Every "free online tool" I reached for wanted an upload, an account, or both. So I built 15 that need neither — and the constraint that made that possible turned out to be the best decision in the project: no backend at all.
Here's what runs where.
The browser can do more than we give it credit for
- Image work (HEIC→JPG, compress, resize, strip EXIF):
<canvas>+createImageBitmap, and WASM (heic2any) for formats the browser can't decode natively. - PDF split/merge:
pdf-lib, entirely client-side. - QR codes, password generation, JSON formatting, word counting: plain JS +
crypto.getRandomValuesandIntl.Segmenter.
Nothing touches a server. "Your files never leave your device" isn't a privacy promise you have to trust — it's just how the thing works. Open DevTools → Network and watch: no request fires when you convert a file.
Why no-backend is a superpower for a solo dev
- $0 to run. A zero-dependency static site generator emits plain HTML; Cloudflare Pages serves it free. 272 pages (15 tools × 16 languages + hub) cost nothing.
- Nothing to operate. No servers, no uploads to secure, no data to leak, no scaling. The whole "ops" surface is a git push.
- It's genuinely private, which is a real differentiator when every competitor uploads your file to "process" it.
The tradeoffs (being honest)
- No accounts, no cross-device sync, no server-side history. For utilities, that's fine — you do one thing and leave.
- Some formats (TIFF, exotic codecs) the browser just won't decode; you draw the line and say so.
- SEO is the whole growth engine, since there's no viral loop. That's the part I'm still figuring out.
If you're sitting on a "should this be a SaaS or just a tool" decision: a surprising amount can be just a tool, and shipping it that way is faster, cheaper, and more private.
Tools are here if useful: https://boring-tools-6ip.pages.dev — happy to go deeper on any part of the stack in the comments.
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