Journal: software tools I use, reviewed
Short reviews written for the people who pay for the work: what each tool is good for, what it costs a small business, and when I would pick something else. Five entries so far, the latest on 21 October 2026.
All 5 Journal entries. The verdicts first.
Proxmox for a small office: one box, several serversWhy I put most self-hosted client setups on one Proxmox machine, what it costs to run, and when a cloud server is the better buy.
Docker Compose, not Kubernetes, for client appsA small business app with a database and a few hundred users fits in one Compose file. Here is what that buys you, and where it stops.
n8n or a custom script: choosing how to automate a jobSome automations belong in a visual workflow tool you can edit yourself. Others need code. The questions I ask before picking one.
Tailscale: reaching office servers without opening portsHow staff reach the office server from home or a van, with no port forwarding and no VPN box to maintain, and what the free plan covers.
What I let an AI agent do without asking you firstReading, filing and drafting run on their own. Paying, sending and deleting wait for a person. Where I draw that line, and why.
Tried in the homelab first
Every tool in the Journal runs on my own servers for a month before I put it in front of a client. The entries say what broke.