GT Performance
Free plugin
GT Performance is a free, open source WordPress performance plugin with commerce-safe page caching, Cloudflare Free integration, server-side unused CSS, asset CDN delivery, Redis,…
Everything I use to build, write and ship
Gaurav Tiwari’s toolbox: the Macs, apps, AI tools, WordPress plugins and servers behind my websites, books and client work. 18 of the tools are WordPress plugins I built myself, and the rest are what I pay for or rely on every day.
Tools I’ve built
The tools I trust most are the ones I wrote myself. When one of them breaks on my sites, I find out first, and that keeps the quality honest.
GT Link Manager
Free plugin
GT Link Manager is a WordPress plugin for managing affiliate links, redirects, and URL tracking from a centralized dashboard. It handles link cloaking, click…
Core Forms
Paid plugin
Core Forms is a WordPress form plugin built for performance and simplicity. It creates contact forms, registration forms, and surveys with minimal overhead and…
GT Extensions for FluentCart
Paid plugin
Extend FluentCart with local pricing, invoices, quotes, checkout designs and customer tools. Enable only the modules your store needs.
GT DeepSeek for AI
Free plugin
Use DeepSeek V4 inside the WordPress AI Client with reasoning, tools, JSON Schema, web search, seven editorial abilities, and honest context-assisted ALT text.
Alpha Chat
Free plugin
Alpha Chat is an open-source AI chatbot for WordPress with RAG, MySQL vector storage, source cards, and a Shadow DOM widget.
Functionalities
Free plugin
Functionalities is a collection of WordPress utilities and tools designed to extend core WordPress capabilities without bloated plugins. From custom post type registration and…
GT Page Blocks Builder
Free plugin
Build WordPress pages, portfolios, calculators and interactive sections with visual blocks or your own HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Page Blocks Builder is free.
Dynamic Month & Year into Posts
Free plugin
Tired of manually updating years in your WordPress posts? This free plugin automatically inserts the current month and year anywhere you need it. Write…
Beautiful Recent Posts Widget
Free plugin
Show recent posts with thumbnails in a native block, classic widget or shortcode. Free, lightweight and rebuilt for current WordPress and PHP.
Core Approvals
Paid plugin
Private request and review workflows for WordPress. $99 lifetime on unlimited sites, or free for Core Forms users who request a coupon code.
Core Bookings
Paid plugin
Appointment and group scheduling for WordPress, with service pages, staff availability, customer self-service, and booking migrations.
Core Support
Paid plugin
Core Support is a WordPress helpdesk with an agent inbox, a customer portal, and configurable email replies. Beta access costs $199 once for a…
Core Tables
Paid plugin
Core Tables beta: reusable WordPress tables and charts, Google Sheets refresh, CSV and HTML imports, and draft publishing. $99 once for unlimited sites with…
Formatting Extender
Free plugin
Apply CSS classes to selected text or whole blocks in the WordPress Block Editor, with theme-provided suggestions, badges and highlights.
GT ACF Blocks Plugin
Free plugin
GT ACF Blocks Plugin adds 29 production-ready blocks to the WordPress editor with automatic field registration, conditional assets, performance controls, and protected lifetime updates.…
MailerHive
Free plugin
Beehiiv- and Ghost-style newsletter publishing for WordPress and MailerPress: a public issue archive, clean reading pages, and one-click email drafts.
Site Agent
Free plugin
A free WordPress MCP plugin that connects your AI client to your site, with 18 tools, skills for five page builders, Bricks abilities, staged…
Themes: 7 WordPress themes for writers, stores, studios and service businesses.
Free tools and templates: UPSC preparation tools, templates for agencies, freelancers, businesses and SEO, and the Blog Rankings directory.
How the stack fits together
Every tool on this page sits somewhere on one line: an idea goes in at one end, and a live, measured page comes out at the other.
Write
Typora finishes the drafts, Craft builds client documents, Bear and Obsidian hold the notes, and Raycast Quick Fix proofreads.
Produces Drafts, briefs and books
Build
Claude Code and Codex do the heavy lifting inside Zed, Sublime Text or T3 Code, and every repo ends up on GitHub.
Produces Plugins, themes and pages like this one
Ship
FluentCart sells, Core Forms collects, GT Link Manager tracks every /go/ link, and Rank Math and Semrush handle search.
Produces Products, sign-ups and tracked links
Run
A Hostinger VPS through xCloud, Cloudflare and R2 at the edge, GT Performance caching, and Rybbit counting.
Produces Fast pages and first-party analytics
What Rybbit shows me about the live page decides what I write and fix next.
