I built a free dev tools site after almost leaking my staging credentials into a "popular" online JWT decoder

Shoaib Shaikh — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 13:56:56 +0000

Was debugging a JWT token last month. Opened one of those popular online decoders, pasted my token — then checked the Network tab. POST request. My entire token (which included a staging database URL) was being sent to their server.

I looked for a client-side alternative and couldn't find one that had all the tools I needed. So I spent the last couple months building ApexApps.in.

It's 10 free dev tools that run entirely in your browser:

JSON Formatter (format / validate / minify)
JWT Decoder — completely offline
CSS Minifier
SQL Formatter
Base64 Encoder/Decoder
Regex Tester with live match highlighting
Cron Builder (visual + plain English explanation)
Color Tools (HEX/RGB/HSL + WCAG contrast checker)
Timestamp Converter
HTML Formatter with live preview

You can verify the privacy claim yourself: DevTools → Network tab → use any tool → zero POST requests.

Everything runs through the local V8 engine so it's also faster than server-based tools for large files.

Happy to answer questions about the architecture or what I'm planning to add next. What tools do you find yourself using daily that should be on the list?

[https://apexapps.in]

DEV Community: Shoaib Shaikh

I built a free dev tools site after almost leaking my staging credentials into a "popular" online JWT decoder