The 60 Best Platform Tools For Small Business [2024]

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Updated: January 20th, 2022

Platform is essential to running your business.

After interviewing thousands of founders, we put together a list of the most popular platform tools.

Here they are:

1. BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecommerce platform that empowers merchants of all sizes to build, innovate and grow their businesses online. As a leading open SaaS solution, BigCommerce powers tens of thousands of merchants across 150 countries and numerous industries, including companies like Ben & Jerry’s, S.C. Johnson, Skullcandy, Sony and Vodafone.

More About BigCommerce

The simple way to tackle the complexity of selling online

BigCommerce, a leading ecommerce platform, has everything you need to launch and grow your online business. You can get started quickly with a drag-and-drop visual editing tool, and sell multi-channel on social media and marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Walmart, and more. BigCommerce enables you to build a beautiful online storefront that caters to your unique business needs and is designed to jumpstart your business growth from your very first sale onwards.

Pricing Details

Standard: $29.95/mo
Plus: $79.95/mo (most popular)
Pro: $299.95/mo
Enterprise: Contact sales

Additional details about BigCommerce:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @BigCommerce
Website: bigcommerce.com

Businesses using BigCommerce:

49 successful businesses are using BigCommerce ➜

2. Google Drive

A free cloud-based storage service that enables users to store and access files online.

More About Google Drive

Don't forget about Gmail! Used by 1.5B people worldwide, it is the most popular email tool.

If you're just getting started out, it might be all you need to do your email marketing. Keep it simple :)

Pricing Details

Free!

Additional details about Google Drive:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @googledrive
Website: google.com

Businesses using Google Drive:

1071 successful businesses are using Google Drive ➜

3. Shopify

Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform that makes it easy to launch your business and start selling to your customers, wherever they are.

More About Shopify

Shopify is one of the #1 leading platforms for e-commerce businesses.

Here are some of the main reasons most e-commerce businesses are using Shopify:

Geared towards supporting store owners. Provides a simple way to launch and manage your online store
Customer support is off the charts (live chat)
Easy to use - You don't have to worry about the technical side
The design is clean and mobile-friendly. There are also hundreds of templates you can use.
Easy integrations and additional channels (ie. Amazon, email marketing integrations, Facebook, etc).

Pricing Details

Basic Shopify: $29/month
Shopify: $79/month
Advanced Shopify: $299/month

Additional details about Shopify:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @Shopify
Website: https://shopify.pxf.io/6b9bbV

Businesses using Shopify:

669 successful businesses are using Shopify ➜

4. Amazon

Online shopping from the earth's biggest selection of products.

Additional details about Amazon:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @Amazon
Website: https://www.amazon.com/

Businesses using Amazon:

5. Adobe Creative Cloud

A set of applications and services from Adobe Systems that gives subscribers access to a collection of software used for graphic design, video editing, web development, photography, along with a set of mobile applications and also some optional cloud services.

More About Adobe Creative Cloud

Content management solution for videos, dynamic and personalized media, etc. that supports content search and workflow management.

Additional details about Adobe Creative Cloud:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @creativecloud
Website: adobe.com

Businesses using Adobe Creative Cloud:

6. Google Shopping

Search for products on online shopping websites and compare prices between different vendors.

Additional details about Google Shopping:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @google
Website: http://www.google.com/shopping

Businesses using Google Shopping:

7. WooCommerce

A fully customizable, open source eCommerce platform built for WordPress.

Additional details about WooCommerce:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @WooCommerce
Website: https://woocommerce.com/

Businesses using WooCommerce:

284 successful businesses are using WooCommerce ➜

8. GoDaddy

Internet domain registrar and web hosting company.

More About GoDaddy

GoDaddy Website Builder is an online editing and publishing tool that helps you create a website, regardless of your technical skill level. Just create an account, pick a design and use the built-in editor to add your own images and text. You can make your website as simple or complex as you'd like. You can even add a full online store complete with product listings, coupons, shopping cart, shipping, and multiple payment options.

