Top 38 Inbound Marketing Tools for Marketers in 2024 (Categorized)

What is the first tool that comes to your mind when I say ”Inbound Marketing Software”?

Is it HubSpot?

If it isn't, you are either a part of another inbound marketing company or new in the business.

Here's what I can say about HubSpot: this inbound marketing software dominated the game smoothly, and later promised the whole market to teach them how to become like HubSpot.

A new kind of growth hacking, a new kind of genius, isn't it?

Long story short, HubSpot proved how effective inbound marketing could be, making outbound marketing people change careers.

"People shop and learn in a whole new way compared to just a few years ago, so marketers need to adapt or risk extinction."

- Brian Halligan, CEO & Co-Founder, HubSpot 

So, obviously, you are interested in learning more about inbound marketing strategies and platforms.

I gathered 38 different tools of different uses that will multiply your inbound leads.

Here are the names of those tools: [Well, I guess we need index links to the tools, but we could only give links to the categories? Whichever's easier for you.]

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And there are three analytics tools at the end of the list, which are not necessarily directly linked to inbound marketing, but are a crucial part of the process.

But first, a quick introduction to:

What is an Inbound Marketing Tool?

An Inbound Marketing Tool is a helping product for you to reach out to target audiences and engage with them easier. There are various types of inbound marketing tools: CRM tools, lead generation tools, SEO tools, social media and email marketing management tools, and so on.

Inbound marketers would know that potential customers quickly become loyal promoters, as long as you provide them relevant content about why you are essential for them.

Here's what I mean:

Inbound marketing is all about creating solid and organic bonds with the correct audience, but that's not easy.

What makes it easy is the help you get and the inbound strategy you decide on.

And tools are your #1 reliable sources to ensure your inbound marketing efforts aren't for nothing.

Here's how:

What Are Inbound Marketing Tools Used For?

Inbound marketing tools have an endless number of use cases and benefits.

Bur if we were to categorize the main benefits of those, this is what it would look like:

1- Designing and sharing an inbound marketing campaign:

Good UX is crucial for better user engagement, and better engagement is crucial for a higher ROI. UX design tools, content creation & collaboration tools, and project management tools can help you smooth out this process.

2- Adjusting your search engine optimization to the correct audience:

What makes inbound marketing techniques different from traditional marketing is tailor-made targeting. Therefore, analyzing and improving SEO is undoubtedly the one most important step of all inbound campaigns. Using analytics and SEO tools can get you qualified leads without any trouble.

3- Making sure you are creating valuable content:

Not only SEO and design but also the quality of your content and the trendiness of your pieces of content must be on par with the digital marketing industry. Content creation and A/B testing tools are a must to ensure positive ROI and lower CPA.

4- Automating the lead generation and content marketing processes:

Those are the support tools to take the weight of workload off your shoulders. By scheduling social media posts and emails, you can cut your team some slack - which I guarantee will increase their productivity.

38 Best Inbound Marketing Tools

CRM Tools:

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and is a key factor in ensuring your target audience remains interested in your services.

CRM tools help you track user interactions and contact information in one place for easy access and automation integration.

1- Salesflare

One of the best in the sales market, Salesflare does it all when it comes to customer relationship management.

Providing support and sales teams of all sizes with the utmost efficiency through its features, this tool is capable of delivering users everything on a single platform.

From web and email tracking to lead scoring, this tool includes several features that will surely improve workflows without any doubt.

But that's not it; Salesflare also enables team collaboration, increases work efficiency, and sustains healthy relationships throughout the customer lifecycle.

Pricing:

• Growth: $29/month per user when billed annually
• Pro: $49/month per user when billed annually
• Enterprise: $99/month per user when billed annually

2- Salesforce 

After more than two decades, Salesforce is still at the top of the CRM game.

Why? Because they provide a fantastic service, all necessary features, and limitless integration options.

On top of all, Salesforce takes most of the weight off your shoulders thanks to their use of AI. Einstein Analytics uses AI to link your schedules and emails, and overall, it not only makes work effective but makes it feel effective.

Pricing:

You can create your own solutions package on Salesforce, and the pricing changes accordingly, starting from $25/month/user - which is higher than most of its competitors.

3- HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM is the most popular and one of the highest-rated CRM tools on the market.

HubSpot is an excellent fit for small businesses because HubSpot CRM is free.

There are paid features available as well, but the free version works as effectively as any other CRM, and you can upgrade your plans as your business grows.

Pricing:

The HubSpot CRM, as well as its sales, service, and marketing automation tools, are all available for free.

4- Freshsales

Freshsales is an all-in-one CRM that is here to help you with your business operations, especially when it comes to closing deals.

Helping you generate more leads, Freshsales is one of the best CRMs in the game, thanks to its features that help you shorten your sales cycle; these features have multiple main cases that they help strengthen, from automations to customization. One of them is contact scoring, which helps you engage with your customers contextually, while another is 360° customer view, which assists you when nurturing customer relationships.

Freshsales might easily become one of your favorite tools since it grants everything you could look for in a CRM; so, give a chance to Freshsales by using its 21-day free trial!

Lastly, here are a few of what you can achieve by using Freshsales as your CRM:

• Attracting quality leads,
• driving deals with AI-powered insights,
• nurturing customer relationships,
• automating the sales process,
• forecasting sales via reports,
• pipeline management,
• built-in email, phone, chat, and many more.

Pricing:

• Free – $0
• Growth – $9/user per month when billed annually
• Pro – $39/user per month when billed annually
• Enterprise – $59/user per month when billed annually

5-Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is only one of the must-have Zoho tools.

What makes Zoho CRM excellent is the wide range of features that Zoho provides - within the CRM tool AND among Zoho tools.

Also, Zoho CRM is probably a good fit for beginners. That's because their UI is both easy and fun to use.

And the pricing... Along with the unbelievable value Zoho provides, their prices are surprisingly low.

Talk about win-win.

Pricing:

• Free trial available
• Standard version costs $12 per year/ per user.
• If you want to sync it to other Zoho tools: total price around $30 a year.

Project Management Tools:

In my last year of uni, the first thing my instructor taught me about my graduation project was how to design a project, determine the unhappy scenarios, and stick to that plan. The tools below do the exact same thing for you and let you get through the process with ease.

6- Wrike

Wrike is a project management tool that can help improve your workflows within no time.

As it offers several smart features, your team should be able to handle whatever comes their way.

These smart features include the following:

• dashboard,
• automation,
• mobile and desktop apps,
• proofing,
• cross-tagging,
• resource planning, and more.

For example, you can obtain insights in the forms of calendars, tables, and analytics views to see how well each item or metric you have in mind; thus, making it possible for your team to align their goals based on the insight they get.

You should definitely give this tool a try if you want a powerful platform with agile project management methodology applied.

Pricing:

• Free: Free to use. Up to 5 users can use it.
• Professional: $9.80 per user/per month. Up to 200 users can use it for project planning and team collaboration.
• Business: $24.80 per month per user. Up to 200 users can use it for any use case.
• Enterprise: Offers a plan that unlimited users can use. Contact sales for pricing details.
• Pinnacle: Offers a plan that can be used by unlimited users. Contact sales for pricing details.

7- Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a unique project management tool as it resembles spreadsheets.

However, it's more functional than your mainstreamed spreadsheets as the platform includes project planning, resource management, budget management, workflow automation, and analytics and reporting.

This spreadsheet alike platform involves templates that can help you save time, thanks to the elements they display, from expenses to to-do lists.

Moreover, this tool allows multiple integrations, especially your favorite ones, including Zoom, Google, Jira, Microsoft, Salesforce, Slack, Webex, and Tableau.

So, give this project management tool a try since you'll find what you're looking for is a flexible platform that you can customize and manage your workflow by using automations.

Pricing:

• Free: Free for small teams.
• Pro: $7 per month per user. Up to 25 team members can use this pricing model.
• Business: $25 per month per user.
• Enterprise: Pricing details of the enterprise plan may be customized according to company size. You can contact the sales for details.

8- Trello

Trello is one of the most used project management tools.

As always, there is a reason for this: Trello makes it very easy to keep track of your tasks, helps you keep them organized and categorized, and see how your teammates are doing.

Another significant aspect of Trello is how many integration possibilities it has. You can import data to Trello and export data to almost all the SaaS tools on the market. 

