The Jackal's Toolkit — Best UK Business Tools
The right tools save you time, reduce admin, and let you focus on actually making money. The wrong ones cost you monthly and gather digital dust. Here's what's worth paying for in the UK — and what isn't.
Accounting Software
FreeAgent ⭐ Our Pick
Price: £14.50/month (free with NatWest, RBS, Mettle, or Tide business accounts)
Best for: UK sole traders and small limited companies
The best UK-specific accounting software. Built for British tax rules from the ground up. Handles Self Assessment, Corporation Tax estimates, VAT returns, CIS, payroll, and bank reconciliation. The tax timeline shows you exactly what you owe and when.
Strengths: Automatic bank feeds, intuitive invoicing, excellent Self Assessment filing, beautiful dashboard
Weaknesses: Not ideal for businesses with complex inventory or multiple currencies
MTD compatible: Yes
Xero
Price: From £15/month (Starter) to £47/month (Premium)
Best for: Growing businesses, multi-currency, larger teams
The heavyweight. Xero does everything — invoicing, expenses, payroll, inventory, project tracking, purchase orders, multi-currency, and 1,000+ app integrations. It's not cheap, but for businesses with complexity, it's the platform to be on.
Strengths: Enormous app marketplace, excellent multi-currency support, scales well
Weaknesses: Can feel overwhelming for simple businesses, UK tax features are less intuitive than FreeAgent's
MTD compatible: Yes
QuickBooks
Price: From £12/month (Simple Start) to £32/month (Plus)
Best for: Simple invoicing and expense tracking
Solid, no-frills accounting. Good for businesses that need basic bookkeeping, invoicing, and expense tracking without the complexity of Xero. The mobile app is particularly good.
Strengths: Clean interface, good mobile experience, competitive pricing
Weaknesses: Less powerful than Xero for complex needs, fewer UK-specific features than FreeAgent
MTD compatible: Yes
Business Banking
Starling Business ⭐ Our Pick
Price: Free (sole trader and Ltd basic accounts)
Best for: Overall best UK business bank account
Instant notifications, free UK transfers, excellent app, and seamless integration with FreeAgent, Xero, and QuickBooks. Savings Spaces let you ring-fence money for tax. No monthly fees for basic accounts.
Euro and USD accounts available for international businesses.
Tide
Price: Free (basic) / £9.99/mo (Plus) / £49.99/mo (Cashback)
Best for: Invoice management and sole traders
Tide's invoicing features are built directly into the banking app — create, send, and track invoices without separate software. The free account is genuinely free, with charges only on specific transactions.
Monzo Business
Price: Free (Lite) / £7/mo (Pro)
Best for: Familiar interface, tax pots
If you already use Monzo personally, the business account feels like home. The tax pot automatically sweeps a percentage of incoming payments into a ring-fenced tax pot. Simple and effective.
Revolut Business
Price: Free (basic) / £25/mo (Grow) / £100/mo (Scale)
Best for: International payments and multi-currency
If you invoice in multiple currencies or make international transfers frequently, Revolut offers the best exchange rates and lowest international fees. Less polished for domestic-only businesses.
Invoicing
If your accounting software handles invoicing (FreeAgent, Xero, and QuickBooks all do), you don't need a separate tool. If you want something standalone:
Tide (built-in)
Free with Tide business account. Create and send invoices, track payment status, send automatic reminders.
Invoice Ninja
Price: Free (self-hosted) / from £8/month (hosted)
Open-source invoicing with surprisingly powerful features — recurring invoices, time tracking, expense management, and client portals.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
HubSpot Free CRM ⭐ Our Pick
Price: Free (core CRM) / paid tiers from £15/month
Best for: Most small businesses
The free tier is genuinely generous — unlimited contacts, deal pipeline, email tracking, meeting scheduling, and basic reporting. You'll only need to upgrade when you want marketing automation or advanced sales tools.
Pipedrive
Price: From £14.90/month
Best for: Sales-focused businesses
If your business lives and dies on deals in the pipeline, Pipedrive's visual deal board is excellent. More focused than HubSpot, less cluttered, and purpose-built for sales tracking.
Legal and Contracts
Docusign
Price: From £8/month (Personal) / £20/month (Standard)
Best for: Electronic signatures
The industry standard for e-signatures. Send contracts, get them signed, store them securely. Legally binding in the UK under the Electronic Communications Act 2000.
Rocket Lawyer UK
Price: From £33/month (membership)
Best for: DIY legal documents
Templates for employment contracts, NDAs, terms and conditions, shareholder agreements, and more — all reviewed by UK solicitors. Cheaper than a solicitor for standard documents, but consult a professional for anything complex.
Simply-Docs
Price: From £35/year (individual documents) / £240/year (full access)
Best for: Document templates on a budget
A vast library of UK-legal document templates. Less polish than Rocket Lawyer, but significantly cheaper for businesses that need occasional documents rather than ongoing legal support.
Productivity and Communication
Slack
Price: Free / £5.75/month (Pro) / £9.75/month (Business+)
Best for: Team communication
The default for business messaging. Channels, threads, integrations with almost everything. The free tier limits message history — upgrade to Pro if you need searchable archives.
Notion
Price: Free / £6.50/month (Plus)
Best for: Documentation, wikis, project notes
Endlessly flexible — notes, databases, projects, wikis, meeting notes. Use it for your business operating manual, client notes, or project management. The learning curve is worth the investment.
Google Workspace
Price: From £4.60/month
Best for: Professional email + collaboration
Gmail on your domain ([email protected]), Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Calendar — all in one package. The professional email alone justifies the cost.
Website and Online Presence
Squarespace
Price: From £11/month
Best for: Beautiful sites with minimal effort
The best website builder for non-technical users who care about design. Templates are stunning, hosting is included, and the editor is genuinely intuitive.
Shopify
Price: From £25/month
Best for: E-commerce
If you're selling physical products, Shopify is the platform. UK payment processing built in (Shopify Payments), inventory management, shipping integrations, and a massive app ecosystem.
Carrd
Price: £19/year (Pro)
Best for: Simple one-page sites
If you just need a landing page — a clean, professional single-pager with your services, contact details, and maybe a booking link — Carrd does it for £19 a year. Remarkable value.
The Honest Assessment
You don't need all of these. A typical UK small business needs:
- Accounting: FreeAgent or Xero
- Banking: Starling or Tide
- Email: Google Workspace
- CRM: HubSpot Free (if you have clients to manage)
- Website: Squarespace or Carrd
Total monthly cost: £20–£40. Everything else is optional until your business demands it.
Tool recommendations are based on features and value. Where applicable, links may include affiliate tracking. We only recommend tools we'd use ourselves.