The Best Business Plan Software for Startups [2022]

Why Is Business Planning Software Even Necessary?

Before we get to the exciting part, the business planning software itself, there's one question we're guessing you want to have answered while you are still exploring your opportunities. Why do you even need business planning software? I mean, when did using an excellent old-fashioned spreadsheet go out of style? If you have already decided on procuring software, then go ahead and scroll down to the 5 Business Planning Softwares section. If not, stay with us.

Why Is Using Business Planning Software Good For Your Idea and/or Business Project?

Well, as you are in the early stages of building a new business, we understand how the world feels like your oyster. At the moment, you are full of hope and excitement, as you should be. But please don’t let that excitement die in the piles of soon-to-come contracts, tax files, and forecasting documents. If you do, your startup adventure could quickly begin to feel like a vampire sucking you bone dry. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, as you are not yet (and hopefully never will become) a startup-zombie.

Choosing the right business planning tools means doing what you are passionate about: building your startup business. If you are unsure about how to start planning your business, the software will help you structure each element of your plans. All in all, business planning tools help you to handle those unfamiliar and sometimes tedious tasks.

As most solutions today exist as online software, you can keep track of common goals and milestones anywhere, 24/7. Committing to the right software means that your business partners and employees can also access the information anytime. Pretty neat, huh?

Are you feeling convinced yet? Ready to explore some of the best solutions? If not, let’s take a look at exactly how business planning software helps you on your way to success.

How can business planning software help you accomplish your goals?

Are you taking your first baby steps as a new startup? Or have you already validated your business idea? Whether your business is just dawning or having a solid plan, you might not know just how useful the right software can be for your business. Speaking on more general terms, let’s explore that claim.

Deliver effective decisions

You will quickly discover that as a startup entrepreneur, you have to make many important decisions. You might have a clear gut instinct on what to decide. But whether you are an experienced entrepreneur or still playing ‘little league’, you should make your decisions based on proper research. No one likes to admit that they are wrong, so why not do it right from the start?

Use your business planning software to provide you insights on the operations, marketing, finances and projections instantly. This way, you will be able to deliver results effectively, saving you many working hours. With all your information joined in one place, you will know when to make a move to seize a great market opportunity.

Grow Team Spirit

Your employees and shareholders are an essential part of your team. So, why not let them in on the fun? Find a solution where multiple team members can keep on contributing to your business development. This way, you will always know what people are working on, and you can quickly review any results made. Take full advantage of the collaborative spirit. Mobilize your teams talents and competencies in the best way possible with a joint software solution.

More Than A Roadmap

Mapping out your steps and setting up milestones is a sure way to keep track of your developing business. However, the right business plan software should provide you with more than a map. It is vital to have those features that help you grow your business. Often you will find yourself at a crossroad. And with the right tool, you will know if you should go right or left. As a startup business, funds are often limited. Therefore your tool should provide you with the means to seek out those necessary capital funds.

Polish That Business Plan Into A Shiny Beacon

Having a well-made business plan is essential to growing any successful business. Why? The business plan shapes the essence of your business. Pour all your hopes and ideas into a shape that makes sense. Remember, your business plan should not only make sense to you (though it most certainly should make sense!). With your business plan, you will convince business partners, employees and investors to ride that magic carpet with you into the sunset. Did we get the analogy right? Oh well, curious to know how you do write a business? Well, you are in luck. Read our step-by-step guide to writing your very own exceptional business plan, right here.

Is It Pronounced Data or Data?

Anyway, you need data to grow your business. Today, data shapes our world and consumer behaviour. So, of course you want to tap into that fountain of new information just waiting to be put to good use. Doing your research also means that your investors and partners know that you are in it to win it. A business planning software doesn’t only help you analyze the data. If done correctly, it will also give you the tools to present those valuable insights simply and comprehensively. Remember, nobody is interested in investing their money into a venture they don’t understand. Convince them with a plan that looks and feels professional and delivers the data, or data if you will, clearly.

1. LivePlan.com

What is LivePlan?

