Software Alternatives – AppSumo Blog https://blog.appsumo.com The Place for Entrepreneurs Fri, 24 Mar 2023 09:08:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3 https://blog.appsumo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/as-blog-taco-1-300x300.png Software Alternatives – AppSumo Blog https://blog.appsumo.com 32 32 DocuSign Alternatives That Are Changing the Game in 2023 https://blog.appsumo.com/docusign-alternatives/ Fri, 16 Dec 2022 11:00:05 +0000 https://blog.appsumo.com/?p=6876 Getting digital signatures is pretty straightforward, right?

Well, that’s what I thought… until I tried out some e-signature solutions for this article. And what I found was a whole wide world of e-signature programs beyond the beloved DocuSign. A world where you can build and customize documents that can improve your sales process and customer experience.

Join me for a quick tour of the land of DocuSign alternatives where you’ll find some solutions that might just change the way you think about electronic signatures.

Overview of DocuSign

Overview of DocuSign

In the world of electronic signature solutions, DocuSign is the industry leader. Since it came on the scene in 2003, it’s been a pioneer of e-signature technology, changing the way companies prepare, sign, and manage signed agreements. DocuSign has over 500,000 paying customers and hundreds of millions of users across 180 countries.

With features like sign from anywhere, reusable templates, and instant status visibility as well as 350+ integrations, DocuSign is full of benefits. The Personal Plan is $10/month for a single user who only sends five documents each month. The Standard ($25/month) and Business Pro ($40/month) plans offer more users and features..

It’s easy to see why companies like Facebook, Apple, Uber, and Visa use DocuSign. The product goes beyond electronic signature management to include a suite of applications like contract lifecycle management, document generation and negotiation, contract analytics, and more.

…which is great IF you have a big enterprise organization that needs all of that. But if you’re a solopreneur, small business owner, agency owner, or working with a team that doesn’t need all the bells and whistles then DocuSign may not be the best solution for you.

Let’s dive into some DocuSign alternatives that might be more up your alley if you’re looking for something a little more simple yet still feature-packed.

13 top Docisign alternatives

1. Adobe Sign

DocuSign alternatives - Adobe Sign

Well known for its creativity software, Adobe offers Adobe Sign through Adobe Acrobat Pro DC with e-sign. This solution may be one of the easiest DocuSign alternatives to use as you can send, track, and collect electronic signatures with a click, tap, and swipe. As a part of Adobe Acrobat DC, the e-sign feature is included as part of the entire solution, which allows you to create and edit PDFs while collaborating with others.

Main Features:

  • Send, track, and collect legally binding e-signatures, including bulk signatures
  • Automatic reminders and notifications
  • Customize branding and logos
  • Collect payments and signatures on same form
  • Workflow designer tool to create error-proof signature processes
  • User authentication with automated ID-based signer identity verification
  • Integrates with Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Dropbox, Salesforce, Workday, and more
  • Security compliance with ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, and PCI DSS

Price: Plans start at $9.99/month per license

Who should use Adobe Sign: Any individual or organization already using Adobe Acrobat DC for PDF creation or organizations that want to include payment processing on the same form as e-signatures.

2. DottedSign

DottedSign AppSumo deal

Another DocuSign alternative you might consider is DottedSign. It’s a tool that exists to help you quickly and securely sign your contracts and agreements–right from your mobile device or computer.

One of the most important aspects of any digital signing tool is security. DottedSign uses TLS/SSL, AES-256, and RSA-2048 encryption protocols, as well as digital certificates issued by an AATL-supported CA.

DottedSign also goes beyond mere security, with features to help you stay productive. You can track each signer’s progress in real-time.

Main features:

  • Use across your favorite devices
  • Receive notifications and reminders to keep yourself (and other signers) on task
  • Track real-time document signing progress
  • Cloud-based storage and access
  • View, sort (by signed, not yet signed, etc.), and engage with all your docs in one place

Price: DottedSign is available in four pricing tiers: Free, Pro ($8/month), Business ($15/month), or Enterprise (Custom Quote). You can also purchase a year-long deal on AppSumo for $40.

Who should use DottedSign: DottedSign is ideal for remote teams, sales managers, and small businesses.

3. Grabsign

Grabsign AppSumo deal

Grabsign is an easy-to-use digital signing tool. The tool combines a simple interface for requesting and signing documents, as well as a cloud-based dashboard for storing and organizing important files. Grabsign allows you to quickly upload and convert documents for signing.

Grabsign also includes tools made specifically for business owners–especially those with service businesses. For example, Grabsign allows you to save contracts as templates for future use. You can also add contacts and communicate with them from within the app, making it easy to collaborate on documents with your team.

Main features:

  • Manage the documents of multiple brands
  • Easy cloud-based dashboard for storing and organizing documents
  • Track real-time document signing progress
  • Send contracts via email or link for signatures
  • View any document’s history to see who viewed it, how and when it was changed, and when it was generated

Price: Grabsign is available in four pricing tiers: Free, Starter ($14/month), Standard ($35/month), or Business ($79). You can also grab a year-long deal on AppSumo for $69.

Who should use Grabsign: Grabsign is ideal for accountants, consultants, and real estate professionals.

3. AltoSign

DocuSign alternatives - Alto Sign

AltoSign is one of the only DocuSign alternatives on our list that’s totally free. This web-based solution lets you sign any PDF document online for free. With drag-and-drop functionality, it really could not be any easier to sign your PDF documents. While this option may not be ideal for enterprises, it’s perfect for individuals who need to sign the occasional PDF.

Main Features:

  • Use on web, Chrome, Windows, Mac preview, and with Adobe Acrobat reader
  • Drag-and-drop document upload
  • Type or draw your signature using the mouse
  • QR code scan for signing on mobile device
  • Unlimited cloud storage
  • 24/7/365 support

Price: Free

Who should use AltoSign: Individuals who need a quick and free way to add legally binding signatures to PDF documents.

4. DocHub

DocuSign alternatives - DocHub

DocHub is more than an e-signature solution. It also allows you to edit PDFs and create PDF forms and reusable templates. DocHub is ideal for those who just need something simple and affordable but also want to edit PDFs. If you don’t all the bells and whistles (or hundreds of integrations), then DocHub may be the best alternative.

Main Features:

  • Legally binding e-signatures
  • Import document straight from inbox
  • Drag-and-drop your signature
  • Request signatures or completed forms from recipients
  • Workflows for multiple signers
  • Authentication details recorded
  • Batch/bulk document signing (coming soon)

Price: Free plan available. Pro plan $4.99 per month/user, billed annually.

Who should use DocHub: Individuals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners looking for a simple and affordable e-signature solution with PDF editing capabilities

5. eversign

DocuSign alternatives - eversign

Brought to you from Vienna, eversign is an electronic signature solution that guides you through setting up workflows and signing documents. While this DocuSign competitor doesn’t have any surprising features, it is intuitive and easy to use. It’s also very affordable with a free plan for up to five documents per month, making it ideal for those with low volumes or small teams.

Main Features:

  • Legally binding e-signatures
  • Draw, type, or upload signature
  • Secure storage for eversign documents.
  • Document editor for existing PDF documents
  • Detailed audit trail containing names, email, IP addresses, and time stamps
  • Contract or form templates
  • Create teams of up to 25 members
  • Contact management with contact profiles
  • Fully featured JSON-based REST API
  • Integrates with Google Docs, Zoho, Dropbox, Salesforce, and more

Price: Free plan available Paid plans start at $9.99/month per user.

Who should use eversign: If you have a low volume of documents or a small team and need an affordable, reliable, easy-to-use solution.

6. Formstack Sign

DocuSign alternatives - FormStack Sign

Formstack Sign helps organizations simplify their workflows. Templates and a drag-and-drop builder help save time and customized branding provides a more seamless experience. With 100+ integrations, Formstack Sign can be integrated into your current workflows, allowing for powerful automations.

Main Features:

  • Unlimited legally binding e-signatures on every plan
  • SMS signing
  • Templates and drag-and-drop document setup
  • Add logo and other customized branding like redirecting to landing page after signing
  • Supports any file type, including PDFs, JPEGs, PNGs, and Microsoft documents
  • Automatic backup and storage
  • Legally compliant audit trails
  • Integrates with Gmail, Outlook, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Stripe, PayPal, and more
  • Custom data retention and custom geographical data centers
  • API available

Price: Plans start at $16/month per user

Who should use Formstack Sign: Those using other Formstack programs, need SMS texting, or need a platform with API access.

7. HelloSign

DocuSign alternatives - hellosign

Now a Dropbox company, HelloSign is one of the most popular DocuSign alternatives. And it’s easy to see why. Trusted by Instacart and Vote.org, HelloSign offers flexible signer flows and team management while integrating with all the systems you’re already using like Gmail, Google Drive, Salesforce, HubSpot, Evernote, Slack, and Dropbox. With affordable plans and tons of features, HelloSign packs a powerful punch

Main Features:

  • Legally binding electronic signatures
  • Integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Salesforce, and more
  • Templates to save time on frequent documents
  • Customized branding with colors and logo
  • Advanced team management with user permissions
  • Signer attachments can be required
  • Embed e-signatures on website, applications, and platforms
  • White-labeling with the HelloSign API

Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $15/month per user

Who should use HelloSign: Organizations that will put all the features to use or those that want a powerful API for e-signatures

8. OneSpan Sign

DocuSign alternatives - OneSpan Sign

Trusted by big brands like U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, BMW, and RBC, OneSpan Sign offers a flexible and scalable solution for e-signatures. With multiple deployment options — on public cloud, private cloud, on premises, or a combination — it offers a lot of options for businesses where they are now but also in the future.

Main Features:

  • Legally binding electronic signatures on web or from mobile devices
  • Forms and reusable templates to save time
  • User attachments and role-based signing rules and permissions
  • Vendor-independent audit trails
  • White-label solution with customized branding
  • User account verification through email, SMS, and Q&A
  • Signer authentication through personal digital certificates, derived credentials, facial and fingerprint biometrics and more
  • Integrates with Salesforce, SharePoint, Dropbox, and more
  • SOC 2 Type II security audit, FedRAMP Cloud compliant, HIPAA compliant

Price: Request pricing

Who should use OneSpan Sign: Enterprises that need a white-label solution for electronic signatures and companies that need a range of user verification options.

9. PandaDoc

DocuSign alternatives - PandaDoc

PandaDoc is trusted by over 20,000 companies including Hilton and Drift, and positions itself as a powerful sales tool to streamline your sales workflows and speed up the sales process while delivering an excellent buying experience. With drag-and-drop functionality, you can quickly build branded sales proposals in minutes — making it ideal for sales teams that want to kick it up a notch.

Main Features:

  • Unlimited legally binding e-signatures with free plan
  • Drag-and-drop document builder for customized proposals in minutes
  • Automate signing workflows for review, approval, and more
  • Public or custom templates for proposals, contracts, and more
  • Accept payment via PayPal, credit card, or ACH
  • Collaborate with internal and external reviewers
  • Track engagement and get email and mobile notifications when recipient takes an action
  • Audit trails show every stage of the document
  • Integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Google Drive, QuickBooks, Canva, and more

Price: Free plan available with paid plans starting at $19/month per user.

Who should use PandaDoc: Sales teams that need a drag-and-drop proposal builder with digital signature integration or those that want a powerful free option

10. RightSignature

DocuSign alternatives - RighSignature

Acquired by Citrix Systems in 2014, RightSignature offers easy ways to deliver documents and get legally binding signatures. This solution is quick to set up and integrate into your existing workflows, making it a great option for those not technically inclined. RightSignature has customized plan options to accommodate your needs, making it one of the most flexible options on this list.

Main Features:

  • Legally binding electronic signatures, including handwritten signatures
  • Upload existing documents and create fillable forms with automatic field detection
  • Professional, customized branding on documents
  • Works on any device — PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, and more
  • Multi-party signing
  • Batch document sending
  • Team collaboration options
  • Secured with full audit log, biometric data capture, and 256-bit SSL encryption
  • Personalized plans and pricing available for all budgets

Price: Plans start at $12/month for one user.

Who should use Right Signature: Organizations that want a customized plan with specific features or those who need security features like biometric data capture.

11. SignEasy

DocuSign alternatives - SignEasy

As the name implies, SignEasy makes it easy for businesses to send and sign documents. While most software on this list is pretty intuitive, SignEasy offers one of the most simple and quick user experiences. But don’t mistake this for a lack of features or functionality. SignEasy has all of the features that the average entrepreneur would need from an e-signature solution.

Main Features:

  • Legally binding signature, compliant with ESIGN Act and eIDAS
  • Smooth signature interface for hand-written signatures
  • Sequential and parallel signing
  • Document progress tracking with status notification
  • Send reminders to signers
  • Add text, images, initials, annotations, and checkboxes to document
  • Works for docs in multiple file formats, including PDF, Word, JPG, PNG, and more
  • Integrates with Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, Gmail, Zoho, and more
  • Digital audit trail for evidence of email, device, IP, document fingerprint, and timestamp
  • Advanced security features like passcode and fingerprint authentication
  • Available in 24 languages including Spanish, French, German, Arabic, and more

Price: Plans start at $12/month for one user.

Who should use SignEasy: Entrepreneurs looking for a simple, affordable option that’s still packed with features and offers great support.

12. signNow

DocuSign alternatives - signnow

With millions of users and award-winning customer support, signNow offers an enterprise-grade e-signature solution that works for businesses of all sizes. This DocuSign alternative scores higher than many similar solutions in user reviews on G2 and Capterra. With affordable plan options, signNow offers small business owners and solopreneurs a feature-rich solution that won’t break the bank.

Main Features:

  • Legally binding digital signature on any device
  • Create web forms and e-signature documents on the web
  • Contract management tools to access and track forms and contracts
  • Dynamic workflow building and automation in a single workspace
  • Negotiate and collaborate on contracts right in the solution
  • Embedded payment system where recipients can sign and pay at the same time
  • API for integrating the e-signature solution into your site or CRM
  • PCI DSS certification, SOC 2 Type II certification, and compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, and 21 CFR Part 11.

Price: Plans start at $8/month per user.

Who should use signNow: Organizations that need to comply with HIPAA or PCI DSS or those that want to build complex signing workflows.

13. SignRequest

DocuSign alternatives - signrequest

SignRequest aims to facilitate growth by giving businesses the tools they need to save time and resources while increasing conversions with digital signatures. This DocuSign alternative is one of the most affordable on this list, and their free forever plan is also one of the best on this list, making it ideal for entrepreneurs on a limited budget. Need another reason to choose SignRequest? For every license you purchase, they plant a tree.

Main Features:

  • Legally binding e-signatures from any device
  • Signing order for multiple signatures
  • Team accounts where you can collaborate on documents
  • Sharable public signing link for many signers on one document
  • Customizable branding
  • Automations like templates, reminders, and notifications
  • Integrates with your own website, CMS, or CRM
  • Supports document attachments
  • Integrates with Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, Zapier, Salesforce, and more
  • 256 bit AES encryption and ISO 27001 certification.

Price: Free plans available with paid plans starting at $9/month per user.

Who should use SignRequest: Individuals and businesses looking for a simple solution that can collect signatures from multiple signers on one document (like petitions).

How to choose the best DocuSign alternative

The best DocuSign alternative for you will depend on the features you need most and, of course, your budget. There are many budget-friendly, feature-rich options on this list that will make a fine alternative to industry-giant, DocuSign. Test out a few for yourself to see which one you like best from a user standpoint.

If most of the docs you send to be signed are proposals, then you may be interested in our post on the Top 10 Proposal Software Tools for Agencies and Freelancers, where we compare proposal software. (DocuSign alternative PandaDoc makes an appearance!)

And if you’re on the hunt for deals on other SaaS products for entrepreneurs, keep an eye on our AppSumo deals. We may just feature the next DocuSign one day!

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16 Best Canva Alternatives for Easy Graphic Design in 2023 https://blog.appsumo.com/canva-alternatives/ Thu, 15 Dec 2022 12:00:44 +0000 https://blog.appsumo.com/?p=3677 Canva may be the most popular graphic design platform for non-designers, but even it has its flaws.

In this guide, let’s look at 15 top Canva alternatives sorted according to their use case, best features, potential limitations, and pricing.

Canva overview

Canva dashboard

Canva is one of the most widely-used DIY design tools.

It boasts a massive library of beautiful templates and layouts to create images for your website, presentations, and social media channels.

But no software is completely flawless.

Users looking for Canva alternatives cite reasons like poor print quality and overused templates that seemingly appear everywhere.

Top Canva alternatives 2023

1. Best for custom graphics: Mega Creator

Mega Creator Collage

Mega Creator offers 100,000+ cutouts made from photos and 1,500+ photographic backgrounds that are taken in similar environments. They easily match each other, so you can combine them to create a personalized image, that can’t be found anywhere else on the web.

Best features:

  • Built-in graphic assets: Mega Creator features thousands of unique photos, illustrations, and icons right in the editor
  • Templates: There are 300+ social media graphic templates for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more

Limitations:

  • All the templates and graphic assets are available only with a paid subscription. Otherwise, they will be watermarked

Free trial: 3 days

Pricing: Premium plan costs $9 per month or $89 per year with up to 100 assets per month to use in Mega Creator.

2. Best for small businesses: Pixstudio

Wondershare Pixstudio AppSumo deal

PixStudio is a drag-and-drop design tool that empowers even non-designers to create stylish graphics in minutes. You can start from scratch or with the help of one of their pre-made templates. The templates are even categorized (Instagram Post, Logo Maker, Business Card, etc.) to help you find the right structure for your project.

Design logos, social media graphics, YouTube thumbnails, and more. Your best designs are just a few clicks away.

Best features:

  • Background remover: Quickly remove the background on any image using a single click
  • Vector graphics: Fully customize your design with PixStudio elements library, and make your design work outstanding., including thousands of vector graphics

Limitations:

  • The paid plans cap your cloud storage to 1 GB

Free trial: Yes. Free plan users can access the templates and photos, as well as download their graphics using multiple format options.

Pricing: You can choose between PixStudio’s free and premium plans. The premium plan starts at $9.99 billed monthly or you can get its annual deal at AppSumo for $59.88.

3. Best for vector graphics: Drawtify

canva alternative - Drawtify

Source: Drawtify

Drawtify is more than a Canva alternative for graphic design. Not only can you use it to create marketing graphics and social media content, but its vector editor also lets you create custom vector logos, infographics, and more.

Best features:

  • Vector editor: Drawtify’s CorelDRAW-eque editor lets you create SVG, illustrations, vector logos, icons, unique fonts, and more
  • Motions graphics editor: Create eye-catching motions like blink, rotate, and fade in

Limitations:

  • Occasional inconsistent performance (e.g., slow exporting, screen glitches)

Free trial: No

Pricing:

  • Free: $0 with 100% vector editor, built-in barcode generator, special effects, and more
  • Monthly: $14.99.month with everything in Free + design templates, watermark removal, and more

Grab the Drawtify lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $79.90.

