Since its inception in 2010, AppSumo has been offering entrepreneurs, freelancers, and bloggers astounding discounts on popular business products. I owe a BIG thanks to Noah Kagan and team at AppSumo for helping me secure lifetime access to a plethora of tools that have been instrumental in growing my business and blog. Here are some of my favorite “lifetime access” deals I’ve been able to acquire over the past couple of years:
Ninja Outreach Beacon Landingi TARS Chatbot Book Like a Boss
And of course, many more, but the above tools are the ones I find the most useful to my current needs. So when AppSumo announced the launch of Briefcase, a subscription-based service that grants you access to a curated selection of top-tier software and apps for just $49/month, in fall 2017, I was more than excited to join and to try out the curated list of products. Since then, I’ve been an active subscriber of Briefcase, paying a monthly subscription fee of $49 every month, but saving thousands of dollars as a result. As of November 2018, there are 29 tools in Briefcase — these tools can help you optimize SEO, quickly design graphics and ebooks, manage your accounting, find sales leads, auto-generate content and so much more. In this article, we’ll examine the various tools that are being offered under the Briefcase portfolio and help you decide whether it’s worth investing $49 a month or $500 a year on AppSumo’s Briefcase. Before we begin, you may want to sign up for a 7-day free trial of Briefcase. This trial will give you full access to all the Briefcase tools for 7 days. Click on the button below to start your Briefcase trial. Try Briefcase for Free
What is Briefcase?
What is Briefcase?Briefcase Tools: A Detailed Analysis of All the ToolsCallPageBook Like a BossFindThatLeadPoplinkBriefcase: SEO ToolsSE RankingWebsite AuditorBriefcase: Social Media Marketing ToolsGrumMissinglettrPixelMePromoRepublicBriefcase: Finance ToolsBillyFiskl PrimeBriefcase: Sales Tools SalesflareNusiiBriefcase: Marketing ToolsViral LoopsKingSumo Web ProBriefcase: Customer Insights Tools PaperformBriefcase: Hiring Tools VervoeBriefcase: Design ToolsBeaconDesignBoldStencilBriefcase: Productivity ToolsBrain.fmCloudAppPlutio StudioFollowUp Personal CRMOther Briefcase BenefitsBriefcase Pricing PlansIs it Worth Paying $49/month for Briefcase?Final Thoughts
Briefcase is a membership-based service that grants you access to a curated selection of top-tier software for just $49/month. The curated tools are specifically chosen for entrepreneurs and small business owners. What Tools Are Included in Briefcase? As of November 2018, there are 29 tools in Briefcase and AppSumo adds new tools each month. These tools fall under the following categories:
Lead Generation SEO Social Media Marketing Finance Hiring Design Finance Sales Marketing Customer Insights Productivity
In the next section, we’ll explore the key features of all the tools included in Briefcase. If you’re already familiar with the tools under Briefcase, you can directly jump to the following sections of the article:
Briefcase Pricing Plans Is it Worth Paying $49/month for Briefcase?
Briefcase Tools: A Detailed Analysis of All the Tools
While all these tools are worthy of their own reviews, as you’d imagine, it’s not possible to contain all the pros and cons of each of them in this blog post. We are dealing 29 tools after all. Therefore, I’ll briefly describe each tool and present 3-4 best features of each tool, so you know exactly what you can expect from the tools in your Briefcase. Briefcase: Lead Generation Tools
CallPage
CallPage puts you on the phone with potential customers in less than 28 seconds. CallPage’s widgets and CTAs engage website visitors and give them an opportunity to chat immediately with your company’s representatives. As a result, CallPage drastically increases the number of calls you receive from website visitors.
Book Like a Boss
Key Features
50 calls per months on unlimited domains. Fully customizable widget (including texts and custom colors). Custom SMS notifications to thank customers and give them the contact info of the company representative they were just talking to.
Retail Price: $59/month Book Like A Boss is an all-in-one solution for entrepreneurs looking to create a booking page that sells products/services, takes appointments, and collects payments. I’m huge fan of Book Like a Boss. I’ve been using it for over 6 months now, and it’s simplified my life to a large extent and has definitely made me more organized. You can check out my page here to get a fair idea what a complete Book Like a Boss page looks like. Key Features
Manage your business from an easy-to-use dashboard. Integrates with Stripe and/or Paypal or get paid in cash. Sell services, digital, and physical products. The Book Like a Boss calendar integrates with your Google, Outlook, Office 365 or iCloud calendar, so you’re never double booked.
