Best free tools for online marketing and digital project management

I love that phrase from the Lean Startup method that says:

Fail fast and fail cheap.

It really fits the way I think:

Try things, make mistakes and learn. And if you do not mortgage your future over it, all the better.

That is why I am a big fan of using the many free digital tools we have within reach, and paying for the ones you are actually going to get value from.

A low-cost structure makes it much easier for a project to become profitable.

That said, I am going to go over the free tools I currently use, or have used, to manage my day-to-day work on digital projects, grouped by area.

As you will see, there are quite a few, so I will not go into detail on each one; instead, in three or four lines I will tell you what I use each one for and why I do it instead of using its competitor.

You will see that I include some paid tools as free because they have a freemiumplan. I am talking about the free plan. Otherwise I will point it out.

I have also included, at the end, a section with tools that are not free but are one-time payment, which I consider a good investment, and another with subscriptions. These are low-cost tools I have been paying for for years and have no intention of giving up.

Let us start with the free ones.

But first, if you would rather have the guide in PDF, you can download it here:

Free marketing tools

Although I mainly work in digital marketing, a small part of my time goes into offline marketing tasks, which is why this section heading is not accompanied by “online”, “digital” or anything similar.

Free general marketing tools

We start with general tasks, work that falls within the management of a marketing department, or several areas of it, rather than one specific area.

Google Sheets

When it comes to getting organised, the first tool that comes to mind because I use it every single day is the spreadsheet from Google’s office suite.

It makes my life much easier when it comes to:

• Keeping a content calendar.
• Scheduling emails.
• Managing the website’s upcoming flash offers.
• Tracking marketing invoices received (to reconcile them with budgets), issued to clients and paid.
• Managing the backlog of team tasks.

On the other hand, beyond marketing, it also helps me create control dashboards for every area of the business:

• Logistics: tracking incidents and complaints.
• Analytics: tracking the entire digital product side, event library and tagged campaigns.
• Accounting: cash flows.

Although this could be done in different programs, I prefer using Google spreadsheets because they are very easy to share with the users I need (who usually have a Gmail account) and because they are simple to use.

I will not mention them again so as not to repeat myself, but I use them in lots of different areas.

Google Docs

In every company there are manual processes that are very difficult to automate.

They are usually carried out by the same person. And the problem appears when the task has to be done and that person is on holiday, off sick or has left the company.

To avoid that, what we try to do is document all processes of a certain complexity:

• How to create weekly promotional campaigns (products, banners, newsletter, featured items…).
• How to update manual dashboards.
• How to create product sheets
• …

For the same reasons as Sheets (ease of use and easy sharing with users), it is the tool chosen to create these protocols.

I also think it is the perfect tool for managing content changes on my clients’ websites for my clients.

SEMrush

For every digital project I have a different account on this platform.

In each one I create a different project that allows me to:

• See the evolution of my traffic and my keywords main ones (10 on the free plan)
• See that of the competition.
• Get an idea of what the sector is like.
• Create alerts for on-page SEO errors on my website.

SimilarWeb

Similar to the previous one, although I use this one mainly to see the evolution and composition of my competitors’ traffic.

Free SEO tools

Let us move on to the first specific channel within digital marketing, which is, without a doubt, the one I have surely spent the most time on.

Google Ads Keyword Planner

Okay, although you can use this tool for free just by signing up with your Google account, you should know that if you do not have any active campaign, it will only return search ranges instead of precise figures.

Apart from managing paid campaigns, I use it to:

• Get keyword ideas when I start an SEO project.
• Find out the number of searches when carrying out keyword research.
• Check which terms are searched for more between two similar ones when I am writing an article or product sheet.
• Assess how searched-for a product is to decide whether to add it to the catalogue or not of an ecommerce.

Google Search Console

Google’s SEO control platform for your website. It has multiple useful features, but I generally use it to see:

• The organic queries that bring me the most traffic and how I am positioned for them.
• The organic queries on the second page that I think could be easy to rank better.
• The URLs that get the most SEO traffic.
• The errors in on-page SEO and the Core Web Vitals (CWV).
• Upload the sitemap.xml of a new project.

Google PageSpeed

To measure the performance and loading speed of a website according to Google and see what I can optimise.

