Starting a business without a proper plan is like building a house without a blueprint…
In both cases, it’s a bad idea.
As a rule of thumb, before you start any business – you need some sort of business plan – especially if you’re planning to expand you’re operations in the future.
However, regardless of how important business planning is, many people STILL tend to skip it.
People try their best to either avoid it, or put in the most minimal effort possible into writing a good business plan.
And while this is not ideal or healthy for a business, it is certainly understandable.
I mean… who wants to do the tedious, boring work of writing a long, often tiring document.
I’ll be honest, it’s not the most fun thing to do.
Business planning can be complicated, but especially if your business idea has many moving parts.
This is why having a business plan software is super helpful AND efficient.
Instead of doing all the hard, boring work, you get to have a software do that for you, while you only have to worry about the basic stuff.
With a good business planning software, you can do a lot of other awesome things like, getting funding, doing research on your competition and even achieve business goals.
In this post, I’ve put together the 13 best business planning software based on price, key features and other factors.
Are you ready to find out the best software for you?
Let’s dive in.
The Best Business Plan Software
1. LivePlan
LivePlan is a business planning software that helps you craft a plan that has a focus on helping you grow your business and reach your goals through an easy business planning interface.
Liveplan comes with 500 + sample plans that you can draw inspiration from or even use as a template for your specific business plan.
When writing your business plan with LivePlan, you’ll also get step-by-step instructions and expert explanations for every section of the business plan, so you won’t have to worry about getting stuck or confused along the way.
If you’re still unsure about your business plan, and you need a bit more clarity, LivePlan has built in featured like the One-page pitch, whic can help you organize and clarify your idea – making it easier for you decide if it’s an idea you want to go ahead with in the first place.
LivePlan’s business plan formats are tested and proven to be effective in impressing lenders and thus helping entrepreneurs generate loans without much of a hassle.
LivePlan comes with a lot of features, such as:
- Financial Forecasting & Reports
- Team Collaboration (you can invite multiple team members and even assign roles and permissions)
- Easy market and industry research with LivePlan’s tools
- Budgeting & Spreadsheets
Main features:
- Milestone planning
- One Page Plan
- Performance Dashboards – compare your key metrics
- Budgeting and Forecasting
- Industry Benchmarks
Pros:
- Step-by-step business planning instruction and explanations
- Risk Free 60-day money-back guarantee
- Unique progress tracking dashboard
- Super interactive and easy to use
- Great customer sevice
Pricing:
Liveplan has two main pricing packages. Both can be paid either monthly or annually.
Both packages have a 60-day money back guarantee.
With monthly billing, these are the prices:
- Standard ($20/month)
- Premium ($40/month)
With annual billing, you save 25%. These are the prices:
- Standard ($15/month)
- Premium ($30/month)
However, you’ll have to pay for a full 12 months with this pricing.
2. Bizplan
Bizplan is another great business planning software also aimed at helping it’s users to grow their businesses and get the funding they need.
One of the unique things about Bizplan is that you have direct access to masterclasses and courses by business planning experts as well ass access to live experts to assist you with your business plan.
Bizplan also comes with a guided business plan creator which is a tool that simplifies the business planning process by giving instructions as you create your business plan.
If you’re interested in pitching directly to investors, Bizplan’s platform also allows it’s users to pitch their ideas directly to investors to get their projects funded with their inbuilt fundraising tool – Fundable.
For the financial side of things, Bizplan comes with several financial tools for different tasks such as revenue projection and tracking costs.
Bizplan comes with several features such as:
- Access to knowledge from business planning experts (masterclasses, courses, FAQs)
- Financial Tools (revenue and cost planning)
- Access to a large community of startup founders and experts
Main features
- Direct access to live experts
- Guided Business Plan Creator (step-by-step planning guide)
- Access to investor pitching and funding (using Fundable)
Pros
- Direct access to live experts
- Great funding opportunities with Fundable
- Access to great courses and masterclasses by experts
- Access to a huge community of startup founders
- Flexible pricing with Lifetime Access availability
Cons
- No money-back guarantee
Pricing
Bizplan has one, simple pricing plan with several billing options.
Their plan offers some extra billing flexibility with their lifetime access plan.
