Are You a Small Enterprise with Big Aims? Here are 50 Web-based Small Business Apps that will Help You Achieve Them!

Biz Tech Rave's Top 50 Online Apps for Small Business

With the dawn of the new age, the formation of the entire business arena is shifting and new trends are emerging. Thousands of new SMEs (small and medium enterprises) have risen from the dust as people are becoming more entrepreneurial in nature, looking for new ways to earn money. This has brought in a booming business for software development agencies, which previously catered to large, multinational organizations in terms of software and application development.

If you are an entrepreneur yourself and are looking for the right web-based business tools that will help you achieve greatest efficiency in a timely and cost efficient manner, then you should know what types of business apps are present in the market and which one is the most appropriate one for, in terms of getting “the job done”.

In this article, we suggest some of the best online apps for small business – here is our list of 50 top small business apps that can help you out in your business endeavors.

Top 50 web-based small business apps

1. For accounts management Phreebooks available; this isn’t limited to being operational on one particular operating system. Phreebooks allows enterprise resource management and accounts management and is provided to its users on a Software as a Service (SaaS) basis. For more information visit www.phreesoft.com/
2. For forecasting and budgetary decisions, Adaptive Planning is available. It allows its users to forecast demands, make budgetary decisions and report solutions as an alternative to Microsoft’s Excel. Its enterprise and corporate editions can be purchased online via demand. For more information visit http://www.adaptiveplanning.com/index.php
3. In terms of creating backups; which is of extreme importance since data for any firm is priceless and irreplaceable, the web-based app Amanda is available. This software can be run through multiple platforms and allows easy networking backup for your entire company. Amanda is conjoint with Amazon Web Services to provide the best cloud based networking backup to its users. For more information visit http://www.amanda.org/
4. In terms of business intelligence, which requires software that aim to increase efficiency and make data more manageable there are 4 different software present, which will be discussed turn by turn. Pentaho includes a complete business intelligence suite that provides its users with dashboards, data mining, analysis and reporting of data and complete integration from all aspects. For more information visit http://www.pentaho.com/explore/products/
5. The next web-based app for business intelligence is Openl which allows users to integrate and analyze data through online analytical processing, more commonly known as OLAP. Its software provides users with digital dashboards and report analysis techniques. For more information visit http://openi.org/
6. JasperSoft is the next business intelligence software that will be discussed. The software provides its users with the best cloud computing services through its JasperSoft Live service. For more information visit http://www.jaspersoft.com/cloud
7. Palo BI Suite provides software on a SaaS basis and allows users to benefit from the analysis, reporting and planning capabilities of the software. This software helps small firms to cut down on expenses greatly. For more information visit
8. If you are aiming to get your hands on a web-based app that will work well with business process management, then Process Maker is what you are looking for. It allows it users to optimize the flow of work and also simplify it at the same time. For more information visit http://www.processmaker.com/
9. In terms of creating your own private clouds for better cloud infrastructure and management there are several software present. The first one is, Eucalyptus which allows hybrid and private cloud management and also allows you to run and test software through the cloud. For more information visit http://open.eucalyptus.com/
10. The next cloud infrastructure management app is CloudStack, which provides its users with a base to build their own clouds and manage them. For more information visit http://www.cloudstack.org/cloudcom-faq.html
11. OpenStack is another app which provides cloud management. It provides two distinct cloud services; Compute and Cloud-based storage, which allow you to create and store in the cloud environment. For more information visit http://www.openstack.org/
12. Coming on to the next cloud based app, OpenNebula, is said to be the toolkit for handling and management thousands of virtual machines, all at the same time. For more information visit http://www.opennebula.org/
13. Scalr is used to provide resources to meet individual demands of the web app or the web site of the company. For more information visit https://scalr.net/
14. AppScale is cloud-based software provided by the Google Company in order to small businesses to develop and run software in a cloud environment. For more information visit http://appscale.cs.ucsb.edu/
15. There is entire cloud desktop software available which allows its users to view and gain access to an entire cloud based desktop from where you can make use of various productivity, optimization and efficiency tools. This app is called the Eye OS. For more information visit http://www.eyeos.org/
16. The dimension that the next two software will cater to is content management. MindTouch allows users to manage their text and content on a cloud environment. For more information visit http://cloud.mindtouch.com/
17. Alfresco provides programs such as Open Text and Documentum that allows management of data through both public and private clouds. For more information visit http://cloud.alfresco.com/
18. The next four web-based apps for small companies will specifically cater to Customer Relationship Management. Orange Leap is web based software which caters to non-profit organizations. It provides marketing and add-on tools to its users. For more information visit http://www.orangeleap.com/index.shtml
19. SugarCRM is said to be an alternative to CRM management software salesforce which is useful for large multinationals. For more information visit http://www.sugarcrm.com/page/editions-pricing/en
20. SourceTap is software used for sales force automation and is present in both free and purchase versions. For more information visit http://sourcetapcrm.sourceforge.net/index.htm
21. The last CRM software is vTiger, is customer relationship management software developed specifically for small medium enterprises. The software contains all the various applications required for inventory management, sales force automation, email integration and all other customer related aspects. For more information visit http://www.vtiger.com/crm/
22. For documentation management systems, which are somewhat similar to content management, there are 3 web-based apps. The first one is OpenKM, allows powerful clouds, search engine, drag and drop services and so much more. For more information visit http://www.openkm.org/en/
23. Logical DOC provides services to organizations of all sizes. It provides services to secure share and organize corporate data efficiently. For more information visit http://www.logicaldoc.com/document-management-system/saas.html
