When I first built AllInOneTools, I made a simple decision:
Add more categories → help users find tools faster.
So I kept adding.
Image tools
PDF tools
SEO tools
Converters
Calculators
Security tools
Social tools
Eventually…
I had 12 categories on the homepage.
At first, it felt complete.
But then I started questioning something:
Does more categories help users…
or overwhelm them?
What users actually do
Most users don’t explore everything.
They scan.
They try to spot their category instantly.
If they see it → they click.
If they don’t → they hesitate.
And hesitation is dangerous.
The real trade-off
More categories means:
✔ Better coverage
✔ Easier tool discovery
But also:
❌ More cognitive load
❌ More visual complexity
At some point…
More becomes worse.
What I’m testing now
I’m experimenting with:
• Showing fewer categories
• Showing clearer categories
• Showing more tools inside each
Instead of just adding more sections.
Because clarity matters more than quantity.
Curious how others approach this:
How many categories do you think is ideal on a homepage?
• Less than 5?
• 5–10?
• 10+?
At what point does it become too much?
Top comments (7)
"7 items" ± 2, that is Miller's Law.
From "Don't Make Me Think" by Stephen Krug. Circa 7 is easy to recognize, handle, memorize.
(While 7 was the original limit, newer research and modern web usability often suggest that 3 to 5 items is a safer, more efficient range to reduce cognitive load further.)
That’s a great point. Miller’s Law explains a lot of what I’m seeing in real usage.
When I had 12 categories, users didn’t explore more — they just scanned harder. Now I’m testing fewer, clearer categories with better grouping, and it already feels easier to use.
Curious if you’ve seen better results with strict limits like 5, or flexible grouping works better in practice?
I'd say the limit isn't strictly 5, but "the minimum you can get." I would use a flexible approach, though I don't have any concrete data on this.
Great question. I went through this exact dilemma building a dev tools hub with 25+ tools.
What worked for me: 6 high-level categories (Security, Converter, Generator, Formatter, Calculator, Misc) + a search bar with keyboard shortcut (press
/to focus). This way power users skip categories entirely, and casual users scan 6 options instead of 25.The search bar was the real game-changer. Once I added it, category count stopped mattering as much — users who know what they want just type, and browsers get the visual grid.
One unexpected insight: filter tabs beat dropdown menus. Tabs show all options at once (zero clicks to discover), while dropdowns hide them. Reduced bounce noticeably.
So my answer: categories matter less than discoverability speed. Whether it's 6 or 12, if users can find their tool in under 3 seconds, you're fine.
That’s a really valuable insight — especially the point about search changing everything.
I’ve noticed the same pattern on AllInOneTools. Users who know their task don’t browse… they hunt. They want the fastest path, not the cleanest layout.
Right now I’m starting to realize categories help first-time users, but search helps returning users more.
Also completely agree on tabs vs dropdowns. Visibility reduces hesitation a lot.
Curious — did you place the search in the hero section or inside the tools area?
For me, the real answer came from watching users.
They don’t count categories.
They scan for their category.
If they find it instantly, the number doesn’t matter.
But if they need to search visually, even 6 categories feel like too many.
On AllInOneTools, I now focus less on “how many”
and more on “how fast users recognize their category.”
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