What stack do I use?

Prompted by Doug writing this piece (based on this) and a couple of the Colophon's (new word for me!) by Matt and Steve I thought I'd outline "my stack". I've done this a couple of times before but this time feels slightly different.

Why it feels different this time?

Well, as someone who has been gently prompting people to not be so beholden to Big Tech, to look more at Open Source, to think more ethically, and to at least consider European Alternatives, I feel I should at least discuss where I'm trying to do this, where I'm succeeding and where I'm often failing.

My Stack

General workspace
I use Google suite for email, docs, sheets etc.
Why: It's better than Microsoft which is the death of all things collaborative? Like a lot better. But that doesn't mean I'm not looking around for alternatives.
What alternatives am I looking at: Proton Mail for email and docs. If they had a sheets alternative I might have already jumped. Cryptpad, Colabra, Etherpad for docs and more

Browser
I use Arc Browser most of the time. Sometimes when on Chromebook I use Chrome. I sometimes use firefox for specific things.
Why: I like having multiple profiles available, saved spaces, it's pretty fast and the developer mode is pretty good.
What alternatives am I looking at: None at the moment.

Blog
I use Ghost for this blog. I host it on Digital Ocean. I used to use Medium. I have used Substack.
Why: I like the self host option, the interface and layouts are nice, making it easy for me to write quickly. It's open source meaning I can display things from a database in it easily like I outline here in Write like nobody is watching as part of my flow of capturing interesting things. Also "No investors. No bullshit." is something I can get behind.
What alternatives am I looking at: None at the moment.

Analytics
I use Plausible analytics whenever I actually use analytics.
Why: It's lightweight, simple, none intrusive. It doesn't use cookies, and doesn't capture personal data. It's also EU made and hosted.
What alternatives am I looking at: None at the moment, but Fathom is another alternative that is similar. Do you really need Google Analytics?

AI
Oh yeah, that. So mainly I use AI via API's or local. I don't use much in the way of specific AI tools. I do use Cursor. I have played with Loveable and Firebase (despite the confusing name). Primarily I use the API's of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral (anything called le platforme is just cool...also their OCR if ace) depending on cost, token limit, functionality. I use HuggingFace . I use LMStudio to run and try out some models on a local machine.
Why: So I use AI for specific things when I think they will make something more effective. I'm therefore always looking for the best model, and best use case. And things change all the time. So I purposefully build specific components that allow me to easily switch models and providers. If there is one thing I'd advise when thinking about building AI into an organisation, it's to ensure you aren't creating provider lock in for yourself. Quite a few AI wrappers (tools that put some kind of front end onto a model) allow you to switch models. But not all. And if you are building yourself, there is a risk you just lock yourself into a depeciating model or a provider that just turns out to be mega shitty.

General development
When I begin building something my go to is often using Supabase as a database and Vercel for deployment. I sometimes use DigitalOcean, and may use something like Pinecone or Duckdb if the need really arises.
Why: I really like Supabase because it scales, it can handle edge functions, geo data types, vector embeddings which is great. It's also got really good documentation, security and api. It's also Open Source. I use Vercel because I often code front end things in Next.js and deployment is so easy from github. Also has great scaling and serverless functions.
What alternatives am I looking at: I've not found anything that really. I'd love to here what others use here!

Meeting Scheduling
I use Cal.com. I previously used SavvyCal and a whole range of others.
Why: I can use multiple calendars, set rules, self host, it's open source, it's got video meetings in it, extra developer bits.
What alternatives am I looking at: None at the moment.

Time tracking
I use a custom Airtable base, with automation to track my time and assign to various project and clients.
Why: I didn't really like any of the alternatives I'd previously used, and some were stupidly expensive for what I needed, which was just to simply track who I was billing etc. I built the Airtable base myself, and I can use webhooks to send invoices at the click of a button if I need to.
What alternatives am I looking at: I've played around with SolidTime a bit. It's quite nice. I think if I was motivated to switch off Airtable (more on that later) I might switch to SolidTime for time tracking.

Storing stuff/random apps/prototype databases?
Not quite sure what to call this one, but I use Airtable a lot as I've described above for a range of different things. Some for quickly prototyping small apps that need a database or api access.
Why: Airtable can help me outline a schema pretty quickly, I can play around with things, it has automations and api access and a range of other things.
What alternatives am I looking at: I'm looking at baserow as it's EU made, open source and can be self hosted which I'm veering more to when I can.

Accountancy software
I use Quickfile
Why: It's simple, fast and effective. It's also cheap and you can access their api for connectivity. I also hate most other book keeping software
What alternatives am I looking at: none. I've used Quickbooks (urgh) and Xero (how much?!)

API
I use Postman for design, testing and scoping API's
Why: It's just good. It's not open source, but it has good principles around openness.
What alternatives am I looking at: none

Conclusion

It's not easy to avoid the big tech trap, but I think I'm doing ok. Also I'm not saying you definitely should, but I think you should at least consider what you use and what this means, and if you have principle maybe they should cost you something
I haven't mentioned in here domains and hosting as they are all a bit all over the place at the minute, but I am getting on top of it and trying to move to greener hosting.