4. Best for Adobe users: Adobe Express 

canva alternative - Adobe Express

Source: Adobe

Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark) is your trusted design sidekick.

Users get to enjoy the entire royalty-free stock photo and font collection and thousands of gorgeous templates. Since this design app is part of the Adobe ecosystem, you can seamlessly use Photoshop and Premiere within one platform.

Best features:

  • Adobe ecosystem: Reverse your videos and convert them to GIFs using Premiere and convert your JPG files to PNG via Photoshop without leaving the Adobe ecosystem
  • Templates: Adobe actively adds new templates to support more local events and seasonal moments

Limitations:

  • Templates are still limited compared to competitors
  • Image background removal tool doesn’t always work
  • Software occasionally glitches which makes it difficult to save your work

Free trial: 30 days

Pricing:

  • Free: $0 with basic editing and effects, 2GB storage, thousands of templates, and more
  • Premium: $9.99/month with everything in Free + 100GB storage, premium templates, and more

5. Best for quick creation: Picmaker

canva alternative - Picmaker

Source: Picmaker

Picmaker is an AI-based graphic design platform that lets you create eye-catching designs across 70+ categories, including YouTube thumbnails, Instagram posts, and Twitter ads.

It has tons of ready-made design templates, 100 million stock images, 100,000+ icons, a custom brand kit, and many other powerful features.

It enables even non-designers to effortlessly create social media designs, logos, memes, flyers, posters, invitations, and certificates in minutes!

Finally, its artificial intelligence-based MAD button lets you choose from a staggering mix of templates, colors, fonts, and pictures.

Best features:

  • MAD Button: Automatically create unique designs in a click
  • Online Sticker Maker: Convert your custom pictures or stock photos into stickers
  • Online Background Remover: Remove image backgrounds based on AI-powered layers and elements suggestions
  • Value for money: Canva charges you for what Picmaker gives for free (e.g., remove background, customer support)

Limitations:

  • No video or MP4 integrations—Picmaker requires users to use its sister tool, Animaker, to create animations and live action videos

Free trial: No

Pricing:

  • Free: $0 with 10,000+ premium templates, 2GB of cloud storage, and more
  • Starter: $9.95/month with everything in Free + one-click background removal, 15GB of cloud storage, and more
  • Pro: $25/month with everything in Starter + custom branded templates, 30GB of cloud storage, and more
  • Enterprise: Custom with everything in Pro + 24/7 support, unlimited storage, and more

6. Best for professional charts and graphs: Piktochart

canva alternative- Piktochart

Source: YouTube

Piktochart’s specialty is helping you create your own charts, graphics, and infographics with its library of data visualization templates.

This graphic design tool’s niche is easy-to-use data visualization tools, but it also offers templates for creating your own social media images and presentation slides.

Granted, it doesn’t offer all of the same capabilities as Canva, but there are more professional data visualization templates and capabilities if that’s the kind of visual content you create most often.

Best features:

  • Templates & Assets: Piktochart offers unlimited professional templates, stock photos, illustrations, and icons even for free users
  • Piktochart Video: Automatically transcribes your videos and adds subtitles in over 60 languages
  • Data Visualization & Analytics: Piktochart also provides unlimited charts and maps and traffic data in all plans

Limitations:

  • Only 100MB cloud storage in free plan
  • Only five projects and one folder in free plan, which can get expensive and unsustainable for budget-strapped businesses
  • Limited chart and map designs

Free trial: No

Pricing:

  • Free: $0 with watermark removal, 100MB of cloud storage, and more
  • Pro: $19/user per month when billed annually with everything in Free + custom team templates, 100 GB of cloud storage, and more
  • Enterprise: Custom with personalized onboarding, 200GB of cloud storage, and more

7. Best for social media marketing: Snappa

canva alternative - snappa

Source: Snappa

Snappa is an intuitive graphic design tool that offers plenty of design templates, royalty-free images, and the ability to upload your own branded images to include in your designs.

One key feature that sets Snappa apart from many Canva alternatives is the ability to share your designs directly to social media without leaving the platform.

Best features:

  • Intuitive: Snappa is incredibly easy to use, so much so that it’s a favorite among top marketers like Sujan Patel (Mailshake) and Olga Andrienko (SEMrush)
  • Integration with Buffer: Schedule your social media posts within the graphics editor, thanks to its tight Buffer integration
  • Photos and templates: Snappa often adds over a thousand new photos daily and new templates every week

Limitations:

  • Free plan lacks many features (e.g., three downloads per month and unable to share images on social media)

Free trial: No

Pricing:

  • Starter: $0 with 3 downloads per month
  • Pro: $15/month with unlimited downloads, custom font uploads, social media integrations, and more
  • Team: $30/month with everything in Pro + 5 users and team collaboration

8. Most ideal for WordPress users: Stencil

canva alternative - Stencil

Source: Stencil

Stencil is a lightweight Canva alternative that makes it easy to create images for your website or social channels on the fly.

It has different browser extensions so you can easily highlight text or capture an image to pull it into your design creations, and it boasts more than 100,000 different quotes you can choose from to add to social media graphics.

But its best feature, hands down, is its WordPress plugin that allows you to edit your photos without leaving the blogging platform.

Best features:

  • Browser extensions: Right-click any image and highlight text from the web and pull it instantly on Stencil using the Chrome or Firefox extension
  • Facebook Ad Grid: Check if your Facebook Ad image has less than 20% text directly on Stencil before publishing it
  • WordPress plugin: Edit visuals as you write your blog posts or pages without leaving the platform

Limitations:

  • Only 1,350+ templates available, which is a stark difference from other Canva alternatives like Picmaker
  • Limited fonts
  • Interface can run slow when highlighting longer text

Free trial: No, but there’s a 7-day money back guarantee

Pricing:

  • Free: $0 with up to 10 images saving per month and more
  • Pro: $15/month with up to 50 images saving per month, logos/watermarks, and more
  • Unlimited: $20/month with everything in Pro + unlimited imaging savings per month and more

9. Best for business branding: Wepik

Wepik online templates

Source: Wepik

Wepik by Freepik is the perfect partner for your small business’s easy branding.

Thousands of ready-to-use templates that users can personalize, thanks to a very intuitive editing tool. Menus for restaurants, invoices for companies, and images for all social media platforms are just a click away!

Wepik’s variety of content has been curated and produced by professionals, which translates into unmatched quality for both designers and editors alike. With limitless use of templates, a library of icons, a stock photo collection, and a diverse variety of fonts and typefaces. The archive of this editor is growing at a rapid pace.

It also has its own free mobile app, available for Android as well as iOS, including the same features and functionality as the desktop editor.

Best features:

  • Easy to use: With a few clicks, you’ll have picked, edited, and downloaded a professional design.
  • Freepik and Flaticon API connection: The vast majority of Wepik’s content is original, but many of Freepik and Flaticon’s resources can now be edited without any advanced graphic design knowledge or software, thanks to the online editor.
  • Background Remover: The star of all features, Wepik is one of the few editors that offer background removal easy and effortlessly, and above all, it’s free!

Limitations:

  • Only available in English
  • Template variety is still limited
  • No videos or animated content is currently available

Pricing: All features are available for free! Wepik doesn’t have a Premium version yet, meaning that it’s time to take full advantage of the free version.

10. Best for real-time collaboration: Venngage

canva alternative - Venngage

Source: Venngage

Venngage boasts a wide array of different templates for users to choose from.

Between social media images, cards and postcards, and reports and presentations, this Canva alternative is a great option for anyone with a wide variety of visual design needs.

Similar to Piktochart, Venngage’s primary use case is for data visualization and infographic content creation, so users will find limited templates in other content formats with plenty of infographic templates to choose from.

What sets both tools apart is that Venngage offers real-time collaboration.

Best features:

  • Real-Time Collaboration: Edit infographics with your team in real-time collaboration and gather feedback easily
  • Content: Venngage doesn’t use the Lorem Ipsum filler in its templates—it uses actual content which helps you visualize what information you need to include
  • Smart Features and Templates: Automatically generate slide layouts from text blocks, which saves time in rearranging your content

Limitations:

  • Limited free plan that requires you to upgrade to one of its most expensive plans (e.g., you need to get the Business plan to access real-time collaboration)
  • Occasional slow performance when arranging elements

Free trial: No

Pricing:

  • Free: $0 with 5 designs and more
  • Premium: $19/user per month with unlimited designs, PNG and high-res PNG exporting, and more
  • Business: $49/user per month with everything in Premium + real-time collaboration, brand kit, and more
  • Enterprise: $499+/month when billed annually for 10+ seats with everything in Business + multi-factor authentication, custom built features, and more

11. Best for photo editing: PicMonkey

canva alternative - PicMonkey

Source: Picmonkey

PicMonkey offers robust photo editing capabilities and allows users to do cool things with their images, including advanced editing, effects and filters, and making collages.

Because PicMonkey’s original use case was for photo editing, it’s not the best alternative to Canva if you plan to use it for creating images specifically for web and social media. But it offers some templates and design assets to use for that purpose.

Looking for a PickMonkey alternative? Check them out here.

Best features:

  • Smart Resize: Realign the elements in your images to fit the target dimensions without distorting your photo and text
  • Color Changer: Change the color of any object in your photos, whether it’s a t-shirt, hair, or nails

Limitations:

  • Basic plan lacks many features (e.g., no premium stock photo library and one-click background removal)
  • Editor not as robust as Canva
  • Unintutive user interface that requires a bit of digging to locate specific tools (e.g., Smart Resize is located at the top, not in the Edits menu)

Free trial: 7 days (excluding downloads and shares)

Pricing:

  • Basic: $7.99/monthly with 1GB of cloud storage, templates, touch up tools, and more
  • Pro: $12.99/monthly with everything in Basic + unlimited cloud storage, one brand kit, and more
  • Business: $23/monthly with everything in Pro + multiple brand kits, real-time co-editing, and more

12. Best for teams: Easil

canva alternative - Easil

Source: Easil

Easil offers some of the most advanced image editing capabilities among the Canva alternatives.

Users can upload their brand assets and make their own templates for other team members to create their own branded images, and print images from directly within the tool if needed.

This graphic design platform also offers excellent brand restrictions tools.

Best features:

  • Brand Restrictions: Control which parts of the design you want edited, which fonts to be used, and what images you want added, swapped, or removed
  • Brand Kit: Build a unique brand kit for every sub-team
  • Easil Edge Design Guarantee: Request a premium designed template and receive it within 21 days

Limitations:

  • Searching for specific designs might take a long time

Free trial: 30 days

Pricing:

  • Basic: $0 with 2,500+ templates, text effects, 1 million free stock images, and more
  • Plus: $7.50/user per month with everything in Basic + 10,000+ templates, design restrictions, and more
  • Edge: $59/user per month with everything in Plus + 20,000+ templates, priority support, and more
  • Enterprise: Custom with everything in Edge + custom branded portal, print production and distribution, and more

13. All-in-one: Visme

canva alternative - visme

Source: YouTube

Visme is among the most versatile of Canva alternatives. It allows users to create engaging presentations, infographics, documents, videos, graphics and everything in between.

The tool unifies the content creation process and provides easy-to-use templates, millions of images and thousands of icons, and over 50 charts and data widgets.

Plus you can add video or audio and embed most external content like WuFoo forms, slides from SlideShare, and Spotify. Editing and customization are a breeze, too.

Best features:

  • Video Maker: Visme’s all-in-one video maker includes royalty-free stock videos and animated assets and custom animation capabilities
  • Mockup Generator: Create mock-ups for brochures, mobile apps, paper bag packagings, postcards, polo shirts, and more
  • Collaboration: Resolve comments, circle on any part of the design to leave feedback, and tag teammates within Visme
  • Presentation: Create presentations and record yourself presenting with your notes on the left sidebar
  • Animation Interactivity: You can also create clickable menus and incorporate hover effects to boost engagement

Limitations:

  • Only 100MB storage in free plan
  • Templates can get complex and difficult to customize
  • Odd glitches (e.g., logs you out at random)

Free trial: No

Pricing:

  • Basic: $0 with 100MB storage, regular support, and more
  • Personal: $29/monthly with everything in Basic + 250GB storage, 24/7 email and chat support, full access to templates and assets, and more
  • Business: $59/user monthly with everything in Personal + 3GB storage, privacy controls, and more
  • Enterprise: Custom with everything in Business + 25GB storage, custom sub-domain, and more

14. Best for launches: Trakto

canva alternative -Trakto

Source: YouTube

Trakto is a beginner-friendly design editor that helps you create marketing and sales materials like presentations, social posts, ebooks, business cards, and GIFs.

Its best feature is the custom mini site builder, which builds a functional website with an automatically-generated QR code at the click of a button.

If you want to quickly build landing pages for exclusion promotions or product launches, check it out.

Best features:

  • Links: Create custom mini sites with subdomains and automatically-generated QR codes
  • Format: Create a document with multiple page formats without keeping track of a gazillion different files

Limitations:

  • Some parts of the website are in Brazilian which creates a language barrier
  • Asset uploading can be slow
  • Only 50MB storage for free users

Free trial: No

Pricing:

  • Free: $0 with 5 designs, 50MB storage, templates and fonts, and more
  • Premium: $9 (R$47) monthly with unlimited designs, 100GB storage, unlimited background removals, and more

15. Best for display banners: QwikBanners

canva alternative - QwikBanners

QwikBanners is the quickest banner maker for your display campaigns. It lets you generate multiple sizes of banners in seconds.

Not a designer? Fret not.

QwikBanners comes with a vast—and ever-growing—collection of high-converting templates that help you speed up your design. With QwikBanners, you also have access to millions of high-resolution stock images completely free for your use.

Best features:

  • Multi-banner generator: Generate ten sizes with a click, without using any coding or design skills
  • Unlimited downloads: Convert your banner into multiple variations with zero download restrictions

Limitations:

  • Fewer templates than Canva
  • No free plan and the free trial is only for one day

Free trial: 1 day with unlimited downloads

Pricing:

  • Lite: $10/month with 1 user login and unlimited downloads
  • Enterprise: Custom with everything in Lite + multi-user logins and more

Grab the QwikBanners lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $59.

16. Ideal for automation: Switchboard Canvas

canva alternative - Switchboard Canvas

Switchboard Canvas is a powerful bulk image automation tool.

Once you add this must-have tool in your tech stack, you no longer need to perform manual tasks. Switchboard Canvas helps you to resize your images without ruining the formatting. This also means that you can hide specific elements or show them at certain sizes.

Best features:

  • Batch processing: Create multiple sets of images at one go
  • Responsive images: Resize your images without ruining the format of the elements
  • Translator: Switchboard Canvas currently supports over 70 languages
  • Integrations: Offers integrations with tools like Airtable, Zapier, and Pabbly to automate your content creation

Limitations:

  • Unable to automate videos, though this could be in the works according to its roadmap
  • Downloads only in PNG
  • No free plan

Free trial: 14 days

Pricing:

  • Creator: $19/month with 1,000 API calls, QR codes, and more
  • Agency: $79/month with everything in Creator + 10,000 API calls, 3 sizes per call, and more
  • Enterprise: $299/month with everything in Agency + 100,000 API calls, 5 sizes per call, and more

Grab the Switchboard Canvas lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $69.

Get these top Canva alternatives at a steal

No matter what your goals are with creating visual content, one of these DIY design tools will help you save time and headaches when creating graphics for your business.

If you’re a content creator, marketer, or founder looking for more tools to grow your brand, check out AppSumo for affordable business tools.

FAQs

1. What is a free alternative to Canva?

Adobe Express, Picmaker, and Snappa, are a few free alternatives.

Most of the Canva alternatives in this list are free. Sign up for their free trial or free plan to see which fits your unique needs.

2. Is Canva or PicMonkey better?

Depends on your needs. If you need advanced photo editing capabilities, Picmonkey might be the better choice.

3. Is Canva bad for designers?

Designers often need to create custom assets from scratch, which makes Canva unsuitable for their needs. You should only use Canva if you have zero design skills and want access to pre-made templates.

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12 OBS Alternatives for Recording and Live Streaming in 2023 https://blog.appsumo.com/obs-alternative/ Tue, 13 Dec 2022 11:00:49 +0000 https://blog.appsumo.com/?p=9531 Open Broadcast Software (OBS) is one of the most popular tools for gameplay live streaming and recording. While it offers a lot of cool features for those who want professional quality, it can be a little much for casual users who want recording and live streaming capabilities for other things besides gaming.

We’ve put together a list of our top OBS alternatives for recording and live streaming with an option for everyone.

An overview of OBS

Open Broadcast Software was the first fully-featured, free, and open source software for gameplay recording and live streaming. OBS Studio has many features and settings for power users who want to create professional-grade productions.

OBS Studio offers high performance real-time video and audio capture and mixing. You can create scenes from multiple sources like window captures, text, browser windows, webcam, and more. The audio mixer has per-source filters like noise suppression and gain that give you a lot of control over the sound.

While OBS Studio is popular and widely used by gamers and livestreamers, it’s not for everyone. With all of its features and capabilities, it can have a bit of a learning curve, and you’ve got to be willing to put the time in to learn how to get the most out of it. So, if you don’t need anything beyond simple live streaming or game recording, you’re probably better off with an OBS alternative.

Top OBS alternatives for video recording and live streaming

Here are our favorite OBS alternatives for video recording and live streaming:

1. Streann Studio

Streann Studio AppSumo deal

Creating regular video content can require a lot of software and apps. Fortunately, Streann Studio pulls many of your favorite live streaming functions into a single browser-based tool.

Streann Studio allows you to stream live to your favorite platforms (including social media channels like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook). And of course, you can stream to all the major video channels like YouTube and Twitch. Stream Studio also provides you a dashboard of live video tools that enable you to edit and design during a live stream.

But not everything has to be live. You can also upload or record videos and schedule them to publish later.

Plus, Streann Studio offers a full suite of branding features. Add your logo. Change your background. Upload pre-made graphics that showcase your brand.

Who it’s best for: Streann Studio is ideal for content creators and influencers.

Price: Streann Studio has a few pricing options: Basic (free), Silver ($19 / month), Gold ($29 / month), and Enterprise (request quote). And for a limited time, you can also get a lifetime deal for Streann Studio on AppSumo starting at $59.

2. Camtasia

obs alternative - Camtasia

Source

Camtasia markets itself as an all-in-one screen recorder and video editor. Available for Windows and Mac, this tool makes it easy to record and edit professional-looking videos on par with OBS.

