The Top 10 Digital Tools for Startups in 2024

Launching and operating a startup business can be an exciting but also very challenging undertaking. In order to be successful and grow at a sustainable pace, it typically requires various important tools that ensure you can carry out your daily workflows as efficiently as possible. However, when you have limited time and resources, it can be tricky to find the right tools for your business at an affordable price. That’s why we have created this guide covering the best digital tools for startups, ensuring new businesses have everything they need to develop and grow in a cost effective way.

Why do startups need tools?

There is so much to do and think about when starting your own business that it’s difficult to know where to start. However, when you have the right tools in place, you can get your business up and running and spend more time focusing on important matters such as making sales. Maximising efficiency and building a strong foundation for success. Many individuals believe that starting a company is too complicated. Or that it requires too much money and investment to make it work, but there are several ways that it can work, even if you don’t have many resources.

It’s important to be aware that there will always be competition no matter what industry you operate in in. Therefore, by utilising beneficial tools that support your operations, you can ensure that you’re one step ahead of your competitors without going over your budget. 

Best tools for document management

E-Sign

Effectively managing transactions and document workflows is essential to the success of a startup business. As it ensures you can meet deadlines and complete work to the highest standard. E-Sign can help you achieve this and so much more. 

An industry leading electronic signature and digital document solution, E-Sign is designed to support businesses of all sizes with their document requirements through its secure advanced electronic signatures, and bespoke plans that are tailored to meet the specific needs of each business. With a range of plans available depending on the requirements for your business, it is an affordable platform for startups. E-Sign is powerful tool that helps optimise document management and allow the completion of seamless transactions, all within your budget. 

In addition to sending digital documents for eSignature and securely storing completed documents, there are many other useful features that E-Sign can provide depending on your business needs. For example, you can add your own document templates or use E-Sign’s pre-built templates to save time on your transactions. Also, there are multiple options for identity verification such as multi-factor authentication and password protection. 

Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft SharePoint is another useful tool for document management, with many features that allow startups to effectively share and manage important documents. SharePoint makes teamwork simple through its user-friendly interface where you can quickly find information you need and share it with relevant staff members, enabling seamless collaboration across the business.

Through SharePoint you can have productive team sites for every team, department, and division, which supports the sustainable growth of your startup. Also, you have the ability to customise your site to streamline your team’s work, maximising productivity. SharePoint can be used effortlessly and securely across different devices, ensuring easy document management with relevant individuals inside and outside of your business.

To streamline your document management processes further, E-Sign has an integration with Microsoft SharePoint, supporting efficient and secure transactions.

Best tools for project management

Trello

Communication, collaboration, and project management are the cornerstone of any business, especially startups. Trello is a flexible and easy to use project management software that provides users with a visual representation of their tasks and projects, as well as how you can manage them effectively with your team. 

With Trello’s simple layout and user-friendly functionality, everyone in your team can know where every other person is up to on certain tasks, and how much progress has been made. As a result, you can ensure that all your team members are on the same page and can easily collaborate. Which in turn avoids miscommunications and potential delays on completing projects. 

One of the biggest benefits of Trello for startups is, depending on your needs, it can be completely free. The generous free plan offers 10 boards per workspace and unlimited users. Meaning you can effectively manage your workloads and maximise accuracy in your projects without needing to spend a penny.

Asana

Whilst Trello is typically considered to be the best project management software for visual management of projects, Asana is often regarded as the best for teams. Asana is a highly adaptable platform, especially between projects and users. Other useful features include a focused and well laid out ‘My Tasks’ view, and an improved to-do list style with team features.

It’s a project management tool that enables you to break projects down into sections and sub-lists, alongside dashboards. So you can see how much of the project has been completed. Similar to if you were using a to-do list app, Asana lets you add, rearrange, and complete tasks. But you have the added benefit of collaboration and organisation features required for effective teamwork. Asana is also a free platform, however the upgraded software is quite expensive. Which is an important consideration for startups on a strict budget.

Best web design tools

WordPress

WordPress is often regarded as the best web design tool for beginners, making it the ideal choice for startups and those who are new to having a business website. It’s a platform that is designed with user-friendly functionality in mind. It’s easy to install and use, and even has several pre-built website templates to help you get started if you don’t know exactly how you want your website to look straight away. 

