What Tools and Software Does Dan Koe Use? (His Full Stack)

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Dan Koe has built a rare kind of business: a multi-million-dollar, largely one-person content operation that runs on roughly two focused hours of writing a day. So a question a lot of his readers ask is — what's the actual software stack behind that? Below is a breakdown of the writing, capture, email, and productivity tools Dan uses, with cheaper alternatives where they exist. (Accurate as of mid-2026; creators change tools often, so treat this as a current snapshot.)

A note before the list: Dan is unusually clear that the tool is never the point. His entire philosophy is that consistent writing and original thinking matter far more than any app. So treat this as a window into how a focused creator operates, not a shopping list you need to copy to start.

Writing and idea capture

The most important tool in Dan's world is the one he co-founded. Kortex is a writing and second-brain app he built specifically for creators — a place to capture ideas, save highlights, and write content, designed to avoid the bloat he felt in other note apps. He's been open that Kortex is meant to replace the patchwork of tools many writers juggle, and that he's deliberately moved his own workflow toward it.

Before Kortex, Dan's core tool was Notion, which he used (and publicly recommended for years) to build writing dashboards, idea databases, and the templates that ship with his courses. He's since said he's migrating away from Notion toward Kortex for the actual writing, but Notion remains the tool most of his audience associates with his systems — and his courses still ship with Notion templates. Some writers in his orbit also use Obsidian as a second-brain alternative.

Email and newsletter

Want the system behind the stack? Get 80% of Dan Koe's 2 Hour Writer in a summary you can read in an afternoon. Summary of Dan Koe's 2 Hour Writer.

Dan's newsletter is the center of his business, reaching a very large audience every week. For email he uses Kit (formerly ConvertKit), the creator-focused email platform built around the principle of owning your audience rather than renting it from a social algorithm — a principle Dan preaches constantly. Kit is also one of the better tools to actually monetize a newsletter over time.

If you want the full system Dan teaches around that newsletter — the capture-to-publish workflow, not just the tools — you can get our full summary of his 2 Hour Writer here for the core system without the price tag.

AI and the rest of the stack

Dan uses AI as a writing assistant rather than a replacement — tools like ChatGPT for research, idea expansion, and breaking through blank-page resistance, always with his own perspective layered on top. (Kortex also bakes AI features directly into its writing workflow.) Beyond that, his stack is deliberately minimal: he's repeatedly said that owning fewer tools and writing more is the whole game.

How to copy his setup

The honest version of Dan's stack for someone starting out is almost embarrassingly simple: one place to write and capture ideas (Kortex, Notion, or even a plain notes app), one email platform to own your audience (Kit), and a daily writing habit. Everything else is optimization. As Dan would put it, the tools won't make you a writer — writing will.