Author
Carla Smith
Editor, SMB SaaS Stacks. Eight years running a solo consulting practice before this, three years writing about small-business tooling.
23 bylines · 10 reviews · 11 stacks · 2 guides
Carla ran a 1-person strategy consultancy from 2016 to 2024 — working with small law firms, indie creative agencies, and a handful of AI coaches before the category had a name. She's used every SaaS on this site long enough to have gripes about each. She started SMB SaaS Stacks in 2024 because the existing review sites kept recommending the tools with the biggest affiliate payouts, which were never the tools her clients actually needed.
Why I’m writing this
Search “best CRM for small business” and you get four thousand words that recommend every major CRM, sorted by who pays the highest commission. It’s not wrong. It’s useless. If you’re a freelance writer, you don’t need HubSpot Starter. If you’re a two-person law firm, you don’t need Salesforce. But those are the tools that show up at the top because they pay per-click.
This site exists to be the opposite: one opinionated pick per vertical, with real pricing at scale, honest tradeoffs, and named alternatives we earn zero from. I pay for every tool at list price, for at least 30 days — and usually much longer — before I write about it. If a free tool wins, I say so, even when we earn commission on the paid one.
How I pick co-authors
There are verticals I don’t operate in — small accounting practices, indie law firms, online fitness coaches, solo therapists. For those I co-author with a named practitioner in the field: someone who runs the work day-to-day and has strong opinions about the tools. Their byline goes on the review alongside mine, and their specific compliance or workflow context shapes the recommendations. You’ll see their names on the author card at the bottom of those reviews.
What I won’t do
- Publish a review I haven’t paid for.
- Run a “sponsored” post that looks like an editorial one. If we ever do paid placement (we haven’t), it will be labeled unambiguously.
- Recommend the tool with the biggest commission when a free alternative is obviously better for the vertical in question.
- Update a page without noting the last-verified date.
If any of that ever stops being true, the tagline at the top of every review is a lie, and you should stop reading.
Contact
Questions, corrections, vendor pitches, or requests for a specific review? Email me directly at carla@smbsaasstacks.com. Vendor pitches are a reliable way to never appear on this site, but you’re welcome to try.
Disclosures: No equity, advisory roles, or paid speaking arrangements with any vendor covered on this site. Affiliate commissions are disclosed on each review that earns them.
Tool reviews
Vertical stacks
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AI Coach & Prompt Consultant Tech Stack
The tool stack for independent AI consultants and prompt engineers — a young vertical, with most content still being written by people who don't actually do the work. Here's the real stack.
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E-commerce Side Hustle Tech Stack
The SaaS stack for a Shopify (or WooCommerce) side hustle doing $1k–$30k/mo. Covers store, fulfillment, email, and the tools you genuinely don't need.
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Freelance Designer Tech Stack
The 9 tools a freelance graphic, brand, or UX designer actually needs — with honest picks on the Adobe-vs-Affinity question and a pragmatic take on client-handoff software.
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Freelance Developer Tech Stack
The 10 tools a freelance software developer actually needs — from GitHub to invoicing to the one-line developer setup decision nobody else covers.
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Freelance Writer Tech Stack
The 8 tools a full-time freelance writer actually needs — what to pay for on day one, what to add at $5k/mo, and what to skip despite what other lists say.
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Indie Law Firm Tech Stack
The tool stack for solo attorneys and 2–3 lawyer shops — with real practice-management recommendations, compliance-aware picks, and the digital-fax reality nobody else talks about.
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Small Accounting Practice Tech Stack
The SaaS stack for a 1-5 person accounting or bookkeeping practice. Covers client accounting, internal practice management, and secure file handling.
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Solo Consultant Tech Stack
The 9 tools an independent management or strategy consultant actually needs — what's worth the money, what you can skip, and how the stack evolves as billing rates climb.
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Solo Real Estate Agent Tech Stack
The tool stack for independent real estate agents — with honest picks on CRM (not the big one everyone pushes), transaction management, and the follow-up cadence that actually closes deals.
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Solo SaaS Founder Tech Stack
The SaaS stack for a one-person SaaS founder — what to spend on, what to build yourself, and the infrastructure that scales from MVP to $10k/mo MRR.
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Solo Therapist Tech Stack
The HIPAA-aware tool stack for solo psychologists, counselors, and therapists in private practice — with honest picks on EHR choice and the compliance trap other lists ignore.
Guides
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How to Migrate from Mailchimp to ConvertKit (Kit)
A step-by-step migration guide with the data you can move, the things you'll rebuild, and the 90-minute checklist that gets a solo creator's list across cleanly.
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How to Migrate from Notion to Obsidian (the Honest 2026 Playbook)
A step-by-step guide to moving from Notion to Obsidian — what transfers cleanly, what you'll rebuild, and the 2-hour checklist that gets a solo operator's vault across.