Running a small business means wearing every hat at once — marketing, design, admin, IT. You don't have the budget for a dozen software subscriptions, and you definitely don't have the time to learn them. The good news is that a handful of free, browser-based tools can cover a surprising amount of day-to-day work. Here are seven we think every small business should have bookmarked.

1. An image compressor

Every photo you put on your website, in an email, or on social media should be as small as possible without looking bad. Oversized images slow your site down, and a slow site loses customers. A good image compressor lets you shrink a photo's file size with a quality slider, so a 4 MB product shot becomes a crisp 200 KB in seconds.

2. A QR code generator

QR codes bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds. Put one on a flyer, a shop window, a business card, or a table tent, and customers can jump straight to your website, menu, or booking page. A free QR code generator lets you create one in your brand colours and download it at print quality — no subscription, no expiry.

3. A password generator

Small businesses are a favourite target for hackers, and weak or reused passwords are the most common way in. Use a password generator to create long, random passwords for every account, then store them in a password manager. It's the single cheapest security upgrade you can make.

4. A word counter

Whether you're writing a product description, a meta description for SEO, or an ad with a strict character limit, a word counter tells you instantly where you stand. It also estimates reading time, which is handy for blog posts and newsletters.

5. A unit converter

Shipping internationally? Quoting materials? A quick unit converter for length, weight, volume and temperature saves you from fiddly mental maths and costly mistakes on invoices and packing slips.

6. A percentage calculator

Discounts, margins, tax, tips, and growth figures all come down to percentages. A dedicated percentage calculator handles "what is X% of Y", "X is what percent of Y", and percentage change — so you can price and report with confidence.

7. A colour picker

Consistent branding matters, and it starts with knowing your exact colours. A colour picker gives you the HEX, RGB and HSL values for any shade and builds a range of tints and shades — perfect for matching your logo across your website, social posts and print materials.

Why free browser tools are enough for most jobs

You might assume free tools are limited or that they'll sell your data. The best ones do neither. Browser-based tools like these run entirely on your own device — your files and text never get uploaded to a server — so they're fast, private, and cost nothing to run. For the vast majority of everyday tasks, that's all a small business needs.