The five-tool stack I run my entire one-person business on

The fastest way to spot a struggling solopreneur is their tool list: 14 subscriptions, 9 of them barely opened. A one-person business doesn’t need a software department. It needs five things that don’t fight each other. Here’s the stack.

The stack at a glance

Five tools, five jobs, no overlap. Below is why each earns its place.

1. The brain — Notion

One workspace for notes, the content calendar, a light CRM and project tracking. The point isn’t features; it’s one place so I’m never wondering where a thing lives. If you’re weighing it against ClickUp or Obsidian, that’s the project management tools roundup.

2. The money & admin — Xolo

EU invoicing, bookkeeping and accountant in one. As a solo I refuse to spend quarter-end reconciling spreadsheets, and the EU VAT/OSS side is not something to hand-roll. If you want to weigh it against the self-serve alternatives, that’s the invoicing & accounting roundup.

3. The money layer — Wise

Multi-currency account so cross-border clients pay me without a bank skimming the FX. More on why in getting paid across borders.

4. The launch engine — Systeme.io

Landing pages, email list and a checkout in one place, so I’m not stitching together five tools to sell one product. For a solo, “all-in-one” beats “best-in-class but five logins” almost every time — the full comparison is in the all-in-one platforms roundup.

5. The editor — your code/writing tool of choice

The one I won’t name a brand for, because it’s personal. The rule: whatever gets words and ships fastest with the least ceremony.

The principle behind the list

Every tool must replace work, not add a tab. If a subscription needs another subscription to be useful, it’s not a tool — it’s a project.

Audit your own stack against that line once a quarter. In my experience most solos are over-subscribed and can cut a meaningful chunk of SaaS spend without losing any capability they actually use.

Want to go deeper on two of the five layers? The email marketing roundup compares Kit, Brevo, MailerLite and Systeme in detail. The AI tools roundup covers what actually moves the needle — and what is just another tab.

See also: project management for a one-person business and the best project management tools.