Security Software Applications

Laptop Tracking Software

Paid Option: Computrace LoJack for Laptops

Cost: $59.99 Premium Edition

The Free Alternative: Adeona

Review: The business data you have on your laptop is priceless, and you need to protect it. Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. There's no need to rely on a single third party, and no one besides the owner can use Adeona to track a laptop.

Encryption Software

Paid Option: PGP Whole Disk Encryption

Cost: $119

The Free Alternative: FreeOTFE

Review: FreeOTFE (on the fly encryption) is an open source tool for safe-keeping of your files through encryption. FreeOTFE allows you to create virtual encrypted disk drives--either as files on your hard disk or on an entire harddisk partition.

Also Reviewed:

Antivirus Program Software

Paid Option: Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 2009

Cost: $74.99

The Free Alternative: ClamWin

Review: ClamWin is a Free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003, a perfect alternative to Symantec Norton AV and McAfee Virus Scan. ClamWin features high detection rates, scheduler, automatic download of virus database updates and a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook.

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Hard Drive Cleaner Tool

Paid Option: WipeDrive

Cost: Starting at $39.95

The Free Alternative: Eraser 5.86a

Review: Eraser is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.

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Business Software Tools

Project Management Software

Paid Option: Basecamp

Cost: $24/month (Basic Account for small groups)

The Free Alternative: dotProject

Review: Get organized with dotProject by making use of quality functions and features that include a discussion forum, project listings, hierarchical task list, calendar, user management and contact list. All easily accessed with a clean and simple user interface.

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Review: GanttProject is a free and easy to use chart based project scheduling and management Java application that serves as an open source alternative to MS Project. With this tool you can print your project charts, generate PDF and HTML reports, and exchange data with Microsoft Project and other spreadsheet applications.

Business Plan Writer Tools

Paid Option: Business Plan Pro 11.0

Cost: $99.95

The Free Alternative: Teneric.co.uk

Review: Using a sample business plan will enable you to quickly and easily complete your plan in a matter of hours rather than weeks. All plans are fully complete including comprehensive financial forecasts with startup costs and a detailed marketing plan. Choose your industry and get your business started today.

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Human Resource Management Software

Paid Option: Microsoft Dynamics GP

Cost: Varies according to company

The Free Alternative: OrangeHRM

Review: Keep on track with the people aspect of your company. OrangeHRM allows you to stay on top of human resource issues such as managing personal information, tracking employee attendance, creating recruitment guidelines and company defining guidelines for your company. A must have system to keep your business and its staff on track.

Payroll Software Tools

Paid Option: QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll

Cost: $17/month (up to 3 employees)

The Free Alternative: TimeTrex Standard Edition

Review: Although limited in function than other paid edition software applications, TimeTrex Standard Edition gives you the basic tools to perform essential payroll duties. The free edition includes source code, community forum access, scheduling and attendance modules and of course, a payroll module.

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Customer Relation Management (CRM) Software System

Paid Option: Salesforce CRM Professional Edition

Cost: $780/user/year

The Free Alternative: vtiger CRM

Review: 100% Open source CRM software. Ideal for small and medium businesses, with low-cost product support available to production users that need reliable support. Its capabilities include sales force automation, marketing automation, activity management and calendaring.

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Review: SugarCRM is an open source CRM (Customer Relation Management) system, which helps you to track and share opportunities, manage existing customers, keep track of your pipeline and much more. SugarCRM even offers integration with Microsoft Outlook and other groupware systems. A good alternative to MS Dynamics CRM.

Invoice Software

Paid Option: invoiceit!

Cost: $99.95 (single user license)

The Free Alternative: Express Invoice Professional Invoicing Software

Review: Manage customer billing for free. From creating, printing and emailing invoices to keeping track of payments, accounts and recurring invoices, Express Invoice Professional Invoicing Software lets you do all the essentials.

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E-mail Management Software

Paid Option: Mailing List Manager Pro

Cost: $199 (single license)

The Free Alternative: Mailman

Review: Expecting to generate and interact with a large volume of email in your business? Mailman, the GNU Mailing List Manager, manages electronic mail discussion and e-newsletter lists. Not only is Mailman a free software application, it’s also integrated with the web.

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Forms Creation

Paid Option: Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite

Cost: Varies according to enterprise

The Free Alternative: FormArtist Free Edition

Review: For designing and deploying forms without any knowledge of HTML or web servers. with a WYSIWYG editor, you can create forms with the usual data entry fields that can be filled on or offline. No limits to the number of forms you create, run your forms on any web server, and make them available through the most popular browsers on the market.

