Development discussions have been covered quite a bit so these are productivity/business/fun tools I’d like to or do use.

CMS

WordPress (wordpress.org/) – I already use WordPress, It does everything I need it to do.

Perch (grabaperch.com/) – I haven’t used Perch yet but I can see the value. As soon as I get a chance I’ll do so.

Mockups/Prototyping

Balsamiq (balsamiq.com/) – Love using this.

Data Capture & Forms

Gravity Forms (gravityforms.com/) – A must if you are using WordPress, really powerful.

Wufoo (wufoo.com/) – Again powerful and fun.

I have used them both, I like them both.

Others I have not used but like the look of:

KissInsights (kissinsights.com/) Survey Monkey (surveymonkey.com/, who I think bought Wufoo mentioned above)

Audio & Video

I have used JWPlayer (longtailvideo.com/) with Amazon S3 & Cloudfront. A bit more work than a hosted solution but the combo works well.

BuzzSprout – Podcasting (buzzsprout.com/) – The whole works, I like it.

Others that I have not used but would like to: Sublime Video (sublimevideo.net/) & Brightcove (brightcove.com/)

Sales Leads / CRM

I suppose this is linked to forms further up. If I didn’t roll my own I’d probably use:

Highrise (highrisehq.com/) – Simple and easy to use from the 37 signals gang.

Sales Force (salesforce.com/) – Don’t really like the UI but provides a lot of functionality.

Analytics & Testing

Google Analytics (google.com/analytics/) – Does everything I need and more.

Browser Stack – Browser Testing (browserstack.com/) – Has taken the pain out of browser testing.

Optimizely – A/B Testing (optimizely.com/) – As soon as I get a chance I would love to try this out.

Email

Campain Monitor (campaignmonitor.com/) – I use them, they hook up well with other services, a joy to use. A chance for some passive income too.

Mail Chimp (mailchimp.com) – Haven’t used it myself but heard it’s a good one.

Customers & Social

Get Satisfaction (getsatisfaction.com/)

Assistly (assistly.com/)

HootSuite (hootsuite.com/)

Olark – Live Chat (olark.com/)

I haven’t used any of these but they all look great.

Project Management & Bug tracking

Pivotal Tracker (pivotaltracker.com/) – Tried it and liked it, keeps you motivated but at realistic targets.

Asana (asana.com/) – Had a quick go, but heard good things about it.

Basecamp (basecamphq.com/) – The good old favorite, Basecamp. I use the free version.

Lighthouse (lighthouseapp.com/) – Not used it, but probably the one I’d go for.

Finance

Xero (xero.com/) – Used the personal plan, got some great insights.

A Little Development…

Postmark (postmarkapp.com/) – Email delivery for web apps, loads of API’s. Really simple to set up.

Most go for Github (github.com/). For private projects I like Beanstalk (beanstalkapp.com/).

Keep learning

Good old books

Treehouse from the guys at Carsonified (teamtreehouse.com/) – Really easy and fun way of learning.

CodeSchool (codeschool.com/) – Again up for anything that makes learning more fun. I have used both.