Tools & Resources to run your online business with ease

🙌 I love great tools that help save time & increase productivity.
But until I discovered the right tools that worked well together and helps you run your business with ease —I had to test hundreds.

The truth is that for each business, there is a unique combination of tools that will help save time and money. Sometimes the solution is just one tool that does it all or a perfectly chosen synergy of tools.
I carefully choose tools that would make the work process simple and enjoyable for each client.

⚠️ Please don’t get stuck on picking the “perfect” tool because the reality is that all of them have pros and cons and your business is beyond the tools that you use. The tool development market is on the rise as well as your business needs. It is normal to switch your options as you expand.

Here is a list of my favorite tools that I use on my client’s projects.

Listed by category:

Need help making everything work well together?
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Essential website creation tools

My favorite place to buy domain names

NameCheap

The first step is to own a domain name. There are so many options for where to purchase your domain – but pay attention because for the exact service you can pay more or less. I recommend checking out Namecheap that offers the latest in high-quality domain services at the most competitive price in the business.

Choose from over 400 domain name extensions – from the classic “.com” to the most recent specialty additions such as “.design” / ”.coach” / “.life” / etc.

What you need to know

Price:
.COM only $8.88 

Get your Domain

Website Hosting Options

DreamHost

The second step after owning your domain name (your business website URL address) is to pick a suitable hosting package for your website files and content.

Consider your business needs when choosing a hosting package: how many websites you plan to host plus the additional services that you want to offer. Security, speed, uptime, customer support, price – all these are important factors when choosing your hosting platform.

My recommendation for a great website hosting platform with affordable prices suitable for start-up businesses is DreamHost. I recommend choosing a shared website hosting on a yearly plan to save up to 72% of the cost for the first year. As a bonus when paying in advance for a yearly hosting package, you get a free domain name.

If you own a business that needs additional website security and speed, I recommend: WpEngine (starting at €280,00/ per year for one website).

What you need to know

Price: starting at $2.95/mo when paid yearly ($35/ for the first year unlimited websites hosted)

Get hosting

My favorite website platfom tool

WordPress

WordPress is the easiest and most flexible blogging and website content management system (CMS).

Popular, scalable, with unlimited possibilities. WordPress is the perfect platform for building websites.

You can easily manage your blog, website, sales funnels, online store, and membership on WordPress with the best plugins.

Alternative: LeadPages, Mailerlite, Teachable, Kajabi

What you need to know

Price: Free

Additional costs for special plugins might apply

Get WordPress

My favorite WordPress theme

Divi by Elegant Themes

Divi takes your WordPress experience to the next level by allowing you to create 100% customizable websites and landing pages for your offers. You have control over everything down to the finest detail.

If you are looking to create beautiful and modern websites and sales pages for your business, you will fall in love with Divi.

Divi has over 1800 predesigned website templates to choose from. Although as a seasoned web designer I prefer to create my own designs from scratch, Divi is the #1 theme and visual page builder that I recommend. I use it for all the custom websites that I build for my clients.

What you need to know

Price:
$89/ Year or
$249 /1-Time

Free trial: not available

Guarantee: 30-day money back

Get Divi

My favorite video hosting tool

Vimeo

Hosting your website videos can be a challenge but with Vimeo, you can easily host your videos, webinars, workshops, live streams, and more.

Alternative: Wistia, Youtube

What you need to know

Price: free/ starting at $7

Free trial: 30-day premium features

Host your videos

My favorite email marketing tool

MailerLite

Mailerlite makes email marketing super easy. Offering all the important features that you need from an email marketing tool at the best price possible. And it is so incredibly easy to use – all my clients learn how to use it instantly. I use Mailerlite to create simple opt-in & popup forms, send email automation and newsletters.

Alternative: ConvertKit

What you need to know

Price:
free/ pro plan starting at $10

Free trial: free for 1,000 subscribers

Try MailerLite

My favorite online appointment calendar tool

Calendly

Allows your ideal clients to easily book online meetings with you.
Calendly is a scheduling software, that aims to save time and accelerate sales. It eliminates the old-school way of using email and phone tags for scheduling appointments, calls, interviews, demos, and more.

Alternative: Acuity Scheduling

What you need to know

Price:
free / starting at $8

Free trial: 14-day premium features

Try Calendly

My favorite webinar and online meetings tool

Zoom

After your clients book an online appointment with you on Calendly (or your preferred booking method) you can host your meeting on Zoom.
Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing platform that can be used for video conferencing meetings, audio conferencing, webinars, meeting recordings, and live chat.

What you need to know

Price:
free / starting at $14.99

Free trial: not available

Guarantee: 30-day money back

Try Zoom

Fast-scale online business tools

My favorite online course hosting tool

Teachable

If you plan to create an online course you’ll want a unique learning experience for your students.

Teachable is an all-in-one platform that helps you create and sell courses online. Teachable handles everything from web hosting to payment processing for your online courses and membership websites.