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Standard Plan: $5/month/user
• Premium Plan: $10/month/user
• Enterprise Plan: Custom Quotation

9- ClickUp

As an adult with ADHD, I don't know how I'd survive without ClickUp.

ClickUp is my personal favorite, to be honest. The tool combines many different project management tools (such as Notion, Trello, Google Calendar, Podio, etc.).

In other words, ClickUp has an endless variety of features. For example, you can create whiteboards, see your tasks as a list, as a board, or in a calendar, manage your time and workload, create sub-tasks within assignments for different people, create different spaces for different groups within a team or organization...

This list keeps going.

Also, ClickUp has both web and app versions, and can be used on mobile - even though the mobile application has a long way to go.

Pricing:

• Free: Free for personal use.
• Unlimited: $7 per month per user.
• Business: $12 per month per user.
• Enterprise: Pricing details of the enterprise plan may be customized according to company size. You can contact the sales for details.

10- Asana

Asana is another great project management tool, built by HubSpot.

Asana has all the pillar features, along with some boosters to them. For instance, you can categorize projects and assignments according to urgency, see how well the projects fit together with the Grantt style, and so on.

Also, Asana provides you with in-depth progress reports, making long-term multi-step projects become easier and smoother.

Pricing:

Asana has three plans you can benefit from – these are

• Free plan available
• Premium plan: $10.99 per user monthly if you choose to bill it annually.
• Business plan: $24.99 per user monthly if you choose to bill it annually.

Lead Generation Tools:

Now that your customers and projects are organized, you can start nurturing more inbound leads and reach out to potential buyers. You are not alone in this process; these tools are ready to lead you to where all the loyal customers are.

11- Drift

Drift is mainly known as a conversational marketing platform, but the tool actually has more to offer.

It's the world's first and only revenue acceleration platform, as Drift likes to put it.

Or let's put it this way:

By merging marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction into a single, practical tool, Drift promises to be the ultimate new-gen lead nurturing platform.

You can use Drift in various ways, including live chat, Drift Intel, Drift Meetings, Drift Email, Virtual Selling Assistants, Drift Video, and Drift Prospector - not to mention the over 50 integrations.

Pricing:

Drift has three different plans: premium, advanced, and enterprise. You can choose the best fit for your needs, and get a custom quotation from Drift.

12- Quora

Quora is a popular platform where people can ask anything, get answers from people from all around the world, and answer any question of their expertise.

Quora is not necessarily a lead nurturing tool, but you can use it as one.

By answering questions that include the solution your product provides, you can attract your specific audience, and create a perfect base for further referral traffic.

Honestly, this method can feel like a lot of work, and it is, but it's a FREE way of online advertising and growing your business.

Pricing:

Quora is completely free of charge!

13- Typeform

Typeform is an online form building and surveying tool.

Many companies use Typeform as a content generator to gather and verify inbound leads before passing them on to a sales representative.

You can generate and publish surveys and quizzes to your website without any coding skills, using Typeform.

Pricing:

• Free Plan available
• Basic Plan: $25/month on annual payment
• Plus Plan: $50/month on annual payment
• Business Plan: $83/month on annual payment

SEO Tools:

SEO is the water and air of any inbound strategy. A good SEO strategy can get you more than sales, and a good SEO tool is the best thing that can get you there.

14- Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is an advanced tool within Google Ads.

If you optimize for Google Chrome, why not get the best information directly from the source?

This tool can help you detect the trending keywords for searches and content, give you suggestions about what to include and what not to, and provide you an estimated budget plan for Google Ads - if you use it, that is.

Pricing:

Google Keyword Planner is free for Google Ads users.

15- SEMrush

Semrush is actually an SEO and SEM tool that can turn all tables in your favor.

The tool helps you see your competitors' data, such as their ad copy, keywords, traffic sources, and so on.

But that's not all. Semrush provides you with a wide range of features, such as backlink analysis, keyword tracking, and social media monitoring. 

Hence, as you may guess, it's not cheap to get access to such information.

Pricing:

• Free trial is available for the platform.
• Pro Plan: $129.95 per month
• Guru Plan: $249.95 per month
• Business Plan: $499.95 per month

16- Ahrefs

Pricing:

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO platform that provides tools and educational sources to level up your SEO game.