24. Coming on to the last documentation management web-based app. Knowledge Tree aims to amalgamate all documentation related tools in one package, for ease management of data. For more information visit http://www.knowledgetree.com/
25. In order to boost sales, Email Marketing is of utmost importance and 2 specific software are present that will help attain this. The first one is phpList, allow companies to send up to 300 email messages per month free of charge through this software. For more information visit http://www.phplist.com/hosted
26. OpenEMM, provides over the top email marketing services that even commercial software do not provide. For more information visit http://www.openemm.org/
27. The next dimension that will be catered to is Email management. There are numerous software present in the market, a few of which will be mentioned here. Feng Office is a successful open source platform. For more information visit http://www.fengoffice.com/web/index.php
28. Group Office is the next app which provides various applications such as Email management, easy file sharing, CRM and project management. For more information visit http://www.group-office.com/
29. Zimbra is said to be an alternative app to Microsoft Exchange with additional SaaS and cloud based services being provided to its users. For more information visit http://www.zimbra.com/
30. The next app is, Collabtive which is said to be alternative software to Basecamp. It is collaborative groupware software. For more information visit http://collabtive.o-dyn.de/
31. EGroupWare is an email collaboration app that allows email, calendar, time sheets, file management and project management services. For more information visit http://www.egroupware.org/
32. Cyn.in provides various collaborative tools such as blogs, social networks, discussion boards and wikis. For more information visit http://www.cynapse.com/cynin
33. For effective translation management, GlobalSight is available to small companies that aim at streamlining the web-based content to a localized form for companies operating in foreign countries. For more information visit www.globalsight.com/
34. For Time Tracking purposes, TimeTrex is present that provides its users with payroll, scheduling services, attendance sheets and job costing techniques to keep a strict check on time. For more information visit http://www.timetrex.com/ondemand.php
35. For School Management purposes, OpenSIS can be used which contains attendance sheets, report cards, grading materials, scheduling and so much more to evaluate performance of employees. For more information visit http://www.opensis.com/buy_opensis.php
36. Even small companies can take up small projects and for those purposes, Project Management apps can be purchased and used. There are 2 apps present in this category, the first one being, one point Project. It is present on a SaaS basis which provides small companies to organize and achieve goals for small projects. For more information visit http://www.onepoint-project.com/products/overview
37. The next project management software is OpenProj, which is available on SaaS basis and potential users can obtain this software through demand. OpenProj is said to be an alternative to Microsoft Project. For more information visit http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj/
38. In terms of Investment Management and Tracking, JStock is present in the market, allow you to store data online in your own personal cloud which you can keep track of and access at any time. For more information visit http://jstock.sourceforge.net/
39. The next category, which is an extremely popular and growing category, is Enterprise Resource Planning. There are 6 different web-based apps that small businesses can make use of in this category which will be discussed turn by turn. The first one is, TNT Concept, which works parallel to financial applications and integrates the CRM aspect into those applications to make them more effective. For more information visit http://tntconcept.sourceforge.net/en/serv_saas.html
40. Open ERP, is often contrasted against SAP as it provides all the features SAP does such as project management, warehousing, CRM, marketing, inventory management, HRM and so much more. For more information visit http://www.openerp.com/
41. The next app is OpenTaps, provides all the above mentioned things with business intelligence and extreme collaborative aspects to provide your business with the boost it deserves. For more information visit http://www.opentaps.org/Cloud
42. OpenBravo is similar ERP management software which is available in both, downloadable and professional versions. One can download the trial software online, but for professional purposes it has to be purchased by getting in contact with the company. For more information visit http://www.openbravo.com/
43. Compiere provides thousands of people with easy ERP solutions that combines enterprise resource planning with CRM and cloud computing. It also offers record and history keeping services in its database and allows its users to create digital dashboards. For more information visit http://www.compiere.com/products/cloud-edition/index.php
44. xTuple is also available in purchase and free versions. The Postbook version is the free version that runs via Amazon web services. For more information visit http://www.xtuple.com/
45. Coming on to Human Resource Management which is also an important aspect for hiring, recruiting and managing purposes there are 3 apps present. WayPoint HR, tracks personal records of employees and provides analysis of reports. For more information visit http://www.waypointhr.com/
46. Orange HRM provides a vast range of services from attendance, individual record keeping, attendance, timings, report cards and everything that has to do with HRM. For more information visit http://www.orangehrm.com/
47. Open Applicant is another HRM app, designed to provide professionals with a criterion for recruiting employees. For more information visit http://openapplicant.org/
48. The last category that will be discussed is Operating Systems. Without the right operating system, all of the above mentioned apps won’t be able to operate so one has to keep in mind that the operating system the app is run on is compatible with it. The first operating system that will be discussed is SUSE. This operating system has two services; cloud vendors can use this software to advertise and sell their services and those who want to operate SUSE in the cloud itself. For more information visit http://www.suse.com/partners/isv/cloud-program/
49. Another operating system is Ubuntu, which provides platform for both developments of public and private clouds. For more information visit http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud
50. The last operating system is the Red Hat, provides Linux web-based services for both private and public use. Apart from this, it offers middleware and virtualization services as well. For more information visit http://www.redhat.com/solutions/cloud-computing/

So – there you go… our top pick for online small business apps. Which apps are your personal favorite? Please share what you think of them by leaving a comment on this post.