Retail Price: $25/month FindThatLead (FTL) serves up people’s email with just one click, saving you hours of time, frustration, and missed messaging. There are 5 different tools within FTL:
Prospector tool: This is for finding potential leads in specific categories. Email verifier: This will ensure the validity of the email you just found. Domain search: Just type in a domain (Ex: Google.com) and FTL will show you all the emails they have verified under that domain. Lead search: You type in name & site (Ex: Bill Gates / Microsoft) and FTL will either give you the correct email address or provide you with a guess. Whois Lookup: This is an integration where FTL will show you who is the registered owner of a website, if public.
Key Features
1,500 credits per month (a credit is a search or verification). A Google Chrome extension that can be used on social networks. Ability to add bulk emails by importing a CSV and a Google spreadsheet add-on.
Retail Price: $39/month Get 7-Day Free Trial of Briefcase
Poplink
Poplink adds eye-catching call-to-action (CTA) pop-ups on any content you share, helping drive people back to your own site for more conversions. Here’s how Poplink works in three easy steps: Key Features
30 total promotions you can edit, reuse, and replace Custom colors, positioning, and domain Analytical data (impressions, clicks, conversions)
Retail Price: $29/month
Briefcase: SEO Tools
SE Ranking
SE Ranking is a cloud-based SEO software that contains most standard SEO tools plus lots of special features. Key Features
Accurate Keyword Tracking – In real-time, find the positions of your website’s keywords in major search engines and how they’re doing by country, region, or city as frequently as you want. Backlink Monitoring – Track your existing links, get 15 SEO parameters to each of them, use noindex and nofollow filters. Website Audit – Don’t risk site errors reducing your visibility. Get full website audits and actionable recommendations to help boost SEO.
Retail Price: $7/month
Website Auditor
WebSite Auditor helps your site climb the SEO charts by providing in-depth on-page analysis and optimization. It uncovers every issue that can affect search engine indexation, rankings, and user experience and gives you step-by-step instructions on how to fix those issues. Key Features
Optimize an unlimited number of websites Measure optimization rates for competitors’ pages Create in-app optimization HTML reports
With Briefcase membership, you also gain unlimited access to Website Auditor training materials, plus an incredible roadmap of future updates. Retail Price: $49/month
Briefcase: Social Media Marketing Tools
Grum
Grum lets you manage Instagram for your clients, business, or for your own personal account from your desktop. Key Features
The first comment feature – This allows you to hide hashtags in your first comment so your posts look cleaner. Unlimited photo & video scheduling so you can set it and forget it. Unlimited editors so you can share your business account with team members.
Retail Price: $9.95/month
Missinglettr
Missinglettr creates strategic, automated social media campaigns that drive traffic for an entire year. Just review their pre-generated social posts and approve the ones you like. Over the next 12 months they’ll drive traffic back to your site and increase engagement. Key Features
Link unlimited sites and 25 social profiles Create up to 10 campaigns a week per site Invite external people to review your campaigns Start a campaign for old content
Retail Price: $65/month
PixelMe
PixelMe’s URL shortener and retargeting pixel will help you increase clickthroughs, improve ROI, and decrease ad acquisition costs. This simple piece of code helps you target and track people who click on your links. You can also share your PixelMe URL with social influencers, allowing you to retarget their audience long after the initial promotion ends. Key Features
5 retargeting pixels – Each pixel is reserved for one platform. So, with 5 pixels, you can use one pixel to retarget people on Facebook, one pixel to retarget people on Twitter, so on and so forth. Your own custom domain. Up to 1,000 shortened URL links per month.
Retail Price: $29/month Get 7-Day Free Trial of Briefcase
PromoRepublic
PromoRepublic is a tool small businesses and marketers use to create awesome posts with handcrafted templates and images. PromoRepublic has ready-to-publish content for 20+ industries. I find PromoRepublic highly useful to find relevant, trending content for my clients and also use the easy-to-use scheduler to queue posts automatically. Key Features
Post Ideas Library – 6,000+ templates, handcrafted by a team of professional designers and copywriters. Integrated Photostock – PromoRepublic includes over 100,000 stock images, so you don’t have to search for images elsewhere. Scheduling Tool – Choose date and time and schedule your posts in advance, with just a few clicks. Use “Add to queue” feature to publish posts automatically.
Retail Price: $29/month
Briefcase: Finance Tools
Billy
Billy is the simplest way for small business owners and entrepreneurs to get quotes approved, invoice clients, track expenses, and access financial reports. With Billy, you can:
Easily build and send client quotes and proposals Create professional, customized invoices Monitor unpaid invoices and prod customers with friendly reminders Store unlimited customer contact information Accept payments via stripe Track expenses by importing receipts and bank transactions Generate customizable financial reports including tax data.
