Top 13 SaaS Software That Will Help Your Business in 2024
According to Gartner, end-user spending on public cloud services reached $396 billion in 2021, and the number is expected to increase to $482 billion in 2022.
Now the question is, what are SaaS tools? Why are more and more companies using them, and what are some of the best SaaS tools in 2022? In this post we will cover all of these topics, and more…
So without further ado, let’s get started!
What Are SaaS tools?
SaaS tools are cloud-based systems that can be accessed anywhere using a web browser (or mobile app). SaaS tools are also known as cloud-based, web-based, and on-demand software.
Unlike traditional systems where you pay upfront licensing fees, SaaS tools come with monthly and annual subscriptions. The subscription fees vary depending on the number of users and the features you choose in the plan.
The most popular example of a SaaS tool is Google Drive. You can store files and data on Google Drive and access them anywhere. While the basic plan is forever free (up to 15 GB), if you need more storage space (100GB or more), you can purchase the premium version that starts from $1.99/month.
Benefits of SaaS Tools for Your Business
Now that you know what SaaS tools are, let’s explain how they can benefit your business.
1 - Reduces Costs
There are many ways SaaS tools can reduce your overall operational costs. First and foremost, you don’t need to invest in IT infrastructure. Also, you don’t need to care about maintenance, upgrades, and data backup.
Your SaaS vendor will take care of all these things for a fixed subscription fee. Additionally, you can save on subscription fees by negotiating with the vendor.
2 - Supports Remote Working
McKinsey’s analysis shows 70-80% of B2B decision-makers prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service.
This indicates that decision-makers across the globe are embracing the shift to remote and digital engagement. SaaS tools help you do exactly that. It allows your employees to work remotely and still convert high-profile customers.
3 - Improved Time to Market
One of the biggest advantages of SaaS for small and mid-sized companies is that it allows them to rapidly implement and scale their business that otherwise they would not because of the high licensing costs.
Also, unlike traditional software that requires you to install and configure them into all your systems, SaaS can get you going in an hour or two.
4 - Better Scalability and Accessibility
SaaS systems are also known as tools of productivity because of their remote accessibility capabilities. As mentioned above, you can access critical business functions using SaaS tools from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.
Additionally, SaaS tools are easy to scale. All you need to do is add a new user or upgrade your plan without worrying about giving advance notice (in most cases).
Key Features of SaaS tools
Some major aspects that make SaaS tools better than traditional software include:
● Subscription-based billing:
As mentioned above, SaaS tools come with a subscription fee (monthly, quarterly, and annual). However, you can change or cancel your subscription anytime.
● Easy and quick implementation:
SaaS tools take a few minutes to an hour or two to set up the system and help you get started.
● Compatibility:
SaaS tools are easy to integrate with most tools you already use in your business.
● Security:
SaaS companies invest heavily in data security and protection, to the point that they are required to comply with data center sustainability to ensure the proper functioning of their servers. Most of them offer role-based access control to ensure only authorized people can access sensitive business information.
● Maintenance and backup:
Your subscription fees cover everything, and you don’t have to worry about maintenance, upgrades, or data backup. You can simply enjoy the services and eliminate all the overhead costs.
Top SaaS Software for Businesses in 2022
1 - Internal Communication Tool: SLACK
Slack is the most popular internal communication tool, and for good reasons. With dedicated channels, your team can focus on their project while still being able to connect with anyone in the organization.
Besides, Slack brings all forms of communication to one place: chat, voice, and video calls. You can even share files and links using Slack.
What makes Slack better than other internal communication tools is its vast network of integrations. It supports over 2,200 tools, allowing you to integrate it with any SaaS tool you use in your organization.
When it comes to pricing, Slack has two plans: Pro ($6.67/user/month) and Business+ ($12.50/user/month).
2 - Business Phone System: CALLHIPPO
Irrespective of your business size or your industry, you will need a phone system to reach your customers. CallHippo is a cloud-based VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) tool that enables you to connect with your customers over the phone in a cost-effective way.
Since all the calls are routed through the internet, it can reduce thousands of dollars in phone bills. Plus, CallHippo allows you to purchase local and toll-free numbers in more than 190 countries.
It has different features for both sales and customer service teams. For instance, the power dialer feature enables your sales reps to automatically dial the numbers from a list, saving them countless hours every month.
Similarly, CallHippo has a skill-based routing feature for customer service teams that ensures the calls are redirected to the right agent and department, thereby improving the resolution time.
