Productivity is a measure of efficiency. It is the ratio of actual output to what is required to produce it. For businesses, productivity is vital because providing more goods and services to consumers translates to more profits.
As a business owner, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, as if you were being pulled in many different directions all at once. That’s understandable, though, because you are not only in charge of day-to-day operations but any other issues that arise throughout the day in your business. Thankfully, there are a growing number of productivity apps that can help simplify your work and personal life. Productivity apps help you streamline operations, manage business expenses, and ease communication with employees. Wherever there is a task to be done, there is a
productivity app that can help you do it more efficiently. Meanwhile, as a project manager or participant, productivity apps allow you to do things like managing your calendar, creating presentations, and even scheduling your social media posts.
But what app should you use?
Picking the right app is like searching for the needle in a haystack. We save you from all this trouble. We made a
free business apps comparison among the dozens of them floating the net. So why keep scratching your head looking for the best one when we did all the head-scratching for you? Here we handpicked the 10 best free business apps to help you achieve and retain your productivity. If you’re looking for apps for your to-do lists, managing a project, online payment, or even accounting software, you’re at the right place. We have you covered. Shall we begin?
Best Free Business Apps in 2021 to Increase Productivity
1. Evernote
Where does productivity begin? Idea. The inception of an idea doesn't know place and time. Thus, it is important to not let any idea (when it comes to you) slip by. It should be noted. Evernote helps you do just that. With this free business app, you can save links, pictures, screenshots, articles, travel documents, and even sections of a write-up. It also comes with task-listing and archiving functionalities for easy accessibility. No more missing out on important information or tasks with Evernote’s reminder and email alert option!
2. RescueTime
RescueTime stands up to its name – it rescues you from wasting time, i.e., helping you stay on track. It has a central dashboard that can be set to daily, weekly, or yearly to make you track time spent both online and offline. Stay on top of your game by monitoring your goals through weekly email reports, the goals report itself, or simply through the dashboard. To keep your motivation up, this free app lets you create alerts and notifications for goals reached. And here’s the coolest thing: RescueTime can block out access to distracting websites during a certain time period so you can stay focused instead of wandering off to unproductive activities.
3. Canva
Designing is an integral part of visual communication, and graphic designers go through multiple hurdles throughout the day to come up with an impressive piece of art. Good thing there’s Canva. This platform provides an easy graphics design solution to teams. With its diverse set of designing features, Canva empowers users to create professional designs in just a few minutes. It’s a perfect tool for beginners who aren’t inclined yet to advanced graphic design, as it comes with a wide array of images, fonts, and templates to help you build designs from scratch.
Having more than 9 million organizations using it, Bitrix24 is one of the free business apps you need if you don’t want the information to fall through the cracks. Bitrix24 is a versatile platform that takes collaboration seriously. Here you can collaborate with your team instantly, minus any fear of missing out. Aside from just mere communication, you can also create tasks using its many available templates, choose a deadline, assign roles and responsibilities for your members, attach files and pictures in the description, and then work collaboratively. What’s more, all these tasks and projects are available in lists, Gantt charts, and the good ole Kanban boards! Bitrix24 has a feature that allows you to cross-integrate platforms for all company tools. This means that you can add tasks to emails and email to tasks. Thus, chat messages can be turned into tasks. Cool, right? This free business app integrates CRM and calendar events. Schedule events with your clients and have them listed automatically in your calendar. Need to call your colleague? Include a meeting and mention the task you want to discuss. Plus, you can voice or video call from within the platform with any of your team members, and if the need arises, you can even share screens. Manage projects and teams easily! All of these features are for free. It’s an absolute must-try if you haven’t yet.
5. Trello
Trello is one of the first free business apps that pop into mind whenever task management is in question. With its easy-to-use design, Trello helps you optimize your work by breaking it down into respective categories of progress they’re currently in. This is done through customizable Kanban boards. The boards can be shared, and you can invite your team to collaborate on your project progress over time. However, if you’re looking for an advanced task management solution, Trello might not be that suitable for you. But if what you're looking for are just the essentials for effectively tracking your team performance, Trello is a great choice. It has customizable cards within boards that act as subtasks, which can be freely moved from one category to another to visualize the workflow and take appropriate decisions on further actions.
6. Buffer
If you are active on social media or your business includes a social media presence, you need Buffer. Buffer is primarily designed to help you manage social media. This free business app lets you share content through multiple social networking sites and stay connected to all your accounts. It can likewise facilitate scheduling your social media posts. Plus, it also comes with advanced data analytics that helps you assess the effectiveness of posts and efficiently carry out community management.
7. Zapier
We’ve all been there: finding ourselves working on more than one application to get things done, hopping from one app to another. And this usually results in frustration and decreased productivity. But not anymore. At least, not with Zapier. It Integrates and automates the applications that you use daily to provide a streamlined user experience. This free business app connects your applications and creates workflows (known as Zaps) to keep your focus on important things. By creating a Zap, Zapier essentially works on a cause-and-effect premise. You set up an action that is repeated whenever a specific “trigger” happens. For instance, you can get a Slack notification every time you receive an email in Gmail. You just have to create a Zap once, and the app will automatically repeat it without any need for further actions.
8. PayPal
You might be wondering why it’s still the best free business app in 2021. It turns out there’s still nothing that can beat our good online payment pal, Paypal. Because of its no-BS, just easy-to-use feature, PayPal has become the ubiquitous payment portal for many online businesses. Yes, even in 2021. PayPal has made integration into payment gateways simple for major e-commerce platforms, often requiring just a couple of clicks and an email address. It can even be used as a standalone service for taking individual payments from clients. You can just paste a payment button code into an email, and then there the money goes! The real plus with PayPal is that it has a service option for just about anyone. It’s no surprise why PayPal has become the go-to option for a lot of businesses.
9. Wave
Accounting doesn’t have to be pesky. Wave offers a vast number of impressive features for free – and they’re free forever. It allows you to manage accounts receivable, generate financial statements, and connect an unlimited amount of credit cards and bank accounts. Not only does Wave make it easy to send invoices, but it also makes it seamless to take control over your whole invoicing cycle by allowing you to schedule reminders, record payments, and send receipts. Moreover, recurring invoices will never be that routinary again. With Wave, you can just automate that. You can even choose a time zone when setting the recurring schedule so your customers can receive their invoices at the optimal time no matter where they are.
10. Hubstaff Task
Built with Agile in mind, Hubstaff Tasks offers teams a smarter way to work.
Using the good ole Kanban boards, this app helps teams organize projects and accomplish tasks with efficiency.
Its Sprints feature streamlines prioritizing tasks and beating deadlines so you can easily stay on top of work and keep projects moving forward.
Also, Hubstaff Tasks allows you to customize workflows. Assign tasks to team members and move tasks to the next project stage in just one click.
This free business app’s intuitive interface makes it easy to familiarize with.