7 ms·

Online services our startup subscribes to

111 points by epi0Bauqu 15y ago

robjohnson 15y ago
Thanks for posting the list - more startups should do this.
- joeyespo 15y ago
  Agreed. This is very useful. I wonder if a startup version of usesthis.com would be a useful place to collect or reference posts like this.
  - xpose2000 15y ago
    Brilliant idea. Perhaps I might pursue this.
    - mikeleeorg 15y ago
      Now that I think about it, I've used usesthis.com for this very purpose - to get some anecdotal "votes" for particular categories of services. If this was listed out in an easier-to-read fashion, I personally would love that.
    - joeyespo 15y ago
      Thanks! Ping me if you do, I'd love to see it and be happy to provide some feedback.
tedroden 15y ago
Do you guys use a project management package? Basecamp, asana, pivotal etc? (We don't use them either (yet), just wondering what you do instead?)
- epi0Bauqu 15y ago
  We use Asana and are happy with it. It's free so I didn't include it (but maybe I should have).
  - tedroden 15y ago
    I keep hearing asana... I like the keyboard shortcuts, so I'll probably go that way. Thanks!
- sethjrogers 15y ago
  Trello has worked beautifully for this
- thibaut_barrere 15y ago
  Acunote works great for us (and is free for 5 users).
- jerlevine 15y ago
  We're using Asana at http://starstreet.com http://starstreet.com and are liking it a lot. That said, if we weren't already used to it and were starting today we may go with trello.
dignan 15y ago
I was curious about ServerDensity. Does anyone have experience with them? How easy is it to automate for deployment? Does it compare favorably with Munin and/or nagios?
- epi0Bauqu 15y ago
  I'm not sure about comparisons to Munin or nagios (since I haven't used them -- was coming from MRTG), but it is easy to deploy. There is a package (agent) that runs on startup and then every few minutes.
- sdcooke 15y ago
  I'm not sure about the automation of creating servers in the web interface (it gives you a key that you have to put in the configuration file) - installing the service is easy though through a package manager. The two things I think are great about ServerDensity over Munin (haven't used nagios) are the snapshots (you click on a point in the graph and it shows you the processes running, server load, network etc at that time) and the alerting (email, Android, iPhone push) which is great. Even custom plugins are easy to write/install and stick alerts on.
  - dignan 15y ago
    Awesome. Thanks for the heads up, especially about snapshots. Signed up for the trial, and it looks like their auto-deploy script links are broken (support.serverdensity.com 502's). I'd like to see if there's a way to generate keys somehow, because it looks like it requires a unique per-server key. I suspect that is what their auto-deploy script does.
    - dmytton 15y ago
      We're using Assistly for our support site and they've had a number of outages in the last few days. Auto deployment is something we're working on improving but right now you can use auto copy[1], which bases new instance detection on the hostname, our auto deploy script[2] or our API[3] to add devices automatically. [1] http://support.serverdensity.com/customer/portal/articles/72261-auto-copy http://support.serverdensity.com/customer/portal/articles/72... [2] http://support.serverdensity.com/customer/portal/articles/72262-deploy-script http://support.serverdensity.com/customer/portal/articles/72... [3] http://developer.serverdensity.com/docs http://developer.serverdensity.com/docs
edash 15y ago
Here are some things we use at http://realhq.com http://realhq.com — those also mentioned in the article are in italics: HOSTING Rails Hosting: EngineYard LAMP Hosting: HostGator File Hosting: AWS Video Hosting: Wistia Code Hosting: GitHub COLLABORATION Email/Calendar/Docs: Google Apps Project Management: Basecamp Group Chat: Campfire Wiki: Backpack COMMUNICATION Email Deliverability: SendGrid Phone Magic: Twilio Phone System: OpenVBX MONITORING Error Monitoring: Airbrake App Monitoring: New Relic Server Monitoring: Pingdom ACCOUNTING Receipts: Shoeboxed Income: Freshbooks Accounting: Outright OTHER Web Fonts: fonts.com Web Fonts: Typekit eSignatures: DocuSign Forms: Wufoo Advertising: Google AdWords Our favorite products are probably Outright (dead simple), Twilio (enables tons of phone system magic), and AdWords (flexible, powerful, profitable). The two products we're actively working to replace are Backpack (with Workflowy or something similar) and Shoeboxed (we have yet to find an alternative). And we've outgrown Wufoo, but owe them much more than we've ever paid them in monthly charges.
