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 44 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.

All apps for developers

48 best free 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. This list only has apps that are free or have a free plan. code.live, UI Discovery and ascii.rest are where to start.

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

Free 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
Gitstar
Turn your GitHub repository stars into a stunning, shareable video. Visualize your open-source growth with Gitstar.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
6
Claude Resets
Track Claude Code usage-limit resets as they're announced
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
7
GitHub Stars Video
Generate an animation for your GitHub stars.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
8
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
9
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
10
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
11
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
12
Amicro
Add beautiful, lightweight, micro-interactions and transition components to your React website with a Shadcn CLI .
Developer Tools5.0Free
Open
13
Google AI Studio
Try Gemini models and grab an API key.
AINewFree
Open
14
Reicon
Reicon — Free open-source SVG icons. 2,700+ handcrafted icons for React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, Flutter, Figma & more.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
15
EasyUI
Production-ready animated UI components built with React, Tailwind CSS, and Framer Motion for modern web apps.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
16
Designeer
Bringing the best of the internet together
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
17
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
18
Qwen
A free chat for writing, code and uploaded files.
AINewFree
Open
19
Jules
Google's coding agent that works in your repo.
AINewFree
Open
20
Amp
A coding agent from the Sourcegraph team.
AINewFreemium
Open
21
GitLab
Git hosting, issues and CI on one site.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
22
Fly.io
Run containers close to your users.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
23
Firebase
Google's backend for auth, data and hosting.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
24
Upstash
Serverless Redis, Kafka and a job queue.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
25
Inngest
Background jobs and workflows, written as functions.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
26
Trigger.dev
Long-running jobs in normal TypeScript.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
27
Pipedream
Automations where a step can be real code.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
28
Retool
Build internal tools on top of your database.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
29
Auth0
Login, signup and SSO you don't build yourself.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
30
npm
The registry for JavaScript packages.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
31
Docker Hub
Find and host container images.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
32
VS Code
The VS Code editor, opened in a browser tab.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
33
JSFiddle
A small playground for HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
34
GitBook
A hosted place to write product and API docs.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
35
Mintlify
Documentation sites that stay in sync with the repo.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
36
Liveblocks
Add multiplayer cursors, presence and comments.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
37
Heroku
Push a repo and get a running app.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
38
WorkOS
Enterprise SSO, directory sync and audit logs.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
39
Pusher
Send realtime events to browsers over WebSockets.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
40
Appwrite
An open-source backend: auth, database and storage.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
41
Turso
Hosted SQLite, replicated close to your users.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
42
Loops
Product email for SaaS: onboarding and a newsletter.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
43
Mixpanel
Product analytics: funnels, retention and events.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
44
Amplitude
Analytics for how people move through a product.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
45
Hotjar
Heatmaps and recordings of real sessions.
Developer ToolsNewFreemium
Open
46
Microsoft Clarity
Free heatmaps and session recordings.
Developer ToolsNewFree
Open
47
Looker Studio
Free dashboards on top of sheets and other sources.
DataNewFree
Open
48
Hex
Notebooks that mix SQL, Python and a chart.
DataNewFreemium
Open