u/New-Vacation-6717

As a developer at a startup, I’ve realized the websites I use daily are completely different from the “top developer tools” lists you usually see online.

Not talking about GitHub, Stack Overflow, or MDN and all other generic stuff…

I mean the smaller tools/websites that actually save me time every single day while building and shipping products. 

Here are 5 I genuinely use almost daily right now:

1. Excalidraw : Probably the fastest way to explain architecture, APIs, or random ideas to teammates.
2. Kuberns : We use it for deployment and cloud management. Honestly reduced a lot of the DevOps work for us because the AI handles deployments, scaling, monitoring, infra stuff, etc.
3. Hoppscotch : Super lightweight API testing tool. Opens instantly compared to heavier alternatives.
4. Rayso : Makes code screenshots look clean for docs, X posts, and presentations.
5. Transformtools :Randomly useful almost every day. JSON to TS, HTML to JSX, object conversions, etc.

Also if you have some other tools that you think save you alot of time and don’t mind sharing them - do let me know in the comments, ADIOS!!

As a developer at a startup, I’ve realized the websites I use daily are completely different from the “top developer tools” lists you usually see online.

Not talking about GitHub, Stack Overflow, or MDN and all other generic stuff…

I mean the smaller tools/websites that actually save me time every single day while building and shipping products. 

Here are 5 I genuinely use almost daily right now:

1. Excalidraw : Probably the fastest way to explain architecture, APIs, or random ideas to teammates.
2. Kuberns : We use it for deployment and cloud management. Honestly reduced a lot of the DevOps work for us because the AI handles deployments, scaling, monitoring, infra stuff, etc.
3. Hoppscotch : Super lightweight API testing tool. Opens instantly compared to heavier alternatives.
4. Rayso : Makes code screenshots look clean for docs, X posts, and presentations.
5. Transformtools :Randomly useful almost every day. JSON to TS, HTML to JSX, object conversions, etc.

Also if you have some other tools that you think save you alot of time and don’t mind sharing them - do let me know in the comments, ADIOS!!

As a developer at a startup, I’ve realized the websites I use daily are completely different from the “top developer tools” lists you usually see online.

Not talking about GitHub, Stack Overflow, or MDN and all other generic stuff…

I mean the smaller tools/websites that actually save me time every single day while building and shipping products. 

Here are 5 I genuinely use almost daily right now:

1. Excalidraw : Probably the fastest way to explain architecture, APIs, or random ideas to teammates.
2. Kuberns : We use it for deployment and cloud management. Honestly reduced a lot of the DevOps work for us because the AI handles deployments, scaling, monitoring, infra stuff, etc.
3. Hoppscotch : Super lightweight API testing tool. Opens instantly compared to heavier alternatives.
4. Rayso : Makes code screenshots look clean for docs, X posts, and presentations.
5. Transformtools :Randomly useful almost every day. JSON to TS, HTML to JSX, object conversions, etc.

Also if you have some other tools that you think save you alot of time and don’t mind sharing them - do let me know in the comments, ADIOS!!

I hate the anxiety of not knowing when the next client will come. Trying to figure out how to make some money on the side that's more consistent.

Here's what I'm doing:

Monthly retainers - Two clients pay me every month for small updates and maintenance. Best decision I made.

Selling templates - Made some templates, threw them on Gumroad. Made ~$100 in six months. Not much but whatever.

Handling deployment for clients - Started offering to deploy client projects instead of just handing off code. Using Kuberns since clients get cheaper cloud costs and I get around 30-40% commission every month. Win-win honestly.

Small ongoing work - Existing clients always need little fixes. Way easier than finding new people.

What I haven't figured out yet:

• Making courses
• Building an audience
• Starting an agency

What works for you? Just looking for simple stuff that brings in a few hundred bucks a month without being a full time job.

I'm curious to hear real stories from people who've done this. If you're not technical but managed to launch a SaaS product, how did you handle building it?

Did you learn to code? If so, did you properly learn programming or just use AI tools like Cursor and figure things out? How long until you had something working?

Did you hire developers or an agency? Where'd you find them? How do you avoid getting scammed? I keep hearing about people spending $20k+ and getting nothing useful.

Did you find a technical co-founder? This is what I'm most curious about. Where did you meet them? How did you split equity, especially if you'd already started working on the idea? Did you do vesting schedules and formal agreements?

What about deployment? How did you get your app online? I've been using Kuberns since it handles all that deployment stuff automatically, but wondering what others did.

Not looking for debates about what's "best", just want to hear what actually worked for you and what you'd change if you could start over.

Thanks for sharing!

As a developer at a startup, I’ve realized the websites I use daily are completely different from the “top developer tools” lists you usually see online.

Not talking about GitHub, Stack Overflow, or MDN and all other generic stuff…

I mean the smaller tools/websites that actually save me time every single day while building and shipping products. 

Here are 5 I genuinely use almost daily right now:

1. Excalidraw : Probably the fastest way to explain architecture, APIs, or random ideas to teammates.
2. Kuberns : We use it for deployment and cloud management. Honestly reduced a lot of the DevOps work for us because the AI handles deployments, scaling, monitoring, infra stuff, etc.
3. Hoppscotch : Super lightweight API testing tool. Opens instantly compared to heavier alternatives.
4. Ray.so : Makes code screenshots look clean for docs, X posts, and presentations.
5. Transform.tools :Randomly useful almost every day. JSON to TS, HTML to JSX, object conversions, etc.

Also if you have some other tools that you think save you alot of time and don’t mind sharing them - do let me know in the comments, ADIOS!!

Over the last year, it feels like AI has started touching almost every part of the dev workflow.

Not just code generation, but everything around it.

If I break it down, this is how I see it:

• Writing code Tools like Cursor are getting really good at generating functions, refactoring, and even handling multi-file changes.
• Code review Tools like CodeRabbit can catch bugs, suggest improvements, and flag bad patterns before I even look at a PR.
• Testing Codium AI can generate tests directly from code. Not perfect, but saves a lot of time.
• Deployment and setup This one surprised me the most. I have been trying tools like Kuberns where you connect a repo and it handles build, environment, and deployment with minimal setup. Still exploring this space, but it feels like a big shift.
• Monitoring and debugging Tools like Highlight group errors and show what actually matters instead of digging through logs.

What I am noticing is that the shift is not just “AI writes code”

It is more like:
AI is starting to handle the entire lifecycle around the code

Curious what people here are actually using day to day.

• What has genuinely saved you time?
• What still feels overhyped or not ready yet?