15 best small business apps to stay ahead in 2025

Website link: https://www.zoom.com/en/small-business/workplace/

Zoom is a tool that provides leading communication and productivity solutions for small businesses with limited resources. As an AI-first platform, Zoom helps simplify your day-to-day workflows, giving you time back to focus on growing your business. Plus, Zoom’s user-friendly design makes it accessible for businesses with limited IT resources. 

Zoom goes far beyond video — with chat, phone, a collaborative whiteboard, and more, you’ll have a full productivity solution. 

• AI Companion: Generate meeting summaries, draft messages, and get real-time meeting assistance, freeing you to focus on more strategic tasks for your business.
• Centralized admin portal: Admins and owners can manage user accounts, access and permissions, and settings and features in one place.*
• Video conferencing: These aren’t yesterday’s basic video meetings. With Zoom, you can run meetings, record and share video after the fact, set up collaborative whiteboards, and create shared documents that transform meeting information into actionable plans, wikis, and projects.
• VoIP phone: Zoom leverages AI to bring you a powerful VoIP phone service, built with enterprise-grade uptime and security in mind.*
• Team Chat: Your team can communicate how they want when they want with instant messaging that’s simple to deploy and use. Plus, AI features help compose content and generate summaries of long chat threads.
• Workflow Automation: Automate routine tasks, develop tailored workflows suited to your specific team’s needs, and connect with third-party systems.*
• Automated task tracking: Turn conversations and meeting action items into trackable tasks, assign owners, set due dates, and follow up with ease with Zoom Tasks.

*Some features are only available with certain licenses or add-ons.

Website link: here

Google Workspace is Google’s cloud-based document sharing, storing, and collaboration platform. You can manage and edit documents in real time, access file history, and set up unique access control for each document. This means small business teams can work together easily without needing expensive or complex IT setups.

Plus, it’s cost-effective. There is a free plan available for up to 15GB of storage, and if you need more space, paid plans start at $7.00 per month. Users appreciate the easy-to-use interface and the collaboration features, but free storage is limited compared to some competitors. 

Website link: here

Evernote is an AI-powered note-taking and task management app you can use via mobile, desktop, and browser. It syncs across devices and lets you keep track of notes in organized “notebooks.” You can also scan and digitize documents from outside Evernote. All of this lets you keep information in one place and run your business in a lean way. 

The search functionality is helpful for finding past information, and users tend to like the organizational capabilities. However, while the free plan is nice, it comes with limited features compared to the paid plans.

Website link: here

Canva helps you create visual designs for branding and marketing. With pre-made templates for various use cases (social media, presentations, and flyers, for example) and a drag-and-drop interface, Canva makes it possible for anyone, even those without design experience, to create graphics and visuals. It’s also possible for teams to collaborate on designs. 

Compared to professional design software, Canva is a much more affordable option for small businesses. That said, some of the templates are only usable with a premium plan.

Website link: here

Gusto is a great option for small businesses looking to automate payroll and benefits for their company, as it handles several aspects of HR in one. You can manage payroll, including automated tax filing, as well as employee benefits and onboarding processes. Gusto also tracks paid time off (PTO) and helps your business stay in compliance with relevant regulations. 

While Gusto can be a useful all-in-one solution for HR and payroll, it may be too costly for small businesses that are just getting started or not yet turning a profit.

Website link: here

Wave offers a variety of plans to meet every business’s needs. For small businesses, Wave’s free starter plan is great. It includes free invoicing and accounting, and you can add on additional features as you need them, like payroll, which starts at $20 per month. 

SMBs looking for accounting software may find what they need with Wave, but those looking for an inexpensive all-in-one solution may find the additional cost for payroll processing prohibitive. 

Website link: here

Expensify helps businesses manage their expenses and process reimbursements. You can leverage smart receipt scanning to track and categorize expenses, and Expensify offers an automated reimbursement system so you can reduce missed or inaccurate reimbursements. It’s also possible to integrate with accounting software to keep everything connected. 

With smart features that automate parts of the process, you can save time and work more efficiently — a must for any small business. However, not all features are available with the free plan option.

Website link: here

Intuit QuickBooks is a robust system offering accounting solutions including invoicing, tax calculation, and financial reporting. You can also use QuickBooks to handle payroll processing and expense tracking. As a cloud-based solution, it can be accessed and used from anywhere, which can be especially helpful for small businesses that are frequently on the go or remote. 

While it comes with a wide range of features, new users may need a bit of time to get fully up to speed, but once they do, QuickBooks becomes a powerful tool for streamlining day-to-day financial operations.

Website link: here

If you’ve ever tapped your card to make a purchase at a small business, chances are you’ve seen Square in action. While it’s often used for its point of sale (POS) features, Square also helps businesses with payment processing. There are additional features for inventory management and customer management.

Square works especially well for retail businesses, and because there’s a free option for basic services, it’s an affordable choice for small businesses. However, payment processing fees can add up over time.

Website link: here

Asana is a project management software that helps you set up and assign tasks and track progress over time. Set up task due dates and owners, then keep track with flexible project views based on your business needs. You can also automate workflows within Asana, keeping projects moving smoothly. 

Users appreciate the simple-to-use interface and the fact that Asana integrates with third-party business tools. There’s a free starter option, but some advanced features require a paid plan.

Website link: here

Basecamp is a project management system that blends a calendar, task list, project board, and detailed project views. You can share documents, collaborate on projects, and message about updates or questions. 

There are a variety of plans to choose from, starting with a free plan that allows a team to work on a single project at a time — great for small businesses that are just getting started. The basic features are the same with every plan, but higher price points allow for more advanced features.

Website link: here

Trello lets you manage projects using Kanban board-style cards. As you finalize tasks, you can drag and drop cards to another part of the workflow to keep everything running in order. Workflows can also be customized to meet each small business’s unique project needs.

The free plan allows up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per workspace. For those who want more automation or more users, there are a variety of paid plan options.

Website link: here

Zoho Projects offers you the ability to manage tasks, create Gantt charts, and pull project reports. The free plan allows you to create and manage three projects along with whiteboarding and document storage, but the paid plans provide more robust features like project templates and time tracking. 

Those who use other Zoho tools for their business will appreciate its ability to integrate with systems like Zoho CRM, making it easier to manage customer relationships. 

While the free plan is somewhat limited compared to other tools, the paid plans are fairly affordable.

Website link: here

HubSpot offers several “hubs” to help businesses meet their needs, including marketing, sales, content, and commerce. 

There is quite a robust suite of free features, like email marketing, automation, team email, limited chatbots, and email reply tracking, making it an affordable choice for small businesses with a limited budget. You can also generate personal meeting links and email templates and share documents. 

While the free features have a lot to offer, HubSpot increases in price as you add more features and build out the hubs.

Website link: here

With monday.com, teams can customize their own unique workflows for project tracking and collaboration, no coding prowess required (so you don’t have to worry about hiring IT staff right away). There are features to help track project progress in real time, as well as the ability to get an at-a-glance overview. No-code automations help teams enhance their efficiency with automatic email updates, task assignment, and reminders. 

Additionally, monday.com integrates with over 200 popular apps, including Gmail, Slack, and Microsoft tools. While the free plan allows for a decent amount of customization, it takes a paid plan to truly be able to dig in.