Software developers with startups. Who are they? Well, obviously, they are developers, but also entrepreneurs, and, frankly, not every IT talent is also an MBA A student! Still, the “processing power” is more than enough to tackle the ongoing challenges. And workflow efficiency is one of them. No matter which are the personal software likes of your team members, adopting solutions that work for the collective benefit is what turns that never ending garage IT party into one of the demanded software development agencies. Below are some of the best services to face the challenge!
1. Jira + Bitbucket
Jira is a very popular solution amongst agile teams as it provides outstanding planning, tracking, and releasing functionality. Using the platform, you can quickly get in touch on particular work problems, stay on top of the startup’s events, make performance reports, manage straightforward workflows, distribute tasks, tweak user issues, and customize the whole thing with a huge number of third-party services. The good news is that it’s totally free for up to 10 users.
It’s also highly recommended to use Jira along with another Atlassian’s hit, Bitbucket. The tool offers highly convenient version control along with code review, instant collaboration, CI/DI, and deployment.
2. Chat APIs and Messaging SDKs
Real-time chat is a potent resource for your business to interact with customers. By engaging in customer service through this channel, you can answer queries promptly and efficiently. Moreover, when it comes to outbound sales, real-time chat gives you the opportunity to connect with potential clients as soon as they land on your website! These connections that are built via real-time chat have great potential; from generating sales growth and creating value for your business.
Developers are taking advantage of this by using the best Chat APIs and Messaging SDKs.
3. GitLab
This is currently one of the most progressive DevOps platforms, which offers an extensive feature set for source code management, monitoring, planning, and CI/DI. The trick is that the app has all you need for the full DevOps cycle within a single clear GUI. It can:
- test and report automatically;
- protect your database;
- monitor and report metrics automatically.
You can integrate GitLab as a comprehensive solution as it’s capable of tackling virtually any collaborative task.
4. Linx
Linx is all about application development, APIs, and automation. It’s mostly used for backend application development and automation as well as for the creation of web services. The simplicity of the platform, along with an excellent set of prebuilt components allows quick process building and direct control over data stored on multiple systems. You will also enjoy:
- convenient visual debugging;
- workflow automation;
- swift logic implementation;
- free desktop designer IDE.
The service is somewhat mainstream, but it’s very hard to overestimate its benefits for the development process, especially when speed matters a lot.
5. Github
Of course, you are already one of the guys on this platform and know how good it is when it comes to:
- code review and testing;
- collaboration of remote developers;
- automated vulnerability updates;
- CI/CD automation;
- And many more.
While these features are already highly beneficial for your startup, you should never forget about the opportunity to get ready-made solutions for an immense array of problems. Even if you’re a coding genius, saving time and resources by injecting solutions that already work is a way to launch the product earlier than your competitors and get that investor.
6. Codenvy
Codenvy is a handy Agile-driven cloud development environment that makes real-time collaboration on app coding and debugging. Sharing a project takes just a few clicks and supports development in any existing IDE. Due to the free 3-user collaboration space, you can use the tool with multiple team members for free if you schedule your gigs.
7. Postman
If your team is mainly focused on API development, this simple collaboration platform is a great opportunity to reduce development cycle duration by using a step-by-step development environment. The app features fully automated testing, simplified documentation generation and publishing, automatic API performance monitoring, real-time collaboration for a large number of developers, and REST, GraphQL, SOAP requests. The platform advertises itself as a comprehensive solution for:
- Application Development;
- API First Development;
- Test Automation;
- Exploratory Testing;
- Developer Portals;
- Developer Onboarding;
8. Zapier
Zapier is a unique solution that makes it easy to connect all your web applications and enable automating data flow between them. Having your hands free on that process, you can win much more time for focusing on the tasks that burn. It doesn’t require any coding at all and supports a wide range of seamless app integrations (hundreds) for versatility. Some of the most popular use cases include:
- sending leads via social media, personal messages, and notifications;
- saving files and media to the corporate cloud;
- registration of fresh leads in spreadsheets and all sorts of databases;
- data transfer into CRMs.
9. Hootsuite
Marketing without squeezing out customers from all the available social media platforms rarely makes sense today. These platforms are also powerful research tools that let you figure out what people actually think about your products and what they want to keep using them. All your competitors are already there as well and share loads of valuable marketing insights. You just need to learn how to see these subtle messages in their marketing campaigns and ‘casual’ twits.
With Hootsuite, you can:
- Automate post scheduling;
- Monitor your performance and export reports;
- Assign team chats;
- Get custom analysis data.
10. Semrush
Running an online startup? Semrush is an essential component of your business. It’s a powerful full-cycle
11. Headspin
Headspin is one of the pioneers amongst Connected Intelligence Platforms. It’s stuffed with over 30 automation frameworks, real-time multi-testing, root cause analysis, real-life testing options, etc. What’s really important is the ability of the platform to interconnect multiple applications, devices, and networks to provide you with the most comprehensive overview possible.
Optimize!
No matter how good these services are, you still have to stay on top of the market to extract the best solutions to boost your team’s productivity. Expensive, cheap, or free – the solutions must simplify the workflow to let you all focus on what’s really important.