Unlike OBS, Camtasia has very little learning curve for those new to video editing. You can get started with a template or just start recording. From software and video calls to websites and presentations, you can record anything on your computer screen. Only record the specific area of the screen that you want like the entire screen, a window, an application, or even specific dimensions.

Camtasia has a built-in video editor that makes editing easy for beginners. You can drag and drop to add, remove, trim, or move sections of video. You can also drag and drop to add text, transitions, effects, and more to your video. Then, instantly upload it to Vimeo, YouTube, Screencast, or your online video platform.

Add music and side effects to your videos from Camtasia’s library of royalty-free assets. The platform also offers pre-recorded video assets that you can add to your own recordings.

Who it’s best for: Camtasia is a great option for beginners who are new to this type of software or anyone who wants a built-in video editor.

Price: Camtasia for individuals costs a one-time fee of $299.99. There is a free trial option.

3. Bandicam Screen Recorder

obs alternative - Bandicam Screen Recorder

Source

Bandicam Screen Recorder is the definition of a simple and easy-to-use free screen recording software. You can capture anything from your PC screen as a screenshot or screencast video file.

Recording your screen is as easy as pushing the button. Use Bandicam’s screen recording functions to make your recording even better. You can record audio, overlay your webcam, and draw in real-time—all great tools for recording webinars, lectures, how-to videos, and more.

Bandicam offers scheduled recording, which takes one thing off your plate when you plan to record a scheduled webinar or meeting. It also offers 24-hour long-term recording for the unique circumstances where you need to record your screen for an extended period.

Add video from your webcam and narration from your microphone to enhance the recording. You can also share your recordings on YouTube or Vimeo.

Bandicam is a simple tool, but it offers everything you need for easy screen recording. However, it’s only available on Windows. (Sorry Mac users)

Who it’s best for: Windows users who want a simple way to record their screen without all the frills.

Price: A license for one PC is $39.95 and two PCs is $59.96.

4. Screencast-O-Matic

obs alternative - Screencast-O-Matic

Source

Screencast-O-Matic offers simple and intuitive tools for screen recording. Available on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Chromebook, this tool also has free editing features you can take advantage of.

You can get started recording your screen in just a few clicks. Capture the whole screen or just one specific area. You can also add video from your webcam and narration or other audio from your microphone.

Screencast-O-Matic allows you to edit your videos for free using their intuitive video editor. You can add effects like overlays and include images, text, and more. You can also add music and sound effects. And the best part? No watermark on your videos even though the tool is free!

When you upgrade to cloud hosting, you can host and share content easily. You get unlimited ad-free uploads, plus a variety of collaboration tools that make it easy for you to work with your team. You can also add custom thumbnails, and customize your video player.

With the Premier plan, you can explore the built-in stock library to find videos, images, and music to enhance your videos. The stock library is divided into categories like technology, travel, healthcare, and business to make it easy to find the type of stock footage you’re looking for. Without confusing licensing agreements, the stock assets on this platform can be used on any project.

Who it’s best for: Those looking for a powerful free OBS alternative that offers editing capabilities.

Price: Get started recording and editing for free with options to upgrade to more feature-rich plans starting at $1.65/month billed yearly.

5. Flutin

Flutin event

Whether you’re just getting started with live streaming or well down the path, Flutin is all you need for live streaming! It is a web-based live video streaming platform through which you can create professional looking live within minutes.

Flutin dynamic streaming studio offers advanced tools to help you create branded live streams. Customize logo, overlay, change background color, and add tickers & banners. The Unified Chat features show messages from all streaming platforms on the studio along with the streaming destinations. You can highlight chats, control stream FPS control, and do a lot more with Flutin.

You can broadcast your pre-recorded or real-time video on 30+ streaming destinations like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc, and reach a wider audience. It is the only live streaming platform that supports Instagram streaming directly through the studio. You can also stream your live video on your website through Flutin via web embedding feature.

It is an excellent tool for marketers, businesses, and education institutes to host webinars, talk shows, or conferences. This platform allows you to add multiple people to your live by inviting guests directly to your studio. Create private live events and is the best platform to monetize your live by selling tickets, collecting tips, and paid requests.

Gamers can also make the most by streaming video games through Flutin. Multistream your gameplay video directly through the studio or by connecting any encoding software through the RTMP feature. Stream in full HD quality, share your screen with the users, and also schedule multiple pre-recorded videos into a single live stream.

Who it’s best for: Entrepreneurs, influencers, gamers, religious leaders, or anyone who wants to grow their audience base through live streaming.

Price: Free plan available along with paid plans starting at $15/month.

6. ShareX

obs alternative - ShareX

Source

ShareX is a free, open source, and ad-free tool that has been in active development for over 13 years. Available for Windows users, it offers a variety of features and capabilities for a free tool.

ShareX provides a variety of screen capture methods including full-screen, windows, custom regions, and active window. You can also set a timer to delay the screen capture and decide whether to include the cursor or not.

One unique feature is the scrolling capture, which allows you to record as you’re scrolling down the page. This is great for content that goes beyond the screen display. ShareX can also take a single screenshot from scrollable content, allowing you to keep it all in one file.

Another unique and valuable feature is the text capture. You can take a screenshot of text, and ShareX will extract the text from the screenshot using optical character recognition (OCR). Then, you can copy the text and use it as necessary, definitely coming in handy when you don’t have time (or desire) to retype a bunch of text.

One of the best features of ShareX is that it supports over 80 different destinations, including image uploaders, text uploaders, file uploaders, URL shorteners, and URL sharing services like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Reddit.

Who it’s best for: Windows users who want a simple, easy-to-use free OBS alternative.

Price: It’s free!

7. Movavi Screen Recorder

obs alternative - obs alternative

Source

Movavi Screen Recorder is an intuitive screen recorder available for Windows and Mac. You choose what area of your screen to capture and adjust the recording settings to meet your needs. Then, hit record, and the software will start recording your desktop—or you can schedule a recording, choosing the date, time, and time limit for capturing.

Want to turn your screen recording into a full-fledged video? With Movavi, you get simple video editing tools that you can use to create your video and save the file in your desired format.

If you’re recording a tutorial or how-to video, you might want to include keystrokes and the mouse in your recordings. With Movavi, you can show viewers your keyboard or set up the mouse display in your recording to walk them through the steps. You can also draw on the video during your tutorial.

Movavi isn’t just for screen recording. You can also record audio only from your computer or microphone, completely separate from the screen recording. Capture webcam footage or take a photo using the webcam alone as well.

Use Movavi to create screencasts using your microphone, webcam, and computer audio. You can record the computer screen and audio separately or at the same time.

Who it’s best for: Screen recording newbies and those who want advanced features without the complexities of professional grade software.

Price: Get started for free with options to upgrade to more feature-rich plans starting at $34.95/year.

8. XSplit Broadcaster

obs alternative - XSplit Broadcaster

Source

XSplit Broadcaster can be used as an exact replacement for OBS Studio because it offers both live streaming and recording capabilities. With many different customization options, XSplit Broadcaster is trusted by some of the biggest events in gaming and esports.

XSplit Broadcaster features a powerful user interface that allows you to customize all aspects of your recording. Add Skype calls with a click of a button or use the screen capture feature to capture your Zoom, Discord, or Teams calls. Drag, drop, and resize images, videos, GIFs and web pages.

Stream to any of the most popular broadcast platforms using the native plugins or a custom RTMP. You can stream and record multiple outputs simultaneously, including multiple audio tracks that you can adjust separately for each scene. Use the built-in chat plugins to keep the conversation going during the broadcast.

This software has some additional helpful features for events. Add different animations and broadcast effects to your scenes as well as custom transitions. You can also reduce unwanted background noise in the app and project any scene to another monitor or display.

Create a media slideshow by looping multiple images or videos to create your away screen. This is also a great feature to use when you want to show your appreciation for or thank your event sponsors and supporters.

Who it’s best for: People who want more customization options and those who plan on running virtual live events.

Price: Get started for free with the option to get Broadcaster Premium for $15/month

9. Streamlabs OBS

obs alternative - Streamlabs OBS

Source

Streamlabs OBS is a free, open source live streaming and recording software available for Mac. With this software, you can broadcast your live stream directly to Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook, making it popular for gamers and live event organizers.

With Streamlabs OBS, you decide what your dashboard looks like. Personalize your experience with the layout editor. Drag and drop elements to create a unique user interface where everything you need is front and center.

You have control over your recording. Choose which sources you want to appear in your recording. For instance, you might have the alert box, event list, and chat box appear in your livestream for in-the-moment engagement, but leave it off your recording to avoid distraction.

Gamers have the replay buffer to quickly and easily save replays of their live streams or replay clips for viewers. Streamlabs OBS also offers dynamic in-game overlay for single monitors, allowing you to view recent events and the chat box all on one screen.

Want to create a highlight reel for your live stream or event? Use Streamlabs’ free video editing tool to easily edit and create highlight videos—no video editing experience necessary.

Who it’s best for: Mac users and gamers who want a one-to-one replacement for OBS Studio without the steep learning curve.

Price: It’s free!

10. Lightstream Studio

obs alternative - Lightstream Studio

Source

Lightstream Studio markets itself as a tool that makes advanced live streaming simple. And it’s easy to see why. Lightstream offers cloud-powered broadcasting that allows you to go live in minutes with just a computer and an Internet connection. Just select your destination, click “Go Live,” and start streaming!

Lightstream Studio is built for console gamers and creators who want a quick and easy way to live stream without sacrificing customization features. All you have to do is access the tool from your browser, no downloads necessary. When you’re ready, you can go live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch in just a few clicks.

With Lightstream Studio, you can build your ideal stream as you have unrestricted control on where things are laid out. Create unlimited projects, scenes, and layouts for your streams so they look exactly the way you want them to.

Engage your audience during the livestream using third-party integrations. Make use of on-stream alerts, motion graphics, and social media messaging to keep your audience engaged and interacting during the stream.

Get a remote control for your stream. You can use your mobile device to start and stop your streams or switch scenes. This is a great option for those who are streaming from a location that’s not right at your computer.

Lightstream Studio also features high fidelity audio capture so you can sound as good as you look. This is ideal for musicians or talk show and podcast hosts for whom audio quality is equally important.

Inviting guests is as easy as sharing a link. Guests will wait in your “Green Room,” until you add them to the stream. You control access all from the studio.

Who it’s best for: Those looking for a browser-based OBS alternative that offers customization for live streaming.

Price: Get a 7-day free trial with plans starting at $7/month billed annually.

11. StreamYard

obs alternative - StreamYard

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StreamYard is a browser-based live streaming studio that makes streaming easy, stable, and professional. This platform allows you to customize your streams so that they are on-brand, making it ideal for brands and organizations as well as individuals.

For people holding webinars, conferences, talk shows, or podcasts, StreamYard is a great option for hosting guests. Invite guests to the studio in one click, allowing them to join from any device—no downloads necessary. You can broadcast with up to 10 people on screen with the option to have more backstage.

Stream live on up to 8 social media channels at once right from your browser. The platform allows you to seamlessly go live on Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin, Twitter, Twitch, and RTMP outputs simultaneously. You can share comments and give shoutouts to viewers across platforms.

StreamYard also offers all the tools you need to interact with your audience (and allow them to interact with you!) Highlight comments that come in from various platforms, answer questions, and spotlight viewers to make your audience feel like they’re part of the conversation. You can even invite audience members on screen during your live stream to be guests. All you have to do is share your link.

Use the giveaway tool to host a live contest during your show that viewers can enter simply by commenting on your live stream. This is a great way to encourage participation and build loyalty. The giveaway tool chooses a winner at random from all of the participants who comment on your stream.

Who it’s best for: Live talk show and podcast hosts who want to easily host guests on their show and increase audience engagement.

Price: There’s a free plan available with paid plans starting at $20/month billed annually.

12. Vimeo Livestream

obs alternative - Vimeo Livestream

Source

Vimeo Livestream is a live streaming solution that’s now a part of popular video hosting and sharing platform, Vimeo. Their live streaming solutions are feature-rich, offering options for corporate, conferences and events, meetings, subscription channels, and more.

If you want to reach your audience in real time, Vimeo Livestream allows you to live stream your conference, webinar, or meeting to people anywhere in the world. You can stream from any device to your website or social media platforms, simultaneously streaming across channels.

With adaptive streaming, Livestream allows you to provide viewers with the best video quality possible across devices, even with a limited bandwidth.

One unique thing about Livestream is that it allows you to monetize your streams, which is ideal for anyone hosting a conference, webinar, or other event. You can do a pay-per-view model through an OTT subscription service.

Create custom registration forms for your events to gather audience information. You can also include engaging visual content by adding lower-thirds, transitions, logos, and chapter markers.

Add interactive elements to your livestream like a moderated chat, Q&A, or live poll. Use calls-to-action to direct viewers to additional relevant content in your library, and capture email addresses at opportune moments during your stream.

You can centralize all of your live and on-demand video in one, secure place where viewers can access at any time. You can even monetize your video library.

Who it’s best for: Vimeo users who want to livestream and organizations that plan to hold live virtual events or monetize their video.

Price: To use the Livestream, you need to have a Vimeo Premium account which costs $75/month billed annually.

How to pick the best OBS alternative for you

Choosing the best OBS alternative for you will depend on what features and functionality you’re looking for.

If you’re looking for something that matches up with OBS one-to-one, you might try XSplit Broadcaster or Streamlabs OBS. If you just want a screen recorder, Camtasia, Bandicam Screen Recorder, and Screencast-O-Matic might be the best fit for you. If you’re just looking for live streaming, StreamYard and Vimeo Livestream are excellent options.

Looking for different OBS alternatives? Be sure to browse AppSumo deals to see what new video software we’ve got deals on this month!

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10 Best ConvertKit Alternatives (Free and Paid) in 2023 https://blog.appsumo.com/convertkit-alternatives/ Thu, 20 Oct 2022 10:00:00 +0000 https://blog.appsumo.com/?p=11064 ConvertKit is one of the most popular email newsletter software tools for online creators. But with hundreds of email newsletter software platforms on the market, is ConvertKit really the best newsletter app for you?

The truth is, it depends. Freelancers, solopreneurs, and bloggers will all have different priorities. For some users, templates are essential, while others want advanced reporting and A/B testing.

Before you commit to a subscription, consider some ConvertKit alternatives. That way, you’ll find the best email newsletter software suited to your marketing goals.

First, let’s dig into ConvertKit and learn what makes it so popular.

What are ConvertKit’s features?

Built to meet founder Nathan Barry’s need to sell courses and books to his blogging audience, ConvertKit is geared toward helping creators build their audience and monetize their content. Currently, over 428,000 creators use the platform, making it one of the most popular choices available.

ConvertKit’s key features:

  • Build automated email funnels. Send targeted content to the right people at the right time. Whether you’re welcoming new subscribers, sending a daily podcast, or offering special promotions, use smart filters to manage who receives your content and when.
  • Create landing pages. Include a landing page or a sign-up page on your website to help grow your subscriber list.
  • Advanced segmentation. Instead of having to create a new subscriber list for every announcement or product launch, create customizable segments for users based on tags, locations, demographics, and interests.
  • Free courses. If you want to sharpen your email marketing skills, take free ConvertKit courses designed to help you build profitable newsletters.

overview of ConvertKit

Why you may want a ConvertKit alternative

Although it’s a trusted and popular email newsletter platform, there are limitations to using ConvertKit.

  • Easy to lose content. Some content doesn’t autosave, making it easy to lose content if you don’t hit Save after completing each section.
  • Not always easy to use. The lack of intuitive drag-and-drop functions can make the platform seem harder to use.

Compared to other newsletter platforms on this list, ConvertKit is also more pricey. To get access to integrations and automated email sequences, creators need to pay a minimum of $15/month.

Depending on your newsletter goals, ConvertKit could be a great choice. But at the same time, if you’re a founder, entrepreneur, or artist, you might need more specific features to help you reach your goals.

So without further ado, let’s jump in. Here are our top 10 ConvertKit alternatives to jumpstart your email marketing campaigns.

10 best ConvertKit alternatives in 2023

Here are 10 of the best ConvertKit alternatives to help you build successful email marketing campaigns.

1. SendFox [Best for lifetime plans]

convertkit alternative - SendFox

Developed by AppSumo, SendFox is the best ConvertKit alternative (OK, we might be a bit biased).

It’s got a simple user interface so you can focus on writing without getting distracted by potentially unnecessary features.

Plus, SendFox is a great choice for online creators who might not already have a website. Let’s say you’re a vlogger or podcaster exclusively on YouTube or Instagram. With SendFox, you can create a landing page entirely personalized to you.

SendFox comes with two payment plans:

  • Free: $0 for up to 1,000 subscribers
  • Lifetime plan: $49 for up to 5,000 subscribers (+$49 for every additional 5,000 subscribers)

For users looking for more features to optimize their campaign, there’s an add-on Empire plan.

2. GetResponse [Best for optimizing conversions]

convertkit alternative - getresponse

GetResponse is a great ConvertKit alternative for users looking to boost their conversions. Different from other software on this list, GetResponse prioritizes a combination of automation and scheduling features to help your email marketing campaigns run more smoothly.

Email autoresponders let you send messages to subscribers automatically based on time or a specific event. There’s also a solid advertising functionality that lets you perform split testing.

Unlike ConvertKit, GetResponse has a “website builder” option that lets you create a website without any coding.

Creating emails with this tool is super easy because it has a library of readymade templates, free photos, and GIFs to make the process seamless.

GetResponse comes with four payment plans:

  • Free: $0 per month for up to 500 contacts
  • Email Marketing: $15.58 per month for up to 1000 contacts
  • Marketing Automation: $48.38 for up to 1000 contacts
  • Ecommerce Marketing: $97.58 for up to 1000 contacts

 The price then increases according to the number of contacts on your list.

3. Mailchimp [Best for new users]

convertkit alternative - mailchimp

Mailchimp is probably the most well-known email marketing platform on this list. It’s simple to get started, intuitive to use, and has comprehensive features.

With a large template library, Mailchimp is ideal for people new to building email newsletters. The quick drag-and-drop editor also makes it easy to create visually pleasing emails. Unlike ConvertKit, Mailchimp’s autosave means you won’t lose any of your content when you step away from your screen.

With the live preview option, you can see how your campaign will look on your audience’s devices.

Robust reporting lets you view data on clicks, opens, unsubscribes, and purchases, plus integrate your Mailchimp reports with your social media and Google Analytics.

Mailchimp comes with four payment plans:

  • Free: $0/month
  • Essentials: $11/month
  • Standard: $17/month
  • Premium: $299/month

These prices are for up to 2000 contacts; the price scales up according to the number of contacts on your list.

4. Campaign Monitor [Best for promotional emails]

convertkit alternative - Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is a great option for time-pressed businesses that need to send out lots of visually pleasing, branded emails.