It is similar to Google Chrome’s Lighthouse extension. When I want a more visual and complete analysis, I use WebPageTest.

Screaming Frog

The best tool I know for doing on-page SEO analysis; with its free version it lets you analyse small sites of up to 500 URLs.

It shows you everything you need: URL, metas, image weight, headings…

Maybe it is not the prettiest, but it is definitely the most flexible and powerful, especially if you pay for the licence.

Rank Tracker

In this case, this is the tool I use to see the evolution of our keywords in the SERPs, beyond the 10 main ones you can add to a SEMrush project.

With the free plan, you could track up to 500 keywords at a point in time, but it does not let you save them, so you will not be able to see their evolution.

If you want to see it, in my training course for setting up an ecommerce business you have a system to view and save the evolution of positions without paying.

However, this is one of the tools I religiously pay for every year to have access to its professional plan.

Free email marketing tools

Let us move on to the free tools I use in this second marketing channel, one I like more every day.

Mailrelay

A tool with a really generous free plan: you can send up to 80,000 emails per month, which is no small thing.

It also allows certain automations, enough to create a simple sales funnel.

The downside: if you want more advanced automations, you have to look for another tool, because neither the standard features nor those provided by Make (formerly Integromat) allow you to create complex flows.

Or maybe I have not spent the time needed to learn how to do it, which is also possible.

Free social media tools

Creator Studio, Meta Planner

Until very recently I used Creator Studio, but Facebook Meta is replacing it with this Planner.

I miss the option to upload an image as the cover of a video post, which used to be possible.

Other than that, perhaps this one has some additional features, such as managing Stories.

Mention

Every day, an email alert with the new links and mentions to your brand (or the one you specify).

It does not pick up everything —not even close— but it helps.

Zapier

A tool that lets you automate operations between services. For example:

• Every time I upload an image to Instagram, publish an image tweet with the same copy.
• Create a Trello card every time a row is added to a Google Sheets file.

Easy to use and it saves us time on certain repetitive tasks.

Free content creation tools

We continue with another area of marketing. One that looks very likely to change radically from now on because of the arrival of AI.

Free tools for text creation

We start with the tools that help me when writing texts.

ChatGPT

It is on everyone’s lips, and rightly so. When you try it and you get the feeling that you are talking –more or less— to a person, you get it.

To a person who knows a lot.

And who, if it does not know, makes things up. Important point.

I use it to get specific ideas, such as “suggest domains with these characteristics for a business like this”.

Or for analogies in the storytelling of emails.

Although we are going to start testing it heavily on product pages in some ecommerce projects. Let’s see how Google reacts to them.

Honestly, I recommend learning how to use it well as soon as possible.

And if they open up new paid options, I will think seriously about it because I can see an immediate return.

Lorca

A tool that advises you on spelling and grammar. You upload a text and it suggests changes or points out spelling mistakes so you can correct them.

It can be very useful depending on the person and how much they struggle with writing.

DeepL

At Yo pongo el hielo we have the website in English and French as well as Spanish.

And we can get by in English, but in French we know absolutely nothing. None of us.

So we use this translator which, from the day it came out, seemed better to me than Google Translate.

Also, its keyboard shortcut for translating something you have selected anywhere (document, website) saves time and makes it very agile.

That said, it has its technical quirks (sometimes it gets stuck on something), and you have to learn to spot them and restart when needed.

Free design tools

Let us move on now to still-image design.

Photopea

When I do not have Photoshop installed on a computer and I have a good internet connection, this is my first choice as a replacement.

The reasons:

• Similar interface.
• Same keyboard shortcuts.
• Handles .PSD files.

It is not the same as the native program, but it is not bad.

GIMP

The Linux-style alternative to Adobe’s digital retouching program.

Very powerful; in fact, so much so that it is surprising it is free.

Why do I prefer Photopea to this one, when I can choose?

• Different interface.
• Different keyboard shortcuts.
• I find it more “rough”, but that is personal.

In short, when I have had to use it, I have been pleasantly surprised by its performance, but I always miss something from the Adobe program that makes my life easier.

That said, it would not be any drama to have to work with it day to day.

Canva

The design tool for non-designers.

