Meet Rae

Rae leads editorial at ChooseMyStack — testing tools, writing the buyer's guides and keeping the recommendations honest.

Rae Mercer writes the buyer's guides, comparisons and reviews at ChooseMyStack. The job is simple to describe and hard to do well: cut through the marketing, test how tools actually behave, and help readers pick the software that still fits a year from now.

Most of that work happens hands-on — setting up trials, running the same task across competing products, and reading the pricing pages nobody wants to read so you don't have to. The result is the head-to-head comparisons and category guides across the site, from email marketing platforms to AI coding tools.

Rae is especially interested in open-source and self-hosted alternatives, and in the pricing traps that quietly punish teams as they grow. Every recommendation is independent — ChooseMyStack takes no payment for rankings.

Areas of focus

Quick facts