DEV Community: Waqar Ahmed

I Built 45+ Free Tools on a Broken Laptop — Now I Need Help to Keep Goingbuildinpublic, webdev, javascript, indiedev

Waqar Ahmed — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:55:15 +0000

I Built 45+ Free Tools on a Broken Laptop — Now I Need Help to Keep Going

I'm writing this from a friend's phone.

My laptop died two days ago. The display is completely gone. It was the same laptop I built everything on — a low-spec machine with no GPU, an old HDD, and a 10-15 minute boot time.

I didn't stop. I built 45+ free browser tools on it. I started building a horror game. I kept going through every lag, every crash, every "why am I doing this?" moment.

And then the screen just... died.

What I Built

UniRecorder — 45+ free browser-based tools:

🎥 4K Screen Recorder with webcam overlay
📄 Image to PDF, PDF Merger, PDF Compressor, PDF to Image
🖼️ Image Compressor, Image Resizer
📝 Word Counter, Case Converter, Base64 Encoder
🧮 20+ Calculators and Unit Converters

Everything runs 100% in the browser. No server. No signup. No watermark. No data collection.

All built on a laptop that took 10-15 minutes just to boot up.

The Honest Part

I haven't earned anything yet.

AdSense rejected me — "Low Value Content."
Adsterra works, but Pakistan CPM is tiny.
I spent my own money on the domain and everything else.

I've earned $0 from this project.

And now my laptop is dead. The display is gone. Everything is paused.

Try the tools (they still work)**
👉 unirecorder.online

All 45+ tools are free. No signup. No watermark.

What I'm Working On Next

"Wood" — a 3D horror escape game in Godot 4.2 (releasing 2027)
More tools for UniRecorder
Getting back to work as soon as I have a machine

I'll find another machine. I'll keep building. Because the only real failure is stopping.

I'll be back with a new laptop soon. Until then, I'm writing from a friend's phone.

I Built 40+ Free Browser Tools Solo — Here's What 171 Users Taught Me About Building Without a Backend#webdev #javascript #showdev #buildinpublic

Waqar Ahmed — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 09:08:50 +0000

A few weeks ago, I launched UniRecorder — a collection of 40+ free browser-based tools including a screen recorder, PDF tools, image tools, and calculators.

I built it solo from Pakistan. No team. No funding. No backend.

Here's what happened next.

The Numbers (Real Data from Google Analytics)

171 active users
164 new users
567 events (clicks, tool usage, downloads)
Traffic from: Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan

My tools started ranking on Google — and users from countries I'd never targeted started finding them.

The Tech Stack (No Backend, No Frameworks)

Everything runs 100% in the browser:

Vanilla JavaScript — no React, no Vue, no build tools
MediaRecorder API — for screen recording
Canvas API — for image processing
jsPDF + pdf-lib — for PDF generation
IndexedDB — for local video storage
GitHub Pages — for hosting

No server. No database. No user accounts. No data collection.

The Problem I Was Solving

I got tired of tools that:

Add watermarks to your recordings
Limit you to 5 minutes
Charge $50/year for basic features
Upload your files to unknown servers

So I built my own. Then I kept building.

What 171 Users Taught Me

1. Tools rank faster than blog posts.

My most popular pages are tools, not articles:

Image to PDF — 35 users
PDF Merger — 33 users
Image Compressor — 25 users
Image Resizer — 13 users

Why? Because people search for "convert image to PDF" — they want a tool, not a tutorial.

2. International traffic comes automatically.

I never targeted Vietnam, Singapore, or Indonesia. But users from those countries found my tools because the need is universal — everyone needs to compress an image or merge a PDF.

3. Bounce rate is the real problem.

My bounce rate is 100% on every page. Users come, use the tool, and leave.

This is the next challenge: internal linking. I need to show users other tools they might need after they finish using one.

4. Local processing sells.

"Runs in your browser" isn't just a privacy feature — it's a performance feature. No upload time, no server queue, no waiting.

What I'm Building Next

Internal linking between tools (reduce bounce rate)
More blog posts (SEO + AdSense approval)
Indie horror game "Wood" (Godot 4.2, releasing 2027)

The Hard Part Nobody Talks About

I built this on a broken laptop with no GPU. It takes 10-15 minutes just to boot up.

But the real challenge isn't the hardware. It's the patience.

SEO takes months. AdSense rejects you. Users don't come for weeks. And you have to keep building anyway.

Try the Tools

👉 unirecorder.online

All 40+ tools are free. No signup. No watermark. No server.

If you're building something similar — or you have questions about the APIs — drop a comment. Happy to share more code.

Follow me here on DEV or connect on LinkedIn if you're interested in browser APIs, solo dev journeys, or indie game dev.

Scamadviser Says My Site Is a Scam — Here's Why That's Misleading#webdev #privacy #security #opensource

Waqar Ahmed — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:39:49 +0000

I built UniRecorder — a free browser-based screen recorder. Someone ran it through Scamadviser. Result: 34/100. "May be a scam."

