Software Connect logo Software Connect logo
Talk with a Software Expert…
(800) 827-1151

The Best Business Management Software

Get the best business management software for your business. Compare product reviews, pricing below. Read our buyer’s guide for more help.

  • Editor’s Picks
  • All Products
  • Buyer’s Guide
Talk with a software advisor
Talk with an advisor
Get a free consultation from an independent system expert.
Or, call toll-free: (800) 827-1151
Talk with a software advisor
Talk with an advisor
←
→
Best
Overall
Scoro Screenshot
Scoro
Strong activity planner
Visual interface is easy to use
Client-based access to purchase history
Learn More
Best for
Small Business
Knack Screenshot
Knack
Simple pricing model
Straightforward database software
Highly customizable
Learn More
Best
Free
Bitrix24 Screenshot
Bitrix24
Strong CRM
Many customizations
Up to 12 users
Learn More
Best
Cloud/Online
Zoho One Screenshot
Zoho One
Great value for included apps
Highly customizable CRM
AI-powered assistant
Learn More
Best for
Task Management
nTask Screenshot
nTask
Powerful Gantt charts and Kanban boards
5GB+ storage
Free version for freelancers
Learn More

Most small businesses, freelancers, or companies managing multiple entities will require some way to manage all of their activities. A business software will improve and automate these activities to make your business more efficient and rely less on manual actions. In short, a business management software will provide you with a single solution to handle all your business needs through a collection of business apps.

What Is Business Management Software?

A business management software provides an integrated suite to manage financials, projects, and customer relationships. This collection of applications will help a business improve upon and automate their existing processes through completing tasks, improving reporting, reducing mistakes, and increasing efficiency. Some business management software may focus more on one area than another, such as CRM or accounting, but almost all will provided a unified way of running your business.

While not a concrete identifier of a business management software, most will include modules such as:

  • Project management (including project planning)
  • Time tracking
  • Accounting (via invoicing, budgeting, and purchase orders)
  • Customer relationship management (CRM)
  • Marketing automation (email marketing)
  • Credit card processing
  • Document management

We’ve taken the time to compile our favorites that can meet these needs and more:

Best Overall:
Scoro

★★★★★
★★★★★
(2)

Dashboard
Client Management
Invoices
Projects
Reports
Settings
Mobile Calendar
What We Like
Strong activity planner
Visual interface is easy to use
Client-based access to purchase history
What We Don’t Like
Lack of contact synchronization with external mail apps
No Gantt charts
No line items in quotes
Overview
Price Range: $$
Starting Price: $26/user/month
Client OS: Web, iOS, Android

Scoro brings together your team’s projects, sales, finances, and reports. This is accomplished through contact management, calendars, quoting, project management, task management, reporting, invoicing, and an intuitive dashboard. Scoro’s ability to provide all of these features with an equal level of importance at a reasonable price point is why they are our choice as the best overall business management software.

Scoro helps bring structure to you work by overseeing every aspect of your projects, efficiently manage your resources, all while staying on track and under budget. For example, when a customer gets in touch about a project, you can create a quote in just a matter of a few clicks. Just add in specific services or items, and create the quote. Once created, it can easily be converted into calendar tasks and and an invoice that the customer can pay. Your staff can be easily notified of the work expected of them.

Everything you need to know about your projects will be found int he project timeline, including budget details, related sales, finance documents, and future planned activities. Integrated communication tools let you create messages to your staff to catchup on the status of various projects, how your staff is being utilized to complete the project, and much more.

Best for Small Business:
Knack

★★★★★
★★★★★
(2)

Client Details
Update Quote Item
What We Like
Simple pricing model
Straightforward database software
Highly customizable
What We Don’t Like
May need some CSS knowledge to be proficient
Requires a lot of input
No auto save feature
Overview
Price Range: $
Starting Price: $4/user/month
Client OS: Web

Knack is a simplistic business management software that provides accounting, project management, CRM, team collaboration, and automation features all in the cloud. It provides all your small business needs to run effectively, so you can avoid administrative and organizational challenges and ensure your sales and accounts with no complications.

