Quite often I’m asked what tools I use day-to-day, so here’s a list of products and services that I use. Quite a few are free, and some are affiliates (meaning I make a small amount when you click and use them too).

Web Hosting:
I host most of my sites on 1and1, but I do quite a bit of work setting up landing pages and blogs and for that purpose, I always go with GoDaddy. They’ve been great about tech support and once you are used to their dashboard, everything works quite well.

When traffic really increases, simple, shared hosting can get overwhelmed. My solution to this was to hire a system administrator and use Amazon Web Services. This is much trickier than shared hosting, but much more powerful. Not for the faint of heart!

Staffing / Online Assistants:
In my day-to-day I employ several web developers and virtual assistants. I’ve used lots of the online services for this, but one stands out for me, oDesk. The time-tracking and payment services are simple and transparent and I’ve had a lot of success finding smart, talented help there.

Development Tools:
Here’s my list of must-have tools to run a web-based company. Many are free.

• Code Development – NetBeans (free) – All my developers use it too, increasing style consistency. For OOP development, this is the best.
• Code development – Coda (not free) – This is my favorite all-in-one IDE. DB connections to GIT, SVN and FTP baked right in. Mac only! I stopped using it about a year ago in favor of Netbeans.
• Apache Web Server – MAMP (free) – Create a local web server with one-click install. MAMP is incredible.
• MySQL Database Management – Navicat (not free) – Awesome way to administer your databases. Huge leaps over PhpMyAdmin.
• Version Control – I use GIT. To administer this, I use (free) SourceTree. Works for Mac & PC and supports GIT-Flow!
• Project Tracking – Trello (free). This is an intuitive tool that all my developers and VA’s pick up instantly (huge!). Hard to believe it’s free.