The Applications SMBs Use Most

Which applications are most popular with SMBs, and where are they hosted? To find out, we recently surveyed 600 U.S. and U.K. SMB principals.

Across the board, accounting/financial management applications are the most prevalent, regardless of company size or location. The second or third most popular choice is applications that enable document creation, sharing, storage, and signature. Payroll is third for U.S. very small businesses (VSBs, with fewer than 20 employees) and small businesses (SBs, with 20 to 99 employees). Security applications are second for U.S. midsized businesses (MBs, with 100 to 500 employees). In the UK, videoconferencing is third.

SMB Application Usage and Hosting

Three other data points worth noting about SMB application use:

• Usage increases with company size – SB and MBs are much more likely to use every type of application than VSBs.
• Cloud usage also increases with company size; larger SMBs are further along the path of cloud migration than smaller SMBs.
• UK application adoption and cloud usage are strikingly lower than in the U.S., even compared to U.S. VSBs.  

Looking for actionable SMB insight?  Bredin’s global research gives you high-value insights to improve your go-to-market, product, pricing, UX, and other strategies. We also generate uniquely valuable data for high-impact content, PR, social, and sales support programs.