@brendanmccue
Creator of AIPowerStacks. Independent researcher obsessed with small tools, LLM transparency, and practical coding with AI assistants.
Run everything locally. No API keys, no subscriptions, no data leaving your machine. Complete privacy.
Research faster than a team of analysts. Search, synthesize, cite, and organize knowledge from any source.
Everything a one-person business needs to compete with teams 10x their size. Writing, design, automation, and customer management powered by AI.
Create videos, thumbnails, voiceovers, and written content at scale. The complete creator workflow.
Ship apps from idea to production using AI. Describe what you want, get working code, deploy instantly.
This is my personal curation of tools that focus on extreme developer velocity. From agentic CLIs to smart model routing, this stack ensures I spend less time on boilerplate and more time on complex architecture.
Generate images, edit photos, create UI components, and design at the speed of thought.
"Migrated a 50k-line codebase from REST to tRPC. Claude Code understood the patterns, preserved the business logic, and caught three bugs in the original code along the way. Try that with Copilot."
Review for
Claude Code"the demo looks amazing. the actual output has broken state management, no error handling, and hardcoded values everywhere. tried to build something real and had to rewrite 80% of it"
Review for
Lovable"I discovered AVCLabs Video Blur AI while tinkering with video files in a weekend project, and it's made blurring a breeze ever since. No fluff, just raw power that nails batch processing for big jobs. It's super efficient for large-scale tasks, though I think I overcomplicated things on my first try. Short sentences pack a punch here, but let's flow into how it handles everything smoothly without bloating your workflow."
Review for
AVCLabs Video Blur AI"Memory across conversations changed the game. ChatGPT remembers my preferences, my projects, my writing style. It feels less like a tool and more like a colleague who actually pays attention. That stickiness is why nothing else has displaced it."
Review for
ChatGPT"the whole point of perplexity is cited sources right? clicked through to verify 4 citations and 2 of them didnt say what perplexity claimed they said. one was a completely different topic. hard pass"
Review for
Perplexity AI"I came across Listagrow AI while tinkering with some automation scripts in my last weekend project, hoping it'd streamline my data tasks. It's impressively fast for basic list management, which made me think it could be a solid helper for quick jobs, but I wasted two hours on authentication because the docs are seriously outdated. That was annoying, and I guess it might not bother everyone, but it soured the experience for me. All in all, it's decent if you're patient with setup, though I'd rate it a 3 out of 5 for now."
Review for
Listagrow AI"half my team has accents and fireflies butchers their contributions. the summary says things nobody said. we switched to manual notes for important meetings which is worse than not having the tool"
Review for
Fireflies.ai"I came across MiniMax M2.1 while tinkering with LLM tools during a weekend side project, and it caught my eye for its potential in simple setups. It's surprisingly fast, which made initial tests zip along without a hitch. But I spent two hours battling the authentication because the docs are outdated, and that was a real pain. Don't get me wrong, I might have missed something obvious, but it soured the whole thing. Overall, it's decent for speed but falls short on usability, landing at a solid 3 out of 5."
Review for
MiniMax"I came across AdsTurbo AI Ads while tinkering with ad scripts in a weekend project, thinking it might speed things up. It's blazingly fast once you're in, which makes it handy for quick tests. But I spent two hours on the authentication because the docs are outdated, and that was a real headache. I suppose it could vary, but it wasn't ideal for me. All in all, it's decent but not without issues, landing at a solid 3 out of 5."
Review for
AdsTurbo AI Ads"ever since the last update grammarly makes gmail take like 10 seconds to load every email. had to disable it. tried reinstalling, same problem. support said to clear cache which obviously didnt help"
Review for
Grammarly"I first stumbled on Gemini 3 while messing around with some LLM tweaks in a weekend project for Datasette. It's been fantastic for writing and tech tasks, handling long prompts smoothly and spitting out clear answers in a flash. I've leaned on it for coding help, quick research summaries, and even brainstorming sessions, and it's delivered every time without a hitch. It's faster than most I've tried, though maybe that's just how it gels with my setup. Overall, it's a reliable gem that earns a full 5 stars from me."
