DEV Community

Cover image for 25+ Free Productivity Tools for Developers

25+ Free Productivity Tools for Developers

Creative Tim on February 21, 2020

Productivity tools seem to be very important nowadays. The Digital Era has exposed us to a multitude of distractions, therefore people feel the nee...
Collapse
 
olivier32621338 profile image
Olivier Chauvin

Haven't seen many of the ones you recommended before, but I'll be sure to give them a try.
To be honest, I find the free version of Asana and Trello to be quite limited. You need to pay a large fee in order to get the features you want, such as reminders...softwares like Quire or Zenkit are better when it comes to free features. Been sticking to these two apps lately, zenkit is a bit slow though.
What I look for in a productivity app :
• Clean interface: I prefer things to look clean and have clear navigations.
• Easy collaboration: The easier the better. A simple link that you can share with others.
• Kanban board
• Task Reminders
• Webpage+mobile app quick sync
• Free or low priced
Quire has all of the traits listed above, so I'm currently using them, but I'm open to more suggestions.

Collapse
 
mnatsuo20 profile image
mnatsuo20

I love Quire! Thanks for the recommendation.
They have this Gantt chart feature that is one of my favorites.

 
leob profile image
leob

Interesting theory, I think that's where the benefit of Scrum and so on are, but "light" please - the more 'light' the better. And just don't make teams too large, it's a recipe either for chaos or for an overdose of planning/comms/control.

 
leob profile image
leob • Edited

You're absolutely right ... lists lists lists, it's the new fad, or has been for a few years, and yeah it's gotta be 10 or 25 or whatever :-)

Sometimes I skim them (there might be hidden gems) but yes, give me a tutorial or another kind of "proper" article anytime.

But, my main point was that you don't always need these "productivity" tools, actually productivity might suffer. But, I'm mainly working as a solo dev, in a team setting these tools tend to be more beneficial.

Collapse
 
simonfrey profile image
Simon Frey

Shameless self-plug: Waywo a tool that asks you in regular intervals what you are working on. This helps with time tracking for your consultant customers:
waywo.simon-frey.eu/

Best if you already use Toggl, as it uses Toggl as backend

Collapse
 
leob profile image
leob

I agree, and I would go one step further:

If, in your particular situation, there is no pressing need for using these tools, then you will very likely be more productive by not using them. Learning, setting up, operating, "babysitting" these tools costs time, so if you can do without then you will save time that you can spend on the 'real' work.

But of course tools like Visual Studio (or another editor) are more or less a must, and in many situations some sort of bug tracking/project management is useful as well. I would just argue for "keep it simple" and lightweight.

Collapse
 
stevend27736018 profile image
Steven Dixon

Good stuff..! Surprisingly Restyaboard is missing in the list. I use Restyaboard to manage my business. It’s a productivity and management tool specifically built around a Kanban-style workflow. The All-in-one free tool for CRM, Project, Team, Time and Task Management.

Collapse
 
vaibhavkhulbe profile image
Vaibhav Khulbe

Nice list, but most of them are geared to a team in the office. Hands down, I feel Evernote is the king in nite-taking and nothing beats VS Code. 🙌

Collapse
 
m0rozov profile image
Andrey

Take a look at Workflowy!
It's the best productivity solution for me.

Collapse
 
mateiadrielrafael profile image
Matei Adriel

Discord is the best communication software for everything.
change my mind

Collapse
 
hpj1992 profile image
Harshit

That is a great list.

Someone new who is not using any one of these, choosing a right one for their needs will be fun.

Collapse
 
youssefmic profile image
Youssef-mic

I use Clockify and slack and I will consider boost note

Collapse
 
stan8086 profile image
Jose Rodríguez

I also create a list for myself on GitHub:

Awesome Productivity Tools

Collapse
 
andrejreimer profile image
andrejreimer

Looks to me more like 6 free productive tools...