The Toolbox
A tool earns a place here by being free or cheap to start, plain about its price, willing to let you take your data with you, and still useful once the business grows.
- Groups
- 8
- Tools
- 39
- Updated
Each link goes to the maker’s own page. When we join a maker’s affiliate program, its links may earn us a commission when you sign up; the price you pay is the same, and a commission never decides what goes in the Toolbox.
Research and validation
5 toolsRun these before the money goes into stock, software or a logo: they tell you whether anyone wants the thing.
Google Trends
Shows whether searches for a product or problem are rising, falling or seasonal, by region. The figures are relative interest, not search counts.
Price: Free
Visit Google TrendsCensus Business Builder
US Census Bureau maps and reports on the people and businesses in an area, for sizing a local market before you sign a lease or print flyers.
Price: Free
Visit Census Business BuilderSparkToro
Describe your customers in a sentence and see the websites, podcasts, YouTube channels and social accounts they follow. Three free previews a month.
Price: Free; Personal $450/year
Visit SparkToroTally
Best free
Surveys, waitlists and pre-order forms with unlimited responses on the free plan, payments included. Made and hosted in the EU.
Price: Free; Pro $24/month
Visit TallyCarrd
One-page sites for a landing-page test: describe the offer, collect sign-ups, count who bites. Free for three sites; Pro Standard adds forms and your domain.
Price: Free; Pro Standard $19/year
Visit Carrd
Formation and banking
5 toolsYou can file an LLC with your state for the state fee alone; a filing service saves time, not money.
IRS EIN application
Best free
Get your business’s federal tax ID straight from the IRS in one online session. It costs nothing, and the IRS warns against sites that charge for one.
Price: Free
Visit IRS EIN applicationZenBusiness
Files your LLC with the state. Starter is $0 plus the state fee; Pro adds the EIN, and a registered agent is $199/year extra, so read the checkout.
Price: $0 + state fees; Pro $199/year
Visit ZenBusinessMercury
Business checking with no monthly fee or minimum balance, and free domestic wires and ACH. A fintech; the accounts are held at partner banks.
Price: Free; Plus $29.90/month
Visit MercuryRelay
Up to 20 checking accounts on the free plan, handy for setting tax and profit money aside as it comes in. No minimum balance; banking by Thread Bank.
Price: Free; Grow $30/month
Visit RelayBluevine
Checking with no monthly fee on Standard, paying 1.3% APY up to $250,000 in a month you spend $500 by card or receive $2,500 in customer payments.
Price: Free; Plus $30/month (waivable)
Visit Bluevine
Website and store builders
4 toolsA service business needs a page that says what you do and takes a booking; reach for a store builder once you ship products.
Squarespace
Templates and hosting in one, for a service business that wants a polished site or a small shop without touching code. A 14-day trial, no card needed.
Price: From $19/month, billed yearly
Visit SquarespaceShopify
Our pick
Products, inventory, checkout and shipping in one store, from a first product to a full catalog. On Basic, a payment provider other than Shopify’s adds 2%.
Price: Basic $29/month, billed yearly
Visit ShopifyWordPress
Free, open-source software for a site you own outright and can move to any host. You pay for hosting and keep it updated yourself, or pay someone to.
Price: Free
Visit WordPressBig Cartel
A simple shop for makers and artists with a small range. The Gold plan is free with limited features, and Big Cartel takes no cut of your sales.
Price: Free; Platinum $15/month
Visit Big Cartel
Payments and checkout
5 toolsEvery option here charges per payment, so put the fee into the price before you set it.
Stripe
Our pick
Online card payments, payment links, invoices and subscriptions with no monthly fee. A payment link needs no code; developers can build anything on it.
Price: 2.9% + 30¢ per card payment
Visit StripeSquare
A card reader, point of sale and online store with no monthly fee on the free plan. Suits market stalls, salons and shops that also sell online.
Price: 2.6% + 15¢ in person; 3.3% + 30¢ online
Visit SquarePayPal
Lets customers pay with PayPal, Venmo or a card, at checkout or from an invoice. Card payments cost 2.99% + 49¢; the PayPal button costs more.
Price: 3.49% + 49¢ at PayPal checkout
Visit PayPalGumroad
Sells ebooks, templates and courses from a ready-made checkout page, and handles sales tax and VAT for you as the merchant of record.
Price: 10% + 50¢ per sale
Visit GumroadPolar
Checkout and subscriptions for software and digital products, with sales tax and VAT handled as the merchant of record. Open source under Apache 2.0.
