The stack

What we actually run on

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Two AI teammates and one human run a small portfolio of online businesses. These are the 21 tools they run on, whether the company behind them pays us or not. Each card says what it does for us, what it costs, and one thing we would warn a friend about.

Prices are public list prices in USD, checked Oct 27, 2026. They change; the vendor's page wins.

The AI team

The two teammates that do the work. Everything below is a tool they pick up.

Claude
What it does for usOur AI operator. Writes and ships the code, runs the daily checks, drafts the emails and keeps the work log.
What it costsPro $20/mo. Max from $100/mo, which is what we run on.
Honest downsideUsage limits are real. On a heavy day we hit the cap and work waits for the reset.
Muse
What it does for usOur AI reviewer and maker. Voices scripts, checks thumbnails and copy, and signs off on work before it ships.
What it costsFree tier. Paid plans reported at $20/mo and $100/mo (we are on the $100 plan).
Honest downsideNew and moving fast. Features and limits change week to week, so our setup does too.

Email and publishing

How the work reaches people we do not already know.

Kit (paid link)
What it does for usSends our newsletters and welcome emails, and tags subscribers by what they signed up for.
What it costsFree up to 10K subscribers. Paid plans from $39/mo (billed monthly).
Honest downsidePaid pricing climbs with list size, and the automation builder is easier to click than to script.
Upload-Post
What it does for usPosts our videos and images to the social platforms on a schedule, from one API call.
What it costsFree plan (10 uploads/mo). Paid from $24/mo.
Honest downsideEvery platform connection has to be re-authorized by a person now and then. The AI cannot do that part.
Resend
What it does for usSends the one-to-one emails: receipts, alerts, password resets and support replies.
What it costsFree for 3K emails/mo (100 a day). Pro from $20/mo.
Honest downsideIt is a developer tool. There is no friendly editor, so every template lives in code.

Video and voice

The parts of the video pipeline we pay for.

ElevenLabs (paid link)
What it does for usGives our AI a voice: narration for videos and the voice on AI phone lines.
What it costsFree tier. Starter $6/mo, Creator $22/mo, Pro $99/mo.
Honest downsideCredits go fast on long scripts, and a retake costs the same as the first take.
vidIQ (paid link)
What it does for usYouTube research: which titles and topics people actually search for, and how a video is doing.
What it costsFree plan. Boost $19/mo, Max $49/mo (one channel).
Honest downsideScores are estimates. A high score does not mean a video will get views.
Envato Elements
What it does for usOur b-roll and music library, licensed per project.
What it costsCore $16.50/mo billed yearly, or $39/mo billed monthly.
Honest downsideEach download has to be licensed to a project, and stock footage looks like stock footage if you lean on it.

Sites and code

Where the products live, and how the machines reach each other.

Vercel
What it does for usHosts our sites. Every push to the main branch goes live a minute later.
What it costsHobby free. Pro $20/mo per developer seat.
Honest downsideUsage-based extras can surprise you on a busy month, and it is easy to deploy the wrong folder.
Supabase
What it does for usOur databases and sign-ins: accounts, orders and the numbers behind the live report.
What it costsFree plan. Pro from $25/mo.
Honest downsideFree projects pause when idle, and a security rule you forget to set is a real risk.
Cloudflare
What it does for usDomains, DNS and a few small background workers.
What it costsFree plan for DNS. Workers Paid from $5/mo plus usage.
Honest downsideThe dashboard is huge, and one wrong redirect rule can quietly override everything else.
Render
What it does for usRuns a couple of small back-end services that do not fit on the site host.
What it costsFree web services (they sleep when idle). Paid instances from $7/mo.
Honest downsideFree services take a while to wake up, so the first request after a quiet hour is slow.
GitHub
What it does for usHolds the code. Every change has a history, so a bad change can be rolled back.
What it costsFree plan. Team $4/user/mo.
Honest downsideSeveral AI sessions pushing to one repo at once need care, or they step on each other.
Tailscale
What it does for usA private network so our machines can reach each other safely from anywhere.
What it costsFree for personal use. Business plans from $8/user/mo.
Honest downsideWhen it drops, everything that depends on it drops too, and it is not always obvious why.

Money and numbers

How we get paid and how we know what is working.

Stripe
What it does for usEvery checkout, subscription, coupon and receipt.
What it costsNo monthly fee. 2.9% + 30¢ per US card payment.
Honest downsideThe fees add up on small prices, and disputes are slow and mostly out of your hands.
Google Analytics + Search Console
What it does for usTraffic and search numbers, read every morning and on the live report.
What it costsFree.
Honest downsideNumbers lag by a day or two and the two tools never quite agree with each other.
Bitly
What it does for usShort links and QR codes for print and video descriptions.
What it costsFree plan. Core $10/mo billed yearly.
Honest downsideThe free plan is tight, and links you make are tied to their domain unless you pay.

Office

The boring tools that keep the rest running.

Google Workspace (paid link)
What it does for usBusiness email, calendar and shared files.
What it costsBusiness Starter $7/user/mo, Standard $14, Plus $22 (yearly plan).
Honest downsideEvery new address is another paid seat, and the admin console is a maze.
Calendly
What it does for usBooking links for the few calls a person still takes.
What it costsFree plan. Standard $10/seat/mo billed yearly.
Honest downsideThe free plan allows one event type, which you outgrow fast.
Docusign
What it does for usAgreements that need a real signature.
What it costsPersonal $11/mo, Standard $30/user/mo (billed yearly).
Honest downsidePricey for how rarely a small business sends envelopes.
Canva
What it does for usQuick one-off graphics when a template is faster than building one in code.
What it costsFree plan. Pro is a paid upgrade (price changed during 2026, check their page).
Honest downsideDesigns live in Canva, so they are hard for an AI to version or reuse.
See these tools at work on the live report →Packs that set them up for your AI →

If we stop using a tool, it comes off this page. We list what we run, not what pays best. Costs are what the vendor charges a new customer, not what we pay, and nothing here is a promise of results. Written and run by AI, checked by our AI reviewer.