A curated list of tools that have personally improved my development and learning efficiency. These tools range from design and research to debugging aids and utilities, all streamlining the software development process.
- Development & Coding
- Productivity & Workflow
- Debugging & Optimization
- Learning & References
- Miscellaneous
| Tool | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Heroku | A super powerful and efficient platform as a service (PaaS). Simplifies automatic CI/CD workflows and requires minimal setup. $312 of free credits with the GitHub Student Developer Pack | 🔗 Website |
| Iconify | A powerful and easy-to-use icon framework that simplifies consistent UI design. I use its extensive collection of logos and symbols through both the web component and framework-native components (React/Vue). | 🔗 Website |
| Insomnia | A robust REST API client with a clean UI. Useful for in-depth API testing and development. | 🔗 Website |
| Postman (VS Code Extension) | An alternative to Insomnia in most cases, I use the Postman extension for quick and simple API testing inside VS Code. | 🔗 Website |
| iTerm2 | My old terminal of choice for MacOS. With profiles, keybinds, and huge community support, the lack of cross-platform support is the only real downside. If Warp's required login system and closed-source nature is a deal-breaker, this is my go-to recommendation. | 🔗 Website |
| Visual Studio Code | A modular, customizable, and cross-platform text editor. The suite of third-party tools and extensions available let you customize your environment to your liking, in a much simpler manner than terminal tools like Vim. | 🔗 Website |
| Warp | My current terminal of choice. Its clean aesthetic, autocompletion, and cross-platform remote configuration syncing keep me coming back. With so many QoL features, everything in Warp just works, keeping me in flow. However, it is closed-source and requires a login–potential deal-breakers for some. | 🔗 Website |
| Tool | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| After Effects | A powerful program for creating motion graphics, animations, VFX, and more. New features are added every year, making my workflow more efficient. I use AE to create visuals for projects, animations, and video content. The biggest downside is the price, with third-party plugins costing even more. | 🔗 Website |
| Microsoft PowerToys | A life-saving suite of productivity modules that greatly enhance the feel of Windows. FancyZones, Color Picker, Always on Top, Peek, and PowerToys Run are my most used, with the last two providing the easiest Windows equivalent to their MacOS counterparts. | 🔗 Website |
| Raycast | A direct upgrade to the default Spotlight Search on MacOS, this tool allows me to quickly perform a huge variety of tasks including calculations/conversions, file searches, and specific application functions through various extensions. | 🔗 Website |
| Rectangle | A simple, free, and open-source window management tool for MacOS. Rectangle adds the option to use keybinds to move and tile windows, with the option to specify window margins as well. | 🔗 Website |
| Swish | Another window management tool–specifically meant for MacOS trackpads. This program allows simple motions to perform all kinds of actions. Also allows for bindings just like Rectangle. | 🔗 Website |
| Todo+ (VS Code Extension) | A simple VSCode extension that allows .todo files to feature checkboxes, timers, and colored styling. | 🔗 Website |
| Tool | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Lighthouse | Built into Chrome development tools by default, Lighthouse analyzes various aspects of SEO and website performance to quantify areas of improvement. | 🔗 Website |
| Wappalyzer | A technology profiler that identifies technologies used on a website. | 🔗 Website |
| Resource | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Mobbin | A great source of professional inspiration for web and mobile applications. | 🔗 Website |
| Notion | A highly versatile note-taking and task-management tool. Despite its extensive features, I primarily use Notion for its clean, structured tables with categorized data and embedded pages to track algorithms I've learned and notable LeetCode problems I've solved. | 🔗 Website |
| Realtime Colors | A great way to quickly test and visualize how a color palette might look on a functional site. Allows for light/dark mode testing and use of custom fonts. | 🔗 Website |
| uiverse | An expansive collection of open source UI elements, great for both inspiration and boilerplating a project. | 🔗 Website |
| Tool | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| CleanShot X | A screenshot tool for MacOS that simply works well. The scrolling screenshot feature is especially nice for pages that don't work well with other full-page capture tools. Student discount is available. | 🔗 Website |
| Everything | A filesystem indexing tool that allows you to search your entire system. With instant search results as you type, regex support, and low resource usage, this tool speeds up all kinds of file searches compared to Windows' File Explorer. | 🔗 Website |
| ShareX | Markups, OCR, Color Picker, Ruler, Hash checker, and more give this program a multitude of uses. The file upload on capture feature can be used to instantly host your screenshots on a remote server, with URL shortening for quick embeds. | 🔗 Website |
| Wallpaper Engine | A fun way to liven up any Windows desktop, especially nice when combined with a tiling window manager that leaves margins between windows. | 🔗 Website |
This is a personal list, but if you have a tool that really made a difference in your development workflow, feel free to open an issue or a pull request!
For future additions, I'm using the following format:
| Tool | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Example Tool | A brief description of the tool. | 🔗 Website |
MIT License – Free to modify or build off of this list!