Knack will let you quickly issue quotes, invoices, and reports to ensure your business is maximizing revenue. The integrate CRM platform will ensure prospects can quickly become clients without having to enter data in twice. The integrated project management will track all of your tasks, manage the productivity of your staff, track time worked on projects, and more.

The reason Knack stands out as one of the best management tools for small businesses is that it has a free version available. This version can be used forever for up to 3 users. The free version is rather limited (as it offers no automation features), but does include room for unlimited prospects, quotes/invoices, and projects. This is best used by micro businesses. To upgrade to their small business version (the “Pro” version), Knack starts at only $3.95/user/month.

Best Free:
Bitrix24

★★★★★
★★★★★
(4)

CRM
Tasks and Projects
Communications
Contact Center
Site Management
What We Like
Strong CRM
Many customizations
Up to 12 users
What We Don’t Like
Layout and user interface can feel clunky
Limited reporting options
Slow to respond technical support
Overview
Price Range: $$
Starting Price: $69/month
Client OS: Web

Bitrix24 is a forever free business management software that gives you access for an unlimited number of users. The biggest draw of Bitrix24 is the powerful CRM tool. In fact, Bitrix24 has it’s roots as just a CRM, but added capabilities for project management, communication, website building, and contact center. Having been around as a cloud software since 2012, Bitrix24 is constantly improving to offer their customers the best free management software available on the market. Today, Bitrix24 markets itself as a “collaboration platform”.

The heart of the software, Bitrix24’s CRM helps you grow sales through improved conversion rates and automated marketing processes. Their tasks and projects features let you create Gantt charts, Kanban boards, track time worked on projects, and plan your future workloads. Internally, Bitrix24 can be used as a communication platform that shows an activity stream, creates group chats for your staff, and creates work groups that lets you view who is assigned to various tasks.

Given it’s availability as a free solution, over 7,000,000 organizations worldwide rely on Bitrix24. They offer both a cloud and on-premise option. Upgrading to a paid version of Bitrix24 will give you access to increased online storage, chat-enabled sales with mobile payment processing, and increased support.

Best Cloud/Online:
Zoho One


My Apps
Leads
What We Like
Great value for included apps
Highly customizable CRM
AI-powered assistant
What We Don’t Like
Difficult to sync data between apps
Doesn’t include every Zoho app
Each app requires individual setup
Overview
Price Range: $$
Starting Price: $30/employee/month
Client OS: Web

Zoho One is a unified suite of business and productivity applications to manage your sales, marketing, customer support, HR, finance, and operations. The main draw of Zoho One is the 40 included business applications that are fully integrated with one another. Rather than purchasing Zoho products individually (such as Zoho Books and Zoho Inventory), Zoho One acts as a bundle, allowing you to have all of those applications unified under one system.

A benefit provided by a unified system includes the ability for one software to communicate data with another. One example includes when a sale has been made–your stock count should update to reflect what is left, and this will help your sales staff from overselling, or allow them to create a purchase order for more goods.

Zoho One stands out as the best cloud business management software due to the sheer number of both web apps and mobile apps it provides. Like other online business management software, users can access critical data on the go via mobile devices. However, many solutions may offer limited or no mobile access to their web based apps. Zoho is a solution that lets you access all of Zoho through one powerful mobile app.

Best for Task Management:
nTask

★★★★★
★★★★★
(3)

Projects
Task Management
Timesheet
Risk Tracking
What We Like
Powerful Gantt charts and Kanban boards
5GB+ storage
Free version for freelancers
What We Don’t Like
Can not attach photos to projects
Limited customization options
No premade templates
Overview
Price Range: $
Starting Price: $2.99/user/month
Client OS: Web, iOS, Android

nTask is a smart task management platform that is built around customer needs. nTask is primarily targeted towards teams, but will work for freelancers and sole proprietors as well. The solution includes tasks, projects, meetings, and timesheets.

