10+ AI Tools for Startups: Must-Have Free and Paid Solutions

Hey, Entreprenuers!

Congratulations on your one step ahead in the startup world.

You have packed all your bags to enroll in the niche. It should capture where you spend more or less. Maybe you tried some plugins, tools, or CRMs. They might be free, paid, or discounted for first-time users. However, as a startup, you must manage your expenses by cutting down on some cost factors.

You can manage your spending by using some free AI tools for startups. They might meet your needs and give you excellent support.

Some popular AI tools for startups may help your product. They can help you reach your business goals.

1. PhotoRoom
2. Codeium A
3. Luzmo AI Dashboard Builder
4. DALL-E
5. MidJourney
6. Leonardo AI
7. Zeni
8. Glean.ai
9. HubSpot Service Hub
10. Drift
11. Zigpoll
12. Tabnine

Here is the segmentation of these AI tools for startups that can be merged into different niches. Moreover, you can assign these tools and sort out the best fit for you.

Design, Image, and Video Creation Tools

PhotoRoom (Freemium)

‍PhotoRoom was created in 2019 by two people named Matthieu Rouif and Eliot Andres. This AI tool for startups is a simple and user-friendly AI tool for startup that helps you edit photos, especially if you need to remove backgrounds.

Basic Feature

• Background Removal: This is super useful for highlighting the main object or person in the picture.
• Templates: This makes social media posts or product images look professional.
• Batch Editing: Especially if you are selling stuff online and need lots of pictures to look the same.
• Photo Enhancements: It uses AI to help improve the quality of your pictures, automatically making them look better and brighter and making sure the image looks clear.
• Text and Stickers: You can easily add text, logos, or stickers to your photos to make them more attractive or to share information.

Premium Feature

• No watermark (a small logo in the corner) on your edited photos.
• Access to all templates and editing tools.‍
• Professional UI/UX design.
• Edit multiple photos at once with Batch Editing.
• Better customer support.

Pricing for Premium

• Monthly Plan: Around $9.99 per month.
• Yearly Plan: About $69.99 per year, cheaper than monthly.

DALL-E (Freemium)‍

DALL-E was first introduced by OpenAI in 2021. The technology behind it is based on a kind of AI called "deep learning," which means the computer has learned how to understand and generate images by studying millions of pictures.

Basic Feature

• Creative Art: Artists can use it to get inspiration or create unique artwork without drawing everything by hand.
• Marketing and Business: Marketing professionals can quickly create images for ads, posters, or social media without hiring a photographer or graphic designer.
• Storytelling: Writers can use this AI tool for startup, DALL-E to create illustrations for stories or books based on the scenes they describe.
• Prototypes and Ideas: Designers can use DALL-E to visualize ideas quickly before making a final version.

Premium Feature

• Higher Image Limits: You can generate more images every month.
• Advanced Editing: Includes options to edit images in more detail.
• Better Quality: Higher resolution and more detailed photos.
• Faster Access: Premium users often get quicker results because they have priority over free users.

Pricing for Premium

• Basic Plan: Costs around $15 per month, allowing a higher image limit than the free version.
• Pro Plan: Around $30 monthly, with even more features and images available.

MidJourney (Freemium)‍

Midjourney, created by a team led by David Holz, started in 2022. This AI tool for startup has special computer program that creates images from descriptions you write. It uses advanced AI to understand what you want and then creates a unique image based on that description.

Basic Feature

• Art and Creativity: Artists use this AI tool for startups to get ideas or make unique art pieces quickly. It's like having a sketch artist who never gets tired.
• Social Media: People use it to make eye-catching images for their posts, helping them stand out with beautiful or unusual pictures.
• Storytelling: Writers use Midjourney to create illustrations for their stories or make visuals that match their writing ideas.
• Marketing and Business: Companies use it to make quick visuals for advertisements, websites, and presentations, saving time and money.

