Ask HN: Tools of the trade, 2013 edition
Few years ago, Joshua Schachter started this thread on HN for discussing hosted useful services: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1769910
The contribution in thread introduced many interesting SaaS services which can immensely help in deploying services as well as development.
It's been three years since then. What do we have today?
168 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 227 ms ] threadTwilio (www.twilio.com) - Communicate with your users over SMS and Voice
Stripe (www.stripe.com) - Payments processing simplified
BugHerd (www.bugherd.com) - WYSIWYG bug reporting
Discourse (www.discourse.org) - Upcoming discussion board
clicky.com - real time analytics
irccloud.com - IRC in the browser
sendgrid.com - API for sending e-mail
SendGrid ( http://sendgrid.com ) - API for sending and tracking email
Lighthouse ( http://lighthouseapp.com ) - Issue tracking for teams
Trello ( http://trello.com ) - Task tracking, lists
Stripe ( http://stripe.com ) - Fast, easy payment processing
BundleScout ( http://bundlescout.com ) - Third-party library update tracking (shameless plug, but I use BundleScout at BundleScout)
Torch (for hosted Graylog https://www.torch.sh/)
parse.com - API integration
symbaloo.com - entry points collection
teamviewer - screen share
Airbrake (http://airbrake.io/) - Exception logging.
Campfire (http://campfirenow.com/) - Chat.
Librato (https://metrics.librato.com/) - Hosted graphing.
Mixpanel (http://mixpanel.com/) - Analytics, people tracking.
Pagerduty (http://www.pagerduty.com/) - Monitoring alerts.
Sendgrid (http://sendgrid.com/) - Sending emails.
Sprintly (https://sprint.ly/) - Project management.
Tarsnap (http://www.tarsnap.com/) - Offsite backups.
As well as all the obvious ones - GitHub, Google Apps, Dropbox, etc.
Stripe (http://stripe.com) - payments
Mandrill (http://mandrill.com) - email
Tinfoil Security (http://tinfoilsecurity.com) - web security
Help Scout (http://helpscout.net) - help desk / customer support
Sendgrid ( http://sendgrid.com )- Sending emails
Autotax ( http://autotax.me )- Automated 1099 & sales tax filing
Trello ( http://trello.com ) - Trask tracking
New Relic ( http://newrelic.com ) - Server/app monitoring
Jenkins
New Relic (http://www.newrelic.com)
Jira (http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/overview)
SendGrid (http://sendgrid.com) - transactional emails (sending digital issues to subscribers).
MailChimp (http://mailchimp.com) - newsletter.
Linode (http://linode.com) - VPS hosting.
Harvest (http://getharvest.com) - invoicing (for corporate customers + advertisers).
FetchApp (http://fetchapp.com) - digital delivery (for single issue purchase). Previously used E-Junkie.
PayPal - payment gateway (sadly, one of the only choice for Malaysian).
Gumroad (http://gumroad.com) - I use this as a 'PayPal alternative' for customers who wish to pay directly with their credit card (and refuse to have anything to do with PayPal).
Pivotal Tracker (http://pivotaltracker.com) - project management for HM's backend app
ODesk (http://odesk.com) - finding and managing my remote team (currently in the size of 4).
Sendgrid (http://sendgrid.com/) - Sending emails
Braintree (https://www.braintreepayments.com/) - Payments
Deployd (http://www.deployd.com/) - Quickly design and build APIs
Github (https://github.com/) - Project hosting and issue tracker
Seriously now, this is pratically open source Parse!
1. BitBucket (http://www.bitbucket.org) - Source code hosting
2. Google Docs (http://drive.google.com) - Team Collaboration
3. BitBucket Issues (http://www.bitbucket.org) - Team Collaboration
4. Heroku (http://www.heroku.com) - PaaS/sysadmin replacement
5. Hirefire (http://www.hirefireapp.com) - Scale up/down dynos on Heroku based on traffic
6. Mongolab (http://www.mongolab.com) - Database-aaS
7. Pusher (http://www.pusherapp.com) - WebSockets-aaS
8. Filepicker (http://www.filepicker.io) - Uploading files to the application
9. Mailgun (http://www.mailgun.com) - Send & Receive Mails
10. PaperTrail (http://www.papertrail.com) - Error Logging (Rails)
11. Errorception (http://www.errorception.com) - Error Logging (JS)
12. Desk.com (Knowledge Base + Customer Support)
It's like using a smart piece of paper that just gets out of your way and let's you create, assign, toggle, set dates, etc really intuitively.
