Over the past few weeks, I built a small project called MiniKit — a collection of simple, free tools that run entirely in the browser.
The idea was straightforward:
→ No signup
→ No ads (or minimal)
→ No sending user data to servers
→ Just fast, focused utilities
You can check it out here: https://minikit.site/
Why I built this
I kept running into the same problem:
Most “free tools” online are:
- cluttered with ads
- require login for no reason
- slow or overloaded
- or send your data to a backend
Sometimes I just want to:
- compress an image
- format JSON
- tweak text
…without friction.
So I started building my own.
Key decision: everything runs client-side
One of the biggest choices I made was:
All tools run in the browser (client-side)
That means:
- no uploads to a server
- better privacy
- near-instant results
This also simplified infrastructure a lot — no backend scaling, no storage concerns.
What I built so far
Right now it's a growing set of small utilities like:
- image tools
- text tools
- developer helpers
Nothing groundbreaking individually — but the goal is:
clean, fast, and reliable tools in one place
What I learned
1. Simplicity is harder than it looks
Building the tool = easy
Making it:
- intuitive
- fast
- distraction-free
…that’s the real work.
2. UX matters more than features
A tool with:
- fewer options
- but clear UI
→ beats a “powerful” but confusing one
3. Performance is a feature
If a tool:
- loads instantly
- responds instantly
Users feel the difference immediately.
4. Distribution is harder than building
This was the biggest surprise.
You can build something useful…
…and still get zero users.
So now I’m focusing on:
- sharing in communities
- getting feedback
- improving based on real usage
What I’d improve next
- better SEO (right now it's very basic)
- more focused tool pages (instead of just a list)
- clearer descriptions per tool
- maybe open source parts of it
Looking for feedback
If you have a minute, I’d really appreciate:
- what feels useless?
- what’s missing?
- what annoyed you?
I’m especially interested in:
what tools you wish existed but don’t
Final thought
This project isn’t about building something huge.
It’s about:
making small, useful things that people actually use
If it becomes a go-to utility site for even a small group of developers, that’s already a win.
Thanks for reading 🙏
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