardMunch (which IS on the list).

  29. Great list, but I was surprised webreep.com wasn’t on there somewhere. Its the only tool I know of that lets you compare the quality of your website to other websites in the same business as you. Great little tool, and I think they still have a free version too;)

  30. Hi, primarily I’m a dime-a-dozen, cheap, two-bit stand up comic with a bunch of web sites, but I also write extensively on a number of topics. Recently, when I saw an ad for Square on my HookedOnDroid.com web site (I write about Smartphones there), I researched it and signed up.

    I really believe this is the best news for small business and individuals in a long time. Enabling anyone to accept credit cards by using a credit card reader plugged into your phone, and your touch screen for their signature verification is astonishing. If it works.

    I set up an account, verified my bank account and received the free magnetic card reader. Here is my review and a video of me actually performing a transaction to see whether it works as well as is claimed. hookedondroid.com/squarecreditcardappreview.html

    Just thought I’d share.

    Gary Thison

  31. Wow I thought I had a list. This is a great list. My site is starting to grow and i’ll be using several of your referals. Thanks

  32. Great list. I’d also add for building websites – webs.com. They offer free and inexpensive paid options. That are quick and easy!

  33. Very helpful list. Love the outline and grouping. A definite keeper! Great work.

  34. Great list. I am already using a few of these but some of the others are very interesting. I’m now going to spend some time checking out most of these tools. Thank you for compiling this list.

  35. A must add to the list – GoPayment! Anyone can accept credit cards via smart phone/iPad. Free reader, no monthly fees. Check it out http://gopayment.com/

  36. I use Sniget.com. They have a lot of business apps and it’s free as well. The best app for me is TodoWe which is similar to other todo list web app but with more features.

  37. Fantastic resources! I would also like to add mobile and internet faxing services from MetroFax to the list – huge time and money saving!

  38. Still in closed beta, but taking on new customers all the time, is Blogmutt, a crowdsourced blog writing service.

  39. This is the best list of ANY small business/technology applications I have ever seen. And for the project management, I also recommend TABB-Online to do list and time management software-Project Schedule Tool.

    All of the tools are helpful, just need to clarify which is the best suitable to your business.

  40. Thanks for the list Edith. Some of them, I am familiar with but most are new to me. It’s nice to see some new resources. I will check some of them.

  41. A brilliant list! A lot of new things to discover 🙂

  42. Hi Edith,

    One more small application which will be useful for every small business (though for big ones too) is http://invitebox. It provides the easiest way to add powerful referral program to any website.

  43. The link for flowtown is mistaken.
    It should be http://www.flowtown.com

  44. Read the 101 Small Business Web Applications, Wow what a list. I am taking Small Business Management and IT classes this summer, this should come in handy,
    Deb Betinis

  45. This is a terrific list, I’d like to add a couple of names to the list

    ClickDesk
    Basecamp

    Cheers!

  46. Just recently came out of public beta, is http://www.socialgimme.com

    Just a very user friendly application to create fully resonsive sites and pages for the web.

    Any feature you’d like to add, like articles, images, slides, video, Facebook and Twitter feeds, contact form,s and even Google adsense and analytics with a single click of your mouse.

    Nancy.

  47. If your business bills clients by the hour, I recommend a timer-based timekeeping tool like Hours Tracking. Tracking your team’s hours in real time allows you to more closely monitor budgets and project progress while dramatically streamlining your payroll and invoicing processes. Hours Tracking is designed for small to mid-sized teams and priced right at $1/month/user.

  48. We just started using a couple of services which are recommended in the blog post. So far so good. One service definitely missing on the list is http://www.invoiceberry.com which is our go-to invoice software in the office. We use it since over one year and it’s running very smooth. They charge $15/month and we can send unlimited invoices and track all of our expenses and customer payments.

  49. Excellent list! I have two more suggestions:
    Website Testing: Visual Website Optimizer (http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/)
    Productivity: Kanban Tool (http://kanbantool.com/)

  50. Another note worthy web app can be found at http://www.enamecards.com. It is an online business card with online rolodex too. So we can start using paperless business cards and exchanges can now be done across the globe.

  51. I can also suggest Easy Website Optimizer (www.easywebsiteoptimizer.com) for a free A/B testing site. Brand new, pretty cool! Completely free right now.

    Thanks for this list!!

  52. This is an awesome list you have compiled here. If I can suggest one more addition for building websites, I would like to recommend TouchVu. TouchVu provides a very simple tool that allows business owners to instantly create their website using their Facebook business page. Although TouchVu is still in Beta, I think we’ll see amazing things from this company in the near future.

  53. Very informative Edith,, thank you for sharing

  54. Patricia @Converge

    Hello Edith,

    Fantastic resource…

    I want to inform you about Converge Enterprise, it is a cloud based CRM system. We designed and developed the software for SMBs. I would be happy if you use our CRM as free user and give your valuable feedback in your next article.

  55. Killer list.

    Missing an important one though: ONTRAPORT (www.ontraport.com) for business and marketing automation. 4,000+ entrepreneurs and small businesses use this to start, systemize and scale. Think CRM, email management, list segmentation, marketing automation, billing, easy website building etc.

  56. I’d like to add Notism (http://notism.io) – A design collaboration platform that offers realtime communication via sketches, notes and selections. You can also build clickable prototypes, add tasks and version control your design process.

  57. Great list! But is there any updated list, as it has been a while now..?

  58. Yianis Giannopoulos

    Keasurf software is A CRM specifically designed for surf camps, surf schools and surf shops to improve management, organization and efficiency. With Keasurf, you will save administration time and have more time for your clients.

  59. Happyfox (https://www.happyfox.com) is an viable alterntaive to Zendesk Customer Service software

  60. Got a great alternative to Zendesk, called Helprace (http://helprace.com) – a customer service software consisting of a helpdesk, community and knowledge base. There’s also a free plan for startups & small teams.

  61. Nice and informative post Edith. I would like to suggest surejobz.com under your ‘Hiring and Team Building’.

  62. Lucid Meetings (lucidmeetings.com) covers the complete scheduling, communication, meeting organization, and online collaboration needs for small businesses. It’s a great all-in-one tool that saves time and money for small businesses that are beginning to scale. [N.B., I am one of the founders and company leaders]

  63. Thanks a lot for he article, very helpful! We at Allora.io tested Zopim, Olark, Chatra and BoldChat and found that all of them have almost the same functionality. Chatra and Zopim have better design, but Chatra works better on mobile. We started using Chatra for now and are still quite happy with it. Moreover, Chatra has the free forever plan and its paid plan costs 14$ per agent online per month.

  64. Hi, Fluid UI is a tool that would help any startup. With built-in iOS, Material Design and Wireframe libraries containing over 2000 customizable widgets and icons, you can design and share a wireframe, mockup or prototype for any device or platform in minutes. FluidUI.com also features real-time collaboration for teams, video hangouts for user testing, on-device testing and interactive previews with chat/comments to share and iterate your designs with your team.

  65. Very useful material. Added to bookmarks. I tried many different services for creating online calculators, as well as various plug-ins and custom widgets from freelancers. In comparison with similar services for creating calculators, uCalc leads in useful functions and has advantageous tariff plans. It is much more economical than a calculator to order or use other analogues. At the same time, the basic functionality is completely free, and when paying for premium features for a longer period, they give good discounts. In addition, discounts are available for regular customers.