Struggling to impress your funders?
You have a great idea, but translating it into a solid business plan that attracts investors feels overwhelming and complex.
Worse, a weak plan gets you nowhere. It fails to secure funding and leaves your team without a clear roadmap for growth.
According to Data Insights Market, high initial investment costs are a major barrier. This pressure makes choosing the right, affordable tool even more critical for your success.
But the right software can change this, helping you build an investor-ready plan without the headache of spreadsheets or expensive consultants.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the best business plan software available today. I’ll help you find a tool that fits your budget and strategic goals.
You’ll discover platforms that simplify financial forecasting, streamline collaboration, and produce reports that will grab the attention of potential funders.
Let’s get started.
Quick Summary:
| # | Software | Rating | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LivePlan → | Entrepreneurs and growing SMBs | |
| 2 | Upmetrics → | Growth-oriented SMB owners | |
| 3 | Bizplan → | Entrepreneurs seeking funding | |
| 4 | PlanGuru → | Businesses needing financial insight | |
| 5 | GoSmallBiz → | Entrepreneurs and SMB owners |
1. LivePlan
Struggling to translate your vision into a clear plan?
LivePlan helps you build a solid business plan, financial forecasts, and presentations for your business.
This means you can easily navigate the complexities of launching or growing your venture, eliminating hours of spreadsheet struggles.
You can achieve almost any business goal.
LivePlan allows you to transform your business vision into a clear roadmap for success. Here’s how it works: the AI-Powered LivePlan Assistant helps you build your plan faster and easier, eliminating writer’s block. Plus, you can browse over 550 sample business plans for inspiration, covering every industry imaginable. This helps you visualize what your completed plan should look like. Additionally, you can clarify your ideas in just 30 minutes by creating a One-Page Pitch, then use it to effortlessly explain your business opportunity to investors. The result is a guided process for financial forecasts and reports without complicated formulas.
You’ll gain unmatched clarity and confidence.
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Key features:
- AI-Powered LivePlan Assistant: Say goodbye to writer’s block and quickly build your business plan with AI guidance, ensuring your plan is top-notch and complete.
- Financial Forecasts & Scenarios: Easily build comprehensive financial forecasts and reports without clunky spreadsheets, simplifying cash flow and budgeting.
- One-Page Pitch Creator: Quickly organize and vet your business ideas in 30 minutes, creating a compelling one-page pitch to present to potential investors.
LivePlan features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: LivePlan is the best business plan software for entrepreneurs and growing SMBs, proving companies that plan and track grow 30% faster. Its AI Assistant, financial forecasting, and pitch tools reduce planning time and ensure investor-ready outputs, making it ideal for securing funding and strategic growth.
2. Upmetrics
Is creating your business plan an uphill battle?
Upmetrics streamlines this process with an AI Business Plan Generator, easing the initial hurdles of starting your plan. This means you can quickly get your ideas onto paper without facing the dreaded blank page dilemma.
The platform offers clear, step-by-step guidance and templated sections, ensuring your plan is structured and professionally presented without extensive effort. The result is a robust, investor-ready output.
You’re seeking seamless financial modeling, right?
Upmetrics delivers robust financial forecasting and reporting, eliminating complex spreadsheets. You get automatic financials and AI-powered forecasting, letting you focus on strategy instead of number crunching.
The intuitive dashboard and essential reports give you a clear view of your financial health, visualizing data with clarity and impact for stakeholders. Plus, the AI Pitch Deck Generator helps you create compelling presentations directly from your business plan, ready to impress funders.
Additionally, collaborative features allow real-time teamwork with partners and advisors, ensuring everyone stays aligned with real-time updates and version control. This comprehensive approach supports your strategic goals and minimizes learning curves.
It’s all about turning your ideas into reality.
Key features:
- AI-Powered Business Plan Generator: Quickly drafts comprehensive business plans, helping you overcome writer’s block and accelerate your planning process efficiently.
- Financial Forecasting & Reporting: Creates detailed financial projections and visual reports without complex formulas, simplifying data analysis for informed decisions.
- Collaborative Workspaces & Pitch Deck Builder: Enables real-time teamwork with advisors and automatically generates impressive, shareable pitch decks from your business plan.
