Lists on Info Systems & Technology
Important
Page is a WIP
Lists of IS and IT software worth investigating for use in future projects.
- Table of Contents
- Personal Workflow
- IDE & Text (Code) Editors
- Terminal CLI & TUI
- Headless Content Management Software (CMS)
- Software-as-a-Service (SAAS), & Locally Hosted Platforms
- APM (Application Performance Monitoring), Quality & Security
- VCS/Code Repo & CI/CD
- Backend-as-a-Service (BAAS) & Database Systems
- Platforms-as-a-Service (PAAS)
- Remote Access, Connectivity & Authentication
- Server Management: Dashboard and Utilities
- Servers
- Cloud, Compute & Web Hosting
- Container Host & Virtual Machine Infrastructure
- Operating Systems
- To-do Task List
Scope: File / Information / Reference / Project Management
| SYSTEM NAME | GROUPING | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Miro Talk | Idea & communication | WebRTC P2P real-time video and audio communication (OSS) |
| Open Board | Idea & communication | Cross-platform interactive whiteboard application (OSS) |
| :--------------------------------------------------------- | :---------------------- | :------------------------------------------------ |
| ArgDown | Information management | Argumentation analysis, outlines lines of reason |
| Codex Docs | Information management | Application creation and library for internal, public or personal docs |
| DEVON | Information management | Unique 'true' information manager, integrates day to day sources of data |
| Docear | Information management | Part information mapper and part reference manager |
| Freeplane | Information management | Tool for concept mapping / information mapping |
| Joplin | Information management | Note-taking app. Uses a database, but export to .md available (OSS) |
| Laverna | Information management | Markdown notes with built in Dropbox support, and encryption |
| LogSeq | Information management | - |
| Memos | Information management | - |
| Notable | Information management | Markdown editor |
| Notesnook | Information management | Encrypted markdown/text note taking app. |
| Obsidian | Information management | Information management app, using .md markdown files, no database. |
| QOwnNotes | Information management | Text file and markdown Information management with Nextcloud / OwnCloud integration |
| Roam Research | Information management | Cloud based note taking app |
| Slash | Information management | Self-hosted bookmark collection / library, link sharing platform (OSS) |
| Snipp.in | Information management | Browser based note taking app, uses the Web API IndexedDB |
| Trilium | Information management | - |
| Ulysses | Information management | - |
| Zettlr | Information management | Note taking app, focused on recreating a digital Zettlekasten |
| Zim Wiki | Information management | Note taking app |
| - | - | - |
| Brisqi | Project management | Desktop Kanban board, feels very good to use for some reason. |
| GitHub Projects | Project management | Create Issues, Projects, Roadmaps per GitHub repo |
| Linear | Project management | Product management tool: Issues, Projects, Initiatives |
| Notion | Project management | Cloud-based workflow management, desktop app available. |
| Plane | Project management | Cloud and self-hosted project and product management app (OSS) |
| Trello | Project management | Kanban, Task lists. |
| YouTrack | Project management | By JetBrains. Bug tracker, Issue and Project management |
| - | - | - |
| IA Writer | Text editor | Desktop writing app, text and markdown editor. |
| Markflowy | Text editor | Markdown editor with built in AI support. |
| Typora | Text editor | - |
| Typst | Text editor | - |
| - | - | - |
| JabRef | Reference management | Source reference manager. Search academic journals. |
| Mendeley | References management | Source reference manager. |
| Zotero | Reference management | Source reference manager, for use during academic research. Cloud backup |
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Aqua | By JetBrains, test automation IDE, various test frameworks built-in |
| Android Studio | By Google. For Kotlin, C++ and Java. AI (Gemini) built in. View designs made in Jetpack Compose |
| Eric IDE | Git, PIP integration, virtual env, task (TODO) management, debugging for multi-threaded applications |
| Cursor | Paid (with free tier) IDE with built in AI |
| IDLE | 'Integrated Development and Learning Environment'. |
| IDX | By Google. AI-assisted cloud-hosted IDE, use tools like LangChain |
| Intellij IDEA | By Jetbrains. Focused on Java and Kotlin development |
| Komodo | Supports pair programming. Strong contextual autocomplete. Devdocs.io integration |
| Notepad++ | Free source code editor (OSS), low CPU (and therefore lower power consumption aka 'greener') |
| PyCharm | By Jetbrains. Focused on Python development |
| PyScripter | Free IDE from Embarcadero (Delphi language) |
| Puck | Online React focused visual editor |
| Repl.it | Cloud-hosted IDE, import libraries and run dev/test env easily |
| Spyder | Free scientific environment written in Python (OSS) |
| SublimeText | Text editor for code, markup and prose. Smart completions based on existing code in a project. |
| VSCode | Microsofts IDE based on VSCodium |
| VSCodium | Underlying IDE which VSCode is built from (OSS) |
| WriterSide | By Jetbrains. Text editor focused on writing documentation. Can export as a self contained website |
Command line interface (CLI), and Test User Interface (TUI).
