Amy Nichol Smith

Staff Reviewer

Small business software, productivity apps, website builders, VPNs, web hosting

About

Amy Nichol Smith spent more than 20 years working as a journalist for TV and newspapers before transitioning to software and hardware product reviews for consumers and small businesses. She has been featured in publications such as L.A. Times, Tom's Guide, Investopedia and various newspapers across the U.S.

After decades of experience as a journalist, Amy Nichol Smith combined her love of research and writing with her passion for technology. She spent years using a scientific approach to testing and reviewing tech products and software to offer unbiased reviews for consumers and small business owners. Her reviews appeared in various publications, including Forbes, Tom’s Guide, Business.com, TopTenReviews and FitSmallBusiness. Currently, she serves as the productivity apps product reviewer for Forbes Advisor.

Expertise

Small business software
Productivity apps
Website builders
VPNs
Web hosting

Achievements

20+ years of experience as a journalist and editor
10+ years of experience as a tech tester and reviewer
Featured in nationally known publications, such as L.A. Times and Reader’s Digest

Other Publications

4 days ago

10 Best Email Marketing Software Of 2024

Email is alive and well in 2024. Email marketing remains one of the most effective tools for any company to reach engaged customers—as long as you do it well. That’s why we have no shortage of email marketing software to...
4 days ago

7 Best QuickBooks Alternatives Of 2024

QuickBooks is arguably the most popular accounting software option available, but it isn’t the only solution. Other solutions are available that are less expensive, easier to use and offer features that QuickBooks does not. To help make your decision easier,...
1 month ago

Instagantt Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

Instagantt is a project management tool that focuses on Gantt charts. It offers different views but its specialty is providing a visual representation of tasks, milestones, overlays of baselines and a reporting dashboard to help you manage multiple projects. I...
1 month ago

Leap Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

Leap isn’t standard project management software, nor is it standard construction management software, rather it’s a combination of task management, CRM and lead generation software. The platform is clearly meant for small contractors who sell their services to homeowners and...
1 month ago

Fieldwire Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

Fieldwire is construction management software with an emphasis on field management. It isn’t without tools for project managers and architects, though. Plus, there are tools that bring a project and all of its members together on the same page, from...
2 months ago

Houzz Pro Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

In this Houzz Pro review, we show how the software is both project management and marketing software geared toward home improvement professionals such as general contractors and designers. It’s a scalable solution with four different plans. To start, there’s a...
2 months ago

Best Mobile VPN Of 2024

A mobile virtual private network (VPN) creates an encrypted tunnel for data transfers to and from your mobile device to protect your online activity. It also grants you access to content you typically miss because of your location. Forbes Advisor...
5 months ago

Best Scrum Software Of 2024

Agile project management is all about enabling teams to make the best decisions for which work gets done when, which is why you should find the best scrum software. We pared down a big list of apps that could work...
5 months ago

Buildertrend Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

Buildertrend is a comprehensive construction project management software that helps streamline all aspects of a construction job. It lends itself well to residential construction companies that need software to organize data, contacts and projects. Buildertrend also makes it much easier...
5 months ago

Lucid App Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

Lucidchart is the most used app of the Lucid app suite of tools. It’s diagramming software that can help you design office layouts, websites, mind maps and brainstorming sessions, to name a few of its uses. In our Lucid app...
5 months ago

Best Workflow Apps Of 2024

The best workflow apps focus on how to make the work you do more efficient or more effective. It helps you spot repetitive tasks and then automate them to ultimately save you time and free you up to focus on...
5 months ago

Best Free Gantt Chart Software (2024)

It’s difficult to find a view to replace a Gantt chart view and often this is considered an advanced feature of project management software; therefore, it’s rarely offered on free plans. We picked some of the best free Gantt chart...
5 months ago

Contractor Foreman Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

Contractor Foreman is a full-featured construction project management software with five plans suitable for all sizes and types of construction businesses. It includes features to help you manage bids and estimates, tasks and projects, field work, equipment and resources and...
7 months ago