Upmetrics features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Upmetrics distinguishes itself as the best business plan software by integrating AI-driven content generation, comprehensive financial forecasting, and collaborative tools. Over 110,000 entrepreneurs have used it to secure funding, launch ventures, and impress investors, making it a powerful solution for growth-oriented SMB owners.
3. Bizplan
Struggling to impress funders with your business plan?
Bizplan offers a guided business plan creator that simplifies the complex process, helping you clearly communicate your vision. This means you can stop guessing and confidently present your idea.
The software addresses your pain points by providing all the important questions you need to answer. This approach transforms a daunting task into a streamlined, actionable process.
Here’s how Bizplan guides your growth.
Bizplan provides a comprehensive platform that moves beyond just a builder, offering financial tools to ease the pain of setting salaries, projecting revenue, and tracking costs. You simply set your goals, and it handles the math, streamlining your financial planning.
Additionally, you get expert help through self-guided courses and over 650 masterclass videos, ensuring you have answers to any question. Plus, Bizplan enables you to pitch your plan directly to investors, with free access to Fundable.com, a platform that’s helped startups raise over $500 million, turning your plan into a funded reality.
The result is less time writing and more time building.
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Key features:
- Guided Business Plan Creator: Simplifies business planning by prompting you with essential questions, making it easier to articulate your ideas for funders.
- Integrated Financial Tools: Automatically handles complex financial projections like salaries, revenue, and cost tracking, so you can focus on strategic goals.
- Direct Investor Access: Provides free access to Fundable.com, an online fundraising platform that connects you directly with investors and has helped raise over $500 million.
Bizplan features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Bizplan stands out as the best business plan software for entrepreneurs seeking to impress funders and fuel growth. Its guided creator, integrated financial tools, and direct access to investors—which has helped raise over $500 million in committed capital—make it an ideal solution for balancing budget constraints with investor-ready output capabilities.
4. PlanGuru
Struggling to make confident financial decisions?
PlanGuru helps thousands of businesses, nonprofits, and their advisors drive better decision-making through time-tested processes.
This integrated 3-Way Forecasting software with educational resources allows you to create more intelligent scenarios in less time.
Here’s how you can achieve your goals.
PlanGuru helps you forecast all three financial statements: income, balance sheet, and cash flow. You can project for up to 10 years using over 20 powerful forecasting methods, including turn-key options and custom business drivers that use non-financial data. You can also import historical results from your general ledger in minutes, allowing you to quickly view budget vs. actual reports and build rolling forecasts.
Additionally, PlanGuru offers unlimited budgeting flexibility, whether you need a simple high-level budget or a detailed multi-department operating budget with consolidations. This robust planning framework and its scenario analysis capabilities provide insights previously unattainable, enabling you to make crucial strategic decisions with confidence.
Make better decisions, increase profit, and accomplish your goals.
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Key features:
- Integrated 3-Way Forecasting: Project income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow for up to 10 years using over 20 forecasting methods, including custom drivers and non-financial data.
- Rapid Analysis Creation: Import historical results from QuickBooks, Xero, or Excel in minutes, enabling quick budget vs. actual reports and rolling forecasts with just a few clicks.
- Flexible Budgeting & Scenario Analysis: Create simple high-level or detailed multi-department budgets, and run what-if scenarios to evaluate risks and opportunities for confident decision-making.
PlanGuru features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: If you’re seeking the best business plan software to gain precise financial insight and confidently navigate growth, PlanGuru’s integrated 3-Way Forecasting, flexible budgeting, and powerful scenario analysis make it an excellent choice. It’s designed to help you make better decisions, increase profit, and accomplish your strategic goals.
5. GoSmallBiz
Struggling to impress investors or map your business’s future?
GoSmallBiz offers specialized business plan software designed to help you create a complete narrative plan.
This means you can build your credibility and test your new ideas with a professional, comprehensive document.
Ready to make your business dreams a reality?
GoSmallBiz helps you create your business plan with industry-specific templates and comprehensive video tutorials. This means you can seamlessly crunch the numbers with financial statements and projections, simplifying complex tasks. Additionally, you’ll find essential tools to protect your business, like legal services and compliance training. Plus, GoSmallBiz also helps you grow by building new websites, launching email campaigns, and standing out on Google search and maps. The result is a robust solution for your business.
Key features:
- Industry-Specific Templates: Create comprehensive narrative plans with templates tailored to your industry, ensuring your business plan is relevant and professional.
