We love Freshbooks. We use it send client invoices, track expenses, and more. Years ago we tried QuickBooks Online, assuming that a cloud-version of the super-popular small-biz accounting software had to be the best. WOW, we were wrong. It was (and, we hear, still is) a UI abomination – really really confusing, overly-complicated, and just not much fun to use. Freshbooks is where it’s at. Plus, they’re one of us: a fast-growing startup with an enviable “sticky” recurring-revenue model (who really wants to switch accounting software!?).
Sending e-mail campaigns for marketing purposes? Tried MailChimp? You really ought to take a look at Campaign Monitor. We’ve used MailChimp several times over the years. Folks rave about it. We’ve tried to get into it, but we just don’t get it. Inconsistent user-interface, super-complicated template editing, dozens of ways to do the same thing. The chimp branding is fun and cute, but we find it difficult to work with. On the other hand, Campaign Monitor is clean, consistent, and very straightforward.
We haven’t tried it yet, but lots of people are raving about ZenPayroll. Our experience with payroll products is that they’re generally awful – resembling old-school online banking systems. We’re really rooting for these guys and hope that they can finally help modernize this space.