Everything here is something I actually use or have used, organised by what you'd reach for it to do, not by category for its own sake. Free tier notes are checked as of July 2026, software pricing changes, so treat these as a starting point and check before you commit if it matters.
Full CRM free forever, paid tiers add marketing and automation.
Forever-free edition, no card needed, leads/deals/reporting included.
CRM built inside Gmail, 500 contacts free, but locked to one user.
Enterprise-grade CRM and ops platform, trial only, no free tier.
500 sends a month free, the tool this site's own newsletter runs on.
Similar free limits to Mailchimp, stronger for ecommerce flows.
One of the more generous free tiers for a small founder list.
Enterprise email and SMS automation, no meaningful free tier.
Connects your other tools together, free plan covers light, single-step automations.
Self-hosted, free forever, you pay only for hosting.
What this site runs on, drag-and-drop hosting with free forms built in.
Visual website builder, free plan is enough for a simple one-page site.
Simple one-page sites, free plan is permanent and covers the core features, just with Carrd branding.
AI app and site builder, describe what you want and it builds it.
The standard for ecommerce, no ongoing free tier.
Open source, self-hosted, Adobe Commerce is the paid enterprise version.
Google's own analytics and search performance tools, no cost.
Google's free reporting and dashboard tool, pulls from GA4 directly.
Powerful but mostly paid, free account gives a handful of searches a day.
Local SEO tracking and citations, no ongoing free tier.
Free to build reports on your own machine, sharing needs a paid licence.
What built this entire toolkit, free tier is enough to get started.
AI search engine, advanced/Pro search is capped on the free plan.
Worth having alongside Claude, useful for comparing outputs.
Prospect data and enrichment, free plan covers light lookup use.
Open source alternative to Zapier, free to self-host, paid if you want their cloud.
Meeting transcription and notes, free plan is enough for occasional use.
Logos, social graphics, favicons, one account covers most visual needs.
The free-tier alternative to full Creative Cloud, which has no free plan.
Colour palette generator, hit the spacebar for new combinations.
Turns an image, text or emoji into a full favicon package.
Free web fonts, pair a heading and body font in minutes.
Video editing, the free plan covers most day-to-day social editing.
Quick screen recordings, great for demos and async explainers.
Edit audio and video by editing the transcript, genuinely time-saving.
AI-built slide decks and one-pagers, free exports carry Gamma branding.
AI voice generation, free tier is for testing only, not for published content.
AI avatar video, free tier is enough to trial, not to produce regularly.
Another AI voice option alongside ElevenLabs, worth comparing both.
Social scheduling, the free plan covers a solo founder's core channels.
Worth knowing before you budget for it, the free tier no longer exists.
Another scheduling option, worth comparing against Buffer.
Organic LinkedIn use is free, the ad platform itself is pay-per-campaign.
Same principle, organic is free, the ads manager is pay-per-campaign.
Docs, wikis and light project tracking in one place, 10 guests on the free plan.
Unlimited tasks and projects on the free plan, list/board/calendar views.
Simple board-based task tracking, unlimited cards on the free plan.
The most generous free tier of the project tools here.
Unlimited public and private repos on the free plan, useful even beyond code.
Freelance marketplaces, free to browse and hire, fees apply on transactions.
If you'd like to share any recommendations for others, please let us know and we can add them to the list.