I'm a freelancer - and for my usage I typically have a Workspace called Freelance Projects. In that workspace I have many projects, each for each freelance gig I land. I then invite my client (YOU CAN INVITE UP TO 30 PEOPLE PER PROJECT FOR FREE HOLY BALLS) and collaborate intuitively from there.
He/she can upload photoshop files, images, text files, edit desriptions and I can comment on them and we go back and forth. Better than email. I used to procrastinate a lot. It was my achille's heel; but since Asana I enjoy working because there's something deeply psychological in ticking things off and seeing them grayed out.If you haven't checked it out.
There's also Trello but I kind of dislike it when there are more than 5 items in a list. It gets unwiedly.
Trello (http://trello.com) - task/project/team management
Stripe (http://stripe.com) - credit card payment processing
Helpscout (http://helpscout.net) - email support system
Plus the usual suspects: AWS, GitHub, Mailgun...
BitBucket: just like github (git, wiki, issues, pull requests etc) only priced that makes sense for private repos. We just use it for git however because...
JIRA: Way better issues/bugs/feature tickets, built in optional time tracking. Good support for Agile teams with GreenHopper
Confluence: A real wiki
Bamboo: continuous integration/deployment. When you commit to git with a JIRA ticket number and a build fails its easier for everyone (non-technical people) to see what is causing the failed build
The other big plus is user management to all of the above, you can create client accounts if needed and they can create/close tickets or work on wiki with you.
HipChat is nice because your non technical people participate easier, irc previously had just been developers
You can probably get all of these things free individually but its worth the small $ to have them all work together seamlessly, plus 1 account vs many is always a big plus for adoption
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SplunkStorm: https://www.splunkstorm.com/ log practically anything server related and put it into dashboards/timelines. Alerts in the works
--Browser/Email Testing
BrowserStack (http://www.browserstack.com)
Litmus (http://litmus.com)
--Bug/Issue Tracking
BugHerd (http://bugherd.com)
Lighthouse (http://lighthouseapp.com)
Sifter (http://sifterapp.com) (Disclaimer: I built this.)
--Planning & Project Management
Sprintly (http://sprint.ly)
Podio (https://podio.com)
Flow (http://www.getflow.com)
Interstate (http://interstateapp.com)
Basecamp (http://basecamp.com)
Apollo (http://www.apollohq.com)
Pivotal (http://www.pivotaltracker.com)
Asana (http://www.asana.com)
Trello (https://trello.com)
Blossom (https://www.blossom.io)
Trajectory (https://www.apptrajectory.com)
--Business & Traffic Analytics
KissMetrics (http://kissmetrics.com)
MixPanel (http://mixpanel.com)
DigMyData (http://digmydata.com)
--Continuous Integration / Code Quality
Travis (https://travis-ci.org)
Circle (http://circleci.com)
CodeClimate (http://codeclimate.com)
Sempaphore (https://semaphoreapp.com)
--Dashboards
Ducksboard (http://ducksboard.com)
Geckoboard (http://www.geckoboard.com)
Instrumental (https://instrumentalapp.com)
--Error/Exception Handling
Sentry (https://getsentry.com)
Coalmine (https://www.getcoalmine.com)
HoneyBadger (https://www.honeybadger.io)
BugSnag (https://bugsnag.com)
Raygun (http://raygun.io)
--Log Monitoring
Loggly (http://loggly.com)
Papertrail (https://papertrailapp.com)
LogEntries (https://logentries.com)
--Billing & Payment Processing
Braintree (https://www.braintreepayments.com)
Stripe (http://stripe.com)
Pin (http://pin.net.au)
PayMill (http://paymill.com)
Recurly (http://recurly.com)
Chargify (http://chargify.com)
Spreedly (
TravisCI's .com url didn't work for me, but this did: https://travis-ci.org/
Also, is there a reason you don't mention other services (e.g. Balanced payments)?
