We're launching something new today: TechStack '26 — an interactive, opinionated directory of the best software tools for businesses in 2026.
Every week, a client asks me the same question: "What should we actually be using?" The honest answer used to be a 20-minute conversation. Now it's a link. We've reviewed, scored, and categorised 46 tools across 7 categories so you don't have to wade through the noise yourself.
Why We Built This
The modern software market is overwhelming. There are thousands of tools, and half of them didn't exist 18 months ago. AI has made the landscape worse, not better — every SaaS company has bolted on a chatbot and called it "AI-powered." Most of it is marketing.
We wanted to cut through that. TechStack '26 is a curated list of tools we actually use, recommend to clients, and trust enough to build on. Every tool is scored on a 10-point scale. No sponsorships, no affiliate links, no pay-to-play. Just opinions backed by real usage.
Not every tool on the list is an AI product. But every tool on the list is AI-ready — meaning it either integrates natively with AI workflows, has an API you can automate against, or is simply the best in its category and isn't going anywhere.
AI Assistants
The tools that think, research, and work alongside you.
Claude by Anthropic remains our top pick for business use. It handles long documents, nuanced reasoning, and extended analysis better than anything else on the market. If you're processing contracts, writing reports, or working through complex decisions, Claude is the one. Claude Cowork extends this further — an AI agent that works directly on your computer, not just in a chat window.
NotebookLM from Google is a quiet standout. Upload your own documents and have AI conversations grounded entirely in your data. No hallucinations about things it wasn't given. Brilliant for research, onboarding, and internal knowledge bases.
Gemini rounds out the Google side. It's deeply integrated with Google Workspace, which makes it the obvious choice if your team already lives in Gmail and Google Docs.
OpenClaw is the open-source entry here — a local AI agent that runs on your machine and executes tasks autonomously. If you care about privacy and control, it's worth a look.
See all AI Assistants on TechStack '26 →
Development
Where software gets built.
Claude Code scores a perfect 10 — and we're biased, but only because we use it every single day. It's an agentic coding tool that builds, debugs, and ships entire features from your terminal. This website was built with it. If you write code professionally, it's non-negotiable.
Codex from OpenAI and Antigravity from Google are both strong cloud-based alternatives. Codex writes features and fixes bugs in a sandboxed environment. Antigravity takes it further with multiple AI agents working on your codebase simultaneously — it's Google's vision of what an IDE should be.
Lovable is the no-code entry. Describe what you want in plain English and get a working web app. It's genuinely good for prototyping and MVPs.
GitHub is GitHub. It's where code lives, and with Copilot baked in, it's more AI-native than ever.
See all Development tools on TechStack '26 →
Productivity
Your team's daily workspace.
Google Workspace and Notion both score 9. Google Workspace is the default for email, docs, and collaboration — especially now that Gemini is embedded throughout. Notion is the all-in-one workspace for docs, wikis, and project management. Most teams end up using both.
Notion Calendar deserves its own mention. It unifies Google Calendar with Notion databases, so your schedule and your project management are finally in the same place.
tl;dv is essential if your team does a lot of meetings. It records, transcribes, and generates action items automatically. Pair it with Slack for async follow-ups and you've eliminated most meeting overhead.
Obsidian is for personal knowledge management — offline-first, Markdown-based, and built around linked thinking. If you're a note-taker, it's the best there is.
For scheduling, Cal.com replaces Calendly with something open-source that you actually own. Tally does the same for forms — a beautiful Notion-like form builder that's replaced Google Forms for us entirely.
WisprFlow is a newer pick. AI dictation that types in your personal writing style across any app. If you talk faster than you type, it's a game-changer.
See all Productivity tools on TechStack '26 →
Automation
Automate workflows and extract data at scale.
n8n is the other perfect 10 on our list. It's the most powerful workflow automation platform available — self-hostable, open-source, and capable of things that Make and Zapier can't touch. If you're serious about automation, n8n is the foundation.
Apify gives you web scraping at scale with 10,000+ pre-built scrapers. Need competitor pricing data? Job listings? Product catalogues? Apify handles it.
Firecrawl turns any website into clean, LLM-ready data with a single API call. It's the bridge between the open web and your AI pipelines.
See all Automation tools on TechStack '26 →
Hosting & Infrastructure
Where your websites and apps go live.
Vercel is our default for web deployments. Zero-config, instant previews, and built for Next.js. This site runs on it.
Supabase is the open-source backend we recommend for most projects — database, auth, storage, and real-time subscriptions out of the box. It's replaced Firebase for us entirely.
Cloudflare handles DNS, security, CDN, and edge computing. It's the infrastructure layer of the internet, and if you're not using it, you're leaving performance and security on the table.
Render is our pick for full-stack hosting when you need more than a static site — APIs, databases, background jobs, and cron tasks. DigitalOcean fills a similar role with simpler, more predictable pricing.
Namecheap for domains. Simple, affordable, no upselling. That's it.
See all Hosting & Infrastructure tools on TechStack '26 →
Design & Creative
Design, generate, and produce visual and audio content.
Figma remains the professional standard for UI/UX design. Nothing else comes close for team collaboration on design work.
Excalidraw is our go-to for quick diagrams and sketching — open-source, hand-drawn aesthetic, and zero friction. Every planning session starts here.
ElevenLabs is doing remarkable things with voice. Ultra-realistic text-to-speech, voice cloning, dubbing, and voice agents. If your product involves audio, ElevenLabs is the API to build on.
fal.ai gives you one API for image, video, and audio generation — with a playground to test everything before you commit. Suno takes the creative angle further, generating full songs from text prompts.
For video, Submagic handles short-form editing with auto-generated captions and B-roll. Remotion lets developers create videos programmatically with React — perfect for automated content pipelines. Cap is the open-source Loom alternative for screen recording and sharing.
Canva is Canva. If you're not a designer but need to produce visual content, it's still the fastest path from idea to output.
See all Design & Creative tools on TechStack '26 →
Sales & Marketing
Find customers, market to them, and understand what works.
Instantly is our top pick for cold email outreach — AI personalisation, unlimited sending accounts, and deliverability tools that actually work.
HubSpot covers the full CRM, marketing automation, and sales pipeline. It's big, it's complex, but it's the industry standard for a reason.
Klaviyo is the clear winner for e-commerce email and SMS marketing, especially if you're on Shopify. Twilio provides the underlying API for SMS, voice, WhatsApp, and every other communication channel.
Stripe handles payments. It's the infrastructure that powers online business, and its developer experience is still unmatched.
PostHog is open-source product analytics with session replays, feature flags, and A/B testing. If you care about understanding how people actually use your product, PostHog replaces three or four separate tools.
See all Sales & Marketing tools on TechStack '26 →
How to Use TechStack '26
The directory is fully interactive. You can filter by category, search by name, and sort by our Valentis Score. Each tool has a detailed review, pricing information, and a direct link to the product.
We'll be updating TechStack '26 throughout the year as new tools emerge and existing ones evolve. If you think we've missed something, get in touch.