[Justin Duke (Buttondown) on paid services](https://buttondown.email/stack): “*The most important resource I have is my energy, and being able to trade X dollars (where X is any number less than a hundred) for even trivial amounts of energy is an absolute no-brainer*.” | **Function** | **Tools I Use** | **Evaluating** | **Comments** | | ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Notes | [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/)<br>[Google Keep](https://keep.google.com/) | | Obsidian: free, but I pay for Sync and Publish. Outstanding—my #1 tool—but requires tech savvy.<br>Keep: free; I use it for quick notes | | AI | Claude<br>Gemini | ChatGPT | Claude: Max 5x plan<br>Gemini: Google AI Ultra 20TB plan<br>I used to subscribe to ChatGPT, too, but honestly, Claude seems better to me and does everything | | Email | [Google Workspace](https://workspace.google.com/) (paid) | | Just basic plan with 1 user, ~$7/mo. Unlimited domains and addresses. | | Scheduling | Google Calendar | [Calendly](https://calendly.com/) | GCal under Google One gives you appointment booking pages | | Productivity | Google Workspace (personal)<br>Google One (20TB) | | Docs, Sheets, Slides, To-Do, Keep. Google One adds storage and AI, $100/month. | | Video Conferencing | Google Meet | | Meet under Google One gives you recordings and noise removal | | Password Management | [BitWarden](https://bitwarden.com/)<br>Chrome Password Manager | | Bitwarden is FOSS, I pay for the hosted version. Chrome is honestly better (and free), but I don't want all my system access in a single place. | | Domain Names and DNS | [NameCheap](https://www.namecheap.com/) | | Works great and it's not GoDaddy. | | Navigation | [go/links](https://www.golinks.io/) | | Free for up to 5 users, but needs a company email address | | IDE | [VS Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) | [Replit](https://replit.com/) | Open source | | Code Repository | [GitHub](https://github.com/) | | Free version does everything I need | | Issue Tracking | [Linear](https://linear.app/) | | Paid. The free version did everything I needed until I started doing agentic coding. Free is great but only up to 250 active issues (and you can't archive issues manually) and 1 user (so your agent's tickets look like your tickets) | | Hosting | [GCP](https://cloud.google.com/)<br>[Netlify](https://www.netlify.com/) | [Render<br>](https://render.com/)[Vercel](https://vercel.com/)<br>[Runpod](https://www.runpod.io/) | GCP: paid.<br>Netlify: free tier.<br>Render and Vercel sound like Netlify clones. | | Newsletter / Website | [Ghost](https://ghost.org/) | Substack | Ghost is FOSS, but I’m using the paid hosted version for sites. Substack is great… but it monetizes literal Nazis and aggressively tries to convert your subscribers. | | Static Site Generator | [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/) | | Free, open source | | Email (SMTP) Server | [SendGrid](https://sendgrid.com/en-us)<br>[Mailgun](https://www.mailgun.com/) | [Mailjet](https://www.mailjet.com/) | Sendgrid: Free tier; only used for small websites that need to send email.<br>Mailgun: Ghost uses Mailgun behind the scenes; I use it for Ghost-Staging. | | Web Analytics | [Mixpanel](https://mixpanel.com/)<br>[Plausible](https://plausible.io/) | | Mixpanel: Very complete... w/cookies<br>Plausible: No cookies, EU-hosted<br>Google Analytics: Most powerful, but super-complicated and no cookie-free option | | Credit Card Processing | [Stripe](https://stripe.com/) | | Fantastic service, but configuring can be complicated. | | Accounting | Google Sheets | [QuickBooks](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/) | QuickBooks is $35/mo, ridiculously expensive for what I need. | | Photo Processing | | [Luminar Neo](https://skylum.com/luminar)<br>[On1 Photo Raw](https://www.on1.com/products/photo-raw/) | Both are paid products; evaluating. | | Image Editing | [Affinity Photo](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/) | | Paid. Now included in Canva subscription. Free (but not nearly as good) alternatives: [Photopea](https://www.photopea.com/), [GIMP](https://www.gimp.org/). | | Vector Drawing | [Affinity Designer](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/) | [Inkscape](https://inkscape.org/) | Paid. Now included in Canva subscription. | | Drawing | [tldraw](https://www.tldraw.com/) | [Excalidraw](https://excalidraw.com/)<br>[LucidChart](https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/) | Free tldraw does everything I need and