In terms of not mentioning other services, it's probably more a matter of the book being in progress. I've done quite a bit of research, but the vendors list is rather incomplete because I'll be including it in the appendix of the book. So in most cases it's simply a matter of the fact that I haven't actually finished it yet. These are mainly just from my notes that I've jotted down.
Errormator (https://errormator.com)
For performance metrics monitoring/exception aggregation/in-app log collection
I'd also add group chat tools like HipChat, Campfire, FlowDock, Grove, hall.
Have a great weekend
http://www.pickfu.com
http://www.pickfu.com/pricing
Some quick reviews of some of the products listed:
* Lighthouse (http://lighthouseapp.com) - Bug Tracker - good for keeping track of simple stuff last I used it (~2 years ago), but Github Issues obviated its use for me.
* Pivotal (http://www.pivotaltracker.com/) - Project Management - great tool, not trivial to keep well managed tho. Easy to let your project get out of hand with tons of tickets, requires some discipline in its use.
* Trello (https://trello.com/) - Project Management - simple, fast. Really great for keeping tasks focused on a small team, I'm not sure how it would suit a larger team though.
* Airbrake (http://airbrake.io/) - Error Handling - You didn't have this in your list, but it deserved a mention. It's okay for server side error handling, its client side stuff leaves something to be desired though. More often than not their hosted JS lags on load, causes your page load times to go up as well. Doesn't currently offer a supported hosted version.
* Stripe - (https://stripe.com/) - Billing & Payment Processing - Does just about everything right imo. Great documentation, great interface, website is well engineered. Analytics / reporting would be awesome tho.
* Intercom - (http://intercom.io/) - Support/Help Desks - I seriously love Intercom. For managing a team of people doing outreach to users, it is awesome. I view it as a fantastic tool for triaging retention.
* Uservoice - (http://uservoice.com/) - Support/Help Desks - You didn't mention them either, but I thought I'd add. They are pretty great, even for small companies. I think their sweet spot is a larger support team tho. Great interface.
Edit: That was due to JS being disabled in my browser
Alerts is actually in beta right now :) - we're testing it out with a few customers. It's based on our query language, and alerts you with a graph of the problem when the event occurs. ( or updates an HTTP endpoint you control, if you wish )
edit: I forgot to mention, my apologies you encountered an error. We've been living on the edge of browser support land for the time being, and could do a better job letting you know that you're not meeting the minimum reqs.
[1]: https://github.com/collectiveidea/statsd-instrumental-backen...
[1] http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/overview
I've only ever casually used Jira, however, so am ill qualified to speak to its strengths.
I think the divisive bit may, in part, be that Pivotal is a strongly opinionated tool while Jira is a fairly customizable and open ended tool.
For projects & teams committed to the process Pivotal champions, it's highly optimized. For teams using a different process, or who need to customize views for different people etc, Jira can provide more options, and be a better fit.
For me personally... at the moment, I really appreciate Pivotal's relative simplicity and the way it encourages folks to focus on the somewhat nearer term.
Their free tier (500MB/day) is far more generous than mentioned services.
https://github.com/jasonbosco/user-bee
Would love to hear feedback.
Ultimately, this wasn't meant to be an exhaustive list. It's just a quick list from some very superficial collecting of URLs. There's still a lot of work to do for the book before the list is complete.