Bizplan has both monthly and annual plans;
With monthly billing, the price is $29/month
With annual billing, the price is $20.70/month
Bizplan’s one-time lifetime access plan is $349
3. GoSmallBiz
GoSmallBiz is an all-in-one platform for small business owners.
It has several functions ranging from business registration, taxes, Google SEO, etc.
However, it also has a great business planning software as well.
GoSmallBiz is a more affordable option for small business owners with GoSmallBiz is a more affordable option for small business owners with step-by-step guides for business planning.
Although GoSmallBiz is not very fancy and complex, it has all the main features to help any small business owner get their business plan off the ground easily.
GoSmallBiz also gives its users several industry-specific business planning templates to choose from.
Main Features
GoSmallBiz offers several features such as:
- Financial statements and projections
- Step-by-step planning instructions with video tutorials
- Business planning templates
Pros
- Very affordable for small business owners
- Easy step-by-step instructions with video tutorials
- Offers industry specific templates
Cons
- No pricing flexibility
- No money-back guarantee
Pricing
GoSmallBiz has a very simple pricing plan at $15/month with no annual or lifetime plan.
4. Enloop
Enloop is another great business planning software for business owners aimed at simplifying the business writing process for entrepreneurs.
With Enloop, you can invite team members to your business plan document – they can view or even edit your business plan with you.
Enloop also comes with a real-time performance score – which helps you check the strength of your business plan and make necessary improvements.
One great feature that Enloop has is Automated Text Writing – where the software writes automated text for you, and then you can make minor (or major) edits if you would like to change specific details.
Main Features
- Invite team members
- Financial Ratio Analysis (for more precise financial forecasting)
- Customizable automated text writing
- Real-time performance score (to analyze the strength of your business plan)
- Automatically generated financial reports (professional reports to be included in your business plan)
- Pass/Fail Report (informs you of critical mistakes to be corrected)
Pros
- 7-day free trial
- Pass/fail report tells you if there are any critical issues with your business idea
- Flexible and affordable payment plans
Cons
- No money-back guarantee
- No dedicated goal setting dashboard
Pricing
Enloop has very affordable and flexible pricing plans with monthly and annual billing.
With monthly billing, the plans are:
- Detailed – $19.95/month
- Performance – $39.95/month
With annual billing, the plans are:
- Detailed – $11/month (55% saved)
- Performance – $24/month (60% saved)
5. PlanGuru
Planguru is another great business planning software built to help business owners make better decisions and achieve goals.
Planguru comes with specialized tools to help you set and analyze financial goals very easily with the aim of helping you make great business decisions.
With Planguru, you can also analyze business decisions before making them and it basically lets you know the implications of your decisions and allows you to make changes to them.
Planguru also has helps its users to set long-term goals anf plan for any unseen risks as well as opportunities.
Overall, Planguru has the basic features for any business owner whose focus is on making the best possible decisions when writing their business plan.
Main Features
- Detailed business budgeting
- Financial planning and analytics
- Risk and opportunity analysis
- Scenario analysis and decision making tools
Pros
- It has a 30-day money back guarantee
- It has a 14-day free trial
- Has great risk assessment features
Cons
- Inflexible pricing – plans aren’t much differntiated
- Relatively more expensive
Pricing
Planguru has 2 main products:
- Planguru app and
- Planguru Desktop
Both products are at the same price although functionality differs.
Plangru charges $99 USD per month and $899 USD per year.
6. IdeaBuddy
Ideabuddy is a business planning software that both helps you develop your business idea and create a great business plan.
However, Ideabuddy looks at several unique aspects of the business idea, like creating a business model – something that many business software would assume that you’ve already done.
Ideabuddy also focuses on helping its users create a modern business plan and also walks you step-by-step on how best to execute your business idea successfully.
Main Features
Ideabuddy comes with several key features which include:
- Simple one-page business plan creation
- Step-by-step business idea development
- Tools to help you build a professional financial projection
- Final elaborate and detailed business plan creation
- Team collaborations
Pros
- Interactive and easy to use
- Has a 15-day free trial
- Flexible plans and pricing
- 15-day money back guarantee
Pricing
*Prices shown on the image are in Canadian Dollars*
Ideabuddy offers 3 mian pricing plans – monthly, annual and lifetime.
