SaaS Stack for Early Stage Startups

Written By:
Team Qapita
Calendar
May 29, 2023

The collection of all the SaaS tools used by all the employees makes a startup's SaaS stack.

This article will take you through the category wise use of SaaS apps and a master tool to manage all the SaaS applications.


SaaS apps are increasingly being used by startups to build, promote, and deliver their goods and services. In order to accomplish these activities SaaS tools are required —to assist with collaboration, communication and internal project management.

Founders who are just starting out need to build their SaaS stack from the ground up. The amount of time it takes to evaluate options available in the market can be overwhelming. So, this list can serve as a blueprint for building your startup’s  SaaS stack.  

Top SaaS Apps for Startups

Accounting/Bookkeeping

It is important for startups to keep a track of their finances from day one. Now we have numerous SaaS apps that make bookkeeping and accounting meticulous. These tools help to keep track of cash inflows and outflows, plan budgets, prepare taxes, keep financial documents organized, help with strategic planning, and much more.  

Our top picks are: Freshbooks, Zoho Books, QuickBooks

Business Intelligence

The term business intelligence (BI) is used to describe a wide range of processes and techniques. It includes business analytics, performance management, data visualisation, predictive modelling, data and text mining, and a variety of other functions that are critical for making better data-driven decisions. Good thing is we have plenty of tools that help with BI.

Our top picks: Microsoft Power BI, Google Data Studio,  Zoho Analytics

Communications & Collaboration

Startups cannot survive a day without communication apps. It provides them a platform to ensure smooth transmission of information among required team members. These tools allow users to collaborate on projects, send instant messages, update their team members, exchange files, take assistance when needed as well as arrange for team meetups.

Our top picks: Slack, Basecamp

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Content marketing requires a significant amount of time and effort. Search engine optimisation helps you get higher web traffic and greater brand visibility among the target audience. A decent SEO tool can help you do things efficiently.  

A good SEO tool may assist with both on-page and off-page SEO: topic ideation, keyword research, competitor analysis, content optimisation, on-page and off-page SEO.  

Our top picks: Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console

Outbound Marketing

When it comes to acquiring new customers and reaching out to potential clients in a B2B setting, cold emailing is still considered to be one of the most effective tools to generate leads. You can use these cold outreach platforms along with email providers, like Zoominfo or Apollo, to build a solid cold outreach program.

Our top picks: GMass, Lemlist, Mailshake

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM empowers startups to manage their customer relationships in a single dashboard. It enables them to keep track of their leads, maintain a record of customer interactions, derive insights on where they stand with their prospect and increase sales.

Our top picks: Hubspot CRM, AgileCRM, Freshsales

Customer Support

People are more likely to purchase from a company that provides good customer support. Customer support applications help in improving the overall customer experience. They allow you to address the concerns and queries of prospects and customers and keep track of previous interactions.  

Many customer support tools also help you manage leads, answer repetitive questions automatically, create help centers and manage customer complaints.  

Out top picks: Freshchat, Intercom, Kayako

Digital Signature

Long gone are the days when we relied on physical documents and real signatures to get the work done. There are so many digital signature tools out there that allow you to incorporate digital signatures into your documents while ensuring complete security.

Our top picks: Zoho Sign, Cocosign

Document Management

A document management software helps in creation of documents, as well as in keeping the documents secure and available for sharing and real-time collaboration with people across functions and geographies. These software are designed to make tasks related to the management of documentation faster, easier and more efficient.

Our top picks: MS Sharepoint, Google docs

Employee Training

Employee training software enables you to train employees in the ever-changing workforce environment. It helps in planning and creation of learning and development materials. Some of these tools allow you to track employees progress and courses completion rates.

Our top picks: ISOtrain, TalentLMS

Graphics Designing

Graphic designing tools can help you turn your design vision into reality. Graphic designing software provides features and scope to create illustrations, logos, icons, vector graphics, edit images, and much more!

Our top picks: Canva, Adobe Photoshop

Recruiting

Recruitment software helps you find, connect, and manage candidates. From finding and attracting candidates to screening resumes and sending offer letters, these applications help to optimise and digitise the entire recruiting process.