--ANALYTICS
Snowplow (https://github.com/snowplow/snowplow)
Segment.io (http://segment.io)
--CRM
Close.io (http://close.io),
Streak (http://www.streak.com/)
Base (http://getbase.com)
--SALES
ElasticSales (https://elasticsales.com/)
--CUSTOMER SERVICE
Metaverse Mod Squad (http://metaversemodsquad.com/)
--DATA
Factual (http://www.factual.com/)
--DATABASE
Titan (http://thinkaurelius.com/)
Tinkerpop (http://www.tinkerpop.com/)
Bulbs (http://bulbflow.com)
Datomic (http://datomic.com)
--LOG MONITORING
Logstash (http://logstash.net)
Lumberjack (https://github.com/jordansissel/lumberjack)
Fluentd (http://fluentd.org),
Flume (https://github.com/cloudera/flume)
Kafka (http://sna-projects.com/kafka/)
Scribe (https://github.com/facebook/scribe/)
--ACCOUNTING/INVOICING
Harvest (http://www.getharvest.com/)
Ballpark (http://www.getballpark.com/)
PaySimple (http://paysimple.com/)
AcceptPay (http://acceptpay.com)
FreshBooks (http://www.freshbooks.com/)
FreeAgent (http://www.freeagent.com/)
Blinksale (http://www.blinksale.com/)
--PAYMENTS
Balanced Payements (https://www.balancedpayments.com/)
Dwolla (https://www.dwolla.com/)
-- BANKING
Simple (http://simple.com)
--PHONE/PBX/SMS
Plivo (http://plivo.com/)
Tropo (https://www.tropo.com/)
Twillo (http://www.twilio.com/)
PhoneBooth (http://www.phonebooth.com/)
-- PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Orchestra (http://www.orchestra.com/)
-- RECOMMENDATION SYSTEM
Runa PerfectOffer (http://www.runa.com/products/perfectoffer/)
--SYSTEM MONITORING
Tracelytics (http://www.tracelytics.com) / AppNeta (http://www.appneta.com/)
Riemann (http://riemann.io)
Zipkin (https://github.com/twitter/zipkin/)
Pulse (https://github.com/heroku/pulse/)
--SEARCH
Bonsai (http://www.bonsai.io)
WebSolr ( veesahni ↗ For Support / Help Desk, I'd like to mention my startup as a lightweight alternative:
SupportFu (http://www.supportfu.com)
Ratchet.io (http://ratchet.io)
Private beta but public launch is very soon; mention HN for immediate invite.
For people looking to use apps, please consider the likelihood and impact of one of these companies disappearing overnight. Some of them are tech startups without a sustainable critical mass and they could shut down at any time.
If your landing page provider stops providing service, it's probably easy to recover if you have copies of all the email address collected. If your planning and project management tool disappears with all your data, there could be a significant cost.
I'd bet that half the services on this page will not exist in a few years time. If the success of your business relies on them trading, pick carefully.
Unlike consumer internet startups, I think there's only one criterion for whether or not a SaaS product will be around in 5 years: Does the product work well?
Most of these companies don't/can't rely on network effects to grow, so there's very little winner-takes-all action. That's why you'll see plenty of breathing room for big players and small players alike in any given category.
Disclaimer: I'm the founder of a bootstrapped, profitable company, so I'm probably biased toward bootstrappers.
http://www.ginzametrics.com/blog/2012-in-review-at-ginzametr...
* BrowserMob (http://www.neustar.biz/enterprise/web-performance/how-load-t...) You can upload selenium scripts and they'll run it on X physical / Y virtual servers for a given period of time. It's a great tool to stress test your servers.
* Blitz.io (https://www.blitz.io/) Basically just a DDOS on your server.
* BeesWithMachineGuns (https://github.com/newsapps/beeswithmachineguns) You can set this up with EC2 and DDOS your own server with it as well. This gives you a bit more control than blitz, but it requires a little work to get it up and running.
(Disclaimer: I work for SD)
Clicky ( http://clicky.com ) - lightweight visitor analytics
Pingdom ( http://pingdom.com ) - monitoring
AWS ( http://aws.amazon.com ) - infrastructure
Stripe ( http://stripe.com ) - payments
Mailgun ( http://mailgun.com ) - transactional email
Postmark ( http://postmarkapp.com ) - more transactional email
Mailchimp ( http://mailchimp.com ) - non-transactional email
SupportFu ( http://www.supportfu.com ) - lightweight customer service