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E-Commerce Software

Paid Option: LiteCommerce 2.2

Cost: $109.00

The Free Alternative: Magentocommerce

Review: With Magentocommerce you can control the functionality, look and feel of your own online store. Sell your products in multiple currencies, offer flexible shipping options and provide payment options with multiple payment gateways including PayPal. Perfect for startups looking to meet a budget.

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Review: osCommerce is an Open Source based online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free under the GNU General Public License. It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain their online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, fees, or limitations involved.

Accounting Software

Paid Option: MS Money Plus Deluxe

Cost: $39.99

The Free Alternative: GnuCash

Review: For both personal and business use like Quicken 2009, GnuCash is flexible enough to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. GnuCash features inlcude, double-entry accounting, small-business accounting, financial calculations stock/bond/mutual fund accounts and scheduled transactions. Based on professional accounting principles.

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Review: Grisbi is open source personal accounting software for practically any platform/operating system. Perform budgeting and financial projections for any financial planning purposes you have in mind.

Productivity Tools

Word Processor

Paid Option: MS Word 2007

Cost: $526.00 Office Standard Edition (Bundled)

The Free Alternative: AbiWord 2.6.6

Review: Word processing applications are essential to budget into any business, and your can’t get any better when your document creation application is for free. Similar to MS Word, AbiWord has all the document creation features you need. Suitable for a wide variety of word processing tasks.

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Document Processing Suite

Paid Option: MS Office

Cost: $526 Standard Edition

The Free Alternative: OpenOffice

Review: OpenOffice provides a great alternative to existing commercial office suites. It comes with word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation (Impress), drawing and graphing tool (Draw), tool for creating equations and formulae (Math) and finally a database tool which also build reports and forms (Base). All components are multi-platform and multilingual and free to download.

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Spreadsheet Software

Paid Option: MS Office Excel 2007

Cost: $159 (bundled with Home and Student Edition)

The Free Alternative: Gnumeric 1.9

Review: The Gnumeric spreadsheet is part of the GNOME desktop environment: a project to create a free, user friendly desktop environment.

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CD Burning Software

Paid Option: Nero 9 CD/DVD Burner

Cost: $59.99 Download version

The Free Alternative: Ashampoo Burning Studio Free

Review: With Ashampoo Burning Studio Free anyone can burn files easily without registering or paying for it. It starts up reasonably fast without splash screens and long loading times. All operations are selectable from the main menu such as options for burning a new disk or updating an existing one. Great for creating product demos and audio samples.

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Sound Recording and Editing Software

Paid Option: WavePad: Master's Edition

Cost: $76.00

The Free Alternative: Audacity 1.2.6

Review: For the entrepreneur in the music industry looking for easy to use tools, you can find a cost cutting, high quality recording software application at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. Audacity is free, cross-platform open source software for sound editing as well.

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Report Creation Software Tools

Paid Option: Crystal Reports

Cost: $29.95 Professional Edition

The Free Alternative: DataVision

Review: DataVision is an Open Source reporting tool similar to Crystal Reports. Reports can be designed using a drag-and-drop GUI. They may be run, viewed, and printed from the application or exported as HTML, XML, PDF, Excel, LaTeX2e, DocBook, or tab- or comma-delimited text files. The output files produced by LaTeX2e and DocBook can in turn be used to produce PDF, text, HTML, PostScript, and more.

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Browsers

Paid Option: OmniWeb 5.8

Cost: $14.95

The Most Used Free Alternative: Mozilla Firefox 3.0

Review: As the most widely customizable browsers online, Mozilla has a large community of users developing innovative and useful extensions for you from which you can pick and choose. Develop your own and make your browsing experience limitless.

The Best Free Alternative: Amaya 11.1

Review: From the W3C, Amaya is more than just a browser. It’s also an authoring environment. Create Web pages that are consistent with DTD, edit and display XHTML and SVG documents at one time and upload them onto a server. Amaya is a great economical resource for any startup.

