My Online Business Tech Stack: The Tools I Actually Use to Run My Business

What tools do you actually need to run an online business?

This is a question I get asked ALL the time.

What do you use for your online programs?
Where do you send your emails from?
What do you use for your funnel?
What do you use to edit videos?
What do you use for design?
How do you livestream?

And somewhere along the way, building an online business seems to have become synonymous with collecting software subscriptions like they're Pokémon.

It really doesn't need to be that complicated.

Over the years of building my own online business - and helping hundreds of coaches and service providers build theirs - I've tested a lot of tools.

Some stayed.

Some disappeared from my recurring fees rather quickly.

And the tools below are the ones I personally use and regularly recommend.

A quick heads-up before we get into them: Some of the links in this article are partner links. That means I may receive a commission if you decide to purchase through one of my links, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend tools I personally use or genuinely believe are useful.

Most importantly, you do not need all of these.

Think of this as my online business toolbox.
You pull out the tool when you actually need it.

Not because someone on Instagram told you that no serious entrepreneur can possibly survive without it.

My Philosophy When It Comes to Business Tech

Before I show you what's in my tech stack, there's something you need to know about how I choose tools.

Technology should make your business simpler. Not more complicated.

If you're spending more time watching videos trying to figure out how they works, connecting systems, troubleshooting integrations and learning software than actually serving clients and growing your business, something has gone slightly wrong.

Particularly if you're building a small, freedom-based business.

My goal isn't to build the world's most technologically impressive company. I want technology to help me:

• Serve my clients
• Build and nurture my audience
• Sell my offers
• Create content efficiently
• Automate repetitive work
• And run my business without needing an enormous team

So with that in mind, here's what I actually use.

Kajabi: My Main Online Business Platform
Best for: Online programs, landing pages, email marketing, funnels and communities

Kajabi is essentially the mothership of my online business.

It's where I host my online programs, create landing pages, manage my community and run various parts of my marketing.

What I particularly like about Kajabi is that it's an all-in-one platform.

Instead of stitching together one tool for your course, another for landing pages, another for payments, another for your community and another for emails, Kajabi can handle a lot of that in one place.

And yes, there are cheaper individual tools available.

But don't only look at the monthly subscription price. Also consider the cost of your time. If saving €30 a month means spending five hours trying to make three different systems talk to each other, I'm not convinced you've saved anything.

Do you need Kajabi when you're just starting?

Not necessarily. My client Jeanette Vinberg kicked-off her very first online course by sharing the videos with her clients via a Google Folder. It's not about the platform, it is essentially about whether your clients get their desired results. 

And this is important.

I'm not suggesting you need to invest in a big tech stack before you've even sold your first offer.

Your technology should grow with your business. But if you're at the stage where you want one central platform for your programs, landing pages, email marketing and community, Kajabi is absolutely worth looking at.

👉 Take a look at Kajabi here

Kit: The Email Marketing Platform I Use
Best for: Email newsletters, automations, sequences and growing an email list

Now this one occasionally raises a question.
"Josefine, if Kajabi can send emails, why are you also paying for Kit?"

Which is a very fair question, and the simple answer is history.

Kit - formerly ConvertKit - was one of the first tools I invested in when I started building my online business, because the teaching platform I used then (which was Teachable), didn't have any email functionality.

I've built my email list there, created my automations there, and I know the platform extremely well. And I'm happy with it.

So I'm not moving thousands of subscribers and rebuilding years of automations just for the pleasure of having one fewer login.

Kit is specifically built around email marketing for creators and online businesses. I use it for things such as:

• My regular newsletters
• Automated email sequences
• Subscriber segmentation
• Launch emails
• Nurturing my audience

And email deliverability is obviously hugely important to me. Because you can write the greatest email in human history, but if nobody receives it, you're a little bit smoked.

Kit currently reports a very high average email delivery rate and puts considerable emphasis on sender reputation and deliverability.

But here's something important:

Good email deliverability isn't only about the software you use.

Your list quality, subscriber engagement, sending practices and sender reputation all play a role.

Do you need Kit AND Kajabi?
No.

If you're starting from scratch and using Kajabi, I'd probably start with Kajabi's built-in email functionality rather than immediately adding another subscription.

Remember our rule:
Start simple.

I use both because it makes sense for the business I've already built.
That doesn't mean you need to copy my setup exactly.

👉 Explore Kit here

StreamYard: For Livestreaming and Interviews
Best for: Livestreams, interviews and multi-platform broadcasting

If you've ever watched one of my livestreams either on YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn - StreamYard was sitting quietly behind it.