Key Features
Create professional-looking invoices and get paid faster – Easily create a quote, attach a proposal,and send it to your client for approval. Track your expenses automatically and have all your numbers in one place – Link your bank account or credit card, and Billy will import all your expenses automatically. See the whole picture – Billy brings all your financials together. No more spreadsheets with expenses, Word invoices, bank statements and paper receipts all over the place. Have all your numbers in one place so you can see the whole picture of your business.
Retail Price: $19/month
Fiskl Prime
Fiskl allows you to send invoices the moment your work is done, automate time and mileage tracking, scan expenses, request deposits and manage clients all from whatever device you happen to have with you at the time. Soon, you’ll be able to accept payments from 135+ countries with Fiskl. Key Features
Unlimited invoices, clients, and storage Add up to 10 users Over 150 currencies supported Automated currency conversion
Retail Price: $30/month
Briefcase: Sales Tools
Salesflare
Salesflare is an intelligent, intuitive CRM software that’ll minimize the time you spend inputting data, so you can focus on what matters most to your business and spend more time maximizing sales. Key Features
Documents and other files organized automatically – Finding those files you sent to customers has never been this easy. In-depth customer knowledge – Track what customers are tweeting, if they’ve opened your emails, which links they clicked, and more. Integrate your sales toolset – Salesflare seamlessly plugs in with your other tools and systems, giving a true boost to your productivity.
Retail Price: $35/month
Nusii
Nusii lets you build custom proposals using your content and their well-designed proposal templates. Once the proposal is sent, you’ll have visibility into client activity along with tracking and auto-reminders. Key Features
You can send up to 45 active proposals per month Custom branding and custom domain Automatic reminders Proposal tracking notifications
Retail Price: $49/month
Briefcase: Marketing Tools
Viral Loops
Viral Loops is a template-based viral and referral marketing platform that helps businesses acquire more customers through word-of-mouth sales. Key Features
Pre-launch campaigns with the “waitlist” model. The “waitlist” model is simple: the more friends people refer, the higher they move up on the waitlist and the quicker they get access. Launch a traditional trackable eCommerce referral program where your company provides customers with a shareable link. Create and manage viral sweepstakes and competitions to engage customers and maximize social reach.
Retail Price: $199/month
KingSumo Web Pro
With KingSumo, you can grow your email list fast by creating viral giveaways on your site. KingSumo is the software AppSumo used to grow their email list to 750,000+ people. You can launch your first KingSumo Giveaway with 3 easy steps: Key Features
Unlimited giveaways Facebook Pixel tracking Custom branding
Retail Price: $19/month
Briefcase: Customer Insights Tools
Paperform
Paperform allows you to easily create and share web forms that embody your project or business. Making a form is as easy as writing a doc. Key Features
Unlimited number of forms 1k submissions and 10k views per month Embedding – Place your form where ever you like.
Retail Price: $15/month
Briefcase: Hiring Tools
Vervoe
Vervoe is an online tool that gives businesses the ability to interview, evaluate, and hire candidates all through one portal. Key Features
3 active jobs Unlimited interviews Unlimited candidates
Retail Price: $199/month
Briefcase: Design Tools
Beacon
Beacon is an app that creates beautiful looking eBooks in seconds with their professionally-designed templates, helping you generate leads and make more sales. Key Features
Supercharge existing content – Get more value from existing content by recycling it into a new format. Turn visitors into leads – Downloadable incentives can increase opt-in rates by up to 785%. Save time and resources – Produce professional materials without hiring a creative team.
Retail Price: $29/month
DesignBold
If you’re creating presentations, webinars, flyers or resumes, DesignBold is the cleanest, simplest, and fastest online design tool for non-designers. Key Features
Simple way to create graphics – Create sophisticated graphics without any need for technical expertise. Photo-editing with ease – With DesignBold, you can easily edit your photos using preset filters or get advanced with professional photo-editing tools like brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. High-resolution download – Easily download your design in glorious high definition for large print or web-use in JPEG, PNG or PDF.
Retail Price: $19/month
Stencil
With Stencil, you can create ads, YouTube thumbnails, Facebook headers, Twitter images, Instagram posts from your browser. Quickly mock up gorgeous graphic design assets in this easy and intuitive tool. Key Features
50,000+ quotes library to find the perfect quote or add any text you want. 680,000+ royalty free images. Pre-determined dimensions for your 34 most common projects.