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AutoCAD Software

Paid Option: Autodesk Maya Complete 2009

Cost: $1,995.00 (without Subscription Electronic Download)

The Free Alternative: Blender 2.48a

Review: Depending on the type of products you’re promoting, you may need advanced rendering software. Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

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Graphic Image Editing

Paid Option: Adobe Photoshop CS4

Cost: $699

The Free Alternative: Gimp

Review: Gimp is a versatile graphics manipulation package. Perform photo retouching, image composition and image authoring as if you were in Adobe Photoshop. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

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Review: If you’re looking to market products, create a logo or brochures and need an inexpensive alternative, Artweaver can do what you need at a cost cutting price. Artweaver is a simple Freeware program for creative painting, and offers you a wide range of artistic effects needed for any company artwork you need to create.

Vector Graphics Software

Paid Option: Adobe Illustrator CS4

Cost: $599 (Standalone)

The Free Alternative: Inkscape 0.46

Review: As an open source 2D vector graphics editor, Inkscape supports all of the standard vector drawing features you find in similar commercial products.

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Movies

Paid Option: Hulu

Cost: Continuous Internet connection for online streaming

The Best Free Alternative: Mininova

Review: If you ever need a resource for viewing, downloading or transferring movie files freely, torrent sites, like Mininova, are the way to go. Mininova is the biggest torrent search engine and directory online where you can share high quality content at high transfer speeds at no cost whatsoever. Mininova Content Distribution will help you reach more than 47 million other users and help give your published content worldwide exposure.

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Screen Capture Tools

Paid Option: Snagit 9.1.1

Cost: $49.95

The Free Alternative: Jing

Review: The free alternative when it comes to screen captures. Create screen captures easily and then share them with others on Flickr, Screencast.com, via email, and IM clients. Capture a window, pane or region by clicking and dragging, then mark it up with text boxes, arrows and highlights.

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Email Client

Paid Option: MS Outlook

Cost: $209.00 (bundled with Business Contact Manager)

The Free Alternative: Mozilla’s Thunderbird 2

Review: Mozilla’s Thunderbird 2email application is more powerful than ever. It’s now even easier to organize, secure and customize your e-mail while on a business budget.

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Time Tracking Software

Paid Option: QBTimer

Cost: Included with purchase of QuickBooks Accounting software

The Free Alternative: Clocking IT

Review: ClockingIT is a free hosted application that keeps track of all your tasks and the time you spend on them.

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File Archiver

Paid Option: Winzip

Cost: $29.95

The Free Alternative: 7-Zip 4.65

Review: If you need to do more than the most basic of archiving tasks with the Windows zip tool, you're out of luck. 7-Zip comes to the rescue. It offers you considerable power over compressed archive creation and extraction, including several different archive formats and compression methods. and levels, and lets you create encrypted, password-created archives. The interface is quite configurable, and can even create a two-pane view, which is rare in archiving programs.

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Remote Computing

Paid Option: Symantec pc Anywhere Access Server

Cost: $10.00

The Free Alternative: UltraVNC

Review: UltraVNC is a powerful, easy to use and free software that can display the screen of another computer (via internet or network) on your own screen. The program allows you to use your mouse and keyboard to control the other PC remotely. It means that you can work on a remote computer as if you were sitting in front of it.

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Database Software Tools

Network Back Up Tool

Paid Option: BackupAssist

Cost: $249.00

The Free Alternative: Bacula

Review: Bacula is a set of computer programs that permits the system administrator to manage backup, recovery, and verification of computer data across a network of computers of different kinds. Bacula can also run entirely upon a single computer and can backup to various types of media, including tape and disk.

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IT and Monitoring Systems Management Tools

Paid Option: EM 7

Cost: starts at $25,000

The Free Alternative: Spiceworks

Review: With Spiceworks, you can manage an entire IT network starting with a single download. Spiceworks provides you with software, network and PC inventories, network monitoring, asset reporting and Helpdesk & IT Portal—all in a single application. An essential program for any business looking to go big.

The Free Alternative:

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Operating System

Paid Option: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate

Cost: $319.95

The Free Alternative: Ubuntu Linux

Review: Ubuntu Linux is one of the latest and most successful new linux distributions. Ubuntu is originally derived from the well-known Debian distribution, but has added a lot of new functionality. One of Ubuntu's main goals is to increase usability when Vista just doesn’t cut it.

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FTP Client Software

Paid Option: WS_FTP Professional

Cost: Starting at $54.95

The Free Alternative: PuTTY

Review: PuTTY is a client program for the SSH, Telnet and Rlogin network protocols used to run a remote session on a computer over a network. PuTTY implements the client end of that session: the end at which the session is displayed, rather than the end at which it runs. So you can work on a machine as if you were sitting at its console, while actually sitting somewhere else.

