100+ Useful Online Tools Every Digital Marketer Should Use.

Digital marketing runs on tools, and the list of tools grows every year. This guide gathers more than 100 online tools that marketers actually use, sorted by the job they do, with a one-line note on what each is best for. Every tool here has a free plan, a free tier, a free trial or a free core product at the time of writing, but plans and prices change often, so check each website before you commit.

Do not try to adopt all of them. A small team gets most of the value from about a dozen tools, one or two per job. The section at the end explains how to choose.

1. SEO and keyword research

• Google Search Console. Free data straight from Google: which queries and pages bring clicks, indexing problems, and Core Web Vitals. The first SEO tool every site owner should set up.
• Google Keyword Planner. Search-volume ranges and keyword ideas, inside a Google Ads account. Exact numbers need active ad spend.
• Google Trends. Shows how interest in a topic rises and falls over time and by region. Useful for timing content and comparing terms.
• Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. Free for sites you own and verify: backlink profile, site audit and organic keywords.
• Semrush. A full SEO and marketing suite with keyword, competitor and audit tools. The free account is limited; the paid plans are broad.
• Ubersuggest. Keyword ideas, simple site audits and competitor snapshots with a limited free allowance.
• AnswerThePublic. Turns a topic into the questions people ask about it. Good for FAQ and blog ideas.
• AlsoAsked. Maps Google’s “People also ask” questions into a tree so you can see how questions connect.
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider. A crawler that finds broken links, redirects, duplicate titles and missing tags. The free version crawls up to 500 URLs.
• Moz. Link Explorer and the MozBar browser extension give quick authority and link metrics with limited free use.

2. Analytics and conversion

• Google Analytics 4. The standard free web and app analytics: traffic sources, engagement and conversions.
• Google Tag Manager. Add and manage tracking tags without editing site code every time.
• Looker Studio. Free dashboards and reports that pull from Analytics, Search Console, sheets and ads accounts.
• Microsoft Clarity. Free heatmaps and session recordings, with no traffic cap on the free product.
• Hotjar. Heatmaps, recordings and on-page surveys, with a limited free plan.
• Crazy Egg. Heatmaps and scroll maps, offered with a free trial.
• Plausible. A light, privacy-focused analytics alternative with a simple dashboard (paid, with a trial).
• Matomo. Open-source analytics you can host yourself or use as a service, a common choice where data ownership matters.
• PageSpeed Insights. Free Google test of page speed and Core Web Vitals, with specific fixes.
• GTmetrix. Page-speed testing with waterfall charts that show exactly which files slow a page down.

3. Content and writing

• Google Docs. Free, shareable drafts with comments and suggestion mode, which is what most editorial workflows really need.
• Notion. Content calendars, briefs and wikis in one workspace, with a free plan for individuals.
• Grammarly. Grammar, clarity and tone checks across the browser and apps. The free plan covers the basics.
• Hemingway Editor. Highlights long, hard-to-read sentences and heavy use of adverbs and passive voice.
• LanguageTool. Grammar and spell checking in many languages, with a free tier.
• ProWritingAid. Deeper style reports for long-form writing, with limited free checks.
• Copyscape. Checks whether your page text appears elsewhere on the web. Useful before publishing and when you find copied content.
• QuillBot. Paraphrasing and summarising. Use it to tighten your own writing, not to copy other people’s.
• CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. Scores headline structure and word balance, which helps you compare options.
• Frase. Pulls the questions and subtopics that top-ranking pages cover to build a content brief (paid, with a trial).

4. AI assistants and research

• ChatGPT. General drafting, outlining, brainstorming, data cleanup and code help, with a free tier.
• Claude. Strong at long documents, careful writing and analysis, with a free tier.
• Gemini. Google’s assistant, convenient if you live in Google Workspace.
• Perplexity. Answers with cited sources, which makes it a good starting point for research you will verify.
• NotebookLM. Upload your own documents and ask questions that stay grounded in them. Excellent for turning research into briefs.

Treat every AI output as a draft. Check facts, figures and quotations yourself, and never paste confidential client data into a tool whose privacy terms you have not read.

5. Design and images

• Canva. Templates for social posts, presentations, ads and documents. The usual choice for non-designers.
• Figma. Collaborative interface and graphic design in the browser, with a free plan.
• Photopea. A free browser editor that opens Photoshop files and works like it.
• remove.bg. Removes image backgrounds in seconds.
• Squoosh. Free Google tool for compressing images and converting them to modern formats such as WebP and AVIF.
• TinyPNG. Simple, effective compression for PNG and JPEG files.
• Adobe Express. Quick templates, resizing and short video, with a free plan.
• Pixlr. A quick browser photo editor for crops, filters and basic retouching.
• Visme. Infographics, charts and presentations with a free plan.
• Coolors. Generates and tests colour palettes, including contrast checks.

