23 Best Free SaaS Tools for Startups in 2026

Design

• Penpot — free, open-source Figma alternative, up to 8 users on Professional tier
• Photopea — free Photoshop-in-the-browser

Productivity & Notes

• Anytype — free, privacy-first Notion alternative
• Obsidian — free personal knowledge base
• Logseq — free outliner, open-source

Scheduling

• Cal.com — free tier with unlimited event types (rare among scheduling tools)

Project Management

• ClickUp — free tier with unlimited users (limited storage)
• Trello — free, unlimited cards on personal boards

Video Editing

• DaVinci Resolve — free, full professional-grade NLE (non-linear editor)

Video Calls

• Jitsi Meet — free, open-source, no account required

Forms & Surveys

• Tally — free, unlimited forms and responses

Customer Support

• Tawk.to — free live chat and basic ticketing

Analytics

• PostHog — free up to 1M events/month, includes session replay

Email

• Loops — has a free starter tier for early-stage products (check current limits)

Why most "free" SaaS lists are misleading

A lot of "free tools" content online is really just a list of free trials, or freemium tools that cripple the free tier so heavily it's unusable (1 project, 3 users, 7-day history). We only included tools where the free tier is something you could realistically run a small team on long-term, not just evaluate for two weeks.

How we'd actually stack a startup's free toolkit

If you're starting from zero and want to spend close to $0/month on software:

• Notes/docs: Anytype
• Design: Penpot
• Scheduling: Cal.com
• Tasks: Trello or ClickUp free tier
• Video calls: Jitsi Meet
• Forms: Tally
• Support chat: Tawk.to
• Analytics: PostHog

That's a full operating stack for a small team at effectively $0/month, with upgrade paths available the moment you actually need them (not before).