I dug into why. Here's what I found.

What Scamadviser Actually Checks

Their algorithm flags:

New domain (under 12 months)
Low traffic
No Trustpilot reviews
WHOIS privacy

Then it gives a low score.

But here's what Scamadviser's own documentation says:

"None of these automatically mean the site is a scam."

So the score isn't proof. It's a statistical guess based on age and popularity.

Why UniRecorder Is Actually Safe

UniRecorder has:

No server — nothing to hack
No login — nothing to steal
No database — no data stored
No payment — nothing to charge

Everything runs in your browser using:

MediaRecorder API (screen capture)
Canvas API (images)
IndexedDB (local storage only)

My privacy policy says: "All processing happens locally. We never upload your videos."

That's not marketing. It's architecturally impossible for me to see your data. There's no backend to send it to.

What UniRecorder Actually Does

If you're curious what I built:

🎥 4K Screen Recorder — with webcam overlay, system audio + mic, no watermark
📄 Image to PDF — convert JPG/PNG to PDF
📑 PDF Merger — combine multiple PDFs
🗜️ Image Compressor — reduce image size up to 90%
🔢 Word Counter — count words, characters, sentences
🧮 20+ Calculators — age, BMI, GPA, loan, percentage
🔄 Unit Converters — currency, length, weight, temperature
🔐 Password Generator — strong random passwords

All 40+ tools are:

✅ 100% free
✅ No signup
✅ No watermark
✅ 100% private (runs locally)

The Irony

Scamadviser's results page shows affiliate links for VPNs. Low scores sell VPN subscriptions. High scores don't.

I'm not calling them a scam. I'm saying their business model incentivizes fear.

What Developers Should Know

If you're building something new and get a low Scamadviser score — don't panic.

Check:

Does the site have a server? (UniRecorder doesn't)
Does it ask for personal info? (UniRecorder doesn't)
Can it access your data? (UniRecorder can't)

Security isn't about age. It's about architecture.

Try UniRecorder free: unirecorder.online

No signup. No watermark. No server. Just tools that work.

Built solo from Pakistan 🇵🇰

I Built a 4K Screen Recorder That Runs Entirely in the Browser — Here's How#webdev #javascript #showdev #opensource

Waqar Ahmed — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 03:05:21 +0000

I Built 40+ Free Browser Tools as a Solo Dev from Pakistan — Here's What I Learned

Waqar Ahmed — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 12:42:00 +0000

Hey DEV community! 👋

I'm Waqar, a solo developer from Pakistan. Over the past few months, I built UniRecorder — a collection of 40+ free browser-based tools.

Today I want to share the journey, the tech stack, and what I learned building this much solo.

What is UniRecorder?

UniRecorder is a free toolkit with 40+ browser-based tools:

🎥 4K Screen Recorder with webcam overlay (using MediaRecorder API)
📄 PDF Tools — Image to PDF, PDF Merger
🖼️ Image Tools — Compressor, Resizer
🔢 Text Tools — Word Counter, Case Converter, Text Reverser
🧮 20+ Calculators — Age, BMI, GPA, Loan, Percentage
🔄 Unit Converters — Currency, Length, Weight, Temperature
🔐 Utility Tools — Password Generator, Base64 Encoder

Try it: unirecorder.online

Everything runs 100% client-side — no signup, no watermark, no uploads.

Why I Built This

I was tired of tools that:

Add watermarks to your recordings
Limit you to 5 minutes
Charge $50+/year for basic features
Upload your files to unknown servers

So I built my own. Then I kept building.

Tech Stack

Simple and effective:

HTML5, CSS3, Vanilla JavaScript — no frameworks
MediaRecorder API — for screen recording
Canvas API — for image processing
jsPDF + pdf-lib — for PDF generation/merging
LocalStorage — for cookie consent
GitHub Pages — for hosting

No React, no Vue, no build tools. Just clean, fast, vanilla JS.

Why vanilla? Because 40+ tools don't need a framework. Simple HTML+CSS+JS loads faster and works everywhere.

The Screen Recorder (Hardest Part)

The 4K screen recorder was the most challenging piece. Key challenges:

1. MediaRecorder API quirks
Different browsers handle mimeType differently:


javascript
const mimeType = 'video/webm;codecs=vp9,opus';

#javascript #webdev #html #showdev

Waqar Ahmed — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 14:21:02 +0000

Hey everyone! I built a free screen recorder that runs entirely in the browser — no downloads, no watermarks, no time limits.

It uses HTML5 Screen Capture API + MediaRecorder API. Everything processes locally, so videos never leave your device.

Features:

Up to 4K at 60FPS
Webcam overlay
Dual audio (mic + system)
Works on all modern browsers

Try it here: unirecorder.online

Would love your feedback!