From Accounting to Yoga: Free online services during the COVID-19 pandemic

A growing number of companies have stepped up to help families, businesses, and teams navigate their way through the confounding and disconcerting world of the coronavirus by offering free access to their online services and tech tools during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are pleased to share the names of some of these companies and the links to their valuable free services here in this blog. 

Accounting

Beanworks, an accounts payable automation company, is waiving all fees for up to six months as well as the $5,000 setup fee.

Bill.com, an online business payments solution, is waiving the first three months of subscription fees for businesses affected by the pandemic

Blackline, a cloud-based solution for automating and controlling the entire reconciliation process, has made a number of its services free during the outbreak including its task management and reporting solution for existing customers.

Cloud storage

Atlassian, a collaboration and productivity software provider, is offering its suite of cloud products for free for teams of up to ten people.

IBM is offering nine cloud products and services free for 90 days to IBM customers.

Laserfiche, enterprise content management solution, is giving out a free six-month subscription to the Laserfiche Cloud to all businesses.

Cybersecurity – and a brief but important word of caution

Along with the outstanding way that many people and businesses have stepped up to help others during the Covid-19 pandemic, there has, sadly, also been a surge in cyber attacks. Cyber criminals are quick to try to take advantage of any event in order to launch their cyber attacks and the Covid-19 pandemic is no different. The increase in Internet users created an expanded attack surface that hackers have been eager to exploit. In addition to already known malware, there have also been numerous new malware with corona cyber themes. However, whatever the malware, they can all cause tremendous financial and reputational damage. That is why we’ve included a few free extra offerings under the cybersecurity category, as there is a critical need to protect your privacy now more than ever. Note that this is by no means an exhaustive list; these are just a few options, and there are several other options available too.

BreachTrak by DQM QRC, a data tracking and monitoring service, is offering organizations a free three-month subscription to its service for checking remote work processes securely and for monitoring for data leaks or misuse.

Dashlane, a password manager and digital wallet application, is making its Business and Premium password manager free to new users for the first three months.

Mastercard, a leading global payments & technology company, is offering free security assessments to small businesses in Canada. It is specifically directed at businesses that have had to switch to a remote work environment due to social distancing requirements.

Netscout, a provider of network and application performance management products, is offering free access to its threat intelligence portal, Cyber Threat Horizon, which provides visibility into DDoS attacks in real time. 

PandaDoc, a cloud-based document management software, is offering a free eSignature solution that is available worldwide and for an unlimited number of users.

Reason Cybersecurity, a leading cybersecurity provider, continues to offer a free version of its antivirus solution. The solution includes camera and microphone protection, which while always important, is of paramount importance at this time when so many people rely on video conferencing tools for online meetings, calls, courses, and conferences.

Surfshark, a high-speed VPN service that allows you to stay secure and anonymous when using the Internet, is giving small businesses six months free VPN access to help them with their remote workforce.

Education

Coursera, a world-wide online learning platform that offers extensive open online courses, is providing free access to over 3,800 courses and 400 specializations from leading universities and companies around the world.

PBS Kids, PBS’ children’s programming brand, has a variety of free resources available such as its video app with educational videos, its games app with educational games, and its newsletter which offers activities and tips to keep kids busy and learning at home.

The American Museum of Natural History, located in New York and one of the largest natural history museums in the word, is sharing its vast resource of online content for families and teachers to use during the pandemic.

Entertainment

HBO, an American television network, is offering its content for free during the pandemic; no subscription needed.

Met Opera, the New York-based opera company, is providing a different presentation each day from their Live in HD series for free when streamed from the Met website.

Masterclass, which provides online classes to students in a particular discipline by experts in that discipline, is offering one free streaming class per week for the next few weeks.

E-commerce

Matcha, a content marketing platform, is giving anyone who signs up during the Covid-19 crisis a free subscription forever.

Skrill, an international online payments company, is offering its e-wallet free of charge to SMBs around the world that are providing products or services supporting communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

eBay, an online marketplace for consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer transactions, has launched several initiatives to help the SMB community including an accelerator program, free basic eBay stores for up to three months, no selling fees for up to 500 items sold, and a slew of other programs.

