10 Tools and Apps for UK Small Businesses and the Self-Employed (2026)

Running a small business in the UK means juggling sales, admin, marketing, compliance and customer service – often all at once. The right tools can save hours each week and help your business grow faster. In this guide, we share the 10 best tools and apps for small businesses and sole traders in 2026 – covering accounting, CRM, AI, marketing and cybersecurity.

 

1. For Accounting & Tax Management: FreeAgent

We get it, accounting and tax isn’t the most exciting part of running a business – in fact, its probably your least favourite chore! However, failing to keep your books organised and compliant can scupper your business, and, if you’re a sole-trader without a limited company, could cost you your personal assets as well. That’s why our number one tool/app for small businesses and the self-employed is FreeAgent.

We know that staying on top of your finances can be hard work. That’s why we don’t just recommend using FreeAgent accounting software, we include it in all our accountancy plans for free! It’s an award-winning online tool that gives you instant real-time access to your business finances wherever you are. You can use it to generate and track invoices, see cashflow, and submit MTD compliant self-assessments and VAT returns. Simply download the mobile app or log in from your computer to get going, see how easy it is here.  All your finances will be in one place and you can even link your business bank account so you can check transactions and profits at any time. Plus, earn brownie points with your accountant and HMRC by going digital with your tax early.

2. For Customer Relationship Management: Hubspot

Still relying on a notebook full of names? Trying to keep on top of a burgeoning list of message conversations? It could be time to invest in a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager). A good CRM tool will allow you to keep track of all your clients throughout their entire customer journey, from initial prospecting to repeat client. To keep things organised, you can collect client data such as contact details, file notes, and what work you have done for them.

One of the industry leaders for CRMs is Hubspot. As well as the typical CRM features, Hubspot can take some of the hasslesome admin out of nurturing leads, so they don’t fall through the cracks. For example, if you get an email enquiry, Hubspot can add automatically create a profile with their contact details and enquiry. It won’t let them slip through your fingers, either, as it can remind you to follow up with them, while keeping them in the loop with automated emails. You can even see whether your emails get opened!

The main benefit for SMEs of using a CRM tool like Hubspot is the scalability. It can be hard enough to keep on top of multiple clients when you’re a freelancer or one-man band. However, when you have a couple of people working for you, it’s vital that everyone knows exactly where each lead is up to, who is dealing with them and what tasks need doing. Otherwise, you risk missing requests from clients, staff doing duplicate tasks, or opportunities being lost.

What’s more, as your business grows, and you add more roles and departments, Hubspot allows each team to see what matters to them. As an example, let’s say Walter owns a bread baking company, Another One Bites the Crust Ltd. With Hubspot, his sales team are reminded to follow up with each supermarket to get new deals closed, while keeping records of their previous orders. All of this is supported by his marketing team, who are busy running targeted campaigns. Because all of the business’s clients are in a CRM, the marketing team can segment, meaning they can run specific campaigns aimed at corner shops, health food stores or national retailers, tailoring the content for each segment.

Meanwhile, customer support are able to check file notes to provide updates on orders, answer any queries and resolve problems. The bakery team can see a list of orders, and are able to tag them as they go through each stage of the production process, from baking to distribution.

And as for Walter? He doesn’t have to waste his day trawling through emails about the day to day intricacies of his business. He can simply view top level, data focussed dashboards and forecasts to see how much, erm… dough is coming in, where there could be bottlenecks, and what is in the pipeline.

That’s a lot of heavy lifting from one tool, so Hubspot gets number two on our list.

3. For Creating Promotional Material for Your Small Business: Canva

Business isn’t just done on the high street – you’ve also got to think about your presence on social media, websites, posters, and even emails.

That’s where app number three comes in: Canva.

Canva is a lightweight design tool that’s designed to make design quick and easy. That sounds like a lot of design, but there’s not a lot to learn to get up to speed with this app. Pitched as the ‘Visual Suite for Everyone’, Canva comes with a vast library of premade images, graphics, templates and even stock videos.

We wouldn’t suggest using it to make your business logo as that could cause you some copywrite issues; speak to a graphic designer for this instead.

However, once you’ve got your branding, Canva allows you to make things like quickly put together business cards, presentations, posters and social media posts all by yourself, even if you’re a complete novice! Social Media is a particularly good use case for Canva. According to Backlinko, the average user spends over two hours per day on social media. And, with over a billion posts made to social media per day, it’s important to be able to get posts out quickly.

That’s why Canva is our number three app for small businesses and sole-traders.

4. For Meetings & Communication: Microsoft Teams

Since Covid-19, clients have become accustomed to having meetings remotely. While some clients will prefer face-to-face meetings, many will appreciate the convenience and flexibility of being able to meet via phone or video call.

