The tools in our toolbox.

Choosing the wrong tools can take down your business. Here are the tools we’ve personally vetted and use on a day-to-day basis.

Welcome to the Can’t Wait Till Monday resource section! I’ve curated all the tools & software I recommend to build and grow online businesses.

To get an important disclaimer out of the way: some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at absolutely no cost to you.

That being said, please know that these are tools I’d fully recommend with an affiliate link or not. I’ve tested or used each and every tool extensively, for both client and personal projects. If you’d rather not use my link, you can always Google the company name as well.

Hope it helps!

Hosting

You might notice these are not your typical $4/mth hosting providers. In my opinion, premium hosting is 100% worth it - especially considering it’s the foundation of your business. It’s faster, more reliable, and more secure.
Cloudways logo

Cloudways

I moved all my sites over to Cloudways a couple years ago, and have not looked back since. It’s lightning fast, has free SSL, staging environments, and automatic backups. With OK support, it’s slightly more hands-on than some of the big Managed Wordpress hosts (see below), but it’s great value if you’re looking for premium hosting without taking a hit on your wallet.
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WPEngine

WPEngine has become the standard for medium-to-enterprise sites. It’s a slightly more expensive option, but comes with fantastic support. I’d recommend WPEngine if you’re looking for worry-free premium hosting.

Building Your Website

Site builders have come a long way over the past couple years, and are now a superior option to using a bloated theme or non-visual page builder. These are my go-to. Just keep in mind that there isn’t a ‘best’ builder - it largely depends on the requirements of the site you’re building.
Elementor logo

Elementor

Elementor is the best option for the average user in my opinion. It’s the most mature option available, is easy to use, has an active user community, and is frequently updated. It’s suitable if you need to hand-off a site for a client to edit as well. It really only lacks in advanced layout and global styling features.
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Oxygen

Oxygen is amazing for more advanced users - and it's what I used to make this site. It has the least bloat of all the builders, has clean code output, allows for advanced layouts, and has a nice ‘class’ system for global styling. It’s not as easy to use for novice users though, particularly if handing off to a client who wants to make all the edits themselves.
Brizy logo

Brizy

Brizy is the dark horse page builder. It has some really nice intuitive controls, and is catching up to the rest of the market quickly. I don’t feel it’s at the level of an Elementor or Oxygen quite yet, but still works well for simple websites, and is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
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Astra Theme

While a page builder like Oxygen actually disables the theme completely, you still technically need a theme for the other builders to provide the bare bones. Astra is fast, lightweight, provides a good variety of general settings, and is compatible with most page builders.

Opt-ins, Funnels, & Checkouts

If your website functions as a brochure, then you still have some work to do. To be worth your time, you need it to be building your audience, generating leads, and acquiring customers.
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CartFlows

CartFlows is the new kid on the block, but might already be the best way to create beautiful funnels on Wordpress. It ties into WooCommerce, giving it a lot of extendability. It also comes with some really nice predesigned templates for a few of the popular page builders. There is a free version which is completely usable, but the Pro allows you to create upsells, downsells, order bumps, and custom checkout forms.
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ThriveCart

ThriveCart is a great option if you want a checkout system that doesn’t rely on WooCommerce. It also comes with upsells, downsells, order bumps, custom checkout forms, and subscriptions, but has a bit less flexibility when it comes to styling. The best part is that it can be currently purchased for a one-time fee.
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Funnelytics

Tracking funnel performance linearly (like with Google Analytics) isn’t the most intuitive. They’re still working out some kinks, but Funnelytics is awesome because it lets you map out your funnels and see each step’s performance visually.
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ClickFunnels

Clickfunnels is the 200 pound gorilla. While it doesn't quite give you full design capability, it’s an easy & powerful tool to help you build funnels, collect sales, and even create basic membership sites. It’s used by thousands (if not millions) of marketers, and there are a ton of templates available.
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Convertful

I use Convertful for most of my popups and opt-in forms. Some page builders have popups and forms built in, but Convertful has really great deep integration with most email marketing platforms - allowing you to show opt-ins to specific segments of your audience.
Stripe logo

Stripe

Stripe is really the easiest way to accept and process credit card payments for any online business. They integrate with just about every ecommerce checkout tool out there. It comes with a 2.9% + $0.30 fee per transaction, but that’s become the market standard.