Legal and employment

L4GG, the Lawyers for Good Government non-profit, has announced a nationwide legal clinic that will provide pro bono assistance to small businesses to help them survive the economic impact of Covid-19.

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a law firm specializing in businesses and securities, released free automated legal tools to help businesses manage employment issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic. They also have an automated system for employees to use if they need to report that they’ve been diagnosed with Covid-19l.

LegalShield, an online legal service that provides legal coverage for small businesses and individuals, launched a free coronavirus resource center that provides legal guidance on corona-related issues regarding our child care, employment, estate planning, finances, healthcare, and travel.

Loans

Quick Base, a platform that businesses can use to build custom applications, has created a wizard so applicants for SBA financial assistance can quickly assess their business’ loan eligibility. When applicants qualify for the assistance, Quick Base also supports them in generating the applications needed for their preferred lender.

Savi, a student loan wellness platform that helps students with their loans, has created an automatic sign-up tool to help students who might be eligible to reduce their student loan payments.

SBA, the Small Business Administration, is offering a number of assistance programs in the form of grants and loans such as the Economic Injury Disaster Loan advance to businesses that are experiencing a temporary loss of revenue due to Corona.  In addition, there are many government support measures from around the world aimed specifically at SMBs. 

Marketing

Business Warrior, a platform that makes recommendations to businesses on tasks to help them simplify and prioritize their decisions, is offering one year of access to its Business Warrior software for free during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Mailchimp, a marketing automation platform and email marketing service, is offering a variety of assistance programs to help businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic such as free standard plans for public service groups, and free .coms and websites for five years to help get businesses on line and more.

SurveyMonkey, an online survey development software, is offering charities and nonprofits in the US and the UK a 25% discount on SurveyMonkeyplans to help them get out important surveys about the impact of the pandemic.

Social media

Hootsuite, a social media management platform, is offering a free access to its professional plan to non profits and SMBs during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whatsapp, a text and voice messaging app, has launched the free World Health Organization Health Alert, which is designed to help the public get accurate answers about the coronavirus. It is available 24/7 around the world.

TikTok, a video-sharing social networking service, announced a series of relief initiatives to support those in the fight against Covid-19. The company is pledging a total of $375 million in this effort which includes a combination of funds, ad credits, and ad space for public health information.

Telemedicine

CVS, the largest pharmacy chain in the US, is waiving all charges for home delivery of prescription medicines during the Covid-19 crisis as well as supporting numerous other health-related initiatives.

CareClix, a cloud-based telemedicine solution is offering live, on‑demand video visits for anyone who suspects they’ve been exposed to Covid-19 or is experiencing Covid-19 symptoms.

HealthTap, a virtual healthcare provider, is currently connecting patients with board-certified doctors in the US, by text or video, for free virtual appointments.

Video conferencing tools

Cisco Webex, a cloud-based enterprise solution for eb and video conferencing, is offering the free version of its conferencing service with no time restrictions along with new features such as a toll-free dial in option.

Zoom, a cloud-based video conferencing service, is offering free video conferencing for students K-12 around the world.

Google Hangouts, a communications service that lets its members send text, voice and video chats, is making its enterprise version of Hangouts free until the end of September to assist businesses and schools in working remotely during the pandemic.

Other video conferencing tools that are offering free services during the Covid-19 pandemic include BlueJeans, Joinme and more.

Wellness

DoYogaWithMe, an online yoga site that offers yoga classes, tutorial, practices etc., is offering two months of free premium membership to anyone who has experienced hardship as a result of the pandemic.

Headspace, an online health and wellness company that specializes in meditation, is making its meditations from its “Weathering the Storm” collection free for everyone.

Aarmy, a bootcamp-style fitness studio, has created a daily lineup of bootcamp-style workouts and is offering them for free via Instagram live (@aarmy).

Wi-Fi

US telecom companies, AT&T, and Comcast, as well as Spectrum, an independent business connectivity provider, are allowing everyone, whether or not they are their customers, free access to their public Wi-Fi. 

And there are lots more

Families, neighborhoods, communities and even businesses know how to step up and come together in times of a crisis. The list of platforms above is just a small demonstration of businesses and the people behind them rising to the challenge to help businesses and individuals on their journey back to normalcy, but there are hundreds more. Wishing everyone a safe and speedy journey back.