DEV Community: Pratham Aggarwal

how many days do I need to work

Pratham Aggarwal — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 10:20:07 +0000

As a developer, I deal with dates constantly. Sprints, deadlines, "net 30" payment terms. Last week, I needed to figure out the exact number of working days between two dates for a project estimate.

I Googled it. The top result took 4 seconds to load, asked for cookie consent, and then covered the actual calculator with a video ad. The second result required me to click "Calculate" three times because of a UI glitch.

The Solution I built a Time Tools stack as part of a new utility stack I'm working on. It’s a dedicated suite for time and date logic that respects your time.

What’s inside:

Business Day Calculator: Excludes weekends automatically. No mental gymnastics.
Work Hours Calculator: Perfect for freelancers calculating billable hours or checking overtime.
Age/Date Diff: precise down to the day, without the bloat.

Why I built it (and why it's better) The "Old Timers" in this space (the sites that have dominated SEO for 15 years) are stuck in 2005. They are server-heavy, ad-riddled, and often sell user data.

Zero Ads: I’m not trying to monetize your eyeballs while you’re trying to work.
Client-Side logic: It runs in your browser. It’s instant.
Clean UI: Coz why not.

I’d love for you to try it out and let me know if the UX feels faster to you.

A Mortgage and Affordability Calculator that doesn't want your email address

Pratham Aggarwal — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 09:57:36 +0000

Most financial calculators on the web aren't actually calculators; they are Lead Generation forms.

You want to know if you can afford that house or how to pay off your credit card? Great, just enter your salary, your debt, and... oh, please enter your email and phone number to see the results. Next thing you know, a loan officer is calling you at dinner.

The Project I’m building a finance stack that is purely mathematical, not transactional. It includes:

Affordability Calculator: A unified view of House, Rent, and Car budgets based on your actual debt-to-income ratio.
Mortgage & PITI: Breaks down the real monthly cost (Principal, Interest, Taxes, Insurance) without hiding the scary parts.
Debt Payoff: Strategies to clear credit cards faster.

Why use this?

Privacy First: No data leaves your browser. I don't want your data. I just want the math.
No "Apply Now" Buttons: I am not an affiliate farm.
Responsive: Works on mobile just as well as desktop, so you can check numbers while you're actually out looking at places.

This is the tool I wished I had when I was first looking at my finances. I hope it helps you too.

Why I Built a Serverless PDF Tool (Because I Don't Trust "The Cloud" With My Data)

Pratham Aggarwal — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 20:42:52 +0000

You know that feeling.

You need to merge a contract or rotate a scanned ID card, but you don't have Adobe Acrobat. You Google "free pdf merge," click the first result, and then pause.

"Am I really about to upload my passport copy to some random server?"

It always felt sketchy to me. I hated that I had to trade my privacy just to do a simple file operation. Once that file leaves my laptop, I have no idea where it goes or who sees it.

So I decided to build my own alternative.

I built Universal Converters with one strict rule: Zero Uploads.

Instead of the usual upload-process-download loop, I used WebAssembly (WASM). It basically lets the browser do the heavy lifting that a server usually does.

Why I think this is better:

It’s actually private: Your files never leave your device. You can literally load the page, turn off your Wi-Fi, and it still works.
It’s fast: Since there’s no uploading, big files are processed instantly.
No limits: I didn't add any arbitrary "Max 2 Files" or paywalls because... well, it’s using your CPU, not mine.

It started with just PDFs, but I ended up adding a bunch of other tools I use often, like converting HEIC images (iPhone photos) to PDF and some standard unit converters for engineering stuff.

The Tech Stack:

Next.js for the framework.
WebAssembly for the file processing.
Tailwind for making it look decent.

I’d love for you guys to test it out. Since everything runs client-side, I’m curious how it handles massive files on different machines.

Here is the link: https://www.universalconverters.net

Let me know if you find any bugs or if there are other privacy-focused tools you think I should add. Happy Judging me and Cheers!