Startup Tools: Aggregated List of Recommended Tools

By Us

Build something users love, and spend less than you make.

Above all, understand your users.

The market is a lot more discerning than any employer.

To get rich you need to get yourself in a situation with two things, measurement and leverage.

Startup founders seem to be working in a way that's more natural for humans.

All the reasons you aren't doing it, and why most (but not all) should be ignored.

It's the people that matter.

Starting a startup could well become as popular as grad school.

The initial idea is not a blueprint, but a question.

A hacker who has learned what to make, and not just how to make, is extraordinarily powerful.

You have to keep trying new things.

If you avoid every cause of failure, you succeed.

Some things about startups are kind of counterintuitive.

Venture funding works like gears.

Hackers don't know how little they know about this strange world.

Explain what you're doing and why users will want it.

You should always feel richer after trading equity.

Founders have to treat raising money as a dangerous process.

Why not let the founders have that first million, or at least half million?

You may not believe it, but I promise you, Microsoft is scared of you.

Startups run on morale.

There may be more pain in your own company, but it won't hurt as much.

Even a small increase in the rate at which good ideas win would be a momentous change.

The economy of the future will be a fluid network of smaller, independent units.

By Others

The group that would eventually make Santa Clara, CA, "Silicon Valley."

Today companies are starting small and lean and staying that way.

Many of the current crop of Internet start-ups have gone from zero to 60 on a shoestring.

Within a few weeks of Allen's arrival, I found people telling me that I had no power at all.

Cases where trade secrets and/or patents are both protectable and essential are rare.

Great products almost always come from someone scratching their own itch.

I think it is much better to think of a venture capital deal as a loan plus an option.

How does a guy in Bentonville, Arkansas with no money blow right by Sears, Roebuck?

What a top VC firm looks for, and the format they want to see it in.

Your presentation is one of the first steps to articulating your idea.

Books

Documents

Y Combinator's open-source simple agreement for future equity.

Y Combinator's open-source Series AA Equity Financing Documents.

Tools

Individuals

Organizations

Check out these 101 small business web applications - software in the cloud. The selections reflect the breadth of innovative ideas and new business pursuits at play in the small business technology cloud landscape.

From sales to legal to productivity tools, we can attest that the small business technology is alive, kicking and doing extremely well in 2011.

It's getting much easier and cheaper to operate a business than ever before. Absolutely great news for small business!

Here is the list of categories we will cover on this post:

P.S. You will meet some of these companies at BizTech [Small Business] on March 24.

P.P.S. Please feel free to comment if we have missed any awesome small business web applications.
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Shoeboxed allows users digitize all your receipt, business card and organize everything neatly electronically.
Cost: FREE to $49.95 per month

allows users to use your phone to bump another phone. If both people confirm that the match is indeed correct will the contact information be sent down to the other person.
Cost: FREE

Infusionsoft captures leads, create beautiful emails and automatically follow up using auto-responders.
Cost: FREE to $999 per month

Big Commerce allows users to sell on Facebook and Ebay, Phones and email.
Cost: Free - $299.99 per month

allows users to create, track and manage online referrals.
Cost: $49 - $999 per month

Shopify allows users to create, track and manage online referrals.
Cost: $49 - $999 per month

Slideshare allows users to upload and share your presentation for free.
Cost: FREE

Keynote Remote allows users to control your Keynote (Apple) slide presentation on your Mac from your iPod touch or iPhone.
Cost: $0.99

Law Pivot allows users to crowd source confidential legal advice.
Cost: Free

Yola allows users to create a professional, ad-free website.
Cost: Free to $8.33 per month

Highrise allows users to to manage contacts, keep track of who said what when, schedule follow-ups, set reminders, and convert leads.
Cost: FREE to $99 per month

Sugar CRM allows users to automate sales force and customer support on the cloud.
Cost: FREE to $600 per user per year

Salesforce allows users to keeps all the contacts, messages, e-mails, files, events and tasks.
Cost: FREE

Heap allows users to broadcast and live stream your own channel for events, chats or presentations.
Cost: FREE to $9 per user

Evernote allows users to save ideas, photos and voice note on any computer and mobile device.
Cost: FREE to $5 per month

Rescue Time shows users how spend time & provides tools to help them be more productive.
Cost: FREE to $9 per month

Olark allows users to chat with visitors on your website from desktop, laptop or mobile device.
Cost: $15 to $149 per month

Teamly allows users to manage their team by helping them focus on the top 5 priorities for the day, week and month.
Cost: FREE to $8 per month

Huddle allows users to manage projects, files and people in the cloud.
Cost: FREE to $15 per month

Yammer allows users to create their own Twitter and Facebook-like communication environment, but for internal employee only.
Cost: FREE to $5 per month

Google Voice allows users to create one phone number so it will ring anywhere. It also transcribe the voice messages into email.
Cost: FREE

Mindflash allows users to convert existing training materials into online courses.
Cost: FREE to $999 per month

Information is the key to good business decisions. There is a great deal of good information freely available on the Web. The following websites provide a starting point for your business research activities. They are arranged in categories to help you expedite your search. Note that the opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed are those of the websites' producer(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBTDC.

