Hi there,
Michael Adegoke here.
I started my WordPress journey about 12 years ago and I have learned a lot along the way.
One of the major lessons I have learned is how to get the best with minimal or no cost.
I will list the tools I use on all my websites below, some of the links are affiliate links but I used every one of the items I mention here and I can guarantee they are the most affordable for the value they provide.
Hosting
I host all my sites with A2 Hosting after struggling with the inodes limitation of Siteground. A2 Hosting offers me the same quality Siteground will offer at a much more affordable price. I use the Drive plan which allows me to host an unlimited number of sites for just $143 annually. Trust me, I did a thorough search before I switched they are the best for the cheapest amount. I have a 99.9% uptime on all my sites at a very good speed. This site is currently monetized with Ezoic and that drops the speed of the site significantly.
Theme
I use the free version of GeneratePress on all my sites. It’s better used with the GenerateBlocks plugin.
The theme was built from scratch with speed in mind. It’s free from bloat, add just what you need.
Domain Name
I register my domains with Namecheap. Aside from being cheap, they offer free privacy protection which other Registrars charge for as an add-on service. They offer the cheapest service for a high value.
Calculator Plugin
I have a couple of Calculator websites aside from this. All the calculators on this site and those on my other sites are built with the Calculated Fields Forms plugin. There is a free version of the plugin which is versatile but I use the Developer Version because of the complexity of the calculations I need to do. Apart from being used for calculation, I use this plugin for my contact forms, and that eliminates spam messages 100% without using any captcha service.
Captcha services add to the load time of a site, with this plugin you can do without them. Check my contact page to see how I achieved that, the custom submit button I did was achievable because I used Calculated Fields Form plugin. You need the Professional Version of the plugin to send and receive mail, it costs 49.99 EUR for a lifetime on multiple sites.
Images
I use images from depositphotos.com
They have a vast collection of images at an affordable price.
These are the most important tools I use. As I find more important tools, I will update this page.