Using different tools in your editing pipeline is preferable if you can tie them together. Let me describe my editing process: I’m on Linux and I use custom scripts to perform some of the steps I think are better done outside DarkTable. I have a custom command line menu that provides me with shortcuts to my scripts. With these scripts I have automated many of the tedious steps in the image processing. Many of these functions can be done in DarkTable, but less well IMHO. Here is my menue:
‣ scripts/00_öppna_DarkTable.sh
scripts/01_minneskort.sh
scripts/02_mobilbilder.sh
scripts/03_bild-sortering.sh
scripts/04_importera_till_darktable.sh
scripts/05_kopiera_filmer.sh
scripts/06_krymp_bilder.sh
scripts/07_ladda_upp_filer.sh
scripts/08_autosortera_mappar.sh
scripts/09_MS_Windows.sh
scripts/10_Skicka_SMS.sh
scripts/11_antilock_darktable.sh
scripts/13_sc_600ppi_15x10.sh
Translation from Swedish:
S0: Opens Darktable
S1: Opens the images in my SD-card (if inserted) in Geeqie which I use for the first fast culling of the pictures taken. For each picture I want to take, I press ctrl-c and it is the copied to a “sorting folder” on my local disc.
S2: Opens pictures in Geeqie that have been uploaded from my wife’s or my own mobile phone to our NAS.
S3: Copies and renames the pictures in the sorting folder to my NAS according to the EXIF data and a title I give. Eg. DCM_0334.NEF is copied to “RAWs/2020-05-20 Week 35/Stroll in the woods - no01.NEF”
S4: Gives me a menu of the folders in my RAWs directory. The folder I choose will then be imported into DarkTable as a film roll.
S5: Copies videos uploaded from our mobile phones to my Plex library.
S6: I export my DT edits to full resolution, high quality JPEGs for archival. These are too large for comfortable viewing in Plex. So I have a script that makes a 1080p copy of every full size JPEG into a mirrored folder structure.
S7: Takes a backup copy of DT configs to my NAS.
S8: Copies all RAW files in my downloads directory to a “PlayRAW” folder on my NAS.
S9: Starts Win10 for when I want to use my photo printer.
S10: Sends a SMS to my son’s grandparents when I’ve uploaded new pictures of him to my Plex library.
S11: Removes DT’s pidfile when DT has crashed and refuses to restart. 
S13: A custom script for bulk scanning 10x15 cm photo prints I have stored from twenty years ago.