Our top Picks: LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Zoho Recruit, Talview

Human Resource Information System Management (HRIS)

The HRIS tool maintains a database of employees. It helps to track and analyse various employee information such as payroll, productivity, attendance management and other information of your employees. The aim of the HRIS system software is to automate the workflow of human resources.

Our top picks: Bamboo HR , Kredily, Darwinbox, Keka

Inventory Management

E-commerce startups need to use a variety of methods and tools to improve order management, optimise supply chain management and return management. Inventory management tools assist in order management, barcode data collection, inventory tracking, integration with other tools and ABC analysis.

Our top picks: SOS Inventory, Delivrd, Sortly, ProfitBooks

Marketing Automation

As startups grow, it becomes essential for founders to consider tools that automate various tasks. Automated marketing systems empower you to achieve a variety of goals from acquiring new clients to retaining the existing ones.  

With marketing automation tools, you can send contextual emails, post on social media, and manage advertising campaigns. These tools not only improve efficiency, but also help in providing personalised user experience.

Our top picks: Auto Pilot, WebEngage, MoEngage

Booking/Scheduling Meetings

By planning a day ahead of time, you save more time than you think. These simple tools can take care of booking meetings and help you plan your daily schedule very effectively and save you time for more strategic work.

Our top picks: Calendly, Google Calendar, Microsoft Bookings

Payment Collection

Payment collection tools are essential for doing online transactions and are an important part of today's digital economy. They provide a secure interface that enables startups to collect payment from consumers. They can be integrated with accounting software for doing reconciliation.

Our top picks: Razorpay, PayU, Cashfree, Chargebee

Project Management

Project management software offers various tools to effectively organise and manage various projects and tasks. These tools are essential for planning, tracking progress, collaboration, documentation, evaluation and reporting.

Our top picks: Trello, Basecamp, ClickUp

Social Media Management

From creating and publishing content to analyzing and reporting, social media management can consume a lot of your time. Fortunately, there are plenty of great tools out there that can help you with automating some of these tasks. These tools can simplify your workflow, save time, and help you collaborate with social media partners.

Our top picks: Hootsuite, Buffer, Socialpilot

Video Editing

Video editing tools help you create videos for various purposes: marketing, sales, product explainer, etc. They are loaded with features and tools that include editing assistance, GIF support, noise removal, colour correction, text editor, audio mixing, video stabilization, scene detection to name a few.

Our top picks: Filmora, Adobe Premiere Pro

Video Hosting

These tools help you host your videos and measure results for your video marketing efforts. Video hosting tools are powerful for educating your target audience and spreading brand awareness. They can also help in streaming, sharing of video contents across multiple platforms with ease and collect leads.

Our top picks: Vimeo, Wistia, Hippo Video

Writing

Writing tools can help you communicate with impact. They ensure everything you write comes across the way you intend. Make your writing clear and engaging. You can detect plagiarism, eliminate grammatical errors and improve writing style according to usage, style, tone, and region.

Our top picks: Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Hemingway

Cap Table and Equity Management

Many early-stage founders underestimate the amount of time it will take to manage their equity. But when they go for fundraising or set up ESOP programs in their startup, they feel stuck. It seems like a full-time job. Equity management tools, like Qapita, make it easy.  

With Qapita, you can digitise your cap table and ESOPs. You don't need to rely on spreadsheets to keep a record of equity ownership. All the stakeholders are always updated about their ownership in the company without your time involvement.  

Additionally, you can manage equity-linked employee reward programs (like ESOPs, SARs, RSUs) easily with Qapita. It enables you to grant stock options, track vesting schedule, and other terms on the programs.  

Our top pick: Qapita (that's us 😀)

SaaS Management Platform: A Master Tool to Manage Your SaaS Stack

Yes, that's a mouthful of SaaS apps. Since our dependency on SaaS tools has increased manifold in recent times, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage the countless applications used in today's workplace.  

Therefore, it is important to have a solution in place that will assist with an  effective management of all the SaaS tools.  

Our top pick: Zluri

Team Qapita

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