5 Free Developer Tools I Built (and Why I'm Making Them Open Source)

#productivity #tools #webdev #opensource

Over the past year, I've been building small, focused developer tools — the kind of utilities I kept needing but couldn't find a clean, free version of. No sign-ups, no paywalls, no tracking. Just tools that do one thing well.

Here are 7 of them (okay, the title says 5 — I couldn't stop).

🖊️ SigCraft — Email Signature Generator

Every time I started a new role or side project, I'd waste 20 minutes wrestling with HTML tables to make an email signature. SigCraft lets you build a clean, professional signature in seconds and copy the HTML.

👉 sigcraft.dev

🪝 HookDebug — Webhook Tester & Debugger

If you've ever integrated with Stripe, GitHub webhooks, or any third-party callback, you know the pain of "did my webhook actually fire?" HookDebug gives you a unique URL, captures every request in real time, and lets you replay them.

👉 hookdebug-app.fly.dev

⏰ CronMaker — Visual Cron Expression Builder

I can never remember cron syntax. Is it minute-hour-day or hour-minute-day? CronMaker is a visual builder — click what you want, get the expression, see a human-readable description.

👉 mack-moneymaker.github.io/cronmaker

📋 JSONPretty — JSON Formatter & Validator

Dead simple. Paste messy JSON, get it formatted and validated. I use this almost daily when debugging API responses.

👉 mack-moneymaker.github.io/jsonpretty

🔍 RegexLab — Regex Tester with Live Matching

Write a regex, paste your test string, see matches highlighted in real time. Includes match groups and a quick-reference cheat sheet.

👉 mack-moneymaker.github.io/regexlab

🎨 GradientLab — CSS Gradient Generator

Visually design CSS gradients (linear, radial, conic), tweak the stops, and copy the CSS. Way faster than writing gradient syntax from memory.

👉 mack-moneymaker.github.io/gradientlab

🎨 ColorCraft — Color Palette Generator

Generate harmonious color palettes, explore variations, and export values in HEX, RGB, or HSL. Great for when you're starting a project and need a cohesive palette fast.

👉 mack-moneymaker.github.io/colorcraft

Why Free?

I'm a developer. I build things because I need them. And when I look for a tool online and the first 5 results are "free tier with limits" or "sign up to continue," it's frustrating.

These tools are free, open source, and they'll stay that way. No accounts, no data collection, no premium tier coming soon.

If you find them useful, that's the whole point. Star the repos, share them with your team, or fork them and make them better.

GitHub: github.com/mack-moneymaker

Happy building. 🛠️