It lets you create designs for anything (posters, logos, presentations) easily.

Its free plan will be more than enough for many people.

Inkscape

This program is to Illustrator what GIMP is to Photoshop.

A powerful open-source alternative for working with vector designs.

Quite powerful and, although I prefer Adobe’s tool, it would not be a drama to have to use it every day either.

Midjourney

It blows my mind.

I am amazed by it.

I could spend the whole day in its Discord channel creating new images.

It is a free image-generation AI with good limits on the free plan.

It lets you create an image about whatever you want in whatever style you want: realistic (with some limitations on human facial features), cartoon, manga…

No wonder the companies behind paid image banks are trembling.

Another one I recommend you start using now. Especially in combination with…

Waifu

An app that lets you upscale images with less quality loss than in programs like Photoshop.

The combination of “I create an image in Midjourney” and “I upscale the image in Waifu” means we can get:

• Designs for social media.
• Banners.
• Product sheets.
• Posters and flyers.

Without limits.

Just a few years ago, this was a dream. Pure science fiction.

Free image banks without attribution

I said that image banks are getting nervous. That did not happen with the free ones, which are also a good enough source of images for certain projects.

Here are the three I use the most, mainly because they have images that do not require attribution.

Unsplash

The first one I really started using because, despite being free, it had professional images. Maybe that is why I have a special affection for it.

Pexels

Here, in addition to images, you can also find videos.

Pixabay

And here, images, video and music.

Free vector and icon banks without attribution

And when what you are looking for is not images but vectors…

All-free-downloads

I always look here first and almost always find what I want.

Fantastic vector repository ready to manipulate.

Free video tools

Video has taken over our lives.

Just ask TikTok.

Or YouTube.

So when it comes to working with video, the free tools I use are the following.

oCam

A screen recorder simpler than OBS Studio. Far fewer options, but more direct and enough for me.

HandBrake

I use this one to convert files between different formats. Often to compress videos downloaded from the internet, videos recorded with oCam, or to keep only the audio.

It lets you adjust the balance I want between quality and file size.

DaVinci Resolve

Warning: I have not used this one because the little professional editing I have to do, I do in Premiere.

That said, from what people who work professionally in this field tell me, the workflow and having everything integrated into one tool instead of several, as happens with Adobe, greatly simplifies the whole process.

The downside of the free version: you can only export in FullHD, no 4K.

Free video banks without attribution

To the two image and video banks mentioned earlier (Pexels and Pixabay), I add one more alternative.

Videezy

Together with the other two, I almost always find the video I want.

Free Analytics tools

Although I rely heavily on Excel, we are talking about free tools, so I will tell you about the rest.

Google Analytics

Adapting to version 4 of the tool (I miss you, Universal) it is the de facto standard for measuring website behaviour.

I suppose that if you are reading this article, you know it and understand its power, so I will not go on any further.

Google Tag Manager (GTM)

The Sancho Panza of the previous one.

An inseparable friend that makes our life enormously easier when it comes to getting all its power out.

And when it comes to implementing others, through its tag system.

Honestly, although it may seem a little complex at first, when you understand how it works and what it can do, you fall for it.

Free UX tools

A discipline closely related to the previous one, the tools go hand in hand and allow us to understand user behaviour on our website a little better.

Hotjar

This is another one of those tools whose free plan is surprisingly powerful.

If you know what you are interested in measuring, it lets you segment very well the user recordings and heatmaps you want to collect.

It has other useful features at certain times, such as forms and collecting user feedback.

A must in any digital project.

Google Optimize

Sadly, in September Google is bringing the curtain down on this fantastic tool.

According to them, because it has not gained enough traction, which surprises me given how powerful it is, matching or surpassing other platforms with much higher costs.

Either way, it is time to look for alternatives for doing A/B testing and website personalisation, so I have taken a look at the alternatives without finding any similar free one.

Recommendations appreciated.

Google Forms

Super useful for collecting customer feedback. Whether from ecommerce customers or training students.

It does not create the prettiest forms, but it does allow everything needed to create a good online questionnaire.

Free project management tools

Okay, now let us move on to the tools I use to manage projects.

Whether it is the idea, development and tracking, new features, maintenance…

Today I combine one tool for general management with my notes tool for daily tasks.