Associations - Directories

Associations - Business

Benchmarking

Business Plans

Competitive Intelligence

Demographics / Psychographics

Economic Development

Entrepreneurship

Financing Resources

Franchising

Government Resources - Federal

Code of Federal Regulations | www.ecrf.gov

Government Resources - North Carolina

Business Link North Carolina (BLNC) | www.blnc.gov
Contact BLNC at 1-800-228-8443 or blnc.gov for state license requirements and resource information to start or grow your business.

NC Department of Commerce | www.nccommerce.com

REACH NC | www.reachnc.org
REACH NC is a Web portal that enables users to search, browse and find thousands of experts and assets within North Carolina higher education and research institutions.

Human Resources

Industry Research

International Trade

World Fact Book | www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook
Detailed information about countries of the world including political and economic aspects

Legal

NC Legal Forms | www.uslegalforms.com/north-carolina/

Market Research

Marketing

Publications

Science and Technology

Social Media

Facebook Guide Book | mashable.com/guidebook/facebook

Facebook for Business | facebook.com/business

Instagram for Business | business.instagram.com/blog/

Pinterest for Business | business.pinterest.com

Twitter Guide Book by Mashable.com | mashable.com/guidebook/twitter

Starting a Business

Business Startup & Resource Webinar

Statistics

AlternativeTo is a new approach to finding good software. Tell us what application you want to replace and we give you great alternatives, based on user recommendations. More about us "

"Whether you're looking for an alternative to expensive commercial software or just trying to get a feel for what's out there, AlternativeTo is a handy service for finding software alternatives."

Json Fitzpatrick, Lifehacker

Updated Business tools for Startups

Every startup faces multiple choices and decisions when it comes to technology. Whether you're wondering what site search you should use or what is the best email marketing tool, knowledge is power. A group of Seedcamp entrepreneurs started a startup tools wiki for that purpose, and we thought it would be well suited here. For modifications, please edit the original document here. An additional list of business resources for startups is available here.

*Added - Nov 2013* Outsourcing and talent, mobile engagement tools

*Added - August 2013* Lean Startup Tool List, HN Tools of the Trade, IL Venture and invoicing and recruiting tools for startups

*Added - March 2013* Startup Intelligence tools

Everything you needed to find information about startups. From premium paid subscription databases to free tools showcasing new startups and startup maps, The Ultimate Startup Intelligence Tools List is guaranteed to help you get your research done.

*Updated* Startups for Startups, Google Startup Tools and HackerNews Vendor List

Startups for startups - the top B2B tools used by Startups - Includes the list of top 50 startup vendors in 2012 by Vendorstack, a reviews and Q&A platform on enterprise vendors for startups and mid-market companies. Also includes the most popular platforms, based on a year of data on business buy and sell marketplace, Flippa.com.

Google DevRel created a page of Google resources for startups - from the site's description: "This site contains a selection of tools you will find useful when building, measuring, and enhancing your apps. Once you have a first version of your app running, you can use the tools on this site to get it into the hands of users and to get paid."

Hackernews list of "Tools of the Trade" for startups - includes over 150 SaaS tools used by startups, and over 150 comments with interesting insights from founders. Also check out Tune Your Startup, who is trying to streamline these lists into one tool.

Tools for Hackathons - added Dec 2012

Based on the list posted on StartupWeekend Resources page and the TokBox blog

Twitter Bootstrap: Include this in your website, and you are half finished. Add a class name to buttons, forms, quotes, etc. and they will instantly look pretty. No need to write your own CSS for everything, you simply do not have time. You can also easily create tooltips, Modals, dropdown menus, check out the Javascript Section it's so sexy!

Subtle Patterns: Need background images? Subtle patterns give you a gallery of very subtle patterns. High Quality, and open sourced!

Cheat Sheets: Equip youself with HTML/CSS cheatsheets! Scan all the tags at once and see which one fits your needs!

Free Icons: Because Icons make your site beautiful.