There’s an extensive library of customizable templates and fonts to help you send emails to customers and followers. The drag-and-drop email editor makes it straightforward to edit campaigns and maintain consistency across your brand.

Plus, there’s an auto-email responder that lets you send automated emails to your audience if they perform certain actions, like buying a product or downloading an ebook.

There’s also a new SMS feature, so you can implement SMS marketing for more results.

Campaign Monitor comes with three payment plans:

  • Basic: $29/month
  • Unlimited: $59/month
  • Premier: $149/month

These prices are for up to 2000 contacts; the price scales up according to the number of contacts on your list. There’s also a free trial.

5. Sendinblue [Best all-in-one marketing tool suite]

convertkit alternative - sendinblue

Instead of exclusively sticking to email marketing software, Sendinblue aims to bring all your digital marketing tools into one platform.

Unlike ConvertKit, Sendinblue features tools to help you create Facebook ads as well as manage SMS campaigns. You can even use the platform to set up a chatbot on your website.

There are also tools to help you build signup forms and landing pages. Like other newsletter platforms on this list, there’s an intuitive drag-and-drop editor.

The pricing structure lets marketers send more emails for less money. Sendinblue is much friendlier to growing subscriber lists than ConvertKit, which can get expensive for businesses sending lots of emails each month.

Sendinblue comes with four payment plans:

  • Free: $0/month
  • Lite: $25/month
  • Premium: $65/month
  • Enterprise: Contact for details

These prices are for unlimited contacts; the price scales up according to the number of emails you send each month.

6. Drip [Best for ecommerce stores]

convertkit alternative - drip

Drip is a data-driven email marketing platform that aims to boost conversions. Tie it into your CRM or online store and Drip gathers information to inform your upcoming campaigns. The software easily integrates with Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce.

Just like the name suggests, Drip is designed with drip email campaigns in mind, using collected customer data to push leads down the sales funnel.

Using the Facebook Lead ad feature, you can add potential customers to your email list when they input their details through your ads. The Facebook custom audience feature lets you share unique ads with your customers based on their interaction with your brand, such as if they bought a product.

Another standout feature is Drip’s ability to educate users about their customers.  By clicking on each customer profile, you can learn about their experience with your brand, how they interact with your business, and which emails they’ve opened. Discovering patterns of behavior among your customers can help you identify what you’re doing right and where to improve.

Drip comes with scalable pricing plans:

  • $39/month includes up to 2500 contacts and unlimited emails

There’s also a free 14-day trial that lets you test out all of Drip’s features.

7. ActiveCampaign [Best for integrations]

convertkit alternative - activecampaign

Another ConvertKit alternative that’s geared toward drip campaigns is ActiveCampaign.  Great for building automated sales funnels, ActiveCampaign integrates with your CRM, segments audiences, and helps you nurture leads.

It has a simple user interface with a drag-and-drop editor that makes customization a breeze. It also has 125+ email design templates, which means you might never have to touch HTML again (unless you want to).

ActiveCampaign also connects with 880+ apps, so it’s easy integrate into your tech stack.

ActiveCampaign comes with four payment plans:

  • Lite: $61/month
  • Plus: $125/month
  • Professional: $187/month
  • Enterprise: Contact for details

These plans are for up to 2,500 contacts; they then scale up according to your subscriber list. There’s also a 14-day free trial for you to test out the platform’s features.

8. MailerLite [Best for tight budgets]

convertkit alternative - mailerlite

With 700,000+ users and 1 billion emails sent per month, MailerLite is a popular ConvertKit alternative.

One reason why it’s so loved is because of its focus on relationship building and accessible plans.

Just like many other email service providers on this list, MailerLite has a set of easily customizable templates with a drag-and-drop editor.

There’s also a dashboard for analyzing your email performance such as CTR, new subscribers, and unsubscribers.

One of the most convincing reasons to choose MailerLite over other email newsletter apps is because of its generous payment plans.

MailerLite comes with four payment plans:

  • Free: $0/month for up to 12,000 emails
  • Growing Business: $10/month for unlimited emails
  • Advanced: $21/month for unlimited emails
  • Enterprise: Contact for details

Each of these plans allows for up to 1,000 subscribers. Plans then scale up according to the number of subscribers.

9. AWeber [Best for small businesses]

convertkit alternative - aweber

AWeber is a top ConvertKit alternative for small businesses and solopreneurs. While the editing tools are simple, the platform includes 700+ email design templates.

One cool feature is the Smart Designer Tool, which automatically creates unique templates based on the look of your website. There’s also a gallery of 6,000+ photos, so you don’t have to spend time sourcing original pictures in order to create distinct emails.

You can also send out personalized automated emails after your audience makes specific actions, such as signing up.

AWeber comes with two payment plans:

  • Free: $0/month for up to 3,000 email sends
  • Pro: $29.99/month for unlimited email sends

The Pro plan allows up to 2,500 subscribers for the above plan; it then scales up according to the number of subscribers.

10. Substack [Best for writers]

convertkit alternative - substack

If you want to earn money for your writing, then Substack could be the right newsletter platform for you. The platform lets bloggers and writers charge a subscription fee for their newsletters. It’s become a popular way for writers to earn money without relying on an intermediary publisher.

Creators receive a unique website that ends with “substack.com,” to which audiences can subscribe. You’ll get a profile page and a bio to let your audience put an identity to your newsletters.

Substack pricing:

Substack is free to start using. Once your subscribers start paying for your exclusive content, Substack takes 10%.

ConvertKit alternatives FAQ

Which is better: AWeber or ConvertKit?

ConvertKit offers more advanced features for email marketing, but AWeber is a great email marketing platform for users starting email marketing campaigns.

Which is better: Mailchimp or ConvertKit?

Mailchimp has a better free plan for up to 2,000 subscribers, while ConvertKit’s free plan only allows for up to 1,000 subscribers. ConvertKit has more features for creators, while Mailchimp is best for businesses and solopreneurs.

Should I use ConvertKit?

Use ConvertKit if you’re a creator ready to build and monetize your audience. If you need a more affordable or simpler email newsletter tool, choose a ConvertKit alternative like SendFox.

Which ConvertKit alternative is best in 2023?

The right ConvertKit alternative for you will depend on your unique email marketing needs and goals. Think about which features and tools are most important to your campaigns. Also, think about how much time you want to spend learning a new platform.

If you’re a creator who wants to build your audience, ConvertKit is still a solid all-around option. But if you manage an ecommerce store, Drip or ActiveCampaign may be better.

Don’t have a subscriber list or a website? Use SendFox to build an engaged subscriber list with personalized landing pages. Grab the SendFox lifetime deal on AppSumo for $49 today.

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10 Best Constant Contact Alternatives (Free and Paid) in 2023 https://blog.appsumo.com/constant-contact-alternatives/ Thu, 29 Sep 2022 10:00:52 +0000 https://blog.appsumo.com/?p=10991 Email is one of the most powerful channels in a marketer’s arsenal. But if you’re looking for the best way to launch a new campaign, it might be tough to decide on which software platform to choose.

With over 600K customers, Constant Contact is one of the most popular email service providers out there. But that doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for everyone.

Are you in the market for a dynamo email newsletter platform to take your email marketing campaigns to the next level? We’ve got you covered.

Here are ten of the best Constant Contact alternatives in 2023.

An overview of Constant Contact

overview of Constant Contact

Constant Contact is a simple email newsletter tool. It’s known for having intuitive features and an easy-to-use design. The tool is a favorite with small business owners launching early campaigns.

Here are some of Constant Contact’s key features:

  • Website builder: Create a simple website or landing page from scratch in a few minutes
  • Logo maker: Build a visual identity for your brand
  • Templates: Choose from a huge library of email templates
  • Analytics: Access powerful analytics tools to see everything from who your latest subscriber is to who’s opening your emails and what products they’re buying
  • Automated emails: Automatically send emails to your customers after they perform certain actions

Constant Contact is one of the best email software providers. But the features and price point might not be a fit for everyone. Some users may prefer more complex features or may want a lower price point.

If you’re looking for alternatives to Constant Contact, don’t sweat it—we’ve got your back.

Why you may want a Constant Contact alternative

Despite the positives of choosing Constant Contact, there are also a few negatives that may encourage people to choose another platform.

Some of these cons include:

  • Price: While it has a free trial, Constant Contact, unlike many of its counterparts, does not offer a free plan
  • Limited features: The platform may not include enough tools for experienced email marketers
  • Dated Templates: Available templates don’t always look sleek or professional

If these cons get in the way of your goals, you may want to consider another option.

10 best Constant Contact alternatives in 2023

Before you commit to paying for a subscription, check out these Constant Contact alternatives: one of them might have all the features you need to level up your email marketing campaigns.

1. MailChimp [Best for new users]

Constant Contact alternative - MailChimp

If you search for the best email newsletter platforms, Mailchimp is usually one of the first options that pops up. It’s easy to get started, simple to use, and has plenty of top-tier features to help get your email campaigns in front of more people.

While Mailchimp has around 100 templates (fewer than Constant Contact), they’re easier to customize to your brand. The intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes it simple to design something on brand and aesthetically pleasing in a matter of minutes.

Mailchimp’s automation features are much stronger than Constant Contact’s. Users can automate emails to adapt to the customer journey, create auto-responders, and set up single-step automation. The tool will also decide on the best time to send emails according to your audience. For comparison, Constant Contact has basic automation features that let you automate date-based emails like anniversaries and birthdays.

To nail your subject line every time and improve CTR, Mailchimp has launched a feature called Subject Line Helper. This suggests the most suitable headings for your newsletters and email campaigns.

Mailchimp comes with four payment plans:

  • Free: $0/month
  • Essentials: $11/month
  • Standard: $17/month
  • Premium: $299/month

These plans allow a maximum of 2000 contacts; the price scales up in line with the number of subscribers.

2. SendFox

Constant Contact alternative - SendFox

SendFox is a solid all-around email marketing software that won’t use up your marketing budget. The platform makes it easy to create landing pages and forms to collect lead contact information––no design or coding skills needed.

Plus, you can build one-off campaigns and automation sequences from pre-designed email templates.

For days when you’re feeling less creative, the Smart Campaigns tool can repurpose existing content from social accounts, blogs, and podcasts into new emails. It’s also simple to set up behavior-triggered sequences that send emails after recipients take specific actions, like filling in a customer feedback form.

SendFox integrates with popular apps like Integrately, WordPress, and Zapier. Marketers can also promote referral programs in email footers and automatically send out prizes to subscribers for helping you out.

One of the best parts of SendFox is its pricing model. Since it’s a lifetime deal, you can just pay once instead of a costly monthly subscription.

SendFox comes with five licensing tiers:

  • Tier 1: $49 – 5,000 subscribers
  • Tier 2: $98 – 10,000 subscribers
  • Tier 3: $147 – 15,000 subscribers
  • Tier 4: $196 – 20,000 subscribers
  • Tier 5: $245 – 25,000 subscribers

3. Mailerlite [Best for accurate delivery]

Constant Contact alternative - Mailerlite

Mailerlite is another newsletter platform that targets small businesses. It’s a simple email marketing tool and offers great value for your money.

Similar to Constant Contact, Mailerlite has a website builder and some automations. Another one of the most helpful features is the platform’s email verification tool, which confirms whether your newsletters get delivered to the email addresses on your list. It also vets every email address added to your list so you’re only sending emails to safe addresses.

The platform also has a specialist subsidiary software that sends transactional emails, such as invoices and order confirmations when customers make an online purchase.

Mailerlite comes with four payment plans:

  • Free: $0/month for up to 12,000 emails
  • Growing Business: $9/month for unlimited emails
  • Advanced: $19/month for unlimited emails
  • Enterprise: Custom prices

These plans allow a maximum of 1000 contacts; the price scales up in line with the number of subscribers.

4. Sendinblue [Best for SMS marketing]

Constant Contact alternative - SendinBlue

Not just an email newsletter tool, Sendinblue gathers all your digital marketing tools into one central tool suite. For example, you can manage SMS campaigns and create Facebook ads in Sendinblue, too.

There’s also a feature to help you build landing pages and sign-up forms to make growing your email list easier. Like other email tools on this list, it has an easy to use drag-and-drop email builder to help you create unique custom-built emails.

Sendinblue has robust segmentation features, so you can painlessly send emails based on your audience’s location, gender, or interests.

Sendinblue comes with four payment plans:

  • Free: $0/month
  • Lite: $25/month
  • Premium: $65/month
  • Enterprise: Contact for details

These prices are for unlimited contacts. Plan prices scale up according to the number of emails you send each month. For example, the price increases once you send above 20k emails per month (except for the free plan which only allows 300 emails per day).

5. ConvertKit [Best for monetizing subscribers]

Constant Contact alternative - ConvertKit

ConvertKit is a top Constant Contact alternative for creators looking to monetize their audience. The platform’s landing page templates, sign-up forms, and link pages help you attract more subscribers to your newsletter.

ConvertKit also makes it simple for creators to set up automated sales and follow-up funnels to pitch products to their target audiences. You can embed buy buttons, use tags to segment your audience, and exclude previous buyers from your email pitch.

If you’re not selling a digital product, ConvertKit lets you create a tip jar so your subscribers can start supporting your work. Data-driven dashboards show you all your sales data in one place.

One big advantage of using ConvertKit is being able to connect it to all the other platforms where you sell courses, products, memberships, or merchandise. This helps you get a more in-depth view of your business beyond the products you’ve sold through ConvertKit Commerce.

ConvertKit comes with four payment plans:

  • Free: $0/month
  • Creator: $15/month
  • Creator Pro: $29/month

These prices are for up to 300 contacts; the price scales up according to the number of emails you send each month.

6. CampaignMonitor [Best for ecommerce brands]

Constant Contact alternative - CampaignMonitor

Another OG newsletter tool, CampaignMonitor, has some solid features for ecommerce brands looking to send out promotional emails.

CampaignMonitor’s ecommerce-forward integrations and branded emails make it easy for businesses to send out plenty of on-brand emails. The drag-and-drop newsletter builder makes it simple for both newbies and email pros to create an aesthetically pleasing email.

With the SMS marketing feature, you can tie your email and SMS campaigns together for better results.

Plus, the auto-responder feature lets you send automated emails to your audience if they perform specific actions, like downloading an ebook or purchasing a product.

CampaignMonitor comes with three payment plans:

  • Basic: $9/month
  • Unlimited: $29/month
  • Premier: $149/month

These prices are for up to 2500 contacts; the price scales up according to the number of contacts on your list. There’s also a free trial.

7. ActiveCampaign [Best for drip campaigns]

Constant Contact alternative - Active Campaign

Another top Constant Contact alternative is ActiveCampaign, which is best for drip campaign segmentation. It’s an excellent option for building an automated email sales funnel to help you convert more subscribers.

Use ActiveCampaign to send standalone newsletters or to build a complex sales funnel that runs in the background of your business. With its segmentation feature, you can send drip emails to the right subscribers at the right time to increase the chance of a conversion.

ActiveCampaign also has a unique Machine Learning feature that helps you decide the best time to send your newsletters, identify prospects that will most likely turn into leads, and analyze your subscribers.

ActiveCampaign comes with four payment plans:

  • Lite: $61/month
  • Plus: $125/month
  • Professional: $187/month
  • Enterprise: Contact for details

These plans are for up to 2,500 contacts; they then scale up according to your subscriber list. There’s also a 14-day free trial for you to test out the platform’s features.

8. GetResponse [Best for bonus features]

Constant Contact alternative - GetResponse

GetResponse features an extensive library of readymade templates to choose from. Plus, it has a set of easy-to-use tools to customize your newsletter to your taste.

This email marketing software goes beyond typical email tools by offering a webinar builder. Using this, you can host up to 1000 subscribers in a live event, helping you build a strong connection with your audience.

GetResponse comes with four payment plans:

  • Free: $0/month for up to 500 contacts
  • Email Marketing: $15.58/month for up to 1000 contacts
  • Marketing Automation: $48.38/month for up to 1000 contacts
  • Ecommerce Marketing: $97.58/month for up to 1000 contacts

 The price then increases according to the number of contacts on your list.

9. Benchmark [Best for full customization]

Constant Contact alternative - BenchMark

Whether you’re an email marketing newbie or want to code your email, Benchmark is a great Constant Contact competitor. The tool’s easy-to-use HTML code editor gives you a live preview with every line of code you add.

Busy marketers who’d rather set up a campaign and forget about it can use the RSS email option. With it, you’ll be able to automatically send subscribers an email when you update your blog or any other RSS feed.

Benchmark also includes other essential email marketing features like robust A/B testing, prebuilt templates, photo editing, and a drag-and-drop editor.

Benchmark comes with three payment plans:

  • Free: $0/month
  • Pro: $15/month
  • Enterprise: Contact for details

These plans are for up to 500 contacts; they then scale up according to your subscriber list.

10. HubSpot [Best full-suite marketing platform]

Constant Contact alternative - Hubspot

If you’re looking for an all-in-one digital marketing tool suite, HubSpot is an impressive Constant Contact alternative. When you run your email marketing campaigns through HubSpot, the key advantage is having all your other marketing tools in one place.

While Constant Contact offers more focused email marketing features, HubSpot has a broader variety of marketing tools for seamless collaboration.

The email marketing platform has key features like audience segmentation, customizable templates, preview mode, and integrations with other tools like Gmail, DesignWizard, and JotForm.

HubSpot comes with three payment plans:

  • Starter: $50/month
  • Professional: $890/month
  • Enterprise: $3,200/month

The payment plans allow a maximum of 1000 contacts; the price then increases according to the number of contacts.

Choosing a Constant Contact alternative in 2023

The right alternative to Constant Contact depends on your email marketing goals and budget.

Creators may prefer ConvertKit’s monetization features while an ecommerce store may want to use ActiveCampaign for its drip campaigns.

And if you want one less software subscription to think about, why not check out our lifetime deals over on the AppSumo store today?

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Best Slack Alternatives: 14 Free and Paid Team Chat Tools https://blog.appsumo.com/slack-alternatives/ Mon, 12 Sep 2022 10:00:00 +0000 https://blog.appsumo.com/?p=7527 With more than 18 million daily active users, Slack is one of the giants of the team communication world. At this point, we’ve pretty much all used it.

But just because it’s the popular kid in school doesn’t mean it’s automatically the best tool to manage your team’s communication. If you suspect that might be the case, this goes out to you.

We’ve put together a list of the top Slack alternatives to help you communicate with ease and stay on top of your work. And this guide goes beyond messaging. We’ll also look at other relevant features like project management and task organization. Whether you want to gather feedback during a final meeting or get everyone on the same page throughout multiple ongoing projects, you’ll find the tool here that best suits your needs.

