As a developer, it's easy to get distracted by flashy tools that cost a fortune. But what if I told you that some of the best ones are either free or cost less than your monthly Spotify plan?
Here are 5 underrated, budget-friendly tools that punch way above their weight:
🛠 1. Ray.so — Create beautiful code snippets in seconds
Ever needed to share a piece of code that actually looks good? Ray.so turns your snippets into clean visuals you can drop into your blog, tweets, or docs.
🔗 https://ray.so
📸 2. CleanShot X — The ultimate screen capture tool for macOS
Screenshots, GIFs, screen recording... this thing does it all. Annotate, blur sensitive data, and even pin floating screenshots on your desktop. It’s like screenshots... but on steroids.
🔗 https://cleanshot.com
📚 3. Carbon — The open-source alternative to Ray.so
Lightweight and customizable. Perfect for developers who want more control over their code image styling. Bonus: it's totally free.
🔗 https://carbon.now.sh
⏱ 4. CronitorCLI — Know when your cron jobs fail (before your users do)
Simple CLI that helps you monitor background tasks. If a scheduled job fails or doesn’t run, you get alerts instantly. It’s a lifesaver for backend devs.
🔗 https://cronitor.io
🚨 5. DownTimeNote — Your users deserve to know when your app goes down
Most status page tools cost \$30/month... seriously? With DownTimeNote, you get a beautiful public status page, email alerts, custom domain support, and even monitoring starting at \$2/month.
It’s built for indie devs, freelancers, and fast-moving teams who want to stay transparent without breaking the bank.
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