You can also say that Ahrefs is semrush + google keyword planner + a bit of google analytics.

Here's what makes Ahrefs great:

1. It's more affordable than Semrush,
2. It has a lot of features,
3. It provides A LOT of free resources, the best (imo) being the keyword generator.

Pricing:

• You can benefit from the Ahrefs Keyword Generator for free
• Lite Plan: $99/month, two months free if paid annually.
• Standard Plan: $199/month, two months free if paid annually.
• Advanced Plan: $399/month, two months free if paid annually.
• Agency Plan: Custom quote.

Live Chat Tools:

Live Chat is not only the newest trend for lead generation, but it's also a vital part of user experience and customer satisfaction - since customers expect instant help when they need something.

17- Zendesk Chat

Zendesk itself is a CRM, and Zendesk Chat is the 2nd most popular live-chat tool on the market, right after Intercom.

To be honest, I knew about Zendesk Chat even before I knew what Zendesk was. And that is for a reason: Zendesk Chat turns the live-chat environment into a kid's playground.

Accessible, easy, fun, and necessary.

Zendesk Chat allows you to schedule and automate replies, identify returning customers, reply from desktop or mobile, and manage response queues.

Pricing:

Zendesk Chat is available for all Zendesk users.

• Foundational support only: $19/month per agent
• Suite Team: $49/month per agent with 50 automated replies
• Suite Growth: $79/month per agent with 100 automated replies
• Suite professional: $99/month per agent with 500 automated replies
• Suite Enterprise: $150/month per agent with customizable branding
• Custom Quotation available for tailor-made plans, starting from $215/month per agent

18- HubSpot Live Chat

I have been mentioning HubSpot throughout the list, but they deserve it.

Because thanks to HubSpot, I could include a free live chat tool here for small businesses and startups.

The HubSpot live chat tool allows you to enable/disable live chat for different pages, automate responses with chatbots, and allows you to inform users about your office hours when you are unable to respond.

Basically, the tool does more than the bare minimum for a live-chat tool, and it does for free.

HubSpot live chat costs $0 per month. Pretty expensive, isn't it?

19- Intercom

Intercom is a customer communications platform, mostly known and used for the live chat feature.

Intercom can help you communicate in real-time with your customers and automate bot responses for certain cases.

You can also target the chat responses depending on which page the user is on, or how long they have been active/inactive.

It's normal to expect more than live chat for Intercom's pricing, and the company is aware of that. You can also automate emails, in-app announcements, and easily create segments for different user personas.

Pricing:

General access:

• Starter Pack: $67/month with limited features, suitable for very small businesses.
• Support, Customer Engagement, and Marketing Packs: Custom Quotation.

Add-ons:

• Product Tours Add-On: $199/month
• WhatsApp Add-On: $9/month

A/B Testing Tools:

A/B testing (or split testing) is the most reliable testing mechanism if you are changing something on your website. For the sake of your inbound marketing strategies, it's crucial to know which idea will perform better. And here is the list of tools for turning A/B testing into a game.

20- Optimizely

Optimizely is one of the top CRO systems in the market that has various features.

Optimizely's A/B testing and other features for optimizing web pages are provided by Optimizely Web.

Also, you can take this a step further with Optimizely X Personalisation, which allows you to send personalized messages to different audience segments.

Pricing:

You can contact Optimizely to get a custom quotation.

21- Convert

Convert is another CRO tool, but not a simple one. Even when you first enter their website, you get a feeling of professionalism.

Which sounds like bad news in terms of pricing.

Well, both yes and no.

Convert is a highly comprehensive tool that ensures sustainable growth, and if all you need are simple and a few A/B tests, Convert might be out of your league.

Pricing:

• 15-days free trial available
• Kickstart Plan: $699/month on the prepaid annual plan
• Specialist Plan: $879/month on the prepaid annual plan
• Leader Plan: $1899/month on the prepaid annual plan

22- VWO

VWO puts itself as a better tool than Optimizely with better pricing.

I put VWO as a tool similar to other CRO tools, but you only pay for the part you need.

