Top 17 software tools to run a digital agency in 2023 [Updated]
By nature, digital agency life is fast-paced, dynamic and ever-changing. To keep up, we rely on a finely tuned tech stack of software and applications to help us work efficiently and get the best results.
During our 20 years of providing web design and digital marketing services, we’ve tried almost every tool available, but the below are the ones we’re using this year.
These tools help our sales, project management, UI design, web development teams (our digital marketing tools list is coming soon).
Below are our top 17 apps and tools we use to plan, design, build, optimise and monitor website projects for our clients.
Adobe Creative CLOUD
Adobe Creative Cloud is an everyday essential for our team. An industry standard for design professionals, we use each of the programs in harmony with one another to design beautiful digital products. Our most used apps include Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and occasionally InDesign for print work or interactive PDFs.
Adobe Creative Cloud pricing plans start at $79.99 AUD / month per user.
ASANA
Asana is a highly efficient project management system. We use it for managing and keeping track of day-to-day tasks relating to all client projects as well as internal work. Asana can integrate with other programs we use such as Gmail, Slack and Toggl, allowing us to work as efficiently as possible!
Asana pricing plans are free for basic features and $10.99 USD / month per user for the premium plan.
BrowserStack
When launching a new site, testing the product before launch on multiple browsers and devices is essential. BrowserStack provides us with a virtualisation service where we can test your website on a variety of OS, Windows and Android browsers including both desktop and mobile browsers. Here, we test for design, usability and interface issues so that we can iron them all out before launch.
Browserstack pricing plans start at $29 USD / month per user.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare is a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which speeds up and protects millions of websites and other properties connected to the internet. Using a global network designed to optimise security, performance and reliability for websites, it ensures that your website loads super fast no matter where your customers are in the world.
Cloudflare pricing plans are free for personal sites and $20 USD / month for business sites.
CONNECT FONTS
Connect Fonts by Extensis stores your entire font library in the cloud, ensuring your design team remains in sync across their devices. It allows for fast searching and powerful sorting and organising features, and importantly helps avoid font conflicts or missing fonts.
Connect Fonts pricing plans start at $9 USD / month per user.
BugHerd
BugHerd is The best bug tracking tool & visual feedback software that we have used.When building websites and apps, bugs are an inevitable part of the process. When they do arise, it must be easy for your clients, users or team to report them, and for the development team to prioritise and action them.
Bugherd pricing plans start at $39 USD / month which includes access for up to 5 users.
Google is undoubtedly the ultimate backbone of the internet. We use all of Google’s services every day including Google Workspace, Gmail, Google Ads, Tag Manager, Search Console, Business Profile and Google Analytics.
IGNITE is also a certified Google Partner, which means we get previews of upcoming product releases, and we have a proven track record of delivering digital marketing campaigns at Google’s high-quality standards.
Google Workspace pricing plans start at $8.40 AUD / month per user.
Other Google services listed above are free to use.
FULLSTORY
Fullstory is an incredibly insightful tool that allows you to see exactly what your customers are doing while on your website. It records a video of every user’s session that visits your site, allowing you to see how they interact with your site. An essential tool for finding out ways to improve the user experience for visitors to your website.
Fullstory pricing plans are free for personal sites and range from $200 USD+ per month for business.
UPTIME ROBOT
Uptime Robot allows us to keep a close eye on all of our client website servers at all times. Our team are instantly notified by email, Slack and/or SMS if any errors arise, such as any slowdown, SSL or total outage issues, so we can jump on them right away and avoid downtime.
Uptime Robot pricing plans are free for basic features and $15 USD / month for the professional plan.
Rocket Validator
Rocket Validator is our tool to ensure our developer’s code is always validated to the highest standards, accessible and error-free.
Rocket Validator pricing plans start at $12 USD / month per user.
SEMRush
Semrush is an all-in-one SEO and digital marketing hub that gives us a behind-the-scenes look at all web statistics. Everything from search optimisation position tracking to paid digital advertising and competitor analysis is available through SEMRush.
Semrush pricing plans start at $119.95 USD / month per user.
FIGMA
Figma is our digital design software of choice used to create all of our websites and pretty much, any digital design. The program is created specifically for digital products and is a cloud-based intuitive application for our designers to create an equally as intuitive interface.
Figma has it all: wireframe, prototype, present, share, all in one document that represents the single source of truth for any project. Track your changes using versions and design collaboratively in real-time with other team members in the same document!
Figma pricing plans are free for basic features and $12 USD / month per user for the professional plan.
Slack
Slack is essential for internal communication. The application has been proven to be more efficient than email – be gone to overflowing inboxes and searching for attachments you might never find! Slack encourages brainstorming, facilitates rapid communication and allows us to manage communication via dedicated channels so we never miss a thing.
Slack pricing plans are free for basic features and $7.25 USD / month per user for the professional plan.
PANDADOC
PandaDoc is the most user-friendly software we’ve found to create and manage proposals. It has a range of great-looking templates and allows you to fully customise their content and style them for your brand. You can also see when your proposals are opened, and they can be approved and signed online.
PandaDoc pricing plans are free for basic features and $29 USD / month per user for the essentials plan.
PRODUCTIVE
Productive pitches itself as the tool to replace many other tools in a digital agency. It has features that cover sales, resource planning, budgeting, reporting, time tracking, project management and invoicing/billing. Currently, we’re using it for all of those, besides the last two (Asana for PM, and Xero for invoicing). It makes it super easy for us to manage the team resources, and track how long we’re spending on projects.
Productive pricing plans start at $15 USD / month per user for the standard plan.
UserTesting
UserTesting is an insightful software used for near-instant user testing of digital products and prototypes, with real humans of a specified demographic that you can outline. The user that is testing your product, follows a set of questions you define, and has their screen and audio recorded as they navigate your site. We always get some great insights from these tests.
UserTesting pricing plans don’t have figures specified, but the basic account will cost you $49 per video and you can run up to 15 video sessions per year.
VaultPress
VaultPress offers regular website backups on an offsite server and protects you from the most common but also most dangerous security threats on the internet. VaultPress automatically backs up your WordPress website, protecting your site from threats such as hackers, host failure, viruses and malware. With automatic file scanning, safe site migration, backups and restores, rest assured your site is safe.
Vaultpress pricing plans start at $7.95 AUD / month per user for 10GB plan.
XERO
Cloud-based accounting software is essential for any business these days, not just for digital agencies. Xero helps us stay across the numbers, log annual leave and give our accountants everything they need.
Xero pricing plans start at $29 AUD / month per user.
Conclusion
New software and apps are constantly being released, and we make sure we’re across any significant releases. We want to make the best use of the productive hours we have at work, so if any new tool can potentially help even just a little, we’re keen to check it out!
We will usually check the user reviews of any new app before going to the trouble of trialling it using websites like G2, Capterra, GetApp, AppSumo, TrustPilot, Software Advice and Product Hunt.
Thanks for reading, we hope you got a few insights from it. If you want to dive deeper into our process, read more about how we create custom websites.