Lloyds Financial institution has revealed that British SMEs with low digital functionality may unlock as much as an extra £84.5 billion turnover in the event that they have been to embrace expertise.
Nevertheless, many entrepreneurs baulk at having to purchase costly software program packages outright or license Software program-as-a-Service (SaaS) when the invoice may run into 1000’s of kilos annually for small companies on razor-thin margins.
But there are many workplace productiveness options on the market that don’t tie you in to contracts.
Offering your workstation – whether or not it’s a desktop or cell – is updated, there are many free options to costly software program packages.
A few of these apps listed beneath use the freemium mannequin, the place entry degree performance is obtainable without cost however it’s a must to purchase bolt-ons to unlock the complete potential of what the app can do.
Some platforms are funded by promoting whereas others supply a free model as a approach to scale up rapidly.
Listed below are 20 free choices for reinforcing your corporation productiveness that don’t contain tying up hard-earned money circulate:
Workplace Suites
Electronic mail Apps
Accounting
Collaboration and Mission Administration
Office Communication
Social Media Administration
AI Instruments
On the Transfer – Apps for the cell enterprise
Workplace suites
Google Workspace Necessities
Google’s suite of on-line instruments locations extra of an emphasis on collaboration than different suites on the market. You’ll be able to choose individuals to work with you on the identical doc, spreadsheet, presentation or kind, and you may all make adjustments in actual time. The great thing about Office is that it interconnects with Google’s different choices, similar to Google Drive, which presents 15GB of free storage, and its Google Analytics instruments, which reveals you the way net pages are performing. The most recent addition to the suite is its AI (LLM) software ‘Gemini’, which might additionally act as an assistant inside a few of the afore-mentioned instruments.
Microsoft 365 Apps On-line
Workplace was the ever-present enterprise suite, providing staples similar to Phrase, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. Now rebranded as Microsoft 365, the free apps out there supply the core merchandise, plus you’ll be able to retailer as much as 5GB in its OneDrive back-up service. It additionally has its personal AI platform ‘Co-pilot‘. To seek out out extra concerning the full model of Workplace 365 go right here.
Zoho
This fundamental free web-based suite is geared toward entrepreneurs and small companies and features a phrase processor, spreadsheet builder, CRM, and numerous different instruments. It’s high-quality for easy duties however you’re going to wish to look elsewhere for extra subtle options. It shops your entire paperwork in its free on-line cupboard space (1GB), and means that you can share them with (member) associates through e-mail invites. Zoho Author has some nifty touches like a darkish mode and a clacking typewriter sound to enliven a quiet workplace, whereas Zoho Sheet – its model of Excel – additionally permits real-time collaboration.
LibreOffice
That is an open supply workplace suite, which implies any of its thousands and thousands of customers can enhance performance. Accessible in over 100 languages, LibreOffice contains apps similar to Author (phrase processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (shows), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (components enhancing).
Electronic mail Apps
The workplace suites already talked about have their very own e-mail purchasers (which might be all excellent) however right here we record out a few of the greatest apps from different suppliers that can run properly as a devoted service on the most well-liked gadgets.
Thunderbird
Thunderbird is open supply and is funded by person donations. It doesn’t acquire private information, promote advertisements in your inbox, or secretly prepare AI along with your personal conversations. It’s a part of the Mozilla household of tech merchandise (the identical individuals who make the Firefox browser). Handle your messages, calendars, and contacts in any Home windows, Linux, Apple or Android system.
Edison
The core Edison Mail is app is free to make use of and has a bunch of helpful options, similar to color coding, one faucet unsubscribes, a number of signatures and so forth. It has gained a number of awards and is constantly one of the vital in style mail apps within the Android and Apple shops. The paid for model (Edison Mail +) has plenty of inbuilt security measures, so if staying secure is a precedence for your corporation then that’s the approach to go.
Mailbird
A desktop e-mail shopper for Home windows and MacOS, with a UX design that has been broadly praised as being trendy and modern. Sadly, the free model is severely restricted – you’ll be able to solely use it with one e-mail account, and several other of its most helpful options (similar to ChatGPT integration) should not out there. The complete model is just below £5.00 per 30 days per person.
Accounting
Pandle
Pandle has been developed from the get-go with British small companies in thoughts. It has
straightforward to know drop-down menus permitting you to enter transactions and suppliers, create quotes and customisable invoices and export figures to Excel. The platform additionally permits you deal with a number of currencies, to create profit-and-loss and steadiness sheets, file VAT returns to HMRC by its Making Tax Digital initiative, and plenty extra. There’s a cell app model too.
The free model isn’t designed for big volumes of transactions and the financial institution import/explaining course of isn’t that subtle. Nevertheless, there’s a Professional model at £5 per 30 days (+VAT) which provides quite a lot of further performance.
Quickfile
QuickFile Accounting Software program is free for small to medium sized accounts if the nominal ledger depend stays beneath 1,000 in any 12 month interval. It’s MTD compliant, can deal with a number of currencies, financial institution feeds, VAT and invoicing. It connects to many in style fee options (e.g. Stripe, Sq., PayPal and others) and there may be an API choice to combine with again workplace methods.
