Tool reviews for small business owners
The LanceTek Journal looks at one tool at a time: what it does for your business, what it costs to run, what can go wrong, and when I would not use it.
- Format
- One tool an article
- Written for
- Owners and managers
- Covers
- Cost, risk and upkeep
- Status
- 6 articles in draft
Six reviews in draft
Sample entries: these titles and summaries show the Journal's subjects while the first articles are written.
Why I host n8n on your own server
Workflow automation you can run yourself: what it costs against a monthly plan, and what it takes to keep it patched.
Remote access to your software with Tailscale
How staff reach the office server from home without opening ports on the router, and what happens during an outage.
Local AI models for automation, with Ollama
When a model on your own hardware is good enough for sorting email and reading invoices, and when it is not.
PostgreSQL for your software's data
The database I start every project with, and the point at which a shared spreadsheet stops being enough.
Docker for the software I deliver
What containers change about moving, updating and backing up the software I build for you.
Grafana for monitoring your servers
The few numbers worth watching on a Grafana dashboard, and which alerts should wake me rather than you.