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Shakawat Hridoy

Recommends

The tools I actually use

For my own business, for client work, and for the people who ask me what to use.

A few of these links pay me a small commission if you sign up. It costs you nothing, and it has never decided what goes on this list. How that works.

What I use myself, for my business and for my clients.

None of it has let me down.

First recommendation · Website & Hosting

Hostinger logo

Hostinger

The hosting I set up for client WordPress sites: a straightforward panel, sensible prices, and cloud plans that include SSH, which is what makes automated deploys possible.

  • WordPress and WooCommerce sites for clients
  • Cloud plans with SSH access, so deploys can be automated
  • A panel simple enough for a client to manage without me
Get Hostinger

My discount code

SH10

Apply it at checkout after opening the link.

In the order I would set them up

The rest of my stack

Each of these has earned its place on real projects. The sentence under each name is what I actually use it for.

  • Envato Elements

    Design & Templates

    One subscription for themes, templates, fonts and stock, the ThemeForest family. Most of my design starting points come from here.

    Get Envato Elements

  • Klaviyo

    Email Marketing

    The email platform I build almost every ecommerce flow in. Built around purchase behavior, which is what makes automated flows worth having.

    Get Klaviyo

  • GoHighLevel

    CRM & Sales

    The CRM and automation platform I set up for service businesses: pipelines, forms, missed-call text-back, email and SMS in one place.

    Get GoHighLevel

  • Seamless.ai

    CRM & Sales

    Contact data for B2B outreach, the lead lists I build when a client needs to prospect rather than wait for enquiries.

    Get Seamless.ai

AI tools I use, and what each is best for

No single tool does everything. This is the one I reach for, and when.

  • Claude

    Best for

    long documents, careful writing and code

    What I reach for when a piece of writing has to read well, or when I am working through a codebase. It follows a long brief without losing the thread.

    claude.ai(opens Claude in a new tab)

  • ChatGPT

    Best for

    everyday questions, quick drafts, images and voice

    The generalist most clients already have, so it is usually where I start when handing a workflow over to a team.

    chatgpt.com(opens ChatGPT in a new tab)

  • Gemini

    Best for

    anything that lives in Google Workspace

    Best inside Docs, Sheets and Gmail, and good at pulling answers out of long videos and large files.

    gemini.google.com(opens Gemini in a new tab)

  • Higgsfield AI

    Best for

    short AI video and motion for ads and social

    Turns a still or a prompt into a few seconds of moving footage. Useful for ad creative tests before a real shoot is worth paying for.

    higgsfield.ai(opens Higgsfield AI in a new tab)

  • Apify

    Best for

    scraping and automating the web

    Ready-made scrapers for Google Maps, social profiles and marketplaces, so lead lists and market research stop being a manual job.

    apify.com(opens Apify in a new tab)

  • n8n

    Best for

    connecting tools into a workflow you own

    Automation that can run on your own server rather than a subscription meter. This is where most of the AI workflows I build for businesses end up living.

    n8n.io(opens n8n in a new tab)

  • Make

    Best for

    visual automations a team can edit without code

    The right choice when the client's own staff need to see and change the flow. Less powerful than n8n, easier to hand over.

    make.com(opens Make in a new tab)

  • Perplexity

    Best for

    research with sources you can check

    It cites where each answer came from, which matters when the answer is going into a client's plan.

    perplexity.ai(opens Perplexity in a new tab)

Free

Free, and worth setting up

I ask for access to these on the first day of almost every project. They cost nothing and they are where the real numbers live.

  • Google Analytics 4

    Ads & Analytics

    Free analytics. Worth the setup time mainly so conversion tracking is correct before any ad budget is spent.

    Visit Google Analytics 4

  • Google Search Console

    SEO Tools

    The only SEO data that comes straight from Google. Free, and the first thing I ask for access to on any SEO project.

    Visit Google Search Console

  • Microsoft Clarity

    Ads & Analytics

    Free session recordings and heatmaps. Useful for the specific question analytics cannot answer: why people leave a page.

    Visit Microsoft Clarity

  • Google Ads

    Ads & Analytics

    Search advertising. Worth it when people are already searching for what you sell, and wasteful when they are not.

    Visit Google Ads

  • Meta Ads Manager

    Ads & Analytics

    Facebook and Instagram advertising. Set up the Conversions API before spending, or you will conclude it does not work when you simply cannot see.

    Visit Meta Ads Manager

Not sure which of these you need?

Tell me what you are running and I will tell you what I would actually set up, including when the free option is the right one.

Ask me