It is straightforward and easy to manage your business more effectively using the best small business software.
While there are certain apparent fundamentals, such as productivity suites and accounting software (opens in new tab), anything may still catch you off guard. Because of this, it’s beneficial to have a broad understanding of the many types of software available so that, as soon as a requirement is recognized, a suitable response may be found.
This is especially true when you expand and realize that you want to interact and work together (opens in new tab) with new colleagues, clients, or suppliers.
Fortunately, there is a lot of competition in the online software business, so even while there are high-profile goods with high prices for high-profile customers, there are always smaller, less expensive packages that may be just as effective. Finding not just the type you require but also one that fits your budget might be difficult.
Even some of the ostensibly more expensive software suites, though, occasionally include a free tier, allowing you to test it out and see whether it meets your needs; if so, you may upgrade to the programme when your company’s cash flow strengthens.
Even better, there are occasionally free alternatives to expensive brand-name suites, however frequently you get what you pay for and inexpensive or free might have restrictions.
To that end, we’ll cover a variety of software categories that are useful to be aware of and highlight the top products available, giving you a head start on your search should you ever find yourself in need of a certain sort of software.
The top small business software programmes are listed below.
1.Microsoft 365
REASONS TO BUY
- +Best functionality
- +Use on the go
- +Cloud storage
- +Multiple licenses
Even though it has many competitors, Microsoft still offers the greatest office suite, and Microsoft 365 offers a cloud version you can use anywhere, even at home or the office.
The first advantage of Microsoft 365 is familiarity; if you’ve ever used Microsoft Office, you’ll have no trouble navigating this system. The same holds true even if you haven’t and have instead used competitors because Microsoft Office is the industry leader that everyone aspires to emulate.
The second is that Microsoft 365 operates in the cloud, which has multiple benefits. The first is that you can use it on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet, and the second is that OneDrive stores all of your documents online in the cloud. This implies you may transition between devices without losing your work and that you won’t have to worry about losing crucial files due to a hard drive crash.
The cost of purchasing a standalone license for Microsoft 365 Personal, which includes Word (opens in new tab), Excel (opens in new tab), Powerpoint (opens in new tab), Publisher, and Access, with online emails handled by Outlook (opens in new tab) and OneDrive (opens in new tab) for cloud storage of documents, can seem a little more expensive than it used to be.
If you have five or less employees, Microsoft 365 Home, which provides up to six licenses, can be the best and most affordable option for sharing among them. Targeting bigger enterprises, Microsoft 365 Business Premium comes with Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Exchange, and Sharepoint (opens in new tab).
Overall, Microsoft 365 provides the office software and administration platform you require and continues to outperform competitors in terms of capability. Expect a lot of your suppliers and contractors to use it as well, making it simple to transmit data between you both without any issues..
2.Sage Accounting
REASONS TO BUY
- +Good value proposition
- +Neatly presented and easy-to-use
- +Impressive customer support
With its straightforward and gimmick-free price, Sage Accounting offers a strong first impression. There is a 30-day free trial available along with a reasonable value for the top Sage Accounting plan.
For this, you receive modules that can be accessed from your PC or through a mobile app, including those that manage bids, invoicing, handle and submit tax online, cash flow forecasts, some thorough reports, support for several currencies, project tracking, and more.
Everything is clearly laid out and typically simple to use. With the provision of “free unlimited 24/7 telephone and email assistance,” any newcomer should feel at ease if they run into problems. Detailed web help and video lessons are also readily available.
Sage also offers Accounting Start, a more entry-level product. This might be sufficient for start-ups and small firms, but it does not have support for quotations, estimates, or vendor invoices. It also lacks cash flow predictions.
3.Asana
REASONS TO BUY
- +Looks great and works great
- +More than 100 plug-in apps and services
REASONS TO AVOID
- -Overkill for some small businesses
Got a team and several projects to manage as well? Asana makes it easier to determine who should be doing what at any given time, increasing the likelihood that everything will be completed by the deadline (though you do need a certain amount of talent and hard work from your staff as well, of course).
As with the other software products on our list, Asana’s unique selling point is not just the functions it offers, but also the way those features are presented in a beautiful and user-friendly interface that is seamless between mobile applications and the web.
Additionally, we appreciate how seamlessly Asana connects with more than a hundred other goods and services. Since all the major players are included, such as Dropbox, Slack, Gmail, Salesforce, and others, Asana is adaptable enough to operate with whatever current workflow you have in place (or want to try in the future).
Asana makes the process lot simpler than you may anticipate, whether you’re outlining the phases in a project, assigning roles and responsibilities, reviewing the status of a plan, or attempting to obtain a “big picture” view of exactly what’s occurring at any given time.
