Dev tools I Cannot Live Without

When you’re building solo, your tools matter. I’m always trying new stuff, and when something helps me move faster-or makes my life easier-I stick with it.

Some of these are underrated, some are popular, but all of them are part of my workflow.

1. Bear Notes

I’ve tried them all Notion, Apple Notes, Obsidian. Bear just feels right.

• Full markdown support
• Internal links and backlinks
• Export to PDF, HTML, Text, etc.
• Tags for easy organization

Website: https://bear.app/

2. Screen Studio

My go-to for recording clean, polished screen demos. Makes everything look like a proper product video.

Website: https://screen.studio/

3. Localcan

A great alternative to ngrok, but better in some ways.

• One-time payment, no subscription
• Permanent URLs for your local dev
• .local URLs that work across your devices
• Super responsive dev behind it

Website: https://localcan.com

4. Tomatobar

A clean little pomodoro timer that lives in your menu bar.

• Native macOS feel
• Open source
• Satisfying sound effects 🤌

Website: https://github.com/ivoronin/TomatoBar

5. Tabletool

If you touch CSVs often, this one's gold.

• Fast, simple, macOS native
• Does exactly one thing, and does it well

Website: https://tabletool.io

6. DBngin

A lightweight local database manager for mac. From the makers of Tableplus.

• Easy to spin up Postgres, MySQL, Redis
• Clean UI
• Now even supports Ollama

Website: https://dbngin.com

7. Imbox

A temp inbox built by me, works as a Chrome extension.

• View HTML emails
• No login needed
• Just works

Website: Imbox

8. Yaak

After Insomnia got acquired and bloated, the original creator made Yaak. It’s fast, simple, open source, and does exactly what I need for API testing.

Website: https://yaak.app

9. Stats app

Menu bar system monitor for macOS.

• CPU, memory, disk, network - all at a glance

Website: https://github.com/exelban/stats

10. Minipic

A tool I made. Compress and convert images in the browser. Paste → download in multiple formats.

Website: https://minipic.app

11. Cursor

This has become my main IDE. Not underrated, but worth mentioning.

It’s fast, AI-powered, and helps me ship 10x faster.

Website: https://www.cursor.com/

Also in the toolbox:

• Cleanshot - for screenshots and screen recordings
• Raycast - for everything
• MonitorControl - to adjust external monitor brightness

Tools I'm testing right now:

• GitButler - Interesting take on version control, not sure if it’ll stick for me.
• Typefully - Going all in on marketing, trying this out for writing and scheduling.

That’s my stack for now.