There's a category of tools that doesn't get talked about much in developer circles — not because they're obscure, but because they're almost too simple to write about. No APIs. No configuration. No stack decisions. Just open a tab, do the thing, close the tab. I've been building and maintaining a web platform for about a year now, and these seven tools have become part of my actual daily workflow. Not aspirationally bookmarked — actually used. Here's what they are and why I reach for them.
Browser-Based PDF Compression This comes up more than I expected when I started working on a project that involved user-uploaded documents. The problem: users were uploading PDFs that were 15–20MB because they'd exported from design tools with maximum quality settings. The upload limit was 5MB. Asking users to "please compress your file first" is a support ticket waiting to happen. For my own testing and document work, I use EzyToolz Compress PDF. Drop the file in, select compression level, download. A 20MB design export typically comes down to under 2MB without visible quality loss. The part I care about as a developer: it processes entirely client-side — the file never leaves the browser. That matters when working with anything sensitive.
Image Format Conversion WebP support is now solid across browsers, but the real world is messier. Clients still send PNGs that should be JPGs, or JPGs that need to be WebP for a specific use case. A browser-based image converter handles this without Photoshop, ImageMagick, or a shell command. I use EzyToolz Image Tools for quick one-off conversions during development — faster than spinning up a script.
Image Compression When building something with user-generated content, image weight is a constant concern. For testing how compressed images look at different quality levels — without writing code or installing software — a browser compressor is useful. The workflow: upload the original, check the output using EzyToolz Image Compressor, compare file size vs. visual quality, decide on the compression target.
Meta Tag Checker This one sounds basic until you're thirty minutes into trying to figure out why a URL isn't sharing correctly on Slack or LinkedIn. Paste the URL into a meta tag checker, get back the title tag, meta description, OG tags, Twitter card data, and canonical — all in one view. No browser extension required. Useful scenarios:
Checking a staging URL before launch Verifying OG tags after a CMS update Confirming canonical tags on paginated content Debugging why a preview image isn't showing on social platforms
JSON Formatter / Validator Every developer has a JSON formatter. Mine lives in a browser tab. Copy a raw JSON response from a network request, paste it into the formatter, read it. Or validate a JSON config file that's failing silently. Fast, no install, works on any machine.
QR Code Generator This surprised me by being more useful than expected during development. The scenario: you're building something that needs to be tested on mobile, and you want to share a staging URL without typing it out. Generate a QR code with EzyToolz QR Code Generator, scan it with your phone, done. Other real uses:
Testing QR scanning features in an app Generating a QR for a payment link during checkout flow testing Creating QR codes for internal tools across multiple devices
- Diff / Text Comparison Tool Paste two blocks of text, see the differences highlighted. This comes up constantly:
Comparing two versions of a config file Checking if two API responses are actually identical Comparing error messages across environments Reviewing copy changes before updating a CMS
A Note on Privacy For all of these: check whether the tool processes files client-side or server-side before using it with anything sensitive. EzyToolz processes PDF and image files locally in the browser without uploading to any server — worth knowing if you work with client documents.
The Common Thread None of these tools require an account, a download, or a decision about which plan to use. They just do one thing in a browser tab with zero friction. For tasks that come up daily but don't justify a dedicated tool installation — that's exactly the right level of complexity.