The best business plan software of 2026: Expert tested

4 days ago 10

When you're starting a new business, having the right software to help you plan out your roadmap can make all the difference. Maybe you just need a way to organize your thoughts. Or you want to create a detailed presentation for your partners. Or perhaps you want to pitch investors for a preseed round.

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There are specific things people will look for in each of those scenarios, so having software with prebuilt templates and a drag-and-drop editor, not to mention forecasting tools and business intelligence, can be a huge help as you put everything together.

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What is the best business plan software right now?

LivePlan is my pick for the best business plan software of 2026, thanks to its ability to visually represent complex business data using the most accessible charts and graphs. It's got more than 550 different business plan templates, powerful financial forecasting tools, and an AI writing assistant to help you get your thoughts on paper without writer's block. Whether you're pitching your business to investors or just spelling things out for your fellow team members, LivePlan has everything you need to make your business plan detailed, accessible, and impressive.

As a B2B tech journalist, I've reviewed hundreds of different business software packages. For this list, I looked at emerging features that could help take your business plan to new heights, such as AI-powered data analysis and business intelligence platform integrations.

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The best business plan software of 2026

LivePlan is a very beginner-friendly business planner, offering step-by-step guidance to help new users learn the ropes of the platform. Its new AI writing tool is a particularly welcome addition -- during my testing, it helped me overcome my writer's block when I was trying to explain a complex financial scenario in accessible terms. As an added plus, LivePlan let me represent the financial data visually, using some really appealing charts and graphs, a feature that's great if you're presenting to someone who doesn't have a financial background themselves.

There are more than 550 prebuilt templates across every imaginable business category. These can help you get a head start on your plan if you're unsure of what format it should be in. There's an automated financial reporting tool that analyzes your financial data and creates a bank-ready report you can show any investors or shareholders. If you'd like to have multiple team members editing the business plan over time, LivePlan also lets you lock sessions to prevent conflicting edits.

Circling back to financial reporting, LivePlan integrates directly with business accounting tools like QuickBooks and Xero, importing that data into its own reports without any manual data-entry errors. It's rated 4.5 stars out of 5 on Capterra and 4.1 stars on G2, which suggests that most customers report a positive experience with the platform after using it. LivePlan also self-reports that businesses notice 30% faster business growth after using its software.

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Enloop is a free online business planning tool with paid options for advanced users. If you look at the company's website, you'll notice that the platform looks really outdated compared with newer business planning software. However, Enloop is currently revamping its branding and interface design to upgrade itself to modern standards. Unfortunately, that also means new registrations are closed for the time being.

That said, even with its outdated user interface, Enloop sports some pretty advanced features. It has an AutoWrite functionality, for one, that automatically updates the copy of your business plan based on current financial data as it becomes available. It also has a real-time performance scoring system that intelligently reviews and rates the quality of your business plan. There's even a tool for evaluating your financial performance against industry standards by looking at 16 critical factors. This tool supports more than 100 global currencies, so you can generate reports and forecasts in any of those, depending on your location.

Enloop supports collaboration, enabling you to invite team members, consultants, and external stakeholders to review your business plan and make changes to it. But for all its financial capabilities, Enloop lacks third-party integrations with accounting and bookkeeping tools of any kind, so you have to manually import your books as a CSV. Also there's a 36-month limit to financial forecasting, which can present an issue for companies looking to use it for long-term financial planning.

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I found the AI business plan generator in Upmetrics to be a huge time-saver over the other manual and template-based options. This is a forward-looking business plan builder that can generate AI business plans in 10 minutes and offers an AI copilot for help with customizing the report after it's been built. Its copilot feature works almost like a personal business advisor, not just guiding you through the creation of your plan but also suggesting what you could do to make it better. You can also use AI to rewrite, translate, and enhance your plan copy.

In a huge step up from Enloop, Upmetrics offers financial forecasting capabilities for up to 10 years into the future. You can also integrate with bookkeeping tools like QuickBooks and Xero, so there's no manual reporting necessary. There are more than 400 industry- and purpose-specific business plan templates you can customize to your liking, in case the built-in generator isn't getting you the results you want.

On top of all this, Upmetrics is very affordable. Its plans start at just $7 a month, but the $14 a month upgrade to the Premium plan gets you advanced features like version control, longer forecasting periods, and more export options to choose from. If you own multiple businesses, you can also manage up to three of them on the same account by moving to the $37 per month plan.

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As soon as you log in, Bizplan greets you with its clutter-free interface. Each step is divided into tasks, making it easier for new users to follow along. There are lots of templates, plus an advanced editor for customizing them. Bizplan also comes with a great support network. There are self-help resources, like a knowledge base and a master class you can take. For direct support, you can call the hotline during working hours.

Bizplan has this huge financial command center that aggregates all your company's accounts. I also liked how the revenue projection could adapt to different business models, including SaaS. You can generate many types of financial reports, like balance sheets, income statements, and break-even analyses.