Best Remote Work Software Of 2024

Whether your business is fully remote or uses a hybrid work model, it’s important to have software that allows your team to work the way they need. We chose some of the best remote work software that help you get...
8 months ago

Best Product Management Software Of 2024

Some of the best product management software are project management apps with comprehensive feature packages. You can use these tools to do competitor and user analysis, plan your product lifecycle, set objectives and goals and manage backlogs. Not every option...
10 months ago

Quip Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

Quip is collaboration software that includes light communication and task management features. Although it wasn’t initially made to work so well with Salesforce, it was acquired and integrated with the popular customer relationship management (CRM) platform. However, it can work...
10 months ago

Fivetran Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

Fivetran is a low-code, easy-to-use data integration platform that performs as a go-between for companies that need to consolidate and transform data for better analytics. It’s a form of extract, load and transform (ELT) software. It offers more than 300...
10 months ago

Microsoft Planner Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

Microsoft Planner is an included app with a business version of Microsoft 365, an ecosystem of office productivity applications. The browser- and mobile-based program is more of a task management app than project management app, but it can be useful...
10 months ago

Slack Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

Slack is a communication and collaboration app that offers thousands of integrations to easily connect software you already use to its platform, making it a viable hub for any type of business. It’s easy to use, offers a free plan...
11 months ago

Zoho Bookings Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

Zoho Bookings is a scheduling app that’s part of the larger Zoho ecosystem of business software. It offers free and affordable paid plans to make it easy for a solo entrepreneur or small business to set appointments with clients, whether...
11 months ago

SimplyBook.me Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

All scheduling apps make it possible for you to set appointments for clients and SimplyBook.me is no exception. It’s a good choice for service-based industries such as beauty salons, tailors and tradesmen, but it also works for online services including...
11 months ago

Square Appointments Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

Square Appointments is a scheduling app that includes a built-in point-of-sale (POS) system and booking website meant for small businesses. It offers free and paid plans with all the features needed to run a service-based business. We researched and tested...
11 months ago

TeamGantt Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

TeamGantt is primarily Gantt chart software but it’s flexible enough to work well for managing almost any type of project. Though Gantt charts are notoriously challenging to use for new users, TeamGantt is surprisingly easy to learn. You can manage...
11 months ago

Appointy Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

Appointy is an online scheduling app that works well for many industries, especially for those who run service-based businesses. You can enable clients to book appointments via a booking page, set appointments yourself, block time on your calendar and accept...
11 months ago

Microsoft Project Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

Microsoft Project is one of the oldest project management tools on the market. It’s an effective solution for project managers and teams that are experienced with Waterfall and Agile methodologies. It isn’t the most user-friendly program, so it isn’t the...
12 months ago

Best Microsoft Project Alternatives Of 2024

Microsoft Project is one of the oldest project management tools on the market and it continues to evolve over the years. It’s a powerful tool with multiple project views, resource management, portfolio management and roadmapping. However, it doesn’t offer a...
12 months ago

Best Kanban Software Of 2024

Kanban boards can be a useful project management tool to help you and your team assign tasks, visualize work in various stages of completion, track progress, stay ahead of schedule and reach your goals. We tested and researched the top...
1 year ago

Best Jira Alternatives Of 2024

Jira is a popular project management tool that was designed with product development teams in mind. Although it’s a versatile solution that can work for almost any type of project, it has a steep learning curve and may not be...
1 year ago

Teamwork.com Review 2024: Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons

If you need project management software that lets you customize both your workflows and client permission set, Teamwork.com is a solid option. Teamwork.com marries the project management features you might know and love from other platforms with the time tracking...
1 year ago

Best Retail ERP Of 2024

Retail enterprise resource planning (ERP) software combines modules to help retail businesses manage operations from all departments in a centralized platform. Many traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can be customized to work for retailers that need advanced inventory management,...