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Review: FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.

Internet Privacy and System Optimization Software

Paid Option: Smart Protector

Cost: $25.00

The Free Alternative: CCleaner

Review: This thoroughly cleans out your web browser, Recycle Bin and temporary files, registry, unnecessary third-party application trash, and much more. Running CCleaner on your system promises to free up space, keep your computer running smoothly, and protect your privacy. It's also very fast and very easy to use.

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Database Servers

Paid Option: Microsoft SQL

Cost: $24,999 (Enterprise Edition)

The Free Alternative: MySQL

Review: MySQL is an incredibly popular free, open-source database server that runs efficiently with fewer resources. With MySQL, you can save time and money maintaining and handling a high-volume Web site on more than 20 platforms.

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Communication Tools

Standalone Blogging Software

Paid Option: Movable Type

Cost: $395.95 (Movable Type Pro for 5 Authors)

The Free Alternative: WordPress

Review: If you want a cost-cutting professional and reliable blogging platform, WordPress is the choice. With a self-hosted WordPress blogging tool with plug-ins, different design themes, cross-blogging communication tools, spam protection and more, you can get connected with your clients and help promote your company in a personal way.

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Phone Systems

Paid Option: GrandCentral

Cost: Free during beta period

The Free Alternative: Asterisk

Review: Asterisk is a complete PBX in software that runs on BSD Unix, Linux, and Mac OSX and provides all of the same features offered by top of the line hardware-based PBX. Asterisk supports VoIP, works with almost all standards-based telephony equipment and offers computer-telephony integration.

Get your company connected for free.

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Video Chatting software

Paid Option: Acrobat Connect

Cost: $39/month

The Free Alternative: ooVoo

Review: ooVoo is the next evolution in online communication. A simple way to have a face-to-face video chat with business colleagues, no matter where they are in the world.

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IM Client

Paid Option: Trillian Pro

Cost: $ 25.00

The Free Alternative: Windows Live Messenger

Review: As one of the most popular IM clients around, Windows Live Messenger makes it easy to stay connected while doing more than just chatting. Exchange photos and digital files for business communication and quick collaboration. If your contacts aren’t online, you can use Messenger to send SMS text messages to their mobile phone.

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Developer Software

Desktop Database Managers

Paid Option: Microsoft Office Access

Cost: $649.99 (bundled with MS Office Professional)

The Free Alternative: Kexi 1.1.3

Review: As the site says: “Kexi is Open-Source integrated data management application, a long awaited Open Source competitor. It can be used for creating database schemas, inserting data, performing queries, and processing data. All database objects - tables, queries and forms - are stored in the relational database, making it easy to share data and design”.

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Rich Internet Application Creation Software

Paid Option: Adobe Macromedia Flash CS4

Cost: $699

The Free Alternative: OpenLaszlo

Review: OpenLaszlo is a great alternative without the cost. This open-source platform lets you develop and deliver Rich Internet applications that can easily enhance a customer’s user experience whether it be with online shopping carts, finance calculators or home page elements. The latest version of OpenLaszlo supports DHTML and Flash 9.

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Review: Make your company website stand out with content made from Open Source Flash. This project is a compilation of every open source Flash tool you’ll need for creating quality multimedia content for free. From IDE alternatives, utilities and Flash applications to frameworks, debugging tools and Flash players, you can find it here.

Web Server Software

Paid Option: Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS)

Cost: $999 (With Windows Server 2008 Standard)

The Free Alternative: Apache HTTP Server 2.2.11

Review: If you’re looking for a robust, commercial quality and free source code alternative to an HTTP (Web) server without Microsoft, Apache HTTP Server 2.2.11 has the features and flexibility you’ll need. It works with modern operating systems like UNIX and Windows NT and current HTTP standards.

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Website Spidering and Link Checker Software

Paid Option: Web Link Validator 5.0

Cost: $145 (1 user license for 3,000 links)

The Free Alternative: Xenu’s Link Sleuth

Review: With Xenu’s Link Sleuth you can verify links, images, frames, plug-ins, local image maps, style sheets and java applets. Additional features include an easy to use interface, partial testing of FTP and gopher sites and the ability to re-check broken links.

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Web Authoring Software

Paid Option: Adobe Dreamweaver CS4

Cost: $399

The Free Alternative: KompoZer 0.7.10

Review: KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that can provide a great alternative to big and expensive name brands. It easily combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing and supports XML, CSS and JavaScript.

Also Reviewed:

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