What are the best web apps for developers?

People on Linkstore rate code.live, UI Discovery and ascii.rest highly. Every app on this list was opened and checked by a person before it went live.

Are there free apps for developers?

Yes. code.live, UI Discovery, ascii.rest and OriginOfBots and 40 more are free to use or have a free plan. code.live and ascii.rest are completely free.

Do web apps for developers need to be installed?

No. They all run in a web browser, so you can open one and start right away. Retrace, Google AI Studio and Reicon can also be installed to a home screen or dock if you like.

How is this list ordered?

By rating: a weighted average of the ratings people leave on Linkstore, so a few early five-star ratings can't outrank a large, steady score. Nobody can pay to move up.

Are browser-based developer tools good enough for real work?

For a lot of it, yes. Hosting dashboards, databases, diagramming and API testing all live in the browser already, and playgrounds are the fastest way to try an idea.

Apps for everyone

48 best web apps for developers in 2026

Browser tools for writing, testing and shipping code: playgrounds, hosting, databases, API clients and the small utilities you reach for ten times a day. code.live, UI Discovery and ascii.rest are where to start.

145 apps · 44 of the 48 here free or with a free plan · Updated October 2026

Best for developers

Apps whose makers built them for this first, then the best rated.

1
code.live
Free browser-based developer tools — JSON, regex, JWT, SQL, CSS, DevOps, and security utilities. No signup required.
Developer Tools5.0Free
Open
2
UI Discovery
Curated real-world UI references (sites, apps, dashboards, iOS) with copy-ready AI build prompts for Cursor and Claude. Free to browse.
Design5.0Freemium
Open
3
ascii.rest
217 animated ascii pieces for web pages, in TypeScript with no dependencies: for React, Next.js, Astro, or one HTML tag. MIT licensed.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
4
OriginOfBots
Explore specs, benchmarks, expert analysis, and side-by-side comparisons for humanoid robots, robot dogs, drones, vacuum cleaners, and AI robotics hardware.
ProductivityNewFree
Open
5
Teasr
Launch and demo videos for indie makers and startups, made from your website in about 10 minutes.
DesignNewPaid
Open
6
Gitstar
Turn your GitHub repository stars into a stunning, shareable video. Visualize your open-source growth with Gitstar.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
7
Claude Resets
Track Claude Code usage-limit resets as they're announced
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
8
GitHub Stars Video
Generate an animation for your GitHub stars.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
9
perfoliosVerified
Browse the best portfolio websites on the internet: a hand-picked directory of amazing designer, developer and studio portfolios for inspiration, sorted by…
InspirationNewFree
Open
10
kobra.systems
A segmented one-time-code input, built on input-otp. Built with React and Tailwind, in light and dark, with every state designed.
DesignNewFree
Open
11
Tracwell
Understand which pages and campaigns bring visitors, where they drop off, and which visits lead to signups and revenue.
DataNewPaid
Open
12
Retrace
Record, replay, fork & share AI agent executions. See every LLM call, tool invocation, and error your agent makes — then debug and iterate in seconds.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
13
RareUI
Rare UI is a free, open-source collection of rare animated React components. Browse them in action below and install any component with the shadcn CLI.
Developer Tools4.7Free
Open
14
Amicro
Add beautiful, lightweight, micro-interactions and transition components to your React website with a Shadcn CLI .
Developer Tools5.0Free
Open
15
Google AI Studio
Try Gemini models and grab an API key.
AINewFree
Open
16
Reicon
Reicon — Free open-source SVG icons. 2,700+ handcrafted icons for React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, Flutter, Figma & more.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
17
EasyUI
Production-ready animated UI components built with React, Tailwind CSS, and Framer Motion for modern web apps.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
18
Designeer
Bringing the best of the internet together
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
19
OrbkitVerified
Orbkit is a React component library of WebGL shader orbs for AI and voice agent states, installed as local code through the shadcn registry.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
20
Qwen
A free chat for writing, code and uploaded files.
AINewFree
Open
21
Devin
An AI software engineer you assign tickets to.
AINewPaid
Open
22
Jules
Google's coding agent that works in your repo.
AINewFree
Open
23
Amp
A coding agent from the Sourcegraph team.
AINewFreemium
Open
24
GitLab
Git hosting, issues and CI on one site.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
25
Fly.io
Run containers close to your users.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
26
Firebase
Google's backend for auth, data and hosting.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
27
Upstash
Serverless Redis, Kafka and a job queue.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
28
Inngest
Background jobs and workflows, written as functions.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
29
Trigger.dev
Long-running jobs in normal TypeScript.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
30
Pipedream
Automations where a step can be real code.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
31
Retool
Build internal tools on top of your database.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
32
Auth0
Login, signup and SSO you don't build yourself.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
33
npm
The registry for JavaScript packages.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
34
Docker Hub
Find and host container images.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
35
VS Code
The VS Code editor, opened in a browser tab.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
36
JSFiddle
A small playground for HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
37
GitBook
A hosted place to write product and API docs.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
38
Mintlify
Documentation sites that stay in sync with the repo.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
39
DigitalOcean
Virtual machines, databases and app hosting.
Developer ToolsNewPaid
Open
40
Liveblocks
Add multiplayer cursors, presence and comments.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
41
Heroku
Push a repo and get a running app.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
42
WorkOS
Enterprise SSO, directory sync and audit logs.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
43
Pusher
Send realtime events to browsers over WebSockets.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
44
Appwrite
An open-source backend: auth, database and storage.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
45
Turso
Hosted SQLite, replicated close to your users.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
46
Loops
Product email for SaaS: onboarding and a newsletter.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
47
Mixpanel
Product analytics: funnels, retention and events.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
48
Amplitude
Analytics for how people move through a product.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open