When you’re running a start-up budgets are tight. Many start-ups immediately start signing up all sorts of SaaS subscriptions. While each one may only be a few hundred dollars per month, these start adding up quickly and suddenly your burn rate is getting faster and faster.
Try the options below to keep your run rate low but your productivity maximized.
1. Google Analytics
Instead of: Adobe, Mixpanel
The most comprehensive analytics tool out there that’s 100% free. The simple connectivity to Tag Manager and Google Ads also saves you time and headaches. You can also implement Firebase for in-app tracking to understand cross-device behavior.
2. Google Tag Manager
Instead of: Optimizely
One of the most flexible tools a start-up can have for optimizing and testing their website without the outrageous prices of products like Optimizely. This also empowers your product and marketing team while reducing the load on developers for simple tasks.
3. MailChimp
Instead of: Constant Contact, SendGrid
While your audience is still small, MailChimp offers the option to start up an email strategy that is user-friendly even for those who are non-technical.
4. Skype
Instead of: Slack
While Slack and similar products are gaining popularity, Skype actually has many of the same features, but for free. It can be used for creating chat rooms for your team and makes it simple to also hop on a VOIP call or video chat.
5. GIMP
Instead of: Photoshop, Sketch
For those who are not quite ready for Photoshop or another, expensive alternative, GIMP is free software that gives the ability to create top-quality images. There may be a learning curve, depending on your design experience, but the functionality is all there.
6. Jing
This simple tool lets you create screenshots and videos with a click or two. You can then also share those videos with teammates. This is particularly helpful with QA and website testing to help explain an issue with a 10 second video instead of a 400-word email.
7. Sejda
Instead of: Adobe, Docusign
Editing and signing PDFs would seem like a simple and easy process. If you don’t use Adobe, Docusign or something similar you may not feel that way. If you do use them, you know that their prices can be shockingly high. Sejda is an extremely simple and straightforward tool that lets you upload, edit and download your PDF in a few seconds.
8. Top Tracker
For those that need to track time for clients or for internal purposes Top Tracker is a perfectly simple tool that has everything you need and nothing else. You can use the built-in timer for start/stop while you work on projects or manually add your time to your various tasks and projects.
9. ClickUp
Instead of: Basecamp,
Project management for development is time consuming and complicated. Some of the tracking tools out there are great, but most have huge subscription costs or are extremely time consuming to setup and maintain. ClickUp has all of the basic features you’d want and is simple to customize for your startup.
10. Freedcamp
Instead of: Trello, Outlook
For a personal project management tool, many people lean on Trello or similar products. Freedcamp has many more features than Trello while maintaining a simple and easy to use UI that doesn’t require a lot of time to setup and customize for your projects.