“Being a software engineer by day, I decided that instead of paying hundreds of dollars for the needed tools, I could just make them the way I wanted them to be.”
Petre Popescu, on news.ycombinator.com ↗
Vellum wants $249.99 to turn your novella into an ebook. Chronicle does it offline, and the only thing it charges is your word count.
InDesign charges rent by the month to lay out a page. Papercut Studio does the layout, the bleed and the PDF/X in your browser, rent-free.
“Why should the craft of arranging thought upon paper require rent paid to a landlord in San Jose?”
A writing assistant that trails a few words behind you, fixing typos and apostrophes. Runs from a single HTML file. Grammarly wanted $12 a month for the apostrophes.
“Built because the real ones cost money.”
Canva Pro wants a monthly fee to remove a background. Cutora does it in your browser and asks for nothing.
“While Canva keeps useful tools behind Pro plans, Cutora keeps image editing simple, fast, and accessible.”
Built something because a company wanted your credit card for a feature that fits in a single file? That's spiteware. Submit it and join the hall of fame.