Collaboration and Mission Administration
nTask
nTask Primary Plan is free for as much as 5 crew members with limitless workspaces. It’s a job administration software with an internet calendar-based platform that allows you to create duties, bundle these duties into tasks, convene conferences, flag points and create timesheets. Nifty options embody seeing what proportion of every job or challenge has been accomplished and integrations with many essential apps like Google or Outlook calendars, Zoom and Groups, Zapier, and Slack.
Total, nTask retains abreast of the performance of different, dearer and complex workflow administration platforms.
Agantty
Agantty is from Germany. It’s calendar-based, enabling you so as to add duties, tasks and assign crew members, including to a use-flow Gantt workflow chart. You’ll be able to toggle between what must be executed as we speak, this week or this month. And it interfaces with in style cloud storage websites similar to Dropbox and Google Drive.
The free model is for a most of 1 challenge (until you’re a non-profit, trainer or pupil). The paid-for model has no limits on tasks, groups or duties and likewise presents tech help.
Office Communication
Slack
Slack is a straightforward to make use of immediate messaging system that permits a lot sooner communication than interoffice emails. It allows you to group messages into theme-related “channels” similar to “new challenge” or “export plan” – something you need – conserving office conversations organised. It interfaces with cloud storage options together with Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsoft 365. And it additionally feeds into challenge administration methods similar to Asana and Trello. British corporations that use Slack embody the BBC, Ocado and Information UK. The free model is kind of in depth however naturally there are limitations in comparison with the paid-for model – a listing of which you’ll see right here.
Flock
Flock’s easy, vibrant interface means that you can have personal or public conversations with office colleagues, add information and create opinion polls with colleagues. It additionally connects with different commonplace apps similar to Google Drive, Twitter and Trello and likewise has a nifty video conferencing function. The free model is geared toward small groups getting began, presents 10 public channels, shops as much as 10,000 messages, and has 5GB of storage per crew. The Professional paid-for model presents extra performance and is available in at round US$4.50 per person per 30 days.
Social Media Administration
Buffer
Buffer is an efficient resolution for small companies and covers all the important thing duties related to managing social media channels. Its free bundle permits 1 person account to attach as much as 3 channels with 10 schedules posts per channel, with a fundamental analytics bundle and AI assistant. The Necessities paid-for model presents extra performance at US$5.00 per account per 30 days.
Crowdfire
Boasting a clear, easy-to-use interface, the free model of Crowdfire is kind of restricted at solely 10 scheduled posts per account (3 max), but it surely does offer you an opportunity to check Crowdfire’s core capabilities throughout Fb, Linkedin, X, and Instagram, plus providing hashtag suggestions and limitless article and picture curation.
AI Instruments
Copy.ai
Copy.ai is a ‘GTM (Go-To-Market)’ platform constructed to assist gross sales and advertising and marketing groups automate content material creation and different ‘go-to-market’ processes utilizing AI, providing instruments for content material technology, prospecting, CRM enrichment, and extra. The free model presents: 1 Seat, 2,000 Phrases in Chat, connectors to
ChatGPT 3.5 and Claude 3, the Copy.ai Model Voice and Copy.ai Infobase.
ChatGPT
Probably the most well-known of the preliminary wave of AI LLM chatbots, ChatGPT nonetheless presents a free bundle for on a regular basis, content-related duties: Entry to GPT‑4o mini and restricted entry to GPT‑4o and o3‑mini, real-time information from the online with search, restricted entry to file uploads, information evaluation, picture technology, and voice mode, and you may create customized GPTs.
Pixlr
is an AI software for photograph enhancing, picture technology and design. The free choice plan has quite a lot of options, masking all kinds of enhancing and design wants, and the person interface is super-easy to know. The chief limitation is the variety of picture saves per day – at solely 3.
On the Transfer – Apps for the cell enterprise
Evernote
At its most elementary, Evernote means that you can create to-do lists however it might do far more than that. You’ll be able to create notes which might be then saved in notebooks for simple reference. Evernote Enterprise provides options enabling collaboration and hyperlinks to Google Drive, e-mail methods similar to Outlook and CRMs like Salesforce. The enterprise model prices £11 a month. Over 224 million individuals worldwide use Evernote for enterprise planning – or simply making a observe of a favorite recipe.
Doodle
For those who’re on the street and juggling shopper conferences, Doodle – out there on iOS and Android – is a quick approach to examine participant availability and repair instances and dates. It additionally integrates along with your favorite calendar, whether or not it’s iCalendar, Outlook or Google.
The free choice presents fundamental scheduling, suggests instances, permits you to invite contributors, choose the best choice and lock the assembly, join calendars, plus some add-ons like group polls.
The ‘Professional’ model prices US$6.95 per person per 30 days and means that you can ship reminders, ship calendar invitations, add your organization emblem, scrape contributors’ contact info, acquire funds with Stripe and extra.
Additional studying
Finest fee apps for small companies
High 9 enterprise apps for busy enterprise homeowners
enhance productiveness by investing in the fitting workplace furnishings