List, grid, and calendar views let you easily sort through your open/pending tasks so you and your team know what needs to be prioritized. Priority levels can also help expedite projects and tasks that need more attention than others. If working in a team environment, project statuses can be adjusted to let others know what has not been started, what is in-progress, what needs review, and what has been completed. The Gantt chart feature will give you a visual way of looking into project status. This includes data points such as completion percentage, issues, risks, and costs.

nTask does have a free version available that acts as a great way to test the program out. All versions of nTask include a 14-day free trial, and their most basic paid option starts at only $2.99/user/month, proving that it’s one of the most inexpensive options out there for task management.

All Products

No products found
ProofHub Screenshot

ProofHub

★★★★★
★★★★★
(1)
ProofHub is a project management and project planning tool that lets you plan, collaborate, organize, and deliver projects of all sizes on time. This is accomplished through Kanban boards, custom workflows, gantt charts, task lists, user permissions, and…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$45/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Scoro Screenshot

Scoro

★★★★★
★★★★★
(2)
Scoro is an all-in-one business management software that brings together your sales, projects, and reports together. The solution helps your business prepare high quality work by planning, scheduling, and tracking all of your projects in one place. Entire…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$26/user/month
Client OS
Web, iOS, Android
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
nTask Screenshot

nTask

★★★★★
★★★★★
(3)
nTask is an online collaboration platform for smart teams looking for project management. The free business management software provides Gantt charts, task management, meeting agendas, time tracking, and issue management. nTask allows for over 1,000…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$2.99/user/month
Client OS
Web, iOS, Android
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Bitrix24 Screenshot

Bitrix24

★★★★★
★★★★★
(4)
Bitrix24 is a business management software providing a unified approach to communications, tasks and projects, CRM, contact management, and website creation. Bitrix24 is available on-premise and on a private cloud. Calendar; Reminders; and Group chat…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$69/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Thryv Screenshot

Thryv

★★★★★
★★★★★
(1)
Thryv is a small business management software that helps automate tasks and better serve your customers. The features provided help you reach more customers, stay organized, get paid faster, and automatically generate reviews. Thryv helps combine all of…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Client OS
Web, iOS, Android
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Knack Screenshot

Knack

★★★★★
★★★★★
(2)
Knack is a free business management software for small businesses. Knack lets you manage your accounting, CRM, and projects all from one location. Knack can also provide a level of automation with their premium version at an affordable cost for all types…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$4/user/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Striven Screenshot

Striven

★★★★★
★★★★★
(8)
Striven is a business management software providing all-in-one functionality for your CRM, operations management, accounting, and human resource needs. Striven acts as a cloud ERP solution to give you all tools necessary to run your business. Striven has…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$20/user/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Sage X3 Screenshot

Sage X3

★★★★★
★★★★★
(3)
Sage Business Cloud X3 (formerly Sage Business Cloud Enterprise) is the most powerful and flexible business management solution offered by Sage. It empowers mid-sized and larger companies within the manufacturing and distribution industries with the…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$4,500/user (perpetual license)
Client OS
Web, Windows
Deployment
Cloud or On-Premises
Industry Software Screenshot

Industry Software

★★★★★
★★★★★
(12)
Industry Software is an advanced modular software platform that provides industry specific software solutions to streamline workflows, surpass operational goals, automate repetitive tasks, and promote long-term growth & ample scaling. The main focus of…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Utiliko Screenshot

Utiliko

Utiliko is an all-in-one business management software that helps increase efficiency and profits through a single system. The user-friendly system automates repetitive tasks, avoids losing opportunities, automates collection emails, eliminates duplicate…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$29/user/month
Client OS
Web, iOS, Android
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Odoo Screenshot

Odoo

★★★★★
★★★★★
(15)
Odoo is the most installed business software in the world. Odoo is used by 2.000.000 users worldwide ranging from very small companies (1 user) to very large ones (300 000 users). Amongst the biggest references you can find: Odoo is the only software in…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud or On-Premises
NetSuite ERP Screenshot