looks great, but Excalidraw integrates better with Obsidian | | Video Editing | [DaVinci Resolve](https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve) | | Paid Studio version. Free version does most of what I need, but I wanted it all. | | Audio Editing | [DaVinci Resolve](https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve)<br>[Izotope RX](https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rx.html)<br>[FabFilter Essentials](https://www.fabfilter.com/shop/essentials-bundle) | [Audacity](https://www.audacityteam.org/) (native)<br>[Wavacity](https://wavacity.com/) (web) | Izotope and FabFilter are paid; Davinci is free but I pay for the “Studio” version; Audacity and Wavacity are FOSS. | | Live Video Production | [OBS](https://obsproject.com/) | | For video conferencing, streaming, etc. FOSS | | 3D Modeling | [Blender](https://www.blender.org/) | | FOSS 3D | | CAD | [QCAD](https://qcad.org/en/) | | Open source, but I went for paid version. Used it for doing home renovation architectural work. | | Read Later | [Instapaper](https://www.instapaper.com/) | | | | Telephone | [Google Voice](https://voice.google.com/) | | Excellent service, still works fine... but seems to have been on life support for almost 20 years | | Workflow automation | | [Zapier](https://zapier.com/) | Zapier is *ludicrously* expensive! Now I use Claude instead | | Templates, Stock Photos | [Canva](https://www.canva.com/) | | Paid; also gives you access to advanced features in Affinity (which Canva now owns). Canva has lots of assets but doesn’t allow export. | | Stock Media | [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/) | [Storyblocks](https://www.storyblocks.com/)<br>[Envato Elements](elements.envato.com) | Unsplash is free tier.<br>Tried Artlist.io, wasn’t happy. | | Memes | [imgflip](https://imgflip.com/) | Look for alternatives | | | AI Image Generation | [ComfyUI](https://comfy.org/) | | Previously used AUTOMATIC1111, then Forge. | | Training Delivery | | Maven | Don't use this yet, but thinking about it | | PDF Editing | [DocHub](https://dochub.com/) | | Free version does everything I need | | Electronic Signatures | [DocHub](https://dochub.com/) | Docusign | DocHub is free for up to 3 signatures/month. Docusign works, and is $10/month. Tried Adobe ($13–20/mo) and its emails were never received. | | Ebooks | Google Play Books<br>Kindle<br>[Calibre](https://calibre-ebook.com/) | | Gradually shifting to Kindle because GPB seems to have been abandoned a decade ago. Calibre for removing DRM. | | VPN | [Proton VPN](https://protonvpn.com/)<br>[TailScale](https://tailscale.com/) | | Proton VPN for general VPN usage, $107/2-years. TailScale to create a “virtual LAN” for my devices, free tier. | | Financial Planning | [Boldin](https://www.boldin.com/)<br>[Empower](https://www.empower.com/empower-personal-wealth-transition)<br>[Monarch Money](https://www.monarchmoney.com/) | | Boldin is $120/year. Empower is free. Monarch is $100/year. All are excellent and worth every penny. | | Terminal | [PuTTY](https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html) | | PuTTY works and is free. All the cool kids are using GhosTTY, but it's Mac-only. | | Social Media | [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/orderfromchaos.today)<br>[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/fthiess/) | [Mastodon](https://hachyderm.io/@fthiess) | BlueSky has many great features. LinkedIn has everyone's resumes and some great content... but it's also full of blackboard-scratching self-promotion and AI engagement slop. Mastodon is a nice idea with bad UX and few users. (Facebook? Instagram? X? Don't get me started...) | Other tools to evaluate: | Function | Gergely Orosz<br>([Pragmatic Engineer](https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/)) | Justin Duke<br>([Buttondown](https://buttondown.email/)) | | ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | Interface Design | [Figma](https://www.figma.com/) | [Sketch](https://www.sketch.com/) | | SEO | | [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/) | | Private Notes | | [Bear](https://bear.app/) | | RSS Reader | | [Feedbin](https://feedbin.com/) | | Screen Recording | | [Screen Studio](https://www.screen.studio/) | | Trackable Links | [GeniusLink](https://geniuslink.com/)<br>[PermanentLink](https://permanent.link/)<br>[t2mio](https://t2mio.com/) | | | YouTube SEO | [TubeBuddy](https://www.tubebuddy.com/) | | Other tools - [MediaInfo](https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo)