So, you've probably been thinking, “is it possible for me to start an online business in 2025 without actually spending a dime?” To quickly answer that question, yes, it is.
If anyone has told you it isn't possible they're lying to you. It is, but it actually depends on what business you're trying to do. Some online businesses may require upfront costs (whether low or high) but there are many others who don't require any capital to start and that's what I'll be talking about in this blog post.
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So, what kind of business can you start with $0? A few include:
- Digital products business such as selling eBooks, templates, artworks, recipes, coaching, community/membership and so much more.
- Blogging.
- Selling print-on-demand products.
- Newsletter business.
- Starting a YouTube channel creation.
- Affiliate marketing.
- Freelancing and many others not listed here, maybe even the one in your mind.
So, how can all these work without you actually spending money? You can start all these businesses with no money because of the presence of free business tools you may or may not have heard about.
From just a simple website builder to an online store, email marketing, content creation, branding, project management, automation, forms, surveys, analytics, to SEO (search engine optimization), there's a free tool.
Need a Website? WebStudio and Umso Are Free
So, maybe you just need a website to get online, you've got two forever free options WebStudio and Umso. These two platforms will let you build professional websites that adjust to any needs, each giving you a free subdomain on their free plans. WebStudio supports your own custom domain on its free plan if you already have one (you'll need to upgrade on Umso, $7/month when billed yearly), while Umso allows you to add a blog to your site to boost your sites SEO (you'll need a paid plan for this on WebStudio, $15/month when billed yearly).
I've personally tested Umso website builder and the dashboard is simple, easy to navigate so it's very beginner friendly. WebStudio is also a great option. With these two platforms, you can easily create a business website or a personal portfolio.
Need a Store? Payhip and Beacons Are Free
With Payhip and Beacons you can easily start selling digital products online for free. Payhip hits different here as you can easily set up your store, sell as many products as you like including digital downloads, courses, coaching, memberships, physical product, collect emails, has in-built simple email marketing, access analytics of your store, blog and as well as running your own affiliate program for a 5% fee on all transactions on its free plan.
Beacons on the other hand, is much more simple and easier to set up but limits its features. You can sell unlimited digital downloads, one course, customize your link in bio sites, create a media kit, and send 50 emails per month for 9% fee on all your transactions.
I recommend Payhip more but however if you're just selling one or two products and just want an easier setup and link in bio store style, you can try out Beacons.
Want To Sell Print-On-Demand Products? Printify Is Free
For selling print-on-demand products, I recommend using Printify. One of the reasons I recommend Printify, aside from being one of the best print providers out there with the largest product catalog, is because of its pop-up store. This means unlike other print providers that you'll need to connect with Shopify, Etsy or Woocommerce that'll require upfront cost not just only on monthly subscriptions but also, you'll need to have about $100 in the card connected to your Printify account to automate orders.
Because, when someone orders from your store let's say you sell on Etsy, the money paid would take a few days before it gets to you even if you sell on Shopify with your connected Stripe account. Waiting for the money to get to you before you pay Printify for the order would increase the delivery date, be really stressful on you and lead to unhappy customers, bad reviews, which means less sales.
And that's where Printify pop-up comes in, you can easily set up a store with Printify and when someone makes an order, Printify will collect the sale, fulfill the order and then give you your profit at the end of the month. Other print providers don't have this. Try Printify pop-up.
Just Want To Blog? Medium and Site123 Are Free
You can easily start writing on Medium in 5 mins or create a simple blog with Site123. These two platforms both give you freedom to become a blogger without spending any money.
While of course, there'll be limitations, it's a good start for beginners who just want to get online quickly. Medium has a built-in audience while Site123 gives you more design freedom. Either way, you can start blogging for free but you would still need to promote your blog posts on social media like Pinterest for more reach and faster growth.
Need Email Marketing? ConvertKit and Brevo Are Free
As a creator or business owner, email marketing is very important for every business even at the early stage. It's so important that if you don't build it early, you'll regret it later on.
The best part is that there are email marketing software's that are forever free just like ConvertKit and Brevo and you'll only need to upgrade to access more features as your business advances or if you have the available funds.
Kit formerly ConvertKit is best for creators such as bloggers, YouTubers, coaches, musicians, influencers, artists, course creators and marketers who don't need complex CRM (customer relationship management). Brevo is perfect if you run an online store or a business that needs better CRM.