Retail Price: $18/month
Briefcase: Productivity Tools
Brain.fm
Brain.fm combines science and music to help you enhance productivity, relaxation, meditation, and sleep, in just 15 minutes of use. Key Features
Focus – Get hours of work done without distractions. Meditate – Calm your mind’s chatter. Sleep – Stop tossing and turning. Get restful sleep.
Retail Price: $6.95/month
CloudApp
CloudApp is the best tool for snapping screenshots, recording video walkthroughs, creating GIFs, and communicating with your team and customers. CloudApp lets you capture and embed video, GIFs, screencasts and marked up images throughout business workflows (eg. software development, design, customer success, support, sales, marketing). Key Features
Launch CloudApp using the button or link shortcut Snap a screenshot, make a GIF, share screens, or record a video Automatically generate a private cloud link Share with the intended recipient
Retail Price: $8/month
Plutio Studio
Plutio is a business and productivity platform that allows freelancers to manage their business from one place. Key Features
Project Management via customized workflows and organizational tools Daily tasks through sorting, prioritizing, adding deadlines and notes Invoice tracking by connecting your Stripe, PayPal or bank account to Plutio
Retail Price: $20/month
FollowUp Personal CRM
FollowUp – an intelligent, simple Personal CRM – helps you continue to connect effortlessly. It’s built to live inside Gmail so you can stay on top of your network as you communicate in real time. It’s incredibly intuitive, and most importantly, sustainable. Key Features
Notifications and reminders to follow up with contacts Search conversations, the last time you spoke, and their contact information Schedule events directly from Gmail.
Retail Price: $358/year
Other Briefcase Benefits
In addition to all the aforementioned tools, here are some other benefits of an active Briefcase membership:
10% off AppSumo Promotion: With this special promotion, you can get an additional 10% off on all AppSumo deals. Click here to check out all the latest AppSumo deals. Free AppSumo Tool (Monthly): Every month, you get to choose the next tool added to your Briefcase products. Briefcase Pro members get to choose the next two tools to their Briefcase portfolio.
Briefcase Pricing Plans
You can either opt for monthly subscription or save more money with annual subscription. If you opt for monthly subscription, these are the plans and pricing options available to you:
Briefcase – $49/month Briefcase Pro – $99/month Briefcase Enterprise – Custom Pricing
And, if you go for annual subscription of Briefcase, this is what you’ll be paying:
Briefcase – $500/month (save 15%) Briefcase Pro – $900/month Briefcase Enterprise – Custom Pricing
The flagship Briefcase plan, which we’ve discussed in detail above, is the ideal plan for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. For medium-sized businesses, Briefcase Pro would be ideal as you get access to agency plans for tools such as PixelMe and Grum. If you’re a large business with massive requirements and a bigger budget, then Briefcase Enterprise would be the most optimal plan for you. For more details on all the features, click here.
Is it Worth Paying $49/month for Briefcase?
In the end, it all boils down to one key question: Is it worth paying $49 a month for Briefcase? The short answer is yes. If you were to subscribe to each of these tools, majority of which follow a subscription-based model, you’d easily be paying over thousand dollars a month. In the end, it’s all about saving cost and getting the maximum efficiency out of some of the best business tools available in the market. Even if you were to use just 10 of these tools (like I do) in a given month, you’d still be saving up a considerable amount of money. There are currently 29 tools in Briefcase. To be frank, I use only 10 of them on a regular basis: Brain.fm, Promo Republic, CloudApp, pCloud, Grum, Planable, WebTextTool, Poplink, Rocketium, and FindThatLead. I’d like to use the rest of the tools more, but I just don’t have the time or bandwidth right now. But it’s nice to know I can access them anytime I want. If you think you’re at risk of losing some of the unused tools by the end of the month, AppSumo has a solution for that. You just need to activate the tool from the Briefcase dashboard before the month ends. That way you’ll make sure you always have access to the tool even if Briefcase discontinues the tool in the future.
Final Thoughts
I’ve tried to describe the features and benefits of all the tools currently offered by AppSumo in Briefcase. But the best way to evaluate these tools would be to sign up for a free trial. Currently, AppSumo is offering a free 7-day trial of the platform, where you can unlock some of the tools and test out the features. Click here to sign up for a free trial. Each tool in Briefcase has been carefully selected and vetted by the AppSumo team. Rather than spending $25-50/month on one tool, you can pay $49/month through Briefcase and enjoy lifetime access to some of the best and most unique business tools on the market. Click here to unlock your Briefcase
