I can't overstate this enough: if you want to start marketing automation and don't code like a boss, don't research, just get this. I spent 2 weeks researching trying to be cheap. This is the simplest possible tool to kick off and is your single required, core tool.
Once you really understand stuff, you can check out Drip, but just get this to start. This area is complex and this makes it simple. It's too simple once you get advanced, but bloggers who make $250k a MONTH still use it. It might seem expensive, but it's not. Mailchimp sucks. Hubspot is a rip off. Infusionsoft is for when you're bigger.
Just. Get. This. Now.

Do you know what landing pages are for? Whatevs, this goes to the top of your buy list for marketing automation 101. This single tool has saved marketers literally hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars per year. This is the basic tool to scale your startup, because it allows you to confidently roll out lead-generating campaigns in record time.
I hate the way the integration works with Convertkit (yes, you need both) as you have to press 'Done' each time... but otherwise it's the best around.

This is a great app you would not have thought or. It helps your spelling and grammar not suck. It highlights everything in web apps. I use it every time I write a blog. I'm dyslexic, so this helps. Just do it!

I know some people love Google Apps but I hate it. I love this! You can share with people but it's such a nifty desktop management system. I use it to write my blogs. I create lots of docs and store all my ideas. You should really check it out. It's been acquired by Salesforce, so hopefully they don't ruin it...

You want to be social... but there are so many apps you need to open! This enables you to integrate every app you can think of in one desktop app. You can just click through between FB, Twitter, Linkedin (Ha, they're dick heads of course not), Whatsapp and even business applications like Tawk.to. Highly recommend this free app.

Really, web hosting... you say?
Dude. Their customer care IS. THE. BOMB!
I was on Hostgator before and eh. I tried Siteground and my mind was blown. I'm on first name basis with some of their CS guys now. No joke. They go way out to help me make my site faster, editing htaccess files etc. I honestly couldn't imagine any host having more awesome CS.
I spent what $100 or something a year for this? I've done them in with about $1,000 of help. I don't know how that works, but these guys are amazing.
If you want budget hosting, this is it.

fiverr is a glorious place to get things done for $5 or more. From getting some cheap imagery to um, hacking stats on social media. There's no end to the cheap and hacking things you can accomplish here with imagination.

Organising meetings is a total pain. Just send the link and people can pick a time to chat. I use this for all my meetings.

Email marketing automation is the core of your stack. I recommended Convertkit as absolutely required for n00bies.
Once you understand flows, lead magnets etc, and can code a little, here is your go to. It's a lot more dev friendly and you can do more advanced things (Convertkit has a ceiling on the first floor). It's made by the dudes at Leadpages which I recommend strongly.

Accounting sucks, so get something that's less sucky. Rod the founder is in love with accounting. Any founder could reach out to him for coffee to nerd out for hours, so long as it was just about accounting (I know). He's that passionate and the product reflects it.

SEO is the bomb. Yeah, it's work but you HAVE to do it to lower your CAC. This is the simplest tool around to figure out what keywords you should be focusing on. I um, still don't really 'get' SEO so all the fancy tools are waaay to much work for me. This is simples...

Firstly, build your blog on Wordpress. Secondly, if you haven't stumped up a round of lager to buy a theme you're a moron. I was that moron before.
Paid themes allow you to look like a pro. As usual I researched a tonne on this. I've bought this theme 3x. There are others verrry similar, but this theme has a way better visual builder. I can't really code, so simple matters. None of the theme cos have great customer care and these guys aren't an exception, but it's the best I have found.

Dozens of the BIG names in online marketing have had huge success using this checkout page platform (That's how I know about it). Feedback is that it seamlessly integrates with almost any tool you might use and all the pieces of your funnel will play nicely together. I recently migrated from Gumroad to this. It's not super cheap ($99) but it is easy to set up. I was using Gumroad as a stopgap because I wanted out of EDD asap (A wordpress plugin) and it was easy to set up, but I don't like Gumroad. I'm currently reviewing using Clickfunnels as there is a lot more functionality for the same price. You do need to put in some work though.

You need a shopping cart. There are lot to pick from. Some seem super as the initial cost is low. The big difference with this is you can buy a lifetime licence for $495. You might say wtf, that's a lot, but if you are selling digital goods you'll be shocked what other providers will charge over time...

Do you do any content marketing? Use Buffer and share across networks? Some extra click throughs for free would be cool, right? This is a no brainer.
I've tracked these guys for a long time as looked at the seed round. The cost isn't much and it's basically free traffic. If you have a few bucks, this is totally worth adding to your marketing efforts.