LiveRoad: A Great IDE for design is very helpful. It's helpful to find an developer tool that allows you to write html/css and renders the view in real time, so you don't have to change -> save -> go to browser -> refresh.

Social Buttons: Want to add Twitter, Facebook, Google, buttons? Get them here.

Masonry: Create a pinterest like layout!

Cubism: Create TimeLine visualization of data.

Here's the exciting part! Let's talk about tools and libraries that help you implement your Ideas faster:

Tokbox: That's us! Use us to power any video chat applications (talkshow, education apps, collaboration, etc). We have an iOS SDK as well, for web-web, mobile-mobile, web-mobile video chat and video messaging.

Twilio: Need to call/txt get a phone number from your web/mobile application? Check them out.

Firebase: Are all your developers front-end engineers? No worry, just use Firebase to store all your data. No need for back end! Plus, their javascript Library is real time so you get notifications on any database update. Very responsive. If you don't get beta access, just use the guest account and WIN.

Pusher / Spire.io: Need real time stuff? Chat apps, real time drawing, etc etc. Pusher and Spire.io will handle all of it for you.

Stripe / Dwolla: Super Easy payment for your app. Use their api to handle payment related stuff. No need to worry about security and such.

Leaflet: Need Maps? Try Leaflet. Most devs go with google maps, but I personally like leaflet and I feel like it's easier to use/develop with.

Rovi: Need Metadata for music/movie/actors, etc.? Rovi API has everything you need for information. Generate album/movie information on the fly!

Rdio: Want to add a music player on your website to play music? Rdio provides the music and the player via an API

Box: Need file storage (for physical files like mp3, flv, etc). Box API lets you store files dynamically!

Singly: Provides your app with your personal Data from foursquare, instagram, etc etc.

Sendgrid: Need to send email out to users? Use Sendgrid! They make sure that your emails never to go spam folders.

If you are a web developer, you don't have time to learn iOS or Java during the weekend. It's better to use what you know already.

Phonegap / Appcelerator (Titanium) : Write mobile apps with HTML/CSS/Javascript. The are plugins available for almost everything. (Camera, video, and most of the APIs described above for web Tools)

Parse: Need real time push notification? Need a database/back end solution? Just use Parse! Did I also mention they also have a Javascript Library for your web application to interact with?

Launchrock: Website is not ready? Put up a LaunchRock Page and get your marketing working right away. When your website is ready, you will have users already!

VoiceBunny: Need a sexy voice-over for your videos? Send it to VoiceBunny!

Compare Ninja: Own your competitors by creating a Comparison Table quickly!

Something you need to do but not on the list? Tweet at me bro!

Sinatra: Super easy to use, the only drawback is that you have to learn ruby setup your database. I hate configuring stuff, so I usually use this as an option if I don't need persistant information.

Meteor: If you don't know any back end solution, learn Meteror. It's the new way to code, and quite easy to learn. You can write back end code in javascript, one language conquers all!

Railscasts: If you're not comfortable with rails, I wouldn't recommend using it for the hackathon. It has a high learning curve. But if you insist, check out railscasts. Ryan Bates create screencast for just about everything you might want to do with a rails app.

Heroku: Deploy your app to heroku. It's free, supports ruby, nodejs, static files, and a few other languages. Did I mention it's free? You have nothing to loose.

Express: Express is built on NodeJS framework. If you're using javascript backend, I'd rather take the time to learn Meteror. But that's just me, you're welcome to watch the getting started screencast for Express to see how you like it

Search

Bugs

Performance

Forms

Analytics

Color

Logo

Image manipulation

Audio

Video

Presentation tools

Login System

Social functionality

Location

Email

Telephony

Accounting, Taxes & Payroll

Invoicing & Payments

Subscription Payments / Management

Managing APIs

Web frameworks

Databases

Sharing & storing files

Image Galleries

Customer Relationship Management

Feedback and FAQ

Websites

Test- and Behavior-Driven Development

Collaboration Platform

Contractor Management

Code Hosting and Version Control

Social Media Tracking/Marketing

Browser Compatibility tools

Screenshot/screencast tools

CDNs

Cloud Infrastructure

Visibility

Loading Animations

Private beta invitations & management:

Scanning / Document Management

Ad Serving Technology

Project Management tools

Steve Blank's Lean Startup Resources

Research, Web prototyping, Testing and Building Tools

Lists of Tools from Others

Groups

SEO and Analytics Tutorials

Analytics Tools

Search Engine Optimization Tools

Online Marketing Suites

• HubSpot - online marketing and web analytics system
• Performable - personable web analytics/lifecycle marketing
• Custora - customer retention, churn reduction, lifetime value
• Zoho - free/cheap web customer relationship mgmt software
• Highrise - small business CRM
• Zferral - affiliate and referral marketing on the web
• Genoo - marketing automation software
• MarketBright - marketing automation suite