And that is it.

XMind

Brutal. Just like that.

It completely changed the way I work. The mind maps and how they are managed here make it one of the tools I use most every day.

From the beginning of the project, with the brainstorming and then placing each idea and concept on the corresponding branch.

And if you add the interactive presentation mode, what more do you need.

It does not have a lifetimeplan; if it did, I would pay for it without hesitation.

Seriously, a massive help.

Trello

Although I see it as useful if you want to use the method Kanban in collaborative projects, in my case I have stopped using it because I have found more agile workflows (XMind was largely to blame).

Anyway, I recommend trying it, as I said, to use the Kanban method, especially if you have some coordination issue in the team.

Free productivity tools

In this case I am no longer talking about project management, but about how to carry out day-to-day management and coordination tasks.

Free tools I use to manage my day to day

How do I manage my day to day? Well, like this:

Gmail

It is not my favourite email manager.

It never has been.

But the network effect drags us along and I have had no choice but to use it as my default email manager. Even with the shortcomings I see in it, I cannot imagine switching tools, at least in the short term.

Notion

Ugh.

Another one of the absolutely essential ones.

No wonder huge businesses have been created by selling templates for this online note manager?.

In reality, it is much more, since it lets you create all kinds of documents and links.

I use it to write down each day’s tasks, future tasks and the ideas worth taking a closer look at later for each project. Yes, a sort of Kanban but without cards.

This, together with XMind, is what made me stop using Trello.

If you are not using it, you are already late.

Google Calendar

Because I use Gmail, as I mentioned, Google Calendar is my calendar and alerts manager.

For my use, its greatest virtue is how well integrated it is with both the email manager and Google Meet for videoconferences.

Google Meet

I use it for what I just mentioned: it is very convenient for creating videoconferences and notifying participants if you use Gmail and Google Calendar.

Although as a tool for videocalls I prefer the next one.

Zoom

I find it much more advanced than the previous one and it is the one I generally use to teach online classes or remote consulting sessions.

Perhaps its only “but” is that I find its top bar extremely uncomfortable when switching tabs while you are sharing your screen.

Telegram

The official internal communication channel we use at Yo pongo el hielo.

We started with it from the beginning (in 2013) and it is still there.

I have always thought that it is an improved copy of WhatsApp for many reasons:

• Multi-device from day one.
• Web and desktop version.
• You can send images and videos without compression.
• You can send files to yourself.
• It can be used as a document repository.

Things WhatsApp has gradually incorporated over time, but that Telegram had there from the beginning.

Also, as an internal management tool, I like it more than Slack, which I had to use at MásMóvil and is also good.

Today I am not thrilled that it is Russian, despite its creator’s opposition to Putin, but well.

Free tools for remote work

Not to be confused with working from home.

Here I am talking about connecting from home to the office PC (for example) and seeing and controlling the other computer’s screen.

When you work with a desktop, as I like to do, it is a very useful option, because you only need one good, powerful machine for day-to-day work at the office —in my case, one with a 12-core CPU, 64GB of RAM and an 8GB GPU— and another less powerful one that lets you do light tasks comfortably and, when more muscle is needed, lets you connect to the other machine.

Let us look at the tools that make it possible.

Windows Remote Desktop

The best option for computers that are on the same network. Great image quality and no latency.

The problem happens when the computers are on different networks with several routers in between: it is hard to connect.

That is why the following tools exist.

TeamViewer

Although it is not bad and it was the first application like this that I tried, I see three drawbacks:

• The image quality under the same conditions is worse.
• It cannot transmit 4K resolutions properly.
• At any moment the tool tells you that your use is professional and makes it difficult for you to use the free plan.

Even so, I have it installed on an old RaspberryPI Model 2 (which consumes almost nothing) in the office, and it lets me do a WOL (Wake On LAN) to any computer on that network with TeamViewer installed.

The simplest option I have found to turn on my work PC remotely (reminder: remotely, with several routers in the work network in between).

Chrome Remote Desktop

Image quality and, above all, latency are awful.

But the Android app works very well and connects in situations where TeamViewer does not, allowing a remote computer reset, or logging into another account.

Useful for specific cases.

Moonlight

My latest discovery.