| SYSTEM NAME | GROUPING | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Hyper | Terminal | By Vercel, modern terminal application |
| PowerShell | Terminal | Updated terminal |
| Tabby | Terminal | Tabby (formerly Terminus) is a configurable terminal emulator, SSH |
| Terminal++ | Terminal | Minimalist terminal emulator |
| Termius | Terminal | SSH and terminal in one, with encrypted credential vault |
| Windows Terminal | Terminal | Microsofts new multi-tabbed terminal |
| Wishlight | Terminal | Terminal, SSH with TailScale (VPN), run as SSH client or server |
| :------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------- | :------------ |
| Amp | CLI | Text editor for your terminal |
| Atac | CLI | API client (postman like) in your terminal |
| BAT | CLI | CAT clone, view files, contents with syntax highlighting |
| Browsr | CLI | File explorer in your terminal supporting all filesystem |
| CTOP | CLI | Graphical overview of real-time metrics for multiple containers |
| CURL | CLI | CLI and library for transferring data with URL syntax |
| FD | CLI | Fast and user-friendly alternative to 'find' |
| GH (GitHub CLI) | CLI | By GitHub. A CLI to handle repo, and repo management |
| GHQ | CLI | Remote repository management made easy |
| Gitui | CLI | CLI for managing Git |
| Glow | CLI | A markdown reader |
| GRV | CLI | A Git repository viewer |
| Harlequin | CLI | SQL IDE for the terminal |
| Lazydocker | CLI | UI for both docker and docker-compose |
| LazyGit | CLI | Simple terminal UI for git commands |
| Micro | CLI | Terminal-based text editor |
| Midnight Commander | CLI | User shell with text-mode full-screen interface |
| SD | CLI | Find & replace CLI (sed alternative), no Regex |
| Tailspin | CLI | Log file highlighter |
| Tiptop | CLI | Command-line system monitoring |
| Tre-command | CLI | A modern alternative to the tree command |
| TTYD | CLI | CLI tool for sharing terminal over the web |
| Visidata | CLI | Terminal spreadsheet multi-tool for discovering and arranging data. |
| :------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------- | :------------ |
Scope: Content Generation and Management
Table is WIP
Details on Headless CMS and tools on content until there is enough for another table.
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Airtable | More a database (Excel-like spreadsheet), but can serve content |
| Baserow | Open source version of Airtable (OSS) |
| Contentful | SAAS |
| Craft.do | - |
| Directus | Combines Headless CMS with Backend-as-a-Service (APIs, Auth) (OSS) |
| DeCap | - |
| Ghost | Self-host on Docker |
| Hygraph | - |
| Nocodb | - |
| Payload | - |
| Sanity | SAAS. Most popular with dev's and start-ups |
| Stackbit | - |
| Strapi | Self hostable (OSS) |
| Tina CMS | - |
| Cockroach Labs | Web content editor Editor for composable websites |
| Wagtail | Python and Drupal headless CMS (OSS) |
| Webiny | - |
| SYSTEM NAME | HOST | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Active Pieces | Local/Cloud | Workflow automation, like n8n or Kestra |
| AirTable | Cloud | Spreadsheet database |
| Appflowy | Local/Cloud | Like Notion. Collaborative workspace, projects, wikis (OSS) |
| AppSmith | Local | App-dev for internal tools |
| AppWrite | Cloud | Dev platform |
| Bildr | Cloud | B2C web app developer platform |
| Bubble | Cloud | B2C web app developer platform |
| Budibase | Local/Cloud | Modern, low-code platform, for internal applications (OSS) |
| DronaHQ | Cloud | Low code app development platform for internal apps |
| Flutterflow | Cloud | Developer platform for cross platform B2C apps |
| Glide | Cloud | Developer platform for internal apps, generous free tier |
| Kestra | Local/Cloud | Workflow and data pipeline automation |
| Make | Local/Cloud | Workflow automation, top tier. |
| n8n | Local | AI-enabled workflow and data automation (OSS) |
| Noodl | Local | Well featured, local AI assisted app dev platform (OSS) |
| Pipedream | Cloud | Workflow middleware (like Zapier), generous free |
| Postman Flows | - | Visual creation of API-driven workflows |
