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πŸ’» 7 Open-Source DevTools That Save Time You Didn't Know to Exist βŒ›πŸš€

In the fast-paced world of software development, one of the most significant challenges developers face is efficiently managing time and resources.

No time for that

Reinventing the wheel for common development tasks not only drains valuable time but also diverts focus from the unique aspects of their projects. This is where choosing the right tools becomes crucial. Utilizing well-designed, open-source tools can alleviate common pain points, allowing developers to focus on innovation and craftsmanship.

Almost a decade ago, I started reducing my boilerplate (and saving time with Lombok. It made my life much easier, simple as that. Ever since I've been looking into finding the smoothest solutions for saving time rather than handling all of it myself.

The following piece presents seven such tools, each with its own set of advantages, designed to streamline various aspects of software development.

1. Authenticate with Hanko

Hanko
🌟 Support on GitHub
Website: https://www.hanko.io

Hanko provides a secure and user-friendly way to implement passwordless authentication. It leverages the latest standards in web security, including WebAuthn and FIDO, to enhance both security and user experience. Integration with existing systems is simplified, making Hanko an excellent choice for modern authentication needs. Authenticate only the users you want to access your applications and be able to implement it super fast.

2. Authorize with Cerbos

Cerbos
🌟 Support on GitHub
Website: https://www.cerbos.dev

After implementing a good authentication you can't mess it up with not having a great one for authorization. In software development, setting up rules for access, known as authorization policies, is crucial for security and proper functioning, and doing it yourself takes months. Cerbos is a self-hosted, stateless solution that solves exactly that, and does it amazingly. Removing authorization from your codebase into a configuration, enabling you to authorize everywhere (and at the edge). And yes, whether you decided to authenticate with Hanko, or any other solution for that matter, Cerbos is compatible with all of them.

3. Monitor Databases with Postgres Exporter

Prometheus
🌟 Support on GitHub
Website: http://prometheus.io/community

Prometheus Community's Postgres Exporter is utilized to overcome the limitations of manual database monitoring. It offers an automated and centralized solution for collecting comprehensive PostgreSQL database metrics, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual queries. By using the Postgres Exporter, users can efficiently gather performance data, gain valuable insights, and ensure the scalability and health of their database infrastructure, all while minimizing resource consumption and human intervention. This tool enhances database monitoring practices and is an essential component of a robust observability strategy.

4. Deep Learning with Tinygrad

Tinygrad

🌟 Support on GitHub
Website: https://tinygrad.org/

Tinygrad stands out for its simplicity and small size, making it an excellent educational tool for those looking to understand deep learning mechanics or implement simple models. With GPU support and easy-to-understand code, it simplifies the process of learning and experimenting with deep learning concepts. It's super fast and super easy to get started with, and it may be simple, but it's a powerful framework for deep learning.

5. Test Automation with Jest

Jest

🌟 Support on GitHub
Website: https://jestjs.io/

Jest is a zero-config JavaScript testing framework maintained by Facebook. It simplifies unit testing and integration testing with features like built-in test runners, mocking, and snapshot testing. Developers can automate their testing workflows and ensure code quality without the need for extensive setup. It's fast, interactive, and only runs test files related to changed files - providing you instant feedback.

6.

Vercel

🌟 Support on GitHub
Website: https://vercel.com/

Vercel is an open-source platform for hosting and deploying web applications and websites. Developer experience - awesome, deployment - automated, saving developers time on managing infrastructure. Helps you deliver without additional infrastructure complexity.

7. Vote & Review with ClickVote

ClickVote

🌟 Support on GitHub
Website: https://clickvote.dev/

ClickVote enhances web and mobile applications by adding interactive and real-time voting or polling capabilities. It simplifies the process of engaging users and gathering feedback. With real-time polling and customizable poll options, ClickVote makes it easy to integrate polling features into websites and applications. You can now integrate upvote, like, or review controls in your application with no sweat.

What saves your time?

This list has introduced seven valuable open-source tools that can significantly boost productivity. Whether it's authentication, authorization, database monitoring, deep learning, testing, deployment, or user engagement, these tools offer practical solutions.

I got time

By wisely selecting and incorporating such tools into their workflows, developers can free up more time and energy to focus on the core aspects of their projects. In an ever-evolving field, the right tools can be a game-changer, providing developers with the resources they need to excel in their work.

How often do you rely on open source? What are the open-source tools that saved you tons of time?

Top comments (23)

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fernandezbaptiste profile image
Bap

Who doesn't love Vercel πŸ˜‰

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nathan_tarbert profile image
Nathan Tarbert • Edited

Agreed @fernandezbaptiste, Vercel has improved deployment and made it so easy, not to mention the creators of Next.js, I mean come on, they are legends!

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kiselitza profile image
aldin

Just the people who don't know they exist haha :D

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nathan_tarbert profile image
Nathan Tarbert

Very true :)

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liyasthomas profile image
Liyas Thomas

If you'd like to try an open source { free } alternative to test APIs, try Hoppscotch - API request builder for web : hoppscotch.io

GitHub logo hoppscotch / hoppscotch

πŸ‘½ Open source API development ecosystem - https://hoppscotch.io

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kiselitza profile image
aldin

Thx for sharing this! Nice :)

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sammiee profile image
sammie

The list is useful! Thank you.
But I think to set up development environment cost much time. A local server environment can solve the problem. I recommend ServBay which saves web developers a significant amount of time in maintaining their development environments.
It's not open source, but useful.

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kiselitza profile image
aldin

Hey folks! πŸ‘‹
Hope you find the list useful! What do you think is lacking?

Don't forget to give it some reaction for extra visibility.
We might help someone save months of developing stuff in-house where there already are pretty neat solutions out there.

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nathan_tarbert profile image
Nathan Tarbert

Cerbos is my top choice for authorization layers :)

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matijasos profile image
Matija Sosic

Good list, thanks for sharing! You should also give wasp-lang.dev/ a try when building web apps with React & Node.js πŸ˜‰

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kiselitza profile image
aldin

Looks really promising.
I might just give it a try!

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nathan_tarbert profile image
Nathan Tarbert

Hey @kiselitza, nice list!

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tanyarai profile image
tanya rai

Awesome list! You should check out aiconfig for building with multi-modal genAI models: github.com/lastmile-ai/aiconfig

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kiselitza profile image
aldin

I will give it a look for sure, thx for sharing :)

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gilarc profile image
Gillar Prasatya

Vercel, i need to learn it.

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kiselitza profile image
aldin

Luckily for all of us, they got plenty of resources we can use to get started :)

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fazicodes profile image
fazicodes

Thanks for sharing with the communityπŸ‘

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roboresponse profile image
roboresponse

One of the key advantages of support chatbots for websites in e-commerce is their ability to handle a large volume of custom chatgpt chatbots queries simultaneously, ensuring prompt responses and improving overall customer satisfaction

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