Email Blasting

Surveys

Collaboration

• Skype- free voice and video communication tool
• Campfire - team collaboration
• Slideshare - share Powerpoints and docs with customers
• Ning - Create your own social network
• Yammer - free enterprise social network
• Doodle - online group scheduling
• Syncpad - collaborative whiteboard

On-line Communities

• Stack Overflow - questions and answers for programmers
• Quora - questions and answers for non-programmers
• Yahoo Answers - post questions, sometimes get answers
• Disqus - Comments Platform
• WordPress- king of blogging platforms...doubles as startup website
• Tumblr - another blogging platform
• Posterous - yet another blogging platform

Wireframing Tools

• jMockups - convert existing website into a mockup then redesign and share without editing any HTML/CSS
• Balsamiq- rapid wireframing tool. Create software mockups in minutes
• Mockflow - online/offline, extensible wireframing tool w/design library
• OmniGraffle - it's been around before the web even existed
• JustinMind- define web and mobile apps with interactive prototypes
• Wirify - turn any webpage into a wireframe
• Axure - Wireframing, prototypes: buil-in widgets and shapes
• HotGloo - Online Wireframing Tool
• Mocksup - Share your web site mockups
• Mockingbird - Mock it up and share web site wireframes
• Protoshare - website wireframing
• Free Wireframe templates for iPhone, iPad and Web
• Wireframing Tutorial

Landing Page Tools

Website Tools

Mobile Testing/Build Tools

Billing/Subscription Management

Customer Support

• Tender - support, knowledgebase tool for your site
• GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers.
• SnapEngage - live chat integrates with your apps
• Zendesk - web help software
• - turn customer feedback into action
• Kampyle - turn customer feedback into sales and relationships
• Ideaffect - customer feedback, vote, comment, manage
• Olark - live customer chat

Website Usability Testing

Website A/BTesting

Cloud Services and Tools

Web Development Tools

• Rubyon Rails- open source framework for Ruby
• CakePHP - a PHP open source framework
• Drupal - open source content management platform
• Heroku - Ruby cloud platform.Rails deployment made easy
• Django - high-level Python framework
• Cappuccino - open source framework for app development
• WebSequenceDiagrams -sketch sequence diagrams. automatic links to generated images
• Rietveld - asynchronous code reviews on changesets
• Tech*if*er0*urs - blog on roadmap for learning rails

Hardware Resources/Tools

• Basecamp- web-based project management and collaboration tool.
• Github - Free public repositories, collaborator management, issue tracking, wikis, downloads, code review, graphs
• Mercurial - free, distributed source code control management system
• - free code hosting site for Mercurial
• Preceden - simple way to make timelines for presentations
• - project management visually see and interact with your work
• Acunote - Agile project management
• Agilezen - Lean project management
• Rally - agile product management
• VersionOne - agile product management and Scrum tool
• GoPlan - collaborative project management
• Unfuddle -hosted project management solution for software teams.
• Managewith.us - Collaborative Task Manager
• Mavenlink - manage project communications, documents, schedules, budgets, payments
• Industrial Logic - Agile eLearning

Misc Office Help

Freelance Help

Manufacturing Resources

Boilerplate Venture Funding Documents

List of Angel/SuperAngel Investors for entrepreneurs

Useful blogs and links for startups

Best of Y-Combinator Startup Advice

Raising Venture Capital

Founder Equity Issues

Incubator List/ Local Startup Resources/ Startup Q&A

Executive / Advisory Board Compensation

Lawyers/Legal

European Start-up Essentials

VC Cafe knows that as an entrepreneur you need all the help you can get. That's why we gathered a collection of 20 online resources for European startups that will help you with business plans, recruiting, publicity and networking.


1. Seedcamp: They provide a catalyst for the next generation of great entrepreneurs, help them take risks, think big, and succeed. In other words they are entrepreneurs that help others like them succeed in their new business.

They want to share senior level experience and best practices with technology companies. Their Partners all come from industry, where each has held senior level executive positions delivering industry-leading products. They are not career consultants-they bring experience to the table.

3. VC News: Dow Jones financial information service provides unparalleled reporting and analysis of the entire global venture capital industry, from fundraising developments to financings, liquidity events to people moves and other key developments at venture capital firms and portfolio companies in every industry and region.

4. Y Combinator: They provide a series of AA equity financing documents that are written with simpler words so start-up companies will have an easier starting point. Their goal is to make angel funding rounds for startups easier for both sides.