Premium Feature

• ‍Fast Mode In Fast Mode, the AI generates images much quicker, usually in about 1-2 minutes. 
• Relax Mode: Relax Mode is slower but lets you create unlimited images without limits.
• ‍Stealth Mode: Stealth Mode keeps your creations private so that others can't see them. This is perfect for professionals.

Pricing for Premium

• Basic Plan: About $10 per month. 
• Standard Plan: This plan costs around $30 per month.
• Pro Plan: This plan costs around $60 per month.

Leonardo AI (Freemium)‍

Leonardo AI was developed in 2023. It was created to help people create creative images and designs quickly and easily, even without drawing or good design skills.

Basic Feature

• Creating Artwork: Artists can use Leonardo AI to get ideas or make quick sketches for their projects.
• Design and Marketing: People who work in design or marketing can create professional-looking images for ads, posters, or social media without hiring a graphic designer.
• Game Design: It's also famous for making concept art and maintain design trends, especially in video games, because you can generate fantasy worlds, characters, and objects quickly.
• Education and Projects: Entrepreneurs  can use this AI tool for startups to make visual content for projects or presentations, making learning more interactive.
• Storytelling: Writers can create illustrations for their stories or visualize scenes they're writing about.

Premium Feature

• Private Creations: You can keep your images private, meaning only you can see them. This is useful if you're working on confidential projects or want to surprise someone with your art.
• Access to Special Tools: Premium users get more advanced settings, like controlling the style, colors, and details of the images even more closely. You can also use special features like upscaling and fine-tuning.

Pricing for Premium

• Basic Plan: Around $12 per month. 
• Standard Plan: About $24 per month. 
• Pro Plan: This plan costs around $48 per month.

Software Development and AI Tools

Codeium AI (Freemium)‍

Codeium AI was developed in 2022. It is an AI-powered tool that helps with coding and programming. This AI tool is for startups; startups are like having a smart assistant who can write code, suggest fixes, and help you understand programming languages.

Basic Feature

• Code Suggestions: Codeium can automatically suggest pieces of code while you're typing, making it faster to write programs.
• Error Checking: The AI can spot mistakes in your code, such as typos, syntax errors, or logic problems. 
• Code Completion: If you start writing a line of code, Codeium can guess what you're trying to do and complete it. 
• Learning New Languages: If you're new to programming or want to learn a new language, Codeium can help by showing you examples and explaining how different code works.
• Debugging Help: Codeium can assist with debugging by suggesting what might be causing an error and how to fix it.
• Code Documentation: The AI can also help create comments or documentation for your code, making it easier to understand later or for other people who might work on your code.

Premium Feature

• Advanced Code Suggestions: Premium users get smarter and more accurate code suggestions, which are better for complex projects or when using advanced programming techniques.
• Improved Error Detection: The AI can catch more detailed errors and bugs in the code, including problems that are harder to spot.
• Integrations with Development Tools: Premium users get better integration with Visual Studio Code, JetBrains, or other IDEs, making it easy to use alongside your favorite tools.
• Code Snippets and Templates: The AI can provide ready-made code templates or snippets that you can use, which is helpful for complex or repetitive tasks.

Pricing for Premium

• Pro Plan: Around $10 to $20 per month.
• Team Plan: This plan is usually $25 to $50 per user per month.

Tabnine (Freemium)‍

Tabnine was first introduced in 2018. This AI tool for startups helps programmers who can work inside your coding software, like Visual Studio Code, JetBrains, or others, making coding faster and simpler.

Basic Feature

• Code Suggestions: Tabnine looks at what you're typing and can suggest the next part of the code, like finishing a sentence. 
• Code Completion: It can automatically complete entire lines of code based on what you've started typing. 
• Error Reduction: Tabnine helps you catch mistakes before you run your code, such as typos or missing symbols. 
• Supports Multiple Languages: It works with many programming languages, like Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, and many more. So you can use it no matter what your coding type is.
• Learning New Code: If you're learning to code, Tabnine can help by showing you how to complete common code patterns. 