Hardware I use every day
Three Macs, one 4K monitor and the Apple gear around them.
MacBook Pro (M5 Pro)
16-inch, 24 GB memory, 1 TB SSD
My primary laptop for heavier development, virtual machines and creative work. It runs the same app stack as my other two Macs.
Mac mini (M4)
24 GB memory, 512 GB SSD
My main production machine. It shares one 4K USB-C monitor with both laptops, so switching Macs is a cable swap.
MacBook Air (M5)
Portable workhorse
The Mac I carry. A doc I start on the Mac mini often gets finished on the Air.
LG UltraFine 27UP850N-W
27-inch 4K, USB-C
The one 4K USB-C monitor all three Macs plug into.
iPhone 16 Plus
Mirrored on the Mac with iPhone Mirroring while I work, and my webcam for calls through Camo Studio.
iPad Air
The tablet in the setup, paired with the Apple Pencil and the Magic Keyboard case.
Apple Pencil
2nd generation
The stylus for the iPad Air.
Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad
The keyboard case for the iPad.
AirPods Pro 3
PlayStation 5
Xbox Series S
AI tools I pay for
The agents and subscriptions most of my building and writing runs through.
Claude Code
My pick for coding: the claude CLI, the Code tab in the Claude desktop app, and the integrations inside Zed and T3 Code. My skills library runs through it every day.
Claude Max (5x)
$100 a month
Powers Claude Code and the full writing system I run through Claude, with skills for articles, reviews, newsletters and SEO.
Codex
I hand it a live WordPress page or an unfinished project, and it keeps the existing content, design rules and definition of done in view.
ChatGPT Plus
$20 a month
GPT-5.6 Sol gets what I'm trying to do, not just what I typed.
SuperGrok
Includes Grok Build, xAI's coding agent for the terminal, which I run in Zed or T3 Code.
Code editors and developer tools
Editors, terminals and the small utilities that keep plugin work moving.
Zed
Once an agent does most of the typing, the editor's job is to open fast and show me the diff. Zed does that with far less weight.
Sublime Text
Still the fastest thing on my Mac for huge files and quick scratch edits, with Claude Code in a terminal beside it.
T3 Code
For the days I want several agents, like Claude Code and Codex, side by side in one window.
GitHub
Where every plugin and theme repository lives.
Ghostty
I used to open Terminal only when I had to. Ghostty is the terminal I actually want to look at.
SnippetsLab
Where my reusable code lives. It's free.
ForkLift
My FTP and SFTP app of choice. I used FileZilla for years before switching.
FileZilla
The old reliable. ForkLift is my go-to, but FileZilla stays installed.
SnailSVN
Subversion from Finder for WordPress.org plugin releases. Yes, I use Git too.
Local and Studio by WordPress.com
Local WordPress development before anything touches a staging server.
KaTeX
Self-hosted and optimized for the math rendering on my sites.
Languages I work in: PHP, JavaScript and Python, learning Rust now. Markup: Markdown, HTML, CSS, LaTeX and MathML.
Design and screenshot tools
Graphics, captures and the apps that get images onto the site in good shape.
Pixelmator Pro
Through Apple Creator Studio, $129 a year
My quickest Mac-native photo editor. The annual Creator Studio plan also puts Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro on my Macs.
Affinity
For deeper design work, when Pixelmator Pro isn't enough.
CleanShot X
The screenshot app on all three of my Macs: capture, annotate with arrows and blur, record and trim the screen.
Clop Pro
Compresses every screenshot, copied image and dragged PDF before it reaches the WordPress media library, without me touching anything.
Dropover
A drag-and-drop shelf: grab a few files, switch apps, and drop them where I actually need them.
Writing and productivity apps
Where drafts, notes, client documents and tasks live.
Typora
The app I open more than any other after my browser. Nearly everything I publish is finished in it.
Craft
When the document is the deliverable, like a proposal or content brief a client reads in a browser, I build it in Craft.
Bear
Holds the notes everything starts from.
iA Writer
Stays installed for pieces where I want fewer distractions and just need the next 800 words.
Obsidian
My research vaults still run on it.
Things 3
Runs my personal system. If I could keep only one productivity app on my Mac, it would be Things.
Todoist Pro
Runs everything outside my personal system, including client work that arrives as files.
Raycast
Premium plan
Quick Fix proofreads any selected text in place, and hotkeys launch Typora templates, run WordPress dev scripts and open projects in ForkLift or Zed.
ClipBook
Keeps the code, URLs, colors, client feedback and files I copy all day in a searchable history. It replaced PastePal for its better interface.
Brave
My browser, and the most-opened app on my Macs.
