The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted almost all businesses, barring none. Most businesses worldwide were unprepared for a pandemic of this scale. The virus is still aggressively spreading, and it may take months or even years for things to get back to normal.
According to IT industry veteran Kris Gopalakrishnan, 25 percent of startups will face serious challenges if the pandemic persists. Considering this crisis, many companies have volunteered to support startups and SMEs by giving away tools and software at a huge discount or for FREE. This Corona discount might be the lifeline many small companies are looking for.
In the coming days, the world needs to collectively take a stand with a small attitude to bring the struggling companies back to business. Keeping this in mind, we have gathered a few tools that help businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The list contains software, courses, tools, and services relevant to startups.
25 Free Tools For Startups
Here’s a list of 25 companies giving free software and services to benefit startups and SMEs during these tumultuous times.
1. Adzooma
Adzooma has temporarily opened access to the full Adzooma platform for free, to help companies weather the immediate crisis. Ad agencies, small businesses, and anyone else using Google, Microsoft or Facebook to promote their business or services, can benefit from the core features of Adzooma – 24/7 account monitoring, Customisable reporting, Intelligent suggestions, One-click improvements, and Personalised alerts.
Valid Till: June 1, 2020
2. Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud has launched an Anti-COVID-19 SME Enablement program to support the online migration of small and mid-sized businesses spurred on by the pandemic. Alibaba Cloud is offering a $300 coupon to new SME customers and a $500 coupon to already existing customers.
Valid Till: June 22, 2020
3. Amazon Web Services
AWS has offered more than 60 products to help small businesses run remotely, communicate, and collaborate virtually, build websites and apps, and manage costs. At present AWS provides three different types of free offers depending on the product used.
The products and services offered fall into the following categories – Analytics, Application Integration, AR & VR, Business Productivity, Compute, Customer Engagement, Database, Developer tools, End User Computing, Game Tech, Internet of Things, Machine Learning Management & Governance Media Services, Mobile, Networking and Content Delivery, Robotics, Security, Identity, & Compliance, Storage.
Offer:
The free tier offers which never expires and is available for all AWS customers
12 months free plan for new users which starts from the initial sign-up date
Trial plan which is short term and starts from the date of activation of a service
4. Asana
Asana is providing a free one-year subscription of Asana Business to non-profits working in medical research and disaster response related to COVID-19. This offer applies to both new and current Asana Basic customers. Non-profit organizations on the front lines of research & testing of COVID-19 should complete a form provided on the Asana website to avail this offer. They will contact the applicants within 5 business days to inform them if they can redeem this offer.
Offer: One-year free subscription
5. Bill.com
Bill.com is offering a three-month subscription to small and mid-sized businesses who are currently experiencing a significant decrease in revenue because of the pandemic. New customers can avail this offer to run payables and receivables remotely.
Offer: 3-month free access
6. Box
Box is a cloud content management and file sharing service for businesses. The business edition of this file sharing and collaboration platform, which offers unlimited storage and data-loss protection, is now available for free.
Offer: Free for 90 days
7. BullGuard
The Danish cybersecurity firm, BullGuard, has offered free three-month access to their security solution. It is designed especially for small business firms and can be easily managed through a cloud-based dashboard.
Offer: 3-month free access
8. Canva
Popular graphic design platform Canva has opened up Canva for Enterprise to empower organizations to design and collaborate while working remotely. To unlock this 6-month free trial, organizations should add 10 team members to Canva for Enterprise.
Offer: 6-month free trial
9. Cisco
All businesses are experiencing a rise in remote workers. Cisco is expanding its free security offerings parallelly to meet the demand. Cisco Webex is helping employees stay connected. Now, existing users of Cisco Umbrella, Duo Security, and Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client can exceed their user limit. New customers can access a free license. Customers should get in touch with a Cisco representative or partner to get the requested usage counts.
10. Cloudflare
Cloud for Teams software protects an organization’s infrastructure and ensures that the employees of that organization can access the tools they need safely. Currently, Cloudflare for Teams is available to organizations of any size, free of cost. Customers can also avail a free 30-minute onboarding session with a technical expert.
Valid Till: September 1, 2020
11. Codegrip
Working remotely is very challenging in terms of maintaining code quality. To overcome this difficulty Codegrip is giving away their automated code review tool, Codegrip, freely for a month. This tool provides code health checks, in-depth code review, zero code duplication, and time and effort estimation.
