I Stopped Building More Tools and Started Building Better Ones (Toolora Journey)

Sunil Thapa — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 19:01:13 +0000

I Stopped Building More Tools and Started Building Better Ones (Toolora Journey)
A few days ago, I shared my side project Toolora, a collection of developer and everyday tools.
One piece of feedback completely changed my roadmap.
Instead of adding more tools, someone told me:
"Build one tool so good that developers actually bookmark it."
That made me rethink everything.
Over the last 2 days, I stopped adding new features and focused entirely on improving the existing experience.

🎯 What changed?
Better Product Structure
Previously, developers and everyday users were mixed together, which made navigation confusing.
I redesigned the experience by separating:

💻 Developer Tools
🏠 Everyday Tools

The goal was to make it obvious where users should go without thinking.

🚀 JSON Formatter Improvements
Instead of being "just another JSON formatter," I wanted it to feel more like a lightweight developer tool.
Here's what I added:

✅ Better syntax diagnostics
✅ Problems panel with actionable error messages
✅ JSON Tree Explorer
✅ Keyboard shortcuts
✅ Command Palette
✅ Structural analytics
✅ Improved validation experience
✅ Better overall UX

I also spent time fixing bugs and edge cases based on QA testing instead of immediately adding new features.

📝 Markdown Workspace
The old Markdown Preview felt too basic.
So I rebuilt it into a much more complete Markdown workspace with:

Live Preview
Better editing experience
Improved Markdown rendering
Export options
Better writing workflow

There's still more to improve, but it's already much closer to the experience I wanted.

What I Learned
The biggest lesson wasn't technical.
It was this:
Users don't remember how many tools you have.
They remember one tool that solved their problem really well.
That's now the direction I'm taking with Toolora.
Instead of building 100 average tools, I want every tool to feel polished enough that developers genuinely enjoy using it.

I'd Love Your Feedback
If you have a few minutes, I'd really appreciate an honest review.
What would you improve?
What features are missing?
What would make you bookmark it instead of using another tool?
🔗 Toolora: https://toolora.prologuelearn.com
Thanks for reading! 🚀

DEV Community: Sunil Thapa

I Stopped Building More Tools and Started Building Better Ones (Toolora Journey)