Although it is aimed at remote gaming (for example, on your mobile connected to your gaming PC), it is brilliant for remote work.

Except for one thing: writing Word documents, because the cursor tends to disappear.

It gives you all the necessary options (resolution and network connection settings), although you have to play with the resolutions so everything looks as it should and it only works when the host has an NVIDIAgraphics card, because it uses a proprietary protocol.

In return, on networks with good —and even normal— connections, latency is minimal and playback is spectacular.

It feels like you are on the same network.

Free clouds

In this section I am going to discuss the different “cloud” options I use. That is, file storage hosted on servers with PC and mobile apps to access and share them easily.

In my case, they have put an end to backups on physical hard drives.

Box

The best, if we consider its performance and the free plan.

When I signed up, it offered 50GB of space, which is quite a lot. Also, if you do not want to have the files physically on any computer, it has an extension that allows direct editing in the cloud with both Office online and Google Docs.

MEGA

Another one I like.

Another 50GB that they offered me when I signed up.

What I like least is that every time I install it on a new PC, the way to select the folders I want to share feels confusing to me. Always.

Beyond that, it works well and does what is expected.

OneDrive

I started with the free 20GB version, but after a while they offered me an upgrade to 50GB for half a euro a month. So I took it.

Very well integrated with Windows —obvious, since it is from Microsoft and comes installed by default— although I have doubts about the option to keep files only in the cloud, because it reserves the space in Windows. I do not know, I find that behaviour a bit strange.

This, and the fact that sometimes it is better to search for a file on the web rather than in the Windows search tool, make me prefer the previous ones.

Other than that, fine.

Dropbox

The original.

Or at least the first one I knew.

Used to pendrives and external hard drives, having a tool like this with several GB of capacity back then seemed like science fiction to me.

Today its free plan has become obsolete compared to the others. And it wants to do too many things I do not need.

But it still works very well.

pCloud

The latest addition to my cloud catalogue.

It works somewhat differently from the previous ones because it creates a virtual hard drive on your PC.

The free plan is 10GB and has more advertising than the previous ones, but it is another option I use.

It drew a lot of attention with an aggressive lifetime plan of 70GB, if I remember correctly, for a very low price, but honestly, I do not know how long this company’s lifetime will be, so I did not take it.

Google Drive

And the last one.

I use it because of its integration with Gmail and, above all, Google Docs, but unlike the previous ones, I never install the PC client.

15GB of space that comes by default when you activate your Google account.

Free tools for working with text files (.txt, .csv, .html)

In any job, but perhaps even more so in digital marketing, you have to deal with many text files.

I am not talking about Word, but formats like .TXT (the least common), .CSV, .XML, .html…

I basically use two programs to manage them.

Sublime Text

Text editor.

Like Notepad, but good.

I like it more than Notepad, another one that is not bad at all.

The best thing for me is the ability to replace using regular expressions, which lets you clean up many data files before working with them in Excel.

LibreOffice Calc

LibreOffice’s spreadsheet seems to me to be very far from Excel in almost everything except one thing: I think it opens CSV files better, without needing as much transformation as Microsoft’s tool.

So this workflow is not unusual:

1. I open the CSV in LibreOffice.
2. I copy the whole sheet.
3. I paste it into a new Excel file.
4. I start working in that one.

Free tools for managing PDF

Although I use Adobe’s free tool for digitally signing documents, for PDF management I use a cloud-based one.

iLovePDF

Everything you need to do with a PDF:

• Compress it.
• Split it.
• Create it from separate documents.
• Convert it to Word (or the other way around)
• Protect it.
• Watermark.
• …

A real Swiss army knife that you do not even have to install.

Free tools for sending large files

What happens when you want to send a video or a zip file larger than 50MB?

Well, you may be lucky enough that the person you want to send it to has Telegram, but if not, you have to use a cloud service. Either one of the clouds I mentioned a moment ago or a service like this one.

WeTransfer

Send files up to 2GB easily:

1. You upload it
2. You add your email
3. The email of the person who has to receive it
4. You send

The recipient will receive an email with a download link, and you will receive a notification when they have downloaded it.

It makes our lives easier and renders FTP obsolete.