FML if I have to explain this to you, but the key to minimising a receding hair line from hustle is staying organised. Dropbox is your data's home and how you share anything. You can start using this tool for free and upgrade as your library of digital assets grows. If you want to share large files with clients, this is your go to.

Talking to potential customers is not a bad thing. This is a hub for your customer interactions. Whack it up on your site and get yacking.

Finding your email and reaching out is a pain. Having on site chat makes it easy to reach out to you if potential customers want to. This is totally free. You can pay $9 per month to remove branding. There is a free desktop app and it integrates with Franz. You can see it on my site on the bottom right.

Leadpages is great, but if you’re working with a team and need a more advanced landing page solution, InstaPage is a go to. It's designed to be highly collaborative, and it’s your best option to help optimize your Facebook Ad spend. Use this when you want to level up to the big leagues.

FOMO is a key part of sales. Why not do the same thing automatically?
This let's you embed countdown timers in emails that are automatically synced with sales page timers on your site/leadpgaes to add urgency and get your buyers to take action, now! It's not cheap so get it when you are making some $ already.

This is a secret tip. It changes garbled ugly links like www.something.com/sdf234kj23b4k23j4b234kjb into wordpress-153384-440792.cloudwaysapps.com/prettylink. Neato. It doesn't make sense at start, but it will sink in. Also, with the recent change on Facebook, this is how you can control info that is shared with links... now you know!

Are you large and growing? Are you building a pro marketing stack? This is not cheap but it does a lot. If you're ickly little, then move on. But... if you're looking for bad ass functionality then this is where you go. There's a reason a lot of the big boys use this, but you need to be up there to really get the benefit of it.

It's lame, but everything starts with your domain. Crap. I actually basically wrote their tag line without thinking. Anyway. You need a domain...

It's the fastest growing startup ever. If you have a dev team, then you're using this already.
It's a communication tool that can eliminate the pain of emails. The coolest thing is integrations. Ask your devs, they know (and pretend you do too).

If you want more control over your video, Vimeo makes sense. Yes, Youtube is way better if you're looking for discovery, but there are a tonne of reasons why you will want this instead, um no ads and control over the video player for example?

You have heard of Youtube and Vimeo for video hosting, but probably not of Wistia. They offer pro features such as video security (no ads), data analytics and ability to add lead generation. If you want to get fancy with video, check this out. If you are poor, then I would just use Youtube, or perhaps step up to Vimeo. The free use only has 3 videos and the paid package gets pricey fast, but if video is important to you I know a lot of people that are using it.

This is a bit of a weird task management system but people love it. It's really versatile. It maps things out into columns and you drag and drop tasks to stages. Check it out if you haven't heard of it and see if you like it.

Zapier makes stuff work together when it doesn't normally do it! It's kinda cray cray what you can do. Almost anything can be 'zapped.' If you wish every time someone signed up to one system and the email would be added to another database, this does it. Check out what you can do...

I hate expenses, or basically anything boring. I've lost tens of thousands as I just could not be arsed to submit receipts... so I do the lazy thing. Any company I help, I bring in Expensify. It means I get paid. It means you won't have to spend dealing time with your staff bs admin. Highly recommended hack buddy

You need to have a social game and sharing links is a no brainer. I have 8 networks and this makes it easy for me to post on all of them with no stress! You can set how many posts to make a day and the time they are posted. 

I've tried... there is nothing cheaper and works like this. Edgar has some evergreen content posting, but its about $50 a month and so suited for large companies.

Skype sucks... My techy friends use Zoom. Yes, there is a paid version and if you use it with clients I recommend it. I remember the sales guy on the team of my last startup asked for it.

Join.me is fab to easily set up a conference room to chat. I'm currently using it with a client for his fundraise. It's not perfect, but you can easily invite people to it and build a room. Handy.

If you work with a lot of images, then you should be obsessed with compressing file size both for docs and websites. I use this daily. You just drag and drop and boom. Highly recommended if you are on a Mac.

Mixpanel is more targeted than Google Analytics and is an event-centric platform where tracking is not automated and is based on events. You can use it to track individual users, send messages to individual users, data in real time and create conversion funnels, do retention "cohort" analysis etc. It is not the cheapest solution, so start with GA and then move here.

Intercom is like Tawk.to and Livechat, but it does more stuff. It's also more expensive. If you have some cash to spend, then this is a fab product. There is a reason a lot of bigger companies use it.