Why are these 14 team communication platforms the best Slack alternatives? Let’s find out.

1. SmartTask

SmartTask's chat bot

Source: SmartTask

Racking your brain to figure out who’s done what and what else needs to be done? Check out SmartTask, a platform that allows you to communicate with your team and track projects in one place.

Top features:

  • Team collaboration (including instant messaging and video conferencing)
  • Task and project management
  • Customer relationship management
  • Time tracking
  • Analytics and reporting

Platforms supported: Windows, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Start video meetings with one click when viewing tasks and chats
  • Drag-and-drop functionality to delegate work to co-workers
  • Can customize workflows to your needs with advanced filters
  • Reward team members’ performance and keep them motivated with karma points

Cons:

  • Team-based video conferencing is limited to a maximum of 30 people in a meeting
  • No desktop app for Mac

Best for: Small teams looking to streamline internal communication during ongoing projects and get all stakeholders on the same page

Pricing: Free plan available. The Premium and Business plans are $9 and $14 per user per month.

2. Chanty

Chanty

Source: Chanty

Chanty is proof that excellent team collaboration software tools don’t need to be complicated. Even on the free plan, it offers unlimited public and private conversations, unlimited voice messages and one-on-one audio calls, and unlimited search history.

Top features:

  • One-on-one and group video or audio calls
  • Voice messages
  • Task management
  • Teambook, which is a central hub for organizing tasks, conversations, and content

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Easy to navigate the tool, even as a new user
  • Integrates with tools you may already have in your arsenal, including Basecamp and Google Drive
  • Excellent customer support and fast responses

Cons:

  • Occasional minor glitches for new features (for example, group audio calls used to be unstable but have gotten better)
  • Only has the Kanban board task view, which might not be ideal if you like to visualize your work in other ways (e.g. lists, Gantt charts, timelines, etc.)

Best for: Teams who want a single hub for text, audio, and video communication with almost no learning curve.

Pricing: Free version available and the paid plan is $4 per user per month. (Chanty also has a neat little calculator showing exactly how much you’ll save with Chanty compared to Slack and other tools.)

3. Vectera

Vectera

Source: YouTube

Looking for a communication tool to host client meetings? Look no further than Vectera.

This handy collaboration app allows you to upload documents in virtual rooms and sketch on them to explain your ideas. Best of all, it stores your content for fast access, making it easy to pick up a conversation where you left off.

Top features:

  • One-click video meetings
  • Whiteboard and document annotation
  • White label for full customization including custom domains
  • Intelligent meeting scheduling

Platforms supported: Browser based

Pros:

  • Dedicated meeting rooms for each client with easy access to content and past communications
  • Payment collection for discovery and consultation calls
  • Ability to gather customer feedback to improve future calls

Cons:

  • No mobile or desktop apps
  • Group video meetings only allow up to six people
  • More expensive than other collaboration tools on this list

Best for: Running one-on-one or small group meetings with clients

Pricing: Free forever plan available. Paid plans start at $30 per host per month.

4. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams

Source: Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams combines instant messaging, video meetings, audio calls, and team collaboration features in one platform.

Its interface may not be as sleek as Slack, but if you’re already using Microsoft products like Excel or PowerPoint, it can be a powerful tool in your business.

Top features:

  • Unlimited group and one-on-one meetings
  • Instant messaging and group chat
  • File sharing and storage
  • Outlook calendar syncing

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Excellent quality audio and video calls
  • Past conversations are always within arm’s reach thanks to chat history, meeting recordings, and transcripts
  • Some paid plans come bundled with other Office apps that your team might find useful

Cons:

  • Messages sometimes go missing, although you can typically solve this with a quick cache cleanup
  • Awkward interface (for example, when attaching a file in chat, Microsoft Teams doesn’t show it uploading)
  • Lack of options in notifications settings, such as switching off message notifications from specific people in a group

Best for: Teams currently using Microsoft products who want a reliable tool for calls and video meetings

Pricing: Free forever plan available. Paid plans start at $4 per user per month.

5. Loop

Loop

Source: Loop

What if you could view all your inboxes in one location? That’s the premise of Loop.

This team communication tool eliminates the need to click between multiple browser tabs to check your different email accounts. It’s a dream come true for businesses that deal with a lot of shared email addresses.

Top features:

  • Real-time chats
  • Shared inbox
  • Email open tracking
  • Canned responses for sending common replies quickly

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Clean, beautiful, and intuitive interface with workflow automation
  • One-click email delegation for assigning emails and tasks to team members without endless forwarding
  • Speedy customer support

Cons:

  • Missing helpful features like folders, tagging, and 2-way syncing of shared inboxes
  • Can’t schedule emails for later or snooze them

Best for: Companies and organizations in which managing emails is a team sport and a bit of a hassle

Pricing: 14-day free trial available. From there, pricing starts at $12.50 per user per month.

6. Flock

Flock

Source: Flock

It’s a pain gathering team feedback via text. Fortunately, Flock’s built-in polls are here to save the day. Create a question, add options, and let your team vote. You can even set an expiration date and download a report to see which is the most (or least) popular option.

Top features:

  • Video conferencing
  • Channel messaging
  • Voice notes
  • Integrated search
  • File sharing
  • To-dos, polls, and reminders

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Affordable and easy to use
  • Allows info to be shared on a need-to-know basis via groups
  • Integrates with internal learning, human resources, and other management systems

Cons:

  • Search functionality needs work so that it’s easier to find the files or messages you’re looking for
  • Customer support could respond faster
  • Not as robust as Slack or alternatives that offer task management

Best for: Surveying your team members to make important decisions (e.g., choosing the best logo)

Pricing: Free version available. Paid plans start at $6 per user per month.

7. Plutio

Plutio

Source: YouTube

Are your project assets and messages scattered across Google Drive, DocuSign, Asana, and Slack? You need Plutio, an all-in-one platform that helps you run your entire business online.

Not only can you stay in touch with clients in real time, but you can also create proposals, send invoices, set project deadlines, and more.

Top features: 

  • Inbox that includes real-time messaging and integrated emails
  • Chat widget
  • Task and project management
  • Invoicing, proposals, and contracts
  • Client management
  • File manager
  • Knowledge base, forms, and surveys

Platforms supported: Browser based, with apps for iOS and Android

Pros:

  • Easy to simplify your tech stack and speed up your workflows
  • More than two dozen languages supported, as well as multiple currencies and payment methods
  • Bank-level security so you’ll have no worries about your and your clients’ sensitive information

Cons: 

  • Occasional bugs and glitches
  • Some users feel the tool is more “clunky” than they’d like

Best for: Freelancers or agencies who want a single tool for communication and end-to-end project management

Pricing: Free trial available. Pricing starts at $19 per month for solo users and $39 per month for teams.

8. Google Chat

Google Chat

Source: Google Chat

This wouldn’t truly be a “top Slack alternatives” list without Google.

As a standalone tool, Google Chat may leave a lot to be desired—but use it together with Google’s other collaboration tools, and you’ll see how it integrates seamlessly with your Workspace.

Top features:

  • Direct messages
  • Group conversations
  • Dedicated rooms
  • Bots for automating simple tasks

Platforms supported: Browser based, with apps for iOS and Android

Pros:

  • Seamless integration with Google Docs, Gmail, and other Google Workspace apps
  • Integration with third-party apps like Salesforce and Jira
  • Google’s secure-by-design infrastructure with features built in to protect your information
  • 24/7 Chat, email, and phone support available

Cons:

  • Messy conversation threads that are a headache for users to sort through
  • Pop-ups can be distracting when you’re trying to focus
  • No desktop apps

Best for: Teams already using Google Workspace who want a seamless team communication experience

Pricing: Google Chat is included in Google Workspace subscriptions. Workspace plans start at $6 per user per month and you can do a free 14-day trial before committing.

9. Ryver

Ryver

Source: Ryver

What would happen if Slack and Trello had a baby? You’d get Ryver.

This two-in-one app does what the aforementioned tools do best: team communication and task management. Want a way to boost your team’s productivity? This could be it.

Top features:

  • Voice and video calls with screen sharing
  • Topic-threaded chat
  • Direct messages
  • Custom invite links
  • Personal and team task managers

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Allows you to convert messages into tasks so you can walk the walk, instead of just talking the talk
  • Unlimited collaboration, task management, data, and guests so you won’t run into any extra costs
  • Enhanced data security with all plans

Cons:

  • The tool looks and feels dated
  • Users report feeling underwhelmed by the dashboard and confused by the similar features in task management view

Best for: Teams who want a straightforward task management and team communication tool without a ton of usage limits

Pricing: 14-Day free trial available. Paid plans start at $69/month.

10. Meetquo

Meetquo

Source: AppSumo 

It’s difficult running meetings with teammates scattered across different time zones. Luckily, there’s Meetquo.

This remote meeting and team communication platform allows your co-workers to participate in virtual sessions on their own schedules.

Need to request feedback on the proposals you just created? Share them on Meetquo and get your co-workers to rate which is the best.

Top features:

  • Video meetings
  • Proposals
  • Asynchronous feedback on meeting documents and proposals
  • Meeting tracker

Platforms supported: Browser based

Pros:

  • Clean, simple, and sleek interface
  • Easily peg a proposal as a clear winner with the built-in rating system
  • Provides one co-created document with every team member’s insights so you’re not forced to sift through and compile each person’s notes

Cons:

  • No temporary meeting room, which forces clients and vendors to create Meetquo accounts
  • Much leaner tool than alternatives, Slack included

Best for: Running asynchronous meetings and aligning every stakeholder of final decisions

Pricing: Free plan available. Pro Plan is $4 per user per month for unlimited meetings, unlimited signatures, and premium support.

11. Mattermost

Mattermost

Source: Mattermost

Built for developers by developers, Mattermost asserts that “general-purpose collaboration tools just aren’t made for the challenges developers face every day.” If you nodded vigorously as you read that claim, this is probably the Slack alternative for you.

Top features:

  • Unlimited channels
  • Threaded discussions
  • Both real-time and async messaging with integrated voice and video
  • One-on-one calls and group calls with screen sharing
  • Multi-language code syntax highlighting

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • According to one user, “It has all that you would expect from a Slack replacement—channels, mentions, file and image exchange, history, ability to create private groups and rooms, 3rd party tools integration, and more.”
  • Integrates with GitHub, Jira, Zendesk, Confluence, and more to help your team operate efficiently
  • Security and compliance features such as self-hosted or private cloud deployment, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and SOC 2 Type I (Cloud)

Cons:

  • Notification system could be better—it’s easy to miss incoming messages
  • According to user reports, installing the server requires system administration skills
  • No option to start an instant call

Best for: Developers interested in a flexible, open-source platform for seamless teamwork

Pricing: Free forever plan available. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month.

12. Taskade

Taskade

Source: Capterra

Taskade is a real-time conferencing and messaging platform used by companies like Netflix, Sony, and Capital One. It’s not just an alternative to Slack—it’s also an alternative to knowledge and project management tools like Trello and Notion.

Top features:

  • Chat and messaging with @mentions
  • Video conferencing and screen sharing
  • Guest collaboration
  • Activity feed for full visibility into workspace activity

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Generous free plan includes unlimited tasks, projects, folders, teams, members, and guests
  • Templates and repeating tasks speed up your workflows
  • 99.99% Uptime guarantee and 24/7 customer support

Cons:

  • Settings and some other features aren’t available in the mobile apps
  • Basic compared to some similar go-to tools

Best for: Teams looking for a single tool to manage and communicate about projects and tasks

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $5 per seat per month (billed annually). Even better, get lifetime access to Taskade via the AppSumo store starting at $59.

13. Fleep

Fleep

Source: Fleep

Fleep labels itself as “an ideal way to communicate.” But what makes it ideal? It gives collaborators maximum control over conversations. For example, Fleep supports project, team, and topic-specific conversations. And it allows you to turn the plans you discuss into action items.

Top features: 

  • One-on-one and group conversations with full message history
  • Pinboard to keep the most important messages in each conversation visible
  • File drawers for each conversation
  • Audio-video calls with screen sharing

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Makes it easy to keep track of important messages and take action on team discussions
  • Slightly cheaper than Slack and some of the alternatives we’ve covered
  • Integrates with 20+ tools, including email, webhooks, Trello, Zapier, and Google Drive

Cons:

  • Could use more granular notification settings
  • Has fewer integrations than more well-known tools like Slack
  • Minimal compared to similar tools

Best for: Teams of all sizes who want a mainly chat-based tool that also allows for synchronous audio and video chats just in case

Pricing: Basic free plan available. Business pricing starts at €5 per user per month, billed annually (in Euros).

14. HeySpace

HeySpace

Source: HeySpace

HeySpace is another great Slack alternative that has features for keeping on top of projects and tasks. Its strength is simplicity. It doesn’t have too few features to be functional for small teams, but it also doesn’t have so many features that it’s overwhelming for users.

Top features:

  • One-on-one and group chats in cards and spaces
  • Reactions, @mentions, and indented replies
  • Video calls
  • Unlimited file storage
  • Multiple task views (board, calendar, timeline, etc.)

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Ubuntu, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Offers team communication features and task management
  • Straightforward and easy to use
  • Integrates with tools like Trello, Dropbox, Gmail, TimeCamp, and more

Cons:

  • No search functionality to help users quickly find info from chats and cards
  • Needs speed improvements

Best for: Small teams looking for a simple, affordable tool that doesn’t take long to set up or learn

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plan is $5 per user per month. You can also get lifetime access to HeySpace on AppSumo for $69.

Which of these Slack alternatives will you try?

Many of these Slack alternatives may look similar at first glance, but as you dig deeper, you’ll realize each one has unique features and use cases.

For instance, Meetquo is excellent for gathering asynchronous feedback on your proposals, but if you’re looking for an all-in-one task management and team communication tool, it might not be the best choice. In that case, options like Taskade and HeySpace may be better. Want to test them out? Right now, you can grab Taskade for as little as $59 and get HeySpace for $69 in the AppSumo store.

Here’s to effortless communication and maximum productivity!

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Best Trello Alternatives: 10 Kanban Tools For Efficient Work https://blog.appsumo.com/trello-alternatives/ Sun, 04 Sep 2022 10:00:00 +0000 https://blog.appsumo.com/?p=5088 What’s one of the top complaints about project and task management software? “It’s too complicated.” So it’s no wonder that millions of users have flocked to the straightforward Kanban-style tool that is Trello.

But when it comes to project tracking, it’s not a popularity contest—it’s about finding the best tool for your business. If Trello isn’t the one, one of these 10 Trello alternatives may be for you.

A quick introduction to Trello

overview of Trello

Source: Trello

To judge Trello alternatives fairly and find the best, we first have to know its strengths and weaknesses. Here’s an overview.

More than 2 million teams and tens of millions of users rely on Trello to manage tasks and keep projects rolling full steam ahead. Its simplicity is its strength. The entire tool is built on the back of the Kanban view, which allows users to set deadlines, link resources, and assign tasks easily.

The bonus, thanks to custom templates, is that various teams in various industries can get up and running with Trello in no time.

Top features:

  • Drag and drop for moving cards between statuses
  • Board view sharing for seamless team collaboration
  • Templates for general business, design teams, marketing teams, and more
  • A built-in automation called Butler to speed up your workflows, while also taking manual work off your plate (thank goodness!)

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • One of the quickest and easiest tools to learn and customize to your needs
  • Fairly inexpensive so you don’t have to break the bank, especially if you work solo or only have a small team
  • Integrations with popular tools like Slack and Google Drive

Cons:

  • Since Trello is so flexible, more help documentation for a wider range of use cases would be great
  • Some Trello users feel the free plan is too limited
  • Depending on what you’re trying to automate, setting up Butler can be difficult without previous experience or coding skills

Best for: Freelancers and small teams

Pricing: Besides the free plan, Trello’s paid plans start at $6 per user per month and range up to $17.50 per user per month.

Top Trello alternatives in 2023

We’ve covered the highlights of what Trello offers and where it falls short. Now, let’s dive into the pros and cons of other tools with Kanban views.

1. Asana

overview of Asana

Source: Asana

Another robust Trello alternative, Asana is an all-in-one project management tool—and probably one of the most famous on our list. If you need more than a simple Kanban for tracking progress and managing projects, Asana has a robust toolbox with multiple views to keep you on task.

Plus, you can have conversations with your team members within the app and create simple to-do lists for the one-off tasks that require less oversight. You can also share files, create in-app teams, and create reports to document recent progress.

P.S. Do you like some of the features of Asana and want a similar tool that’ll fit your needs better? Check out our list of the top Asana alternatives. Want to read a more in-depth comparison between Asana, Trello, and Plutio? We’ve got you covered.

2. monday.com

trello alternative - monday.com

Source: monday.com

Let’s move along now to another all-in-one tool, monday.com, and specifically its end-to-end project management tool, monday projects. Similar to Basecamp and ClickUp, it has Kanban boards but it also offers many other ways to visualize projects and tasks.

monday.com offers many powerful automations to make sure recurring tasks don’t waste your time (there’s nothing like project management software that alerts you to where the tedious work is) and it gives you the proper tool suite to streamline those repetitive tasks so you can focus on more important to-dos.

Whether you need to see the bigger picture, allocate work to teammates, or collaborate on projects from a distance, monday.com is a popular solution.

Top features: 

  • Dashboard gives you a bird’s-eye view of ongoing and new tasks, budgets, goals, and more
  • Updates for asking task- and project-related questions, making requests, and giving your team timely progress and status reports
  • Pre-built and custom automations to help you work as efficiently as possible

Platforms supported: macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Makes it possible to cut way down on the number of tools you use daily
  • Friendly, fast, attentive, and helpful customer service team
  • Granular permissions available to make sure sensitive data is only available on a need-to-know basis
  • Integrates with tools like DocuSign, Zendesk, Shopify, Stripe, Pipedrive, and more

Cons: 

  • Some integrations could be more robust, simpler to use, and have more customization options
  • Users would like more training videos and use case–specific documentation to flatten the learning curve and reduce setup time
  • Rigid team size options mean you might end up paying for seats you don’t need

Best for: Teams looking for a comprehensive tool that provides everything in one place

Pricing: monday.com has a free plan. Paid plans start at $10 per seat per month (with a minimum of three seats) and range up to $20 per seat per month on the Pro Plan. There’s also custom Enterprise pricing available.

3. Basecamp

trello alternative - Basecamp

Source: Basecamp

Basecamp, like Asana, is a very popular tool for team-wide project management and collaboration. As far as Trello alternatives go, Basecamp is one of the most comprehensive on our list, boasting a large suite of functions to help you stay organized, focused, and productive.

From a project management perspective, you can check schedules, share files, check off to-dos, and use multiple views to see your progress. Like Plutio, Basecamp also has a client-facing side that allows you to pull clients into your workflow without giving them access to important information they don’t need to see.