- 8ig8 15y ago
  Thanks for the great list. I took a look at Outright. The service may be useful, but this bugs me... > You can use your FREE account forever - No trial or expiration date. Paid accounts are just $9.95 per month. See details when you log in. I know there's a catch, but I'm forced to create an account to find out about it. I'm either gonna use dummy info or just leave since I don't want another account until I understand what I'm signing up for. I realize this is a tactic for getting me to try the service, but I don't like it. I ended up just leaving.
TWSS 15y ago
Because the list is so long, and a bunch of the cons mention cost, I'm going to flog my friend's company, Cloudability (http://cloudability.com http://cloudability.com). They help you track and control your cloud spending and they're an AWS solutions provider. There are only three of us at Stayhound (http://stayhound.com http://stayhound.com), so our list is pretty short: Mockflow for creating and sharing flows and wireframes MailChimp Google docs & calendar Gmail IM Google+ hangouts for team video conferencing Trello for task management Capsule CMS Github Google AppEngine And we're in the process of considering a move to AWS.
- marquis 15y ago
  Cloudability looks fantastic. How are they planning on charging? It looks completely free right now.
cheez 15y ago
Am I the only one who went through the "hate" to find out if there is something substantial worth considering? :)
- mikeleeorg 15y ago
  Hehe I did the same thing. Hopefully, the services themselves did too, so they can consider revising their priority lists ;)
  - cheez 15y ago
    I have a feeling we'd get along ;-)
    - mikeleeorg 15y ago
      I love hearing complaints, because they often mask an opportunity ;)
xpose2000 15y ago
Awesome thread. I recently made a post about startup costs and what services I use. I even provide a cost breakdown for each one, bringing my grand total monthly bill to $295. Hopefully its useful to some. http://x-pose.org/2011/10/the-cost-of-running-a-boot-strapped-startup/ http://x-pose.org/2011/10/the-cost-of-running-a-boot-strappe...
pamelafox 15y ago
I notice a lot of those tools are for group collaboration -- I know there are many advantages to having a co-founder, but one of the advantages of being a single founder (AKA a developer working on an app they wish existed) is that I only have to collaborate with myself. Simplifies the toolkit quite a bit. Here's what I'm using for http://everyday.io http://everyday.io -- Backend: App Engine / Python / Flask Frontend: Bootstrap / jQuery / PhoneGap / HighCharts / Many microlibs APIs: SendGrid, Facebook, SimpleGeo Analytics: Woopra Code hosting: Github + Dropbox (just in case!) Email/Docs: Google Apps Task tracking: Stickies + GDocs + Things (Haven't quite decided on one strategy yet.) I've started blogging about tips I learn while using these technologies here, since some of them are kind of new and the knowledge base needs to be built up: http://www.everyday.im/learning http://www.everyday.im/learning I remember seeing a grid of what YC companies used, atleast in terms of the backend. That was pretty interesting.
petercooper 15y ago
Just want to mention this because I never see it in lists like these, yet everyone I've recommended it to has been blown away. Talkerapp: http://talkerapp.com/ http://talkerapp.com/ - It's a free Web chat system (with a paid level for extra logging and file transfers). I believe it's open source too. I use it for some of my online courses and haven't had another Web chat system come close (although stylistically it's a bit like Campfire).
spatten 15y ago
Here's what we use at http://leanpub.com http://leanpub.com * Servers: AWS * Code Hosting: GitHub * Mail Sending: Postmark (http://postmarkapp.com http://postmarkapp.com) * Monitoring: Scout (http://scoutapp.com/ http://scoutapp.com/) * Sharing files with our authors: Dropbox * Error notification: AirBrake (https://airbrakeapp.com/ https://airbrakeapp.com/) * File Hosting: S3 * Mail: Google Apps * Cartoon Animal Videos: Xtranormal (http://www.xtranormal.com/ http://www.xtranormal.com/) * Payments: PayPal * Project Planning / Todos: Pivotal Tracker
jcoder 15y ago
Regarding EchoSign, can you explain the complaint that you cannot control the signing date? If that means what I take it to mean, OF COURSE YOU CAN'T. It would be antithetical to the idea of reliable electronic signatures to allow a party to evidence that they entered an agreement at any time other than the actual agreement date.

