The Small Business Software Stack: What to Buy First on a Tight Budget

By Abdullahi Abdirahman, Founder & Editor, SoftReviewLab. Updated October 2026. Prices were checked this month on each vendor’s own pricing page and are in US dollars. This guide draws on those pages and on our own reviews and buyer’s guides.

Short answer: a small business software stack should be bought in this order: a domain with business email, accounting and invoicing, a password manager, a website, then a CRM, email marketing and a task tool, each on a free plan until you hit a specific limit. AI tools, chatbots and other specialist software come last, once you can name the problem they solve. Bought this way, a solo owner can run on about $236 a year after the first year, and a five-person team that pays for every tool spends about $2,070 a year, or roughly $34 per person a month.

Why the Order You Buy Software In Matters

Most small businesses don’t overspend on one big tool. They overspend on many small ones: a subscription started for a trial that never ended, a project tool nobody opened after week two, a CRM bought before there were leads to put in it. Each looks cheap at $10 or $20 a month. Together they become a monthly bill nobody can explain.

Buying in a set order fixes that. The tools that protect your money, your customers and your reputation come first. The tools that save time come next, starting on free plans. The tools that promise growth come last, when you know exactly what you need from them.

The Small Business Software Stack: What to Buy First

1. A Domain and Business Email

An address like name@yourcompany.com is the cheapest trust signal you can buy. Customers take it more seriously than a free webmail address, and it lets you set up the email authentication that keeps your messages out of spam folders, which I explain in why your website emails go to spam.

Google Workspace Business Starter and Microsoft 365 Business Basic both start at $7 per user a month, and both include video calls, shared documents and file storage. That means you don’t need a separate video or file-sharing tool on day one. A .com domain costs around $20 a year: mine renews at $19.99.

2. Accounting and Invoicing

This is the tool that touches your money, so get it in place before your first invoice, not at tax time. Ask your accountant which software they use before you choose, because working in the same system saves hours, and often fees, at year end.

• Wave has a free Starter plan with unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records. Card payments cost 2.9% plus 60¢ per transaction on Starter. Pro is $19 a month or $190 a year and adds automatic bank import and receipt capture.
• QuickBooks Online lists Simple Start at $38 a month for one user, Essentials at $85 for three users and Plus at $140 for five, with half off for the first three months when I checked.
• Xero lists Early at $27 a month, capped at 20 invoices and 5 bills, Growing at $59 and Established at $97, with 80% off the first three months for new US customers when I checked.

Budget on the regular price, not the first three months. A sole trader sending a handful of invoices a month can start on Wave for free. Once you have staff, stock or an accountant who works in QuickBooks or Xero, that changes.

3. A Password Manager

The day a second person needs access to your bank, your domain or your social accounts, passwords start getting shared in chat messages and spreadsheets. A password manager stops that. Bitwarden is free for an individual, and its Teams plan is $4 per user a month, billed yearly, for shared vaults and an activity log. Turn on two-step verification for your email, bank and domain accounts on the same day: it costs nothing.

4. A Website

For most small businesses, a simple site with your services, prices, location and a contact form is enough to start. Hosting with WordPress is the cheapest way to run one over time, while an all-in-one builder costs more but needs less upkeep. My guide to choosing a CMS covers that decision, and Hostinger Website Builder vs WordPress compares the two options on one host. For the full yearly bill, including domain and email, see what a business website really costs to run per year.

5. A CRM, on a Free Plan First

You need a CRM when leads start slipping: an enquiry nobody answered, a quote nobody followed up. Until then, a well-kept inbox can work. HubSpot’s free CRM covers up to 2 users and Zoho CRM’s free plan up to 3. When you outgrow them, Zoho CRM Standard is $9 per user a month on yearly billing, and HubSpot Starter was on a limited-time discount when I checked. My CRM buyer’s guide compares five CRMs on price and fit, and how to stop losing leads covers the habits that matter more than the software.

6. Email Marketing, on a Free Plan First

Your customer list is the one marketing channel you own. Start collecting emails early, even before you have much to send. Mailchimp’s free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month, with no more than 250 a day. Its Essentials plan is $13 a month for 500 contacts. My guide to choosing email marketing software explains what to compare as your list grows, and my Mailchimp review covers where the free plan stops.