Premium Feature

• Advanced Code Suggestions: You get smarter and more accurate suggestions tailored to your specific coding style and habits.
• Private Code Models: Tabnine learns from how you and your team code, so the its suggestions improveime. 
• Faster Completion: The premium version is quicker, so you get suggestions and completions faster.
• Security and Privacy: Premium users can keep their code suggestions private, which is important for companies working on confidential projects.
• Deep Code Completion: It can handle more complicated code completions, even in big projects with many different parts.

Pricing for Premium

• Pro Plan: About $12 per month if you pay annually, or around $15 per month if you choose to pay monthly. 
• Team Plan: Approximately $20 per user per month if paid annually or $25 per user per month if billed monthly. 

Business Intelligence and Financial Tools

Luzmo AI Dashboard Builder (Freemium)‍

Luzmo has existed for a few years, but its special AI features, like the AI Chart Generator, became important around 2024, an AI tool for startups that helps you create interactive dashboards.

Basic Feature

• Quickly Create Charts: You just tell the AI what kind of data you want to see, and it suggests the best way to show it.
• Save Time: No need to spend hours making graphs by hand—the AI handles it for you.
• Easy Customization: You can adjust your dashboard's look and feel to match your needs.

Premium Feature

• AI Chart Generator: More powerful AI tools help you create detailed visualizations faster.
• Customization: Premium users can change the dashboard design completely, add branding, and have better control over data.
• Support: Priority support for any issues you might face and access to advanced help guides.
• Usage Analytics: Track how your dashboards are being used to get insights and improve them.

Pricing for Premium

• Basic Plan: Costs about $995 per month, paid yearly. 
• Pro Plan: Costs around $2,050 per month, paid yearly. 
• Elite Plan: Costs about $3,100 per month, paid yearly. 

Glean.ai (Freemium)‍

Glean.ai was launched in 2022 and is mainly used by businesses to track their expenses, make smarter financial decisions, and find ways to save money.

Basic Feature

• Tracking Spending: It monitors all spending, helping businesses identify areas for cost savings.
• Analyzing Data: This AI tool for startups can look at spending data to find patterns, give advice, and spot problems, like billing mistakes.
• Saving Time: Instead of doing everything manually, Glean.ai automates many tasks, such as processing invoices (bills) and creating financial reports.

Premium Feature

• AI-Powered Insights: Detailed suggestions on how to save money and improve spending.
• Invoice Management: Automatically handles invoices, checks for errors, and tracks vendors' spending.
• Expense Reports: Generates clear reports about where money is going, making it easier to understand finances.
• Integrations: Works with other accounting software like QuickBooks to keep everything connected smoothly.

Pricing for Premium

• The basic plan for Glean.ai starts at $295 per month, and it's billed annually. 

Zeni (Freemium)‍

Zeni was launched in 2020. It was created to simplify accounting for startups that often don't have a dedicated finance team. This AI tool for startups leverage their bookkeeping and accounting.

Basic Feature

• Automated Bookkeeping: The AI does most of the data entry for you, capturing information from receipts, invoices, and bank statements. 
• Expense Tracking: It tracks where the money is being spent, categorizes expenses, and offers insights on how to save money.
• Real-Time Dashboards: Users can see all their financial data in one place, making it easier to understand their business's financial health.
• Bill Payments: The AI helps manage bills, ensuring they are paid on time and automating the process.

Premium Feature

• AI-Powered Bookkeeping: Automatically handles data entry and categorizes vendors and transactions.
• Financial Dashboards: Provides real-time reports and insights.
• Tax Preparation: Helps with tax calculations and ensures everything complies with financial standards.
• Bill Pay and Reimbursements: Streamlines payments to vendors and reimbursements to employees using AI.
• CFO Services: Offers expert guidance and support for bigger financial decisions, available in higher-tier plans.

Pricing for Premium

• Bookkeeping Plan: Costs $299 per month for basic bookkeeping services.
• Full-Service Plan: Costs $549 per month for additional features like bill pay and tax preparation.
• CFO Plan: Costs $1,149 per month for advanced financial management, including expert consultations.