5. cmypitch.com: Network for small business, connecting entrepreneurs with each other, investors and service providers. It's a video-based web site that provides a platform to help entrepreneurs succeed.

6. UCL Advances: UCL Advances stimulates collaboration among researchers, business and investors driving innovations that benefit society and the economy. UCL has built a reputation as a pioneer of collaboration between industry and academia.

7. TIE UK: TiE, a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, TiE is an organization of industry professionals who share the common interests of promoting and fostering entrepreneurial efforts.

8. Regus: Regus is the world's largest provider of workplace solutions, offering the widest range of products and services that allow individuals and companies to work however, wherever, and whenever they need to.

9. Business Link: They help Start-Up companies, Running businesses or companies that are looking to grow and develop how to manage their finances, employ people, find and keep costumers, taxes, tray internationally and many more.

10. NESTA: They invest in early-stage companies, inform and shape policy, and deliver practical programs that inspire others to solve the big challenges of the future.

11. Princes Trust: They are a UK charity company that helps young people overcome barriers and get their lives working.

12. British Library Business & IP Centre: Funded by the London Development Agency, the British Library supports inventors, small businesses and entrepreneurs from that first spark of inspiration to successfully launching and developing a business. The Centre offers free access to the UK's most comprehensive collection of business and intellectual property information.

13. Growing Business: Growingbusiness.co.uk is the leading online resource for entrepreneurs. Their practical guides cover all the issues an entrepreneur like you will face when expanding your business. From raising finance to business strategy and going public, they have all the need-to-know information you require to become a successful entrepreneur running a rapidly expanding and profitable company.

14. BPS: Business Plan Services' collaboration with the world-renowned London Business School reinforces its position within the commercial marketplace as the UK's leading practice that is dedicated to providing full assistance with business planning.

15. Company Guides: They specialize in helping high growth companies and entrepreneurs seeking corporate finance advice and private equity investment. They also publish a detailed directory of sources of finance and advice.

16. Sturtuply: They help the right job seekers find you and make the whole team-building process as easy as possible.

17. CrunchBoard: They are a job board that gives you access to millions of technology and business savvy readers of Tec Crunch, Mobile Crunch, Crunch Gear and other top technology blogs. Also check http://uk.crunchboard.com

18. OnStartups.com: Dharmesh Shah brings his experience by this site that isfor and about software startups.

19. Startupslive: With Stratupslive It's your chance to hear the people behind some the UK's most successful businesses tell their stories and also network with fellow budding entrepreneurs and provide you with quality independently written, practical advice to help you start your own business.

20. The Funded: TheFunded.com is an online community of entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review funding sources worldwide. In addition, TheFunded.com allows entrepreneurs to view and share term sheets, to assist one other finding good investor, and to discuss the many facets of operating a business.

MORE:

Israeli Startup Essentials (under construction...)

1. IVC Online: (offers a paid database of Israeli startups, funds and research publication)

2. Invest in Israel: The investment promotion center of Israel's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, Foreign Trade Administration (see industry reports and M&A summaries for the year)

3. MATIMOP: the Israeli Industry Center for R&D. A free online database of startups.

4. The Central Bureau of Statistics: a useful tool for research of population and reach.

5. Israeli Center of Incubators

6. Tnufa - Startup Promotion Program(Hebr

Over the last few years, a lot of tools and services have been created for app developers.

We can try and compare some of them, but obviously not all.

Here is a list of a lot of them (inspired by Steve Blank's Startup Tools), that we will update as we learn about new ones. Don't hesitate to contact us at contact[at]apptamin.com to help us make that list better!

