Recommendations: Apps I Like
The digital world is a frustrating place if you're actually trying to get stuff done.
It's full of mystery, ne'er-do-wells, and just plain broken stuff.
I place a high value on privacy, stability, decency, and a general sense of calm. These are the apps I use and recommend.
I don't do affiliate links. Any payouts to me are tied to some substantial benefit to you, and are noted.
Instead of | I use | Because |
|---|---|---|
Google Suite (Gmail, Gcal) | It gives you private business email and a calendar. Yes, you will give up being able to integrate with absolutely everything in one-click. For me, well worth it. Simple, stable, and not constantly trying to upsell you into other products. It just works. | |
Substack | Ghost doesn't take a cut of your revenue and doesn't promote their own stuff to your audience. Very stable, with common sense features. Member of the Digital Public Good. | |
Calendly | Fab free tier. It has better and more robust features for free. Built-in CRM and generous video conferencing (why, yes, I would like to have a meeting that is longer than 40 minutes). | |
Zoom | Way nicer to look at and is GDPR compliant, ISO certified, and can be HIPAA compliant if you like. Small team, chill vibes. | |
Google Analytics | Free, privacy-focussed and you do not need a data science degree to understand what's happening. Less robust, but did you actually want 100 ways to slice data you won't use? Me neither. | |
Dropbox | Encrypted by serious people. We-are-not-messing-around security. A big, stable file repository to store things you hold dear. Add-ons like secure document signing, etc. Perfectly boring, just like you want a vault to be. | |
Mailchimp | Flodesk | Actual eye-pleasing design and custom fonts! The right combination of easy-to-use and robust. Bonus: is not owned by Intuit, a company with a troubling reputation for dark pattern design, crummy data handling, and pushy upsells. |