Copy linkEmailFacebookWhatsAppXLinkedInBlueskyThreadsImpact Link
SaveSaved
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider
subscribers. Become an Insider
and start reading now.Have an account? .
With 2018 rapidly winding down, Zapier has released its annual report of the year's fastest-growing workplace apps.
2018-12-13
Zapier — which rhymes with "happier" — connects apps through simple integrations that help users automate their work and be more productive. That means it gets good insight on the fastest-growing apps just by watching which pieces of software its users are looking for.
Placing highly on the list, oddly enough, is Facebook, as well as a tool for managing chatbots — something that some in Silicon Valley had written off as a fad but is still finding an audience.
This year's list points to some general trends in productivity tools. First of all, many of the trendiest tools allow users to customize the way they work. Many of the apps on the report allow users to customize their team's communication tools, their websites, and how they manage projects.
"They really let you customize what you're doing," Zapier CEO Wade Foster told Business Insider. "I think that's interesting, as you see early adopters get more comfortable with technology. … We're going to see even more of that in 2019."
The report also includes software suites that put lots of tools in one place, and it indicates that users are relying on productivity tools that automate work routines, so that they get more done and can focus on tasks that only humans can do.
Here are the 10 fastest-growing apps of 2018, according to Zapier:
This tool, part of the Zoho cloud suite, lets users make web forms for users and customers to fill out — for instance, an order form for a catering gig or feedback for a conference session.
9. Mailshake
Disney
Mailshake is used for email marketing. It allows users to customize these emails using tools like templates, bulk email, auto follow-ups, and tracking for clicks and replies.
8. WPForms
Matt Mullenweg, cofounder of WordPress.Brian Ach/Getty Images
This is a plugin for the WordPress content-management system that lets users make their own web forms.
7. Bonjoro
Bonjoro
Bonjoro allows users to send personalized welcome or thank-you videos to their customers.
6. Bitly
Bitly
Bitly, a popular web-link shortener, also has business uses: It can help companies track how many times a specific link was clicked, helping track their marketing efforts.
Facebook Offline Conversions is a tool that allows customers to connect data from their offline systems, like cash registers or customer databases, up to their Facebook Ads account to help with marketing.
4. GitLab
GitLab cofounders Dmitriy Zaporozhets and Sid Sijbrandij.GitLab
GitLab is all about the way software gets made, and it's a leader in the space. Its software includes tools for planning projects and sharing code among teams of developers.
3. Dubsado
John Moore/Getty Images
Dubsado is used for customer-relationship management, but it also includes forms and proposals for starting projects as well as features for to-do lists, invoices, signing contracts, and scheduling appointments.
2. Front
Front cofounders Mathilde Collin and Laurent Perrin.
Glassdoor
Front is a shared inbox that puts a team's emails, apps, and members together in one collaborative workspace.
1. ManyChat
Shutterstock
ManyChat helps users build bots for Facebook Messenger to share personalized information with customers on Facebook, and it includes features such as broadcasts, analytics, and scheduled posting.
"A lot of us considered bots more of a trendy thing rather than materializing into something that finds a killer use case," Foster said. The fact that ManyChat is No. 1 on the list shows that bots are more than just a fad.
Read next
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
You're currently following this author!
Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Rosalie Chan is a senior editor for Business Insider's tech team. Previously, she covered cloud computing and enterprise tech, reporting on companies like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Intel, Alibaba Cloud, Atlassian, GitHub, VMware, Broadcom, and more. She has written extensively on topics including cloud computing, developer companies, open source, and sexism and sexual harassment in the tech industry. She has received the San Francisco Press Club award for continuing coverage for her reporting on sexism and sexual harassment in Silicon Slopes and the Excellence in Business / Consumer / Tech Reporting award from the Asian American Journalists Association for her investigation into the coding boot camp Holberton School. Most recently, she was an editor on the Business Insider investigative package, The True Cost of Data Centers, which received a George Polk Award and an honorable mention from SABEW.Rosalie joined Business Insider after working as a software engineer and freelance journalist. She studied journalism, computer science, and technology and business law at Northwestern University. Her work has previously appeared in TIME, the Huffington Post, VICE, Pacific Standard, Inverse, Chicago magazine,the Chicago Reporter, and more. She's based in San Francisco.
