Tools
The bots, with prices
Two lists. The first is what actually runs my business today. The second is what I am trialling so that the reviews here are of real use, not of a sales page. Nothing is on either list because it pays a commission; the disclosure page explains how that works.
Prices checked 15 September 2026. Currency is whatever the tool bills in.
Runs the business today
In daily use
Writes the blog, researches, audits websites, fixes and deploys client sites, and builds the other bots. It runs on my own server and takes instructions in plain English.
Where this site, my client sites and the bots live. Cheap, boring and reliable, which is exactly what you want from a server.
Most small-business sites already run on it, so the bots publish straight into it through its built-in API. No plugins needed for that.
Free data on what Google shows, clicks and ignores. The bots read it to decide what to write next and to spot a ranking drop before a client does.
Generates the hero image for every automated blog post so nothing goes out looking like a wall of text.
On trial this quarter
Verdicts to follow
The all-in-one that promises to replace a CRM, a form builder, an email tool, a booking page and SMS follow-up. On trial now; the review lands when I have run real leads through it for a month.
The glue between tools: form fills in, lead is scored, sheet updates, message goes out. On trial as the replacement for the custom scripts I run today.
Newsletter and email capture. Free until there are real subscribers. Being set up now for this site, so the review will be of the real thing.
What I have looked at and not adopted
Zapier. Good, but the pricing climbs fast once you automate anything real. n8n does the same job for a fraction of the cost if you are willing to self-host, which is why it is the one on trial.
HubSpot. Excellent for a sales team. For one person it is a lot of software to pay for a contact list and a pipeline, and the useful parts sit behind the expensive tiers.
Anything with "AI" in the name that launched last month. I try them. Most are a thin layer over the same models you can use directly. The ones that survive a year get a review.