For example, if you only need A/B testing, you only pay for VWO Testing.

If you only need user insights, you only pay for VWO Insights.

And so on...

Pricing:

VWO provides custom pricing according to your company size and needs.

UX Design Tools:

Inbound marketing is not only about targeting and audience analysis, it's also about higher engagement and lower bounce rates. Your UX design is the first step to keep the user interacting with you and later comes content...

23- Sketch

P.S. Sketch is only available on macOS for now, so if you use Windows for UX design, keep scrolling.

Sketch is a UX/UI design platform that has been founded in 2010 when UX was not even what it is today.

You can create, prototype, and collaborate on designs using the tool.

Sketch is a user-favorite and definitely deserves the 1st spot on this list.

Pricing:

For individual use, you can get Sketch’s single-purchase option of $99

For teams, Sketch costs $9 per editor

24- Adobe XD

P.S. Here is the good news for Windows users:

If you are used to Adobe software such as Photoshop or Lightroom, you can feel more confident using Adobe Xd for designing user experiences.

And if you know what Adobe is capable of, and your expectations are high for the Xd studio, you can rest assured.

And don't worry, Adobe is not like Sketch, and works on each kind of operating system (including Android and iOS)

Pricing:

• Free trial available for 7 days.
• Adobe Xd costs $9.99/month
• All Adobe apps package costs $52.99/month

25- Origami

Origami Studio is a UX design app by Meta, for mobile devices.

Using the tool, you can create designs, animations, and prototypes. But again, only on mobile devices.

So how come is this tool on the list, you might ask.

Well, Origami Studio is free, that's why.

The primary use case of Origami is creating better content for the Meta apps, but it's not limited to that.

Pricing:

Origami Studio is %100 free of charge.

Content Creation Tools:

...and later comes content, we said. So it's time for three different tools for three different purposes, but all about developing the content quality.

26- Beacon

Beacon is a simple tool for designing ebooks, forms, and lead magnets.

The tool provides you with valuable templates, and also comes with various integration options.

It's quite a simple tool, but it accomplishes a lot compared to its price.

Scroll below the image for pricing info.

Pricing:

Beacon is 100% free!

27- BuzzSumo

I always consider BuzzSumo the content quality and ranking optimization tool or the Ahrefs of content rather than keywords.

The platform allows you to give you content insights, compare statistics of similar blog posts, and create a hub where you can get inspiration from the best of the best.

To see how your content is doing in terms of quality, you can rely on BuzzSumo.

Pricing:

• Free for up to 10 searches per month
• Pro Plan: $79/month with a 30-day free trial
• Plus Plan: $139/month with a 30-day free trial
• Large Plan: $239/month with a 30-day free trial

28- Grammarly

We all know Grammarly. It's our dearest AI proofreader.

Whether English is your mother tongue, or you are proficient enough to criticize Shakespeare's use of the language, we are all humans, and we make mistakes.

For instance, I tend to write faster when I'm bored, and make too many typos to fix myself.

The correctness of your content is crucial to rank higher on Google. Therefore, getting help from a smart platform won't be useless.

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Premium plan: custom quotation for one user.
• Team plan: custom quotation for teams with 3-149 members.

Automation Tools:

I would say automation isn't a must, but considering all the users' expectations that are on your shoulders, it would be wise to invest in tools that can share the weight.

29- HubSpot

After all your efforts to create a perfect inbound marketing funnel and send potential customers down to the sales phase, HubSpot comes in again and says,”My AI tools can speed up and raise the quality of the process.”

Yup, HubSpot has automation tools as well.

HubSpot offers free email and meeting scheduling tools to ease the process of contacting customers.

That's not all, indeed. For a fair price, HubSpot can also help you with conversation routing, repeating tasks and task queues, goal tracking, etc.

Pricing:

The HubSpot marketing automation tools, as well as its sales, service, and CRM, are all available for free.

30- GetResponse

Getting the work automated is one big dream of marketers, and GetResponse makes these dreams come true.

How? By becoming a powerful marketing automation tool to wholly support your efforts. Even offering free forever services, GetResponse is a great tool to become your guide throughout improving the customer journey and increasing sales.