LivePlan is a well-known business planning solution primarily designed for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Being one of the most used business planning software worldwide, LivePlan has assisted more than 1,5 million companies from 180 different countries. LivePlan provides you with the essential tool for business planning and in turn, provides pitching features to present your plans to potential investors.

Pricing Details

• Pay as you go: $20 pr. month
• 6 Months: $18 pr. month, billed every 6 months
• Annual: $15 pr. month, billed every 12 months

What Features Does LivePlan Offer?

• Step-by-step wizard for creating your business plan
• Business plan templates
• Pitch presentations
• Financial projections
• Cloud-based system for online sharing
• Exporting projects in PDF, Word or PowerPoint
• Expert support (chat, email or phone)

Pros and Cons of LivePlan

Based on independent user reviews of LivePlan, we look into the pros and cons of LivePlan.

Advantages

• The software is easy to integrate with existing software
• Provides you with multiple insights for analysis
• Great tool for startups in the early stages of their idea

Disadvantages

• The UX features of this software seems outdated to many users
• The software is not as scalable as people prefer.
• When you start growing your business, the supporting features are limited
• No free trials or freemium version

How Does Cuttles Compare to LivePlan?

• Cuttles’ UX and design is modern, intuitive and user friendly.
• Cuttles designs all your work for you in your own brand design. When you upload your logo to Cuttles, the whole app adapts into your design. It looks professional, beautiful and everything matches startups’ individual brand. Cuttles doesn’t just make a pretty front page for your PDF plan.
• Cuttles provides you with a simple structure and powerful guides written in a language that everyone understands, whereas LivePlan’s guides are more business heavy, making the experience and skills required to do your business planning heavier too.
• Cuttles has a ready-to-fill-out business plan template but also gives the opportunity to fully customize your own plan.
• Cuttles has a 14-day free trial.
• Cuttles is a cloud-based service and offers a high level of security.
• Compared to LivePlan, Cuttles has a more simplistic feature set. LivePlan offers more advanced features for doing budgets and financial projections especially.
• Cuttles has Startup Success Managers that are ready to help you out with any questions and guide you through the business planning process.

2. BizPlan.com

What is BizPlan.com?

BizPlan.com is a business planning software developed for startup businesses and business owners. BizPlan focuses on three aspects that help business owners succeed. These include the Guided Builder, Drag and Drop element and the Automatic Projections as the basic elements for starting a business. According to BizPlan, they have helped more than 1 million startup companies and rely on a vast number of mentors available for users to rely on.

Pricing Details

• $29 per month
• $249 per year
• $349 lifetime access

What Features Does BizPlan.com offer?

• Guided business plan builder
• Budget and financial tools
• PDF export and the ability to share PDF online
• Expert help
• Opportunities for finding investors

Pros and Cons Of BizPlan

Based on independent user reviews of BizPlan.com, we look into the pros and cons of BizPlan.com.

Advantages

• Quick responses from customer help during business hoursBroad selection of templates
• Descriptive guides on how to use the software tools
• Integrate your finances with the software
• Online sharing of documents and plans with investors
• Most useful for smaller businesses with under 1000 people

Disadvantages

• No mobile-friendly usability
• No free trial, but you can get your money back within the first 7 days.
• PDF is not sufficiently supported
• Software design makes it hard to navigate the platform.
• Users have found issues with the input methods available on the software.

How does Cuttles compare to BizPlan.com?

• Cuttles’ UX and design is modern, intuitive and user friendly and makes business planning a fun task, instead of a boring chore
• Cuttles designs all your work for you in your own brand design. When you upload your logo to Cuttles, the whole app adapts into your design. It looks professional, beautiful and everything matches startups’ individual brand. Cuttles doesn’t just make a pretty front page for your PDF plan.
• Cuttles provides you with a simple structure and powerful guides written in a language that everyone understands, whereas Bizplan’s guides are more business heavy, making the experience and skills required to do your business planning heavier too.
• Cuttles has a ready-to-fill-out business plan template but also gives the opportunity to fully customize your own plan, BizPlan has many different templates, which can be great, but also a bit overwhelming for early-stage or more inexperienced entrepreneurs.
• Cuttles has a 14-day free trial.
• Cuttles is a cloud-based service and offers a high level of security.Cuttles has more features, including a Pitch Deck, Roadmap and Cap table.
• Cuttles has Startup Success Managers that are ready to help you out with any questions and guide you through the business planning process, including pointing you in the direction of investors. We don’t have a database of investors like BizPlan.
• Besides exporting your plan to PDF, Cuttles lets you share your whole startup deck online in an intuitive format, rather than just an online pdf file.

