Whether you’re still working on your pitch deck or already designing a logo for your startup, choosing the right typeface can be daunting. There are lots of options available, from free Google webfonts to pricey font studio typefaces with complex licensing—it’s easy to get lost in the sea of fonts.
Don’t sweat it! We’ve compiled a list of the top fonts perfect for startups. Whether you’re looking for a typeface that’s modern and sleek for a tech app or tech company or something more personal for a B2B e-commerce brand, we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll look at different font options and explain why each would be an excellent choice for your startup. We’ll also cover all you need to know about licensing and the best overall choice to stay on a lean budget without compromising a unique brand look.
Best versatile fonts for tech companies
Apex is a minimalist geometric sans serif typeface with pointy tips, e.g., the letters A, M, and N. It is a typeface on the cooler side because its overall shapes are rather squarish—this makes it perfect for when your startup’s brand positioning centers around precision, avant-garde, or strength.
A similar version to Apex is Bauhaus Slim, a friendly, geometric sans-serif font that works well for tech, finance, and health startup branding.
Acme is a much friendlier but also modern typeface. The letters e and c openings are slanted, making the design “smile.” Letters s, l, r, and y are rather curvy, which adds approachability to the design tone. The specialty of this font is that it comes with many alternate letter designs that can help startups with logo design besides using the font for pitch decks and other marketing assets. All fonts on this list come with nine font weights, offering high versatility for a small budget.
Nano Light is also a geometric-style typeface. Its design has an overall math character because of the serifs, e.g., the letters i, r, and p—a monotype look without the monotype spacing for best readability. This is a font with character—perfect for science and finance startups.
Serif fonts are on trend even for tech startups, and Bauhaus Soft feels warm, organic, and soft even in its thinner weight (although it comes in many weights). Soft is a contrast font with thin and thick strokes. The letter stems are partially rounded, adding a tone of approachability to any text.
Quil Display Medium is also a serif font. It is modern in style, for example, look at the tail from the letter Q; its serifs are short adding a solid and educational rather than an organic feel to the overall design.
Technical tip for how to select fonts: The one design feature to look out for when selecting a font, particularly for finance tech startups, is tabular figures. Those are an extra set of numbers of the same width so that they line up when they are used in a table. All of the fonts listed in this article have tabular figures.
Fonts for B2B & e-commerce startups
Fonts for B2B and e-commerce brands can be much more fun than the more functional tech startup typefaces. For example, Vole, similar to Shopify’s Oberlo logotype design, has counters that are rounded—often, we see the opposite—making this typeface stand out.
Bauhaus Mod Black is strong and loud. It has pronounced serifs and works great in all caps for logo designs. Thinner weights are suitable for body text, and bolder styles for headlines.
Bool is a very playful typeface with lots of alternative designs and stylistic sets. More on the font’s product page.
Another more elegant high-contrast font is Roma. I selected the Regular weight but it also works well in bolder and thinner styles.
Bauhaus Anky works best for display designs such as logos and headlines. Still, especially in lighter font weights, it performs well as a corporate text font for companies aiming for a constructed, geometric, yet friendly look.
Paid vs. free fonts
Typography is one of the three main brand elements, and choosing a custom brand font will add recognition value to your brand.
The list above only features only paid fonts. They are budget-friendly, from $9 to $24 per font style. A more common price range you’ll find is between $35 to $42 per style.
Google’s webfonts are another budget-friendly way to get started. Roboto, Open Sans, Poppins, and Montserrat are amongst the most popular Google webfonts currently.
Free Google webfonts to check out
If you’re looking for free fonts, check out the following options:
Work Sans for a friendly appearance. The typeface’s wide spacing makes it great for longer body copy.
Libre Franklin has a taller x-height, making the letter forms more open. This creates a more modern, neutral look.
Space Grotesk is a sans-serif type with a little bit of a twist—cross strokes, bars, and finials are angular.
Licensing & file types of fonts for startups
Licensing often sounds intimidating but is usually simple for startups. Purchasing a font is treated just like software—you buy a license for your computer seat. Often, one font license is valid for one or up to five computer seat/s. If you add more people to the team, you can purchase more seats then.
The font file type used for desktop apps is called OTF or TTF. When you have the choice, get the OTF version—it usually includes more characters.
If you want to use your font on your company website or landing page, you’ll need to purchase WOFF or WOFF2 file types. They often come with a maximum number of page views. Common is up to 10k page views per one WOFF/2 license. WOFF licenses are often priced around the same as OTF licenses.
Pricing example for licensing a startup font
I recommend getting between two and four font weights for a brand in both OTF and WOFF2 formats. For example, a Regular and Bold if you want to get two, or an ExtraLight, Regular, SemiBold, and ExtraBold if you want to get four weights—those make for a good brand typography kit. So for two font weights, your kit will cost around 2x $24 for the OTF, plus 2x including the WOFF2 files.
You can always start out with two font styles and add more later as you see a design need.
If you want to add licenses for an app that’s not hosted on the internet but will be available in the Apple and other stores instead, you’ll have to pay for app licensing fees which are listed on each font pricing page. App and ePub prices usually go by the number of titles (e.g., one app) and can but don’t have to make font buying much more expensive. They range from 10x to 20x of a single license per year. Most often, regular font licenses for desktop use (OTF) are paid once, and all other licenses are paid annually.
Installing fonts for decks and proposals
Unfortunately, uploading custom fonts into Google applications such as Google Slides or Google Docs is still not possible. However, you can add more Google fonts than shown by default by clicking the A+ in the font dropdown and searching for the Google font you want.
If you want to use Google apps, you’ll need to pick a free webfont or system font (any font your computer comes with, e.g. Arial / Helvetica; Times New Roman / Times; Courier New / Courier. Even if brands have a custom typeface, the designer selects a system font that looks closest as a fallback for when the custom brand font is not available.
For desktop applications, such as those included in Microsoft’s Office Suite or Apple’s iWork, you can install fonts via Font Book (Mac) or Font Viewer (PC). Often, it is nothing more than a drag and drop or a couple of clicks on the font file folder. More here.
