8 Must-Have SaaS Tools for Startups

Introduction

Choosing the right SaaS tools for your startup is essential to make a difference and growing. Running a startup isn’t easy. You need to get your product off the ground, develop it into something people want and then sell it to them.

But if you’re just starting out, you might not have all the tools you need to make this happen. However, if you have the right SaaS tools on hand and know how to use them, it can be much easier.

Here are some SaaS tools every startup must have:

• Accounting
• Communication
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
• Content creation
• Project Management
• Help desk / Ticketing system
• Marketing Automation
• Analytics

Accounting

Using Accounting tools is a critical part of any business, and it needs to be done right.

There are plenty of accounting software options on the market that can help you do your accounting work more efficiently and save you time.

Many of them offer cloud-based solutions, which are especially popular with startups. Because they don’t require a hefty upfront investment in hardware or software.

Once you subscribe to an online service, all your data will be stored securely on their servers.

So that users can access them anywhere at any time – even from mobile devices!

Cloud-based services also allow startups to automate tasks like payroll processing and invoicing. So they don’t have to hire an accountant or spend hours doing these repetitive tasks themselves.

This allows founders and managers more time for other important things like growing their businesses!

Invoicing:

Stripe

Stripe has super-simple tools that make it easy to get started. You can set up your first page in minutes, and you don’t even have to wait on a bank account. You can start accepting payments right away!

FreshBooks

Freshbooks is a cloud-based accounting software. It’s great for startups because it’s simple, easy to use, and affordable.

You can do everything from billing clients to tracking expenses. Also, it can help you save time on tedious tasks like invoicing and payroll.

Freshbooks integrates with other apps like Dropbox and Google Drive.

You can also export all of your client data into a CSV file. So that you have a record of everything in case of an audit.

Payroll services:

If you have employees, payroll can be a complex task that requires specialized software or an experienced accountant. (depending on how many employees you have).

Gusto

Gusto provides payroll, benefits, and HR services to small businesses.

They’ve built their product with the needs of startups in mind. Because they know that startups are often understaffed and underfunded, and can’t afford to hire expensive consultants to help them manage payroll.

Communication

Using communication SaaS tools is necessary for staying in constant contact with your team.

Slack

Slack is one of the best communication tools for a SaaS startup. Because it’s easy to use and has a lot of great features.

It also integrates with nearly every other service you might need, which makes it very convenient.

Slack is a great option for communication.

It allows you to quickly and easily share files, images, and links with your team members.

You can also use Slack to discuss ideas, answer questions and give feedback on projects as they’re being created or revised.

Chat applications such as Slack allow teams to communicate even faster than email does. Through instant messages or group chats that are synced across devices so everyone stays up-to-date on what’s happening at all times.

Slack has become one of the most popular chat apps among SaaS companies. Because it offers both text and video support as well as integration with other services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and GitHub (for project management).

It can be used as an internal communication tool between departments within a company or between different departments within an organization working together on projects outside their own departmental boundaries.

It is especially useful if there are remote workers involved!

Sales \ CRM

Customer relationship management, or CRM, is a SaaS tool that helps you track and manage all of your customers, leads, and prospects.

With a CRM system in place, you can keep tabs on every interaction with a customer—from the first time they sign up to receive information about your product to their last call with support.

CRMs are also helpful for marketing automation. They allow you to track the performance of different campaigns so that when one isn’t working as well as others, it’s easy to identify why and tweak accordingly.

Additionally, they make it possible for multiple members of your team (whether they’re salespeople or customer service representatives) to access crucial information about each contact at any given time—meaning no more missed calls from clients who need help setting up their apps!

The best SaaS companies use CRMs so frequently throughout their operations that many don’t even think about how much time goes into manually updating spreadsheets or keeping paper files organized anymore—and neither should you!

HubSpot

HubSpot is a popular choice among companies because it provides everything from sales CRM software to marketing campaigns, enabling teams to work together seamlessly. This can make it easier for sales reps to close deals faster.

Claim you free CRM account with HubSpot.

Salesforce

Salesforce is an all-in-one solution for CRM (customer relationship management) and sales automation.

It’s a great tool for managing your leads and tracking their progress through the funnel at every stage of the buying process.

The platform also integrates with hundreds of other software solutions through its API integrations. So that you can get even more out of these tools by connecting them together in one place!

