Build as You Go: Tech Stacks for Independents
Why work harder than you have to? When you use tools to boost your capabilities, you can free up more time and energy to focus on the stuff that matters. (Because you certainly have better things to do than manually clean your email list.) Your tech stack powers your company—everything from your website hosting to your communication apps to your accounting software—and your success depends, in part, on how well you use it to support your goals.
At Pollen, we have a few simple criteria for building out a tech stack that’s worth the price. We’ve also curated a list of essential tools—some of which might be just as revolutionary as the mechanical reaper or the cotton gin or the espresso machine with the built-in milk frother.
What makes a good tech stack?
A good tech stack should save you time, improve internal and client-facing processes, and suit your personal preferences, budget, and business growth stage. Here are five key considerations:
Efficiency
The advice to spend less time working in your business and more time working on it extends to tool choice: When daily obligations begin to threaten the time you set aside for strategy, look for tools that can increase process efficiency or even eliminate low leverage tasks such as billing and data entry.
Do the math: Estimate the number of hours a tool will save and multiply this figure by your billable rate. If the product is greater than the cost of the tool, it’s likely a worthwhile investment for your business.
Your happiness
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Automating tasks can minimize your risk of burnout and protect high-energy time for things you enjoy.
Start by identifying tasks that run down your critical reserves of energy and inspiration. Which tasks do you despise? Which leave you feeling drained? What are you tempted to put off? What do you feel guilty about outsourcing, but deep down you know you should? You might dislike accounting but enjoy making outbound calls—the answers are different for everyone.
Once you’ve assembled a list, look for tools that can perform or speed up the tasks in question. Remember, you’re your business’s most critical asset—and you’re a finite resource. Outsourcing tasks that drain you protects that asset, increasing your capacity and your business’s long-term sustainability.
Client happiness
A good tech stack can also improve your client experience, which can boost customer satisfaction and lead to more referrals. Consider the needs and preferences of your customer and any existing pain points in the experiences they have with you and other consultants. Smoothing out friction in invoicing, project management, and communications can give you an edge about the rest.
If you need more data, you can survey recent customers or conduct competitor research to find out what strategies your peers are using to serve your target audience.
Additionally, look for tools that encourage the behaviors you want to see in clients. For example, you might select a tool that makes it easier for clients to pay you—increasing your odds of getting paid on time.
Business stage and budget
You don’t need to build your entire tech stack at once, so start with tools that are appropriate for your current stage and budget. In other words, don’t put a Ferrari engine into a Tonka truck—you’ll overspend for features you aren’t in a position to use.
Look for right-size and right-price solutions, keeping in mind that you can do a lot with free tools and free versions of paid tools; you might start by using a free website builder before upgrading to a paid plan, for example.
Pollen members can also cut software costs using Pollen perks, a selection of discounts, credits, and extended free trials available to the Pollen community.
As your business grows, you’ll increase your budget and discover more tasks to automate. You can add or change technologies or upgrade to more powerful versions of your current tools over time.
Our top tools for independents
When it comes to tech, Pollen members have seen the good, the bad, and the downright hideous. The following tools are popular with our community of independents, and each one has been vetted by the Pollen team. We’ve also included a few of our favorite service providers to round out the list. You can use these recommendations to speed up your product research, identify your ideal tool types, or find the final missing piece for your business’s tech stack.
Finance, accounting, and banking
These tools allow you to streamline invoicing, payments, and accounting and bookkeeping.
- Tool type: Invoicing and payment processing software
- Key features: Invoicing, payment processing, cash-flow management, automations, accounting software integrations
- Cost: Free version available; paid plans start at $45/month
- Tool type: Financial services software suite
- Key features: Invoicing, bookkeeping, payment processing, reporting
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $16/month
- Tool type: Accounting software package
- Key features: Invoicing, bookkeeping, accounting, tax estimates, payment processing, and reporting
- Cost: Plans start at $30/month
- Tool type: Automated tax and accounting system
- Key features: Entity formation and renewal, tax estimates, business banking, expense tracking, reporting, payroll management, and personal tax return filing
- Cost: Plans start at $299/month
- Tool type: Online banking service
- Key features: Business banking, invoicing, bookkeeping, tax estimates, reporting
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plan offered for $19.99/month
- Tool type: Tax, accounting, and bookkeeping service
- Key features: Bookkeeping, accounting, tax estimates, business tax preparation, payroll training and automation, entity formation, tax and bookkeeping support
- Cost: $296/month, billed annually
- Tool type: Bookkeeping, tax, and CFO service
- Key features: Bookkeeping, accounting, stock admin, tax preparation, fractional CFO
- Cost: Varies by service type and tier; bookkeeping starts at $499/month
- Tool type: Expense tracking software
- Key features: Expense tracking, tax filing, bookkeeping support
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $99/year
Legal
These tools help you manage legal documents and maintain compliance with the law. You can also use Pollen’s library of customizable legal assets designed by our legal expert-in-residence, Jennifer Becker of Matchstick Legal.
- Tool type: Legal document management service
- Key features: Entity formation, registered agent services, tax counseling, compliance support
- Cost: Varies by service tier, entity type, and state of formation
- Tool type: Signature collection software and API
- Key features: Legally binding signatures, audit trails, automated follow-ups
- Cost: Plans start at $15/month
Benefits and payroll
These tools enable you to provide benefits to your employees (or yourself) and run an efficient, compliant payroll process.