NetSuite ERP

★★★★★
★★★★★
(17)
NetSuite ERP is a cloud-based, developer-hosted, cloud ERP software platform offered on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis. NetSuite advertises its ERP solution as “the world’s most deployed cloud ERP” solution. NetSuite ERP is used by over 40,000…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$99/user/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Apptivo Screenshot

Apptivo

Apptivo is a cloud-based business management software that helps grow with your business. The solution has a powerful CRM tool that tracks the complete sales process and closes more deals. The project management tool helps your team collaborate on tasks…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$8/user/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Flowlu Screenshot

Flowlu

Flowlu is an all-in-one business operating system. Flowlu offers all essential tools for efficient business management, from project & task management to sales & social collaboration. The solution handles projects, tasks, invoicing, finance, CRM, team…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$29/user/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Ivy Screenshot

Ivy

★★★★★
★★★★★
(1)
Ivy by Houzz is a business management platform created for design firms looking to manage a more efficient and profitable business. The software helps your design business source, invoice, purchase, and track all in one place. This is handled via product…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$59/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
zistemo Screenshot

zistemo

zistemo is a one-stop shop for tracking time, projects, and managing your business processes. The attendance time feature lets you handle vacation, flextime, and home office days for your employees. Project time tracking lets you know where you are at in…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$15/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Zoho One Screenshot

Zoho One

Zoho One is a bundled package from Zoho that provides an entire operating system for your business. This integrated system increased productivity and delivers better customer experience by combining a number of Zoho products into one unified system. Areas…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$30/employee/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Monday.com Screenshot

Monday.com

★★★★★
★★★★★
(4)
Monday.com lets you plan, organize, and track in one visual space. Monday.com lets you create a custom workflow so any team in your company can work on what they need the way that is easiest for them. With Monday.com, you can create dashboards to gain…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$8/user/month
Client OS
Web
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
Holded Screenshot

Holded

★★★★★
★★★★★
(1)
Holded is a business management software that acts as a business operating system for your company. Holded acts as a cloud ERP software that can help you increase sales, reduce expenses, and make better decisions. Accunting; Invoicing; CRM; Workforce…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$10/month
Client OS
Web, iOS, Android
Deployment
Cloud Hosted
SAP Business One Screenshot

SAP Business One

★★★★★
★★★★★
(10)
SAP Business One provides comprehensive business management capabilities for small and medium sized companies. This system provides integrated departmental support for finance, sales, supply chain management, production, project management, and production…
Price Range
   $     $     $     $     $   
   $     $     $     $     $   
Starting Price
$410/user/year
Client OS
Windows
Deployment
Cloud or On-Premises

We searched and searched, but we couldn’t find any products in our database that match your criteria. Perhaps our team of software experts can help? They’d be happy to provide a list of free business management software recommendations that meet your exact requirements.

Sort by 
Learn about sort options…
Filter by User Rating
Filter by Price Range
Learn about price ranges…
Filter by Deployment
Filter by Client OS
Russ Davidson
Last updated on October 26th, 2022
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
Business Management Software Buyer’s Guide

  • What Is Business Management Software?
  • Key Features
  • Primary Benefits
  • Pricing Guide

What Is Business Management Software?

Business management software is any solution that meets business needs via an integrated set of functionalities or business apps intended to automate and streamline your business process. Similar to ERP software, business management software will help you manage projects, create reports, manage clients, and overall increase productivity and provide analytics into how your business can improve in specific areas.

Business management software usually includes functionalities such as CRM, accounting, project management, and invoicing. As a business grows in size, they’ll need advanced functionalities such as human resource management, warehouse management, and more.

Business management software can be used by both small and large businesses. Whether your business has 2 employees or 50 employees, there is a business management software that is right for you. Many business management tools let you add users as time goes on, meaning the software can grow with your business.

Scoro Dashboard Business Management Software
The Scoro dashboard gives you an easy view of your business activities.

