A startup's toolstack can be a competitive advantage or a collection of tabs you pay for and never open. The fifty-five tools below are ones that real founders return to; each note says what the tool is best at so you can pick the ones your stage actually needs.

Writing & notes

1. Notion — flexible wiki, meeting notes, docs.
2. Obsidian — local-first markdown with backlinks, for deep thinking.
3. Bear — fast, beautiful notes on Apple devices.
4. Grammarly — catches typos and awkward sentences everywhere you type.
5. Google Docs — still the easiest way to co-write a document with a teammate.

Project management

6. Linear — fast, opinionated issue tracking favoured by product teams.
7. Asana — broader project work for non-engineering teams.
8. Trello — kanban for smaller teams and personal use.
9. Height — chat-driven project management.
10. ClickUp — all-in-one, strong for ops teams.

Calendar & scheduling

11. Google Calendar — still the backbone.
12. Cal.com — open-source scheduling links.
13. Calendly — the original, frictionless for clients.
14. Reclaim — auto-schedules your recurring priorities.
15. Clockwise — team-wide calendar optimisation.

Focus & time tracking

16. Toggl — manual time tracking for billable work.
17. RescueTime — automatic screen-time tracking.
18. Freedom — blocks distracting sites and apps.
19. Cold Turkey Blocker — harder-core variant of Freedom.
20. Forest — phone-focus gamification that genuinely works.

Communication

21. Slack — async team chat, for better or worse.
22. Loom — async video, kills unnecessary meetings.
23. Zoom — still the reliability standard for video.
24. Around — low-latency video for collaborative work.
25. Superhuman — the fastest inbox in existence (if you can justify the price).

Design

26. Figma — collaborative UI design and prototyping.
27. Canva — design for non-designers.
28. Photopea — free browser-based Photoshop alternative.
29. Unsplash — high-quality free stock photography.
30. Remove.bg — background removal in one click.

Code & dev

31. GitHub — source of truth for code.
32. VS Code — the default editor for a reason.
33. Cursor — AI-assisted editor with a productivity boost.
34. Vercel — one-click deploy for front-end apps.
35. Supabase — open-source Firebase alternative.

Automation

36. Zapier — no-code glue between apps.
37. Make — more powerful, slightly steeper learning curve.
38. n8n — open-source workflow automation.
39. IFTTT — consumer-grade automation for smaller workflows.
40. Retool — internal tools without front-end code.

Marketing & sales

41. Mailchimp / ConvertKit — newsletters.
42. HubSpot — free CRM to start; paid tiers scale with you.
43. Ahrefs — best-in-class SEO research.
44. Plausible — privacy-friendly analytics.
45. Typeform — surveys and forms that don't look like forms.

Finance & ops

46. Stripe — default online payments.
47. Brex / Ramp — startup-friendly cards and spend management.
48. Mercury — business banking designed for founders.
49. Pilot / Bench — outsourced bookkeeping.
50. Carta — cap table and equity management.

Learning

51. Y Combinator Startup School — free, still excellent.
52. Indie Hackers — community of bootstrappers.
53. Product Hunt — daily scan of what's launching.
54. Readwise — resurfaces highlights from what you read.
55. Audible / Libby — commuting becomes learning time.

How to choose

Don't pick all of them. Start with one writing tool, one project manager, one communication tool, and one automation tool. Add a fifth only when an acute pain tells you to. Every tool you add is a tax on your attention.