The Business App 50: The Best Apps To Help You Do Your Job
These devices have transformed our daily lives. While much attention is given to the coolest consumer apps,
We curated this list by polling coworkers, researching the recommendations of other tech publications, and sifting through ratings on the major app stores.
Jump to the apps in the following categories:
Business productivity: Apps that help you work faster, better, smarter.
Business social networking: Stay connected to colleagues and coworkers.
Business travel/entertainment: Help for business trips and meeting.
Calendar/To-Do: Keep your projects organized.
Job hunting: Find your next, great gig.
Communication: Talk, text, meet, connect.
Finance/Expenses: Bill customers, track expenses.
Scanning/Printing: Help with paperwork.
Security: Keep other people out of your business.
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Business productivity
Business productivity apps will let you work faster, smarter, better.
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Audio Memos lets you take recordings and save them in Dropbox.
Price: $0.99
Turn your smartphone into a high-end audio recorder that can record meetings, voice notes, anything. Then send your recordings by email or upload them to Dropbox.
CloudOn lets you run Microsoft Office on the iPad.
Price: Free
There are a few apps that run Microsoft Office on the iPad and Android tablets. We like CloudOn because 1) it's free, 2) it supports many of Office's more advanced features, 3) it's designed to work on a touch interface.
Evernote is a note-taking app that is chock full of features.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, Blackberry, iOS, Mac OS X, Windows, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8
Evernote is a must-have note-taking app chock full of features and third-party add-on apps. You can take notes, clip web pages, store images, take audio notes, and then share them across devices and among coworkers. Once you start using it, you can't live without it.
LectureNotes lets you scribble pictures and diagrams.
Price: Free
Available on: Android
If you find yourself needing to scribble hand-written notes or pictures/diagrams and you've got one of those big-screen Android smartphones, try LectureNotes. This Android app works with a stylus to turn your phone or Android tablet into an electronic notebook.
Roambi Analytics turns data into insights.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
So you've heard of "big data" and maybe you've heard of "analytics." That's where Roambi Analytics comes in. It lets you take hard-to-read data from anywhere and transforms it into charts or graphs making that data more meaningful, all on your iPhone.
Business social networking
Business social networking apps keep you connected to colleagues and coworkers.
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Addappt keeps your contact list up to date automatically.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
When a friend, coworker, or business contact changes an email address or phone number, they have to send a note asking everyone to update their address book. Addappt solves that problem.
It lets contacts update their own addresses on your device. It also offers other nifty address book management features.
Bizzabo makes conferences more productive.
Price: Free
One of the main reasons to attend a business conference is to meet business contacts. Bizzabo can help. When the conference organizer uses Bizzabo, and you load it on your phone, it helps you discover business contacts at the event and connect with them via LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
Campfire is a simple, no frills group chat.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
If you work with a bunch of other people (and who doesn't?) and you aren't always in the same room (and who is?) Campfire is a free and easy private group-chat app that you can use with your browser. It lets you share photos and files, keep a transcript, and doesn't constantly spam you with emails.
For Android users, several third-party Campfire apps are available on Google Play.
CardMunch turns business cards into LinkedIn connections.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
In this age of smartphones, it seems crazy that people still exchange paper business cards. But we do.
By using this business card reader for LinkedIn, created by LinkedIn, you can convert business cards to address book contacts, and add them as LinkedIn connections.
HootSuite is a dashboard for all your social network accounts.
Price: Free
If you use social media for your job, and these days, most of us do, HootSuite is your one-stop shop to manage all of your accounts. It can handle multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and others.
Teams can use it to manage corporate social media accounts, too.
LinkedIn is the ultimate business social network.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, Blackberry, iOS, and Windows Phone
For those of you who live and breathe on LinkedIn, there's nothing better than LinkedIn's own mobile app that supports every aspect of LinkedIn. Track your job apps, follow big names in your industry, and keep up with your favorite LinkedIn groups.
Yammer is a sophisticated group chat tool.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, Blackberry, iOS, Mac, Windows, and Windows Phone
Yammer is a work-group chat app on steroids. Chat, share photos/files, track projects: With dozens of add-on apps it can make any work group more productive.
Business travel/entertainment
Business travel and entertainment apps to help you with business trips and meetings.
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Mileage Tracker automatically tracks your reimbursable mileage.
Price: $2.99
Available on: Android
A smartphone is the perfect device to keep track of your mileage and this app does it all. It can track mileage automatically by using GPS, too. It then calculates the expense. It can even track your itinerary.
TripIt magically organizes your business trips.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, Blackberry, iOS, and Windows Phone
Business travel can be exhausting and complicated. Flights, car reservations, hotels, meetings ... yikes! Just forward all of that info to TripIt and it organizes your trip for you and presents you with a clean agenda.
Plus, it lets you share your trip plans with coworkers, find restaurants, and add notes.
AwardWallet tracks your travel reward programs.
Price: Free
If you travel for business, chances are you're enrolled in a lot of loyalty programs for airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, and so on. AwardWallet keeps all that info in a central place, so you never sacrifice points.