Features of Business Management Software

  • Invoicing: Create invoices detailing what products or services you’ve sold. Create custom invoices to show your company details, add due dates, any potential taxes or fees, and more. Give customers the ability to pay invoices online.
  • Accounting: Tracks financial transactions such as income and expense tracking through a general ledger (GL). Advanced options include tracking payments to vendors via accounts payable (AP) and keeps a customer database of payments received or still awaiting payment in accounts receivable (AR). Additional functionalities include payroll, billing, inventory management, and order management.
  • CRM: Customer relationship management via an integrated view of your customers and prospects so you can get the most out of your marketing, sales, and customer service efforts. Includes automation tools such as email marketing.
  • Project Management: Tracks real-time progress throughout a project lifecycle, task management via assigning tasks to specific employees, time tracking and pairing worked hours to specific workflows and projects, and clearly described project requirements within the system.
  • eCommerce: Integration with websites to provide an online store front. Let customers shop online, view prices, monitor deals, and have your goods delivered straight to their doorstep.
Bitrix24 Free Business Management Software
Bitrix24 is a free business management software that manages your projects and tasks.

Benefits of Business Management Software

A business management system can be whatever your business needs it to be; from accounting and project management, to a fully-integrated enterprise resource planning software.

Get Work Done Faster and Reduce Errors

Business management software will organize all of your information in an easy to find manner. This means less time spent searching for the correct information. Automation capabilities will also reduce whatever manual efforts are needed in order to create needed documents, print reports, and overall manage your business. This can also reduce mistakes and errors due to human error.

Knack Business Management Software Client Details
View client details in Knack.

Save Money

An indirect benefit of getting your work done faster is saving money. More automation and less mistakes means you don’t have to pay an employee to handle this work manually. You can also avoid outsourcing tasks to a 3rd party by bringing the functionality in-house.

Some businesses can avoid hiring an employee altogether, which saves thousands each year. For already-employed staff members spending a lot of time managing the business through manual processes, their time will now be better spent working on projects and other revenue-driving activities.

There is also the benefit of reduced IT costs. Using multiple software products to cover specific needs throughout your organization can increase the strain on your IT resources. When you consolidate multiple solutions into one integrated option, you can save on ongoing software costs.

Zoho One Dashboard
Zoho One is a large collection of applications for one simple price.

Monitor Productivity of Your Staff and Improve Decision-Making

Business management software lets owners and managers stay on top of employees of tracking the status of projects. Tasks assigned to employees via a project management module can be monitored to see how long employees are taking to handle time-sensitive tasks. Employees that are able to complete work faster can be assigned to more critical tasks, which can give a peace of mind that work will be completed on time.

Having a centralized place to monitor your projects ensures that management personnel can log in and review the status of projects. This eliminates the need to manually track down an employee and speak with them in person for a status update.

Striven Human Resources
Striven is a business management software with a human resource functionality.

Cost of Business Management Software

The price of business management software ranges from $4 to $99/month/user for a subscription-based pricing model. This is most commonly found in cloud-based or web-based business management tools, which are advertised as easy to implement with little to no upfront fees. On-premise solutions will cost as little as $995 one-time to $4,500/one-time/user.

The biggest determination of the cost of business management software will be the types of features needed and the number of desired users. If your business requires additional services, such as migrating your legacy data into the new software, or needs continued ongoing support, you may be looking at additional upfront or recurring costs.

Follow us on social media

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Blog

Why you can trust us

We don’t sell software. We don’t develop it, either. What do we do? We help you save time and money by reviewing great software.

Since 1996, we’ve focused on one thing: understanding project requirements, so we can make great software recommendations. Our directory, advice articles, and team of experts are all designed to help you make the best software decision possible. Read more about our company.

More Information

We Care About Your Privacy
We are committed to protecting the privacy of our visitors. Read our official privacy policy.

Partnership Opportunities
Do you develop or sell software? Let’s talk about how your product can solve the business needs of our visitors.

© 1997-2023 Software Connect