Need a Branding Tool or Content Management? Renderforest and Tailwind Are Free
You may probably need logos and banners for your online business and that's where Renderforest comes in, it's an all-in-one branding tool that helps you create that and even more like video, social media contents and even a website. A great free alternative to Renderforest is Kittl, Kittl is a better and more advanced version of Canva.
For scheduling of your social media content, you can make use of Tailwind, it lets you schedule up to 5 posts per month on its free plan or you can make use of Metricool which has a better generous free plan.
If you need free stock video or images, Pexels and Unsplash are great places to look.
Need a Newsletter? Beehiiv and Substack Are Free
Beehiiv and Substack not only lets you run your newsletter business for free but also gives you a free online hub to host all your content on a free subdomain.
You can easily create an online magazine for all your newsletter content. Beehiiv gives you more website customization and monetization options while Substack is very easy to set up but gives you less customization and monetization options.
Need Project Management? Coda Is Free
Coda is a free project management tool perfect for solopreneurs and teams. It lets you manage your business in a neat and organized way and is a great Notion alternative but more advanced.
Need Automation? Latenode Is Free
Managing so many tasks as a business owner can get really sophisticated and that's where Latenode comes in. It's a cheaper Zapier alternative and also comes with a generous free plan that lets you automate repititive tasks, saving you hours of hard work.
Need Forms & Survey? Fillout Is Free
I’ve used so many form builders and so far, I can say Fillout is the best among them all, it's so advanced and it has the most beautiful user dashboard that's very easy to navigate.
And yes, it is free too, you can accept payments, create unlimited forms and surveys, create apps, add advanced blocks and automation, make use of logic and collect 1000 responses per month.
Another great alternative to Fillout is Typeform but it's free plan only lets you collect 5 responses per month, and you can't accept payments.
Need Analytics and SEO? Google Analytics and Google Search Console Are Free
With the help of Google Analytics and Google Search Console, you can easily track your websites traffic and optimize your website pages to appear on Google as well as see how your website ranks on Google.
Google search console also shows you want people are actually searching for in your niche so you can add specific keywords to your website meta title and description.
Need Advanced Link Tracking and Management? Dub and GetAllMyLinks Are Free
Link tracking is very important when running an online business, this way you know what's actually working and you easily track and measure your marketing effort. Tools like Dub make it a breeze. It helps you shorten links, track clicks and tag links and its free plan supports three custom domain connections.
GetAllMyLinks helps you create high converting landing pages for your links. Its deeplink technology forces social media apps to open your link in the native browser, not the in-app browser. You can filter what country or city you want to access your link by blocking or redirecting them to another page (a paid feature). Manage multiple links and protect your pages from suspicious traffic.
More Free Tools
- Shapo: Customer testimonial is key in boosting sales and showing your business is credible. Shapo is a free tool that lets you collect customer text, image and video testimonial, display them on your site and create a wall of love.
- Cal.com: Cal is a free tool that lets you manage booking and schedule meetings. It integrates with so many other platforms such as Stripe, Google Calendar, Dub and so many more.
- Hunter: If you need to find leads, verify your email list and find emails, Hunter will help you with that.
- Invideo AI: A free AI video generator for your YouTube content.
- FounderPal: A free AI marketing assistant that helps you generate a business plan for you, validate your business idea, brainstorm content ideas for you and so much more.
Launch With $0
You now have a complete free toolkit to launch an online business without spending a dime. You'll get a free subdomain from most of the platforms listed, but if you want a custom domain without spending too much. You can get domains like .site, .online and .store for $0.99 for the first year on Namecheap which renews the next year at $17 to $35 per year.
Giving you one whole year to set up your business online presence. You should only do this if you want branding on your own custom domain but still you can launch on a subdomain.
For affiliate marketing, most affiliate programs allow you to join for free and you can easily create a website or landing page to share products you recommend and earn commissions from them. One thing to note about affiliate marketing is that you must make content around the products you promote to make the most money from it. Enroll in my free affiliate marketing course here.
Now you know all these, you can either take advantage of the free tools listed in this blog post to start your online business or throw away all what you've learned from this blog post and pretend you never saw it. There's no more excuse not to start that business anymore.
I hope you found this reading helpful and if you do, don't forget to leave a comment below, share this post and tell me what business you're going to start today. Bookmark this page so you can always come back to it.
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