Additional details about GoDaddy:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @godaddy
Website: godaddy.com

Businesses using GoDaddy:

354 successful businesses are using GoDaddy ➜

9. Canva

A graphic design platform, used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content. The app already includes templates for users to use. The platform is free to use but offers paid subscriptions like Canva Pro and Canva for Enterprise for additional functionality.

More About Canva

Vector graphics editing program with extensive editing functionality and templates to create professional business cards.

Additional details about Canva:

Twitter: @canva
Website: canva.com

Businesses using Canva:

360 successful businesses are using Canva ➜

10. Etsy

An e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items.

Additional details about Etsy:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @Etsy
Website: https://www.etsy.com/

Businesses using Etsy:

185 successful businesses are using Etsy ➜

11. trello

A collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. Tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process. Imagine a white board, filled with lists of sticky notes, with each note as a task for you and your team.

Additional details about trello:

Twitter: @trello
Website: trello.com

Businesses using trello:

221 successful businesses are using trello ➜

12. eBay

Buy and sell electronics, cars, fashion apparel, collectibles, sporting goods, digital cameras, baby items, and everything else.

Additional details about eBay:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @eBay
Website: https://www.ebay.com/

Businesses using eBay:

122 successful businesses are using eBay ➜

13. Wix.com

Web development platform to create a professional website.

More About Wix.com

Wix is mostly geared towards small businesses, restaurants, online stores, and artists.

One of the main reasons people love Wix is because their drag and drop functionality is unlike any other platform, making the platform super easy to use.

Here are some other advantages of using Wix:

One of the few site builders that allows you to animate text and other elements.
Impressive app integration (check out their app market).
Highly intuitive and easy to use

Pricing Details

Free plan
Combo: $17/month
Unlimited: $22/month
Business Basic: $28/month

Additional details about Wix.com:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @Wix
Website: wix.com

Businesses using Wix.com:

160 successful businesses are using Wix.com ➜

14. Amazon Web Services

A bundled remote computing service that provides cloud computing infrastructure over the Internet with storage, bandwidth and customized support for application programming interfaces.

More About Amazon Web Services

Amazon SES is a platform to send emails. It can be used to send marketing and transaction emails, you just need to be a developer to work with it.

This solution is great if have some serious volume and willing to spend the time to build your own custom solution on top of Amazon SES:

Pricing Details

There is a free tier where you can send 62k emails per month, and then charges $0.10 for every 1,000 emails after that.

Additional details about Amazon Web Services:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @awscloud
Website: aws.amazon.com

Businesses using Amazon Web Services:

168 successful businesses are using Amazon Web Services ➜

15. Node.js

An open-source, cross-platform, JavaScript run-time environment that executes JavaScript code outside of a browser.

Additional details about Node.js:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @nodejs
Website: nodejs.org

Businesses using Node.js:

146 successful businesses are using Node.js ➜

16. Webflow

Build responsive websites in your browser, then host with us or export your code to host wherever.

More About Webflow

Webflow is unique in that the platform allows designers to code visually, rather than writing code line by line.

If this sounds interesting to you, check out a few more advantages of the platform below:

Full CMS functionality
Great for prototyping and mockups
Easy to illustrate your animation ideas - they're all about the visuals
Allows you to design hundreds of pages at once
Great for designing landing pages

Pricing Details

Basic - $12/month
CMS - $16/month
Business - $36/month

Additional details about Webflow:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @webflow
Website: webflow.com

Businesses using Webflow:

139 successful businesses are using Webflow ➜

17. Digital Ocean

Providing developers and businesses a reliable, easy-to-use cloud computing platform of virtual servers, object storage, and more.

Additional details about Digital Ocean:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @digitalocean
Website: digitalocean.com

Businesses using Digital Ocean:

89 successful businesses are using Digital Ocean ➜

18. React

A JavaScript library for building user interfaces.

Additional details about React:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @reactjs
Website: reactjs.org

Businesses using React:

19. Custom Built

Custom built platform.

Additional details about Custom Built:

Pricing: Freemium
Website: Custom Built Platform

Businesses using Custom Built:

20. WP Engine

Managed WordPress hosting.

Additional details about WP Engine:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @wpengine
Website: wpengine.com

Businesses using WP Engine:

113 successful businesses are using WP Engine ➜

21. Twilio

Programmatically to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and perform other communication functions.