Market Research

App Annie - App Ranking, Analytics, Market Intelligence

Distimo - App Analytics, Download Estimations and Insights

Xyologic - A New Approach To Mobile App Search

Apptrace - App Store Intelligence

AppMonsta - App Market Data

Vision Mobile - Ecosystems analyst firm

MetricsCat -Analyze mobile apps data

Also: Apple's App Store, Google Play Store

Mockups/Prototyping

POP (Prototyping on paper) - iPhone App Prototyping Made Easy

Mockabilly - App for creating mockups on iPhone

Interface - Advanced mockup and prototyping for iOS

Blueprint - Mockup iPad app for iPhone and iPad applications

Proptotypes - Turn static designs intro a tappable iPhone prototype

FieldTest - Create mobile interactive prototypes

Keynotopia - Use PowePoint/Keynote to Prototype Like a Pro

Justinmind - Rich interactive wireframes to define web and mobile applications

Fluid UI - Mobile Prototypes for iOS, Android and Windows Apps

UI Stencils - Stencils, sketch pads and accessories for UI design

App Cooker - Advanced iOS mockup generator for mobile applications

Proto.io - Mobile prototyping

UXPin - UX design tools built by UX designers

AppGyver's Prototyper - Turn wireframes into an interactive mobile app prototype

WireKit - An iPhone app wireframe kit

DevRocket - Photoshop panel plugin for iOS developers

Flinto - Quickly create iOS prototypes

App Icon Template - App icon template for iOS 7

PortKit - UX Metaphor Equivalents for iOS & Android

Mockuphone - 1 click to wrap app screenshots in device mockup

SketchMirror - Preview your mobile apps directly on your devices

UI Galleries

Crowdfunding (app specific)

AppStori - Crowdsourcing and founding platform for apps

Appbacker - App wholesale marketplace

Appsfunder - Funding platform for apps

AppSplit - Crowdfunding platform for apps

SellanApp - Fund app ideas you love

Kraudmob - Mobile apps crowdfunding

Dandy - App creation in community

Localization

iCanLocalize - Expert translation

Applingua - iOS, OSX & Android App Localization Service

OneSky - Get your apps & websites translated

PO Editor - Free online software localization tool

Acclaro - Mobile application translation

Babble-on - App localization

LocalEyes - App localization

LocTeam - Localize iOS and Mac OS X apps

Gengo - People-powered translation at any scale

Tethras - App translation service

Wordcrafts - Mac OS and iOS localization

LingoTip - Apps translation

Mentez - app localization for Latin America market

Smooth Localize - Localize your iOS app cheaply and quickly

Transfluent - Easily translate your app by using Transfluent's API

Monetization

Scoreloop - Cross-platform SDK for gaming ecosystem (virtual currency, social gaming, etc.)

Playhaven - Mobile game LTV maximization platform

MobInLife - Apps monetization and promotion consulting

Avocarrot - Mobile rewards

Kiip - Real rewards for virtual achievements

Appxperience - Monetize your app by recommending the right apps, to the right user, at the right time, through the right format

Smaato - Real Time Bidding Exchange for mobile ads.

Mobile App Testing

TestFlight - iOS Beta Testing on the fly

HockeyApp - Collect crash reports, get feedback and distribute your betas

Elusivestars - Mobile Application Testing For Developers

Testin - Cross Platform Automated App Testing Solutions

uTest / apphance - Crash/Bug reporting and user feedback

Crashlytics - Crash reporting solution

Errbit - Open source error catcher ( Airbrake compliant)

StartUpLift - Get feedback from users

Bugsense - BigData analysis to support apps

Pieceable - Make iOS apps work in the browser

Acra - Open source android crash reports

Crittercism - Error monitoring

UserMetrix - Application analytics combined with traditional error reporting

Zubhium - Android beta distribution and real time crash analytics

AppThwack - Test your app on 100s of real devices

BugCliper - Plug n play library designed to report bugs

User Feedback/CRM SDKs

Apptentive - In-app feedback for iPhone & Android developers

Appboy - Customer Engagement Platform for mobile apps

Appsfire's AppBooster - Apps engagement and feedback SDK

AskingPoint - Mobile Apps Analytics with a rating widget

HelpShift - The customer support helpdesk for native apps

LivePerson - Mobile chat solution

Jira - Open-source library for collecting feedback

UserEcho for iOS - Collect and manage feedback for your iPhone or iPad application

Appsee - Understand your mobile app users with recordings, heatmaps and in-app analytics reports

TestFairy - Easy Android app testing

Testbirds - Crowdtesting for mobile apps

In-app Analytics SDK

Flurry Analytics - App Analytics for free

Google Analytics - Google Analytics for Mobile

Apsalar - Mobile App Analytics & Advertising

MixPanel - Mobile Analytics

Localytics - Mobile Marketing and Analytics for Apps

Countly - Mobile Analytics

Playtomatic - Open source game Analytics for every Platform

HeatMa.ps - HeatMaps for your iOS app

HeatData - Heatmaps for Mobile Websites

TestFlight Live - Analytics with TestFlight

Placed - Location Analytics

Keen.io - Analytics Platform

Capptain - Pilot your apps

Kontagent - Mobile Customer Intelligence

Claritics - Intelligent Analytics

Followapps - Mobile Engagement Platforms

Applicasa - Mobile game management platform

Bango - Web and app analytics

Marketing Analytics

Tapstream - Marketing Analytics for apps

Yozio - Campaign tracking for mobile apps

Distimo's AppLink - Cross-platform app distribution and conversion tracking

Trademob - Mobile Marketing Analytics

Swrve - In-app marketing platform

Rdrct.it - Universal URL and Custom URL (sharing app content)

