Current favorites · reviewed August 2026
What I actually use, and why
Organized by the six layers from the stack diagnostic, because that is the decision underneath each of these. Two of the layers carry no product at all, which is the most useful thing on the page.
These are working preferences as of August 2026, not a ranking and not the result of a formal evaluation. Your situation decides more than my preferences do — run the diagnostic first.
Domain
The only layer where losing control means losing the address people already know.
Porkbun
Renewal prices stay near cost and nothing is bundled in that you have to notice and cancel later. Boring is the entire feature set here.
Who it’s forEveryone. Register it yourself, on an account and a card you control — not through whoever builds your site.
Content
Where your words and records actually live, and what comes out when you leave.
Sanity
Content is stored as structured records you define, and the export is real data rather than a pile of markup with your text buried inside it. Run the export before you commit, not after.
Who it’s forAnyone with more than one thing that repeats — rooms, services, events, case studies.
Content model
The layer that decides whether you can ever leave.
There is no product to recommend here, and that is the point. Your content model is a list you write down: each thing that repeats, and the facts it carries. A room has a rate, an occupancy, accessible features. That list is the asset — it costs an hour and it is the specification for whatever you move to next.
Presentation
How it looks, and whether you can change the markup underneath.
No pick, deliberately. This is the layer to spend money on people rather than licences — a designer who understands your constraints beats any template or page builder. What matters technically is only that you can still edit the HTML it produces: heading order, labels, focus, contrast.
Hosting
The layer people agonise over and the least consequential decision on this page.
Vercel / Netlify
Deploys straight from a git repository, so the site is reproducible from source and leaving means pointing a different platform at the same code. That is the cheapest exit on this list.
Who it’s forAnyone whose site is built from a framework, or who has a developer on hand.
Bluehost
One bill, one login, and a WordPress install that someone non-technical can actually be handed. Check the second-year renewal price before the first-year one convinces you — that gap is the real cost.
Who it’s forWordPress sites with no developer attached, where simplicity beats flexibility.
Integrations
Rent the tool, own the customer. Ask what each one takes with it when you go.
Brevo
Pricing scales on what you send rather than how many contacts you have accumulated, so growing your list is not itself a bill. The contact export is complete and quick.
Who it’s forAnyone sending campaigns who does not want a whole CRM attached to do it.
Working tools
Not part of the website stack, but they decide how the work actually goes.
1Password
Shared vaults mean access outlives any one person. That is the difference between a team and a single point of failure nobody has named yet.
Who it’s forAnyone with more than one login, and certainly anyone with more than one person.
Claude
Useful for drafting, reviewing and working through code or copy at length. Treat the output as a draft from someone fast and well-read who was not in the room for any of your decisions.
Who it’s forAnyone whose work is mostly writing, reviewing, or building.
Fireworks AI
Runs open models behind an API without renting an entire platform to do it, which keeps inference a line item you can move rather than a dependency you cannot.
Who it’s forTeams running their own models in production.
Nothing here is a paid placement or a sponsorship. Tools change, and so do these — a pick that was right in August 2026 may not be right when you read it, and the reasoning matters more than the name.
Current favorites · katekight.com