I use StreamYard because it makes livestreaming incredibly simple.

You can broadcast to platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook, bring guests onto your stream and record interviews without needing a complicated studio setup.

That's exactly what I want from technology:
Open it. Use it. Get on with my day.

I don't want to spend 45 minutes configuring seventeen settings before I can say hello to my audience.

If live video, interviews or webinars form part of your content strategy, StreamYard is worth considering.

👉 Take a look at StreamYard

Descript: For Editing Videos and Repurposing Content
Best for: YouTube, podcasts, video editing and content repurposing

Descript is one of those tools that makes you wonder why video editing used to be so complicated.

Instead of editing video purely through a traditional timeline, Descript transcribes your content and allows you to edit the video by editing the text.

Delete a sentence from the transcript?
It disappears from the video.
Very clever.

I find it particularly useful for:

• YouTube videos
• Podcasts
• Interviews
• Removing sections from longer recordings
• Creating shorter content from long-form videos
• Repurposing existing content

And repurposing is becoming increasingly important in my own business. I don't want to constantly create more and more content from scratch. I'd rather create something valuable once and find intelligent ways to use that idea across my blog, YouTube, email and social media.

That's not being lazy. That's building a smarter content system.

👉 Explore Descript here

Canva: For Pretty Much Everything Visual
Best for: Social media graphics, presentations, PDFs, lead magnets and workbooks

I honestly don't know what online business owners did before Canva.

Hire a graphic designer every time we needed an Instagram post?
Open Photoshop and cry?

Canva makes it ridiculously easy to create professional-looking visual content without being a designer.

I use it for everything from social media graphics and presentations to workbooks, lead magnets and course materials. And that's really all I need to say.
If you've been in online business for more than eleven minutes, chances are you've already encountered Canva.

Buffer: For Scheduling Social Media Content
Best for: Planning and scheduling social media posts

I don't want to remember at 9:03 every morning that I'm supposed to publish something. That's where Buffer comes in.

Buffer allows you to schedule content across multiple social media platforms in advance.
It's simple.
It does the job.

And it means content can go live without me having to manually press "publish" every single time.

That doesn't mean I automate the relationship part of social media.

I still want to show up, reply to people, engage and have conversations.
I just don't need to manually publish every post.
There's a difference.

👉 Explore Buffer here

Iubenda: For Website Privacy and Compliance
Best for: Privacy policies, cookie policies and website compliance

Legal pages aren't exactly the sexy side of entrepreneurship.
Nobody leaves corporate thinking:
"I cannot WAIT to create my cookie policy."

Unfortunately, running an online business comes with responsibilities around privacy, cookies, data collection and website compliance.

I use Iubenda to help with things such as privacy and cookie policies.

Obviously, your legal requirements will depend on your business, location and customers, so a tool isn't necessarily a replacement for proper legal advice when you need it.

But it's one of the tools I use to make this part of running an online business easier.

👉 Explore Iubenda here

What Tech Do You Actually Need to Start an Online Business?

If you're reading this list thinking:
Good grief, now I need all of those subscriptions.
No.
Please don't leave with that message.

If I were building an online business from scratch today, I'd start with the minimum technology required to:
1. Sell and deliver my offer
2. Collect email addresses and communicate with my audience
3. Take payments (which by the way I suggest you do in Stripe)

That's it.

Depending on the platform you choose, one system may handle several of those things.

Then I'd add technology when there is an actual problem to solve.
Not before.

Need to automate something you're doing manually every week?
Find a tool.

Starting a YouTube channel and need easier editing?
Find a tool.

Running regular livestreams?
Find a tool.

Need more sophisticated email automations?
Find a tool.

Let the problem create the need for the technology - not the other way around.

The Best Online Business Tech Stack Is the One That Makes Your Business Simpler

My tech stack has evolved considerably over the years. I even deleted two tools I used previously, which I no longer need when I wrote this blog post, and I'm sure it will continue to change.

New tools will appear.
AI will change how we work.
Platforms will add functionality.

Some tools I'm still using today may eventually disappear from my business entirely.

But my criteria will stay the same:
Does this help me build the kind of business I actually want?

Because the goal isn't to have the fanciest tech stack.

The goal is to have a business that works.

A business that serves your clients well.
A business that allows you to reach the right people.
A business that makes money.

And - particularly important to me - a business that gives you more freedom rather than creating more things you need to manage.

Start simple.

Add what you need.
And remember: you don't get extra entrepreneurial points for having more subscriptions.