7. A Task or Project Tool, When Two People Share Work

A solo owner rarely needs project software: a calendar and a to-do list do the job. Once two or more people share tasks, a shared board saves the daily “where are we on this?” messages. Trello is free for up to 10 collaborators per workspace, with 10 boards and files up to 10 MB, and Standard is $5 per user a month billed yearly or $6 monthly. monday.com’s free plan covers 2 seats, 3 boards and 200 items, and its paid plans start at a minimum of 3 seats, as I explain in my monday.com review.

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Free Plans and Where They Stop

Free plans are the backbone of a tight budget, but each one has a ceiling. Knowing it in advance tells you when you will start paying, so the bill doesn’t surprise you.

What a Small Business Software Stack Costs Per Year

Here are two real budgets, using the regular prices listed above.

A Solo Owner

A website on Hostinger’s Premium plan, a .com domain and one Google Workspace user, with free plans for everything else: Wave, a free CRM, Mailchimp’s free plan, Bitwarden for one person and a calendar for tasks. That costs $131.88 in the first year and $235.87 a year after, as I break down in my website running cost guide. That is under $20 a month.

A Five-Person Team That Pays for Everything

That is about $172 a month for the whole team. Swap Wave Pro for QuickBooks Essentials at $85 a month and the total rises to $2,899.87, because accounting becomes the biggest line on the bill. Note that Essentials covers three users, so check how many people actually need access to the books.

Most teams won’t need every paid plan on day one. Keep tools on free plans until a limit in the table above actually gets in the way, and the real bill sits somewhere between these two examples.

Software to Wait On

These tools can be worth their price, but only once you can name the problem they solve and how you will measure it:

• AI tools. A general assistant such as ChatGPT Business costs $20 per user a month on yearly billing, with a minimum of 2 seats. Check first what your email and document tools already include. My guide to choosing AI tools gives seven questions to ask before paying.
• AI chatbots for your website. Worth it when customer questions take hours of your week, not before. See my AI chatbot buyer’s guide.
• Social media schedulers. Useful once you post several times a week on more than one network. My guide on posting consistently when you have no time starts with free methods.
• Call tracking. Only when you spend on ads and phone calls are how customers buy. See how to track phone calls from ads.
• All-in-one business suites. They can work out cheaper, but only if your team will use most of the apps inside them. Count the apps you would actually open before you compare prices.

Before You Pay for Any Tool: 6 Questions

1. Which specific problem does it solve, and how will I know in 30 days if it worked?
2. Does a tool I already pay for do this well enough?
3. What does it cost at the regular price, not the first-term discount?
4. Is it priced per user, and is there a minimum number of seats?
5. Can I export my data in a usable format if I leave?
6. Who on the team will own it and make sure it gets used?

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I pay monthly or yearly for business software?

Monthly at first, yearly once you are sure. Yearly billing is usually cheaper, often by about two months’ worth of fees. But a yearly plan you stop using is money you rarely get back, so earn the discount by proving the tool works for you first.

Is an all-in-one business suite better than separate tools?

It depends on how many of its apps you will really use. A suite gives you one login, one bill and data that flows between apps. Separate tools let you pick the best option for each job and leave one without leaving everything. For most teams under ten people, a few well-chosen tools on free or entry plans cost less than a suite they only half use.

Is it safe to run a business on free plans?

Yes, if you treat the data as your own. Turn on two-step verification, make sure more than one trusted person can access the account, and check that you can export your contacts, invoices and files. The risk with free plans is rarely security. It is that limits change, so keep your data in a form you can take elsewhere.

References

• Google: Google Workspace pricing
• Microsoft: Microsoft 365 business plans
• Wave: Pricing
• Intuit: QuickBooks Online pricing
• Xero: US pricing plans
• Bitwarden: Business pricing
• Zoho: Zoho CRM pricing
• HubSpot: Pricing
• Mailchimp: Marketing plans pricing
• Trello: Pricing