Google Docs and Chat
For documents my team creates.
WordPress theme, plugins and SEO tools
What runs gauravtiwari.org, next to my own plugins listed above.
Marketers Delight
My active theme, with a custom child theme on top. It handles about 90% of my layouts.
GenerateBlocks Premium
The tool I reach for by default for anything that isn't normal content.
Rank Math SEO Pro
My default SEO plugin since 2018. Better than Yoast. Better than anything else.
FluentCart
Runs my shop. Its gaps were real enough that I built GT Extensions for FluentCart to close them.
Perfmatters
Script management on this site for years, now paired with my own GT Performance for caching.
Advanced Custom Fields Pro
When core blocks and GenerateBlocks don't cover a use case, I build ACF blocks with the Block v3 API.
Semrush
The first tab I open on a new SEO job, and has been since 2018.
Rybbit
Self-hosted analytics on every site I run, loaded as one deferred script.
Hosting and infrastructure
The servers, panel and edge network in front of my sites.
Hostinger VPS (KVM 4)
My primary sites run on it, managed through xCloud. If you own your server decisions, it's the stack I'd copy first.
xCloud
Handles all the server configuration. I moved 15 sites across two servers in a weekend without losing any data.
Hetzner
A cheap VPS for secondary sites, alongside RackNerd.
RackNerd
Budget VPS for secondary projects and staging. I don't recommend it for agency sites.
Cloudflare
DNS and edge cache in front of gauravtiwari.org.
Cloudflare R2
Every image on this site comes from r2.gauravtiwari.org, through a Worker and two mu-plugins I built.
Some links on this page are affiliate links, including the Amazon links. If you buy through one, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Full disclosure.
Questions about my toolbox
Want to know why I picked one tool over another? Ask me and name the tool.
What computer does Gaurav Tiwari use?
Three Macs: a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro chip (24 GB memory, 1 TB SSD), a Mac mini with the M4 (24 GB, 512 GB) and a MacBook Air with the M5. All three share one LG 27-inch 4K USB-C monitor.
Which Mac is your main machine?
The Mac mini M4 is my main production machine. The MacBook Pro is my primary laptop for heavier development, virtual machines and creative work, and the MacBook Air is the one I carry.
Which code editor do you use?
Claude Code with a fast editor: Zed or Sublime Text, or T3 Code when I want several agents side by side. I used Cursor for a couple of years, but it’s no longer installed.
Which AI tools do you pay for?
Claude Max (5x) at $100 a month, ChatGPT Plus at $20 a month, which includes Codex, and SuperGrok, which includes Grok Build.
What do you write in?
Typora finishes nearly everything I publish. Craft builds the documents clients read, Bear holds my notes, Obsidian runs my research vaults, and iA Writer comes out when I need fewer distractions.
How do you manage tasks?
Things 3 runs my personal system and Todoist Pro runs everything else, including client work. Raycast ties it together with hotkeys and Quick Fix proofreading.
Which WordPress theme, plugins and SEO tools run this site?
Marketers Delight, GenerateBlocks Premium, Rank Math SEO Pro, FluentCart, Perfmatters, Advanced Custom Fields Pro, Semrush and Rybbit, plus my own GT Performance, Core Forms and GT Link Manager.
What hosting do you use?
My primary sites run on a Hostinger VPS (KVM 4) managed through xCloud. Secondary sites and staging run on Hetzner and RackNerd. Cloudflare sits in front for DNS and caching, and Cloudflare R2 serves every image.
What analytics do you use?
Self-hosted Rybbit on every site I run, loaded as one deferred script. Semrush covers the search side.
Which tools have you built?
18 WordPress plugins and 7 themes, all listed in Tools I’ve built. 9 of the plugins run on my own sites right now, including GT Performance, GT Link Manager and Core Forms.
Can I copy this setup for my own WordPress site?
Yes. Start with the hosting and WordPress sections: a Hostinger VPS with xCloud, GenerateBlocks, Rank Math and my free GT Performance plugin cover most of what a fast site needs. If you’d rather not set it up yourself, my services page is linked below.
Are these affiliate links?
Some are. The Amazon hardware links and the links to CleanShot X, Todoist Pro, Raycast, Marketers Delight, GenerateBlocks Premium, Rank Math SEO Pro, FluentCart, Perfmatters, Semrush, Hostinger VPS (KVM 4), xCloud and RackNerd can pay me a commission at no extra cost to you. Everything else links to my own articles or the official site. Full disclosure.
Want this stack working on your site?
I build, speed up and fix WordPress sites with the same tools listed here.
Questions about a specific tool? Contact me.