DevOps
DevOps tools are for provisioning and running infrastructure — the kind of work every indie hacker eventually hits and would rather not build from scratch. 6 tools are listed here, each picked and written up individually rather than pulled from an affiliate feed. Ansible is usually the first one people try: agentless config management over plain SSH — playbooks read like English until you need a loop inside a loop. Docker takes a different angle — still the default way to package an app so it runs the same everywhere — the container format everyone else standardized on. And Helm is worth a look too: the package manager Kubernetes never shipped with — turns sprawling YAML into charts you can actually version and roll back. Every listing below includes the actual tradeoff, not marketing copy, so you can pick based on what you're building instead of what ranks highest in a sponsored roundup elsewhere.
Agentless config management over plain SSH — playbooks read like English until you need a loop inside a loop.
Still the default way to package an app so it runs the same everywhere — the container format everyone else standardized on.
The package manager Kubernetes never shipped with — turns sprawling YAML into charts you can actually version and roll back.
Runs most of the internet's containers, but respect the learning curve — nobody accidentally becomes good at YAML manifests.
IaC in real programming languages instead of a bespoke DSL — good if hand-writing HCL makes you twitchy.
The de facto IaC standard — declarative HCL and a provider ecosystem so broad you'll rarely hit something it can't provision.