Small business apps and tools

I’m often asked what I think are the “best” digital apps and tools for running a small business. So, I’ve collected my go-to apps and tools for running a small business here — all based on my personal use as a small business owner.

Some of the links provided here are referral links. I’ve marked these clearly, as using them to sign up for a paid plan with the providers could earn me a small commission. To be clear, I only provide referrals for those apps and tools I have used in my own business.

Table of Contents

Appointment Booking

Calendly logo

Calendly

I'm on the Standard plan, which costs $10 per month. This gives me access to multiple meeting types, the ability to determine my availability from multiple calendars, and the ability to take payments via Stripe or PayPal.
Even on the Free plan, Calendly offers multiple off-the-shelf integrations with other apps and tools, some customisations for booking pages, and the ability for customers to choose between meeting platforms when booking.

CalendarHero

The Free tier of CalendarHero is hard to beat for features and functionality, offering connections for multiple calendars, 3 standard meeting types, and an AI assistant to help with scheduling. Upgrading to a Professional plan for $8 per month allows you to take payments via Stripe, add more meeting types, and use a Meeting Selection algorithm to collaborate with other users to schedule meetings based on your collective availability. Meeting Directories provide the ability to create multiple booking pages, suitable for sharing with different audiences.
The inability to allow customers to choose between meeting platforms is what ultimately made me choose Calendly over CalendarHero; it's fine if you're only using one meeting platform, but it's a bit of a pain if you'd like to offer your customers a choice.

Meeting Recording and Transcription

Fireflies

Fireflies is my current meeting transcription tool of choice, with an assistant that will join Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings directly or via the Chrome extension. The mobile app (Apple and Android devices) also enables you to record and transcribe live events.
The Free Forever tier has generous transcription allowances when inviting the app directly to meetings and 800 mins of storage per seat. A Pro plan costs $18 per month ($10 per month on an annual plan) and includes unlimited transcription with 8000 mins of storage per seat plus keyword and topic tracking, smart search filters and speaker talk-time analytics. This is the plan to choose if you want to integrate with other apps like Zapier or Slack. I particularly like the feature which enables me to save my meeting summaries to Google Drive automatically.

Get 10% off all paid plans using this referral link.

Referral Link
meeting-ai

Fathom

Before I tried Fireflies, I tested Fathom and liked what I found. The Free plan features a Chrome extension and a downloadable desktop app that sits quietly in the background until you're in an online meeting. Fathom also works across Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, but a Premium plan ($19 per month or $180 annually) is needed to access the Zapier integration and the auto-generate meeting actions feature. A bonus feature of Fathom is that it can contact meeting participants in advance to ask for permission to record.
Unfortunately, as of September 2024, there isn't a mobile app, and the subscription price point is higher than its competitors.
Referral Link

Otter.ai

Otter records audio and takes notes in real time across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams and will capture screen-shared slides in context. The Otter Pilot will auto-join scheduled meetings and take notes, even if you can't join the meeting yourself, and the Chrome extension offers a way to record via the browser rather than having the bot join the meeting. Personally, I find Otter great on mobile but very frustrating in the web browser, as it freezes and crashes regularly. Otter doesn't have a desktop app, but I did find a workaround via WebCatalog that resolved my browser-based frustrations on the desktop.
The Free plan is limited to 30 minutes of recording per conversation and 5 hours per month, but this increases to 90 minutes per conversation and 20 hours per month on a Pro plan ($16.99 per month or $120 annually) and also enables you to import and transcribe up to 10 audio or video files from other sources. A Business plan ($30 per month or $240 annually) increases these allowances and also allows you to join up to 3 concurrent virtual meetings.

Get one month of Pro Lite free.
Referral Link

Projects and Task Tracking

Growth-Through-Knowledge-Clickup

ClickUp

When searching for a project management tool, I considered Asana, Monday, and Notion but eventually opted for ClickUp. The Free Forever plan is targeted at personal users and is a good way to get started. I'm pleasantly surprised by how much the Ultimate plan offers for just $7 per month; time tracking, whiteboards, video clips, and documentation using templates are all available, removing the need for me to use multiple apps for these purposes.
Referral Link

Google Tasks

When I decided to make Google my main business platform instead of Microsoft, I needed to find a replacement tool for ToDo that enabled me to track basic tasks. Many people forget about Google Tasks, especially if all you want is a simple to-do list that's optimised for your mobile device. I like to capture things on the go, and the pop-up reminders (that can be snoozed if needed) mean I'm unlikely to forget things wherever I am. Tasks also integrates with Google Calendar, so you can see your appointments, meetings and tasks all in one place.