I've been a tool person my whole life. I try everything. Love it. Notion, Bear, Obsidian, Ulysses, iA Writer, Craft, Drafts. I've set up dashboards. I've configured Zapier automations. I've spent entire weekends building "systems" that were supposed to make everything smoother.

They don't. But it's fun to play around.

Most of them lasted a few weeks. Some lasted months. One lasted years before I finally admitted I was maintaining the tool more than I was using it. What I have now are seven tools for writing, publishing, selling, building, and running everything. These are the best tools for solo creators, in my experience. Not because I planned a minimal stack. Because everything else didn't stick.

Apple Notes

I was a Notion guy. Databases. Linked views. Templates. All pretty cool. And useful for many people. I just don't need much.

I used Notion for years. Heavily. Built a content calendar, a product tracker, a CRM of sorts, an entire writing system. The whole thing. And then I noticed more and more that I was spending time organizing my system I could have spent otherwise.

Apple Notes does what I need. I open it. I write. It syncs across my phone, iPad, Mac. I can search everything. I can drag in images, PDFs, links. It starts in under a second. For many solo creators, a fast note-taking app with good search is all you need. The structure lives in your head. You don't need a linked database to remember what you're working on when you're one person.

Unless you want to deal with it.

I wrote about using Apple Notes like it's Notion a while back. Still doing it. Still happy.

Claude Code

This one changed a lot for me.

Not only for my writing. I do a bit of drafting with it. But that's not the core use. The automation and setup is what makes it one of the best tools for solo creators who publish across platforms. Post versions for multiple platforms, automatically inserting links, adding affiliate links, and so much more is now automated with AI.

And it's not just the writing. I build websites and apps. Claude Code handles the boilerplate, debugs the error messages, and keeps me sane when I come back to a project after two weeks and have no idea where I left off.

It's pretty cool.

Wispr Flow

This is the one people always ask about when they see me using it.

Wispr Flow* is voice-to-text, but a bit cooler. Not Siri dictation that capitalizes random words and doesn't know what a paragraph break is. Wispr Flow runs in the background, picks up my voice reliably even when I'm mumbling, and it just… works pretty great. In every text field. In every app.

I draft a lot of my articles by talking now. Not all of them. But the first pass, the raw thinking, the "what am I even trying to say here" phase. That's voice. I talk through the argument, Wispr Flow captures it, and then I shape it with my hands on the keyboard.

I also use it to code because Wispr is great at understanding coding language. Makes coding with AI even more efficient.

Homebrew

If you're on a Mac and you install apps from websites by dragging them into the Applications folder, Homebrew can change that.

One command installs an app. One command updates everything. One command shows you what's installed. I haven't downloaded a .dmg in a while. I install maybe 90% of my apps through the terminal now.

Kopi

This is my own app. I built Kopi because I needed it. I used to use Maccy*, but the UI bugged me a bit. Now I have Kopi.

It's a menu bar app for the Mac that gives you quick access to frequently used text snippets. Email signatures, code blocks, links, bio paragraphs, affiliate URLs. Things I used to keep in a note somewhere and copy-paste from manually.

Now I hit a shortcut and pick the snippet. It is trivial. But when you paste the same five things 30 times a day, trivial adds up fast. I use Kopi every single day, multiple times. It's one of those tools that you don't realize you need until you have it and then you can't imagine not having it.

Medium and Substack

Two platforms. One paywalled, one often free. That's the whole distribution strategy.

Medium pays me through the Partner Program. The earnings fluctuate, but they're real. Some months are good, some are slow. The platform has a built-in audience and Google indexes Medium stories, so articles keep earning long after publishing.

Substack is my newsletter. Often with free issues. I build a direct relationship with readers there. The email list is the asset. If every platform disappeared tomorrow, I'd still have that list.

I cross-post most articles to both. Same content, slightly adapted. Some people think this is a problem for SEO. It's not, if you know what you're doing. The key insight after years of doing this: two platforms is plenty. Three and more is where the overhead starts killing your output. Every additional platform takes attention away from the ones that are already working.

Gumroad

I sell digital products. Guides, templates, an icon pack, Kopi. All on Gumroad.

Gumroad takes a cut. I know. Payhip* is cheaper. Lemon Squeezy has better checkout pages, probably. I've looked at all of them.

But Gumroad works. The dashboard is simple. Payouts are reliable. The product page looks fine. I don't need a super detailed upsell funnel or crazy email sequence. Simple is good. And the light email automation functionality is fantastic.

I need a place where someone can click "buy" and get a PDF. Gumroad does that without me thinking about it. When a tool does the job, and you stop thinking about it, that's the tool to keep. The moment you're browsing alternatives "just to see," you've already lost the afternoon.

What's not on the list

No analytics. No Google Analytics, no Plausible, no Fathom. I only use the Google Search Console. Highly recommend that. Medium and Substack have their own dashboards. That's good data to go from. I don't need to know which paragraph a reader stopped at. Comments and replies tell me if the article resonated faster than any heatmap. And the Google Search Console does the rest.

No project management tool. No Trello, no Asana, no Linear. I'm one person. My project management is a note in Apple Notes called "this week." It has bullet points. Some of them get done. Others not so much. It works.

No social media scheduler. I post when I post. Sometimes that's consistent, most of the time it's not. I'm fine with that. The scheduling overhead was never worth the marginal consistency gain.

No CRM. I know who my repeat buyers are because Gumroad tells me. I know who my engaged readers are because they reply to my newsletter. I don't need a database for that at my scale.

The Bottom Line

Seven tools. Apple Notes, Claude Code, Wispr Flow, Homebrew, Kopi, Medium + Substack, Gumroad. That's everything right now. The best tools for solo creators aren't the ones with the longest feature lists. They're the ones you stop thinking about.

I tried dozens of alternatives for every slot. Most of them were better on paper. And they are if you really need the features. But flexibility has a cost. Every feature is a decision. Every option is a distraction.

If you're spending more time maintaining your stack than using it, you probably have too many tools. I did. Cutting down was useful.

A writer is nothing without a reader. If you found this helpful, consider becoming my dear email friend. Nothing would make me happier.