Additional details about Twilio:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @twilio
Website: https://www.twilio.com/

Businesses using Twilio:

111 successful businesses are using Twilio ➜

22. AWS infrastructure

Is built around AWS Regions and Availability Zones.

Additional details about AWS infrastructure:

Pricing: Freemium
Website: aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure

Businesses using AWS infrastructure:

23. Heroku

Platform as a service that enables developers to build, run, and operate applications entirely in the cloud.

Additional details about Heroku:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @heroku
Website: heroku.com

Businesses using Heroku:

67 successful businesses are using Heroku ➜

24. Thrive Cart

A hosted shopping cart platform that was designed to make selling products and services online easy.

Additional details about Thrive Cart:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @thrivecart
Website: thrivecart.com

Businesses using Thrive Cart:

25. Bing Shopping

Products search and discovery service.

Additional details about Bing Shopping:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @bing
Website: bing.com/shopping

Businesses using Bing Shopping:

26. Laravel

A web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax.

Additional details about Laravel:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @laravelphp
Website: laravel.com

Businesses using Laravel:

55 successful businesses are using Laravel ➜

27. Wayfair

American e-commerce company that sells home goods.

Additional details about Wayfair:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @wayfair
Website: wayfair.com

Businesses using Wayfair:

33 successful businesses are using Wayfair ➜

28. Magento

Flexible eCommerce solutions and extensions marketplace.

Additional details about Magento:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @magento
Website: magento.com

Businesses using Magento:

29. Angular

A platform for building mobile and desktop web applications.

Additional details about Angular:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @angular
Website: angular.io

Businesses using Angular:

54 successful businesses are using Angular ➜

30. Vue

The progressive JavaScript framework.

Additional details about Vue:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @vuejs
Website: https://vuejs.org/

Businesses using Vue:

55 successful businesses are using Vue ➜

31. Weebly

Create a high-quality website, blog or online store.

Additional details about Weebly:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @weebly
Website: weebly.com

Businesses using Weebly:

32. Django

High-level Python Web framework.

Additional details about Django:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @djangoproject
Website: https://www.djangoproject.com/

Businesses using Django:

35 successful businesses are using Django ➜

33. Cratejoy

Subscription box platform.

Additional details about Cratejoy:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @cratejoy
Website: cratejoy.com

Businesses using Cratejoy:

13 successful businesses are using Cratejoy ➜

34. Drupal

Open source platform for building amazing digital experiences.

Additional details about Drupal:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @drupal
Website: drupal.org

Businesses using Drupal:

21 successful businesses are using Drupal ➜

35. Carrd

A free platform for building simple, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything.

Additional details about Carrd:

Website: carrd.co

Businesses using Carrd:

17 successful businesses are using Carrd ➜

36. Prestashop

Freemium, open source e-commerce solution

Additional details about Prestashop:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @PrestaShop
Website: prestashop.com

Businesses using Prestashop:

17 successful businesses are using Prestashop ➜

37. Mindbody

Business management software serves gyms, spas, and salons worldwide.

Additional details about Mindbody:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @mindbodypowered
Website: mindbodyonline.com

Businesses using Mindbody:

38. Linode

Robust set of tools to develop, deploy, and scale your applications faster and easier.

Additional details about Linode:

Twitter: @linode
Website: linode.com

Businesses using Linode:

39. Rackspace

A set of cloud computing products and services billed on a utility computing basis from the US-based company.

Additional details about Rackspace:

Twitter: @Rackspace
Website: rackspace.com

Businesses using Rackspace:

40. 3dcart

Build an online store.

Additional details about 3dcart:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @3dcart
Website: 3dcart.com

Businesses using 3dcart:

41. Porkbun

An amazingly awesome ICANN accredited domain name registrar based out of Portland, OR. We're different, we're easy, and we're affordable.

Additional details about Porkbun:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @porkbun
Website: porkbun.com

Businesses using Porkbun:

42. CraftCMS

User-friendly CMS for creating custom digital experiences on the web.