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM lets users manage their contacts, leads, and opportunities from anywhere they have an internet connection.

The platform allows users to track their sales performance through customized dashboards as well as monitor their email marketing campaigns through drag-and-drop functionality within their inboxes.

Content creation

Creating content is one of the most important tools of a SaaS company.

It can be created by anyone in your team, but you need to ensure that it is done well and on time.

This is why it’s important to have tools for content creation in place. Tools like:

Canva (for designing)

If you’re like most SaaS startups, the answer is probably: “I hire someone.” Or perhaps: “I don’t have time to design my own stuff, so I pay someone else who does.”

Canva is a great platform for creating high-quality images that you can use on your website and social media.

The tool includes hundreds of professionally designed templates, so you don’t need to hire a designer or spend hours creating images from scratch.

Wix (for creating websites)

Wix is a web development tool that allows you to create websites quickly and easily. It has an intuitive drag-and-drop builder, so building your website is as simple as moving around blocks of content.

Wix also includes templates for different types of websites (e.g. eCommerce), making it even easier to start with your project.

WordPress (for creating blogs)

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) on the web, and it’s easy to see why. It lets you run a blog or create custom websites without having to write any code.

And because it’s open source, there are many WordPress templates available for free online that you can customize and install with just a few clicks.

The best part?

It’s all hosted right in your WordPress account so you don’t have to worry about setting up an external server or paying for hosting fees!

Grammarly (to check for spelling mistakes)

Content quality is one of the key factors that can determine the success of your startup. You need to ensure that your content is error-free, persuasive, and easy to understand by all customers. A good proofreading tool will help you do precisely this!

Grammarly is a proofreading tool that helps you find grammar errors, spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, and style inconsistencies in any kind of text that you’re working on.

It also checks for plagiarism so as to make sure that your content is original and 100% unique.

As mentioned above, these are just some of the many tools that can be used for content creation.

Project management

Project management tools are important for every startup.

The purpose of these tools is to organize and manage the team’s work so that everyone knows what needs to be done and can see where they are in the process.

These SaaS tools help you keep track of the progress of each project and keep you on schedule as well as alert people about upcoming deadlines or tasks that need to be done.

There are many different types of project management tools out there, but some of the most popular ones include:

Trello

The Trello board is a great tool for startups because it allows you to keep track of everything that’s going on and who’s doing what.

It can also help you organize your ideas so that you’re not wasting time trying to remember things that have happened in the past.

Another big benefit of using Trello is its ability to connect with different people. By allowing them all to see what each other is working on at any given time.

This helps prevent miscommunication and ensures everyone stays up-to-date with what’s happening around them.

Asana

Asana is a great tool for startups because it helps you keep track of tasks, projects, and deadlines.

It’s easy to use, which means you’ll be able to get up and running right away. It also has an intuitive interface that makes it easy to understand how it works.

Asana is a great choice if you’re looking for software that will help you get organized and stay on top of things without getting bogged down in the details.

Help desk / Ticketing system

A help desk or ticketing system is one of the most important tools for any SaaS startup. It helps you manage customer support requests, track issues and prioritize them, and view all your data in one place.

In addition to that, you can use it as a customer service software where agents can log in to answer questions from customers (e.g., Zendesk).

Also, you can integrate Help desks with other tools such as CRM systems:

(HubSpot), project management tools (Asana), bug tracking software (JIRA), and more.

Zendesk

Zendesk provides support solutions for businesses ranging from small startups to large enterprises with over 200 employees using their platform every day.

It helps organizations scale their customer support operations.

While also providing tools needed by customers themselves when it comes time for them to solve issues independently (without contacting support staff directly).

Marketing

If you’re in a product-based business, then marketing automation is a must.

The main reason is that it helps you to track your audience’s behavior and make informed decisions on how to market to them.

This way, you are able to find out where they are coming from, what products they are interested in, who their friends are, and so on.

The best marketing SaaS tools for you will vary depending on your business model, but there are some staples that every SaaS startup should have:

Marketing automation

This can be an expensive tool, but the benefits of automating certain parts of your campaigns and sales process are undeniable. It allows you to focus on what matters more: building a great product and landing pages.

Marketing automation is your toolbox for keeping track of your leads, prospects, and customers.

It’s where you’ll set up automated emails and drip campaigns, as well as manage your data lists for targeted marketing outreach.