When it comes to pricing, CallHippo has four plans: Bronze ($16/month), Silver ($24/month), Platinum ($40/month), and Enterprise ($48/month).
3 - Project Management: BASECAMP
If there’s one thing that Basecamp does better, it is making project management easier. It allows you to split your projects into different groups and add all the people involved.
You can even create a list of work that needs to be done, assign tasks, set deadlines, and discuss with your team - which you can do with a project time tracker too. Like Slack, Basecamp allows you to share docs, files, images, and spreadsheets.
When it comes to pricing, Basecamp has only one plan . At $99 a month, Basecamp gives you access to everything: unlimited users, unlimited projects, and all other features.
4 - CRM: HUBSPOT
If you’ve ever Googled for sales, marketing, customer service, or CRM-related topics, chances are you have come across HubSpot’s blog. HubSpot offers everything you need to enhance your customer service, boost sales, and enhance your online presence.
However, what sets it apart is its free CRM. It provides you full visibility into your sales pipeline in real-time. You can check sales activity, productivity, and individual performance.
Moreover, HubSpot CRM automatically enriches your contact records with data from over 20 million businesses. You also get a free meeting scheduling option, live chat, email templates, click-to-call functionality, and more.
5 - Sales Tool: pipedrive
If you want to create a centralized sales hub, Pipedrive is what you need. It allows you to collaborate, optimize your sales processes, and forecast sales cycles.
Your sales reps can add deals, their value, win probability, expected close date, and then organize them by your pipeline stages. Plus, its mobile app allows you to access your sales data from any device.
That’s not all. Pipedrive allows you to automate tedious sales processes, such as sending follow-up emails, scheduling a call, triggering the creation of a deal, transferring ownership to another rep, or creating activities every time a deal is moved to the next stage of the pipeline.
When it comes to pricing, Pipedrive offers four plans: Essential ($12.50/user/month), Advanced ($24.90/user/month), Professional ($49.90/user/month), and Enterprise ($99/user/month).
6 - SEO and Paid Ads: semrush
SEMrush is the top SaaS software for marketers. It is an all-in-one marketing tool that allows you to do SEO, competitor research, keyword research, and optimize your PPC campaigns to drive better results.
You can run technical SEO audits to identify potential issues in your website that might be stopping you from ranking on the top. SEMrush also provides recommendations to improve your content to increase search rankings.
When it comes to content marketing, SEMrush helps you find topics that resonate with your audience, get actionable tips to create SEO-friendly content, optimize your content based on various metrics, and track your content reach.
You can also unveil your competitors’ SEO and paid marketing strategies to create a better strategy and stay ahead of them.
SEMrush has three pricing plans: Pro ($119.95/month), Guru ($229.95/month), and Business ($449.95/month).
7 - Online Publishing: Paperturn
Paperturn is an online SaaS platform that can help you transform your PDF files into digital, interactive flipbooks. These flipbooks can be in the form of an eBook, catalog, magazine, brochure, guide etc. You name it - Paperturn can create it!
One of the greatest benefits of flipbooks is that they are diverse and can be used in a number of ways.
Furthermore, you can add a variety of interactive tools to your digital publications such as:
Videos and so much more.
Make your publications sustainable, easy to distribute and engaging by transforming your paper and PDF based files today by starting a free 14 day trial.
Paperturn’s pricing starts at $10.20 per month (Basic subscription) and $20.40 (Pro subscription).
8 - Email Marketing: mailchimp
Mailchimp has become an all-in-one marketing tool that allows you to create landing pages, launch an online store, run ads, and manage your social channels. However, they still excel where they started - email marketing.
You can choose from thousands of email templates or code your own in their email builder. Plus, its AI-based creative assistant allows you to create designs for your emails based on your brand.
Mailchimp’s Subject Line Helper helps you increase your open rate by optimizing your subject lines. You can even dynamically personalize them or try different versions with A/B testing.
Mailchimp also allows you to create behavior-based automated journeys to engage customers every time they meet predefined criteria. Last but not least, you can analyze your email’s performance and optimize them for better results.
When it comes to pricing, Mailchimp offers four plans: Free ($0/month), Essentials ($11/month for 500 contacts), Standard ($17/month for 500 contacts), and Premium ($299/month for 10,000 contacts).
9 - Customer Support: zendesk
Zendesk provides 360-degree customer service solutions, enabling you to talk to your customers in a variety of ways (message, live chat, email etc.) It also allows you to build an integrated help center and community forum.
