The Best Web Tools for Businesses

Business advice start-up BestVendor released the data from a survey they implemented recently and it provides an interesting picture about the web tools that businesses are using.

Small businesses and start-ups can find it tricky to maneuver their way through the various Web-based tools available to them in areas like communication, productivity, finance, and IT. With new products constantly being launched in all of these areas, BestVendor wanted to aid these companies in their search through a seemingly endless amount of options to find those tools that will work best for them.

The survey was conducted by asking 550 start-up executives and managers (all of whom work in companies with 100 people or less) which tools they preferred for various business and business-related functions. Almost half (45 percent) of the respondents work in Tech companies. As BestVendor's own chart says, after compiling the data, "a few themes clearly emerge."

Google Apps, at only $5 a month, was considered one of the leading service providers when it comes to running a business.

More and more, small businesses seem to be moving away from on-premise software to on-demand Web applications that can be accessed directly from a browser.

Overall, the results weren't spectacularly alarming. Broken down by category, Google Apps was the most popular for company email, Quickbooks won out in accounting, Google Analytics was considered the best for Web analytics, Salesforce was the mostly highly accepted for customer relationship management, Adobe CSS was the best for website design, Dropbox triumphed in the storage/backup/virtualization category, and PayPal came out as the top tool for payment processing.

The chart also includes a few "hidden gems" to help the office run a bit more smoothly, such as IdeaPaint, HipChat, and Pandora or Turntable.

The study also breaks down some of the categories further. More detailed results from productivity, finance & accounting, development & IT, design, and Web operations can be found in BestVendor's offical chart below.