Adxtracking - Analyze and optimize mobile app advertising

AppsFlyer - Mobile app measurement and tracking

Push Notifications

Urban Airship - http://urbanairship.com/

PushWoosh - New approach to push notifications

Parse - The complete mobile app platform

Appsfire's Appbooster - Boost your app's engagement

Push.io - Push Notifications

mobDB - Mobile backend service, push notifications

Xtify - Push notifications for iOS, Android, Windows and Mobile Web

mBlox - Smart Mobile Engagement

Quick Blox - Cloud backend API

MixPanel - Mobile Analytics

Appscend - All-In-One Mobile Platform (analytics, push, etc.)

Appoxee - Push Notification Services

Xtify - Push notifications for iOS, Android, Windows and Mobile

Pushwizard - Push notification service & Remote event management

Affiliate Programs

TradeDoubler - Affiliate Marketing for Europe & Brazil

LinkShare - Affiliate Marketing for US, Canada & Mexico

DGM Pro - Affiliate Marketing for Australia & New-Zealand

GeoRiot - Globalize your affiliate marketing

App Websites & Landing Pages

Apptamin - App Website WordPress Themes

Unbounce - Build, publish and test landing pages (w/ Mobile App Templates)

ThemeForest (Grizzly Theme) - Site Templates and Themes

Appify WP - WordPress Theme for iOS and Mac Apps

Launchrock - Set up a "launching soon" page in minutes

Dasapp - Website hosting for mobile apps

Mobtizer - Create landing pages for mobile advertising

Pre-launch platforms

PreApps - Pre-release buzz and exposure

App Store Optimization

MobileDevHQ - SEO for Mobile Apps

Search Man SEO - Mobile SEO for iOS Apps

AppCod.es - App Store SEO

App Store Rankings - Mobile SEO and Keyword Optimization for iOS Apps

iOS Keywords - Keyword solutions for iOS Developers

Appnique - Improve your search ranking in the mobile app stores

App Downloads & Revenue Tracking

App Annie - App Ranking, Analytics, Market Intelligence

Distimo - App Analytics and App Data

AppFigures - App Store Analytics for Mobile Apps

Mopapp - App Store Analytics

AppBot - App Store Reviews & Features delivered daily

FULLER App Analytics - App Data for Japan

Getting Press

HARO (Help A Reporter Out) - Connecting Reporters and News Sources

Appromoter - Brings developers and the media together

Ad Networks

iAd - Apple's advertising network

TapForTap - Mobile Ad Network / Free Tap Exchange

Flurry App Circle - Targeted ads for mobile apps

Chartboost - Technology platform for mobile games

Admob - Monetize and promote your mobile apps with ads

Vungle - Mobile app advertising through Video

loopMe - mobile advertising

Millenial Media - Mobile advertising & monetization

Inneractive - App monetization

Burstly - App monetization platform

Airpush - Mobile ad network

Medialets - Mobile rich media advertising

xAd - Mobile-local advertising & marketing

Pontiflex - Advertising platform

Jumptap - Target mobile advertising

Tapgage - Mobile interstitial ad network

Appia - Ad network

Buzzdoes - App distribution and discovery SDK

Apptap - App advertising network

Pollfish - Survey platform to target users

Mobclix - Real-time bidding mobile ad exchange

Location@scale - Mobile-local advertising

NativeX - targeted advertising

AppFlood - Cross-promotion platform for buying, selling and exchanging mobile traffic

Jampp - Drive installs to your app

Promo Campaigns

AppGratis - 1 free app a day

Appsfire - App Discovery

Free App A Day - The best paid apps for free daily

Surikate - Generate traffic onto mobile apps

AppBounty - Play & Get Paid

Promodispenser - Users get free Gift cards by downloading and reviewing your app

Expert Advices

Clarity - Get great advice

Buy & Sell apps

Apptopia - Buy and sell app ownership

Better Promotion For Your App Using A Great-looking Promo Video

Trackbacks

We love data, big and small and we are always on the lookout for interesting datasets. Over the last two years, the BigML team has compiled a long list of sources of data that anyone can use. It's a great list for browsing, importing into our platform, creating new models and just exploring what can be done with different sets of data.

In this post, we are sharing this list with you. Why? Well, searching for great datasets can be a time consuming task. We hope this list will support you in that search and help you to find some inspiring datasets. Some data sources are great for complementing your own data. Others are interesting or just fun to play with. If you have your own list of favorite data sources and want to share them, feel free to let us know and we'll update our list.

