If you want to start a business online in Morocco and want a list of tools to use, you’re in the right place.
All the tools listed here are either free, have a generous free tier, or crazy cheap. There are better, expensive, tools out there for sure, but that’s not what you need to start out.
The legal side of running a business from Morocco
Auto-entrepreneur
Auto-entrepreneur is a status you can use in Morocco as a freelancer or someone working on their own. This is a detailed article about the good and bad of this status.
S.A.R.L AU in Morocco
S.A.R.L AU (Société A Résponsabilité Limitée Associé Unique) is another status you can use in Morocco for your business. This is a detailed article about when and why to opt for this status instead.
The Make it Legal ebook
This is my e-book on everything legal about working online from Morocco. You can find answers to questions like: How much taxes you should pay? How to get health insurance? etc.
Online payments providers in Morocco
Paddle
Use Paddle to sell your services (SaaS, invoices…) and your digital/physical goods. I personally used Paddle for a SaaS before and recommend it. However, Paddle does not accept Moroccan cards.
YouCan Pay
YouCan Pay is a Moroccan startup that makes it easier to accept online payments in your store. It integrates with WooCommerce, Shopify, and other tools. YouCan pay accepts Moroccan cards.
Selling platforms for Moroccans
Gumroad
Use Gumroad to sell your digital goods online. Things like ebooks, snippets of code, or licenses do well on Gumroad. You can also take a look at what others are selling on the platform. Gumroad does not accept Moroccan cards.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source plugin that can be used with WordPress. It supports cash-on-delivery and multiple payment providers like YouCan Pay and Paddle.
YouCan
YouCan is a Moroccan startup that’s building a Shopify equivalent for the Moroccan/Arab market. If you sell in those areas, I recommend using it.
Shopify
Shopify is a well-known platform to sell online. The only reason it’s down on my list is that it can get expensive quickly.
Domain names in Morocco
ADK-Media
If you need a .ma domain name, I recommend using ADK-Media. They have good prices and great support.
Namecheap
If you need a domain name other than .ma, I recommend Namecheap
Newsletters
Mailpoet
If you use WordPress or WooCommerce, Mailpoet is a great email marketing tool that integrates perfectly with these tools.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the biggest email marketing tools out there. It has a generous free tier and a lot of features. But it’s mostly overkill for makers and/or small teams.
Convertkit
This tool is actually better than Mailchimp for content creators and those selling online. The only downside is it gets pretty expensive quickly.
Substack
If you plan to launch a newsletter-only business, substack is a good tool for that.
Landing pages
Carrd – the go-to tool
I can’t recommend this tool enough. It’s the best tool out there to build simple and fast landing pages with drag-and-drop. I’m using it to iterate quickly and test ideas in the wild before committing. Also, it’s the cheapest option (unless you know how to code HTML and want to do things manually).
Carrd integrates with Mailchimp, Convertkit, and others.
Convertkit
Convertkit is an email marketing tool and a landing page builder. I find the landing page templates to be well-designed and optimized for conversion.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email marketing tool but it has a landing page tool you can use too. If you already use it for email marketing, you can use the landing page features too.
Hosting
Firebase
A complete platform to host your application. From databases to authentication and more. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time in the back-end wiring stuff, go with Firebase. It’s the best choice if you are building an MVP or testing something.
Vercel & Netlify
Free hosting for static apps (HTML, CSS, and JS) build manually or via using Next.js/Gatsby and others. Both platforms have other features, but this is the core offering.
Render.com
The easier way to deploy your application to the internet. Supports Node.js, Rails, and multiple apps.
DigitalOcean
Sometimes, you need access to your own machines or want to have a machine somewhere to run automation, scripts… This. is the perfect product for that. For as low as 5$/month, you can have your own machine on the Internet.
Sign up using my link, and get 100$ for free to use on DigitalOcean.
Automation
Make.com (ex Integromat) & Zapier
You shouldn’t build everything from scratch. You can connect multiple apps/services to do something for you. Both these services are good and I recommend them.
Design
Canva
This is the best tool out there to create designs for your site, social media, books, and everything in between.