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🧰 Smart tools. Useful tips. Weekly.

Hola friend 👋,

I’m Josep. Each week, I hunt down practical tools and productivity hacks to help digital doers like you do more with less effort.

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This week, we're celebrating a special issue (#20), so I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of just sharing tools I love, I thought it would be fun (and useful) to share three popular tools we think you should probably ditch 🗑️.

We’ve all been there: you sign up for a hyped-up tool everyone’s talking about, only to find it overpriced, clunky, or just plain frustrating. So, I asked the team and I am about to share the winners losers.

Plus: a fantastic tool for finding brand assets, a smart way to use AI to avoid scams, and a look at the fragile relationship between open-source developers and big companies.

🤔 Quick Poll: Tell Me About Yourself

I’ll be sending a few short polls like this now and then — totally optional, of course! They just help me get to know you a little better so I can share the tools and stories that fit your interests.

👎 Mailchimp

If you've been in the online world for a while, you've definitely heard of Mailchimp. It's one of the most well-known email marketing platforms out there. But honestly, I think it's one of the most overpriced tools on the market.

Every time I try to find something in their interface, I get lost, and I've been using it for years! It feels like they've bolted on so many features that the user experience has become a confusing mess – and let’s not even talk automations, please.

But my biggest gripe with Mailchimp is their pricing. They’ve steadily stripped down their once-glorious free plan to the point where it’s barely usable. And to make matters worse, they’re one of the few platforms that actually charge you for unsubscribed and bounced contacts. Yes, you read that right. You pay for contacts you can’t even email. It feels greedy and just doesn't make sense.

For better value and a more user-friendly experience, I'd recommend Brevo. We use it for our sister site, EmailTooltester.com, and it’s both affordable and packed with great features. If you run an ecommerce store, Omnisend is a fantastic choice, and if you're just starting out, MailerLite offers one of the most generous free plans available – compare them all here.

🛠️ Alternative to Mailchimp: Brevo, Omnisend, MailerLite

👎 👎 👎 LastPass

LastPass is a hugely popular password manager, and it's the one we use at our company to store and share passwords securely – pfff. Since we've been using it for so long, we haven't found the time to move away from it, but that doesn't mean we love it.

I really dislike how limited the free plan has become. You can only use it on one type of device (either mobile or desktop), which makes it pretty much useless if you, like most people, use both a phone and a computer.

On top of that, half the time my password updates aren't saved correctly, so I lose access to my accounts. I also run into constant syncing issues with the Google Chrome extension. The overall user experience is just slow, clunky, and painful.

For my personal use, I rely on Bitwarden, which feels more modern, and I've never had these problems. Its free plan is also much more generous. I’ve also tried NordPass (from NordVPN) and found it to be a much better experience than LastPass. Even Apple's built-in password manager is a better option for personal use, though not as good for sharing passwords securely.

🛠️ Alternative to LastPass: BitWarden, NordPass or Passwords (Apple)

👎 👎 Weebly

Weebly used to be a big name in the world of website builders, known for its user-friendly drag-and-drop editor. However, since it was acquired by Square, the platform has felt neglected and has fallen far behind its competitors.

The templates look dated, and the feature set is very limited compared to more modern alternatives. It feels like Weebly is stuck in the past, with very few updates or improvements being made. If you're looking to build a professional-looking website in 2025, there are much better options available. Forget to compare it to new Website Builders like Lovable (check out video), they are too outdated for that.

For a more modern and flexible website builder, I would recommend checking out Wix or Squarespace – compare them here. If you're looking for an affordable option, then Hostinger Website Builder can be what you are after. And you can always use an AI App Builder like Lovable or Bolt to create your website.

🛠️ Alternative to Weebly: Wix, Squarespace, Hostinger Website Builder

✨ Totally Off-Topic… But Brilliant

If you're like me and constantly need to find logos and brand assets for your projects, then you're going to love Brandfetch. It's a simple but incredibly useful tool that lets you instantly find the logo, colors, and fonts for almost any brand.

No more endless Google image searches or digging through a company's website to find their press kit. With Brandfetch, you just type in the company's name and you get all their brand assets in one place. It has saved me so much time and frustration.

I use it all the time when I'm working on presentations, creating social media posts, or YouTube thumbnails – after all, I review tools. It has made my workflow a tiny bit more efficient and has cut down on a lot of interruptions.

🛠️ Alternative to: Google Images, digging through websites

👉 Visit: brandfetch.com

💰 $99 a month | Free plan available

⚡This Week’s Productivity Hack

In an age of increasingly sophisticated online scams, your AI assistant can be a powerful ally. Before you send money or make a payment you’re not 100% sure about, you can use an LLM like Perplexity (which is great for research) or ChatGPT to check for red flags.

Here are a few ways you can use this method:

• Phishing emails: Copy and paste the text of a suspicious email and ask the AI to analyze it for signs of phishing.
• Suspicious links: Share a link and ask if the URL looks legitimate.
• Unfamiliar websites: Ask for a summary of a website’s reputation before you make a purchase.

I’ve found that using Perplexity's Comet browser has made it easier than ever to spot fishy emails and links as the LLM has access to my browser. Check out the example above, where I asked if an email was shady or not.

Of course, AI is just a helpful tool. Always use your own common sense and double-check anything that seems even slightly suspicious.

🍿 Plot Twist of the Week

A while ago, the developer behind two super popular open-source projects ('colors' and 'faker') decided to pull the plug. Yes, intentionally breaking his own projects.

Why?

He was fed up with big companies using his work for free without giving anything back.

This whole thing really shook the open-source world. It’s a reminder that, while open-source tools are amazing, they also come with risks. One day, a developer could decide they’ve had enough, and suddenly, your tech stack is down.

It’s like building your house on someone else’s land.

The project, as far as I know, was forked and is now maintained by a new team. The whole situation highlighted how important it is to support the creators of open-source tools.

Lesson learned: Be smart about the open-source tools you rely on, and always have a backup ready, just in case!

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading! Next time, we’ll be diving into the world of MCPs. What are they? You'll have to wait and see, but I promise it will be magical but also a little bit frightening.

Cheers,

Josep

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