Tools I Use

To do my work I use a number of software tools, services and hardware, which are essential to do my work or to save me time. I have listed them below in sections.

Hosting & Web Services

  • Linode – Unmanaged Linux virtual machine provider and my favourite hosting company
  • SimplyServers – Unmanaged Windows & Linux virtual and dedicated servers
  • Amazon Web Services – Plethora of web services, I mainly use S3 and SES
  • Flywheel – Managed WordPress hosting
  • Cloudflare – DNS manager, CDN and plethora of related services
  • Namecheap – My preferred domain registrar

SEO

  • Ahrefs & MajesticSEO – Backlink checkers
  • SEMRUSH – Competitor research
  • Google Analytics, Search Console and Keyword Planner – Web-analytics, management and research tools
  • ScreamingFrog SEO Spider – Website spider
  • Xenu’s Link Sleuth – Website spider

Social Media

  • Hootsuite – Tool for scheduling posts to multiple social platforms

Mass Email

  • Sendy – Self hosted email marketing platform that uses Amazon SES to send mail
  • GetResponse – Fully hosted email marketing suite

Storage

  • Owncloud – Self hosted Dropbox alternative with a lot of additional functionality
  • Dropbox – Online file syncronisation and storage solution
  • Boxcryptor – Encryption add-on for Dropbox and similar services
  • Sync.com – Dropbox alternative that encrypts your data (zero knowledge solution)
  • Amazon S3 – Block storage

Creative Tools

  • Camtasia Studio – Screen capture and video editing software
  • Paint.NET (and Pinta on MacOS) – Like Microsoft Paint on steroids
  • Mindmeister – Mind mapping tool that is great for planning website sitemaps

Content Management

  • Drupal – My preferred CMS
  • WordPress – The most popular CMS, which I happen to have loads of experience with

Development Tools

  • Webmin / VirtualMin – My preferred GUI administrator for Linux servers
  • CPanel – The most popular GUI administrator for Linux servers
  • FIlezilla – FTP client
  • Notepad++ – Text/code editor
  • Putty – SSH client

Productivity Tools

  • Google Drive, Calendar and Gmail – What would we do without Google
  • Microsoft Office – Hate to love it!
  • Evernote – To do list tool that syncs between devices

CRM

  • EspoCRM – Open source fully featured CRM; deployed, customised and use it now (my preferred CRM)
  • SalesForce – Used it daily for several years as an end user, although not used it for a while
  • SugarCRM – Open source CRM; deployed and customised it for my own use in the past

Virtualisation

  • VMWare Fusion (for MacOS) – I use it to run Windows 7 and Ubuntu on my Mac
  • VirtualBox (for Linux) – I use it to run Windows 7 on any Linux box
  • Microsoft Remote Desktop

Trading

  • MetaTrader 4 Terminal and Manager – FX/CFD trading platform
  • XCore from PrimeXM – FX/CFD liquidity bridge
  • TradingView.com – Charting software and social trading community
  • CMC Next-Gen trading platform
  • AutoFX Trader Copier
  • BJF Power Trade Copier

Hardware

  • MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) – The best computer I ever had
  • OnePlus 5, 128GB – A fast Android mobile phone
  • Netgear VSDL Modem, Asus AC56U Router + Ubiquiti Unifi AP-AC Long Range Access Point

Communication

  • CallWithUs.com – VoIP provider
  • Voip.ms – VoIP provider
  • Localphone.com (Voxbeam) – Retail VoIP provider
  • Chrisons – VoIP and hosted IP-PBX provider (best for Cyprus clients)
  • Orbtalk – VoIP and hosted IP-PBX provider (best for UK clients)
  • Zoiper – VoIP client for Android and other platforms
  • Join.me – Webcast and screen-sharing solution
  • Skype – for team working and screen-sharing
  • Microsoft Teams – collaboration tool

If you want to know anything specific about the tools I use or the experience I have with them please get in touch. I would be happy to share my experience.