3. Upmetrics.com

What is Upmetrics?

Upmetrics.co is a cloud-based business planning software. The build-in templates of this software makes it simple to tailor your plans and projections. The software offers financial projection features and makes it easy for your team to collaborate. Upmetrics was founded in 2017.

Pricing Details

• Solo plan: $9 pr. month
• Team plan: $14 pr. month
• Premium plan: $49 pr. month

What features does Upmetrics offer?

• Business plan builder
• Export and online sharing
• Collaborate on business plan with team
• Activity Dashboard

Pros and Cons

Based on independent user reviews of Upmetrics, we look into the pros and cons of Upmetrics. 

Advantages

• Inexpensive fees
• Collaboration
• Social sharing features
• Customizable templates

Disadvantages

• No investor management
• No fundraiser management
• No free trial
• Issues regarding user-friendliness and design features

How does Cuttles compare to Upmetrics.co?

• Cuttles’ UX and design is modern, intuitive and user friendly and makes business planning a fun task, instead of a boring chore
• Upmetrics offers a selection of well-designed front pages for your business plan. Cuttles designs all your work for you in your own brand design. When you upload your logo to Cuttles, the whole app adapts into your design.
• Cuttles has a ready-to-fill-out business plan template that works for most industries, but also gives the opportunity to fully customize your own plan.
• With the Cuttles Startup or Unlimited plans, you can invite unlimited team members to collaborate with you.
• Cuttles has a 14-day free trial.
• Cuttles is a cloud-based service and offers a high level of security.
• Cuttles has more features, including Roadmap and Cap table.
• Cuttles has Startup Success Managers that are ready to help you out with any questions and guide you through the business planning process.
• Besides exporting your plan to PDF, Cuttles lets you share your whole startup deck online in an intuitive format, rather than just an online pdf file.

4. Enloop

What is Enloop.com?

Enloop.com is a bank and investor-ready business plan creation system. The tool includes auto-write, and text sync features to help you write the best business plans. More than 300.000 business owners use this software, entrepreneurs and students according to Enloop.com.\

Pricing Details

• Free plan: Free
• Basic plan: $9 pr. month
• Advances plan: $11-20 pr. month
• Professional plan: $24-40 pr. måned

What features does Enloop.com offer?

• Business plans
• Financial reports
• Interactive PDF
• Real-time performance scores
• Works for multiple languages
• Automated writing features

Advantages

Based on independent user reviews of Enloop.com, we look into the pros and cons of Enloop.com.

• Affordable prices
• Free version for trying our the software
• Cloud-based software you can access anywhere
• Free business plan. The number of business plans in the free version is limited to 1.
• Automated text writing

5. GoSmallBiz.com

What is GoSmallBiz.com?

GoSmallBiz is an online support system for startups and small businesses. The solution is limited to the US, which means if you are outside of US territory, you cannot access their services or website. If you are US based, the service offers you unlimited access to expert consultants. If you are a UK-based entrepreneur or from anywhere outside of the US, this is not a possibility for you.

Pricing Details:

• Full membership: $39 pr. Month

What features does GoSmallBiz.com offer?

• Expert support
• Standard templates
• Planning tools for startups
• Online courses
• Spreadsheet software for reports and statements 

Pros and Cons

Based on independent user reviews of Gosmallbiz.com, we look into the pros and cons of Gosmallbiz.com.