111 points by epi0Bauqu 15y ago

robjohnson 15y ago

Thanks for posting the list - more startups should do this.

joeyespo 15y ago
Agreed. This is very useful. I wonder if a startup version of usesthis.com would be a useful place to collect or reference posts like this.
- xpose2000 15y ago
  Brilliant idea. Perhaps I might pursue this.
  - mikeleeorg 15y ago
    Now that I think about it, I've used usesthis.com for this very purpose - to get some anecdotal "votes" for particular categories of services. If this was listed out in an easier-to-read fashion, I personally would love that.
  - joeyespo 15y ago
    Thanks! Ping me if you do, I'd love to see it and be happy to provide some feedback.

tedroden 15y ago

Do you guys use a project management package? Basecamp, asana, pivotal etc? (We don't use them either (yet), just wondering what you do instead?)

epi0Bauqu 15y ago
We use Asana and are happy with it. It's free so I didn't include it (but maybe I should have).
- tedroden 15y ago
  I keep hearing asana... I like the keyboard shortcuts, so I'll probably go that way. Thanks!
sethjrogers 15y ago
Trello has worked beautifully for this
thibaut_barrere 15y ago
Acunote works great for us (and is free for 5 users).
jerlevine 15y ago
We're using Asana at http://starstreet.com http://starstreet.com and are liking it a lot. That said, if we weren't already used to it and were starting today we may go with trello.

dignan 15y ago

I was curious about ServerDensity. Does anyone have experience with them? How easy is it to automate for deployment? Does it compare favorably with Munin and/or nagios?

epi0Bauqu 15y ago
I'm not sure about comparisons to Munin or nagios (since I haven't used them -- was coming from MRTG), but it is easy to deploy. There is a package (agent) that runs on startup and then every few minutes.
sdcooke 15y ago
I'm not sure about the automation of creating servers in the web interface (it gives you a key that you have to put in the configuration file) - installing the service is easy though through a package manager. The two things I think are great about ServerDensity over Munin (haven't used nagios) are the snapshots (you click on a point in the graph and it shows you the processes running, server load, network etc at that time) and the alerting (email, Android, iPhone push) which is great. Even custom plugins are easy to write/install and stick alerts on.
- dignan 15y ago
  Awesome. Thanks for the heads up, especially about snapshots. Signed up for the trial, and it looks like their auto-deploy script links are broken (support.serverdensity.com 502's). I'd like to see if there's a way to generate keys somehow, because it looks like it requires a unique per-server key. I suspect that is what their auto-deploy script does.
  - dmytton 15y ago
    We're using Assistly for our support site and they've had a number of outages in the last few days. Auto deployment is something we're working on improving but right now you can use auto copy[1], which bases new instance detection on the hostname, our auto deploy script[2] or our API[3] to add devices automatically. [1] http://support.serverdensity.com/customer/portal/articles/72261-auto-copy http://support.serverdensity.com/customer/portal/articles/72... [2] http://support.serverdensity.com/customer/portal/articles/72262-deploy-script http://support.serverdensity.com/customer/portal/articles/72... [3] http://developer.serverdensity.com/docs http://developer.serverdensity.com/docs

edash 15y ago

Here are some things we use at http://realhq.com http://realhq.com — those also mentioned in the article are in italics: HOSTING Rails Hosting: EngineYard LAMP Hosting: HostGator File Hosting: AWS Video Hosting: Wistia Code Hosting: GitHub COLLABORATION Email/Calendar/Docs: Google Apps Project Management: Basecamp Group Chat: Campfire Wiki: Backpack COMMUNICATION Email Deliverability: SendGrid Phone Magic: Twilio Phone System: OpenVBX MONITORING Error Monitoring: Airbrake App Monitoring: New Relic Server Monitoring: Pingdom ACCOUNTING Receipts: Shoeboxed Income: Freshbooks Accounting: Outright OTHER Web Fonts: fonts.com Web Fonts: Typekit eSignatures: DocuSign Forms: Wufoo Advertising: Google AdWords Our favorite products are probably Outright (dead simple), Twilio (enables tons of phone system magic), and AdWords (flexible, powerful, profitable). The two products we're actively working to replace are Backpack (with Workflowy or something similar) and Shoeboxed (we have yet to find an alternative). And we've outgrown Wufoo, but owe them much more than we've ever paid them in monthly charges.

