I got tired of switching between dev tools… so I built my own

I got tired of switching between dev tools… so I built my own

As a developer, I kept running into the same small frustration over and over again.

Format some JSON → open a site
Decode a Base64 string → another site
Generate a UUID → another tab
Test a cron expression → yet another tool

It sounds trivial, but it adds up. Context switching kills flow.

So I decided to build my own collection of developer tools — all in one place.

The idea

I wanted something:

• Fast
• Minimal
• No login
• No distractions
• And most importantly: privacy-first

So I built 👉 https://devtools.cl

What makes it different?

Most online tools send your data to a server.

Mine don’t.

Everything runs locally in your browser.

That means:

• Your JSON never leaves your machine
• Your tokens are never stored
• Your data stays yours

This was especially important for things like:

• JWT debugging
• JSON formatting
• Hash generation

Built with Next.js (and keeping it simple)

The whole project is built with Next.js and deployed on Vercel.

One key decision I made early:

👉 Keep everything client-side

No backend. No database. No API calls.

Just pure frontend tools doing one thing well.

Here’s a simplified example of the JSON formatter logic:

const format = () => {
  try {
    const parsed = JSON.parse(input)
    setOutput(JSON.stringify(parsed, null, 2))
  } catch {
    setOutput("Invalid JSON")
  }
}

Simple, fast, and reliable.

Current tools

So far I’ve built tools like:

• JSON Formatter & Validator
• Base64 Encoder / Decoder
• JWT Debugger
• Password Generator
• UUID Generator
• SQL Formatter
• URL Encoder / Decoder
• HTML Beautifier
• CSS Minifier
• Markdown Preview
• Cron Expression Editor
• SHA-256 Generator

And I’m adding more regularly.

What I learned

A few takeaways from building this:

• Small tools are surprisingly useful
• Performance matters more than features
• Developers really value privacy (more than I expected)
• Shipping fast beats overthinking

What’s next

I’m currently working on:

• Improving SEO (so people can actually find it 😅)
• Adding more niche tools
• Writing short guides for each tool

Would love your feedback

If you have ideas for tools I should add, I’m all ears.

Or if something feels off, slow, or missing — tell me.

👉 https://devtools.cl

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Thanks for reading 🙌