5 Affordable/Free Business Plan Software

Having a good business idea is just a beginning. You need to do research. You need to understand your target audience and customers. You have to finance it. You have to track your finances. You have to think about growth. To put it simply, you need a business plan.

Whether it’s your business or you’re hired to do it for a client, creating a comprehensive business plan that will materialize into something time and investment worthy is not an easy task. However, with the right tools, it can be a quicker, more organized, and more streamlined process.

All you need is good software, so we compiled a list of affordable and free business plan software. Since most of these apps come with a free trial, there is even enough time for you to create a plan using the full paid package features.

StratPad

StratPad is the first on our list because it offers the full package of tools for free. With its step by step plan generator, you can write a business plan in less than a day. This business plan software also has plenty of financial tools that allow you to create financial statements and projections.

If you are a beginner, as you move through the process, you can opt for how-to videos and tutorials on every page. Since StratPad is a cloud-based solution, but you can print or export plans, or send them to an unlimited number of potential lenders and investors.

Pricing

There are three levels of subscription for this business plan software. Free subscription allows you to create one plan. It includes unlimited data storage, SSL data encryption, financial reports, instructional videos, and customer support.

While StratPad is the only forever-free business plan software on this list, its paid plans come with a one-year contract. For the Business plan, the annual price is $99, while the Professional plan costs $179 per year.

Upmetrics

Upmetrics features business plan editor, collaboration tools, and financial reports and forecasts.

Using Upmetrics Business Plan Editor, you can create and edit the text of your plan and format it whenever you need. If you don’t want to start it from scratch, this free business plan software offers plenty of templates you can use. They are categorized based on the type of business – there are templates for retail stores, non-profit organizations, online stores, app startups, etc.

Apart from creating a plan, you can invite your team members, potential investors, and clients, and share all the details with them.  They can share feedback with you in the comment section.

Upmetrics also boasts financial planning tools, so you can visualize your data about expenses, revenue, payroll, with charts and reports that enable you to create yearly, monthly and quarterly insights. Upmetrics also offers extensive revenue, expense and product forecasting options customized for various types of businesses.

Pricing

Upmetrics offers three pricing plans, starting at $9 per month. For that price, you get a business plan for one company, unlimited team members, business plan builder, financial modeling, collaboration and sharing features. Team and Premium plan are priced $14 and $49 respectively. All plans offer access to the same features and the difference in the number of companies you can make business plans for.

123BizPlan

123BizPlan is a business plan software that boasts content and formatting adjusted to each industry’s specific metrics and vocabulary. To be exact, there are templates and benchmark metrics for more than 70 industries.

On top of that, this app includes a calculator, financial tools for investors, high-quality graphs and charts, and if you are a beginner, step-by-step progression wizard will guide you through the entire process. There are specific questions divided into several sections.

You can do your own writing, but if you feel that your vocabulary isn’t polished enough, all you have to do is click on the wand in the corner of the question box. This will generate default text you can further edit and adjust to your business plan.

Pricing

While 123BizPlan does not come for free, it does come with a specific perk – a one-time fee you pay only if you want to download your business plan. This means you can create as many plans as you like, revise and edit them, and once you and your team members are 100% satisfied with the result, you can export it. Each purchase comes with lifetime access to your plan.

Each business plan you download costs $39.95.

Enloop

Enloop works a bit differently than Upmetrics. You enter company information into each section, choose from over 100 currency symbols and formats for financial reports, and let the application generate the text.

Enloop generates basic text for each section of the business plan, and you can further edit it with images, text, graphs, and flowcharts imported from your financial report. Along with financial reports, you get forecasting options, that are automatically generated as a bank-ready report.

This business plan software is equipped with 16 financial ratios that will help you compare your metrics to the industry averages.

As you create your business plan, Enloop displays a real-time score that can help you improve the details of the document. You can always go back to this plan and edit it or revise it.

Pricing

This business plan software offers a 14-day free trial – after that, you can sign up for a Detailed or Performance plan, which cost $19.95 and $39.95, respectively. During free trial, you will have access to Performance plan features, which include three business plans, detailed financials and 16 ratios analyzed.

getLaunched

With getLaunched you get a compact set of tools that will fuse income statement, balance sheet, and liquidity planning into one document that details your idea and business model.

This business plan software enables you to specify your product development and target market, create financial plans that include payroll, investment, sales development, and capital requirements. Finally, getLaunched offers a feature that enables you to do a S.W.O.T. analysis – detailing the strengths and weaknesses of your business idea with competitors and the current business climate in mind.

GetLaunched business plan software relies on “7 key model,” which requires you to answer questions in 7 sections covering: customers, products/services, resources, money, market development, competition, and people in your team.

If you need additional guidance, each question includes a short explanation, and there is also an option to activate a tutorial mode for more detailed descriptions.

Pricing

After a 7 day free trial (which can be extended by 7 days if you invite your friends to subscribe), getLaunched offers Entrepreneur and Company plans. Entrepreneur plan costs €24.99 per month ($28.18).

With a free trial, you get access to 7 keys model, lean canvas generator, over 14 analyses, business plan generator, and you can save, print and access your projects from everywhere. Each plan allows unlimited projects and team members.

Conclusion

Now that you have your choice of affordable and free business plan software you can use, you probably want to know how to get in touch with those who will look at this plan and finance it.

There are plenty of ways to finance a new business, so click here to find out what is the way that fits your business best.