That’s where number four on our list of apps for sole-traders and small businesses comes in: Microsoft Teams.

If you’ve ever used anything like Skype or Whatsapp, Teams should feel familiar. Just like those tools, Teams includes instant messaging and video/audio call capabilities. However, it also contains features that should appeal more to business users, such as:

• Call Recording

• Meeting invites – schedule a meeting with a client and they will receive an invite from which they can join, as well as reminders leading up to the appointment.

• Calendar – Easily find time for a meeting with a client or a member of your team

• Webinars – Show off your expertise by hosting online webinars through teams

• Screensharing – Present to your client by sharing your screen

Teams is also designed for communication within your business. With instant messaging, it’s easy to stay in touch with your team, while Teams channels allows each team member to keep up-to-date with the updates that matter to them.

Being a Microsoft app, Teams can integrate with many other apps, such as Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and even the aforementioned Hubspot!

5. For Speeding up Day-to-Day Tasks: Gemini

It wouldn’t be a blog in 2026 without talking about AI. Whether you love it or loathe it, there can be no denying that AI has already changed the way we live, and indeed, work. And, if recent headlines are anything to go by, it’s only just getting started.

For now though, let’s look at an AI tool that’s less ‘digital overlord’ and more ‘helpful assistant’: Google Gemini takes fifth place on our top ten tools for Sole-Traders, the Self-Employed and Small Businesses.

Gemini, like rivals ChatGPT and Claude, is a large language model. This means it is at it’s best with text based tasks, such as writing, comprehension, researching or reasoning.

Why do we think this is a useful tool for SMEs and Freelancers? The answer is time and resource.

Perhaps writing compelling marketing copy, in depth guides, or carefully worded communications isn’t your forté. Maybe you don’t yet have the funds to hire a specialist content writer. Or, it could just be that you’re already stretched thin enough keeping the rest of your business ticking over.

Whatever the case, Gemini can help you quickly draft appropriate written content, check over what you’ve already written, or help breakdown large texts into easy to digest bullet points. Gemini, like its rivals, can also generate images, although we’ve found that AI imagery tends to be a mixed bag in terms of quality. Still, for pulling together a fun, quirky graphic, your imagination is the limit with Gemini.

However, with power comes responsibility, and usage of any AI tool should be done with caution.

Uploading any personal, sensitive or confidential data is a big no-no, as some platforms use your conversations and data for training of future models. This could lead to personal information or company secrets being leaked, so tread carefully.

Furthermore, although AI tools may appear to know everything, they aren’t perfect and can make mistakes. Worse still, they sometimes even blatantly lie. So, always make sure to verify any important information yourself, or else you could end up feeding your clients digital porkie pies.

Nonetheless, being dynamic, adapting to change, and keeping up with the times has always been a central tenant of running a business, so it’s worth making sure you’re au fait with the latest tech. After all, if you don’t, your competitor will. That’s why Google Gemini is number five on our list.

6. For Streamlining Signatures & Paperwork: PandaDoc

If you’re still sending paperwork in the post for your clients to sign, this one’s for you. PandaDoc is a legally binding, GDPR compliant solution to getting documents signed by your clients.

Typical use cases for eSigning tools like PandaDoc are approving contracts, proofs on artwork, or even co-signing documents. Signing documents digitally can be a great way to speed up the time it takes to onboard a client, meaning you can get paid quicker, and streamline the process for your client.

Why do we think PandaDoc in particular is great for sole-traders and small businesses? The Flexibility. Unlike some rivals, all paid plans for PandaDoc provide unlimited signatures/document sends, so you won’t outgrow your plan and suddenly be hit with increased charges. However, you can upgrade your plan for greater collaboration and enterprise tools, which may be more suitable as your team expands.

Due to how much admin, paperwork and time PandaDoc saves, it gets 6th place on our list of tools and apps for small businesses and freelancers.

7. For Tracking & Optimising Your Web Performance: Google Analytics

As we’ve mentioned, the battle of business is now fought online more than ever. Therefore, getting eyes on your website is always good news.

Google Analytics lets you keep track of how many people have viewed your site, but the real value is in the detailed data. Aside from basic web visitor data, Google Analytics shows where users came from (eg social media, organic google search, or paid ads), where they are based geographically, whether they are using a phone or a computer, and even what they did while on your site!

For example, if you find that people aren’t sticking around long, or are jumping straight back off a page (known as a ‘bounce’), that’s a sign that your page isn’t keeping people’s attention, or they don’t like the look of it. On the other hand, if your visitors are landing on one page, and then going on to reading other pages, that could mean they like what they’re seeing, and enjoying your content!

Google Analytics can also come in handy for tracking your customer journey: things like conversion rate or shopping cart abandonment rate can easily be worked out by comparing page views or ‘Add to Basket’ clicks with actual sales. Furthermore, a deeper dive can even show if people are more likely to buy/get in touch when they find your website via social compared to organically, for example.