It takes a little getting used to, but once you’re past the learning curve, Basecamp packs a lot of functionality into a single platform.

Top features: 

  • Calendar and task list views show upcoming due dates at a glance
  • Messages and real-time chat to help your team stay on the same page, that replace email and Slack
  • Templates for getting started on new projects quickly

Platforms supported: macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Designed to be a hub for all project discussions, tasks, and resources
  • Flat-fee pricing, which is about as transparent as it gets
  • Dozens of integrations with popular apps, including Tracked, which allow you to add workflows and labels to your to-dos with Kanban boards

Cons: 

  • If you have a smaller team but need Business plan features, you may end up spending more than you would on one of the many alternatives to Basecamp
  • Memory on free plan may be too limited for some teams, requiring them to use an additional tool for storage
  • Doesn’t yet offer an overview of key information across all projects

Best for: Medium to large businesses—especially remote teams—that need to keep in constant contact about projects

Pricing: Basecamp Business is $99 per month for unlimited members. You can also get a free Personal plan, which is good for freelancers and solopreneurs.

4. Nifty

trello alternative - nifty

Source: AppSumo

Nifty is one of the best Trello alternatives out there because it brings “teams, goals, and actions into one place.” With more functionality than Trello, Nifty makes it a no-brainer to leave the wildly popular Kanban tool behind (and ditch other tools like Slack in the process)..

For example, besides the Kanban view, it has a list view. It also has a Slack-like chat feature, file storage, and collaborative docs with two-way Google Docs, Sheets, and Presentations integrations.

Top features: 

  • Time tracking and reporting for transparency on where your time goes and to help you work more efficiently
  • Budget tracking to show where your money goes and help you spend wisely
  • Task and milestone dependencies to help you put first things first in your workflows
  • Docs and docs management built for collaboration
  • Built-in chat for keeping in touch with your team and communicating on one channel

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Lots of features (with more being added all the time) and flexibility so you can work your way
  • Nifty is a reliable tool compared to others like ClickUp that are a little glitchy
  • The attractive user interface and inutitive features are a hit with users
  • No per-user fee, which could save you money depending on the size of your team

Cons: 

  • The free plan is super restrictive, with unlimited members but only 100 MB of storage space and 2 projects
  • Some users have mentioned disappointment at not being able to edit time logs
  • Could use more templates to get users set up faster

Best for: Teams and businesses of all sizes

Pricing: A free plan and a 14-day free trial of paid features are available. Nifty’s four paid plans start at $49 per month for up to 10 team members and range to $499 per month for unlimited users.

5. Wrike

trello alternative - wrike

Source: Wrike

If you like Kanban boards but also want to visualize your work in other ways, Wrike is a good option. It’s an all-in-one online business tool that provides dashboards and features to help your team strategize, work toward goals, track progress, and manage people and tasks. It also prioritizes collaboration across your team with features like image and video commenting so team members can provide creative feedback, even from far away.

Top features: 

  • Dashboards, workflows, tasks, and more that you can customize to fit the way you work
  • Real-time progress tracking via a live activity stream for full transparency into your team’s work
  • Automated approval processes to get from “to do” to “done” faster

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS

Pros: 

  • More than 400 integrations from Google Drive and Outlook to HubSpot and Salesforce
  • Top-notch security including single sign-on (SSO) and control features such as admin permissions and custom access roles
  • Unlike many of Wrike’s alternatives, this tool uses artificial intelligence—not just automation—to streamline the way you work

Cons: 

  • The time tracking feature could be more intuitive, especially on mobile
  • Finding tasks can be tricky depending on how you organize your project (or if you’re not an assignee but need to view a task)
  • Takes time to figure out all that Wrike has to offer and set it up for your own use case (more use case–specific tutorials would be nice)

Best for: Midsize to enterprise companies that need to collaborate across many tools and departments

Pricing: A lite version of Wrike is available for free. The Enterprise plan requires a custom quote, and Professional and Business plans start at $9.80 and $24.80 per user per month respectively.

6. ClickUp

trello alternative - clickup

Source: ClickUp

ClickUp is a more comprehensive Trello alternative than any of the tools we’ve considered so far. Instead of simply offering project management tools, ClickUp provides a wide range of tools to keep your business running—including docs, notes, spreadsheets, time tracking, and more.

On the project management front, ClickUp offers multiple views (including Kanban) to make sure your team stays on task. ClickUp makes it easier for your team to collaborate, stay ahead of deadlines, and see progress in real time.

P.S. For a more detailed overview of what this all-in-one tool has to offer, check out our in-depth ClickUp review.

Top features: 

  • Templates for various types of teams across spaces, projects, lists, tasks, and even subtasks
  • Built-in email and chat features to facilitate team and client communication without having to switch from app to app
  • Custom and pre-built automations to handle repetitive, time-sucking tasks and prevent anything from slipping through the cracks

Platforms supported: macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • More than a dozen task and page views besides Kanban, including Gantt charts, timeline view, forms, and embeds
  • Over 1,000 integrations with popular tools like Zapier and Zoom
  • Great customer support and in-depth help docs and webinars for different use cases

Cons: 

  • Multitude of features can be overwhelming for some users
  • Mobile app has limited functionality compared to the desktop and browser versions
  • Sometimes slow and glitchy

Best for: Teams looking for an affordable tool that’s flexible enough to replace many or most of the tools in their current tech stacks

Pricing: ClickUp has a free version. Paid plans start at $9 per user per month and there’s also custom Enterprise pricing if you need it.

7. Plutio

trello alternative - plutio

Source: Plutio

Plutio, which was a fan favorite when its lifetime deal was available on AppSumo, is a great Trello alternative for collaborating with team members and clients. From project management to invoicing, Plutio is a one-stop shop for dozens of your most common business software needs.

On the project management side, Plutio offers automations and templates to help small business owners work quickly. You can create recurring and one-off tasks, multiple project views, and normal features for editing things like deadlines and notifications. Plus, you can switch on the time tracker to see how long it takes you to accomplish certain tasks.

Top features: 

  • Unlimited project boards (i.e. Kanban boards), each with custom permissions, preferences, and colors
  • Customizable templates for proposals, invoices, forms, etc.
  • Multicurrency and recurring billing, as well as multiple payment methods
  • White labeling to make this project management tool your own and cement your brand in the mind of prospects and clients

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Reduces the need for other tools, allowing users to manage everything from proposals and onboarding to projects and invoicing
  • All plans include access to nearly all features (excluding white-label and single sign-on add-ons—different plans also include different numbers of clients and contributors)
  • Integrates with Zapier, Make (formerly Integromat), Square, Stripe, PayPal, Pabbly, and more

Cons: 

  • Can be a little glitchy
  • Several users have described the user interface as “clunky”
  • Customer support sometimes seems rushed and impersonal

Best for: Freelancers and agencies

Pricing: Plutio ranges from $19 to $99 per month, with custom Enterprise pricing available.

8. MeisterTask

trello alternative - MeisterTask

Source: MeisterTask

This list includes several tools with greater sophistication than Trello, but we also wanted to list true Trello alternatives like MeisterTask, which boast comparable simplicity with a slightly different UI and basic tool suite.

Like Trello, MeisterTask is a powerful Kanban board that makes it easy to keep your whole team focused on the task at hand. As a Kanban board moves to a new column, you can set it to auto-ping another team member to take over the next leg of the project. If you’re using MeisterTask to keep up with your content calendar, for example, a writer can move a board from an “In Progress” tab to an “Editing” tab to automatically notify an editor that it’s their turn to work on the blog.

Top features:

  • Customizable dashboard that shows what’s due today, this week, and beyond at a glance
  • Private Agenda board just for you, where you can pin tasks from any project and organize them any way you like
  • User groups to easily share (or unshare) projects with certain teams

Platforms supported: macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS

Pros: 

  • Users seem to agree that it’s fast and easy to get going with MeisterTask
  • Available automations and integrations could easily shave hours off of your workweek
  • Functionality can be extended with the mind-mapping tool MindMeister

Cons: 

  • Several key features like custom fields, roles, and permissions are only available on the Business and Enterprise plans
  • All paid plans are billed annually, so if you prefer monthly subs, you’re out of luck
  • The mobile app could be more intuitive

Best for: Businesses of all sizes looking to manage projects across Kanban boards

Pricing: MeisterTask has a free version. Paid memberships start at $8.25 per user per month (billed annually) with the option to save 30% if you bundle MeisterTask with MindMeister. There’s also custom Enterprise pricing available.

9. Kanban Tool

trello alternative - kanban tool

Source: Kanban Tool

You can probably guess what this tool is known for. Yep, Kanban boards are the star of the show in Kanban Tool. It offers a simple interface combined with a handful of adjacent tools, like time tracking, to help teams manage their projects and workflows.

If you like to keep your workflows simple so you can focus 100% on the tasks at hand, Kanban Tool is worth trying.

Top features: 

  • Horizontal swimlanes for tracking two or more projects on a single board
  • Power-Ups such as Calendar Widget, Recurring Tasks, Task Dependencies, and more for extending functionality
  • Basic, time, event, product development, and sales-driven Kanban board templates
  • Time tracking with cumulative flow diagrams for identifying (and obliterating) bottlenecks to reach peak productivity

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS

Pros: 

  • Constantly being improved, with process automation and user groups among the most recent updates
  • Available in nine languages, including English, Spanish, French, and Italian
  • Can be installed in 15 minutes and hosted on your server for added security

Cons: 

  • So flexible that you need to be absolutely sure about how you’ll organize your projects and stick to it
  • Users want a better zoom/resize feature to make crowded boards and swimlanes easier to navigate
  • The mobile app could have more features, such as access to settings and offline mode

Best for: Small teams needing a simple Kanban board

Pricing: Kanban Tool has a very basic free plan, as well as a 14-day free trial of either of the two paid plans. The Team plan is $5 per user per month and Enterprise is $9 per user per month. There’s separate annual pricing if you want the Kanban Tool On-Site self-hosted enterprise solution.

10. ProofHub

trello alternative - proofhub

Source: ProofHub

ProofHub is a comprehensive project management and team collaboration software. Like Trello, it’s fairly easy to use, with little to no learning curve. However, as an alternative to Trello, ProofHub offers much more than Kanban boards and other basic project management features.

For instance, ProofHub offers a built-in chat tool to simplify team communication and provide a dedicated space for real-time discussions. Plus, there’s a powerful proofing tool, which lets you easily share feedback and review files.

Top features: 

  • Multiple views, including Kanban, Gantt, timeline, and calendar
  • Group chat and direct messaging to keep project discussions in the same space as project tasks and files
  • Email-in for chatting with your team, uploading docs and files, and adding tasks without logging in

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS

Pros: 

  • All-in-one tool with user interface and user experience improvements being made often
  • Integrates with tools that are likely already part of your workflows, such as Google Calendar and Google Drive
  • White labeling available for a completely custom experience

Cons: 

  • No access to reports unless you’re on the Ultimate Control plan, which you may not need otherwise
  • Sometimes loads slowly, which can be inconvenient if you’re in a time crunch
  • Mobile app has fewer features than web and desktop versions

Best for: Remote teams looking to replace their collection of business management apps with a single all-in-one, white-labeled solution

Pricing: ProofHub has a flat—not per-user—pricing model. The Essential plan is $50 per month and the Ultimate Control plan, with unlimited projects and users, is $150 per month.

Pick your favorite Trello alternatives

Which of these Trello alternatives is right for you? Finding the right project management tool can be challenging, especially with so many out there to choose from. But this list of the 11 best alternatives to Trello should help you whittle it down. And you can always browse the AppSumo store to check out the latest deals on project management software!

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11 Skype Alternatives For Video Conferencing (Free and Paid) https://blog.appsumo.com/skype-alternatives/ Mon, 01 Aug 2022 10:00:19 +0000 https://blog.appsumo.com/?p=7492 Way before the days of WhatsApp, Skype was the revolutionary tool that made communication free. Over a billion people have downloaded it, and it’s been with us for the better part of two decades.

But with all the new video conferencing tools mushrooming into existence, there are tons of (much better) options for all of us. In fact, there are so many it can be overwhelming to choose! So we’ve curated the perfect list just for you:

What does Skype offer?

overview of skype

We’ve all heard of Skype in some capacity (or even remember its iconic calling sound). But to give you a little refresher, here’s what Skype offers:

  1. One-on-one instant chat
  2. Group instant chat
  3. High-quality video and voice calls
  4. Screen sharing
  5. The ability to call phone numbers (mobile and landline)

Over 40 million people use it daily, with the number of users likely surging due to the pandemic. But Skype doesn’t fit every use case, and many people are on the hunt for alternative communication tools that work better for them. Check out 11 of the best alternatives.

The 11 best Skype alternatives

As in all categories, big players have emerged and dominated the market (like Zoom), and legacy brands are moving in for a slice of the pie as the demand for calling solutions grows.

Here are the top players we’ve identified:

1. Google Meet

Overview of Google Meet

Google Meet is Google’s direct answer to Skype, Zoom, and other online meeting solutions.

Unlike many of Google’s free tools that are left to collect digital debris before being discarded into the dustbin of history (RIP Google+), Google Meet is actually good.

It was initially only available for G Suite customers, but it’s now free for all users.

The cool part? It integrates with Gmail’s web app, allowing you to start a meeting directly from your inbox.

The even better part? It’s extremely easy to set up and run. Just create a meeting, share the link, and voila! You can even host up to 100 participants, which is likely way more than you’ll ever need.

It also has pretty neat features like background blurring, amongst the usual stuff like screen-sharing and chat.

Best suited for: Anyone who already uses Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)

Top features:

  • Meeting controls for hosts, including pin, mute, and remove participants
  • Real-time closed captioning during meetings
  • Video and audio preview so you can double-check your mic “just in case” and get that green thing out of your teeth before joining the meeting
  • Default encryption in transit and anti-abuse features including anti-hijacking

Supported platforms: macOS, Windows, Android, iOS, and Google Nest Hub Max

Pros:

  • Free
  • Simple to use
  • Unlimited meetings
  • Automated recording option
  • Integration with Gmail, other popular Google apps, and even Microsoft Office

Cons:

  • No ability to call phone numbers
  • Buggy in larger group chats
  • Bare features compared to Zoom

Pricing: Free forever plan. The paid plan goes for $8 per month per active user for Google Workspace Essentials, while the Enterprise plan has custom pricing.

Compared to Skype: Google Meet is a solid contender if you’re mainly in the market for a secure video chat or audio call software. Unlike Skype, Google Meet isn’t meant for instant messaging or calling local or international phone numbers.

2. Zoom

Overview of Zoom

Something that shocks no one: the pandemic has caused a massive surge in Zoom users, and Zoom has practically become synonymous with videoconferencing.

Along with WFH (work from home) and Quaranteams (online teams created during lockdown), the common verbiage of today includes terms like Zoombombing. (That’s when an uninvited attendee disrupts a Zoom call.)

In fact, Zoom came under fire as more people encountered Zoom Bombing and other security concerns at the height of the pandemic. But, Zoom has significantly improved its security over the last couple of years to prevent abuse. Overall, it’s easy, reliable, and provides everything from video meetings to webinars and chat across all devices.

Best suited for: Businesses and individuals who want a reliable video conferencing tool to host video meetings, webinars, and chat

Top features: 

  • Simultaneous screen sharing for multiple video call participants
  • Hand raising, polls, reactions, filters, and more to make group video calls more engaging and interactive
  • Appearance touch-up and advanced lighting controls

Supported platforms: Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux

Pros:

  • Generous free plan and affordable pricing tier
  • No limit on the number of meetings you can host as a free user (you get most of the important features)
  • Security button to lock meetings and enable password-protected meetings
  • Scheduling, CRM, and plenty of other integrations

Cons:

  • Time limit (40 minutes) for free users on group calls
  • Can be a little glitchy, especially if your internet connection isn’t at its best
  • Many users are hoping for an improved user experience (with access to advanced features) on the mobile app

Pricing: Free forever plan. Paid plans start at $15 per month per user for the Pro plan, $20 per month per user for Business, and $25 per month per user for Zoom Business Plus.

Compared to Skype: According to users, Zoom is a bit more reliable in terms of video and call quality. Plus, it has a bunch of other perks like up to 1,000 participants, breakout rooms, and whiteboards.

3. Microsoft Teams

Overview of Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based workspace in Office 365 that provides teams with collaboration tools like live chat, audio & video conferencing, screen sharing & presentations, and scheduling & recording functionality.

Best suited for: Businesses (primarily SMEs) that heavily rely on the Microsoft Office ecosystem

Top features: 

  • Unlimited 1-on-1 meetings for up to 30 hours and unlimited group meetings for up to 60 minutes on the free plan
  • File storage, meeting recordings and transcripts, and chat history so you can easily look back on past convos and documents
  • Outlook calendar syncing, which is a hot topic in Microsoft Team reviews

Supported platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Connectivity and call quality are pretty reliable
  • Includes features like one-to-one chat, group chat, emojis, GIFs, file sharing, and all the usual video conferencing features, plus more
  • Several of the paid versions for business come with other Office apps and services

Cons:

  • You need a Microsoft account or ID (such as Outlook.com)
  • The user interface isn’t as intuitive as it could be according to several users
  • Video meetings are data gobblers, especially for longer conferences

Pricing: Free forever plan. Paid plan starts at $4 per month per user for the Microsoft Teams Essential plan, $6 per month per user for the 365 Business Basic plan, and $12.50 per month per user for Business Standard (billed annually).

Compared to Skype: One of the biggest pluses of Microsoft Teams is that, unlike Skype, it integrates with 250+ apps and services to make collaboration and communication easy. Plus, it has some smaller perks like a 2 GB per user limit on file attachments in contrast to Skype’s 300 MB limit.

4. GoToMeeting

Overview of GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting has become one of the industry leaders in online video conferencing for companies around the world. It provides a fast, easy, and reliable online meeting solution for  one-on-ones, sharing presentations, and chatting with colleagues.

Best suited for: Businesses and individuals who regularly host video meetings and presentations

Top features: 

  • Enterprise-grade security that includes single sign-on (SSO), encrypted sessions, meeting locks, and the ability to dismiss attendees
  • Keyboard and mouse sharing—not just screen sharing—for true collaboration
  • Reporting and analytics so you can improve future video conferences

Supported platforms: Windows, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Tons of integrations
  • No meeting time limits on paid plans
  • Excellent audio/video quality
  • Permanent meeting rooms you can use without inviting people

Cons:

  • GoToWebinar is an add-on so, if you plan to host webinars, you’ll end up paying more than with a multi-purpose platform
  • Hard to monitor participants when the number is over 50
  • Annual plans only

Pricing: Free 14-day trial available. Paid plans start at $12 per month per organizer (user) for the Professional plan, $16 per month per organizer for the Business plan, and customized quotes are available for the Enterprise plan.

