Frankly speaking, it is really hard to find good free business plan software. Still, there are some cloud-based programs, easy to use, accessible anytime and anywhere. You’ll see a list of 5 top free online plan generators and builders on this page.
What is a business plan?
To put it in simple words, a business plan is a vital roadmap for business success. This important document outlines the way a company intends to grow incomes in the following 3-5 years.
Without a business plan, it’s something like a mission impossible to get financing or investors to support your ideas.
If you are a startup but lack the time to do business planning, a business plan creator can do a lot of the job for you.
Moreover, the right software solutions can help you build a perfect business plan, can create it more professional and effective, and can help you win investors easier. Keep in mind, that this refers mainly to premium financial and business planning software.
They are rich-featured, user-friendly, and with customer support. However, if you lack the budget here is a list of free and freemium programs that still can help you a lot.
Enloop surely is one of the most popular online cloud-based business planning software and builders out there. While it is a premium creator, it also provides a free and easy plan that is always free – no trial period.
This software will walk you through every step of creating a standard business plan. Enloop also provides templates for multiple industries (exceptions are nonprofit organizations) and is one of the easiest programs to use in the industry.
What is vital here is that Enloop allows importing financial information to help you create a professional plan.
Enloop is an intuitive tool, very easy to use with step-by-step guides that make plan writing stress-free for you.
Let’s see what their free plan includes:
- You can create one plan for free.
- 3 years forecasts and financial reports. You can generate and update in real time sales, profit & loss, cash flow and balance sheet. The Free plan gives you a fast way to write a simple plan with only annual inputs.
- Interactive PDF Creation – your business plan is formatted in PDF ready to download, print and share.
- Enloop Performance Score (EPSTM) that allows you to see a FICO-like score for your business plan.
- Fast contact form support.
- Multi-currency support – you can select from 100+ worldwide currency formats.
- A report card for your business that indicates when your business is on the right path.
Besides that Enloop is a good free business plan software, its premium plans are suitable for companies on a budget that are looking for cheap and low-cost solutions.
StratPad is one of the best cloud-based business plan software solutions to help small to mid-sized businesses. In addition to that, it is one of the top business plan apps available for the iPad, recognisedized by Entrepreneur and Forbes.
There are different subscription plans, depending on the number of business plans you want to make. For one plan, you can get a free solution with a lot of features.
When you sign in their free account, you can access their great additional resources, how-to tutorials and video course for business planning. It is a really smart choice for those who are writing first ever business plan.
StratPad uses questions and fill-in screens as instruments to guide you through the strategy steps and long-term goals. Its accent is on developing not only a plan but a business strategy sense. The difference that StratPad provide is: instead of creating a single plan document where are described the ways your business will grow, StratPad pulls you describe how you’ll achieve that grow.
Certainly, most free software seekers will be happy with their free version. All (free and paid) subscriptions include:
- SSL data encryption (the same as online banks)
- Anywhere, anytime access
- All reports built in charts for results tracking
- Regular free updates
- Unlimited data storage
- iPad app
- Online – no software installation.
- You can print, email, export reports and charts.
Poindexter is an automated financial projection generator suitable for startups.
It is one of the easiest and simplest business modelling software that allows you to produce financial projections and budgets.
Easily create balance sheets, cash flow and full income statements for business plans. No technical knowledge is required. You can analyse multiple scenarios to adjust the profitability of your strategy.
When you start using Poindexter to forecast your business investments, you will see how quickly you are able to start generating insights.
In minutes you can produce financial data for your company. It is a real time saver. Very clean design.
Pricing is free or very cheap. Actually, this is one of the cheapest business planning and modelling programs out there.
Thier basic free plan includes:
- 1 Project
- 3 Years of financial statements
- Unlimited collaborators
- 2 Project valuation methods
- Email support
123Bizplan is not so popular. However, it has some interesting features that deserve attention. It is a premium and free business plan software with step by step guidance to create a business plan in just a few hours.
In addition, their free program allows you to create and develop as many business plan ideas as you like.
It is effortless as it sounds, 123. It does not have very featured reach but is a great plan builder for small business startups.
It makes the whole complicated paperwork very simple to fill out. Their free Basic Business Plan gives you access to industry examples and helpful resources. No experience necessary – “Magic Wizard Button” does the work instead of you.
Their step-by-step wizard tracks your progress and allows you to easily edit your plan. In addition, you can submit support requests through their online platform.
You can access your business plan from anywhere at any time. There is an option to create and to make edits from a MAC or PC.
Let’s see their free plan features:
- Create a basic business plan.
- Access industry examples and help features.
- Access software anytime and from anywhere.
- You can create your plan with a PC or MAC.
This popular builder covers a range of things and can help you come out with a good business plan.
What is SBA? It is the U.S. Small Business Administration – an independent agency of the federal government to assist and protect the interests of small businesses.
Their tool is one of the most popular free business plan software tools. It is completely free but it is less features than the above free plans.
Also, it is not a very simple way to make financial projections. This tool is more suitable for people who don’t need much guidance.
Regarding industry specific business plan samples, the SBA Tool provides a few examples but they are not very detailed. Also, SBA does not allow customization and no support is available.
However, it is still a program featured enough to help you make a good and professional business plan for small business.
You can personalise your plan with a logo and print, save and update your business plan.
SBA provides:
- A step-by-step guide to help you get started.
- Save your plan as a PDF file.
- Update it at any time.
- You can use your completed business plan to discuss next steps with a mentor from an SBA resource partner.
Share your thoughts? Which is your top free business plan software? Could you recommend it?