Running a small business in Australia is expensive enough without paying $50/month for every piece of software you touch. The good news is there are some genuinely useful free tools out there. Not “free for 14 days then we charge your card” free. Actually free.

I’ve put together a list of tools I’ve seen small businesses across the country use successfully. Some have paid tiers, but the free versions are legitimately usable on their own.

Accounting and Invoicing

Wave Accounting is still the standout here. It’s completely free for accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning. The catch is that they make money from payment processing — if you want to accept credit card payments through Wave, they take a percentage. But for basic bookkeeping and sending invoices? It’s hard to beat.

For businesses that just need invoicing without the full accounting package, Invoice Ninja offers a free tier that covers most small business needs. You can customise templates, set up recurring invoices, and track payments. It’s open-source too, if you care about that sort of thing.

Project Management

Trello remains one of the simplest project management tools around, and its free tier is generous. You get unlimited boards, cards, and members. The paid features (automations, custom fields, dashboard views) are nice but not essential for a team under 10 people.

If you want something more structured, Notion has a free plan that works well for small teams. It’s a bit of a learning curve — Notion can be whatever you want it to be, which means it can also be an overwhelming mess if you don’t set it up thoughtfully. But for documentation, task tracking, and internal wikis, it’s excellent.

ClickUp deserves a mention too. The free plan includes most core features. It’s more fully-featured than Trello but less flexible than Notion. Good middle ground.

Communication

You already know about Slack, and its free tier is decent for small teams. The main limitation is the 90-day message history cap — anything older gets archived. For a team of five working on current projects, that’s usually fine.

Google Workspace (the free personal version) gives you Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Meet. The Google for Business paid version adds custom email domains and more storage, but plenty of solo operators and micro-businesses run entirely on free Google accounts.

Design and Marketing

Canva has become the default design tool for non-designers, and for good reason. The free version includes thousands of templates for social media posts, presentations, flyers, and more. I’ve seen real estate agents, cafe owners, and tradespeople all produce decent-looking marketing materials with zero design experience.

For email marketing, Mailchimp still offers a free plan for up to 500 contacts. That’s down from the old 2,000 limit, which is disappointing, but it’s enough for a local business building its list. MailerLite is a solid alternative with a free plan covering up to 1,000 subscribers and includes automation features that Mailchimp locks behind its paid tier.

Scheduling and Booking

Calendly has a free tier that lets you set up one event type with basic scheduling. If you’re a consultant or freelancer taking client bookings, this saves the back-and-forth email chain about availability.

TidyCal (from AppSumo) is another option. It’s not always free, but they frequently offer lifetime deals for under $30. Worth watching for.

For service-based businesses, Square Appointments is free for individuals. You get online booking, a client database, and automatic reminders. It integrates with Square’s payment system too.

Website and Online Presence

Google Business Profile is non-negotiable for any business with a physical location. It’s free, it affects your local search rankings, and it’s where most people look first. If you haven’t claimed and optimised yours, do that before anything else.

For a basic website, Carrd is stupidly simple and has a free tier. One-page sites only, but for many businesses — especially service providers — that’s all you need. A clear description, contact info, and maybe a few photos.

The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman also maintains a list of digital resources for small businesses that’s worth checking periodically.

The Bottom Line

You don’t need to spend thousands on software to run a small business. The combination of Wave (accounting), Trello or Notion (project management), Canva (design), and Google’s free tools covers about 80% of what most businesses under 10 employees need.

Start free. Upgrade when you hit a genuine limitation, not when a salesperson sends you a convincing email. And always check whether the “free” plan actually does what you need before you invest time setting it up — migrating between tools is its own kind of expensive.