Essential Plugins

You’ll find these plugins installed on most of my WordPress websites.
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WP Rocket

If your website is slow, users will drop-off. It’s as simple as that. WP Rocket is one of the best caching plugins on the market, with a good mix of features and ease-of-use. Their documentation is also really good, making it easy to optimize your site without breaking it.
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NinjaFirewall

Most people are surprised to learn that it’s not just big companies that get hacked. It’s typically not that someone is targeting you directly - but a bot that’s scanning for vulnerabilities. I used to use Wordfence, but I've found NinjaFirewall to have a better Web Application Firewall (WAF) at the free level, as it's updated every few hours as opposed to every 30 days.
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Updraft

You always want to make sure you have a backup in case things go wrong. While most premium hosting providers have automated backups, you don’t want to rely on just one source. I use Updraft to schedule backups to an off-site cloud storage.
ShortPixel logo

ShortPixel

Optimizing the images on your website is super important for page speed and search rankings. ShortPixel is the best plugin I've tested in terms of reducing file size & ease-of-use, and I use it on all the sites I build. They also recently released an innovative Adaptive Images feature which will resize images based on the user's browser window size.

Email Marketing

If you run an online business, you need to be emailing your list. It’s a great way to nurture your leads and turn customers into raving fans.
ActiveCampaign logo

ActiveCampaign

Its email editor could use a face-lift, but ActiveCampaign is one of the more powerful email marketing platforms out there. You’re able to build complex automations, and it integrates with most other marketing tools. ActiveCampaign is my current choice for any business that isn’t an ecommerce store.
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Klaviyo

If you run a traditional Shopify or WooCommerce store, Klaviyo will provide the deepest integration. Its UI can be a little primitive at times, but compared to Mailchimp or most other email marketing platforms, you’re able to build some really advanced flows.

Design

These are design tools made to speed up your workflow. Why start from scratch when there are some amazing resources available?
Figma logo

Figma

Figma is one tool that’s really improved my workflow. You’re able to quickly create pixel perfect web & app designs, and it’s much more efficient than using something like Photoshop. In fact, I first designed this site in Figma. Their free plan is very generous and 100% usable.
Envato logo

Envato Elements

If you provide website or design services for clients, Envato Elements is a handy resource to have. It’s a monthly subscription, but you have unlimited download access to all their graphics, videos, stock photos, sound effects, templates, fonts etc.
ui8 logo

ui8

ui8 is similar to Envato Elements, but has fewer, more premium resources. It has some beautiful modern web/app UI kits, icon sets, mockups, illustrations, and templates. You can choose to buy items individually, or get an all-access pass.
99designs logo

99designs

If you need a logo, landing page, website, ebook cover, or whatever else designed, 99designs is a good place to go. After posting a project, a bunch of designers will respond with their submissions. You just need to pick your favorite. To get the most out of it, I'd recommend first browsing other designs you like, making note of the designer, and inviting them to your project.

Business Apps

These tools can be essential for the day-to-day operation of your business.
Bonjoro logo

Bonjoro

Bonjoro is one of my favourite products on this list. It allows you to send customers/contacts personalized videos in an easy & automated fashion. You decide the trigger criteria, it sends you a notification when a contact meets the criteria, you record the quick video through their app, and they send it out automatically. It’s a great way to engage your customers & audience.
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Notion

Notion has become my go-to productivity tool. It's kind of like a Google Docs + Trello + Excel + Evernote combined. I use it as a daily journal, to-do list, habit tracker, goal planner, home for strategy documents, and a place to keep track of any thoughts or websites I come across. It's great for both personal use and business teams.
BigMarker logo

BigMarker

I’ve recently started using BigMarker for webinars, small workshops, and meetings. It’s a browser-based solution, so there’s no need to download any software. It lets you create a variety of live, hybrid, and automated webinars, and so far has been very reliable.
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Zapier

Zapier is the king of getting your apps to communicate with each other. It allows events that occur in one app to trigger an action in another. Zapier supports thousands of apps, and is particularly useful when you are using two apps that don’t have a direct integration.
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Landbot

If you want to make your website more conversational, Landbot is a great option. You're able to create simple-yet-powerful bots in just a few minutes. It's an engaging alternative to standard contact forms - especially if you have more than a few fields that you want to gather from your visitors.
Wave Accounting logo

Wave Accounting

There’s a lot I don’t love about Wave, particularly regarding some of their UX. However, it’s free, has a nice design, and actually beats out a lot of the paid accounting solutions. If you only need a simple accounting solution and don’t want the monthly costs, Wave is a decent option.
Xero logo

Xero

If you need a more advanced accounting platform, Xero is a winner. It doesn’t have the nicest design in the world, but has the best multi-currency features of all the platforms I've tested, and you’re able to use your own Stripe and PayPal accounts to accept payments on your invoices.
Gist logo

Gist

Gist probably does more than I’d ever want it to, but it’s a pretty powerful marketing platform. In particular, I use it for its live chat and meeting scheduling functionality. It also comes with email marketing, marketing automation, & a knowledge base if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution.

Are there any I missed? Or have a question about a specific app or use-case? Send me a message here and I’ll try my best to help you out!

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