A first software stack for under $100 a month

What a new business needs in year one, and the free or cheap tool for each job.

5 min read · updated 2026-10-11

Most new businesses need six things: a way to get paid, books that an accountant can read, somewhere to track customers, a way to book time, a mailing list, and a bank account that is not your personal one. Every one of those has a free or nearly free option that is good enough for the first year.

Free tools cost you time instead of money. With free accounting you do the reconciling; with a free CRM you build the pipeline yourself. That trade is fine at the start and a bad one once you have staff.

Getting paid: $0

Square Invoices if you also take cards in person, Wave if you only invoice. Both are free to send and charge about 3 percent when a customer pays by card. Offer ACH on invoices over $500; the fee is a fraction of card processing.

Square Invoices

Wave

Books: $0

Wave's accounting is free and double-entry, which is the part accountants care about. On the free plan you enter bank transactions yourself; automatic bank imports need Pro at $19 a month. Categorize weekly and reconcile monthly. If you let it pile up, the free tool becomes a $600 cleanup bill at tax time.

Wave

Customers and bookings: $0

HubSpot's free CRM covers unlimited contacts, deals, email tracking, and forms. Calendly's free plan gives you one booking link, which is one more than most new businesses use.

HubSpot CRM

Calendly

The two things worth paying for

The first is email on your own domain. Google Workspace Business Starter is $7 a month, and it becomes the login for everything else. The second is a business checking account with no fees, such as Relay or Mercury. Keeping business money in a personal account makes the books harder and, for an LLC, weakens the liability shield.

That is $7 a month. Add Mailchimp's $13 Essentials once you have more than 500 contacts and the total is still under $25.