20 free tools to plan, execute and scale your startup.
every tool here is genuinely usable at zero cost, and I have written down what the free tier actually gets you rather than just calling it free. no affiliate links, nothing sponsored. limits checked august 2026, and free tiers move, so check before you commit.
Plan
work out what to build and who actually wants it, before you spend anything.
Google Trends
shows whether interest in your problem is going up or down, by country and over time. useful for killing an idea early.
completely free, no account needed.
PlanReddit search
read the exact words people use when they complain about the thing you solve. this is where your ad copy comes from, and it costs nothing to read.
completely free.
PlanGoogle Keyword Planner
how many people search for your problem every month, and what they type.
free, though you need a google ads account to open it. you do not have to run any ads.
PlanPerplexity
research with the sources attached, so you can check a claim instead of trusting it.
free tier with daily limits on the stronger models.
PlanTally
waitlist forms and validation surveys you can build in about five minutes.
free plan with unlimited forms and unlimited responses.
PlanNotion
one place for the plan, the notes and the roadmap, so decisions stop living in chat.
free personal plan, unlimited pages.
Execute
build it, launch it, and get the first users through the door.
Figma
design your screens and hand them to a developer without a meeting.
free starter plan, limited number of files.
ExecuteCanva
static ads, app store screenshots and decks without hiring a designer.
free plan covering most templates.
ExecuteCapCut
edit UGC style ads. captions, hooks, trims. this is what most performing TikTok ads are cut in.
free on mobile and desktop.
ExecuteTikTok Creative Center
see the ads actually working in your category right now, including the hooks and the first three seconds. the single most underused free tool in app growth.
completely free, and you do not need an ad account to browse it.
ExecuteMeta Ad Library
every ad your competitors are running on facebook and instagram, live, with how long each has been running.
completely free, no account needed.
ExecuteBrevo
onboarding emails and lifecycle sequences, which is usually the cheapest retention win an early app has.
free plan sending 300 emails a day, with up to 100,000 contacts stored.
Executen8n
connects your tools together and automates the repetitive parts of growth work. this is the one I personally use most.
the community edition is free to self-host.
ExecuteLoom
record a two minute demo instead of writing three paragraphs. good for onboarding, support and investor updates.
free plan with limits on video count and length.
Tools are the easy part. Knowing which to ignore is not.
most founders do not have a tooling problem, they have a channel problem. bring one real growth problem to the breakdown call and leave with the fix.
Scale
measure what is working, keep the users you already have, and make money from them.
PostHog
product analytics, session replay and feature flags in one place, so you can see what people do inside the app rather than guessing.
one million events a month plus 5,000 session replays, with a year of data retention.
ScaleMicrosoft Clarity
watch recordings of real people using your site and see heatmaps of where they stop. I run it on this site.
completely free with no traffic cap, which is unusual enough to be worth saying twice.
ScaleGoogle Analytics 4
where your traffic comes from and what it does when it arrives.
free.
ScaleGoogle Search Console
the searches you already rank for, and what google thinks is wrong with your site. check it before paying anyone for SEO.
free.
ScaleAhrefs Free
audits your own site and shows who links to you.
free with no expiry and no card, but only for sites you verify. you cannot research competitors on it.
ScaleRevenueCat
handles subscriptions and in-app purchases across ios and android, with the revenue reporting attached.
free up to $2,500 a month in tracked revenue, then it starts charging.
Why there is nothing paid on this list
because at seed the constraint is almost never the tool. I scaled ZuAI from 10,000 to 2 million users at a $0.02 blended CAC, and nearly every tool in that stack was on a free tier for the first year. what cost money was ad spend and time, not software.
if a tool on this list stops being free, tell me and I will take it off. a free tools page that quietly lists paid tools is worse than no page at all.
Bring one real growth problem. Leave with the fix.
the breakdown call is free. no pitch deck, no agency handoff.