Review for
Gemini"generated about 20 songs and they all have the same structure. verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus. same drum patterns. different words same vibe. its a novelty not a tool"
Review for
Suno"Who knew editing audio could feel like rewriting a script? Descript's transcription is spot-on and saves tons of time, though it's not perfect for noisy clips."
Review for
Descript"That AI in Semrush One spots decent keywords but often feels basic."
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Semrush One"Surprisingly, Create Music AI's generated tunes are catchy yet often too predictable."
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Create Music AI"built a todo app as a test, looked great in the preview. deployed it and it crashed immediately. the error was in code bolt generated. spent 40 minutes debugging AI code which defeats the purpose"
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Bolt.new"maybe its my codebase but copilot suggests code that looks right and compiles but has subtle bugs. spent 2 hours debugging something that turned out to be a copilot suggestion i accepted without reading carefully enough"
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GitHub Copilot"they changed their pricing and now my workflow that was on the free tier costs 20/month. didnt even get a warning. just stopped working one day. moved everything to make.com in about an hour"
Review for
Zapier"pay 50/month for what is clearly just a gpt4 wrapper with templates. you can do the same thing with chatgpt for 20 or free. i feel dumb for paying for 3 months before realizing this"
Review for
Writesonic"notion was great as a notes app. the AI stuff feels like they just stapled chatgpt onto the sidebar and called it a feature. it doesnt understand my workspace context at all despite them claiming it does"
Review for
Notion AI"Who knew sending bulk WhatsApp messages was this effortlessly simple with Free WhatsApp Bulk Sender?"
Review for
Free WhatsApp Bulk Sender"I first tried Midjourney v7 when I was experimenting with AI image generation for a weekend project involving data visualizations. The renders are stunning, capturing intricate details and bringing prompts to life in ways that feel almost magical. It's quick and user-friendly, but I noticed some variations in output quality that made me double-check my settings. Still, for creative work, it delivers reliably. I've enjoyed tinkering with it, and overall, it's a solid choice for anyone wanting high-quality images without the hassle."
Review for
Midjourney"I discovered PXZ Video Generator while tinkering with video batches in a weekend project, and it quickly became my go-to for streamlining things. It's got no fluff, just raw power that makes batch processing a breeze for large-scale tasks. The way it handles data so efficiently surprised me, though I did have to adjust a setting once to get it perfect. Don't let the simplicity fool you, it's a rock-solid tool that nails what it sets out to do, and I've been impressed every step of the way."
Review for
PXZ Video Generator"tried the trial and yeah its fast. but 30 a month for email is genuinely absurd. gmail is free. the AI drafts were mid at best. if you have a normal email volume this is the definition of paying for vibes"
Review for
Superhuman"showed a heygen video to my team and the first comment was "why does that person look dead inside". the lip sync is technically impressive but something about the eyes is just off"
Review for
HeyGen"Last weekend, I was tinkering with presentation tools for a side project and decided to give Beautiful.ai a shot. It's impressively fast once you log in, but I spent two hours figuring out authentication because the docs are outdated. That was a real headache. I think the speed helps a bit, though it doesn't fix everything. All in all, it's decent for quick slides if you can navigate the rough edges."
Review for
Beautiful.ai"used composer to refactor one file and it edited 6 other files i didnt ask it to touch. had to git reset the whole thing. lost an hour of work. maybe im doing something wrong but thats a terrible default behavior"
Review for
Cursor Editor"It's kinda fun how Learn Place AI Assistant simplifies explanations, but it often leaves out the deeper details I need."
Review for
Learn Place AI Assistant"tried magic design for a presentation and it gave me the ugliest templates ive ever seen. spent more time fixing what it generated than if id just started from scratch. the non-AI templates are still fine tho"
Review for
CanvaTop Curator
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