Waze maps your route using crowd-sourced traffic reports.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, BlackBerry, and iOS
Drive around with Waze open and you'll avoid being late for that business meeting. That's because Waze doesn't just give you directions, it also alerts you to traffic problems in real time from other Waze users. It can automatically reroute your trip to avoid traffic problems.
Car Locator remembers where you parked your car.
Price: $3.99
Available on: Android
Sometimes you have to park in an odd spot to make a business meeting. Sometimes you have to use a giant parking garage where it's easy to forget where you parked (Milipitas BART station, anyone?). Car Locator is the answer. Press a button and it will guide you back to your parked car, every time.
FlightTrack keeps tabs on flights worldwide.
Price: $4.99
FlightTrack is one of the most visual flight-tracking apps around. It gives you real-time departures, delays, and gate numbers on zoomable maps for most flights worldwide. If your flight is cancelled, it finds alternative flights.
Uber delivers an affordable car and driver.
Price: Free
Uber lets you order a private car and driver from your smartphone in 35 cities and 14 countries. It is perfect for business entertaining when you need a ride that's more upscale than a cab. Uber emails you a receipt when you arrive at your destination and lets you pay with your smartphone.
StubHub helps you buy or sell tickets to all kinds of events.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Window Phone
The StubHub app is great when you need to entertain business associates or find yourself with a free evening on a business trip. It brings StubHub's huge ticket marketplace to your smartphone or tablet so you can find and buy tickets to sports events, concerts, or theater shows. It will also help you sell tickets you can't use.
HopStop Transit Directions helps you find your way with public transit.
Price: Free
Ever try to navigate a transit system in a strange city on a business trip? HopStop can help. It offers detailed subway, bus, train, taxi, walking, and biking directions and official transit maps, and a station-finder for hundreds of cities throughout North America and Europe.
OpenTable lets you easily book restaurant reservations.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Windows Phone
If you ever eat at a restaurant for a business meeting (and all of us do), then OpenTable is for you. It can book a reservation at over 27,000 restaurants and help you earn reward points.
Zipcar lets you rent a car on an hourly rate.
Price: Free
Often you don't need to rent a car for a whole business trip, you just need it for one afternoon. Zipcar lets you rent a car for a few hours. The mobile app helps you locate nearby Zipcars, extend reservations, and fun stuff, like lock the car doors and honk the horn.
Calendar/To-Do
Calendar and To-Do apps help keep you and your projects organized.
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Asana helps your team get stuff done.
Price: Free
Asana is a shared task list, project management tool for a team. The mobile app lets you see what your coworkers have assigned to you while you're out of the office. It lets you keep up with tasks, attach files from Dropbox, attach images to tasks and it syncs in real time with the Web-based version.
It's completely free for a team of up to 15 people, too.
Checkmark keeps you organized and productive.
Price: $4.99
Available on: iOS
Checkmark is a to-do-list app on steroids. It can set up reminders based on time, based on contacts, or, our personal favorite, even based on your location. So if your meeting takes you near the dry cleaner, it can remind you to stop in and pick up your stuff.
Clear makes your to-do list more manageable.
Price: $2.99
Available on: iOS
If all you really want from a to-do-list app is something that cleanly and elegantly keeps track of your lists, then Clear is the answer. While a note-taking app like Evernote offers a mind-boggling number of features, Clear is simple and intuitive.
Best part: gesture controls. You get that satisfying swipe to cross off a completed task.
Fantastical makes your calendar easier to use.
Price: $4.99/$19.99
Fantastical made a name for itself with its calendar app for the Mac. But the iPhone app is equally loved. Type or speak the event: "Coffee with Fred at Starbucks on Wednesday at 10 a.m." and the app schedules it for you.
The iPhone app also includes the "DayTicker" week-at-a-glance view that Mac users love so much.
Google Now magically knows what you need and gives it to you.
Price: Free
Google Now is the latest incarnation of the Google search app that seems to magically know what you need and give it to you before you ask. It presents you with info on what you need to do, where you need to go, and how to get around.
iPhone users can use Google Now by downloading the Google Search app and signing in to your Google account.
Remember the Milk organizes your projects and deadlines.
Price: Free
Yes, Remember the Milk is another feature-rich to-do list. Users love the tags and "smart lists." Tag items with dates, and it automatically organizes your life based on project deadlines. It syncs with Evernote, too.
Job hunting
Job hunting apps will help you find your next great gig.
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Indeed Job Search helps you find your next gig.
Price: Free
Indeed has a database of millions of jobs. This free app lets you search for jobs and create email alerts for them. You can also apply for them from your phone and edit your resume before submitting it.
The Ladders Job Search matches your skills with job openings.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
The Ladders is a job-search app that will match you with jobs without making you search for them. It only lists jobs that pay $40,000 or more, and it gives you insight into who else applied for the same job.
Communication
Communication apps help you talk, text, meet, and connect with others in your business world.
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LogMeIn lets you tap into your PC from afar.
Price: Free/$29.99
Need an important business file sitting on your PC at the office? LogMeIn lets you access your Mac or PC from your smartphone. It lets you remotely run almost any PC business app on your phone, too, like Salesforce, SAP, and Microsoft Office.
