5 Web Developer Tools You Should Have Bookmarked

The right set of bookmarked utilities saves meaningful time over the course of a work week. Here are five tools on DevPulse that earn their place in a developer's browser toolbar — things you'll use constantly, not just once a month.

1. JSON Formatter

JSON Formatter & Validator is probably the most-used tool on this list. Paste minified JSON from an API response, a log file, or a database query and get properly indented, readable output instantly. The validator tells you whether the JSON is valid and points you to the error if it isn't. The minify direction is equally useful — compact a formatted JSON file before sending it in a POST body or storing it.

Developers who live in terminals use jq . < file.json for the same thing, but having it in the browser means you can format JSON that arrived in an email, a Slack message, or a website response without a file round-trip.

2. JWT Decoder

JWTs are everywhere in modern auth systems, and they're completely opaque until you decode them. The JWT Decoder shows you all three sections (header, payload, signature) decoded to readable JSON, plus renders the expiry timestamp as a human date. Pasting a token to check whether it's expired or which user/role it contains is a 10-second task.

Important: decoding is safe — JWTs are not encrypted, just encoded. You don't need the secret key to read the payload.

3. Base64 Encoder/Decoder

Base64 Encode/Decode handles the constant small tasks: decoding a Basic Auth header to see what credentials a client is sending, encoding a file path to embed in a URL, or checking what's inside a data URI. The URL-safe variant (Base64url, used in JWTs and OAuth) is also supported.

4. UUID Generator

The UUID Generator generates v4 UUIDs in bulk. Useful whenever you need test data with unique identifiers, need a UUID for a database seed script, or are setting up a new system that requires pre-assigned IDs. Generate 50 at once, copy the list, done.

5. Regex Tester

The Regex Tester tests regular expressions with real-time highlighting as you type. Regex is one of those things that looks obvious when it works and baffling when it doesn't. Having a visual tester where you can see exactly which parts of a string match — and which capture groups contain what — cuts debugging time significantly.

The API for all of these tools is also free and documented at /api — integrate any of them into your own scripts and workflows without writing the logic yourself.