| Plasmic | Local/Cloud | React focused B2C app dev. Can be self-hosted (OSS) |
| Prisma | Local/Cloud | ORM for NodeJS, database tool |
| Refine | Local | React-based meta framework for data-heavy CRUD apps |
| Relume | Cloud | AI assisted 'NoLoCo' developer platform |
| Retool | Cloud | Internal developer platform |
| RunMe | Local/Cloud | Run code snippets directly from documentation |
| Rundeck | Local | Task & workflow automation |
| Saltcorn | Local | Setup internal dev platform, for data-driven web apps (OSS) |
| Toddle | Cloud | Collaborative programming platform & app host |
| Tooljet | Cloud | Internal developer platform |
| Trigger | Cloud | Task management, handle long running jobs |
| Thunkable | Cloud | NoLoCode mobile app dev platform |
| Wappler | Cloud | Very good at allowing fast building of sites |
| Windmill | Local/Cloud | Developer platform for internal tools (OSS) |
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Airbrake | Error monitoring and performance analysis. No free tier |
| Bugsnag | diagnostics, debug workflow, 247 monitoring Free tier is 7.5K events/1M spans pm |
| CodeCov | By Sentry.io, code coverage analysis platform |
| Datadog | Observability platform, monitoring including security |
| Highlight | Many other apps integrated. Full stack monitoring platform (OSS) |
| Logfire | Python oriented observability platform (OSS) |
| New Relic | Observability platform, monitor, debug, and improve the tech stack |
| OpenLLMetry | Open-source observability for your LLM app, providers, vector dbs (OSS) |
| Open Telemetry | Collated API/SDK/tools to instrument telemetry data (OSS). |
| OWASP SCA | Useful OWASP list of SCA/SAST tools |
| Rollbar | Realtime error detection, and prediction. Free tier 5k error events pm |
| Sentry | Most used, Monitoring with Docker self-host option (OSS) |
| SigNoz | Logs, metrics, exceptions; similar to Datadog, New Relic (OSS) |
| SonarLint | Highlight issues that can lead to bugs, vulnerabilities |
| SonarQube | Code quality tool |
| Temporal | Uptime monitor |
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Argo CD | Kubernetes hosted Continuous Deployment |
| Bamboo | By Atlassian. CI system |
| Bitbucket | By Atlassian. Code repository and management |
| Buddy | CI/CD, claiming 'minimal-friction' automation platform |
| Buildbot | Python framework for automating software build, test, and release (OSS) |
| CircleCI | Remote access. Generous free tier of 6,000 hours |
| Codeberg | Git remote host, free for OSS code |
| Concourse CI | From VMWare. Container based automation pipelines inc. CI/CD flows (OSS) |
| Drone | Self-service Continuous Integration platform |
| Earthly | Simple CI/CD framework for repeatable builds |
| Flagger | Manage Kubernetes deployments (deploy: Canary, A/B Testing, Blue/Green) (OSS) |
| Flux CD | Continuous delivery solution for Kubernetes. Powered by GitOps Toolkit. (OSS) |
| Forgejo | Self-hosted lightweight software Git 'forge' (OSS) |
| Fossil SCM | Non-Git based SCM. Features inc. Wiki, documentation timeline, chat etc. |
| Gitea | Code hosting, CI/CD, project management tools, package management |
| GitHub Actions Runner | Kubernetes controller for GitHub Actions self-hosted runners |
| Gitness | Self-hostable SVC, CI/CD (OSS) |
| GoCD | Free and open source CICD from ThoughtWork (OSS) |
| Gogs | Self-hostable SVC, CI/CD (OSS) |
| Harness | Git repo host, CI/CD, Feature Flags, IaC Management |
| Jenkins X | CI/CD with Kubernetes. GitOps, Tekton pipelines, Secrets management |
| Semaphore | Streamline developer workflow. Very performant. Free 7k cloud min/pm |
| Skaffold | Building, pushing and deploying your app to Kubernetes |
| Soft Serve | Local-host Git with built-in SSH server |
| TeamCity | JetBrains mini GitHub, can be Docker hosted locally |
| Tekton | Simple, fast out-of-the-box. Works with Skaffold container builds CD (OSS) |
| Travis CI | Continuous Integration. Minimal Configuration as Code (YAML) |
| SYSTEM NAME | HOST | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| DuckDB | Local/Embed | Lightweight, focused on OLAP. ACID-compliant, no external dependencies |