Price: 5% + 50¢ per sale; Pro $20/month
Visit Polar
Accounting and invoicing
5 toolsStart the books the day the first payment lands; for most side hustles a free plan is enough until you need an accountant in the file.
Wave
Best free
Free invoices, estimates and bookkeeping for US and Canadian small businesses. Card payments cost 2.9% + 60¢ each on the free plan.
Price: Free; Pro $19/month
Visit WaveQuickBooks Online
Income, expenses, invoices and reports, with a free plan that sends 2 invoices a month. Simple Start is the first plan that lets your accountant in.
Price: Free; Simple Start $38/month
Visit QuickBooks OnlineFreshBooks
Invoicing, time tracking and expenses for freelancers and service businesses that bill clients. Lite covers five billable clients; 30-day trial.
Price: Lite $23/month
Visit FreshBooksZoho Books
Double-entry accounting with invoicing, free while your yearly revenue stays under $50,000. Prices are per organization, not per user.
Price: Free; Standard $15/month, billed yearly
Visit Zoho BooksInvoice Ninja
Invoices, quotes, recurring billing and online payments, free for up to five clients. The source code is public, so you can also host it yourself.
Price: Free; Pro $140/year
Visit Invoice Ninja
Marketing and email
5 toolsAn email list is the one channel you own; start collecting addresses before launch day.
Kit
Best free
Email for people who sell what they know: free up to 10,000 subscribers, with sign-up forms, landing pages and digital product sales.
Price: Free; Creator from $39/month
Visit KitMailerLite
Newsletters, sign-up forms and automations in a plain editor. Free for 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month.
Price: Free; Comfort from $12/month
Visit MailerLiteButtondown
An independent, self-funded newsletter tool. Free for the first 100 subscribers; after that you pay only for subscribers who are actually receiving it.
Price: Free to 100 subscribers
Visit ButtondownBuffer
Schedules social posts from one queue. The free plan covers 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts each; Essentials is $5 a channel per month.
Price: Free; $5/month per channel
Visit BufferGoogle Business Profile
The free listing that puts a local business on Google Search and Maps, with your hours, photos, posts and replies to reviews.
Price: Free
Visit Google Business Profile
Sales and CRM
5 toolsA spreadsheet does for the first customers; move to a CRM when follow-ups start slipping.
HubSpot CRM
Best free
Free contact and deal tracking for two users and 1,000 contacts. The paid tiers climb quickly, so price the plan you would need before you build on it.
Price: Free; Starter $20/seat/month
Visit HubSpot CRMZoho CRM
Contacts, deals and a sales pipeline, free for up to three users. Sits well beside Zoho Books if you keep your accounts there.
Price: Free for up to 3 users
Visit Zoho CRMTwenty
An open-source CRM you can host yourself for free or use in its cloud. For a small team that wants to own its customer data outright.
Price: Free self-hosted; cloud $9/user/month
Visit TwentyHoneyBook
Proposals, contracts, invoices and payments in one client flow, for photographers, consultants and other service businesses. 30-day free trial.
Price: From $29/month, billed yearly
Visit HoneyBookCal.com
A booking page for sales calls and customer interviews that checks your calendar before offering a time. Free for one person.
Price: Free; Teams $12/user/month
Visit Cal.com
AI and automation
5 toolsUse these for drafts and repeat chores, and check every figure an assistant hands you before it goes in a price or a plan.
ChatGPT
OpenAI’s assistant for drafting copy, summarizing research and working through a pricing sum. Go costs $8 a month; Plus adds more use.
Price: Free; Plus $20/month
Visit ChatGPTClaude
Anthropic’s assistant for drafting, editing long documents and reading files you upload. Pro is $17 a month when paid yearly.
Price: Free; Pro $20/month
Visit ClaudeZapier
Our pick
Connects your apps so a form entry, sale or new subscriber sets off the next step without copying by hand. Free for 100 tasks a month.
Price: Free; Pro from $19.99/month
Visit ZapierMake
Visual automation across more than 3,000 apps, built by dragging steps into a scenario. The free plan has 1,000 credits a month and no time limit.
Price: Free: 1,000 credits/month
Visit Maken8n
Workflow automation you can self-host free as the Community edition or run in n8n’s cloud. For owners comfortable running a server.
Price: Free self-hosted; cloud from €20/month
Visit n8n