Autoresponders ✅

Live chat ✅

Customization tools ✅

Drag-and-drop editor ✅

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Email Marketing: $15.58/month/1,000 contacts
• Marketing Automation: $48.38/month/1,000 contacts
• Ecommerce Marketing: $97.58/month/1,000 contacts

31- Customer.io

Customer.io is a good automation tool for non-technical people.

With Customer.io, you can easily set up automated processes that allow you to categorize your leads based on their demographics, actions, and how they interact with the content you send them.

The tool also has A/B testing and integration options, saving you the burden of adopting different tools for those actions.

Pricing:

• Customer.io Basic Plan: starts at $150 per month, depending on the amount of reached profiles.
• For $150 per month, you can send messages to up to 12,000 profiles.
• For $160/month, this number goes up tı 14,000 profiles.

32- MailChimp

MailChimp's sole expertise is email marketing, making the tool the best of its kind.

The tool used to be an email marketing tool, but now it has evolved into a marketing management tool that does everything.

I don't know about the newer features of Mailchimp, but when it comes to automation, MailChimp is by far the most detailed and comprehensive tool there is. From customer journeys to scheduling campaigns, you can trust MailChimp with repetitive tasks.

Pricing:

MailChimp has many different pricing plans depending on your needs and audience. You can reach the whole list of plans here.

Social Media Management Tools:

Most companies don't even realize how important it is now to be present on social media. The time is changing, and the new generations hang out on social media platforms more than bars. And getting to the top on social media platforms' algorithms can be a drag. That's why we have social media management tools.

33- Buffer

In simplest terms, Buffer is an automation tool, but for social media.

More clearly, Buffer allows you to plan out your social media postings ahead of time. You'll be able to get a head start on your social media activity by doing so, and you won't have to worry about what to post every day.

Also, Buffer helps you keep to a consistent schedule by planning ahead of time, so your followers know when to anticipate your postings.

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Essentials Plan: $5/month/channel
• Team Plan: $10/month/channel
• Agency Plan: $100/month/channel

34- Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the most extensive social media management tools trusted by over 15 million people and more than 800 Fortune 1000 companies.

Hootsuite not only lets you manage all of your social media accounts in one place, but it also has a content curation feature that can help you locate and post interesting material in seconds.

Along with many other features, this tool also comes with great analytic reports and suggestions.

Pricing:

• Free Plan available
• Professional Plan: €39/month
• Team Plan: €109/month
• Business Plan: €669/month
• Enterprise Plan: custom quotation

35- SocialHub 

Social Hub is a social media management software for businesses, agencies, and even governments.

 Yeah, you heard that right.

Considering its target audience and customers, I can say that it might be a great option for businesses their security the most.

The tool is a good fit for medium-sized businesses and enterprises but might be too expensive for small businesses and startups.

Pricing:

Contact their team for a demo and a custom quotation.

Bonus: Analytics Tools

Analytics tools are not necessarily inbound-marketing-specific tools, but they are for sure an essential component of the marketing-tools-bundle. 

Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Hotjar

Analytics tools help you track individual users, their performances, results of your changes, and the overall performance of your website.

The main features of those tools are mostly the same, and the pricing changes according to the amounts of KPIs tracked, the frequency of your documentation requests, and how detailed information you need.

‍Google Analytics is a free tool that can give you a general insight into your website. You can track most metrics with the tool, but it doesn't provide you user-based activity or detailed information about empty states.

Mixpanel is getting more popular by the day and used by 30% of the Fortune 100 SaaS companies. Unlike Google Analytics, Mixpanel can track unique user activities, and where each customer came from - which can be crucial for determining new targets.

Hotjar is a bit more different from the previous two. Rather than words and numbers, Hotjar analyzes each webpage and where users click most, providing you a heatmap of popular spaces on your pages.

Here you can find out more about each tool, and how they compare.

Conclusion

All in all, inbound marketing can be either a whole bunch of extra work or a smooth process.

The difference between those two outcomes solely depends on your inbound marketing strategies.

Are you going to use tools?

Which tools should you choose?

Do the users see the value of yours?

I couldn't find another rhyme, so let's say shmooze.

Don't be afraid of investing in 3rd party software. Even HubSpot benefits from different tools to help them get through the process.