The Crown Suite — Building My Own Tools

It started with a simple German learning app. My wife Mariana and I decided to learn German together, and while there’s no shortage of language apps out there, none of them did exactly what I wanted. I needed spaced repetition with my own word lists, AI-powered tutoring for conversation practice, and a way to track our progress together. So I built CrownDeutsch. It was supposed to be a weekend project.

That “weekend project” took a few weeks and taught me more about React Native and Expo than any tutorial could. But more importantly, it planted a seed: if I can build exactly the tool I need for language learning, why not do the same for everything else? That question led to CrownTrack, a project management tool tailored to how I actually work. Then CrownLibrary for organizing my reading. Then CrownNotes for quick thoughts. Each one started as a personal itch and grew into something genuinely useful.

The tech stack is deliberately consistent across all of them. React for the frontend, Node.js for backends that need one, and everything hosted on Coolify running on a mini PC in my apartment. I’m a big believer in self-hosting — not because cloud services are bad, but because running your own infrastructure teaches you things you can’t learn any other way. When something breaks at 2 AM, you understand your stack at a level no dashboard can give you.

The philosophy behind the Crown suite is simple: the best tools are the ones built for your actual workflow, not for some hypothetical average user. Commercial software has to serve millions of people, which means it can never be perfect for anyone in particular. When you build your own tools, every feature exists because you needed it. There’s no bloat, no upsell, no features you’ll never touch. It’s software that fits like a glove.

Where is it going? I’m not trying to build a startup or get users. These are my tools, built for my life. But I’m open-sourcing the ones that might help others, and I’ll be writing about the patterns and decisions behind each one. If you’ve ever thought about building your own tools instead of adapting to someone else’s, I hope these posts give you the push to start.