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64 Comments

My current Indie Hacking toolkit

I thought I could share my current Indie Hacking toolkit. Hopefully, you'll find something interesting in here! Don't hesitate to comment to share your own!

Personal Knowledge Management (PKM), note-taking & journaling:

Productivity:

Dev tools:

Tech stack:

Writing:

Images:

Fonts:

Files:

  • Google Drive
  • Synology NAS (DS1812+)
  • Amazon S3
  • Digital Ocean

Product and Domain names:

Social handle availability:

UI inspiration:

Trademark checks:

SEO:

Trends:

CRM, Invoices, etc:

Landing pages:

Image hosting:

Remote backups:

Passwords:

  • KeePass (yes, I'm old school)

Online banking:

  • Wise
  • PayPal

Payments:

Info products (e.g., my books, my PKM library):

Newsletters (free and paid):

Polls:

Slide decks (😂):

Video recording:

Video editing:

  • Adobe Premiere Pro

Image editing:

3D modeling:

Audio recording:

Streaming:

Communications:

Audience building:

Staying up to date:

Communities:

Hope this helps! ❤️

If you enjoyed this post, you should check out my weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.dsebastien.net

PS: my friend André and I are building focusd, a zen-productivity app that combines an outliner, calendar integration for time blocking and a deep focus mode. Check it out over at: https://focusd.app

  1. 11

    You are the reason SaaS is booming 😂 some awesome tools here though, thanks for sharing

    1. 7

      Yes, it's important for me to support other Indie Hackers. That's why I've chosen Carrd and Plausible for instance.

  2. 3

    It's amazing how many different tools and platforms go into building products and businesses.

    Thank you for this extensive list many things I have never seen before to explore.

    1. 2

      Absolutely, and I have only spent 15 minutes writing this down; I've certainly forgotten quite a few 😂

  3. 3

    What's a hunk in git?

    1. 3

      A hunk is a set of 1-n lines in a file. Imagine that you have added 100 lines to a file called foo.txt. If you run git add foo.txt, then you'll stage all of the changed lines.

      If you instead use git hunks, then you can just stage the lines you want.

      I use this all the time to create clean commits.

      For more info: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37620729/in-the-context-of-git-and-diff-what-is-a-hunk

      1. 2

        Thx very useful - TIL!

  4. 2

    Love it! Just adding my 2 cents with our product for creating diagrams: https://fast.archi

  5. 2

    Thanks for sharing. I was happy to see some tools I use in your list, but there are plenty I have never heard of and will start using. Like https://dribbble.com/ for example.

    1. 1

      Yes, we all have a narrow view of the world around us. It's fun to explore. Dribbble is awesome :)

  6. 2

    Thanks for the list. I wanted to make a page/site devoted just to such lists, with the ability for people to post their tech stacks and then comment inline and also to suggest alternatives for the same task. For instance, you list Auth0. My question is how that would compare to Firebase authentication or Amazon Cognito. So I guess I'm asking two questions here: One is whether a site devoted to tech stack sharing (with comments, discussion, alternatives inline) sounds useful to you, or just overcomplicated and posts like this are enough. And the other is why Augh0 and not Firebase of Cognito.

    1. 2

      Sounds interesting! A bit like stackshare but for IHers? :)

      I would like such a site, yes. Something more usable than the existing alternatives could be refreshing (e;g., alternatives.to, stackshare etc)

      1. 1

        Yeah, stackshare seems similar, but for me those single icons don't give enough information. I want to know what you are using a particular tool for, what other tools you considered and why you chose the one you did (or why you are considering moving away from it). I also want to know which tools you consider key and which ones you don't really care about so much. And I want others to be able to comment on your choices and explanations, asking questions, agreeing, or giving alternative points of view, including links to their own tech stacks. I also want to want to be able to index the data by problem, not by tech stack. For instance, if I am trying to figure out how to do authentication in my app, I want to be able to search by authentication. I would get hits for Auth0, Firebase, and Cognito, but I would also get hits for larger scale frameworks (e.g., WordPress) that take care of such things with a plugin or just built into the overall platform. My name for this website is techstackenvy.com.

        1. 1

          Looking at stakshare a bit closer, I see they do allow notes on a given technology by the posting company, and comments by others on those notes. However, I didn't actually find any comments on notes in the examples I looked at. But still, I want to know more. For instance https://stackshare.io/mixmax/mixmax-for-web says they used Node.js to break individual services out from a monolithic server. But on what platform? Were both their monolithic sever and their Node.js services running on the same EC2 instance? On the same droplet? I want pictures showing how it all works together.

