Independent developer field guide
Edition 0012026
Open index

The tool database.

Search by name or purpose, then narrow by category, stage or pricing model. Tools with a full profile open here; the rest link to their official site.

62 tools

Ahrefs SEO and marketing platform for search analytics, backlink research, keyword exploration and site auditsMarketing & SEOpaid ↗ Astro Web framework for content-focused websites, using any UI component libraryCMS & Contentopen source → Auth.js Open source, runtime-agnostic library for authentication and session management in JavaScript frameworksAuthenticationopen source → Auth0 Identity and access management platform with universal login, single sign-on and multifactor authenticationAuthenticationfreemium ↗ beehiiv Newsletter platform for email publishing, website building, audience growth and monetizationMarketing & SEOfreemium ↗ Bolt.new In-browser AI development platform for prompting, building, running and deploying full-stack web applicationsAI & Machine Learningfreemium ↗ Claude API Developer platform for building, integrating and deploying AI applications and agents powered by Claude modelsAI & Machine Learningusage-based → Clerk Provides user authentication, session management and user profile management for web and mobile applicationsAuthenticationfreemium → Cloudflare Pages Serverless JAMstack platform for frontend developers to build, test and deploy web applicationsHosting & Deploymentfreemium → Cloudflare R2 S3-compatible object storage service with zero-egress fees for developers and applicationsStorage & CDNusage-based ↗ Cloudinary Cloud-based media management platform for uploading, optimizing, transforming and delivering images and videosStorage & CDNfreemium ↗ Dirstarter Next.js directory website template with built-in payments, SEO optimization and AI MCP integrationBoilerplates & Starter Kitspaid ↗ Drizzle ORM TypeScript ORM with typesafe, SQL-like syntax that compiles to single SQL queriesDatabasesopen source ↗ Eleventy Zero-config JavaScript static site generator that transforms templates into static HTMLCMS & Contentopen source → Firebase App development platform by Google with managed databases, cloud storage, functions, hosting and developer toolingDatabasesfreemium → Firebase Authentication Backend authentication service with identity management, federated social logins and phone authenticationAuthenticationfreemium ↗ Fly.io Public cloud platform for running full-stack applications and isolated code execution sandboxes close to usersHosting & Deploymentusage-based ↗ Formspree Backend form handling service for HTML forms that forwards submissions to email or appsEmail Servicesfreemium → Groq AI inference engine and developer platform for model execution on custom Language Processing Unit hardwareAI & Machine Learningfreemium ↗ Gumroad E-commerce storefront and payment platform for creators to sell digital products, memberships and physical goodsPayments & Billingusage-based ↗ Hugging Face Open-source community platform to build, host, share and deploy machine learning models and datasetsAI & Machine Learningfreemium ↗ Kit Creator marketing platform and REST API for automating workflows, managing email subscribers and delivering broadcastsEmail Servicesfreemium → Larafast Laravel SaaS starter kit with pre-configured authentication, Stripe payments and admin scaffoldingBoilerplates & Starter Kitsnot found ↗ Lemon Squeezy Merchant of record platform for global payments, subscriptions, checkout and sales tax compliance for software businessesPayments & Billingusage-based → Lovable AI software engineer that generates full-stack web applications from conversational natural language promptsAI & Machine Learningfreemium ↗ Lucia deprecated TypeScript authentication and session handling resource, previously distributed as an npm packageAuthenticationopen source ↗ Mailgun Email delivery and deliverability platform with REST APIs and SMTP to send, receive and track emailsEmail Servicesfreemium ↗ MakerKit SaaS starter kits supporting Next.js, Remix, Supabase and Stripe paymentsBoilerplates & Starter Kitspaid ↗ MongoDB Atlas Fully managed multi-cloud document database service with automated scaling and built-in searchDatabasesfreemium ↗ Neon Serverless Postgres platform with decoupled compute and storage, database branching and automatic scale-to-zeroDatabasesfreemium → Netlify Cloud platform to build and deploy web applications, APIs