CRMs (customer relationship management software) is a good place to start with marketing automation, but there are many other platforms that cater specifically to the needs of SaaS startups—like Hubspot’s marketing suite or Pardot’s B2B platform.

Social media:

Your social media activity should be strategic and organized so that you can get the most out of each platform without spending too much time on it.

Your strategy should also consider how different audiences want to interact with your brand on each network (Facebook vs Twitter vs Instagram).

If you’re just getting started with social media, try using Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule posts in advance so they go out at optimal times during the day when people are most likely online.

Marketing automation tools:

Hubspot

Marketing automation in HubSpot allows you to break through the noise with compelling marketing campaigns, powered by real-time customer data.

ActiveCampaign

With ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation software, you can manage all of the emails in your inbox from one place, keep track of all your leads, and even send targeted emails to individuals based on their behavior.

ActiveCampaign is an excellent solution for any business that wants to save time and money while creating a more personal connection with their customers.

Once you have a tool to help keep track of your campaigns, you can start automating them with the following steps:

• Set up an email series based on user behavior – For example, if someone visits a certain page and signs up for a free trial, they’re added to an email sequence that includes tips on how to get the most out of your product (and also some gentle reminders that they should upgrade). This kind of email is personalized so it looks like it’s coming from one person rather than just being sent out randomly by some automated system at scale.
• Use drip campaigns – Drip campaigns are another way to send targeted emails over time—for example, sending monthly newsletters or sales offers based on what stage in the value chain each customer is in at any given moment (e.g., new signups vs existing customers vs inactive accounts). You can also use drip campaigns as a way of keeping track of important dates like birthdays and anniversaries: once someone signs up for something they’re likely going through their inbox regularly anyway so why not take advantage of that habit?

Analytics and Reporting

We all know that tracking your progress is essential to growing an effective SaaS startup.

Analytics are the most important tools you can use to understand how customers interact with your product and service, what they like and dislike about the experience, and where you need to improve.

In this section, we’ll go over some of the key metrics every SaaS startup should be monitoring as well as some of the more advanced analytics SaaS tools available today.

Google Analytics:

This is the most basic of all analytics tools and probably the one you already have in place.

Most people are familiar with Google Analytics and its vast amount of data available to them, like visitor statistics, how long they stay on your site and what pages they visit most often.

In addition, you can also track social media engagement through a free integration with Facebook Ads Manager or Twitter Ads. This is a great tool for beginner businesses because it’s easy to use and free!

Mixpanel:

Mixpanel was created initially as an alternative for users who wanted more advanced tracking capabilities than those provided by Google Analytics (GA).

Its main feature is that it analyzes customer behavior over time rather than just giving a snapshot of user activity at one moment in time—as GA does.

You’ll get deeper insights into how each individual user interacts with your site or product so that companies can make better decisions about their product’s features and usability over time.

Heap:

If GA is too simplistic for your needs then Heap may be perfect for tracking user behavior across multiple websites or apps at once!

It creates beautiful visualizations based on events recorded by users’ browsers which makes it easy for anyone from non-technical marketers all the way up through CTOs/CTOs/CEOs etc., without requiring extensive technical knowledge on specific coding languages like JavaScript (JS).

Choose the right SaaS tools for your startup to make a difference.

Choosing the right tools for your SaaS business is essential to make a difference and growing. A lot of companies choose the wrong tools, which slows down their growth, or worse still, hinders them from taking off in the first place. Here are some ways you can tell if the tool you are using is doing more harm than good:

You spend more time managing it than actually using it:

If your SaaS tool requires huge amounts of time and effort just to get started with it, then you probably don’t need that particular tool at all!

The whole point of a SaaS tool (Software as a Service) is that businesses can easily get started without having to invest too much time or money into getting started on their own.

It’s not integrated with other apps:

One of the biggest benefits of using SaaS tools instead of buying applications from different vendors is that they’re easy to integrate together and create seamless user experiences across multiple platforms; something which simply isn’t possible when dealing with traditional software purchases like Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Cloud where each application operates independently from one another (and often doesn’t even work well together).

Conclusion

We hope that this article has helped you better understand the SaaS tools your startup needs and why they are important.

The most important thing to remember is that although some tools may seem expensive, they can save your life later on when things get tough!

And if you already have these tools, please let us know in the comments below which ones are your favorites!