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Show HN: Kis.tools – A directory of tools that work (kis.tools)
51 points by onuradsay 32 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 19 comments
Hey HN! Tired of hitting "Sign up for free" buttons only to discover the real limitations after creating an account? Or finding a "free" tool that adds watermarks to everything? Yeah, me too.

I'm building kis.tools, a curated directory of tools that: Work instantly - registration only when technically necessary, have genuine free functionality, keep interfaces clean and focused, process data locally when possible, keep promotional messages or ads minimal and unobtrusive

Think of it as a home for tools like Eric Meyer's Color Blender (running since 2003!) - tools that do one thing, do it well, and respect users enough to let them try before asking for anything in return.

Every tool is personally tested and described honestly, including limitations. No marketing fluff, just straight talk about what works and what doesn't.

Would love your feedback and tool suggestions, especially mobile apps - seems like every 'free' app nowadays sells its core functionality through in-app purchases.




Looks nice, love the intuitive layout already saw an app I want to try out.

Quick feedback: - include the mac/windows/apple/android... on the first screen

- have all 5 options visible at all time but only use the color logos when it exists

- "switch" categories on the left side, desktop/mobile/... on top (there should be more categories and the devices will only ever be 6 - hopefully)

Maybe include a $ sign ? Maybe include a form to submit apps ?

Keep up the great work !!!


Thank you for your feedback. Having the platform logos on the list is a great idea, so I've added them to the list.

I'm still thinking about the categorization structure. I want to keep the number as low as possible, but yesterday, it appeared that the current categorization by output type (text, image, etc.) doesn't work well for some tools, especially those related to sharing and communication.

$ sign is again a good idea. Maybe I can add new tags like, free, freemium, ads etc.

You can submit apps here: https://kis.tools/submit


Have you looked into https://stirlingpdf.io/ as an open source alternative to PDFgear?


Yeah, this one is a really good fit. Already added it to the directory, thanks for the suggestion.


Site doesn't work right in Firefox, the text is all cut off in the sidebar. First time I've seen that in a while!


It looks broken in mobile Safari as well


same with Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, Orion, and Yandex Browser on iOS 18


All of these are the same on iOS (so far; sadly this will change)


Maybe it is not working on mobile firefox, but the list is anemic at best and wrong frequently. How is SyncThing a text tool? And video tool? For the desktop?


I have fixed the Firefox issue. As for SyncThing and similar file sync/sharing tools, they're currently a bit tricky to categorize since they can be used to share all kinds of file types. Maybe I can create a dedicated category, but still not sure. Do you have any suggestions?


Mobile scrolling breaks for me too.

Off topic for OP, I kinda want to use this UI to browse HN or a lot of sites.


Thanks mate, let me think about this, maybe I'll come up with such a tool one day.


The `ul.items` is broken in desktop Safari 17.6.

From a quick look, it seems fixable just by removing both `min-height` and the `overflow: hidden` declaration from `li.item`.


Yeap, that was the issue, thanks mate.


Thanks for making it function without JS!


PDFGear is awesome. Has a PDF editor built-in [1].

[1] Editing might not work perfectly


Yeah, totally agree! I actually found it while working on creating this directory.


Wish I had found some of these tools years ago. Thanks for sharing!


You're welcome mate!




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