Free CRM

Whether for business use or personal use, when it comes to managing contacts there are few tools like a CRM.

And among the free ones, there is one that stands out a lot.

HubSpot

Up to one million contacts on its free plan.

Almost nothing.

Besides that, lead tracking, task manager, support ticket manager, web forms, chat, integration with social media and WhatsApp…

I think it is the ideal management tool if you sell services, whether as a freelancer or as a company.

Free tools for staying informed

Okay, let us close the list of free tools now. And I think a very good way to do it is with the ones I use to stay informed about the topics that interest me, both professional and non-professional.

Feedly

Many people will fondly remember Google Reader, the RSS manager that Google decided to shut down, for reasons nobody really understood, and which to some extent brought the decline of the blog ecosystem.

Of all the alternatives I tried to replace it, this is the one that convinced me the most.

It lets me create groups of online magazines and blogs and read their posts, as well as tag the ones that interest me for some reason.

There is rarely a day when I do not spend at least 20 minutes seeing what is brewing in the technology and marketing sector, but also in cinema, video games and comics, for example.

LinkedIn

I hesitated about whether to include it or not, because it is a social network. But I decided to because my use is entirely as a tool.

For several things, but above all, to stay informed about news and advances in the digital sector.

I do not think it needs much more of an introduction.

One-time payment tools

Well, although the post title is aimed at free tools, I do want to include some whose lifetime licence I have paid for. And I have more than got my money’s worth, so I can only recommend them.

Offeo

A cloud-based video editor focused on creating advertising videos for social media.

Easy to use and powerful.

Metricool

Social media metrics (and more) for my business and my competitors.

Its monthly summary is required reading. And it is not short.

I love how they approach it and the information it provides.

DinoRank

I have followed Dean Romero for a long time. I am amazed by what he has achieved, especially being so generous.

So when he launched his SEO software, I kept an eye on it.

And when he released the lifetime option, I did not think twice.

My usual SEO workflow was already built before buying it, so it does not include this tool, but I do use it for one-off analyses, especially when planning content for certain clients.

Office 2016

Essential.

Look, I learned to work with OpenOffice, but when I switched to Microsoft’s suite everything changed enormously. And now it is indispensable for me.

Word, PowerPoint, but above all, Excel. It would be incredibly hard for me to work with its free competition.

And I have tried.

But on top of that, you have official licences for very little money. Search on Google and look at CDKeys, eBay, AliExpress and the like.

Sendy

The evolution of Mailrelay when the free plan becomes too small for you. An email marketing tool that does that and only that: sending emails.

It uses AWS (Amazon Web Services) and, yes, requires technical knowledge to implement.

Tools with subscriptions

And finally, to close, I will tell you that in general I do not like subscriptions at all and prefer to avoid them, but there are some tools that pay off for me.

NordVPN

A VPN that encrypts your internet traffic, so your operator does not know whether you are uploading files by FTP, downloading Asimov’s complete bibliography or watching Netflix.

It also lets you test your websites from different parts of the world.

Your general use of the internet changes when you put a VPN in your life.

OneDrive

As I mentioned above, I pay a tiny monthly fee to have 50GB in the cloud.

Conclusion

Well, this is my main technology stack.

These are tools I use daily or weekly (some, fewer, monthly), but which I find essential.

It is possible I have left one out because I use them less and less (FileZilla, I am looking at you), but it is a fairly complete tour.

Really, when you look at the whole set, it is truly surprising how much free software we have within reach.

And everything we can do without spending a euro.

And as Avinash Kaushik used to say —the best digital analyst I know and someone I adore— the percentage of the budget spent on tools should never exceed 10%, with the other 90% going to people.

I could not agree more, and this article comes from that approach.

An approach I suggest you follow: squeeze free tools until it becomes essential to make the jump to paid versions.

Because money is important, but time is more important.

And saving yourself 15 or 20 minutes every day thanks to a paid plan adds up to many hours by the end of the month.

That is why I have added some I have paid for and have never regretted. Because they make my day to day much more productive.

I am sure you have another one in mind.

Think about what it would save you —really, not ideally— in time and do the maths. Numbers (almost) never lie.

Anyway, I hope I have helped you discover some tools and that, free or paid, at least a few of them are useful to you.