To check out the specific prices to your region, check out their page.
7. iPlanner
iPlanner is another great business planning software that is very helpful in helping you understand the risks associated with your business idea as you develop your business plan.
With iPlanner you can develop and refine your business model – which is basically how you plan on operating your business in collaboration with your teammates or business partners.
What’s really great about iPlanner is that it gives you real-time direct access to business planning mentors if you experience any difficulties with your business planning process.
iPlanner comes with a dedicated business modelling framework to make your business model canvas easier as well as a collection of easy-to-use business plan templates to make your business planning process so much easier.
iPlanner makes the financial aspects of business planning pretty much painless as it’s inbuilt financial tools help you do all the tricky financial calculations
It also comes with several other great functionlaities like financial statements and forecasts, easy sharing of the business plan, and risk analyses with “what-if?” scenarios.
Main Features
- Access to professional mentors
- Business plan template collection
- Financial forecasting and projections
- Risk analysis
- Multilingual software
Pros
- Easy team collaborations
- Regular backups and data security
- Collections of business plan templates
- Very interactive and easy to use
- Multilingual
Pricing
iPlanner offers several pricing and plans ranging from Level A to F.
All plans are billed annually and there are no monthly plans or automatic renewals:
- Level A – Up to 3 plans @ $59
- Level B – Up to 5 plans @$99
- Level C – Up to 10 plans @ $159
- Level D- Up to 50 plans @$1,250
- Level E- Up to 100 plans @$2,550
- Level F- Up to 200 plans @$4,950
8. Wise Business Plans
Wise Business Plans is an all rounded business planning software that offers several functions such as market research.
One of Wise Business Plan’s unique featires is their feasibility study which helps you thoroughly analyze business idea discover the chances of success.
They also offer a ton of courses for entrepreneurs to sharpen their skills in several areas of business.
With Wise Business Plans, you can also hire a business plan writer to do the hardwork for you.
Just like many other business planning software, Wise business plans comes with a wide variety of business plan templated for you to choose from and customize.
However, Wise business plans doesn’t only focus on writing business plans but covers several other aspects of developing a business such as Digital Marketing, Branding, Licensing, Taxes, Funding etc
Main Features
- Market Research
- Feasibility Study
- Pitch Deck
- Business Plan writer hire
- Business Plan Templates
Pros
- Free Consultation
- Several business planning templates
- Business Branding
Pricing
Wise Business Plans offers custom pricing on all their plans based on the best services for its users.
9. MasterPlan Lean
MasterPlan Lean is a great business planning software that is easy to use.
It’s great for both business consultants and professionals who need to manage their client work efficiently, as well as for small business owners.
MasterPlan Lean is great for its accurate long-term business forecasts as well as for creating budgets and milestones to help grow businesses.
Main Features
- Step-by-step business planning guides
- Create simple and effective strategic business plans
- Monthly review sessions with clients to build recurring income
- Create 5-year financial budget and cash flow forecasts in a few minutes
Pros
- Simple and straightforward business planning process
- Easily keep business clients on track
- Great customer support – onboarding webinars, trainings
- 7-day free trial
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Pricing
MasterPlan Lean offers several pricing options for small business or consultants such as:
For Small Business
- MAUS Business Planning & HR Pack – $97/month
- MAUS Compliance Pack (including Quality Assurance, Health & Safety, and Environmental Planner) – $1,999/year
For Consultants:
- Basic – 5 client plan – $299/month
- Standard – 10 client plan – $499/month
- Premium – 20 client plan – $799/month
- Partner program addon – extra $200/month + $5k joining fee
Conclusion
I know that creating business plans can be quite a lot to handle – especially when doing from scratch.
However, you don’t have to do the hardwork of building business plans from scratch – hopefully, you’ve seen that there are several business planning software that can do the work for you.
All you have to do is to pick the best for you and run with it.
I hope you enjoyed the article. See you next time!
Hi, I’m Esther – a creative and business startup enthusiast. My aim is to help several people to independently start businesses faster and more effectively, reach financial freedom, and achieve fulfillment.