The startup tech stack: the dozen tools a new business runs on

Most new companies pick up their software one problem at a time. A founder signs up on a personal email address, pays with whichever card is handy and saves the password in a browser. Two years later nobody is sure who owns the domain, a former contractor still has admin rights, and the company pays for three tools that do the same job.

As a software engineer and CTO, I'd rather plan the stack once, early, than untangle it later. This guide lists the dozen tools a new business runs on, in the order you'll need them, with the free plan that's enough for now and the point where each one starts to cost money. It's the hub for our more detailed guides and comparisons, linked from each section.

The stack at a glance

Day one: a domain and email you control

The domain is the root of everything else. Your email, your website, your logins to every other tool and your customers' trust all hang off it. Register it in the company's name, on an account the company owns, with two-factor authentication turned on. Never leave it in a freelancer's or a former cofounder's account.

Cloudflare Registrar charges what the registry and ICANN charge it, with no markup on registration or renewal.^⁠[1] That matters less in year one than in year five, when renewal prices at some registrars climb well above the first-year offer. Our guide to choosing a name and domain covers trademark checks and which extensions to buy.

Email on that domain comes next. There are three levels:

• Forwarding only. Cloudflare Email Routing forwards mail sent to your domain to an inbox you already have, free.^⁠[2] It only receives and forwards, so replies come from your personal address unless you set up sending separately. Fine for a solo founder testing an idea.
• A free mailbox. Zoho Mail's Forever Free plan hosts email for one domain and up to five users, with 5GB each, but leaves out IMAP, POP and ActiveSync, so you use Zoho's own web and mobile apps.^⁠[3]
• A paid suite. Google Workspace Business Starter is $7 per user a month on an annual plan and adds calendars, Drive and Meet.^⁠[4] Microsoft 365 is the equivalent for teams that live in Outlook and Excel.

Our guide to business email on your own domain compares these with the DNS records each needs.

A website that's enough for now

A new business needs a fast, clear site with a handful of pages much more than it needs a clever one. Founders who aren't developers usually do best with a visual builder.

Framer's free plan publishes to a Framer subdomain with 1GB of bandwidth a month. A custom domain starts on its Basic plan at $10 a month.^⁠[5] Webflow's free Starter plan publishes to a webflow.io address with two static pages, 1GB of bandwidth and 50 form submissions, and its Basic plan with a custom domain is $15 a month billed yearly.^⁠[6] Either free plan is fine for building and testing, but a business site belongs on its own domain, so plan on the paid tier at launch.

Framer and Webflow are compared in detail, and our startup website checklist covers the pages, legal notices and analytics a first site needs. If you'd rather host the site yourself, managed hosting or a VPS explains the trade-off.

Money: banking, accounting and payments

Open a business bank account as soon as the company exists, and never mix business and personal money. Both Mercury and Relay have plans with no monthly fee.^⁠[7],[8] Relay's free Starter plan includes up to 20 checking accounts, which suits founders who budget by splitting money into buckets. Mercury suits startups paid by wire and founders outside the US. Our comparison of Mercury, Relay and Bluevine covers fees, interest and cash deposits.

Accounting software should connect to that account from the start. Zoho Books's free plan covers businesses with revenue under $50,000 a year and includes bank reconciliation.^⁠[9] Wave's free Starter plan has unlimited invoices but no automatic bank import.^⁠[10] The full comparison is in our guide to free accounting software.

For taking payments, Stripe charges per transaction with no monthly fee. A domestic card payment in the US costs 2.9% plus 30 cents.^⁠[11] If you mostly send invoices, an invoicing tool that accepts cards and ACH may suit you better, and our invoicing software comparison works through the fees.

Customers: a CRM and a newsletter

A spreadsheet tracks your first few dozen conversations. After that, a CRM records every contact and email automatically and reminds you to follow up. HubSpot's free CRM covers two users, and paid Starter seats are listed at $20 a month.^⁠[12] Attio's free plan covers three seats.^⁠[13] Our guide to choosing a first CRM covers what to set up first, and founder-led sales covers the weekly routine it supports.

If you plan to publish, start the email list early. Kit's free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers.^⁠[14] This site's own newsletter runs on Kit, and the newsletter platform comparison explains why.

The team: docs, tasks and passwords

Pick one place for written knowledge and tasks before the second person joins, or you'll end up with notes in five apps.

Notion's free plan is unlimited for one person, but limits blocks once a second member joins. It also caps uploads at 5MB a file and keeps seven days of page history. Plus is $10 per member a month.^⁠[15] ClickUp's Free Forever plan allows unlimited members and tasks but only 60MB of storage, and its Unlimited plan is $7 per user a month billed annually or $10 monthly.^⁠[16] Notion leans toward documents, ClickUp toward project management. Notion and ClickUp are compared for teams under ten.

A password manager is the one tool I'd pay for before it feels necessary. Shared logins in a chat thread or a spreadsheet are how small companies lose accounts. Bitwarden has a free personal plan, and its Teams plan is $4 per user a month billed annually.^⁠[17] 1Password's Teams Starter Pack covers up to 10 members for $24.95 a month billed annually, and its Business plan is $8.99 per user a month.^⁠[18] Our comparison of password managers for small teams covers sharing and admin controls.

Set three rules when you set it up. Every company account uses a company email address, never a personal one. Two-factor authentication is on for email, the bank, the domain and anything with customer data. When someone leaves, their access is removed the same day, from a list you keep in the password manager.

Automation, once the busywork repeats

Don't automate in the first month. Wait until you've done the same task by hand enough times to know exactly what it should do, such as copying a form entry into the CRM or posting new sales to a team channel.

Zapier's free plan includes 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps, one trigger and one action. Its Professional plan starts at $19.99 a month billed annually, with 750 tasks.^⁠[19] Make charges in credits and is usually cheaper for multi-step automations. Our comparison of Make, Zapier and Pabbly works out the cost per thousand tasks. For an internal tool or a first product without code, Bubble, Softr and Glide are compared too.

Later: payroll and the rest

Payroll waits until the first employee. Then it stops being optional, because withholding, filings and state registrations start with the first paycheck. Gusto's single-state Simple plan is $49 a month plus $6 per person.^⁠[20] Our guide to hiring your first employee covers the steps around it.

Plenty of other tools will come, such as scheduling links, e-signature, a help desk and analytics. Add each one when a real problem appears, and ask whether something you already pay for does the job first.

What a five-person stack costs

Here is a realistic paid stack for a five-person company, at list prices mostly billed annually. Prices change, so check each vendor before you buy.

The domain adds a small yearly fee. Payment processing scales with revenue, and payroll with headcount, so neither belongs in a fixed monthly budget. The point of the table is the order of magnitude. A small team's software should cost less than a single day of one person's time each month. If yours costs much more, look for tools that overlap.

Choosing tools you won't have to untangle later

• The company owns every account. Sign up with a company address and pay with a company card. A tool tied to a founder's personal email is a problem waiting for the day that founder leaves.
• Check the exit before you commit. Make sure you can export your data in a format another tool can import. CSV for contacts and transactions, Markdown or HTML for documents.
• One tool per job. Two task managers or two CRMs means half the information is always in the other one.
• Monthly billing until month six. Annual plans save money once you know you'll keep a tool. Before that, the flexibility is worth more.
• Count seats before you add people. Per-seat pricing is the usual way a cheap stack becomes an expensive one. Give occasional users guest or viewer access where the tool allows it.
• Write it down. Keep a list of every tool, its owner, its plan, its renewal date and who has admin access. It takes ten minutes and makes the first security review, audit or acquisition far easier.