our toolkit: software we believe in

We use, depend on, and love many of the same tools and services that we recommend and use for our customers' projects. This way, your organization will benefit from the untold hours we have put in evaluating, comparing, researching, learning and working with various applications and platforms.

We have evaluated not only features, but have also spent serious time getting to know the vendors or developer communities that create the tools listed here. No software title or web service is chosen based solely on a list of its capabilities. To qualify for our toolkit, and as a product we would recommend to you, the company or open-source community must also ...

... be responsive to feature requests, bug reports, and support requests

... maintain a thriving and helpful online community to keep its users well-informed and provide us with a space where we can "get to know each other" and share our experience and advice

... be more or less transparent in terms of plans for future versions, making Beta testing programs or previews available to partners, developers and affiliates, and

... have a proven track-record and a flourishing, growing (or at least stable) customer base, so that we can feel pretty secure they will be around for a good long while.

The companies and communities who develop the tools in our kit meet these criteria in varying degrees. While we love the tools and appreciate the companies that make them, in the same spirit of transparency that we hope for from our vendors, when discussing your project we will share with you our candid observations - not just our raves - about each product/company.