          1. 1

            So having looked more, I see that stackshare is also a blogging platform, and companies can expound on why they chose certain technologies, how it's going, etc. An example is https://stackshare.io/mixmax/how-mixmax-uses-node-and-go-to-process-250m-events-a-day. And yet still, I don't find stackshare helpful. Maybe what you say, "stackshare for IHers" is the key. I want a place where I can go with my list of problems to be solved, and find out what tools people are using to solve them, and how it's going, and yes I guess if those teams are small or just one person, the information is more useful to me.

  7. 2

    If you had to choose, could you choose which 1-3 had the biggest impact on your efficacy / biggest game changers?

    1. 2

      PKM tools are huge for me, given that writing is very central in my life. Picking 3 is incredibly hard though, as there are many different categories.

      For development, my top 3 would be IntelliJ (except when it crashes on Windows with WSL... 😂), Bash with aliases and Gitkraken.

      For personal organization and productivity, my top 3 would be Notion, Trello and my time timer.

  8. 2

    Thanks for the list, I installed espanso and it's great so far!

    1. 1

      Yes, espanso is great. It helps me spare so much time.

      Say I wanted to promote my product, I'd just have to type :pkmlib<space> and boom, replaced: https://developassion.gumroad.com/l/PersonalKnowledgeManagementLibrary

      This is invaluable and I use it for tons of different things: code snippets, e-mail templates, emojis, my intro for when I join social networks, my address, my mail, etc.

  9. 2

    Check out Notaku https://notaku.website too, it can build docs and blog websites for your products using content from Notion

    1. 2

      Notaku looks great, thanks for sharing ❤️

    2. 1

      Oh my this is so much nicer than the cloud flare inspired solution I set up last year 😅 thanks for sharing!

  10. 2

    This is very huge list. Thanks for the post.

    Looks like you have good expertise on many tools. :)

    1. 2

      I'm a generalist, so let's say that I have a "good enough" expertise, but nothing very deep (apart from a small subset) ;-)

  11. 2

    Hey there. It’s good idea but do not forget about using trustful domain and hosting. I suggest to use https://www.namecheap.com/hosting/email/ when you have a large online enterprise. 2020. The email has become one of the major sources of marketing for many companies. Some email hosting solutions such as Gmail and Yahoomail are free to use and many businesses are using them to optimize their business operations.

    1. 2

      I use CloudFlare domains (they have wholesale registration rates) and their email forwarding service.

      1. 1

        I've applied to Cloudflare's email, but don't have access. Last time I checked it looked to still be in beta?

        1. 2

          Cloudflare email forwarding is now public for everyone.

          1. 1

            Yes, I've started using this a few days ago. Works perfectly. Love Cloudflare!

  12. 2

    Great list, Sébastien! Thanks for sharing! I have a question and one tool to add 😊
    the question is: what's the use case of having Obsidian and Notion together?

    Also, I'd love to add Llama Life https://llamalife.co by @threehourcoffe to the productivity section 😊

    1. 2

      Thanks Ana!

      I'm using Obsidian as the main tool for my Personal Knowledge Management (PKM). So when I take book notes, make summaries, extract knowledge from articles I read, etc this all goes into Obsidian. Whenever I prepare article drafts, think and want to organize my ideas, Obsidian is my go-to tool. I have it opened all day long. It's also where I keep track of my current work context and things to come back to soon-ish.

      LogSeq is the tool I intend to use for journaling, but which might soon replace Obsidian for me (I'm still experimenting at this point).

      Notion is also valuable for my knowledge, but for different categories of information: inventory, processes, shared documents, documentation, how-to guides, etc. Basically information that I need or might want to share with others and that is not directly tied to my thinking.

      Thanks for sharing llama. Reminds me of Winamp... And Remember The Milk ;-)

  13. 1

    Incredibly useful list. Thanks a bunch for sharing!

  14. 1

    could you go into Logseq vs Obsidian vs Notion a little? why do you use all 3?

    im a big notion fan but have been considering a switch to Obsisian lately. this is the first ive seen of logseq though and now it seems like I have another potential candidate

    1. 1

      I've explained about Obsidian "vs" Notion on another comment here, but basically it boils down to the dichotomy between my own thoughts and notes vs "collaborative" notes that I share with others or that are purely utility (e.g., inventories, processes, product documentation, tax info, family organization, rules for the kids and whatever else). Obsidian and LogSeq are all about knowledge. Of course you can mix and match as you see fit, but that's how I use those.

      I'm experimenting with LogSeq as a replacement for my journal at first, but I'll see how it goes. I think that outliners have some advantages of the "page note" style proposed by Obsidian. I think LogSeq means reduces "note management" to the bare minimum; you just add points and sub-points to your outline, wheras with Notion or Obsidian, you need to create notes, give those a name and move them around in the folder tree.