Though there are monthly and annual subscriptions available, Bizplan's lifetime subscription plan for $349 offers the best value. But I should note that Bizplan is best suited for experienced business owners, because the advanced features can overwhelm first-time entrepreneurs. And though there are a lot of reports and templates available, some companies may need something even more flexible, like Smartsheet.

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If you've been using Excel or Sheets to create business plans, you'll love switching to Smartsheet. This spreadsheet management tool has its own AI assistant, letting you generate advanced forecasts and calculations without breaking a sweat.

Each department can create its own customizable portal, which can handle functions like setting goals or forecasting expenses. Departments can also set their own KPIs to monitor, aside from the usual enterprise-wide metrics. I liked how easy it was to submit expense and revenue items to the budget forecasting tool, which can look at historical data to compare year-on-year differences.

Smartsheets offers 350 different templates to cover different user needs, including business planning. You can also use the AI to build custom workflows. Departmental dashboards have their own summaries, reports, and forecasts to keep you on track. But some advanced features, like asset management and resource tracking, need paid add-ons. Also, this is an advanced tool for people with a data analysis background, not new business owners.

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Business planner	Starting cost	Customizable?	Integrations	Easy to use?
LivePlan	$20/month	Yes	Supported (QuickBooks, Xero)	Moderate learning curve
Enloop	Not specified	Limited	Limited	Yes
Upmetrics	$7/month	Yes	Supported (QuickBooks, Xero)	Yes
Bizplan	$29/month	Limited	Supported (fundraising platform)	Somewhat overwhelming
Smartsheet	$9/user/month	Yes	Supported (numerous, including Jira, Salesforce)	Requires training

Choose this business plan tool...	If you want or need...
LivePlan	Comprehensive business planning with financial forecasting and a large library of sample plans to guide your process.
Enloop	Automated text generation and financial ratio analysis with real-time performance scoring for your business plan's strength.
Upmetrics	AI-powered business planning with automated financial projections and a large template library, at a budget-friendly price.
Bizplan	Visual business planning with drag-and-drop modules and a modern interface that makes everything more engaging and accessible.
Smartsheet	Spreadsheet-style business planning with lots of customization choices and powerful collaboration tools for teams familiar with Excel.

Standards for business planning can vary widely from one industry to another. But there are some core features you can always look out for:

Functionality: You'll want features that can help with financial forecasting, market research, and collaboration between team members across departments. That way, you won't have to get a bunch of different tools for each separate thing.
Learning curve: Business planning can get really complex. Make sure you have access to the proper support tools, including a mix of both live experts and on-demand resources like courses and tutorials. Some business planners may even offer consulting services for an additional fee, if you need them.
Customization: Business plans can require all sorts of customization, from inserting your own branding and logo to creating specialized reports tailored to your industry. Look for software that offers advanced customization tools and AI assistance for building complex plans that can be geared toward your business.
Integration capabilities: The two most popular integrations your business planner should support are QuickBooks and Xero. These are common accounting tools many businesses use to keep track of their revenue, send invoices, and pay different vendors. Pulling data directly from these platforms saves you the time of having to manually export datasets each time there's a new review coming.
Collaboration support: Look for a business planning platform that lets you collaborate with different team members, investors, and third-party consultants without creating vulnerabilities that lead to data leaks and breaches. Many platforms let you set different access levels for stakeholders, depending on what they need to access and edit.

There's no one-size-fits-all to business planning. But the right mix of core features, like customizable templates and standard financial integrations, can prove useful regardless of your industry. These are the features I looked for first as I began my review. For niche professional use, I checked whether the platform could create detailed financial forecasts and market research reports, which rely on multiple data sources and a variety of content and visualization formats.

Of course, the user experience of the person building the business plan was another big focus of my evaluations. I checked for ease of use and the availability of support resources, both live and on-demand. Apart from my own observations, I also looked at user reviews and what other journalists were saying to gauge the market perception for that vendor and its software.

It's not strictly required that you use a business planner. You can probably get results that are just as good by relying on your existing financial, business intelligence, and market research tools while putting together the plan document yourself. But business planning tools like LivePlan and Upmetrics do make things a lot easier for entrepreneurs juggling a difficult schedule.

Business plans rely on information from multiple sources. You might have a list of business goals and an overall mission ready to go. Combine that with things like financial reports from your bookkeeping tools, market research from your business intelligence platform, and existing customer reviews from your testimonials aggregator. These are just a few examples of the data you could include; the specific answer depends on what you want to put in front of your stakeholders.

There are different types of business planners, at different prices. LivePlan costs $20 per month, for instance, to start. Meanwhile, Bizplan has a lifetime access plan for $349. You can also get free trials ranging from 14 to 60 days. And there are free business planning tools available for basic usage.

Other business plan software providers to consider

This 30-minute business plan generator, powered by generative AI, lets you integrate built-in financial projections and offers industry-specific customization guidance.

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A free business planner that uses AI to create detailed plans in minutes, all by analyzing your responses to simple questions.

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An enterprise-grade business planning tool with over 20 forecasting methods.

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