Compared to Skype: All in all, GoToMeeting is more progressive than Skype. It’s got new bells and whistles like Slide to PDF for creating shareable PDFs from presentation slides. Plus, Smart Assistant for auto-detection of action items, Commuter Mode for hosts, and even a Slack meeting launcher.

5. Eyeson

Overview of Eyeson

Eyeson is a cloud-based video calling and presentation solution made mainly for developers. It’s a powerful, fully integrated solution for one-on-one calls that works brilliantly for phone and video calls. Plus, it’s equipped to handle webinars and live streaming!

Best suited for: Small businesses that have remote teams or clients and want a no-hassle video solution (and have developers who can handle the setup)

Top features:

  • Integration of custom media such as data and video streams
  • Embeddable video and audio
  • An analytics dashboard detailing your daily meeting minutes for the month, meeting stats, usage by weekday, and more

Supported platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS

Pros:

  • UI and UX are polished and modern with the ability to add GIFs, chat, take snapshots, react, moderate participants, and send quick join links
  • Tons of integrations (and more to come)
  • API key to natively integrate with your product
  • Use cases for financial services, customer support, coaching, recruitment, online events, and more

Cons:

  • A little more technical than popular tools like Zoom that are made for the masses and more user-friendly
  • Limits on participants (100 on the mid-tier plan)
  • Only nine people are visible on screen at a time
  • Unable to mute selected people

Pricing: Free plan available for developers. Paid plans are based on the number of sessions per month, how long they’ll last, and the number of participants. For example, according to Eyeson’s price calculator, ten 30-minute meetings a month with four participants per session would cost just $6.30. There’s also custom pricing for corporate teams and pricing for Eyeson’s four support plans.

Compared to Skype: Eyeson’s biggest perk is that you can customize it to your use case. While it’s more flexible than Skype and other tools on this list, it’s also a bit more complex. So, if you’re not a dev yourself, you should have one on your team or be willing to hire one to build out your custom video solution.

6. MeetFox

Overview of MeetFox

MeetFox is a handy solution for consultants, freelancers, and creatives to manage their client meetings. It has video conferencing features, appointment scheduling, and a nifty secure payments feature for invoicing.

Best suited for: Freelance consultants who have frequent one-on-one meetings with clients

Top features: 

  • Scheduling buttons and pop-ups leading from your website. Social media or emails to your custom booking page
  • Flexible payment options (plus cancellation policies allowing you to charge for no-shows)
  • Team accounts and the option to split payments between team members, which can come in handy if you work with subcontractors, for example

Supported platforms: macOS and Windows

Pros:

  • Integrations with Stripe to receive (fast) payments
  • Easy to set up and client-friendly
  • Seamless video meetings

Cons:

  • No mobile app (at least not yet)
  • Some basic features like screen sharing and recording aren’t available on the free plan or are only on the Premium plan

Pricing: Free starter plan available with unlimited meetings per month. The Pro and Premium plans are $15 and $42 per user per month, respectively, for extra perks like unlimited meeting types, branding, SMS meeting reminders, and multiparty bookings. You can also grab MeetFox’s 1-year deal on AppSumo for $99.

Compared to Skype: This tool is still young, so it doesn’t have as many features as Skype. However, it has rave user reviews and is great if you have one-on-one and/or paid consultations.

7. Whereby

Overview of Whereby

Whereby is a fully web-based tool that lives in your web browser. It’s a solid video conferencing tool for companies and professionals who want to host easy and reliable video meetings. No apps or installations are necessary, and no logins are required for guests.

What’s neat is that teams have personalized meeting rooms, and you’ll get a single meeting link you can use every time. Whereby is a reliable tool that companies like Shopify and Netflix use.

Best suited for: Remote teams that want a one-click solution for secure video conferencing solution with a delightful UI

Top features: 

  • Unlimited one-on-one meetings
  • Room customization with branded names, URLs, and colors
  • Whereby Embedded for embedding video calls into any website or app

Supported platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android

Pros:

  • Beautiful, intuitive, and polished UI
  • Integrations with top tools like Trello, Slack, and Miro for whiteboard collaboration
  • No app installation required, and you can use the same meeting link every time
  • Privacy-friendly with unlimited encrypted meetings

Cons:

  • 100 to 200 is a minimal number of participants compared to tools like Zoom
  • Some users say the mobile app is a bit of a letdown compared to the desktop version
  • More simplistic than alternatives, including Skype

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $6.99 per month for the Pro plan and $9.99 per host per month with a minimum of three hosts for the Business plan. Whereby Embedded, on the other hand, has a free plan, a $9.99 plan, and a custom plan with custom pricing.

Compared to Skype: If you want a more modern tool than Skype, won’t be holding massive meetings or webinars, and don’t really need features like instant messaging, Whereby will do the trick for you.

8. Jitsi

Overview of Jitsi

Jitsi is a great open-source alternative to Zoom. It provides a set of open-source projects that allows you to easily build and deploy secure video conferencing solutions.

Plus, Jitsi is secure, flexible, and completely free! You can run it entirely on your own hardware, and Jitsi won’t have access to your conversations. Of course, most people (individuals) don’t want to run their own video server, so you can use the paid cloud service within the tool.

Best suited for: People, businesses, and organizations that want secure video conferencing for business or personal use

Top features: 

  • Live stream capability if you want to go live on YouTube
  • Real-time and private chat
  • Screen sharing

Supported platforms: iOS, Android, macOS, Linux

Pros:

  • Open source
  • Free
  • No account needed
  • Complete end-to-end encryption for one-on-one calls
  • Paid version (videos hosted on a central server) is one of the most affordable on the market

Cons:

  • Mobile app can be buggy
  • Users have reported it’s prone to freezing when there are many participants
  • No hand-raising or whiteboard features
  • Way fewer integrations than Skype and other tools

Pricing: It’s freeee! (And who doesn’t love free stuff?)

Compared to Skype: Jitsi has all the basic features you’ll need to hold small meetings or do live streams, so if you’re looking for a simple solution, it’ll work. If you’re looking for a more robust tool, Skype or one of the other alternatives we’ve mentioned would be better.

9. Business Hangouts

Overview of Business Hangouts

Business Hangouts is a bit of an underdog in the video conferencing world. Alternatives like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and even Skype tend to come to mind first. However, more than 2.9 million people use it for everything from instant meetings to live and pre-recorded webinars and events.

Best suited for: Businesses looking for a solution that works for internal and client meetings, as well as free or paid events

Top features: 

  • Engagement tools such as polls, chat, and even special offers
  • Attendee analytics including registration metrics, engagement, and time watched
  • Email automation tools you can use for event reminders and post-meeting surveys

Supported platforms: Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS

Pros: 

  • No download required
  • Easy to use and affordable
  • PayPal integration for selling event tickets
  • Fairly generous limits on attendees with the highest tier plan maxing out at 500

Cons: 

  • Some users have mentioned that video quality suffers when screen sharing
  • Can’t white-label or customize meeting rooms to your brand
  • No private chat

Pricing: Monthly pricing ranges from $10 to $197 across four plans. But can we let you in on a secret? If you’re quick enough, you might be able to grab the Business Hangouts lifetime deal on AppSumo. Licenses start at just $79 for Business plan features.

Compared to Skype: Skype is most focused on video and audio calls. On the other hand, Business Hangouts does video conferencing well but focuses more on events. If you’re planning to host webinars, workshops, and the like, this is a good option.

10. Chanty

Overview of Chanty

Chanty is another great team collaboration tool used by more than 75,000 companies including the likes of NASA and Nike. The cool thing is that it’s not just for video and voice calls; it has built-in productivity features too.

Best suited for: Teams who want one place to discuss and keep track of tasks, whether through audio, video, or text chat

Top features: 

  • Kanban boards for your tasks
  • Teambook—a hub for organizing tasks, conversations and message history, and other content
  • Unlimited conversations on the free plan and unlimited group video calls on the Business plan

Supported platforms: Windows, iOS, macOS, Android, and Linux

Pros: 

  • On the more affordable end of the spectrum, especially if you have a small team
  • Integrations with tools you know and love, including Basecamp, Google Drive, Zapier, and Dropbox
  • Guest seats available, which can help with cost control

Cons: 

  • A 10 integration limit on the free plan
  • No other task views besides Kanban

Pricing: Free forever plan available. And Chanty’s paid option—the Business plan—only costs $4 per user per month.

Compared to Skype: Skype has some great voice and video conferencing features, as well as team chat tools. Chanty is like Slack, Trello, and a voice and video call app all in one. If you’re looking to simplify your tech stack, manage action items from meetings easily, and have a centralized hub for task discussions, try Chanty.

11. Livestorm

Overview of Livestrom

Last up is the browser-based platform Livestorm. Thousands of companies, including Airtable, Verizon, and Intercom, use it for company meetings, product demos, webinars, courses, and even employee onboarding and training. This simple tool doesn’t require a software download and is simple to use, so you can hit the ground running as soon as you sign up.

Best suited for: Large meetings and virtual events

Top features: 

  • Engagement tools including calls to action, chat, Q & A, question upvotes, media sharing, and screen sharing
  • Livestorm plugins for file sharing, meeting room design, and more to customize your live meeting experiences
  • Registration widgets and registrant moderation

Platforms supported: macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Easy to use (e.g., it only takes 8 minutes to set up and publish an event page on Livestorm)
  • CRM, marketing automation, and custom enterprise integrations available
  • Event automation, email cadences and delivery status info, as well as analytics for tracking attendance and engagement

Cons: 

  • More expensive than most of the tools above
  • Low session length limits with a stingy 20-minute limit on the free plan and 4 hours on the Pro and Business plans

Pricing: Free plan available. The Pro plan starts at $110 per month billed monthly, and the Business and Enterprise plans require custom quotes.

Compared to Skype: Skype is definitely the cheaper option, but Livestorm may have it beat for hosting webinars and live events. That seems to be one of the most common use cases, and many users have great things to say about it.

Which Skype alternative will you go with?

There you have it—the top audio and video conferencing apps capable of giving Skype a run for its money.

Whether you’re a freelancer looking to close more clients, a small remote team that wants effortless meetings, or a larger team distributed across different time zones, this list has options that can help. Which one will you try? No matter your answer, you’re going to want to check out these cool 3D virtual backgrounds from Officina Kreativa in the AppSumo Store.

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14 Gumroad Alternatives to Sell Products and Get Donations https://blog.appsumo.com/gumroad-alternatives/ Thu, 28 Jul 2022 10:00:40 +0000 https://blog.appsumo.com/?p=10744 Gumroad is a popular solution for selling digital products, physical products, and memberships. It is free to use, and you don’t even need to have a website.

But if you feel the path that Gumroad offers is too sticky and bumpy, there are many alternatives you can experiment with. We’re listing 14 similar solutions to launch and sell products.

An overview of Gumroad

overview of Gumroad

Here’s an overview of Gumroad to help you compare it with the alternatives.

Gumroad is a popular e-commerce solution for digital creators and infopreneurs to sell products. With Gumroad, you don’t need a website or hosting service. Simply upload your product onto the platform, add a description, set a price, and share the link with customers.

Key features

  • List products and sell them directly or embed the code on your website
  • Memberships and subscriptions help you generate recurring revenue
  • “Pay what you want” feature gives customers the freedom to choose a price they can afford
  • Analytics helps you better understand your audience and product preferences

Limitations

  • Charges higher fees for each transaction
  • Only minimal customizations are possible

Pricing

Gumroad charges you percentage of your earnings for each sale you make. The fee decreases as you reach earning milestones.

Here are the different fees depending on your lifetime earnings:

  • $0 to $1,000: 9% + 30c per transaction
  • $1,000 to $10,000: 7% + 30c per transaction
  • $10,000 to $100,000: 5% + 30c per transaction
  • $100,000 to $1,000,000: 3% + 30c per transaction
  • $1,000,000+: 2.9% + 30c per transaction

Top Gumroad alternatives in 2023

1. Soundwise

gumroad alternative - Soundwise

Soundwise is a unique tool in this list as it exclusively suits podcasters and other audio content creators. You can use it to sell audio programs and premium podcasts and make money or give them away to build an email list you can monetize later.

Key features

  • Sell audio programs and premium podcasts for a one-time fee or offer subscriptions and rentals
  • Offer free trials and samples to give potential customers a taste
  • Create web and mobile-optimized sales pages to promote your programs
  • Collect listener feedback and improve products

Limitations

  • Directly integrates with very few software

Pricing

Soundwise has four paid plans:

  • Starter: $23 per month
  • Plus: $59 per month
  • Pro: $119 per month
  • Platinum: $469 per month

But you can get it for life for a one-time fee of just $59 on AppSumo.

You can even take it for a spin with a 15-day trial.

2. HYPAGE

gumroad alternative - HYPAGE

HYPAGE is a product bio page with a twist. It allows you to monetize your bio link through digital products, memberships, and donations. To make the process smoother, HYPAGE has a built-in payment processor that helps you directly accept payments.

Key features

  • Sell digital products such as courses, memberships, and premium gated content
  • Accept requests and donations from fans
  • Convert visitors to email subscribers

Limitations

  • Has very few integrations

Pricing

HYPAGE has three plans:

  • Free: $0 per month
  • Pro: $19 per month
  • Enterprise: $39 per month

You can also get it for life for a one-time payment of just $49 on AppSumo.

HYPAGE doesn’t offer a trial, but you can test it with the free plan.

3. Payhip

gumroad alternative - payhip

Payhip appears very similar to Gumroad, but it focuses on digital products, and has paid plans. Depending on the plan you pick, you can either reduce or eliminate your transaction fee from the start.

Key features

  • Sell digital products and online courses that require a one-time fee or memberships that generate recurring revenue
  • Invite affiliates and manage them with the affiliate system
  • Craft high converting sales pages with the store builder

Limitations

  • Limited customization options
  • Free plan has a high transaction rate of 5%

Pricing

Payhip offers three plans:

  • Free Forever: $0 per month
  • Plus: $29 per month
  • Pro: $99 per month

It doesn’t offer a trial, but you can try it with the free plan.

4. Easy Digital Downloads

gumroad alternative - easy digital downloads

As the name suggests, Easy Digital Downloads simplifies selling digital products from your WordPress website. One of the great features of this plugin is that it offers extensions that you can use to improve the functionality.

Key features

  • Transform your WordPress website into a digital products ecommerce store
  • Maintain customer records and track KPIs such as customer lifetime value
  • Accept payments with credit cards or Paypal

Limitations

  • Only works on WordPress websites
  • No monthly payment option

Pricing

Easy Digital Downloads offers five payment plans:

  • Personal Pass: $199.50 per year
  • Extended Pass: $399.50 per year
  • Professional Pass: $599.50 per year
  • All Access Pass: $999.50 per year

Easy Digital Downloads doesn’t offer a trial, but there’s a free version of the plugin.

5. Samcart

gumroad alternative - samcart

Samcart is a popular tool for selling digital products and services such as coaching. It’s mainly known for features such as the order bump and one-click upsell that improve your average order value.

Key features

  • Create aesthetic and high converting check out pages
  • One-click upsells, order bumps, A/B split testing, and reports help improve conversion rate and ROI
  • Pay what you want feature allows customers to set their price

Limitations

  • Features such as upsells and order bumps are only available with the Grow and Scale plans, which are a bit expensive
  • There’s no free plan

Pricing

Samcart has three paid plans:

  • Launch: $49 per month
  • Grow: $99 per month
  • Scale: $199 per month

You can test it with the 7-day trial.

6. Sellfy

gumroad alternative - sellfy

Sellfy is an ecommerce platform for creators to sell both digital and physical products. It offers features such as email marketing, discount codes, and upsells to help you generate maximum sales.

Key features

  • Create a beautiful storefront that displays all your products
  • List and sell digital and physical products and subscriptions
  • Offers a print-on-demand option for merchandise

Limitations

  • Users must get a paid plan to sell digital products and subscriptions

Pricing

Sellfy has four paid options:

  • Free: $0 per month
  • Starter: $29 per month
  • Business: $79 per month
  • Premium: $159 per month

You can sample the paid plans with a free 14-day trial.

7. Patreon

gumroad alternative - patreon

Patreon is popular among creators for accepting recurring monetary support from their audience, often in exchange for exclusive content. Many creators offer various membership tiers where they give away premium content and other bonuses.

Key features

  • Monetize your creator career with paid monthly memberships from fans
  • Nurture relationships with patrons by sharing posts
  • Integrates with several tools and platforms

Limitations

  • No option to accept one-time payments

Pricing

Patreon offers three plans. You can sign up for all three for free, but they each requires that you pay a different commission.

The three plans are:

  • Lite: 5% of what you earn
  • Professional: 8% of what you earn
  • Premium: 12% of what you earn

If this model appeals to you, you might also want to check out our post on Patreon alternatives.

8. Hyax

gumroad alternative - hyax

You can use Hyax to sell almost anything. This includes digital and physical products, courses, and memberships. You can also create landing pages and funnels to promote your products.

Key features

  • Create landing pages to sell products or get people to sign up to your lead magnets
  • Create multi-step funnels that include upsells and order bumps
  • Accept payments via PayPal or Stripe

Limitations

  • No free plan, and all plans are pricey
  • Can only remove branding if you subscribe to the Advanced plan or higher

Pricing

Hyax has three paid plans:

  • Beginner: $99 per month
  • Advanced: $199 per month
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

You can test it with a free trial.

9. SendOwl

gumroad alternative - sendowl

SendOwl is an affordable tool for selling digital products such as ebooks, audiobooks, photography, memberships, and online courses. You can integrate it with your website, blog, and even Shopify.

Key features

  • Sell products on multiple platforms, including social media
  • Features such as promo codes, cart abandonments, one-click upsell, and pay-what-you-want pricing help boost conversions
  • Set download limits to prevent sharing of products

Limitations

  • Limited customization options

Pricing

SendOwl has four payment options:

  • Just the basics: $9 per month
  • Standard: $15 per month
  • Premium: $24 per month
  • Business: $39 per month

You can also take it for a spin with the 30-day trial.

10. E-junkie

gumroad alternative - e-junkie

E-junkie is another website for selling digital and physical products. It’s very affordable and lets you accept payments with various payment gateways.

Key features

  • Inexpensive pricing plans starting at just $5 per month
  • Stamp buyer’s name, transaction ID, and email on ebooks to prevent them from distributing
  • Use download codes to sell them offline

Limitations

  • Not the best interface for your storefront and check-out pages

Pricing

E-junkie offers four payment plans:

  • $5/month
  • $10/month
  • $20/month
  • $40/month

You can also sign up for a 30-day trial.

