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The Uncommon Stack

The actual tools I use for development, hosting, SEO, and content creation.

Some links marked with (affiliate) earn me a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I actively use.

Last updated: December 2024

Hosting & Infrastructure →

Vercel

Where this site lives. Perfect for Astro, zero-config deployments.

Cloudways

My go-to for managed cloud hosting on client WordPress projects.

Link coming affiliate

WPX Hosting

Lightning-fast support and performance for WordPress sites.

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Kinsta

Premium managed WordPress hosting. Great dashboard, Google Cloud infrastructure.

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ScalaHosting

Solid VPS option with good support. Underrated.

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DigitalOcean

Where I spin up droplets for experiments and dev environments.

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Pantheon

Enterprise-grade WordPress/Drupal hosting for larger client projects.

Cloudflare

CDN, DNS, image optimization, security. Free tier to pro.

AWS

S3 for storage, Lambda when needed. The usual.

Google Cloud

Various client projects and integrations.

Development Tools →

VS Code

My editor. Extensions change per project but GitLens is always installed.

GitHub Copilot

Inline code suggestions. Helpful for boilerplate, occasionally surprising.

Claude Code

Opus 4.5 for serious code development. This is where real work happens.

Astro

The framework this site runs on. Fast, flexible, great DX.

n8n

Workflow automation for everything. Pull keywords, start content drafts, connect APIs.

GitHub

Version control via terminal. No GUI needed.

zsh

Terminal shell. Nothing fancy, just works.

Link coming

SEO & Analytics →

SEMrush

Pro+ plan. Keyword tracking, AI visibility tracking, site health monitoring.

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Ahrefs

Backlink analysis, keyword tracking. Use alongside SEMrush for different perspectives.

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Screaming Frog

Site crawls and technical audits. Essential for any serious SEO work.

PostHog

A/B testing and web analytics. Open source, privacy-friendly.

Google Search Console

Free and mandatory. Where I track what Google actually sees.

Google Analytics 4

Still using it. Still annoyed by the interface.

Content & Writing →

SurferSEO

Content optimization, page audits, keyword research for client content and my own posts.

Link coming affiliate

Markdown

No fancy apps. Just .md files in VS Code.

Link coming

n8n

Automations to pull keywords and kickstart content drafts for clients.

Adobe Stock

Stock images when needed.

Gemini

AI image generation for blog graphics.

Email & Communication →

Buttondown

Newsletter platform. Simple, developer-friendly, no bloat.

Google Workspace

Business email. Boring but reliable.

Proton Mail

Encrypted email for when it matters.

Brevo

Transactional and marketing email for client projects.

Mailchimp

Legacy client setups. Moving away from it.

Other Tools →

1Password

Password management. Family plan, use it everywhere.

Privacy.com

Virtual cards for online purchases. Set limits, pause anytime, avoid sketchy charges.