4.Slack
REASONS TO BUY
- +Intuitive, cross-platform interface
- +Packed with plug-ins and extras
REASONS TO AVOID
- -Free plan is relatively limited
Believe the hype, or at least some of it: Slack may not have completely replaced email just yet, and it can become a time drain if you’re not careful about how it’s used, but it’s also true that this communication platform has contributed to a significant change in how many small business teams communicate.
The fundamental concept is really straightforward, just like the finest software tools: real-time messaging in web browsers, mobile applications, and desktop clients. Team members can communicate individually, in groups, or through channels depending on certain subjects (sales, finances, products and so on).
But what Slack excels at is bringing that straightforward concept to life in a natural and responsive way, with a plethora of connections, plug-ins, and shortcuts to keep the discussion going. From file transfers to video calling, all the features you could need are available to you.
Slack is not very useful for free, but it provides you a sense of the software and is acceptable for smaller teams. The top price tier offers unlimited message archives, round-the-clock assistance, and a four-hour response time guarantee.
5.Avast Business Antivirus
REASONS TO BUY
- +Easy-to-use
- +Anti-ransomware
- +Shred files
With technologies like antivirus, firewall, email security, anti-spam, and the ability to sandbox programmes for total security, Avast Corporate is a great business antivirus and internet security platform. Avast Business, which tops both our lists of the best business antivirus software and the best antivirus software for 2021, also comes with a variety of server-related capabilities.
Independent testing typically rates the antivirus protection you receive as good, with Avast’s engine stopping 99.7% of threats in AV-Real-World Comparative’s Protection report.
Avast’s free edition has long been regarded as one of the finest for home users, but if affordability and ease of use are priorities, Avast Business can make sense.
Consider other small business applications
We haven’t even scratched the surface of the variety of software solutions that a small business would wish to think about, not least since there are many areas of interest and many rivals vying to provide you with the finest product. However, there are a few more that deserve honourable mentions since they cater to small enterprises and are either so well-positioned in their respective fields or provide a larger range of features:
A well-known supplier of merchant gateways for accepting online payments, Paypal(opens in new tab) has now expanded into physical retail as well as pay and go mobile card readers. All in all, Paypal may serve as a good payment provider for any type of business, according to the above. The basic plan, which includes online buying and helps to minimise upfront costs, has no monthly price. And once you’ve established yourself and have a healthy volume of sales and turnover, if you’d like to reduce transaction fees, you may convert to a merchant account, where you’ll pay largely interchange rates on each transaction in exchange for an upfront monthly fee.
The most important question may not be what Zoho(opens in new tab) delivers for small businesses, but rather what they don’t. It would be hard to give Zoho’s breadth of offerings justice here, but suffice it to say that they presently offer at least 45 applications that cover everything from sales to help desk to finance to people to IT to office to project management to collaboration. Even better, many of these integrate not just with one another but also with other widely used corporate software systems. If you need software to perform something, Zoho probably already has it available!
Another toolset to take into account in this situation is undoubtedly Adobe Creative Cloud(opens in new tab), not least because of Adobe’s genuine skills in creativity and design as well as PDF management, a topic that every company will eventually need to deal with. However, Adobe sells various programmes in various groups, so it’s crucial to make sure you’re looking at the right set. But don’t be shocked if you find yourself purchasing numerous programmes, not to mention the Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat combo for editing, annotating, and signing PDF files.
It’s possible that Salesforce(opens in new tab) is the best sales solution for companies of all sizes. This all-in-one platform promises to connect client sales and connections, whether you want to concentrate on online or offline marketing, telephone or email sales. However, increasing overall efficiency is more important than merely recording data and issuing tickets. In order to ensure strong synchrony and efficiency between your sales and CRM channels, you may thus strive to optimise important indicators across all operations.
How we evaluated the top software for small businesses
We first create an account with the appropriate software platform, whether it be a download or an online service, in order to conduct our tests for the finest small business software. The service was then put to the test to examine how the programme would perform in various scenarios. The goal was to test each software platform to see how useful its fundamental tools were and how simple it was to understand any more sophisticated features.
Which kind of software for small businesses is best for you?
Consider your actual demands before choosing which small company software to download and use, as platforms that try to handle a lot of various things might not provide as wide a variety of features as those that concentrate on one specific area. Additionally, less expensive software options may occasionally give you all the tools you require, but more expensive software can really cater to the specialist. As a result, make sure you have a clear idea of the features you anticipate using to avoid the hassle of switching to a different software platform in the future.