I’ve been asked in the past for software recommendations. Almost all of these are standard.
My documents are almost always typeset in LaTeX. I use MiKTeX to compile the documents. MiKTeX is great, and free. I use beamer to generate presentations.
Before compiling documents, I use WinEdt to type them up. WinEdt works seamlessly with MiKTeX, and is a good all-round text editor. Its ability to select columns of text is often useful for coding. I think a student licence costs about $25.
I haven’t found a cloud storage system that’s better than Dropbox.
When dealing with data, I use Stata 90% of the time. In terms of getting Stata output into your document, the world owes a sincere debt of gratitude to Ben Jann for estout. Use estout to save your output as an external .tex file, and then \input{} it into your TeX code. It will automatically update the table the next time you compile.
Some things are easier done in R than in Stata. R is counter-intuitive for a lot of people. RStudio can make it easier. Both of these are free.
I use Mathematica to check any derivations for stray errors. It is from the same people who give us Wolfram Alpha. It can perform calculus/simplify symbolic algebra, so is a great tool for unwieldy models.
Rather than run loops in Stata, I often prefer to write loops in JavaScript that do the same thing. This is an idiosyncratic preference.
This blog runs on WordPress. It’s free. This website is hosted by Gandi, who I’ve had no problems with. I keep a track of who visits using the excellent (and free) StatCounter.com.