| DyBase | Local/Embed | Object oriented embedded db for languages with dynamic type checking |
| LibSQL | Local/Embed | SQLite fork |
| Pocketbase | Local/Embed | Embedded database, REST API, authentication (OSS) |
| SQLite | Local/Embed | SQLite database, REST API, authentication |
| ----------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Airtable | Spreadsheet | Excel in cyberspace |
| Baserow | Spreadsheet | Generate internal apps from data structures, OSS Airtable alt |
| NoCoDB | Spreadsheet | Free open source Excel in cyber space Airtable (OSS) |
| ----------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Dragonflydb.io | Key Value | Key-value store, drop in replacement for Redis |
| Foundation DB | Cloud | Distributed, transactional key-value store (OSS) |
| Redis | Key Value | The former OSS now not, 'big kahuna' |
| Rocks DB | Key Value | Embedded database for key-value data |
| Memcached | Key Value | In-memory key-value store, distributed memory object caching system |
| Nats | Key Value | Connectivity, middleware but includes a key/value store |
| ----------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| AstraDB | Cloud | Low Latency Vector and NoSQL AI Database |
| Cloudflare D1 | Cloud | Native serverless database. Available on Free and Paid plans |
| Conduit | Local, Cloud | NodeJS-based Backend as a Service (BAAS), Self-Hosted backend server. |
| Firebase | Cloud | Google database offering. |
| Hydra | Local, Cloud | Postgres with scalable analytics. Self hosted with Docker (OSS) |
| InfluxDB | Local, Cloud | Scalable datastore for metrics, events, and real-time analytics |
| Maria DB | Local, Cloud | RDBMS with Vector Search (used with AI RAG embedding) (OSS) |
| Minio | Local | Amazon S3 cloud storage compatible object store (OSS) |
| PostgreSQL Neon | Local, Cloud | Serverless Postgres database |
| Supabase | Local, Cloud | Database, local host option |
| Tigerbeetle | Local, Cloud | DB focused on financial transactions |
| Xata | Cloud | PostgreSQL serverless data platform. Free tier 15GB data, 2GB storage |
| ----------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| DB Browser for SQLite | Db Tools | Visual tool to create, search, and edit SQLite databases |
| Prisma | Db Tools | Interface to simplify database interactions |
| Mimalloc | Db Tools | By Microsoft. Compact general purpose allocator. High performance |
| Memcache | Db Tools | Free high-performance, distributed memory object caching system (OSS) |
List of self hosted, OSS platform-as-a-source (PAAS)
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Caprover | Web GUI, NGINX, LetsEncrypt SSL cert |
| Coolify | Personal hosting platform |
| Dokploy | Uses Docker and Traefik |
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Authentik | open-source Identity Provide |
| Go Teleport | Zero trust access using SSH, Kubernetes and HTTPS (OSS) |
| Guacamole | Browser remote access to desktop PC |
| Kasm | Access remote desktops via browser |
| Mesh Central | Web-based remote monitoring, TeamViewer-esque remote desktop |
| Mullvad VPN | WireGuard, OpenVPN protocols, Shadowsocks bridge protocol (OSS) |
| Netbird | Configuration-free peer-to-peer private network, centralized access control |
| Remotely | Remote access management *N.B. only supported reverse proxy is Caddy |
| TailScale | Zero-config, p2p software-defined private network |
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Dashy | HomeLab server management dashboard (OSS) |
| Flame | Self-hosted start-page for your server |
| Heimdall | Server application management dashboard |
| Homearr | Server management dashboard |
| LetsEncrypt | Non-profit TLS certification authority aka distributor of SSL certs for HTTPS |
| NGINX Proxy Manager | Expose web services on your network. Free SSL with Let's Encrypt |
| Webmin | Bare metal UNIX server system administration |
| ZeroSSL | TLS (SSL) certificate authority |
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Caddy | Open-source web server written in Go. Automatic TLS (SSL) cert management (OSS) |