This sort of data means less shots in the dark, less wasted money, and less unexploited opportunities. For that reason, Google Analytics is our number 7 choice for small business.

 

8. For Feature-Rich Forms: Jotform

When it comes to getting leads, it is crucial to make it as easy as possible for your prospects, especially as a small business. That’s why we couldn’t miss Jotform from our list of favourite apps and tools for sole traders, freelancers, the self-employed and small businesses.

The aforementioned Hubspot does also include a basic form-builder, however Jotform is a more dedicated tool designed help you create a fully bespoke form that is as basic or as complex as you need it.

Central to this is the fully featured drag-and-drop form builder. This makes it easy to collect the information you need about your lead, for example contact details and requests. You can then customise the form in great detail, from branding and auto response emails, to Custom CSS editing.

All of this is well and good, but the real firepower comes in the conditional logic features. Let’s say you want your sales team to deal with new business leads through your website, while a customer care team manages queries from existing clients. With Jotform, a single choice ‘Are you a new or existing client’ field would allow you to direct web form submissions to different teams based on this answer.

By far the most exciting features for a freelancer or small business though are the connections you can make around the forms. Workflows allow each form submission to be dealt with while adhering to a particular process, ensuring they go to the right teams and have the right actions completed. Tables allow you to see all your submissions at once, with various filters, views or export options. Rest assured, Jotform makes it easy to keep your data GDPR compliant.

With some of the more premium plans, you can also make booking apps, online order forms, menus, and even AI chatbots!

With all of these features and capabilities, we really feel that Jotform can help your small business punch above its weight class, enabling slick, professional touchpoints for your clients. That’s why it gets 8th place on our list.

9. For Emails That Make an Impression: Mailchimp

It’s no secret that the email inbox is a lucrative place for businesses. In fact, you’ve probably had a flashy, attention grabbing promotional email land in your inbox while you’ve been reading this blog!

That’s why, for 9th place on our list, we’ve picked a tool to allow you to get in on this action: Intuit Mailchimp.

Mailchimp is a one-to-many email platform, which, as implied by the name, means sending an email to a large list of people in one go. Use cases for this in a small business or sole-trader setup include:

Marketing – Upsell or cross-sell additional services to your existing clients, or encourage repeat purchasing. Schedule things like seasonal sales in advance, or even automate upsells after a client has been with you for a set amount of time. Unlike standard email clients like Outlook, Mailchimp also allows you to see how many people opened and interacted with your email, allowing you to learn from it and adjust your subject line for next time.

Transactional Emails – Instil confidence and thank your clients when they enquire or purchase with you. Mailchimp can be connected to your processes to automate sending updates on your client’s enquiry or purchase. Develop your reputation by asking for reviews or feedback post purchase, or automate follow ups to make your clients feel nurtured and important.

Comms – Sending important comms, such as changes to terms and conditions/policies, seasonal opening times, or other important updates, is a necessary but laborious task. What’s more, doing it manually increases the risk of human error, potentially leading to a data breach. With Mailchimp, you can make sure your important messages get to who they need to go to, quickly and easily.

What we really like about Mailchimp, especially for a self-employed person or small business owner, is how the pricing is designed to work around your needs very closely. Not only are there 4 feature-based plans to choose from, within those you can choose how many contacts you will use it for. That means you won’t be left paying more than you really need to.

Word of warning, though – in order to comply with GDPR and PECR, as well as avoid annoying your clients, you MUST ensure you get consent before sending marketing, and allow recipients to opt out.

10. For Keeping Passwords Safe: Dashlane

Now, we must admit, this one isn’t the most exciting. But, when it comes to cybersecurity, exciting isn’t what you need – you need something sensible, solid, and most of all, secure. That’s why, to round out our top ten, we’ve chosen Dashlane Password Manager.

When you’re dealing with other people’s data, a commitment to cybersecurity isn’t optional – it’s expected by law. Failing to take password management seriously could lead to a data breach, leading to fines, reputational damage, and even loss of access to crucial systems.

Dashlane is an advanced, secure password keeper. This means no more sticky notes or re-used passwords. You needn’t even know what your passwords are! As long as you know your Dashlane password, you can simply allow it to generate a secure password that’s unique from every other password.

As you take on staff, you can also use Dashlane to provide passwords, or even revoke them when they leave.

For the security and convenience it provides, Dashlane gets the final spot in our top 10.

BONUS: Danbro Accounting!

We hope you find this list of tools and apps helpful as a sole trader or burgeoning small business. Here at Danbro Accounting, we strive to ensure your business is setup for success. We don’t just provide MTD compliant accounting software, we back it with personal accountancy dedicated to you and your business.

Get in Touch Today!