Categories of data sources

We grouped the links into some categories that bit.ly calls 'Bundles' to help you find what you are looking for and bundled the Bundles into a single Data Sources Bundle. Here is a short discussion of the categories, with some examples.

Machine Learning Datasets

Although many datasets can be used for machine learning tasks, the sources in this Bundle are specifically pre-processed for machine learning. We included one of the most famous sources of machine learning datasets in this Bundle: the UCI Machine Learning Repository. There are hundreds of datasets in this repository, nicely categorized so you have multiple angles to search. All datasets are well documented, including data set descriptions. One of the datasets you can find here is the widely used 'iris' dataset. Another example is this vertebral column dataset that has data on 6 features to diagnose orthopaedic patients.

Machine Learning Challenges

Our next bundle of links contains links to Machine Learning Challenges. Each challenge comes with data and usually this data is available for download, even after the challenge is closed. So challenges offer an interesting source of all kinds of data. One of the leaders in this field is Kaggle. But lesser known challenges like Digging Into Data or Causality Workbench have interesting repositories too.

Marketplaces and data hubs

There is an ever growing number of places where one can offer data, search data and download data. Some are commercial offerings that have both paid and free datasets. Others are more community style, non-commercial places where people share datasets. In this bundle we have combined these into a nice collection of places that have thousands of datasets. One of our favorites is Infochimps. Although they are now focusing on monetizing their big data platform, they still have a diverse data marketplace that is easy to browse through. Another great place is Microsoft's Windows Azure Marketplace. This marketplace has both paid and free datasets that you can subscribe to. You collect the data through an API, through setting a query and downloading the results or through BigML's integrated Azure Marketplace widget.

Open companies

We found some companies that share some of their data through downloads or API. We hope this short list is just the beginning and many more will follow! Among the early adopters are Best Buy, EBay and LendingClub. Also on this list is Prosper: we've created a daily feed through their API to model Prosper Status, Borrower Rate, Loan Status and Bid Count.

Data search engines

There are even special search engines that help you find data and data sets. Like Quandl, where you can search in over 3,000,000 financial, economic and social datasets. Open data @CTIC will let you scout open data initiatives worldwide. Zanran is a web site where you can search the web for data and statistics.

Data Journals

Then there are Data Journals. We only found a few. They not only publish data related stories, but also the data to go with the story. This way you can make your own analysis, visualization or models and even share them. At Sargasso most posts are in Dutch but you'll find some in English with data-links and nice visualizations. The Guardian Data blog is iconic of course. This blog is very open to what you can do with the data they provide. It even has a separate Flickr group where you can upload new visualizations. As an example, here's a post on credit ratings per country by S&P, Moody's and Fitch that we created some models for.

Open Data Sources

There's a big push for governments to be transparant and share data. We found a lot of sources on open data and have grouped them into a number of bundles that are more or less self explanatory.

Local government that contain links to open data sites of cities and counties around the world. National Government, with links for countries, but also including (US) States and regions. International bodies and Agencies, like the United Nations, the Worldbank et cetera. Finally a special bundle for US agencies.

One of the International Organizations that has made an amazing amount of data available is the World Bank. There is for example the World Development Indicators Database. You can extract data from this database using a simple interface and download the data you are looking for. For this sample 'Net Migration Model' we combined various economic and demographic indicators with net migration data.

A list of lists

We also have a bundle that contain lists of data sources. You will find interesting new sources but also some doubles in these lists. Sources are for instance Hillary Mason's Bundle of links on where to find research quality datasets, links to Quora questions & answers that contain references to data sources, blog posts that feature data source lists and a variety of other lists we found.

Miscellaneous

We'll end with an interesting collection of miscellaneous sites that publish specific data, like Cosm.com where you can publish and download sensor data. You can find the Million Song Dataset here, Google's n-gram datasets, data ranging from scientific to personal. It's a great list to spend a rainy day on. As an example, take a look at the data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. It is a rich source of data on internet related and social topics. Like this survey regarding the use of Facebook. We used it to make a predictive model on 'Do you expect to spend more/less time on Facebook the upcoming year?'.

A Final Word

Just a final word about these lists. We focused on the English speaking part of the world, very aware of the fact that there are many sites in other languages that we missed. Even for the English speaking part, there's no way we would find every possible source. Feel free to send us your favorite links at [email protected] and we will add them to the list!

We hope this great list of sources encourages you to go out and have fun with data. Not familiar with BigML's services? No problem: registration only takes a minute, is free and will get you a good set of promotional credits to get you going with some of these datasets!