The 7 Best Free Small Business Management Tools

In just a few minutes, you'll discover a handy set of apps that can make life easier without touching your budget — and it's much easier to get approval from the higher ups if there's no money involved.

1. Freshdesk — customer service with smart automations

One of the most important areas for small businesses is reputation management, so a good customer service tool is crucial. Giving your users options to get help or submit complaints can put out a spark before it turns into a fire.

You get a range of channels to receive tickets, then you can use automations to filter them to the right person. By using the more technical features to fine-tune your customer service tool, you can cut out a lot of the boring administrative tasks for your team, manage their workload better, and keep them pushing things forward.

2. LibreOffice — Microsoft Word, but for free!

Whatever line of work you’re in, one of the top business management tools out there is office software. Clearly, Microsoft Office is the first that will come to your mind, but the open-source version, LibreOffice, is a great alternative if you can’t afford Microsoft prices. You get a word processor, spreadsheets, a presentation tool, and more without spending a penny.

The document management platform doesn’t make a huge effort to be different from its better-known big cousin — but that’s no bad thing. One of the best points of LibreOffice is that the interface is almost identical to Microsoft, and it even works with MS Office files and keeps that elusive formatting in check.

3. Trello — a stalwart of project management

Trello is a great project management tool if you're on a budget. Essentially a Kanban board, you can assign team members to your projects and have a clear, easy-to-use dashboard to work from in meetings.

Trello beats a lot of the other top business process management tools because it's so intuitive and much more than just a digital Kanban board. It includes a whole host of automations and deadline functions so you can be more precise about your task management.

One of the drawbacks, however, is that if you want communication tools like instant messenger or email, you'll have to download other apps.

4. Gmail — the world’s favorite email service

It’s hardly a surprise to find Google’s email server on our list of free small business management tools. The world’s leading email provider is a familiar, easy-to-use way of managing your team with an impressive range of features.

Sure, it’s got email and chat functions so you can stay in touch and send files, but as a small business manager, Gmail goes further. With multiple calendars available, it’s possible to share a schedule with your team, organize meetings, and include links to key documents.

It isn’t exactly the most user-friendly system as a project management tool, but it doesn’t pretend to be either. If it’s just an emailing, chat, and calendar service you need, you can’t go wrong with Gmail.

5. Wave Invoicing — cut the stress out of billing

You want your invoices to be slick and professional, but we’re sure you don’t want to spend all day on them. Wave Invoices has templates that you can customize with your own branding, then fire off to your clients. Get read receipts when your invoices have been opened, and if your memory isn’t too great, Wave will chase up clients who are late.

Although not quite free, you can also receive payments through the app for a small fee, making it fantastic for small businesses to keep track of their payments.

6. Discord — gaming meets business

Traditionally used in the gaming world, Discord can easily be used as one of the best small business apps out there. If your team is into gaming, Discord will come to them as second-nature, so you can get to work right away and keep everybody happy.

Although it is traditionally an instant messaging service, you can also use it for video calls and file sharing among your whole team. Create voice and text channels for each of your departments to keep all of your communication neat and tidy, and add bots that keep irrelevant links out of work-focused chats. Sure, Discord lacks things like free project management tools for small business, but it really excels in communication.

7. Bitrix24 — the one that’s got it all

If you're running a small company, you're highly unlikely to have enough time to be working your way around a number of platforms. Wouldn’t it be great if you could put all your business management tools in one place?

Bitrix24 is a true all-rounder that lets you plan your tasks, send invoices, host videoconferences, and much more. You can use one tool to expand your business in all directions, and the depth isn’t bad either. Compared with other free business process management tools, you get a lot more features, and more freedom within those features.

Take your small business to the next level

We hope you’ve learned a lot from our list of the 7 best free small business management tools and you've got a clearer picture of the direction you want to go in.

You might have a specific area you need to improve so your decision is easy. For example, if you know you just need a Kanban board with some handy features, go for Trello.

However, we would recommend getting an app that covers all your bases, and Bitrix24 is a perfect example of that. With extensive features across communication, HR, project management, document management, and more, there are no limits to what you can do. And as an extra little hint — even if you don’t need all those features just yet, who’s to say you won’t need them further down the line?