11. ThriveCart

gumroad alternative - thrivecart

ThriveCart is a Samcart alternative that many people prefer as you get lifetime access to it with a one-time fee. It has many exciting features such as joint venture contracts, business projections, and subscription saver functionality.

Key features

  • Automatic sales tax calculation feature helps you charge the right amount
  • Create checkout pages and funnels with bumps and upsells to boost average order value
  • Affiliate center helps you manage affiliates and grow your revenue

Limitations

  • No free plan or trial, and you need to pay a hefty one-time fee to get access

Pricing

ThriveCart has two paid plans:

  • ThriveCart Lifetime Account: $1,995
  • ThriveCart Pro: $2,995

There’s no free plan or trial.

12. Shopify

gumroad alternative - shopify

Everybody knows that Shopify is one of the best ecommerce store builders. But many don’t know that it offers apps that make it easy to sell digital products such as ebooks and video courses.

Key features

  • Shopify’s Digital Download App and other third-party apps such as Thinkific allow you to sell downloadable products and online courses
  • Offers many other apps and integrations
  • Offers free email marketing software to capture and nurture subscribers

Limitations

  • Subscribing to Shopify and its premium apps can get expensive

Pricing

Shopify has three paid plans:

  • Basic: $29 per month
  • Shopify: $79 per month
  • Advanced: $299 per month

13. PayKickstart

gumroad alternative - paykicstart

PayKickstart is mainly known for its subscription billing system to accept recurring payments, but you can also accept one-time payments. You can use it to sell courses, software, ebooks, and services.

Key features

  • Accept payment via credit cards, wallets, PayPal, and even bank transfers
  • Subscription management feature helps increase customer lifetime value and minimize churn
  • Affiliate Management helps run and track affiliate programs

Limitations

  • No free plan, and prices are on the higher side

Pricing

PayKickstart has three paid plans:

  • Starter: $99 per month
  • Growth: $199
  • Scale: $299

14. WooCommerce

gumroad alternative - woocomerce

WooComerce is an open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress sites. It is also free to use and helps you create beautiful storefronts and landing pages.

Key features

  • Easily add ecommerce functionality to your WordPress website
  • Themes and Extensions help you quickly set up a store and start accepting payments
  • Customize stores with builders like Elementor or with a professional designer

Limitations

  • Only works on websites built with WordPress

Pricing

WooCommerce is free to use, but you need to pay extra for premium extensions and themes.

Did you find a suitable Gumroad alternative?

Gumroad is a great tool that is free to use. But those high commission rates can eat into your profits and limit the funds you can invest back into your business. This is why it is better to use an alternative where you pay a monthly fee and get back a higher percentage of your profits.

Depending on your budget and the type of products you sell, there are many options. For example, Soundwise would be ideal for promoting premium podcasts, while Samcart is better for online courses.

To save even more money, check out the AppSumo store. We regularly have deals for software such as Soundwise and HYPAGE. You can simply pay a one-time fee and get these products for life.

Gumroad FAQs

Is it easy to sell on Gumroad?

Yes, it is pretty easy to use. Upload your products, set the price, and share the product links with prospective buyers.

What’s the best alternative to Gumroad?

Payhip is the best alternative to Gumroad. It offers many similar features, and it also has paid options that lower or eliminate commision fees.

Is Gumroad like Patreon?

Although both tools are popular among digital creators, they are very different. Patreon’s features are focused on accepting recurring membership payments and nurturing your supporters, while Gumroad is all about selling digital products.

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10 Jira Alternatives to Transform Your Project Management https://blog.appsumo.com/jira-alternatives/ Mon, 25 Jul 2022 10:00:30 +0000 https://blog.appsumo.com/?p=7803 If you’re part of an Agile software development team, then you’re probably no stranger to Jira. As one of the most popular project management tools for developers and IT teams, Jira is a robust platform with a lot of powerful features.

But just because Jira is wildly popular with Agile teams doesn’t mean it’s right for yours.

Lucky for you, there are many Jira alternatives with similar features, less of a learning curve, and lower pricing. Below are ten of the best. But before we dive into the details of each, let’s see what the Jira hype is about.

An overview of Jira

An overview of Jira

Source

Created by Atlassian, Jira is one of the most popular software project management tools out there. Agile teams use it to plan sprints, track project progress, release quality software, and imrpove future sprints based on data from Jira’s retrospective Scrum reports. Built with every member of the software team in mind, Jira offers a variety of features and integrations teams can use to manage their product roadmaps all in one location.

Top features:

  • Basic and advanced project roadmaps with Scrum and Kanban boards to keep track of deadlines and deliverables
  • Design workflows for every initiative and project to plan, track, and release software
  • Out-of-the-box Agile reports with real-time, actionable insights

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Free for up to ten users
  • Automate tasks and processes thanks to built-in rule templates
  • Integrations with your favorite tools, including Confluence, Trello, Bitbucket, Slack, Google, and Zoom
  • Impressive flexibility and customization options

Cons: 

  • More expensive than most popular alternatives
  • Has more bells and whistles than some teams need
  • Can take time to learn the tool and set up the best configuration for your team
  • Users report some plugins and integrations don’t work as well as they should

Best for: Jira is best for large or growing teams that need advanced features and extensive customization options.

Pricing: Free plan available. The Standard plan costs about $7.50 per user per month, and Premium costs about $14.50 per user per month. You can also contact sales for Enterprise pricing, which is billed annually.

1. Asana

An overview of Asana

Source

Asana is a popular Jira alternative built for all types of teams, not just software development. Its project management tools help you stay organized and connected while customizing and automating workflows. With 200+ integrations, Asana also plays nice with a lot of the tools you may already use, including Slack, Google Drive, Outlook, Zoom, Zapier, and many more.

Top features:

  • Multiple views, including boards, lists, timelines, and calendars
  • Custom project templates to save you a ton of time and keep your workflow and output quality consistent
  • Inbox for an overview of the projects, conversations, and tasks relevant to you right now

Platforms supported: macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Manage projects from start to finish with projects, tasks, subtasks, and milestones
  • Take tedious, repetitive work off your plate by automating actions using rules
  • Document and organize work requests with easy-to-fill forms

Cons: 

  • Can be expensive if you have a large team (or can’t live without a feature that’s on a higher-tier plan than you’re on)
  • Reporting isn’t as detailed as some users would like
  • The UI and UX can be a little frustrating if you have a lot of ongoing projects at one time

Best for: Asana is best for teams who want a simpler tool than Jira that’s proven itself in the task management and team collaboration space.

Pricing: Basic plan available for free. Paid plans start at $13.49 per user per month for Premium and $30.49 per user per month for Business. There’s also an Enterprise plan with custom pricing.

2. Wrike

An overview of Wrike

Source

Recognized by Forrester as a leader in project management, Wrike is an all-in-one project management tool. It helps teams maximize performance and growth while also improving collaboration and the customer experience. With 400+ app integrations, Wrike works with tools such as Salesforce, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Outlook, Google Drive, and ADP.

Top features:

  • Time tracking (manual or timed)
  • Customizable dashboards, workflows, request forms, tasks, and more
  • Automated approval processes to make handoffs seamless
  • A live activity stream so you can see your team’s progress in real time across the global, project, and task levels

Platforms supported: macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Pre-built workflows for product delivery, onboarding, and more to get you started quickly
  • AI Work Intelligence that recommends tasks and assignees, helping you move ahead on projects faster
  • Visual proofing and change records so no feedback slips through the cracks
  • Security and control features including single sign-on (SSO), two-factor authentication (2FA), admin permissions, and custom access roles

Cons:

  • The user interface could be more intuitive
  • Needs more documentation on use cases for Wrike’s features
  • Some users have reported that Wrike is slower than other tools at times

Best for: Wrike is for teams that want maximum visibility into project progress at all times to maintain and improve efficiency, or for those who are sick of switching back and forth between tools and want a single project management tool that integrates with the other essential tools in their arsenals.

Pricing: Free plan available. The Professional plan for growing teams is $9.80 per user per month, and the Business plan, which is for all teams across an organization, costs $24.80 per user per month. Enterprise pricing is also available upon request.

3. Trello

An overview of Trello

Source

Owned by Atlassian, Trello is another popular Jira alternative for Agile teams (and every other kind of team!). Trello provides simplicity and visibility that just can’t be beat. This platform makes it easy to see all projects, who’s working on what, and the next steps to move projects forward.

Top features:

  • Cards that keep all project or task information in one place, including file attachments, previews, reminders, checklists, and comments
  • Templates for business, design, engineering, marketing, and more
  • Butler, Trello’s built-in automation for taking tedious tasks off your hands

Platforms supported: macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Simple UI, including drag-and-drop to move tasks from one stage to the next
  • Affordable compared to Jira and Asana
  • Kanban boards and timeline, calendar, map, and table views to visualize your work the way you want
  • Integrations with tools like Slack, Dropbox, Confluence, Google Drive, and Evernote

Cons: 

  • Users want an integrated Gantt feature, or at least the ability to manipulate timelines so they can see the way tasks and projects interact with one another
  • Currently, there’s no way to track task dependencies, so you’ll have to develop a manual system for keeping up with them
  • Needs more help documentation and tutorials

Best for: Trello is a good choice for teams that want an inexpensive, straightforward project management tool everyone can learn and adjust to quickly.

Pricing: Free plan available. The Standard plan costs $6 per user per month, Premium costs $12.50 per user per month, and Enterprise pricing starts at $17.50 per user per month (with a minimum of 25 users).

4. ClickUp

An overview of ClickUp

Source

ClickUp is one of the more complete and intuitive Jira alternatives on the list. Marketed as “one app to replace them all,” ClickUp brings together everything you need to get stuff done. This includes to-do lists, reminders, email and chat, spreadsheets, docs and wikis, goal tracking, time tracking, and resource management.

Top features:

  • Drop-down custom fields to set unique point values for each task, making it easy to measure Scrum points in each sprint
  • Customizable templates for spaces, projects, lists, tasks, and more
  • Multiple assignees, task dependencies, milestones, seven levels of nested subtasks, recurrences, and more to mirror your workflow perfectly

Platforms supported: macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Paid plans are affordable (and you get unlimited free plan members on the Free Forever plan, so you can get familiar with the tool before upgrading)
  • 15+ Task and page views including lists, Gantt charts, timelines, whiteboards, docs, forms, and even embeds
  • 1,000+ Integrations with tools like Zapier, Google Drive, Salesforce, Slack, Zoom, and more to make your workflows simpler
  • Fast, friendly, and helpful customer support and detailed help documentation

Cons: 

  • Can be a little buggy at times
  • So many features means it may be overwhelming at first and take some time to create the right setup
  • The mobile app doesn’t yet have all the goodies that the web and desktop versions do

Best for: ClickUp is outstanding for teams that want tons of customization options but don’t want to spend tons of money.

Pricing: A Free Forever plan is available, and paid plans start at $9 per member per month. You can also contact the team for an even better deal on the Unlimited plan.

5. ProofHub

An overview of ProofHub

Source

ProofHub is one of the most popular Jira alternatives because it offers many of the same features Jira does, but for a flat rate (no per-user fee). With all the tools you need for your team to deliver your projects on time, ProofHub brings together your teams, projects, and clients in one convenient space.

Top features:

  • Email-in for joining discussions, adding tasks, and uploading files without having to log in to your ProofHub account
  • File versioning, proofing, and approval for easy hand-offs and a record of the evolution of your docs and designs
  • Announcements for general (not project-specific) updates to keep everyone in the loop
  • Direct messaging and group chat with @mentions to keep the lines of communication wide open

Platforms supported: iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows

Pros: 

  • Flat pricing, which means lower costs for teams with 10+ members than with Jira and the other tools on this list
  • Project templates, Gantt charts, and Kanban boards to get you started quickly and help you visualize your project workflows
  • Integrations with FreshBooks, Google Calendar, Dropbox, Google Drive, and more
  • White labeling to make your account look and feel like your account, with a custom domain, logo, and your own brand colors

Cons: 

  • No free plan (but it’s a fair trade-off considering ProofHub has flat rates)
  • Not as customizable as some competing tools like ClickUp
  • Reports aren’t available on the Essential plan, so you’ll either be guessing at work progress or be forced to upgrade to Ultimate Control
  • The mobile app is limited, making work on the go a no-go

Best for: ProofHub is a great tool for remote teams that are expanding and need a simple, white-labeled solution for communication and collaboration.

Pricing: Free trial available. The Essential plan is $50 per month, and the Ultimate Control plan is $150 per month.

6. Pivotal Tracker

An overview of Pivotal Tracker

Source

Built specifically for software teams, Pivotal Tracker is a tool that provides a single view of all priorities on the same page. Having a bird’s eye view of your projects makes it easy to see which tasks need to be completed and when.

Top features:

  • Live dashboard to see project progress and pending work
  • Story blockers to spot roadblocks and collaborate to resolve issues
  • Full project history and a tracker to calculate your team’s velocity and make accurate projections based on past work
  • Searchable labels for keeping organized and monitoring important stories

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Excellent visibility into who’s worked on what—plus control over team member roles and permissions
  • Great for inquiry and ticket organization
  • Integrates with Slack, GitHub, Zendesk, Integromat, Google Sheets, and many more tools your team may use

Cons: 

  • The UI could be more attractive, modern, and user-friendly
  • Has limited flexibility and customization options

Best for: Pivotal Tracker is good for small software development teams (e.g., ten people or fewer) looking for a budget-friendly option.

Pricing: A free plan is available for up to five collaborators. The Startup plan will run you a flat rate of $10 per month, and the Standard plan costs $6.50 per collaborator per month (offered in bundles of five collaborators). There’s custom enterprise pricing as well.

7. Basecamp

An overview of Basecamp

Source

Started in the early 2000s, Basecamp is a long-standing project management tool that gives Jira a run for its money. The greatest advantage of Basecamp is that it brings everything you need together in one platform, so you no longer have to switch between apps to get work done. This saves you both time and money, potentially allowing you to get rid of tools such as Slack and Dropbox.

Top features:

  • Message boards for organizing announcements, updates, ideas, and feedback
  • Labeled folders for organizing docs, files, images, and spreadsheets
  • Recurring questions for automatic weekly team check-ins
  • Shared schedules for keeping up with important dates on Google Calendar, iCal, or Outlook

Platforms supported: macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android

Pros: 

  • Keep all project work in one place—contacts, discussions, documents, files, tasks, dates, and more
  • Unlimited projects, users, and clients in the Business plan at flat-rate pricing, which can save larger teams a ton of money
  • 500 GB of storage space (with the Business plan), so most teams will have more than enough space to store all their project info in Basecamp for easy access

Cons: 

  • More flexible features are needed for some projects
  • Users wish there was a way to create dependencies and relationships between tasks and due dates
  • Doesn’t give high-level overviews of all projects like some other Jira alternatives do

Best for: Basecamp is fantastic if your team of 20+ has many assets to manage across projects and wants to keep them—and project communication—in one place.

Pricing: Basecamp Personal is free but limited, and Basecamp Business is a flat rate of $99 per month.

8. Bugzilla

An overview of Bugzilla

Source

Developed by the team that brought you Mozilla, Bugzilla is a robust web-based bug tracking tool that’s trusted by world leaders in technology. Bugzilla is under active development and is often used in high-volume, high-complexity environments like Mozilla. It may be free, but it still has powerful features.

Top features:

  • Advanced search capabilities, including time-based searches and other custom queries
  • Advanced bug database reports with table, line graph, bar graph, and pie chart views
  • A request system to ask other team members to help with bug fixes
  • Time tracking for an accurate understanding of how much time you’ve spent on bug fixes and deadlines for rolling them out

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, and Linux

Pros: 

  • Sanity Check scans your database for inconsistencies and reports errors
  • The default list of bug statuses and resolutions can be edited to build custom workflows
  • Permissions for complete control over which group of users can view or work on specific bugs

Cons: 

  • Limited plugins and not as many customization options as some alternatives
  • Outdated user interface (it’s like a flashback to the 2000s)
  • Speed could be improved

Best for: Bugzilla is great for small, budget-conscious teams looking for a simple, open-source bug tracking tool.

Pricing: Free

9. Digital.ai Agility

An overview of Digital.ai Agility

Source

Digital.ai Agility is a scalable, enterprise-grade Agile lifecycle management platform built to help Agile teams develop better software faster. This comprehensive and versatile tool supports Agile methodologies, including Kanban, Scrum, XP, and Lean.

Top features:

  • Operational and development value stream with associated portfolio items
  • Kanban boards and other visualization tools to keep track of progress and development status
  • Access to Agile metrics plus analytics to track progress and performance at team and portfolio levels

Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, and Linux

Pros: 

  • Brings the team together in a single environment with conversations, dedicated planning rooms, and communities
  • Supports various enterprise agile frameworks including  Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®), LeSS, Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), Spotify, and more
  • Integrates with Agile team tools like Atlassian Jira, ServiceNow, and Microsoft Azure DevOps

Cons: 

  • The user interface could be less cluttered
  • Some users report it takes a good deal of time, trial, and error to compile for different systems and software versions
  • Setting up integration points could be a more intuitive process
  • The machine learning features are still relatively new and could use some improvement

Best for: Digital.ai Agility is for teams that need built-in support for the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®), which Jira doesn’t offer.

Pricing: Free trial available on request. For pricing, contact the Digital.ai team.

10. Redmine

An overview of Redmine

Source

Written using the Ruby on Rails framework, Redmine is a cross-platform, cross-database project management web application. Redmine offers developers a flexible tool to track projects while tracking and addressing bugs and other issues.

Top features:

  • Wikis and forums for each project
  • Gantt charts and calendar view
  • Time tracking at both the issue and project levels
  • News, document, and file management within the application
  • Customizable dashboard and flexible issue tracking system

Platforms supported: Linux, macOS, and Windows (plus Unix if you’re still using that system)

Pros: 

  • Supports multiple projects with flexible role-based access control
  • Multi-language support beyond English
  • Integrations with SVN, CVS, Git, Mercurial, and Bazaar

Cons: 

  • The user interface looks dated and unappealing
  • Some users have mentioned that the UI is clunky and not intuitive, and makes it tricky to find the information you’re looking for quickly
  • Doesn’t integrate with help desk systems

Best for: Since it’s free and open source, Redmine is great for freelance developers who are trying to keep costs low.

Pricing: Free

Choosing the best Jira alternative for your team

As with any business tool, the best one for you will depend on your team’s needs and budget. Many of the Jira alternatives above have a free version or offer a free trial, so test a few out before you decide. (You’re going to be in your project management tool every day, so you should love it!)

While you’re testing new platforms, check out the AppSumo store for incredible deals on project management software. New tools are being added and reviewed by Sumo-lings all the time, so you can quickly and easily narrow down which ones you’d like to try!

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