The "300 free tools" lists are exhausting and most of the entries are one-off novelties. Here's the 30 free tools a founder actually uses — across every operating surface of a small company.

Communication (4)

Slack (free), Discord, Zoom/Meet, Loom (25 videos).

Docs & knowledge (4)

Google Workspace (free tier), Notion (personal + small team), Obsidian, Grammarly (free basic).

Tasks & projects (3)

Trello (free), Google Tasks, Asana (free up to 15 users).

Design & visual (4)

Figma (free), Canva (free), GIMP/Photoshop-like free alternatives, Unsplash/Pexels for stock images.

Marketing (4)

Mailchimp (500 contacts free), Buffer (free), HubSpot CRM (free), Google Search Console (free, essential for SEO).

Analytics (3)

Google Analytics, Plausible demo, Microsoft Clarity (full session recording, free).

Automation & dev (3)

Zapier (free tier — 100 tasks/month), GitHub (unlimited public repos), Vercel (hobby tier).

AI (2)

ChatGPT free tier, Claude free tier.

Scheduling & admin (3)

Cal.com (self-hosted free, or hosted free tier), Otter.ai (transcription), Google Calendar.

Thirty free tools. Run a small company on these through product- market fit; start paying for the ones where free-tier limits become real constraints.