Brief outline
- Quick intro and how to think about a starter toolkit
- Website and landing pages
- Hosting and backend services
- Payments and subscriptions
- Email marketing and growth tools
- CRM and simple sales stacks
- Customer support and feedback
- Project management and docs
- Analytics and user insights
- Small business finance tools
- How to pick your first stack and a sample starter stack
Let’s be honest. Starting a company feels like trying to build a boat while the tide’s coming in. You want tools that move fast, don’t frustrate you, and won’t cost an arm before you’ve even sold a thing. So here’s a friendly map — a list of SaaS platforms that work well for people starting out, explained in plain language with a few practical takes. You know what? It’s okay to keep things messy at first. Messy gets you to feedback faster.
Quick picks for your website Your website is your storefront, shop window, and first impression all rolled into one. Pick something that lets you launch quickly and later grow.
- Carrd — Super cheap, ultra simple. Great for single-page landing pages and pre-launch signups. No fluff.
- Squarespace — Polished templates and built-in commerce. Less fiddly design work.
- Wix — Drag and drop. Beginner friendly.
- Webflow — A bit more learning, but you can make fancier sites without a dev.
If you want a landing page today and a full site next quarter, start with Carrd or Squarespace. If you care about pixel control and want to learn a bit, Webflow pays off. There’s a small contradiction here: you want both speed and control. Start with speed. You can add control later.
Hosting and backend services that don’t make you cry When your site needs logic, logins, or a database, you don’t have to become a server admin overnight.
- Firebase — Handles auth, realtime DB, hosting. Great for simple apps.
- Supabase — An open source alternative; familiar SQL feel and quick auth.
- Heroku or Render — App hosting that’s friendly for beginners.
- Vercel and Netlify — Perfect for static sites and serverless functions.
Here’s the thing: if you’re not a developer, stick with Firebase or Supabase plus Vercel for the frontend. If you have someone who codes, Heroku and Render are forgiving and let you iterate fast.
Payments and subscriptions that won’t break your flow Collecting money is a very adult thing. Make it painless.
- Stripe — Developer friendly and handles subscriptions well. Many plugins and integrations.
- PayPal — Ubiquitous and easy for one-off payments.
- Paddle — Good if you want simpler EU tax handling and checkout bundles.
Stripe is the usual go-to because it plays nicely with lots of stacks. If tax or invoicing makes you nervous, Paddle can reduce complexity.
Email marketing and simple growth tools You’ll learn that email still matters. Seriously.
- Mailchimp — Friendly UI and lots of templates.
- ConvertKit — Built for creators and simple funnels.
- Sendinblue — Affordable and has SMS features.
- Postmark or SparkPost — For transactional emails that need to land reliably.
Start with Mailchimp or ConvertKit. Build a simple welcome sequence. Don’t over-engineer workflows. One helpful tip: treat your first 100 subscribers like gold. They’ll tell you stuff you didn’t expect.
CRM and sales without the complexity You don’t need a giant CRM when you’re the whole sales team.
- HubSpot CRM — Free, clean, and powerful enough for early-stage sellers.
- Pipedrive — Focused on pipelines and deals, very visual.
- Close — Built for founders who sell by phone; compact and fast.
HubSpot is a common first choice because it handles contacts, deals, and email logging without making your head spin. If your sales are simple, keep the system simple.
Customer support and feedback that doesn’t feel cold A startup lives and dies by how it treats early customers. Be human.
- Intercom — Chat, bots, and a product layer for in-app messages.
- Zendesk or Help Scout — Email-first, tidy inbox for support.
- Hotjar — Session recordings and heatmaps for feedback.
- Tawk.to or Crisp — Free chat widgets for fast response.
Respond fast. One kind reply can turn a frustrated tester into your first evangelist.
Project management and docs that actually get used People underestimate how messy project life can be. Keep it readable.
- Notion — All-in-one docs, simple databases, and roadmaps. Extremely popular.
- Trello — Kanban that’s intuitive and light.
- Asana — A bit more structure for multi-person teams.
Notion often becomes the single source of truth for early startups. It’s flexible. That’s both its charm and its risk, because flexibility can lead to chaos. So set a few clear pages and stick to them.
Analytics and user insights without data paralysis Metrics are useful, until they aren’t. Start small.
- Google Analytics 4 — Free and wide-ranging, though the UI can be confusing.
- Plausible — Lightweight and privacy friendly.
- Mixpanel — For product events and funnels.
- Hotjar — For qualitative insights.
My advice? Track a tiny set of things: signups, conversions, retention after one week. That’s often all you need at first. Too many metrics create noise.
Small business finance tools You’ll want clean books sooner than you think.
- Wave — Free for basic accounting and invoicing.
- QuickBooks — The common choice for small businesses.
- Xero — Clean interface and great bank feeds.
Connect your payment gateways to your accounting tool. It saves hours at tax time. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself.
Automation and integrations that keep you sane When tedious tasks are automated, you get time back.
- Zapier — Connects apps with simple automations.
- Make.com — Visual flows and a good alternative.
- GitHub — For code and version control, if you’re building a product.
Automate signups to a Slack channel, or new leads to a Google Sheet. Little automations compound. They feel small but matter.
How to pick your first stack without getting choice paralysis You don’t need every shiny tool. You need a stack that matches your skills, budget, and timeline.
Ask yourself three simple things: 1. How much can you spend monthly? Startups usually need to be stingy early. 2. Who will build and maintain the thing? If it’s just you, favor no-code. 3. What’s the minimum that proves your idea? Build that first.
A sample starter stack for most founders If you want a concrete starting point, here’s a compact list that works in many cases:
- Landing page: Carrd or Squarespace
- Payments: Stripe
- Auth/backend: Firebase or Supabase
- Email: Mailchimp or ConvertKit
- CRM: HubSpot free tier
- Docs and roadmaps: Notion
- Analytics: Google Analytics or Plausible
- Automations: Zapier
- Accounting: Wave
That stack lets you launch quickly, collect money, and keep control of your costs. It also grows with you. You might swap in a more advanced tool later; that’s fine. Growth brings new needs.
A final note and a small digression Honestly, the best tool is the one you’ll actually use. Tools don’t make products; people do. So pick something that reduces friction and lets you talk to customers. You’ll change the stack three times anyway — and that’s normal. Also, seasonal tip: if you’re launching in Q1, consider simple landing pages for pre-launch interest. There’s always more traffic after the holidays, oddly enough.
Ready to pick your first platform? If you want, tell me what you’re building and how technical your team is. I can suggest a tailored starter stack and a simple 30-day plan to get a paying customer. Sound good?