8ig8 15y ago
Thanks for the great list. I took a look at Outright. The service may be useful, but this bugs me... > You can use your FREE account forever - No trial or expiration date. Paid accounts are just $9.95 per month. See details when you log in. I know there's a catch, but I'm forced to create an account to find out about it. I'm either gonna use dummy info or just leave since I don't want another account until I understand what I'm signing up for. I realize this is a tactic for getting me to try the service, but I don't like it. I ended up just leaving.

TWSS 15y ago

Because the list is so long, and a bunch of the cons mention cost, I'm going to flog my friend's company, Cloudability (http://cloudability.com http://cloudability.com). They help you track and control your cloud spending and they're an AWS solutions provider. There are only three of us at Stayhound (http://stayhound.com http://stayhound.com), so our list is pretty short: Mockflow for creating and sharing flows and wireframes MailChimp Google docs & calendar Gmail IM Google+ hangouts for team video conferencing Trello for task management Capsule CMS Github Google AppEngine And we're in the process of considering a move to AWS.

marquis 15y ago
Cloudability looks fantastic. How are they planning on charging? It looks completely free right now.

cheez 15y ago

Am I the only one who went through the "hate" to find out if there is something substantial worth considering? :)

mikeleeorg 15y ago
Hehe I did the same thing. Hopefully, the services themselves did too, so they can consider revising their priority lists ;)
- cheez 15y ago
  I have a feeling we'd get along ;-)
  - mikeleeorg 15y ago
    I love hearing complaints, because they often mask an opportunity ;)

xpose2000 15y ago

Awesome thread. I recently made a post about startup costs and what services I use. I even provide a cost breakdown for each one, bringing my grand total monthly bill to $295. Hopefully its useful to some. http://x-pose.org/2011/10/the-cost-of-running-a-boot-strapped-startup/ http://x-pose.org/2011/10/the-cost-of-running-a-boot-strappe...

pamelafox 15y ago

I notice a lot of those tools are for group collaboration -- I know there are many advantages to having a co-founder, but one of the advantages of being a single founder (AKA a developer working on an app they wish existed) is that I only have to collaborate with myself. Simplifies the toolkit quite a bit. Here's what I'm using for http://everyday.io http://everyday.io -- Backend: App Engine / Python / Flask Frontend: Bootstrap / jQuery / PhoneGap / HighCharts / Many microlibs APIs: SendGrid, Facebook, SimpleGeo Analytics: Woopra Code hosting: Github + Dropbox (just in case!) Email/Docs: Google Apps Task tracking: Stickies + GDocs + Things (Haven't quite decided on one strategy yet.) I've started blogging about tips I learn while using these technologies here, since some of them are kind of new and the knowledge base needs to be built up: http://www.everyday.im/learning http://www.everyday.im/learning I remember seeing a grid of what YC companies used, atleast in terms of the backend. That was pretty interesting.

petercooper 15y ago

Just want to mention this because I never see it in lists like these, yet everyone I've recommended it to has been blown away. Talkerapp: http://talkerapp.com/ http://talkerapp.com/ - It's a free Web chat system (with a paid level for extra logging and file transfers). I believe it's open source too. I use it for some of my online courses and haven't had another Web chat system come close (although stylistically it's a bit like Campfire).

spatten 15y ago

Here's what we use at http://leanpub.com http://leanpub.com * Servers: AWS * Code Hosting: GitHub * Mail Sending: Postmark (http://postmarkapp.com http://postmarkapp.com) * Monitoring: Scout (http://scoutapp.com/ http://scoutapp.com/) * Sharing files with our authors: Dropbox * Error notification: AirBrake (https://airbrakeapp.com/ https://airbrakeapp.com/) * File Hosting: S3 * Mail: Google Apps * Cartoon Animal Videos: Xtranormal (http://www.xtranormal.com/ http://www.xtranormal.com/) * Payments: PayPal * Project Planning / Todos: Pivotal Tracker

jcoder 15y ago

Regarding EchoSign, can you explain the complaint that you cannot control the signing date? If that means what I take it to mean, OF COURSE YOU CAN'T. It would be antithetical to the idea of reliable electronic signatures to allow a party to evidence that they entered an agreement at any time other than the actual agreement date.