Blue Jeans Network lets you video chat with anyone.
Price: Free
Available on: iOS
Blue Jeans is a service that lets companies conduct video conferences even if everyone is using a different system: Polycom, Cisco, LifeSize TelePresence, Microsoft Lync, Skype, etc. The mobile app lets you join the conference from your iPhone.
Google Hangouts lets your team video chat for free.
Price: Free
If your company has settled on Google Hangouts as its go-to video conferencing tool, then the Hangouts app brings the conversations to your phone. It also lets you share photos.
Silent Phone protects your phone calls and texts from snoops.
Price: Free
If you need to make sure that your business calls absolutely cannot be snooped on (not even by the NSA), then Silent Phone is for you. It encrypts phone calls, emails, and texts with military-grade security.
Skype lets you video chat and IM, even overseas.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Windows Phone
It's hard to beat Skype when it comes to chat of all forms: video or text. The basic service is free, it works on a variety of devices, and even lets you send photos. It's a particularly great option when traveling internationally.
Cisco WebEx Meetings lets you hold meetings on the road.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, BlackBerry, and iOS
If you need to conduct meetings complete with PowerPoint presentations and shared documents on the road, then WebEx is the go-to choice. The latest smartphone app also supports two-way video, similar to Skype or FaceTime.
FoxFi ensures you'll always have an Internet connection.
Price: Free
Available on: Android
There are times when you are traveling and you need an Internet connection when there's no WiFi available. Enter FoxFi. It turns your Android phone into a free WiFi Hotspot without a tether plan required. It also doesn't require breaking into your phone's software (in geek speak, no rooting).
Wi-Fi Finder helps you locate the nearest WiFi.
Price: Free
The name of this app says it all: It helps you find free or paid public WiFi hotspots and it will even give you directions on how to get to the hotspot of your choice.
Finance/Expense
Finance and expense apps make it easier to bill customers and track business expenses.
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Expensify keeps track of your expense report receipts.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Windows Phone
This is another great app for business travel. Expensify helps you easily log expenses, capture receipt images, and manage reports. It has tons of features, particularly when your company signs on for a corporate account.
Time Recording turns your phone into a time sheet.
Price: Free
Available on: Android
If you work in the type of business where you need to record the hours you spend on tasks, then Time Recording can help. This time sheet app tracks your hours, integrates with your calendar, and lets you save your time sheets to Dropbox or Google Drive.
Square Register turns your phone or tablet into a cash register.
Price: Free
Square lets you accept credit cards on your smartphone or tablet. Business users love it because it charges a low 2.75% per swipe fee.
Scanning/Printing
Scanning and printing apps that help you with the paperwork.
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CamScanner turns your phone into a scanner.
Price: Free
CamScanner turns your phone into a scanner so you can ditch the paper and still track all kinds of documents like receipts, notes, price tags, invoices, business cards, and so on.
HP ePrint lets you print from anywhere.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, BlackBerry, and iOS
Need to print a document from your smartphone? The HP ePrint App can help, even if you are not near your printer. Connect via WiFi to send the document to your printer, to be picked up by a coworker, or when you arrive in the office.
Security
Security apps keep your business from becoming anybody else's business.
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Hotspot Shield VPN protects you when using public WiFi.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows
When you work on a public WiFi, hackers can snoop on you. To prevent that, use Hotspot Shield, which secures mobile WiFi connections with encryption.
Bonus: It can also help you unblock sites that the public WiFi might have blocked, like YouTube or Netflix.
My Secret Folder protects your documents and phone if it ever gets stolen.
Price: $0.99
Available on: iOS
If you use your iPhone for work, there could be files that you wouldn't want someone else to see if your phone were lost or stolen. Store them securely and secretly, with My Secret Folder.
Our favorite feature: If your iPhone is stolen, within minutes it will email you a picture and location of the thief!
TigerText is like Snapchat for work.
Price: Free
There's no shortage of private text messaging apps (we're looking at you Snapchat), but we like TigerText because it was originally designed as a business app for enterprise users. The mobile version lets you send text messages, pictures, or files that will automatically self-destruct. You recall them at will, too.
Box safely stores your files, pics, and documents in the cloud.
Price: Free
Available on: Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Mac, Windows, and Windows Phone
No list of must-have work apps is complete without Box. Box lets you store files in the cloud, share documents with coworkers, even edit files with other apps installed on your device. Box is also way ahead of the competition when it comes to securing work files, too.
LastPass keeps track of your passwords.
Price: Free
Everything these days requires a password. Although it's tempting to use the same one for everything, that defeats the purpose. Instead, use LastPass. It stores your passwords, and will automatically generate secure ones, too.
Call Blocker protects you from annoying calls and texts.
Price: Free
Available on: Android
If you want to keep your phone number private or block unwanted callers, Call Blocker can help. It can reject calls, forward them, or reply with an auto-text.
It can also back up and manage your contact list and create a "private space" where sensitive calls and texts can be locked securely away.
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