Growth hacking tools with AI: 7 to start for free

The best growth hacking tools to start with cost almost nothing. Growth hacking means growing a business with quick, cheap tests and measuring what works. With seven tools, six of them with a free plan, you cover the whole customer journey. The usual mistake is signing up for all of them on day one.

Which growth hacking tools with AI do you need to start?

We've sorted them by the stages of the AARRR funnel, meaning the customer journey: attract, activate, retain, refer and earn. If you don't know it, first read what AARRR is and how to use it.

• ChatGPT (attract): gives you ideas for ads, copy and topics. Free plan; Go costs $8 a month and Plus $20 a month in the US.
• Canva (attract): creates images and videos for social media and ads, with AI features. Free plan; Pro costs $18 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly.
• Microsoft Clarity (activate): records how visitors move around your site and shows heatmaps. Its AI assistant summarises those recordings. It's free.
• Brevo (retain): sends emails and creates automatic sequences, like welcoming a new customer. Free up to 300 emails a day; Starter from $9 a month.
• ReferralCandy (refer): sets up a programme so your customers bring in others. No free plan, but a 7-day trial. It charges a monthly fee plus a commission per referred customer.
• Zapier (automate): connects your tools so they work on their own, for example adding a form entry to your mailing list. Free up to 100 tasks a month; Professional from $19.99 a month billed yearly.
• Google Analytics (earn and measure): tells you where your visitors come from and how many buy. It's free.

What it means: with each tool's free plan you can test almost everything. What to do: choose only the tool for the stage where you lose the most customers. Why: seven tools at once means seven things to learn and no finished tests.

Rule of thumb: one tool per stage, not seven at once.

What does AI do at each stage of growth hacking?

It saves you the heavy lifting, but it doesn't decide for you. These are the most useful uses for a small business:

• Attract: ask ChatGPT for ten ad ideas for your ideal customer and test the three you like best.
• Activate: Clarity's assistant summarises in plain language what visitors did. It can summarise up to 250 recordings at once.
• Retain: write three welcome emails with AI's help and schedule them in Brevo. Its free plan includes automations for up to 2,000 contacts.
• Refer: use AI to draft the message your customers will send to their friends. First, read our guide to creating a referral programme.

If people can try your product on their own, without a sales rep, combine these tools with product-led growth.

Rule of thumb: AI prepares the versions; you choose which to test.

The Garcai method: build your growth toolkit in 5 steps

You need an afternoon to set it up and two weeks for the first test. No technical knowledge required.

1. Look at your numbers and find the stage where you lose the most customers: few visits, few sign-ups or few repeat buyers.
2. Choose a single tool for that stage and start with its free plan.
3. Run a two-week test with a numeric goal, for example ‘go from 2% to 3% of visitors who buy’.
4. Use AI to prepare versions of copy or images. You decide which one to test.
5. When it ends, check the number. If it improves, keep going; if not, change the test before you change the tool. Only pay when the free plan falls short.

You can do it yourself: steps 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, except installing Clarity or Google Analytics on your site.

Ask your tech team, or whoever runs your website, for that installation. Ready-to-send message: ‘Could you install Microsoft Clarity on the site? It's free and only needs a code snippet added.’

Common mistakes when choosing growth hacking tools

• Signing up for seven tools at once and finishing no tests.
• Paying before you've used up the free plan.
• Publishing what AI suggests without testing it with real customers.
• Measuring likes instead of sign-ups or sales.
• Never looking at what visitors do inside your site.
• Asking for referrals from customers who aren't happy yet.

Growth hacking tools with AI are cheap; using them without a plan is what's expensive. Choose the stage where you lose the most, test with a free tool and measure. And remember: one tool per stage, not seven at once.