Advantages of GoSmallBiz.com

• Unlimited access to consultant
• Access to Online Business Courses
• Attracting clients and maintaining contact via database access
• Precise management information, which can help new businesses with decision-making

Disadvantages of GoSmallBiz.com

• US-based only
• Limited Business plan templates
• No direct contact with consultant, but you can send request and await response
• Only suitable with Microsoft Word and PDFs
• Not ideal as a tool for long term planning 

How does Cuttles compare to GoSmallBiz.com?

• There’s no geographical limitations to Cuttles
• Cuttles offers well explained guides and real-life examples on what to write in each section of your business plan. We believe planning is an important learning process, which we want you to go through. We don’t want to do the work for you.
• Cuttles has a ready-to-fill-out business plan template that works for most industries, but also gives the opportunity to fully customize your own plan.
• Cuttles has a 14-day free trial.
• Cuttles is a cloud-based service and offers a high level of security.
• Cuttles has Startup Success Managers that are ready to help you out with any questions, guide you through the business planning process.
• Besides exporting your plan to PDF, Cuttles lets you share your whole startup deck online in an intuitive format, rather than just an online pdf file.
• Cuttles has a free, extensive startup academy with online startup business courses as well as a library of great tools and resources for startups. 

Now Find Your Match Made In eaven

Has your head stopped spinning? We hope that this simple walk-through of the 5 most prominent business planning tools has convinced you that:

1.  You do need the software and that
2. Even the best tools are only as good as the entrepreneur using them. You might find that you can live without certain features. But having a tool you can adapt to your needs is something we value greatly at Cuttles.

So, was this a trick just to get you thinking about Cuttles? We hope you don’t think so. With this comparison of the best business planning software, we want to provide you with the insights you need to make your business thrive. 

Through... If you believe Cuttles is the right match for you, you can easily sign up with our services today. Just click here to sign up and begin the first step of your startup journey.

Why Choose Cuttles As Your Business Plan Software?

Read what our current users think of using Cuttles as their favourite software for business planning:

“Documenting the building blocks of a start-up is a daunting task that Cuttles simplifies by guiding the user via a modular approach. Following the established guidelines developed by the Cuttles team with its first-hand experience of successful start-ups, aspiring entrepreneurs can break down the tasks into smaller segments. The canvas forces one to succinctly summarise one’s business pitch, the budgeting tool provides a powerful but easy to use interface to construct a detailed budget that includes cash flow projections and all metrics that potential investors will require. The business plan module once again follows the same ethos of stepwise guidance through a complex task, and a set of tasks that we thought might take us months to complete were shortened to a few weeks. Cuttles is a wonderful resource that we would unequivocally recommend.”
- Phaseinvest

"Writing a business plan is a sinuous task and a continuous back and forth. Cuttles makes the process of thinking, sketching and writing your business plan seamless. We were able to get our plan ready in a couple of days easily and without issues."
- Fernando Caamaño

"Creating something from nothing is hard. Building a startup requires a huge amount of work and that’s where Cuttles helps. The versatile and well organised startup builder is a solution to many of the problems that entrepreneurs face day by day. It is a must-have for every entrepreneur."
- Farner

"We’ve been missing a tool like Cuttles for years! All our work is usually stuck within folders, within other folders and it’s hard to have a one-stop shop with all the details of each startup. Plus, these change almost on a weekly basis! So having an always up-to-date link to the business plan is such a nice feature. No more little hacks and workarounds, now business ideas have a home of their own!”
- Startup Programme

"Our partners are early-stage startups innovating in the field of oncology and cancer research. These brilliant innovators face challenges in the business arena just as every early-stage company. Cuttles connects the dots and makes it easier to write a proper business plan, manage the budget, and present your ideas. MedTech, BioTech, Healthcare startups have a unique trajectory and Cuttles provides a solution to this with its fully customizable platform."
- cLab Ventures

"We are proud to unveil our latest tool in partnership with Cuttles. Cuttles is a fully guided, interactive and customizable startup builder that helps you with planning, budgeting and presenting your startup to investors. Their business plan tool helps you write your plan in a fraction of the time."
- The Hub