Top 7 Business Apps

Great business software to work smarter, not harder. 

Running a business isn’t easy – in fact it’s a 24/7 job that can often require you to do everything from finance and accounting to HR and IT management.

Luckily there’s a growing number of amazing business-specific apps and software designed to make your life easier, and your business run better. So here are seven of the best business apps covering the essentials to help you work smarter, not harder: Antivirus and Security; Finance and Accounting; Human Resources; IT Management; Project Management and Collaboration; and last but by no means least, Sales and Marketing.

ActiveCampaign

Wouldn’t it be great to take all the aspects of email marketing and combine them into an easy-to-use platform? As luck would have it, ActiveCampaign does this – and much more. It goes way beyond a traditional email service provider, by combining a host of email and messaging features into a robust marketing automation platform that’s super user-friendly, and helps get results. With ActiveCampaign you can combine email newsletters, marketing automation, and CRM into an affordable marketing automation tool that is very easy to setup and maintain. Two features we love are Conditional Content and Event Tracking. Conditional Content allows you to dynamically alter content on an interaction-by-interaction basis, meaning you can market completely tailored messaging or product offers. With Event Tracking, data gathered enables businesses to create personalized marketing campaigns. ActiveCampaign offers a free 14-day trial. After that, prices range from $9/month to $149/month.

Asana

Need a project management solution that facilitates team communication and collaboration on projects and tasks – and that’s simple, powerful and looks great? Then you need Asana.Asana allows you to see, organize and manage tasks and priorities for your entire team, from one central hub. Users remain updated on task changes and task completions, can leave comments, give feedback, upload attachments, and set due dates: updates are collated via it’s Smart Inbox. Super flexible and multiplatform, Asana also offers a mobile app, and integrates with stacks of apps and services including: Evernote, GitHub, MailChimp, Slack WordPress and Zendesk. Supported devices and OS include: Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, Windows Phone and web-based access.This project management software uses a freemium, subscription pricing model. The Asana Basic plan is charged at $0.00 for teams of up to 15 users. You receive unlimited tasks, projects, and conversations and access to a basic dashboard. The Asana Premium plan offers much more and is billed annually at a cost of $21/month for five members, rising incrementally to $417/month for 50 members.

Avast Business Antivirus Pro

Cyberattacks on businesses of all sizes are growing daily. So, wouldn’t it be great to know you’re protected by the world’s largest threat detection network, giving advanced antivirus protection, no matter what your business needs? That’s where Avast Business Antivirus Pro comes in… It offers businesses all the great cover of Avast Business Antivirus, with the addition of powerful data and server securing capabilities. A massive name in computing security, Avast’s advanced features promise to detect and block threats faster and more reliably, than any other software AV available. Prices start at $49.99 (for one PC for one year), to $89.98 (for one PC for three years’ cover). If you’re looking to cover up to 10 PCs, this price drops down to $26.99 per PC, per year for three years’ cover ($809.80). For 15 devices or more, Avast recommends its Business Managed Antivirus solutions.

AVG Antivirus Business Edition

More than 600,000 businesses can’t be wrong! AVG Antivirus Business Edition is a packed security suite that comes with smart, cloud-based outbreak detection, which can stop ransomware, viruses, spyware, worms, root-kits and other new malware variants and outbreaks, all in real-time. With some 26 years’ experience, AVG Antivirus Business Edition delivers advanced defence for SMBs. Once installed you can relax in the knowledge that you are covered by cutting-edge endpoint security protection against emerging and persistent threats, that target business data on PCs, servers and mobile devices. Prices start at just $35.99 for a one-year subscription and $54.39 for a two-year subscription. A free trial is also available. To cover 50 or more computers, contact AVG directly via sales@avg.com.

BambooHR

BambooHR is a user-friendly HR software solution, featuring a personalized HRIS (human resource information system), which allows you to consolidate all employee and HR-related data and manage it with ease. The software can be used to build a centralized database of employee profiles, which can be accessed by any employee that has access permissions. Each profile can store personal information and a photo, as well as data including benefits, salary, time-off, documents, and training. A nice feature is that these profiles can be admin-edited, so you can add custom fields and record important data that’s unique to your company. BambooHR also scores highly for its integration with other data tools, including HiringThing, NetSuite’s ERP system, Bullseye Engagement and Small Improvements, and payroll software like TRAXPayroll and Simplepay.ca. It uses a subscription pricing model starting at $8/employee/month, with a $99 monthly minimum.

CCleaner Cloud Business

A hugely popular app from the publishers of the award-winning CCleaner for desktop, CCleaner Cloud Business makes it easy to remotely manage and maintain multiple machines – from anywhere. Ideal for businesses and organizations of all sizes, from start-ups to giants (CCleaner Cloud Business include Intel, Samsung, Staples and Princeton University, to name but a few!), it’s packed with clever solutions to to clean, optimize and speed up multiple PCs. Operate a small business? It will let you run day-to-day tasks from your desk. What’s more, if you’re the IT department or doubling as go-to office tech support, CCleaner is here to help. Enterprise-level businesses benefit massively by extending the working life of their endpoints. And if you’re a managed services provider (MSP), bringing CCleaner Cloud automation into your existing service offering, will save you time and money. Crucially, the package offers complete account security – as all data within CCleaner Cloud is encrypted to industry standards; plus it includes support from a highly trained team, dedicated to giving you the answers you need – and quickly.

Chargify

Chargify is a feature-rich subscription-based invoicing platform for SMBs (small-to-medium businesses), allowing you to automatically send invoices individually, or on recurring basis. Handy tools and features include creating an order page for customers to sign up for your product, or service, and from which they can then manage their own subscription. Thanks to the apps reporting and analytics functions, users can easily access data including website activity, signup success/failure, expiring credit cards, upgrades and opt-outs. What’s more, Chargify integrates with over 300 apps via a third-party integration service called Zapier. This lets you automatically synchronize your customers and transactions with services from the likes of Basecamp, Base CRM, BigCommerce, Evernote, Freshbooks, Mailchimp, Nimble, Quickbooks, SugarCRM, Trello, and Zoho CRM. With four price-plans to choose from, Chargify starts at just $65/month, rising to $459/month for businesses with 2,000+ customers.