Customer Engagement and Support Tools

HubSpot Service Hub (Freemium)‍

HubSpot launched the Service Hub in 2018, a platform that helps businesses manage customer service. This AI tool for startups helps to keep customers satisfied by quickly responding to their needs and providing helpful information.

Basic Feature

• Managing Customer Requests: It has a system called "tickets" that helps companies organize and solve customer problems.
• Live Chat and Chatbots: You can communicate with customers in real time or use chatbots to answer common questions.
• Customer Feedback: It lets companies collect feedback through surveys to understand what customers think and how to improve.
• Knowledge Base: Businesses can create a collection of helpful articles and FAQs so customers can find answers independently without waiting for help.

Premium Feature

• Automation Tools: Automatically routes tickets to the right person and sends follow-up emails.
• Customer Surveys: Collects detailed feedback from customers to improve services.
• Advanced Reporting: Offers deeper insights into customer interactions and service performance.
• Customer Portal: A secure area where customers can track their requests.
• Knowledge Base Creation: Helps businesses create articles and FAQs so customers can find answers.
• Custom Surveys and Analytics: Create personalized surveys and analyze feedback with detailed reports.

Pricing for Premium 

• Starter Plan: Costs $45 per month. 
• Professional Plan: Costs $450 per month. 
• Enterprise Plan: Starts at $1,200 per month. 

Drift (Freemium)

Drift was launched in 2015. Since then, this AI tool for startup has become one of the top platforms for conversational marketing, which is a way for companies to chat directly with their website visitors to boost sales and provide support using live chat, chatbots, and AI.

Basic Feature

• Talking to Website Visitors: It uses live chat and chatbots to answer questions and engage with customers in real time.
• Scheduling Meetings: Visitors can set up appointments directly through the chat, making it easier for companies to connect with potential clients.
• Gathering Leads: Drift can track who visits the website and collect information, turning visitors into possible customers. It also provides insights into visitor behavior, helping businesses understand what people are interested in.
• Automating Responses: Chatbots can handle basic questions 24/7, so customers get answers even when the company's team is offline.

Premium Feature

• Custom Chatbots: More sophisticated bots that can handle complex tasks and guide customers through the buying process.
• Advanced Analytics: Provides detailed reports on visitor behavior and how well the chat is performing.
• A/B Testing: Test different messages to see which ones work best for attracting customers.
• Lead Routing: Automatically sends potential customers to the right person in the company for follow-up.

Pricing for Premium

• Premium Plan: Starts at $2,500 per month, billed annually. 
• Advanced and Enterprise Plans: These plans have custom pricing based on what the company needs.

Zigpoll (Freemium)‍

Zigpoll was launched around 2020 and helps companies get feedback from their customers, which can be useful for improving products, understanding customer needs, and making better decisions.

Basic Feature

• Customizable Surveys: This AI tool for startups lets you design surveys to match your brand, including different question types like multiple choice or text boxes.
• Customer Feedback: You can ask customers what they think of a product or service, helping companies understand what to improve.
• Automated Reports: Zigpoll provides reports to see how people respond to questions, making it easy to understand the data.

Pricing for Premium

Basic plan ($10 per month):

• 200 responses per month.
• Send up to 1,000 survey emails each month.
• Allows two team members to work on surveys.

Standard Plan ($25 per month):

• 500 responses per month.
• Hide Zigpoll branding for a professional look.
• Send up to 2,500 emails monthly.

Pro Plan ($100 per month):

• Unlimited responses.
• Send up to 10,000 emails per month.
• Dedicated customer support and up to 20 team members.

Generate Efficiency and Savings with AI Tools for your Startups

Startup leaders have a lot of challenges, like making business plans and increasing sales, all while handling limited money and resources. AI tools can help a lot by saving time on tasks like paperwork and creative projects.

This way, startup owners can focus more on growing and improving their business. AI tools are no longer just for big companies; now, even small startups can use them to compete at a higher level.

So, young entrepreneurs, remember to think carefully about what your business needs. Choose the AI tools, whether free or paid, that best fit your goals and help your startup succeed!