| Emby | Media streaming server, homelab oriented |
| Jellyfin | Host server and stream media, homelab oriented |
| NGINX | HTTP/2+3, reverse proxy, supports memcached |
| nGrok | Secure ingress point: load balancing, reverse proxy, firewall, API gateway |
| Open Media Server | Debian based NAS server, can also handling media streaming. Homelab oriented |
| SWAG | 'Secure Web Application Gateway' (SWAG) Container Image |
| Traefik | App. Proxy (auto routing), API Gateway, Load balancing. Authentication, Key Mgmt e.g. HashiCorp |
| Universal Media Server | DLNA-compliant UPnP media server. Homelab oriented |
Table is WIP
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Amazom AWS | - |
| Azure | |
| Cloudflare | - |
| Cloudflare Pages | - |
| Digital Ocean | - |
| Fly.io | - |
| Google Cloud Platform (GCP) | - |
| Green for Geeks | - |
| Heroku | - |
| Hetzner (Web) | - |
| Hetzner (Cloud) | - |
| IBM | - |
| LeaseWeb | = |
| Linode | Formerly Akamai |
| Netlify | - |
| Open Stack (Managed) | - |
| Oracle Free Tier | - |
| OVH Cloud | - |
| Paperspace | - |
| Railway | - |
| Redswitches | - |
| Render | - |
| Scaleway | - |
| Surge.sh | - |
| Vercel | - |
| Vultr | - |
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| DevPod | - |
| Docker | The original containers |
| Kind | Host Kubernetes, Docker |
| NVIDIA Container | GPU accelerated containers |
| Podman | Run Kubernetes pods, Docker/Kuber containers |
| Portainer | Container manager |
| Rancher | Container runner, manager |
| VirtualBox | Run Virtual Machines |
| Yacht | Container management UI, focused on templates and 1-click deployments |
| SYSTEM NAME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Alpine Linux | Tiny container OS |
| + Alpine at Docker Hub | Sub 5MB container image |
| + Alpine at GitHub | Sub 5MB container image |
| Fedora Atomic, Sway | Immutable atomic OS |
| Micro OS | By OpenSUSE, atomic, 1GB RAM, designed for containers |
| PhotonOS | Linux OS from VMWare, enterprise grade container OS build |
| Proxmox | NAS OS with support for running VM and Containers |
| TrueNAS Scale | Host OS, support for running VM and Containers |
| UnRaid | Container-ready O/S focused on self-hosted servers and NAS |
| Umbrel OS | Homelab server focused OS, supports docker containers |
| Windows 10 LTSC | Long-Term Servicing Channel barebones ver., support ends Jan 2027 |
- LXConsole
- Next Cloud
- Own Cloud
- RunMe - Interesting Tech. Turns .md doc into runnable commands, similar to Jupyter.
- Code Canvas by Jetbrains - secure remote-access dev env
- Google Container Tools
- [Tigerbeetle] - what should the section title be?
- [MiniKube]
- [K3D]
- [K3S]
- [K0S]
and Garden.io
-
Authentik | open-source Identity Provide -
Remotely | Remote access management *N.B. only supported reverse proxy is Caddy | -
Mesh Central | Web-based remote monitoring, management, remote desktop sessions | -
Netbird | Configuration-free peer-to-peer private network, centralized access control | -
Mullvad VPN | WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols, and Shadowsocks as a bridge protocol (OSS) | -
Dashy | Open source, customizable, easy to use, privacy-respecting dashboard (OSS) -
[LetsEncrypt] -
[Cursor.sh] Add IDE cursor.sh (built in AI assistant) -
Dashy - HomeLab dashboard: -
Heimdall -
Homearr -
Webmin for bare-metal servers -
Add YouTrack - Project management, wiki, kanban gantt charts, can be externally accessible e.g. clients etc. -
[TailScale] - HomeLab security: -
Add Sphinx - use for documentation websites, self-hostable and far cheaper than -
Add MKDocs -
Add Readthedocs -
Add Gitbook -
Codeberg -
Forgejo - self-hosted lightweight software 'forge' (Git, ) -
HomeLab OS: PhotonOS, UnRaid, Proxmox OpenMediaServer True NAS Scale -
Add table on terminals, CLI: terminal-xm, aider, nushell.sh, micro, LazyGIT -
Create table for CDE's -
Rebase the page. Sharpen up entries and provide clear use case for each table. -
Add DevContainers / TestContainer desktop -
Add Kestra, n8n, Windmill -
Add ToolJet, Retool -
Add Guacamole / Kasm for Remote access