Business Web Apps: Which Do You Use?

By Toby Somerville | February 19, 2008 | Web Pro Business

Over the last couple of years there has been a massive increase in the number and diversity of business orientated web applications. All designed to make your business more productive in one way or another, products like:

Basecamp (project management)
Gmail (email)
Remember The Milk (to-do lists)
Crazy Egg (web site statistics)
Fresh Books (invoicing and time tracking)

Which business web applications do you use? and why?
Have they improve your business productivity?

Written By:

Toby Somerville

Toby is a one-time pilot and a sometime web applications architect and developer. He's done time with Honda, Orange, Savoy Hotel Group and Tennis Australia, and spends "me" time kite buggying and rock climbing.

{ 22 comments }

Paul March 21, 2009 at 1:08 am: Playground – idea generation, analysis, planning and collaboration
Diane July 29, 2008 at 10:03 am: my office uses SantexQ for project management software and we really like it. it’s simple and easy to use. we also use google analytics and it is a great way to track your site visitors, etc.
jtresidder May 23, 2008 at 7:16 pm: I use many of the above, but I’m currently switching a lot of smaller projects over to Assembla (assembla.com) to try it out. I can’t speak to its reliability yet, but it has SVN, choice of bugtrackers, wiki etc. all in one place, and the free basic package is quite generous.
Eric May 10, 2008 at 4:32 am: Google Analytics – Website statistics
Google Browser Sync – Bookmarking
Last.fm – Music Stumbler
Collabox.com – Invoicing, time tracking, todo lists
bradstreet April 8, 2008 at 12:58 am: I’m amazed that nobody has mentioned the free services from Zoho.com. I use them for numerous aspects of my business. My favorite is their CRM – which is free for 3 or less users. Initially I used it only for invoicing, but increasingly have used more and more of its features. IMHO, Zoho is a must have.
Green March 29, 2008 at 1:58 am: Intervals (http://www.myintervals.com) has proven to be the best tool for us. It does it all, tracks our time, helps us manage our tasks and projects. Generates paperless time sheets, invoices and reports. It’s our perfect sandbox for sharing documents, notes, managing clients and progress.
Our productivity levels have increased with Intervals and our revenues too!!. highly reckon it!
Pedro February 27, 2008 at 8:30 pm: I use Gmail
Wrike (project management)http://www.wrike.com/, tried it after Basecamp and acctually liked it better.
Skype
Flickr
Freshbooks
Linkedin
crondeau February 23, 2008 at 2:28 pm: I’m a big fan of blinksale and tada-list. When I think back of the days of writing my invoices in word, printing them and posting them, I cringe.
I’m also a bit fan of http://ma.gnolia.com. I find it much nicer to look at than delicious.
I’ve recently switched my email client to gmail and can’t believe how many spam comments they catch. I love it.
madpilot February 21, 2008 at 4:47 pm: I needed a time-tracking application, so wrote 88 Miles: http://www.88miles.net
I also use Saasu.com for my accounts, Google Apps for Calendar and Docs.
AlexW February 21, 2008 at 3:22 pm: I’m a big rap for tadalists.com — mainly because it’s simple and it works beautifully on a phone.
Dave February 21, 2008 at 12:57 pm: todoist.com is about a million times better than Remember the Milk in my opinion, but the best todo list is the one that works for you.
L February 21, 2008 at 8:32 am: Remember the Milk I found by accident one day and this program is great for creating separate tabs for various projects and organizing your to-do’s. It’s super easy to use. One time I had a question and I was amazed at how fast a real person responded via email. Great tool.
dereko February 20, 2008 at 9:48 pm: Gmail – Email
Basecamp – Project Management
Blinksale – Invoicing (http://www.blinksale.com )
1time – Time Tracking (http://1timetracking.com )
Highrise – CRM
Delicious – Bookmarking
PassPack – Password managment (http://www.passpack.com )
Beanstalk – Version Control (http://beanstalkapp.com/)
Google Analytics – Website statistics
locomotivate February 20, 2008 at 12:40 pm: Gmail, google analytics, google docs
offline: xpad (osx)
handy: defensio for comment spam
Redivider February 20, 2008 at 4:07 am: I use:
Gmail, Google Analytics, Blinksale (although not as much as I would like), Basecamp, Highrise (the free plan), Google Calendar, and Geezeo.
It took me a while to start using Gmail. I used Thunderbird for years (and Outlook Express before that) but I think I’m sticking with it. It’s a lot easier for access your mail from multiple locations.
klassicd February 20, 2008 at 3:54 am: I use Gmail everyday. I also use RTM, but have been moving toward using Google Calendar more frequently. I used Fresh Books in the past, but moved back to a spreadsheet because it was just simpler.
birnam February 20, 2008 at 12:37 am: Don’t forget Google Apps, as opposed to just GMail. You can hook it up to your own domain name so you can keep your original email instead of a @gmail.com address. It integrates Google’s Calendar, Docs, and Chat — and the standard version is free. I’ve just switched over to it myself so I don’t have enough experience with it to give an accurate review — but I do know it’s head and shoulders over just plain GMail. It would seem unfair to list GMail in the comparison with other business tools when Google also has business-centered Apps in the offering.
mackman February 20, 2008 at 12:10 am: I have been an active user of 37signals’ Basecamp, Highrise, and Backpack for several years and find them easy to use and help me and my business work with clients and stay on top of things. My business essentially lives on my MacBook and those products for all client work.
Other apps I use are Blinksale for invoicing, and Clear Function’s PluseApp for cashflow analysis. That pretty much sums up the accounting side of things. My only gripe with Blinksale is the lack of estimate functionality, but I have been able to work around that shortcoming by adjusting templates and how I present to clients.
Jim Neath February 19, 2008 at 7:55 pm: We use Basecamp, GMail and Facebook (I’m not really sure if you guys would count that but it’s a good way of getting in contact with people).
Matt February 19, 2008 at 7:18 pm: I love Basecamp. At our company it’s revolutionised the way we communicate. Communication is starting to become much more open. I also think the price is reasonable for the service and all it provides.
As for other apps, for sheer usefulness I’d have to recommend delicious and the amazing Firefox plugin. It’s so useful for tagging websites that you need to remember between computers.
Nathan-Kelly February 19, 2008 at 6:32 pm: I have tried Basecamp in the past, but I’m not really interested in paying for a service I can develop myself, additionally I’m not fond of my clients data being located on a server that I have no control over, I’d prefer it on my server, that’s why I creating my own Basecamp(ish) app along with a number of other apps to help me in my business.
Granted it’s hard to find the time to work on my own projects but in the end I think it will be worthwhile, it sure beats paying a subscription fee.
Tyssen February 19, 2008 at 4:36 pm: I’ve been using Freshbooks for a few months now and just started using Remember the Milk recently. Prior to RTM I was using Backpack. I used/use them for keeping notes, recording appointments etc.