Alternative: Kajabi, Thinkific

What you need to know

Price:
starting at $29

Free trial: 14-day

Try Teachable

My favorite website cart tool

Thrive Cart

In a nutshell, ThriveCart is a tool that helps you promote and accept payments for physical products, digital products, subscriptions, and services from your customers. You can create highly converting modern checkout pages that your clients will find easy to use.

Alternative: SamCart

What you need to know

Price:
one time $495

Free trial: not available

Guarantee: 30-day money back

Get ThriveCart

My favorite task automation tool

Zapier

Zapier is an online automation tool that connects your favorite apps, such as Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp, and more. You can connect two or more apps to automate repetitive tasks without coding or relying on developers to build the integration.

What you need to know

Price:
free / starting at $19.99

Free trial: 14-day premium features

Guarantee: 30-day money back

Try Zapier

Additional website tools

My favorite podcast tool

Anchor

Create, distribute, and monetize your podcast—all for free.

What you need to know

Price: free to use

Try Anchor

My favorite website chat tool

Tawk.to

Monitor and chat with the visitors on your website, respond to support tickets, and create a help center that is user-friendly – all 100% Free.

Alternative: Facebook Chat

What you need to know

Price: forever free

Try Tawk.to

Design Tools & resources

My favorite free design tool

Canva

Canva revolutionized how almost anyone can create beautiful graphics in minutes with no design skills needed.

Canva is a free graphic design platform that allows you to easily create invitations, business cards, flyers, lesson plans, Zoom backgrounds, and more using professionally designed templates. You can even upload your own photos and add them to Canva’s templates using a drag and drop interface.

Alternative: Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

What you need to know

Price:
free / $12.99/month

Free trial: 30-day premium features

Try Canva

My favorite professional design tool

Photoshop

My indispensable and loved tool since 2004. I create everything in Photoshop with no limitations.

From photo editing and compositing to digital painting, animation, and graphic design — you can do it all in Photoshop. But this can be a bit more challenging for beginners with basic tech and design skills.

Alternative: Canva

What you need to know

Price: $20.99/mo

Free trial: 7-day

Guarantee: 14-day money back

Try Photoshop

My favorite free stock photography website

Unsplash

Bring your brand to life with beautiful, free images and photos that you can download and use for any project.

Alternative: Pexels, Pixabay, Stocknap, StyledStock, Burst, LifeOfPix, iStock, Her Creative Studio

What you need to know

Price: free stock photography

Browse now

My favorite graphic design resources website

Creative Market

With over 3 million unique fonts, graphics, themes, photos, and templates, Creative Market is the no 1 choice for gorgeous and professional design resources.

Alternative: FreePick, Graphic River, Theme Forest

What you need to know

Price:
free & paid resources

Browse now

My favorite color pallet generator tool

Coolors

Coolors is the essential tool for creating and collecting color palettes. It allows you to generate perfect matching colors in seconds. You can also pick the colors from a photo with the Image Picker and create a beautiful palette automatically.

What you need to know

Price: free to use

get started

Business Productivity tools

My favorite project management tool

Asana

Use Asana to keep all the projects in your program organized and on track. Map, manage, track, and talk about your team’s projects in Asana to go beyond planning and gain results. Save time, reduce distractions, and work more productively by centralizing your team’s work in Asana.

Alternative: Trello

What you need to know

Price:
free / starting at €10.99

Try Asana

My favorite screen recording tool

Loom

Record and share video messages off your screen, cam, or both. Faster than typing an email or meeting live.

Alternative: ScreenFlow

What you need to know

Price:
free / starting at $8

Try Loom

My favorite password manager tool

LastPass

LastPass simplifies your online life by remembering your passwords for you. With LastPass to manage your logins, it’s easy to have a strong, unique password for every online account and improve your online security.

What you need to know

Price:
free / starting at €2.90/mo

Free trial: 30-day premium features

Try LastPass

My favorite file organization tool

Google Drive

I love how easy Google Workspace & Google Drive allow me to create and host documents, sheets, and slides. And the best part is that I can easily share them with my clients and team members. It saved me from sending a million copies of the same document every time I updated it. It is the easiest way to edit and share a document with multiple people at one time. 👍👍👍

Please stop using local word/excel documents when working with your collaborators and save time by upgrading your work process with this free life-changing tool.

Google Drive is a cloud-based storage solution that allows you to save files online and access them anywhere from any smartphone, tablet, or computer.

What you need to know

Price: free / business version

Get started

Hi. I'm Oana Aurora.

—Premium Brand Creator & Web Designer

✨ I help conscious entrepreneurs create a simple, soul-aligned marketing system (premium branding, website & funnels) that empower them to have:

MORE MONEY WITH LESS WORK
MORE CONFIDENCE TO FULLY SHINE ONLINE
MORE ABUNDANCE & EASE

Let's connect!