Zendesk provides 360-degree customer service solutions, enabling you to talk to your customers in a variety of ways (message, live chat, email etc.) It also allows you to build an integrated help center and community forum.
With Zendesk capabilities, including AI-powered bots and automation , you can personalize the experience for each customer even when you receive thousands of messages every day.
Zendesk brings all your tickets and customer requests in one place with its unified agent workspace. You can also prepare answers for common questions to help your agents respond faster with the right solution.
Zendesk has three pricing plans: Suite Team ($49/agent/month), Suite Growth ($79/agent/month), and Suite Professional ($99/agent/month).
10 - HR Software: factohr
FactoHR is an intelligent HR software that helps manage your employees’ data centrally. Its visually appealing, module-wise dashboards help identify bottlenecks and improve efficiency in HR workflows.
You can even configure and manage all the letters and documents right from the employee joining to their last day. Moreover, you can create a hierarchical approval workflow with more than one authority for various processes, such as document, leave, and expense approval.
FactoHR lets you design and handle any type of CTC structure according to industry specifications and add unlimited salary components for accurate calculation.
FactoHR has four pricing plans: Essential, Advance Velocity, Bolster, and Performer. However, they have not mentioned their prices on their website. You can contact them for customized pricing.
11 - Invoice and Accounting Software: freshbooks
Freshbooks is one of the top SaaS software in the accounting field. FreshBooks is designed for different businesses: freelancers, self-employed professionals, companies with employees, and businesses with contractors.
FreshBooks allows you to create professional-looking invoices within seconds. You can manage expenses by uploading a picture of the invoice, and the tool will automatically capture the merchant, totals, and taxes for you.
FreshBooks also lets you accept credit card payments automatically every month, thereby improving your recurring revenue. Additionally, you can generate reports to stay atop your finances.
FreshBooks offers three plans: Lite ($15/month), Plus ($25/month), and Premium ($50/month).
12 - SAAS Survey Tool: Zonka Feedback
If you want to know what your customers feel about your product or services, then Zonka Feedback is a perfect tool. It is a customer experience management platform that enables SaaS businesses to create customizable surveys to analyze and improve customer experience across various touchpoints and channels, including website, mobile, email, SMS, QR codes, and more.
SaaS businesses can easily measure CX metrics like NPS, CSAT, and CES using smart surveys that includes features like skip logic, personalization, hide logic, white labeling, etc.
Its reporting and analysis feature offers detailed insights into customer preferences for identifying and acting on feedback to improve the overall experience.
What sets the platform apart is its in-built automated workflows that help close the feedback loop faster using auto-tagging and auto-responder for the negative and positive feedback. You can keep your team members in the loop with real-time alerts and auto-tagging responses. For example, Zonka Feedback’s integration with Salesforce lets you sync your data for centralization, trigger surveys, manage feedback, and cross-team visibility from within the CRM.
Zonka Feedback has Three pricing plans: Starter($49/month), Professional ($99/month), and Growth ($199/month), Billed Annually. You can contact them for customized pricing.
13 - EXPENSE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE: fyle
Fyle is the first expense management software that enables real-time expense management on cards you already have. This means businesses do not have to switch cards for the benefits of real-time feeds or user experience.
Fyle also enables seamless expense reporting and management with its integrations with accounting software like Sage Intacct, NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Xero.
They have three pricing plans billed annually: Standard ($4.99/active user), Business ($8.99/active user), and Enterprise at custom pricing based on volume and usag
…Bonus!
Social Media Management Tool: sprout social
Our bonus SaaS tool: Sprout Social is an industry-leading social media management software that allows you to manage all your social media profiles from a single platform.
Our bonus SaaS tool: Sprout Social is an industry-leading social media management software that allows you to manage all your social media profiles from a single platform.
Sprout Social also lets you plan, organize, schedule, and deliver content through all your social channels. You can uncover trends and actionable insights from social data to create smarter decisions.
The analytics feature in Sprout Social helps you measure the metrics that matter the most to your business. You can even compare your performance on social media to your competitors to find new opportunities.
Sprout Social has three pricing plans: Standard ($89/user/month), Professional ($149/user/month), and Advanced ($249/user/month).
Final Thoughts
SaaS tools save money, eliminate the need for dedicated IT resources, and promote remote working. We have used and are still hooked on the ten tools mentioned above at some point in our business, and we must say we have had a great experience.
However please note that every software comes at a unique cost, and has its own set of features along with pros and cons. Therefore it's crucial to determine your business goals, come up with a plan and find the solution that aligns with your objectives.