- Financial Statements & Projections: Easily crunch your numbers with integrated tools for financial statements and projections, simplifying complex financial modeling for your business.
- Video Tutorials: Access video tutorials that guide you through every step of creating your business plan, ensuring ease of adoption and investor-ready output.
GoSmallBiz features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: For entrepreneurs and SMB owners seeking the best business plan software that balances ease of adoption with investor-ready output, GoSmallBiz is a strong contender. Its industry-specific templates and comprehensive financial tools address key pain points like decision anxiety and the need for actionable insights, helping you impress funders and fuel your growth.
6. Enloop
Struggling to create an investor-ready business plan?
Enloop offers automated text writing and synced financial data, making plan creation less daunting. This means you can focus on your vision, while the software handles the complex financial narratives automatically.
It simplifies the daunting task of generating comprehensive plans.
Enloop helps you produce polished business plans with its smart, simple, and fast online platform. You can invite your team, accountants, and business partners to view and edit your plan collaboratively, which streamlines feedback. The system generates 16 critical financial ratios and compares them to your peers, providing valuable insights into your forecasted performance.
Additionally, you receive bank-ready financial forecast reports with explanations, along with a real-time performance score that strengthens your plan as it increases. This also includes a Pass/Fail Report to identify critical issues immediately.
The result is a professional plan, faster.
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Key features:
- Automated Text Writing: Generates customized text and automatically syncs financial data, ensuring painless updates and consistent narratives for your business plan.
- Financial Ratio Analysis: Provides 16 critical financial ratios and compares your performance to peers, offering a clear understanding of your business’s standing.
- Real-time Performance Score: Tracks your business plan’s strength as you build it, providing immediate feedback and motivation to refine your strategy.
Enloop features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Enloop stands out as a strong contender for the best business plan software, particularly for entrepreneurs and SMBs who need a quick, reliable, and investor-ready plan. Its automated financial reporting, peer comparisons, and collaborative features ensure you can produce a comprehensive document in hours.
7. Cuttles
Struggling to impress funders and fuel your business growth?
Cuttles provides an interactive, guided software to build, understand, and grow your business. This means you can easily create investor-ready materials.
It simplifies the traditionally arduous task of writing a business plan, enabling you to think, sketch, and write with remarkable ease. The result? You’re ready to confidently meet investors.
Cuttles helps you define your startup team, create pitch decks, and manage budgets. This ensures your financial projections are clear and impactful.
You get a versatile, well-organized startup builder that consolidates all your business details in one place. Additionally, the software ensures your plan and investor materials are always up-to-date, eliminating the need for constant manual adjustments and frustrating workarounds. Its budget tool provides a powerful yet easy-to-use interface for constructing detailed budgets, including crucial cash flow projections and metrics investors demand. Plus, Cuttles offers high-quality exportable templates, making it simple to present your refined plan.
Your business ideas finally have a home!
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Key features:
- Guided Business Planning: An interactive platform with in-app guides helps you build, understand, and grow your business, making the process simpler and faster.
- Investor-Ready Tools: Create startup pitches, define your team, develop budgets, and generate financial projections with features designed to impress funders confidently.
- Comprehensive Startup Builder: Manage all your business details in one centralized location, ensuring your plan and investor materials are always current and accessible.
Cuttles features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Cuttles stands out as a best business plan software, particularly for early-stage startups, by streamlining complex tasks like financial modeling and investor material creation. Its guided approach, combined with features like an easy-to-use budget tool and always up-to-date links, significantly reduces planning time, as evidenced by founders completing plans in just days or weeks instead of months.
Conclusion
Still feeling overwhelmed by your business plan?
Choosing the right software feels impossible when you’re balancing a tight budget against the features needed to impress investors and guide your startup.
The landscape is changing fast. According to Upmetrics, AI-powered features have surged by 180%, making planning more efficient. This shift makes choosing modern tools even more critical for your success.
So, what’s my top pick?
From my experience, LivePlan is the best choice for turning your complex vision into an investor-ready plan without the usual stress or high costs.
I love its AI Assistant and simplified financial forecasting. Using the best business plan software like LivePlan gives you unmatched clarity and a clear roadmap for growth.
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I’d recommend you start a free trial of LivePlan and see how it streamlines your entire process.
You’ll gain confidence and impress funders.
