10 Free Tools for Startups — 2023 Edition

6 min readJan 4, 2023

Hello everyone,

You all had a much greater interest than I expect for the list of 10 Free Tools for Startups I prepared last year. Thousands of people have saved this list and we have received amazing comments. Since the speed of technology is racing with time, I decided that it would be more beneficial for all entrepreneurs to update this list for the new year. There are so many tools on the internet and it’s hard not to get lost in these tools while trying to make things easier. At this point, you should be selective and decide what works best for you. Here is the 2023 edition of 10 Free Tools for startups that a startup should have to reduce costs and make things more effective.

You can find last year’s list here. Remember last year’s list is still valid, these tools will definitely be a good starting point for you.

1 — ChatGPT

ChatGPT joined us at the end of 2022 and is undoubtedly the star of the year. When you learn to use this tool efficiently, it can save you an average of 5 human workforces. ChatGPT gained 1 million users in under a week. They also have a huge Discord community and you wouldn’t believe what people are doing with ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is a tool driven by AI that lets you have human-like question-and-answer sessions with a chatbot. You can also ask it to write a critique in a particular writer’s style or to debug code, among other things. Admittedly, it’s much easier than trying to find what you’re looking for on Google. People have already started to develop many applications using ChatGPT. ChatGPT is not just a chatbot, it is now a tool for creating startups.

Website: https://chat.openai.com/

2— Coggle

Coggle helps you make and share mind maps and flow charts easily. It is available as a browser extension, so you don’t need to download any additional software. Coggle enables startups to connect and chat with their team members in real-time while taking organized notes during brainstorming sessions. Plus it’s really fun to use. Colors and the easy-to-use interface help you create mindmaps efficiently.

Website: https://coggle.it/

Capterra Reviews: https://www.capterra.com/p/162678/Coggle/reviews/

3— Retable

Yes, Retable is also on this year’s list. Because it really saves my life, time and effort. Also, a lot has changed since last year about Retable. My first impression as a user of Retable is that they really have a very deep insight into customer needs and are developing everything you might need for you more and more every day. I’ve used many different online spreadsheet & collaboration tools before, but after I started using Retable, I realized how unnecessarily complicated the other tools were. Yes if you really want to save time check this out. We all are tired of unnecessary features and unfunctional interfaces.

Website: retable.io

Capterra Reviews: https://www.capterra.com/p/249010/Retable/

4— Calendly

Calendly is a scheduling tool that can simplify your meeting booking process. Calendly provides you with a Calendly link you can send to people or embed on your website. From this link, people can schedule meetings with you. You also can select your available times. Then all booked meetings will synchronise with your calendar. Before the meeting, Calendly sends reminders, and afterwards, it sends thank-you notes.

Website: https://calendly.com/

Capterra Reviews: https://www.capterra.com/p/148036/Calendly/#reviews

5 — UserGuiding

UserGuiding helps you onboard your users with product walkthroughs that don’t require any coding, allowing you to prompt the right in-app experience, to the right persona, at the right stage of their user journey. I think the best part of this is that you can create pop-ups for your users in seconds, and design onboarding stages and you don’t need to do any coding to do any of them.

Website: https://userguiding.com/

Capterra Reviews: https://www.capterra.com/p/177546/UserGuiding/reviews/

6 — Adobe Color

Branding is everything. If you are still in the branding creation phase for your startup and are trying to create a brand identity, I suggest you take a look at Adobe’s color tool. This will be a good starting point for you. After easily designing your pallets, you can easily complete the other steps of your branding.

Website: https://color.adobe.com/

7 — Microsoft Clarity

Clarity is a great alternative to Google Analytics. It’s a Microsoft product and once you start using it, you don’t even want to re-enter Google Analytics. The best part is that it shows you the video recording of everything that your users do on your website. You can easily see where your users clicked on, what they viewed, where they gave up or where they decided to use your product. It provides tremendous insight. I also plan to write longer content about this tool because it is a real lifesaver!

Website: https://clarity.microsoft.com/

Capterra Reviews: https://www.capterra.com/p/236349/Microsoft-Clarity/#reviews

8 — Clipchamp

Clipchamp is a tool that allows you to create professional marketing videos very simply and quickly. Whether you create videos from scratch or you can use templates. The best part is that it helps you quickly take screen videos and edit them directly from Clipchamp. Moreover, you can use Clipchamp directly from the browser.

Another Microsoft product. Especially a must-have tool for marketers or design teams.

Website: https://clipchamp.com/

Capterra Reviews: https://www.capterra.com/p/202357/Clipchamp/

9— Spyfu

As we all know, content is king. In order to stand out in digital, you should get ahead of your competitors in content and SEO and plan your goals in the best way. You don’t want your efforts to go to waste. Thanks to Spyfu, you can have deep insights into your competitors’ content and SEO efforts and move forward with confidence.

Website: https://www.spyfu.com/

Capterra Reviews: https://www.capterra.com/p/156579/SpyFu/reviews/

10 — Clockify

It’s a simple time tracker. Besides being simple, the great thing about Clockify is that you can create teams and projects. Thanks to the projects and teams feature, you can measure the project-specific efforts of all your teams and have deep insights to make your business plans. Moreover, it also has a mobile application.

Website: https://clockify.me/

Capterra Reviews: https://www.capterra.com/p/169607/Clockify/reviews/