Offer: 1-month free trial
12. Github
All core features of Github are free for everyone which means unlimited private repositories with unlimited collaborators for all. Customers are also eligible for access to GitHub Actions, the company’s automation and CI/CD platform, for 2,000 minutes per month, free of cost. Monthly subscription for paid plan containing advanced features like code owners or enterprise features like SAML support has been slashed from $9 to $4.
Valid Till: Unlimited
13. GoDaddy OpenWeStand
Web hosting giant GoDaddy is doing whatever it takes to stand with small businesses at this crucial time. They have launched a new site, OpenWeStand, designed to support small businesses. They are providing Websites + Marketing to help small businesses to have an online presence. Apart from creating a free website, customers are also provided with tools, resources, and 24/7 support to grow their business. GoDaddy is also offering three-month free access to its email marketing tool.
14. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform that unites all social media campaigns on a single dashboard. They are providing Free access for Hootsuite Professional to small businesses and non-profits to stay connected with their customers and communities.
Valid Till: July 1, 2020
15. Hubspot
To help businesses to move whole portions of their operation online, Hubspot is making their paid Quotes, Meetings functionality, 1:1 video creation tool, and E-Sign completely free for 90 days from when they’re activated by the user.
They have also slashed the price of Starter Growth Suite to $50/month. For 12 months from the purchase of this offer, all new and existing customers can leverage the bundle of sales, marketing, and services software at the reduced price. A 12-month purchase commitment is required to avail this offer. All customers are eligible for this.
16. Intel
Intel is providing free access to developers using Intel’s oneAPI DevCloud. The oneAPI DevCloud simplifies development across multiple architectures and makes remote working more productive for coders. With the latest update, DevCloud users can enjoy expanded hardware availability, expanded forum support, latest software development tools, and simplified access. Every user is allocated 192 GB of RAM and 220 GB of file storage.
Valid Till: July 1, 2020
17. Loom
The video messaging service Loom is offering unlimited videos under its free plan. They have slashed the price of the Pro plan by half. The trial period is also extended to 30 days from 14 days.
Valid Till: July 1, 2010
18. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email marketing service that allows you to send personalized messages according to consumer behavior. Mailchimp is providing small businesses with free five-year custom domains to help retail businesses set up online shops until 31 May. They are offering Free Standard accounts to eligible public service organizations. To help struggling small businesses they are offering $10M in Mailchimp service. Businesses can apply through their website.
Valid Till: June 30, 2020
19. Moz
Moz is the undisputed king in search engine optimization techniques. They are offering free access to Moz Academy. Around 19 SEO courses worth thousands of dollars are free right now.
Valid Till: May 31, 2020
Promo Code: wegotthis
20. Ping Identity
The American software company, Ping Identity, is currently offering free cloud single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA). This will ensure increase productivity and security for people required to work from home. Customers can enjoy strong authentication for VPN connections and single-click access to all their SaaS applications.
Offer: 6 months of free usage for new customers
21. SecureAuth
SecureAuth provides advanced identity security solutions. They are offering their Intelligent Identity Cloud package which includes risk-based multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), password-less/biometric access and phone fraud prevention for free.
Valid Till: Dec 15, 2020
22. Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow is a collaborative learning environment for development teams within businesses. The basic tier of Stack Overflow for Teams is being made free for an unlimited number of users. This knowledge -sharing tool helps people to collaborate across their organizations and also empowers them to ask and answer questions about the systems they are building and maintaining. Organizations can apply to use the service through the Stack Overflow website.
Valid Till: June 30, 2020
23. Slack
Business communication platform, Slack, is offering a sizable discount off the first 12 months of eligible purchases of Slack standard or Plus plan. It applies to both monthly and annual subscriptions.
Discount: 25%
Valid Till: May 31, 2020
24. Ubersuggest
Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest is an SEO software that helps you generate keywords for your content marketing strategy and production. They are giving away a lot of premium features for free. Users will be able to view historical data and access more keywords. Paid members also have a lot of advanced features coming their way.
Valid Till: Unlimited
25. Zoho Remotely
Zoho Remotely is a suite of business applications (both mobile and web) that enables remote working and high productivity. This software allows you to meet online, communicate, and collaborate from wherever you are.
Valid Till: July 1, 2020
Are there any other organizations offering free services/tools during the COVID-19 pandemic? Let us know in the comments below.