What changed in the tools you depend on

ChatGPT

OpenAI's conversational AI assistant and API family. Used for drafting, coding help, analysis and customer support. Offers a free tier plus paid plans, and an API billed per token.

Claude

Anthropic's AI assistant and model family, positioned around careful reasoning and long documents. Available as a web and mobile app with free and paid tiers, and as an API billed per token.

Cursor

An AI-first code editor built as a fork of VS Code. Adds chat, autocomplete and agent-style edits on top of a familiar editor. Sold as a subscription with a limited free tier.

Gemini

Also known as Google Bard

Google's AI assistant and model family, integrated across Google products including Search, Workspace and Android. Available as a free app, paid advanced tiers, and an API through Google AI Studio.

GitHub Copilot

GitHub's AI pair programmer that suggests code inside editors like VS Code and JetBrains. Sold with a limited free tier and paid individual and business subscriptions.

Grok

xAI's AI assistant, integrated into X and available as a standalone app. Access is bundled with X Premium subscriptions, with an API offered separately.

Midjourney

An AI image generation service known for stylized, high quality output. Accessed through its web app and Discord. Subscription only, with no permanent free tier.

Perplexity

An AI answer engine that responds to questions with cited web sources. Offers a free tier, a Pro subscription, and an API. Positioned as an alternative to traditional search for research.

Advanced Custom Fields

Also known as ACF

A WordPress plugin for adding structured custom fields to posts and pages. Free core with a paid Pro version. Acquired by WP Engine in 2022, then forked by WordPress.org as Secure Custom Fields.

Contact Form 7

One of the oldest and most installed free contact form plugins for WordPress. Minimal interface, extended through third party add-ons. Maintained by Takayuki Miyoshi.

Divi

A theme and visual builder for WordPress from Elegant Themes. Sold as a yearly or lifetime membership that includes the other Elegant Themes products.

Elementor

A visual drag and drop page builder plugin for WordPress. One of the most installed plugins in the ecosystem. Free core plugin with paid Pro plans that add theme building and marketing widgets.

WooCommerce

The open source ecommerce plugin for WordPress, maintained by Automattic. Powers a large share of online stores. Free core with paid extensions, themes and hosting add-ons.

Wordfence

A security plugin for WordPress with a firewall and malware scanner. Free tier with delayed threat signatures, paid tiers with real time updates. Maintained by Defiant.

WP Rocket

A paid caching and performance plugin for WordPress. No free version. Focuses on page caching, file optimization and lazy loading with minimal configuration.

Yoast SEO

A search optimization plugin for WordPress that handles metadata, sitemaps and readability checks. Free core plugin with a paid Premium tier. Acquired by Newfold Digital in 2021.

Cursor

An AI-first code editor built as a fork of VS Code. Adds chat, autocomplete and agent-style edits on top of a familiar editor. Sold as a subscription with a limited free tier.

Docker

Container tooling and a registry ecosystem for packaging and running applications. The engine is open source. Docker Desktop requires a paid subscription for larger companies.

GitHub

Microsoft-owned code hosting and collaboration platform built around Git. Free for public and private repositories with paid team and enterprise tiers. Home to most large open source projects.

GitHub Copilot

GitHub's AI pair programmer that suggests code inside editors like VS Code and JetBrains. Sold with a limited free tier and paid individual and business subscriptions.

GitLab

An open core DevOps platform covering source control, CI/CD and project management. Available self-managed or as a hosted service, with free and paid tiers. Publicly traded.

Netlify

A hosting platform for static sites and frontend apps, credited with popularizing the Jamstack term. Free starter tier with paid plans. Acquired the Gatsby framework in 2023.

Stripe

A payments platform for internet businesses, covering card processing, subscriptions and payouts. Charges per-transaction fees. Privately held and one of the most valuable fintech companies.

Supabase

An open source backend platform built on Postgres, offering auth, storage and auto-generated APIs. Positioned as an open alternative to Firebase. Free tier with usage-based paid plans.

Vercel

Also known as Zeit

A hosting platform for frontend frameworks, created by the team behind Next.js. Free hobby tier with paid team plans. Usage-based pricing has been a recurring source of developer complaints.

Visual Studio Code

Also known as VS Code

Microsoft's free, open source code editor. The most widely used editor in developer surveys. Extended through a large marketplace of extensions. The core repository is MIT licensed.

Etsy

A marketplace focused on handmade, vintage and craft supplies. Sellers pay listing and transaction fees. Fee increases have repeatedly triggered seller protests and strikes.

Gumroad

A platform for selling digital products directly to an audience. Charges a flat percentage per sale with no monthly fee. Known for a simple checkout and creator-focused positioning.

Kajabi

An all-in-one platform for courses, coaching and memberships. Monthly subscription pricing with no transaction fees on sales. Positioned at the premium end of the creator tools market.

Kit

Also known as ConvertKit

An email marketing platform for creators, rebranded from ConvertKit to Kit in 2024. Free tier for small lists with paid plans scaling by subscriber count. Built around newsletters and digital products.

Patreon

A membership platform where fans pay creators recurring amounts. Patreon takes a percentage of earnings depending on plan. Has changed pricing and fee structures several times.

Shopify

A hosted ecommerce platform for building online stores. Monthly subscription plans plus payment processing fees. A large app and theme ecosystem surrounds the core product.

Stripe

A payments platform for internet businesses, covering card processing, subscriptions and payouts. Charges per-transaction fees. Privately held and one of the most valuable fintech companies.

Substack

A newsletter platform combining publishing, subscriptions and recommendations. Free to publish, with Substack taking a percentage of paid subscription revenue.

Teachable

A platform for creating and selling online courses and coaching. Monthly plans plus transaction fees on lower tiers. Acquired by Hotmart in 2020.

Etsy

A marketplace focused on handmade, vintage and craft supplies. Sellers pay listing and transaction fees. Fee increases have repeatedly triggered seller protests and strikes.

Shopify

A hosted ecommerce platform for building online stores. Monthly subscription plans plus payment processing fees. A large app and theme ecosystem surrounds the core product.

WooCommerce

The open source ecommerce plugin for WordPress, maintained by Automattic. Powers a large share of online stores. Free core with paid extensions, themes and hosting add-ons.

Gumroad

A platform for selling digital products directly to an audience. Charges a flat percentage per sale with no monthly fee. Known for a simple checkout and creator-focused positioning.

Kajabi

An all-in-one platform for courses, coaching and memberships. Monthly subscription pricing with no transaction fees on sales. Positioned at the premium end of the creator tools market.

Kit

Also known as ConvertKit

An email marketing platform for creators, rebranded from ConvertKit to Kit in 2024. Free tier for small lists with paid plans scaling by subscriber count. Built around newsletters and digital products.

Patreon

A membership platform where fans pay creators recurring amounts. Patreon takes a percentage of earnings depending on plan. Has changed pricing and fee structures several times.

Substack

A newsletter platform combining publishing, subscriptions and recommendations. Free to publish, with Substack taking a percentage of paid subscription revenue.

Teachable

A platform for creating and selling online courses and coaching. Monthly plans plus transaction fees on lower tiers. Acquired by Hotmart in 2020.

Kit

Also known as ConvertKit

An email marketing platform for creators, rebranded from ConvertKit to Kit in 2024. Free tier for small lists with paid plans scaling by subscriber count. Built around newsletters and digital products.

Yoast SEO

A search optimization plugin for WordPress that handles metadata, sitemaps and readability checks. Free core plugin with a paid Premium tier. Acquired by Newfold Digital in 2021.