Native cloud software is here to stay, and a surprisingly large number of software as a service (SaaS) offerings are free. Free SaaS applications can be invaluable, especially if you need to solve a problem in a hurry. In fact, many free SaaS applications are outstanding tools to increase productivity, address business challenges, and make it easier to work remotely, which is extremely useful with more employees working from home thanks to the coronavirus.
There are free SaaS solutions for almost every business need. We have collected a few of the most popular SaaS tools with free offers:
Business Tools
- Atlassian — Atlassian offers agile team management tools, and the company is making its cloud products available for free during the COVID-19 crisis.
- Bill.com — Anyone can open a free account with Bill.com to handle invoices and track receivables remotely.
- Breezy — For help with recruiting, Breezy is an online candidate management tool that does it all, from posting open jobs to interviewing candidates, including team collaboration and analytics. It’s available for a free trial.
- Zenefits — If your office is closed and your employees are working remotely, Zenefits is offering free payroll services for one year.
Communications Tools
- 8x8 — If you are looking for a telecommunications solution, 8x8 offers free videoconferencing for registered users, which can be valuable for on-the-fly conferences during the pandemic.
- Loom — If you need to create and share video recordings, Loom is a great tool that works as a desktop app or from your browser to record and store videos you can post online or share with others.
- Microsoft — As part of Microsoft 365, the company is offering Microsoft Teams for free with chat, videoconferencing, and video calling.
- Google — To help users during the pandemic, Google is extending free access to its Google Meet videoconferencing platform through Sept. 30.
- Cisco WebEx — WebEx is a well-established remote meeting platform for business, and Cisco is offering free videoconferencing to users.
- Slack — One of the most popular collaboration platforms is Slack, which helps you organize email, files, notes, tools, and other data into easy-to-use channels. Slack is offering a free trial and free upgrades during the pandemic.
- Zoom — If any company has benefited the most from the pandemic, it has to be Zoom. Zoom has become one of the most popular platforms for online meetings and video calls for at-home workers, and Zoom is offering free Meetings licenses.
Computing Tools
- Kaspersky — If you are concerned about virus protection or want to see if your home computer is infected, Kaspersky is offering Kaspersky Security Cloud for free, as well as other antivirus tools that are available for a free 30-day trial.
- PagerDuty — Even when your office is closed, you still need to keep your systems operational. PagerDuty offers automated incident response services with a 14-day free trial and an extended 20 free PagerDuty Team licenses to healthcare organizations combating the COVID-19 epidemic.
- Trustwave — To help keep remote workers secure while working online, Trustwave is offering its Trustwave Security Colony cybersecurity resources free of charge.
Marketing Tools
- Mailchimp — To help get you started with direct marketing, Mailchimp is offering a free version that provides surveys, basic email templates, seven marketing channels, and more.
- Moz Academy — If you are looking for free tools to sharpen your SEO and online marketing skills, be sure to check out Moz Academy.
- SurveyMonkey — To support your sales and marketing program, you can use basic SurveyMonkey polling services for free.
- Ubersuggest — Offered by online marketing whiz Neil Patel, Ubersuggest is a great tool for SEO and keyword analysis, and Patel is making Ubersuggest “more free” to help small businesses during the pandemic.
Productivity tools
- Dropbox — For online file sharing and remote file storage and access, Dropbox is offering a free account with 2 gigabytes of storage.
- DocuSign — One of the challenges created by the pandemic has been signing contracts and executing written agreements. Rather than shipping paper back and forth or risking infection with signing meetings, DocuSign offers free, secure signing of PDF documents.
- LogMeIn — For remote workers and remote support, LogMeIn provides secure remote access to your computer from any location. LogMeIn is providing Emergency Remote Work Kits free for three months during the pandemic.
- ServiceNow — ServiceNow offers online workflow tools and, to help businesses cope with the pandemic, they are offering emergency response apps at no charge.
- XANT — Playbooks is XANT’s online sales engagement platform, and to help companies with revenue generation and retention, it is offering a no-cost program that provides Playbooks to businesses to help sales professionals work from home.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted operations everywhere, leaving businesses scrambling to find new solutions to promote work-at-home productivity, generate new sales, and ensure customer retention.
In addition to free SaaS services, smart businesses are also outsourcing to Sales-as-a-ServiceⓇ providers that already have the tools in place and are prepared to help their customers build their businesses during the pandemic.
MarketStar, for example, already has a support team in place to assist with sales, customer retention, Customer Success, training and more. And MarketStar has sales tech stack tools in place so you don’t have to look for new solutions to support sales and remote productivity.
Free SaaS solutions can help your team stay connected and productive during the coronavirus pandemic. However, many of those SaaS solutions won’t be free forever. Many companies are looking at making work-from-home a permanent solution, and smart managers are looking for sustainable tools and outsourced resources to continue to build their business during the pandemic and beyond.
