I built 100+ free browser tools (PDF, image, SEO, calculators) — here's what I learned

AFMEI — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 07:10:53 +0000

I'm a solo developer. Over the last months I've been building TinySEOTool — a free collection of 100+ online tools that run without signup.

What's inside
PDF tools: compress, merge, split, remove pages, image to PDF
Image tools: resize, compress to a target size in KB, convert formats
SEO tools: plagiarism checker, article rewriter, hashtag and YouTube tag generators
Calculators: age calculator, unit converter, pizza ingredient calculator

Most tools run in the browser, so your files don't have to be uploaded to a server.

3 things I learned

Specific beats generic. "Resize photo for a government job form" is a real search. "Image resizer" is a fight with giant sites. I now build narrow tool pages (exam photo, visa photo size) in addition to the general tools.
Every tool page needs real content. A tool alone is thin. I'm rewriting each page with an honest "About" section and a short FAQ based on what the tool actually does — no filler.
Don't load everything on the homepage. With 100+ tools, I show the 14 most popular per category and load the rest when someone opens that category. It keeps the page light as I add more.

What's next

More calculators and converters, plus better mobile speed (only ~29% of my sessions are mobile, which tells me I have work to do).

If you try it, I'd love to hear which tool is missing or broken: tinyseotool.com

What's the one small tool you wish existed? Drop it in the comments and I'll try to build it.

DEV Community: AFMEI

I built 100+ free browser tools (PDF, image, SEO, calculators) — here's what I learned