Best SaaS tools for startups & SMBs in 2025
In a world of business where every rupee counts, both above and below the bottom-line, your pick of software tools can mean the difference between creating winners and losers at the starting gate. Fortunately the Indian SaaS industry is now a mature market with wide range of available options which have good feature sets and decent support, which is an additional functionality that adds to the benefit of scalability. Whether you are a freelancer, an indie business or a small team who just desires to do more with less, these tools are certainly worth a look.
Making a SaaS Tool ‘Affordable’ in the Indian Setting
Next, before getting to individual tools, some of the criteria to determine “affordable SaaS” for India are as follows:
- Converted pricing, or reasonable conversion, so that USD based tools don’t cost 3x conversion rates
- Free tiers or trials, offering users an opportunity to try before buying
- Scalable pricing – variety seed cost management, need to start something small and only pay more as it gets bigger
- Useful features – addresses and solves a real acquisition problem for businesses (ranging from accounting, CRM, project management collaboration, marketing). No bells and whistles.
So, with all the above said, here are some pick-and-choose SaaS tools and platforms that strike the sweet spot in 2025.
Highly Affordable and Value Oriented SaaS Tools
Here are some tools that are worth their money. We have categorized them based on their primary use so that you can quickly match with the needs of your business.
Zoho Suite (Zoho CRM, Books, etc.)
A very powerful player from among the low cost Indian SaaS is Zoho. From CRM to accounting to HR to marketing apps, Zoho makes apps for local business needs – GST, local payments, regional taxation, etc. For startups, the alternative that Zoho CRM, Zoho Books or Zoho Invoice to cover more than one requirement will not only take care of many needs, but will also not require multiple hops to get different software from different vendors.
Freshworks
Freshworks products like Freshdesk (Customer support) and Freshsales (CRM) are easy to use, easy to scale the support and priced at a level that does not scare new companies. If your primary concern is to have customer engagement without trying on commendable efforts to recruit acrobats of employees, Freshworks frequently provides more than what is theoretically spent on it.
Whatfix
Whatfix is the platform for digital adoption. It is beneficial if you want to create onboarding experience for users for your software, product, etc. in the form of navigational guide, in-app walkthroughs, tool tips, etc. Whatfix helps automate the experience of a customer doing away with the need to have a dedicated support guy when a new user wants to explore their product in depth or perform a few exercises. This leads to cost saving in the customer support while also increasing the user retention of the product.
ERPNext
If you are interested in an all-in-one system (ERP, accounting, inventory, HR) and open source, you should definitely look into ERPNext. It is 8 years old, customizable, built by Indian organization (Frappe Technologies), but can be hosted locally or on the cloud. But since it is open-source with an affordable paid support, you can make sure that the costs remain low and offers power.
StoreHippo
Using or going to build an e-commerce store: StoreHippo is a SaaS that comes with plenty of built-in features: Plaza Currency, Multi-Language, Multi-EDS Settlement, Logistics, Mobile friendly (PWA) etc. For small to Mid-sized online businesses, it can be expensive and headache to assemble together many different functions.
LeadSquared
LeadSquared is a Sales and Marketing Automation Stack for the Indian market. Lead capturing, lead nurturing, lead funnel tracking, mobile CRM functionality – for many industries as varied as real estate, edtech, and services, this type of tool is inestimable. It is a bit priced for what you actually get.
How to Select The Right Low Cost SaaS Software?
In the process of making a comparative analysis, things to bear in mind are as follows:
- What operations do you really need? No, unless you pay too much for invoicing and introduction to CRM.
- Scalability and upgrade path – will the tool be able to scale up, and incorporate more users, or more features or integrations over time, without huge cost increases?
- Integration options – can it integrate with other tools that you use (payment gateways, marketing tools, email etc)
- Local Compliance – GST, Local charges, and Data residency, if applicable.
Challenges & Trade-Offs
The usual trade-offs for buying very cheap tools are the following:
- Less Polish in the UI/UX or fewer premium features
- Slower rollout of their feature releases/updates.
- International SaaS tools are not optimally configured for Indian billing/ local taxationÂ
Final Thoughts & Best Recommendations
So here are some of the sectoral priorities for running a startup or small business in India in 2025, depending on what you’re doing:
- Business suite power to be had all around – Zoho Suite
- Customer service and customer engagement tools – Freshworks/Freshdesk
- E-commerce Minimal Setup- StoreHippo
- Onboarding/retention – Whatfix
Also Read: MyUday Lupin: An In-Depth Review of the Employee Portal