6. Video and audio

• Loom. Record your screen and camera and share a link. Great for walkthroughs and feedback.
• CapCut. Easy short-form video editing with templates and captions.
• Descript. Edit audio and video by editing the transcript. Strong for podcasts and talking-head video.
• Riverside. Remote podcast and video recording with local, high-quality tracks per guest.
• Clipchamp. A simple browser video editor that works well for quick promotional videos.
• Kapwing. Browser editing for subtitles, resizing and repurposing clips.
• YouTube Studio. Free analytics, captions and publishing tools for your channel.
• Otter.ai. Transcribes meetings and interviews so you can quote and repurpose them.

7. Social media

• Buffer. Simple scheduling and analytics across the main networks, with a free plan.
• Hootsuite. Scheduling, monitoring and reporting for teams and agencies.
• Later. Visual planning, especially strong for Instagram and short video.
• Metricool. Scheduling plus analytics, competitor tracking and reports, with a free plan.
• Sprout Social. A mature suite for larger teams: inbox, publishing and reporting.
• Publer. Affordable multi-network scheduling with a free plan.
• SocialBee. Scheduling built around content categories that you recycle.
• Meta Business Suite. Free tool for managing Facebook and Instagram posts, messages and insights in one place.
• Linktree. One link for your bio that points to everything else.
• BuzzSumo. Shows which content gets shared most in a topic and who shares it.

8. Email marketing

• Mailchimp. A well-known all-round email platform with a limited free plan.
• Brevo. Email, SMS and automation, with a generous free sending allowance.
• MailerLite. Clean editor and automations at a friendly price, with a free plan.
• Kit (formerly ConvertKit). Built for creators who sell newsletters, courses and products.
• ActiveCampaign. Advanced automation and CRM for businesses that want detailed follow-up flows.
• Constant Contact. Simple email and event tools for small businesses.
• beehiiv. Newsletter platform focused on growth and monetisation.
• Mail-Tester. Send a test email and get a deliverability score with specific fixes for SPF, DKIM and content.

9. Automation, CRM and scheduling

• Zapier. Connects thousands of apps with “if this, then that” workflows.
• Make. Visual automation with more control over branching and data than simple connectors.
• IFTTT. Simple applets for personal and light business automation.
• n8n. Open-source workflow automation you can host yourself.
• HubSpot CRM. A free CRM with contacts, deals and email tracking that grows into a full marketing suite.
• Zoho CRM. Flexible CRM with a free tier for small teams.
• Pipedrive. A pipeline-first CRM that sales teams find easy to use.
• Airtable. Spreadsheet-database hybrid for content calendars, lead trackers and asset libraries.
• Calendly. Lets prospects book a time with you without back-and-forth email.
• Typeform. Conversational forms and quizzes that often convert better than long static forms.

10. Project management and collaboration

• Trello. Kanban boards that make a content or campaign pipeline visible at a glance.
• Asana. Task and project tracking with timelines and approvals.
• ClickUp. An all-in-one workspace with a generous free plan.
• monday.com. Visual boards for teams that like customisable workflows.
• Slack. Team chat organised in channels, with integrations to most other tools.
• Miro. An online whiteboard for brainstorming, journey maps and workshops.
• Google Forms. Free surveys, lead forms and feedback collection that feed straight into Google Sheets.
• SurveyMonkey. More advanced survey logic and reporting, with a limited free plan.
• Google Campaign URL Builder. Creates UTM-tagged links so Analytics can tell your campaigns apart.

11. Advertising

• Google Ads. Search, display, YouTube and Performance Max campaigns.
• Meta Ads Manager. Advertising across Facebook, Instagram and other Meta properties.
• Meta Ad Library. Free and public: see the ads any advertiser is currently running.
• Google Ads Transparency Center. Look up the ads a company runs on Google.
• LinkedIn Campaign Manager. B2B targeting by job title, industry and company.
• TikTok Ads Manager. Short-video advertising and audience tools.
• Microsoft Advertising. Search ads on Bing and partner networks, often at a lower cost per click.

12. Outreach and link building

• Hunter. Finds and verifies professional email addresses, with a free allowance.
• Snov.io. Email finder, verifier and drip campaigns in one tool.
• BuzzStream. Manages outreach relationships and follow-ups for PR and link building.
• Pitchbox. Outreach and link-prospecting platform for agencies and larger teams.
• Mailshake. Cold-email sequences with follow-ups and tracking.

How to choose without getting overwhelmed

1. Start with the free, first-party tools. Search Console, Analytics, Tag Manager, Looker Studio, PageSpeed Insights and Google Forms cost nothing and answer most basic questions.
2. Pick one tool per job. One scheduler, one email platform, one CRM. Two tools doing the same job double the learning and the bills.
3. Check where your data goes. Read the privacy terms before connecting customer lists, and look for data export so you can leave later.
4. Test on one real task. Run a single campaign or report through a tool during its trial before you move your whole workflow.
5. Review every quarter. Cancel what nobody has opened in 90 days.

The best marketing stack is the smallest one your team will actually use every week.