DEV Community: Linanxi12

20 free dev tools — which ones actually got used last week

Linanxi12 — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:33:13 +0000

hit 20 tools on my free dev tools site today so figured i'd share what actually got used last week. some of the data surprised me.

here's the quick rundown:

most used tools (by page views):

JSON Formatter — no surprise, it's on the homepage now
Regex Tester — the preset pattern library got a lot of clicks, especially the email regex
JWT Decoder — way more usage than i expected, guess everyone's debugging tokens
Mock Data Generator — new addition, people seem to like the API response format

least used (barely touched):

Password Generator
HTML Entity Encoder
UUID Generator

takeaway: the "boring" tools (JSON, regex) carry the site. the generators are nice-to-haves but nobody comes just for them.

i also added an inline JSON formatter right on the homepage — paste and format without clicking through. honestly should've done that from day one. session time went from 14s to around 40s after that change.

site's at https://quickdev.cc if anyone wants to look. still figuring this out as i go — if you run a tools site or have opinions on which tools to add next, i'm all ears.

also: the amount of sites that send your JSON payload to their server for "formatting" is wild. everything on this runs client-side, your data never leaves your browser.

I Built an AI Tools Comparison Site with a Transparent Scoring Framework

Linanxi12 — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:58:12 +0000

Every AI tool comparison I found was either a sponsored listicle or surface-level fluff. So I built something different.

aitools-hub.xyz

What Makes It Different

1. Public Scoring Framework

Each comparison uses 3 weighted dimensions totaling 100%. Weights are documented and adjustable per article with rationale.

Coding: Code Generation 35% / Context Understanding 35% / Debugging 30%

Image: Photorealism 40% / Prompt Adherence 35% / Artistic Style 25%

2. Consistent Structure

Every article: TL;DR -> Weighted Scores -> 3 Scenario Tests -> Detailed Comparison -> Pros & Cons -> Final Recommendation

3. All Data Sources Cited

Public benchmarks, community consensus, official docs. No fake numbers.

Current Comparisons (5 Live)

Coding Assistants

Cursor vs Copilot — 9.1 vs 7.6: Cursor wins on context, Copilot on ecosystem
Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-4o — 9.2 vs 8.3: Claude writes better code, GPT-4o is cheaper on API
Copilot vs Codeium — 8.0 vs 7.3: Copilot is better, Codeium is free and close

Image Generators

Midjourney v7 vs DALL-E 3 — 8.8 vs 8.3: Midjourney for beauty, DALL-E for accuracy
SD3 vs Midjourney — 8.2 vs 8.7: SD3 for control, Midjourney for ease

Tech Stack

Hugo static site generator + PaperMod theme
GitHub Pages for hosting
GitHub Actions for auto-deploy on push
Custom CSS for comparison tables and mobile-responsive layouts

Total monthly cost: $0 (domain is about $1/year for .xyz)

What I Learned

Weighted scoring forces honesty. When your formula is public, you cannot fudge numbers.
Readers value structure. Consistent format means less orientation time.
Community data beats solo testing. Citing public benchmarks is more credible than claiming you ran 100 hours of tests.
Hugo is underrated for content sites. Zero JS, instant loads, RSS built-in, deploys in 30 seconds.

Feedback Welcome

What other tool pairs should I compare?
Is the weighted scoring helpful or over-engineered?
Would you trust comparisons based on public benchmarks?

Site: https://aitools-hub.xyz
GitHub: https://github.com/Linanxi12/aitoolscompare

Hit 19 tools on my little side project today. Thought I'd share what's new and how things are going since the original post.

Linanxi12 — Sun, 31 May 2026 15:58:42 +0000

So last week I posted about my collection of free client-side dev tools (18 at the time). Got some really nice feedback and a few feature ideas from the comments (thanks btw!).

My biggest addition this week: an EXIF metadata viewer/remover. Honestly started as a "oh crap" moment — I was looking at some old photos and realized every single one had GPS coordinates, camera serial number, and a bunch of other stuff baked right into the file. Stuff I definitely wouldn't want to accidentally leak when sharing photos online.

The tool shows you everything your photo is hiding and then lets you download a clean copy. All client-side, same as the rest of the tools.

Also added a bunch of other things since last time: JWT decoder, SQL formatter, cron expression parser, QR generator, CSV↔JSON converter, code minifier, HTTP status code reference, and an HTML entity encoder.

Take a look if you want: https://quickdev.cc

Honest update on the business side: still figuring out the monetization piece (leaning toward AdSense once traffic hits a reasonable number), but the feedback loop has been awesome — real users telling me what they actually need has been way more valuable than any planning.

If you've got ideas for tool #20, I'm all ears.

I Built 13 Free Developer Tools I Built 13 Free Developer Tools That Run 100% in Your Browser

Linanxi12 — Sat, 30 May 2026 11:36:31 +0000

I Built 13 Free Developer Tools That Run 100% in Your Browser (No Signup, No Tracking)

I got tired of Googling "JSON formatter" and landing on ad-infested sites that required signups or sent my data to who-knows-where. So I built my own.

quickdev.cc — 13 developer tools, all running locally in your browser.

What's Included

Tool	Why You Need It
JSON Formatter	Format, validate, and minify JSON — with tree view
Base64 Encoder	Encode/decode text and files instantly
JWT Decoder	Inspect JWT header & payload, check expiry
Regex Tester	Real-time regex matching with group capture
SQL Formatter	Beautify SQL queries (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite)
QR Code Generator	Create QR codes for URLs, text, WiFi
Diff Checker	Line-by-line text comparison
Markdown Preview	Write and preview Markdown in real time
Color Converter	Convert between HEX, RGB, HSL
Timestamp Converter	Unix timestamp ↔ human-readable date
UUID Generator	Generate UUID v4 in bulk
URL Encoder	URL-encode/decode strings
Password Generator	Cryptographically random passwords

Why I Built This

Three principles drove every decision:

Client-side only — Your data never leaves your browser. Period.
No signup — Open the page, use the tool, done. Zero friction.
Fast & clean — Dark theme, no distractions, loads instantly.

I didn't want another bloated SaaS. I wanted something that feels like a VS Code extension — there when you need it, invisible when you don't.

Tech Stack (Spoiler: It's Simple)

Pure HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript
Zero frameworks. Zero build step.
CDN for Markdown parser and QR library
Hosted on GitHub Pages (free, fast, global CDN)
Custom domain via Cloudflare

The entire site is static. No server means no server costs, no data breaches, no privacy policy nightmares.

What I Learned

Simple tools win. JSON formatter took 50 lines of code and gets the most usage.
Client-side is a feature. "Your data never leaves your browser" is a surprisingly powerful trust signal.
AI search is the new SEO. ChatGPT/Claude are already sending traffic to browser-based tools because they're safe to recommend.
Shipping beats perfection. The first version had 5 tools. Now it has 13. Each addition compounds traffic.

What's Next

I'm adding more tools based on what people actually use. If you have a tool you'd like to see, drop a comment.

Try it: https://quickdev.cc
(Note: custom domain is propagating — currently live at https://linanxi12.github.io/devbox-tools/)

All feedback welcome — especially bug reports and feature requests.