Conducting employment background checks are an important part of making any new hire. Checkr , which is used by companies such as Postmates and Uber, offers real-time updates, integrates artificial intelligence technology with a modern user interface (UI), and is available at an affordable price. It’s one of the best tools of its kind on the market, and earned an Editors’ Choice designation in our employment background check services review roundup.

Google Drive can be an extremely valuable asset to your team. Not only can it easily store and share files in the cloud, you'll also have the benefit of creating and collaborating on a variety of documents via its companion applications such as Google Docs and Google Sheets. Best of all, even in its consumer incarnation, Google Drive is free for up to 15 gigabytes (GB) of files not created within these apps. Not only did we give Google Drive our Editors’ Choice designation, but we gave it a rare 5.0 star (for “outstanding”) rating for cloud storage and file-sharing services.

A 2-in-1 convertible laptop has a lot of benefits, including being able to touch and interact with the screen yet still have the processing power and functionality of a laptop. This can open up a whole world of productivity to your team members. The Lenovo Yoga 730 (13-Inch) is thin and light and has fast charging, which makes it ideal for working in just about any setting. The Lenovo Yoga 730 is definitely worth your consideration if you’re in the market for a new work laptop.

Your employees probably use a ton of different apps over the course of the workday. Working with platforms such as Slack and email clients and social media accounts all day can be exhausting. The IFTTT platform provides a helpful way to manage it all. The platform can connect most of your favorite apps and make them work together, allowing you to build custom workflows while saving you precious time and resources. Want a reminder for a scheduled calendar event to pop up for your Slack team? IFTTT will help you do it. No matter what your unique business need is, you can likely create an automation (referred to as an "applet" in the IFTTT lingo) with which to do it. IFTTT is one of our Editors’ Choice winners for productivity apps.

Securing your company’s web traffic and protecting your team’s anonymity online is critical to your organization's security. A key component that needs to be in every employee's security tool kit these days is a personal virtual private network (VPN) service. If you still haven't decided on one, then (a) do so now, and (b) know that we awarded TunnelBear VPN our Editors’ Choice designation for its excellent privacy policies, approachable design, and the inclusion of a standalone ad blocker. It’s definitely worth considering to keep your startup secure.

TVs are useful for more than just providing entertainment. If you have a conference room or any sort of meeting area, then you’ll want a big, clear screen for presentations, collaborations, and meetings. While you could invest in a high-end whiteboard, a large TV is a great way of having a large screen at a lower cost. The TCL 55R617 offers exceptional 4K image quality at an affordable price. As an Editors’ Choice winner, it should be considered if you're looking for a new way to dress up your conference room.

Everyone has a smartphone these days but a land line-based desktop phone service is still ubiquitous for businesses of any size. Instead of investing in a costly, dedicated phone system, however, today's savvy operators more commonly select a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) service that lets you invest in cloud-capable telephony at an affordable price. 8x8 Virtual Office Pro has a flexible pricing structure, a rich set of features, and even has mobile capabilities. Those looking for a small business-focused VoIP system would be wise to check out this Editors’ Choice winner.

A good human resources (HR) platform is necessary for managing your entire employee stack. BambooHR is a leader in the HR space and for good reason. The platform is your one-stop shop for all things HR, with modules for applicant tracking, time-off tracking, custom workflows, and employee self-onboarding. This Editors’ Choice winner is also exceptionally easy to use and offers an open application programming interface (API), so you can integrate it with other business platforms platforms.

Don’t let the bright colors and name fool you. The tactile feel of the mechanical switches found on most “gaming” keyboards makes them as well-suited for typing and emailing as they are for the virtual battlefields of Fortnite. Not only does the Corsair K68 RGB boast authentic Cherry MX Red switches, it’s also dust- and spill-proof, ensuring that it can survive your startup’s chaotic office. Once you start typing on a proper mechanical keyboard, it’s hard to go back to anything else. The Corsair K68 RGB is one of the best mechanical keyboards on the market today and is our Editors’ Choice pick for that category.

As a modern and hip startup, you probably do just about everything in the cloud. While cloud computing is great, there will come a time when you’ll want to store something locally, perhaps for security reasons or maybe simple convenience. Having at least one external hard drive on-premises is a good idea. The Akitio Thunder3 RAID Station supports a ton of different connectors, so it'll work with just about any device you plug into it. It even has an SD card slot so you've got easy options for loading files. While the drive is mostly aimed at multimedia content creators, the truth is that this Editors’ Choice winner can be a boon to any type of business.