      1. 1

        I'd be happy to discuss this further. If you're interested, we have a community where we exchange ideas about PKM and tools: https://dsebastien.net/blog/2021-11-12-personal-knowledge-management-community

  15. 1

    SnagIt for taking screenshots and annotating.

    1. 1

      Indeed, great one. I'll add it to the list, I'm actually using it at work. Although at home I really prefer Lightshot. It's lightweight, and really fast

  16. 1

    What do you use most in the "Product and Domain names" list? I'm hoping you'll add Little.domains to it!

    1. 2

      The one I use the most is NameCheckr. I seem to more often need to look up the availability of social handles. I'll check out little.domains 🙏

  17. 1

    If you want to check out an alternative and affordable SEO tool, I would recommend katlinks.io 👌

  18. 1

    For the Tech stack, a nice addition is BCMS Headless CMS, so you can easily connect it with Next.js, Gatsby, or Nuxt. Or any other framework :) Let me know if you need any help setting it up :)

  19. 1

    Hey Sebastien, interesting toolkit. I've already checked some of the tools. Thanks ;)

  20. 1

    Hell of a list @dSebastien. Thanks for sharing.

    1. 1

      Glad if it's useful ❤️

  21. 1

    You have a lot of tools in there, how many arms do you have? 😅🔥

    1. 1

      Oh, fortunately I don't need to carry them all at once. They're just in my workshop, waiting for me to use them :)

      1. 1

        got it :) thank for including us 💙

        1. 2

          Hey, you're the one we all need to thank, creating cool products for the world! 💪

  22. 1

    Probably you can add https://LeadGen.tools
    So people can search for niche relevant people and companies so you can outreach and pitch your service or product.
    It has a Google Places scraper that gets contact data. Hope that helps :)

    1. 1

      I'll check it out. Thanks!

  23. 1

    I'm surprised how many tools you use in PKM and productivity.

    Everyone's brain works differently.

    I've done my fair share of experimenting, and came to the conclusion that I'm a minimalist.

    So I use one tool for note taking only, OneNote - not the best but I have my reasons.

    And I gave up on all productivity tools. Not even todo-lists anymore.

    1. 1

      You're right, it's all very personal. And it's all in flux. A few years back I relied on Confluence and Evernote. Then only on Dokuwiki. Then tried a bunch of other tools until finally discovering the new wave of PKM tools (Obsidian, Roam, LogSeq, Dendron, etc).

      But I'd also like to slowly reduce the number of tools; I don't like the idea of scattering my ideas in disconnected information silos.

      On a typical day, I mostly rely on Obsidian, my whiteboard and Post-It notes ;-)

      1. 1

        +1 for whiteboard and Post-it!
        And a roll of brown paper!

        I’ll check out Obsidian !

  24. 1

    Notion is awesome amazing. I built my MVP using mostly Notion + Calendly

    1. 1

      Yes, I love Notion too!
      Great product, super versatile. I love how powerful databases are, and how each row is actually a block that can be opened as a page. Mind blowing :)

  25. 1

    I've updated the post to mention a few more tools. I probably forgot many, and didn't even get into browser extensions 😂

  26. 1

    Thank for this awesome list, Sebastien! Another French speaking? haha

    I see you are using CouchDB as database with Next.js. Did you use an ORM? If yes, which one?

    CouchDB is something I want to try ;)

    1. 2

      Oui en effet, je suis francophone. J'essaie de le cacher, mais c'est compliqué avec mon pseudo 😂

      I've used CouchDB within a NestJS + Angular project. It was a blast, CouchDB is a solid DB and is a pleasure to combine with PouchDB on the client side. We did not use an ORM though; I don't think there are any major ones compatible with CouchDB.

  27. 1

    Can you elaborate on why you'd use 3 separate note taking applications? How big is your team?

    1. 1

      I'm an author and I really love writing, so I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to note-taking tools. I'm actually working on multiple products in the Personal Knowledge Management space. One is my PKM library (https://developassion.gumroad.com/l/PersonalKnowledgeManagementLibrary), a collection of curated resources about PKM. The second one is focusd (https://focusd.app), a note-taking + productivity app combo with strong calendar integration, and the last is still in the early stages ;-)

      I use different tools for different use cases. Obsidian is my "thinking" space. It's where I take notes, write down my thoughts, my ideas, my first drafts, and more importantly where I link, tag and organize my "second brain". Notion on the other hand is for everything I need to share with others and acts as the unique entry point towards all my information. In Notion I store my inventory, processes, project lists, project ideas, etc.

      We are two working on focusd, and for that project we only share a Notion space and a Google Drive folder; that's more than enough for us to stay in sync and document everything.

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