A marketing stack for a small business
A small business usually needs to be found, to capture the people who show up, and to follow up. This stack starts with a CRM and email to keep contacts and stay in touch, adds social and a page to attract visitors, and chat and call tracking to see which marketing leads to real enquiries. Tools tagged for small business come first.
Only tools whose pricing we verified against the vendor's own site are shown. Each has a free plan or a paid plan starting at $50 a month or less. Tools tagged for this audience come first. After that, free plans come first, then the lowest starting price. This is a starting list, not a ranking of the best.
1. Keep every lead and customer in one place
Tool type: CRM. Per-user pricing grows with your team.
- Bigin by Zoho CRMFree plan · from $7/mo
Simple CRM for small businesses with a free single-user plan and paid plans from $7 per user a month.
Best for a simple, low-cost CRM for small businesses, free for one user.
- EngageBayFree plan · from $12.74/mo
All-in-one CRM, marketing and service suite with a free plan and free migration.
Best for an all-in-one CRM, marketing and helpdesk suite with free migration.
- CapsuleFree plan · from $18/mo
CRM with a free plan for 2 users and paid plans from $18 per user a month.
Best for small teams that want a free CRM plan for 2 users.
2. Stay in touch with customers
Tool type: Email marketing. Compare prices at your list size.
- BrevoFree plan · from $8.08/mo
Email, SMS, and CRM in one platform.
Best for email, SMS and CRM in one platform, with a free plan.
- MailerLiteFree plan · from $10.80/mo
Email marketing for small businesses and creators.
Best for email marketing for small businesses and creators, with a free plan.
- MailchimpFree plan · from $13/mo
Email marketing and audience management.
Best for basic email marketing, with a free plan for small lists.
3. Post regularly without the daily effort
Tool type: Social media management. Check the number of social profiles included.
- PublerFree plan · from $4/mo
Social media scheduling with a free plan and paid plans priced per social account.
Best for scheduling priced per social account, with a free plan.
- BufferFree plan · from $5/mo
Social media scheduling and analytics for small teams and creators.
Best for small teams and creators scheduling social posts.
- SocialPilotfrom $17/mo
Social media scheduling for small teams and agencies, from $17 a month billed yearly.
Best for small teams and agencies scheduling across many accounts.
4. Give each campaign a page that converts
Tool type: Landing page builders. Check forms and integrations.
- Leadpagesfrom $8/mo
Landing pages and lead capture for small businesses.
Best for small businesses building landing pages and capturing leads.
- FramerFree plan · from $10/mo
Website and landing page builder with a free plan and paid plans from $10 a month billed yearly.
Best for designing marketing sites and landing pages visually, with a free plan.
- StrikinglyFree plan · from $16/mo
Simple website and landing page builder with a free forever plan and Pro from $16 a month billed yearly.
Best for simple one-page sites with a free forever plan.
5. Answer visitors and capture leads
Tool type: Chat and chatbots. Check whether pricing is per agent or per conversation.
- Tidiofrom $24.17/mo
Live chat and AI chatbot for small businesses and online stores.
Best for live chat and an AI chatbot for small businesses and online stores.
- Zoho SalesIQFree plan · from $7/mo
Live chat and visitor tracking with a free plan for 3 operators, from $7 per operator a month.
Best for live chat with visitor tracking, free for 3 operators.
- ManychatFree plan · from $14/mo
Chat marketing automation for Instagram, WhatsApp and more, with a free plan for 25 contacts.
Best for automating Instagram and WhatsApp conversations, with a free plan.
6. See which marketing makes the phone ring
Tool type: Call tracking. Add usage fees to the base price.
- NimbataFree plan · from $35/mo
Call tracking priced per answered call, not per minute, with a free Entry plan.
Best for call tracking priced per answered call, not per minute.
- AvidTrakfrom $15/mo
Call tracking from $15 a month with dynamic number insertion and keyword-level attribution.
Best for call tracking from $15 a month with keyword-level attribution.
- Convirzafrom $29/mo
Call tracking and conversation analytics from $29 a month, with unlimited phone leads tracked.
Best for call tracking with unlimited leads tracked from $29 a month.
7. Understand your traffic
Tool type: Web analytics. Check the pageview limit.
- Simple AnalyticsFree plan · from $20/mo
Privacy-friendly web analytics, EU-hosted, with a free hobby plan.
Best for privacy-friendly, EU-hosted analytics.
- UmamiFree plan · from $20/mo
Simple, privacy-focused web analytics with a free Hobby plan and $20 a month Pro.
Best for simple privacy-focused analytics with a free Hobby plan.
- StatsigFree plan · from $150/mo
Experimentation, feature flags and product analytics in one platform, free up to 2M events a month.
Best for experiments, feature flags and analytics in one platform, free to 2M events.
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More guides: Free marketing tools to start with · A marketing stack for creators · A marketing stack for an online store · Tools for marketing agencies · How to track a marketing campaign from click to customer