and serverless functions from Git or CLIHosting & Deploymentfreemium → OpenAI API Cloud API for programmatic access to OpenAI artificial intelligence models and autonomous agents for software developmentAI & Machine Learningusage-based → Paddle Merchant of record platform managing SaaS billing, global tax compliance, subscriptions and fraud preventionPayments & Billingusage-based ↗ Payload CMS Open-source TypeScript headless CMS and application framework that runs inside Next.jsCMS & Contentopen source ↗ Plausible Web analytics platform that tracks website traffic without cookies or collecting personal visitor dataAnalytics & Monitoringfree + paid self-hosted → PostHog Developer platform integrating product analytics, session recordings, feature management and experimentation toolsAnalytics & Monitoringfreemium → Postmark Transactional email delivery service designed for web applicationsEmail Servicesfreemium ↗ Prisma TypeScript ORM with type-safe queries and migrations, plus managed database servicesDatabasesfreemium ↗ Railway Cloud deployment platform for application hosting, database provisioning, automated environments and observabilityHosting & Deploymentusage-based → Render Cloud hosting for web apps, APIs, background workers and managed databasesHosting & Deploymentfreemium → Replicate Platform to run, fine-tune and deploy machine learning and open-source generative AI models via an APIAI & Machine Learningusage-based ↗ Replit Cloud-based collaborative software creation platform with AI coding assistance and deployment environmentsAI & Machine Learningfreemium ↗ Resend Email API and platform for creating, sending and tracking transactional emails using web frameworksEmail Servicesfreemium → Sanity Composable content platform and headless CMS with structured content and real-time collaborationCMS & Contentfreemium → Semrush Online visibility and search marketing platform for SEO, keyword research, competitor analysis and AI searchMarketing & SEOpaid ↗ SendGrid Cloud-based email platform with REST APIs and SMTP relay for sending transactional and marketing emailsEmail Servicesfreemium ↗ Sentry Application monitoring and developer observability platform that identifies, diagnoses and tracks software errors and performance regressionsAnalytics & Monitoringfreemium → shadcn/ui Collection of re-usable, accessible user interface components copied into application source codeUI & Design Systemsopen source ↗ ShipFast Next.js boilerplate with pre-built authentication, payment processing, transactional emails and UI componentsBoilerplates & Starter Kitspaid ↗ Stripe Financial infrastructure platform for payment processing, billing, payouts and financial services for internet businessesPayments & Billingusage-based → Supabase Open source backend platform with managed Postgres databases, authentication, real-time subscriptions, storage and serverless edge functionsDatabasesfreemium → Supabase Auth Built-in user authentication and authorization integrated with Postgres Row Level SecurityAuthenticationfreemium ↗ Supastarter SaaS starter kit supporting Next.js, Nuxt and TanStack Start with built-in auth and billingBoilerplates & Starter Kitspaid ↗ Tailwind CSS Utility-first CSS framework with composable atomic classes for styling responsive web interfaces in HTMLUI & Design Systemsopen source ↗ Together AI Cloud AI platform for serverless inference, fine-tuning and dedicated GPU clusters for open-source AI foundation modelsAI & Machine Learningusage-based ↗ Turso Distributed database platform built on libSQL SQLite for edge computing and multi-tenant architecturesDatabasesfreemium ↗ Umami Open-source web analytics solution for website visitor tracking and custom event measurement without cookiesAnalytics & Monitoringfree + paid self-hosted ↗ UploadThing File upload platform for TypeScript and JavaScript developers with server-side file handlingStorage & CDNfreemium ↗ Upstash Serverless data platform offering Redis, Vector database and QStash with per-request pricingDatabasesusage-based ↗ v0 Generates full-stack web applications and user interfaces using generative AI promptsUI & Design Systemsfreemium ↗ Vercel Frontend cloud platform for developing, previewing and deploying web applications with serverless compute and edge deliveryHosting & Deploymentfreemium → Vite Frontend build tool with a development server and optimized production bundlesBoilerplates & Starter Kitsopen source →