Additional details about CraftCMS:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @CraftCMS
Website: https://craftcms.com/

Businesses using CraftCMS:

43. Strikingly

A website builder that allows the user, with little or no development experience, to create mobile optimized websites “within minutes”.

Additional details about Strikingly:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @strikingly
Website: strikingly.com

Businesses using Strikingly:

44. HighLevel

The first-ever all-in-one platform that will give you the tools, support and resources you need to succeed with your agency.

Additional details about HighLevel:

Twitter: @highlevel
Website: gohighlevel.com

Businesses using HighLevel:

45. VWO

Helps optimize customer experience, thereby increasing conversions & sales through visitor behavior analysis, experimentation.

More About VWO

VWO FullStacks allows companies to literally test anything. Be it the search algorithms or recommendation engine for your eCommerce store or subscription workflows for your SaaS business, VWO FullStack is built to help you execute even the most complex tests. You can experiment on any platform and not just limited to devices that have a browser. Think native apps, beacons, and connected devices. VWO FullStack is a part of the VWO Experience Optimization Platform.

Additional details about VWO:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @VWO
Website: vwo.com

Businesses using VWO:

46. outfy

Increase your products social reach by sharing your products on social networks.

Additional details about outfy:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @outfy
Website: outfy.com

Businesses using outfy:

47. MeteorJS

A free and open-source isomorphic JavaScript web framework written using Node.js.

Additional details about MeteorJS:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @meteorjs
Website: meteor.com

Businesses using MeteorJS:

48. CakePHP

An open-source web framework. It follows the model–view–controller approach and is written in PHP, modeled after the concepts of Ruby on Rails, and distributed under the MIT License.

Additional details about CakePHP:

Twitter: @cakephp
Website: cakephp.org

Businesses using CakePHP:

49. Babelbark

A mobile app helping pet parents manage their pet's records, medications, diet, activity and more.

Additional details about Babelbark:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @babelbark
Website: babelbark.com

Businesses using Babelbark:

50. PottySafe.com

The first of it's kind that securely latches the waste bowl to the base so that children cannot dump the contents, making a mess.

Additional details about PottySafe.com:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @pottysafe
Website: pottysafe.com

Businesses using PottySafe.com:

51. Homestead

Offers its members WYSIWIG tools to build and publish their own websites.

Additional details about Homestead:

Twitter: @hswebsites
Website: homestead.com

Businesses using Homestead:

52. Roadmap

strategic plan that defines a goal or desired outcome, communication tool, and a high-level document that helps articulate the strategic thinking.

Additional details about Roadmap:

Pricing: Freemium
Website: productplan.com

Businesses using Roadmap:

53. Tilda

Create websites without code.

More About Tilda

Create beautiful websites without any code with Tilda.450+ pre-designed responsive blocks are ready for your web projects.

Additional details about Tilda:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @TildaPublishing
Website: tilda.cc

Businesses using Tilda:

54. LearnPlatform

The comprehensive edtech effectiveness system for educators and administrators to organize, streamline and analyze their education technology to save time, save money, and improve outcomes.

Additional details about LearnPlatform:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @learnplatformus
Website: learnplatform.com

Businesses using LearnPlatform:

55. Fathym Framework

Merge data from disparate silos and sensors, transforming it into actionable, use-able insight.

Additional details about Fathym Framework:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @fathymit
Website: fathym.com

Businesses using Fathym Framework:

56. Hostaway

Vacation rental management software.

Additional details about Hostaway:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @Hostaway
Website: hostaway.com

Businesses using Hostaway:

57. Printavo

A tool that help shops with the core aspects of their business, workflow management, approvals, scheduling, payments, and accounting.

Additional details about Printavo:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @printavo
Website: printavo.com

Businesses using Printavo:

58. Ecwid

Ecwid automatically generates metadata based on your product's name and its description.

Additional details about Ecwid:

Twitter: @ecwid
Website: ecwid.com

Businesses using Ecwid:

59. Blackbox

Helps creators tap into the massive demand for video content, and make steady passive revenue.

Additional details about Blackbox:

Pricing: Freemium
Twitter: @blackboxglobal
Website: blackbox.global

Businesses using Blackbox:

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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