- Tool type: Health insurance broker for self-employed individuals
- Key features: Customized health, dental, and vision plan recommendations; consultation with a benefits advisor
- Cost: Free
- Tool type: Payroll, benefits, and HR management software
- Key features: Payroll management, employee benefits administration, performance reviews, hiring and onboarding support, compliance alerts
- Cost: Plans start at $40/month + $6/person/month
Website
These tools empower you to build a single landing page, a massive online resource hub, or anything in between.
- Tool type: One-page website builder
- Key features: No-code design tools, responsive layouts
- Cost: Free plan available; paid version offered for $19/year
- Tool type: Website builder
- Key features: No-code design tools, responsive layouts, custom domains, integrated hosting
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $20/editor/month
- Tool type: Website builder
- Key features: No-code design tools, responsive layouts, custom domains, integrated hosting, customizable templates, built-in analytics
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $20/editor/month
- Tool type: Content management system (CMS)
- Key features: Integrated hosting, ecommerce features, SEO tools, localization functions
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $14/month
- Tool type: Website builder
- Key features: Integrated hosting, pre-built design templates, custom domain names, ecommerce features
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $17/month
CRM and email
Efficiently connect with clients and colleagues through email, video, and chat.
- Tool type: Email service provider
- Key features: Inbox sorting function, encryption, integrates with Google Workspace, in-platform chat
- Cost: Free with google.com domain name; custom domain names starting at $6/user/month
- Tool type: Email service provider
- Key features: Inbox sorting function, AI writing tools, read status, scheduling integrations
- Cost: Plans start at $30/user/month
- Tool type: Screen recording tool
- Key features: Easy interface to record and share videos, automated transcriptions, privacy controls, comments and reactions, AI editing and transcription tools
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $12.50/creator/month
- Tool type: CRM and all-in-one tool
- Key features: Invoicing; payment processing; contract and proposal management; automations; AI writing, image generation, and lead management tools
- Cost: Plans start at $16/month
- Tool type: Customer relationships management (CRM) platform
- Key features: Marketing, sales, customer service, and operations software; automations; CMS; ecommerce features
- Cost: Varies by product; Service Hub starts at $90/month/seat
- Tool type: All-in-one freelance tool
- Key features: Project management tools, proposal and contract templates, client snapshots, bookkeeping, sales pipeline, automations, invoicing, payment processing, calendaring, client portal, universal inbox
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $8/user/month
Project management
These tools help you optimize workflows, communicate with collaborators, and keep projects moving—without spending all of your time on admin tasks.
- Tool type: Productivity application
- Key features: Document hub, collaborative workspaces, Slack and Github integrations, notion.site domain and homepage, task management, and calendaring functions
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $8/user/month
- Tool type: App-building platform and database tool
- Key features: Low-code development functions; AI data analysis and workflow management tools; data integrations; solutions for product, marketing, sales, finance, project management, and HR processes
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $20/user/month
- Tool type: Automation platform
- Key features: Workflow automations, over 6,000 app integrations, data management automations, no-code development, AI-powered automaton builder
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $29.99/month
Marketing and sales
These tools allow you to optimize your inbound and outbound sales and marketing efforts to boost conversions and lower your cost per acquisition.
- Tool type: Social media platform
- Key features: Personal and business pages, blogging features, job postings, paid ads, in-platform messaging, professional groups
- Cost: Free plan available; paid business plans start at $59.99/month
- Tool type: Scheduling automation platform
- Key features: Event types, booking pages, connected calendars, one-click site embeds
- Cost: Free plan available; paid business plans start at $10/user/month
- Tool type: Outbound marketing and data enrichment tool
- Key features: Over 50 contact information databases, AI web scraper, AI outreach tools, data syncing and integrations, automated list-building and messaging
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $149/month
- Tool type: Email outreach platform
- Key features: B2B email database, email finder, domain search, email verifier, intent data, cold outreach automations, email tracking, reporting
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $34/month
- Tool type: Sales intelligence and engagement platform
- Key features: Prospecting tools, lead scoring, inbound optimization tools, outbound automations, deal management, analytics, workflow management, CRM integrations
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $49/user/month
- Tool type: Lead generation automation tool
- Key features: Built-in LinkedIn CRM; LinkedIn campaign automations; multichannel outreach; message templates; trend analysis; customer data analytics; LinkedIn X, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and email integrations
- Cost: Paid plans start at $39/user/month
- Tool type: Subscription newsletter platform
- Key features: Welcome page, homepage, and about page hosted on thesubstack.com domain; newsletter; paid subscriptions; publishing tools; comment section; podcast recording; Stripe payment processing; email list management
- Cost: Free
- Tool type: Subscription newsletter platform
- Key features: Website, newsletter, email automations, referral program, paid subscriptions, ad network, Stripe payment processing, comment section, monetization options, analytics payment processing (Stripe integration), email list management, analytics
- Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $30/month
Leverage our experience
Looking for a tool type you don’t see here? Pollen can help with that, too. Our experts-in-residence and community members can provide experience-backed insights to help you build the tech stack you need.