Additionally, WordPress has many free add-ons available to download and install in just a few clicks. This significantly simplifies the process of customising your website, without requiring any technical knowledge of coding to achieve it. WordPress is a flexible and simple CMS to use, providing startups with a quick way to get a website launched without compromising on the quality of the site. Having a professional looking and reliable website is key for marketing your business and generating new leads.

Wix

Wix is a strong all-rounder when it comes to web design tools. It has many useful features for startups including a wide range of visually appealing templates. With the added benefit of being one of the more cost effective platforms on the market. Along with WordPress, Wix is one of the most popular online website designers for beginners and professionals alike. 

It has the appeal of no coding being needed, an easy to use interface, and for startups who aren’t sure about how they want their website to function initially, there is a free version of the platform. However, the free version has limited capabilities. So if you quickly find that you cannot achieve what you’d like due to being restricted with features, you may have to upgrade to a paid plan. This can still be a good option for startups. But it will be more cost effective to start with the free plan first.

Best CRM tools

HubSpot

HubSpot is a well-known name in the CRM market and for good reason. Considered to be one of the best tools for building a content-rich business website, HubSpot is an all in one platform. With features that cover sales, marketing, customer service, and more. 

One of the main ways in which HubSpot is different from other CRM tools is that you can create your business website and manage your content marketing workflows in the CMS Hub. The advanced features can also scale with your business. So as your startup grows you can incorporate other functionality that better meets the needs of your processes. It’s an easy to use system even if you don’t have any prior experience with a CRM platform.

If you’re looking to manage your sales and marketing even more effectively with HubSpot, you can use the E-Sign and HubSpot integration.

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is an excellent option for small businesses and startups aiming to grow. It leverages advanced AI and offers a comprehensive suite of features to enhance customer relationship management for emerging businesses. Beyond sales, Zoho CRM also provides email marketing tools and a company activity feed. This is designed to boost communication and collaboration among different teams.

One of Zoho CRM’s key advantages is its seamless integration with various other platforms. Allowing you to build a robust digital ecosystem tailored to your startup’s needs. Zoho offers a generous free plan along with affordable paid options, enabling you to scale your plan up or down as your budget evolves to meet your business demands.

E-Sign can be integrated with Zoho to further streamline your sales document management, learn more about this integration here.

Best tools for digital payments

PayPal

PayPal is often considered to be the best payment gateway for new and first-time users, making it the best option for startups. It is a highly regarded and trusted platform that is known for its ease of use, for both businesses and customers. There are many customisation options that suit different business structures, including subscription-based businesses. Which can maximise features like arranging trial periods, billing cycle length, and one time setup fees. 

Extra security measures with PayPal include fraud protection, which keeps your business safe from credit card fraud, and customer protection. This allows shoppers to file claims if there’s a disparity between the product being advertised and what they actually received. PayPal has various interesting extras to offer, providing useful functionality for startup businesses.

If you’re looking to optimise your digital payments even further, E-Sign has an integration with PayPal which you can learn more about here.

Stripe

Stripe is another well known name in the payment processing market, largely due to its flexibility for businesses and the range of tools it provides. Despite it being a very in-depth platform that many developers often use, it is also good for beginners and startups too. This is because the system has an implementation wizard that allows you to choose how you want to implement it in your shop by answering some questions.

The outcome of this will include a comprehensive guide to assist users who may not be familiar with coding. Making it easy to copy and paste the necessary code into the correct sections of your website. Stripe offers a wide array of features suitable for users of all skill levels, such as tax automation, subscription tools that enable cross-selling, and native integrations with website builders and eCommerce platforms.

E-Sign can be integrated with Stripe to make your digital payments even simpler, learn more here.

Conclusion

There are many useful and affordable tools out there for startup businesses, with some even offering free trials and plans that make it even easier to get set up, and ensure your processes are operating efficiently. You can get started with E-Sign by registering for our 14-day free trial, which will allow you to try the features and functionality of the platform and see how it can work for your startup business. 

If you have any specific requirements for your digital solution don’t hesitate to contact us. Our digital transformation team is on hand to support you and provide a tailored plan that meets your document needs.