TechRadar Verdict
PlanSnack is a free entry in a market that’s gotten quite crowded in the last few years, and it still manages to bring a fresh perspective. It’s simple and easy to use, and doesn’t take a lot of training to get started. In fact, PlanSnack is going to do most of the heavy lifting for you, and can allow you to generate a full business plan in just a few clicks, following simple guidelines. You can also customize your plan in a lot of detail, and will have access to a variety of options for tweaking it to the requirements of different markets, as well as to your own liking. The tool may be a bit simple, but it gets the job done, and doesn’t leave a lot to be desired if you just want something that can produce a plan quickly and effortlessly.
Pros
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Completely free
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Fast and easy to use
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Clean, streamlined interface
Cons
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No advanced features
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Just a tool for initial planning – no ongoing reports or anything like that
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Business plan software has started to gain a lot of popularity on the open market, after years of exclusivity and only being available to large companies. Today, there are various options for those who want to plan their next business venture in as much detail as they need, as well as some simpler solutions for those who don’t have a lot of experience yet, and don’t know how to make their first moves. Choosing the right tool for this job can take a while, especially if you’re new to this, but it’s well worth the effort.
PlanSnack is rather simple, compared to other similar applications, but beneath that exterior lies a useful little tool that can work wonders for small companies and inexperienced entrepreneurs who need some initial guidance. True, it doesn’t have the complex features one might expect from more comprehensive packages, but it still works just fine for certain use cases. For those who just need something that works out of the box and can hold their hand in the initial stages, PlanSnack can easily cover all their needs.
Plans and pricing
One of the great things about PlanSnack is that it’s completely free. The tool is offered without any charge, and doesn’t even require an account to use – you are free to go through the initial plan generation and customization without ever inputting your email address. The program is clearly designed for those who need to use something quickly and without much hassle.
There are no premium plans available, which is the one thing that could have potentially improved PlanSnack to some extent. While the application already offers a good set of features in its free version, there’s no doubt that there’s a segment of the market that would pay for an upgrade. On the other hand, there are plenty of premium tools available on that corner of the market, so the PlanSnack developers might be smart to limit themselves to their specific niche.
Features
PlanSnack is very straightforward to use. You’ll be taken through several stages, where you’ll be asked different questions about your business plans and vision. You’ll get a business plan generated in the end based on those questions, and it will be specifically tailored to the market that you’ve chosen. You can create plans for various types of organizations, including a small business, online store, or even a mobile app. Each plan is specifically customized to cover all important points for the business type you’ve chosen.
If you don’t feel like coming up with any of the content yourself, there are readily available templates you can use, allowing you to populate every field of your new plan with just a few clicks. This can be a powerful brainstorming tool that can give you a lot of freedom in exploring different ideas and combinations between them.
Interface and in use
The application works in your browser, and doesn’t take any heavy resources to run. It’s actually one of the lighter tools of its type when it comes to its interface, and there aren’t many options to pick from most of the time. At each step, you’re typically prompted to provide some information about your ideas and vision, and the application can fill those out for you if you can’t provide anything at the moment. You can tweak the final result in the end, and ensure that it matches your vision entirely.
Support
One downside of PlanSnack is that it doesn’t provide any reliable customer support. The company has a contact email, and they’re also active on Twitter, but beyond that, you won’t get much in the way of opportunities to contact them. Given the small set of features and the relative ease of using PlanSnack, that shouldn’t be a problem most of the time. But if you run into a problem with the application, you might have to wait a while until it’s resolved.
The competition
LivePlan is perhaps the biggest competitor to PlanSnack, although the two applications are aimed at entirely different market segments. LivePlan is a much more advanced suite aimed at large-scale organizations, and it fulfils completely different requirements. For those who just need something fast and simple, PlanSnack should prove more than sufficient.
Final verdict
PlanSnack doesn’t do a lot, but it has a strong focus on its individual range of features, and delivers excellently on that front. The application is great for beginners who want some guidance in setting up their initial business plans, but more advanced users might be a bit disappointed with what it has to offer. Their needs are met by other products on this market though, so that should not really be a valid concern for anyone, regardless of their experience level and their actual business plans.
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