A freelance developers toolbox, ten years later
I was thinking about revisiting this blogpost I did a while back. I just checked the date, and I posted it exactly ten years ago! Unfortunately I'm a slow writer, it generally takes me a few days. But I can always publish it last week.
I'll start with the same list to explain why I still use it or stopped using it, and compare the pricing.
Then I'll add the new tools I use now, including online applications.
The old list
Editplus
Still installed, but rarely used since I mostly have an IntellIJ instance open. The price hasn't changed though. And the most recent version update is from this year.
url: http://www.editplus.com/
price: $35
Irfanview
I still use Irfanview for the same reasons. It is small, fast, and has great features. It is free, but you can send the developer money for support! It is still actively being developed.
url: http://www.irfanview.com/ price: freeware
Colorpic
Not much development going on here, although it's still a useful little program. It has been on $15 discount since 2020 'for a Limited Time!'. It must have been about the same price of $14.50 ten years back, but I cannot find any references.
url: http://www.iconico.com/colorpic/
price: $14.50
PHPStorm
IntellIJ software is the defacto industry standard. I still use PHPStorm, or WebStorm (depending on when you ask me). It is actively developed. Subscription prices have increased substantially in ten years. Although prices decrease the longer you subscribe, with a max of three years. But if you want to switch from PHPStorm to WebStorm you simply start over again :-(
Ten years ago the price was $89 per year, today it is €249 per year (or €149 after three years).
The WebStorm variant used to be $44, today it is €159 per year (or €95 after three years).
Hmmm, a 300% increase, maybe I should give VSCode a try.
url: http://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/
price: €249 (or €159 for WebStorm)
Beyond Compare
I still have it installed, but only use it when I have to manually upload something (which is rare with CI/CD and all).
Pricing has increased slightly, from $30 to #35 for standard, and from $50 to $70 for professional.
url: http://www.scootersoftware.com/
price: $35 standard ($70 pro)
XP-dev
I stopped using XP-dev) in favor of Github, because I don't use SVN anymore, or Trac. Pricing is exactly the same as it was ten years ago.
url: https://xp-dev.com/
price: ranges from $5 p/m for 2GB to $50 p/m for 40GB
FDT
Of course I don't use FDT anymore because Flash is dead. But they have also moved on and now also support HTML, JavaScript and PHP. They have a free version but the professional version still has the same monthly fee. The two-year subscription has been turned into a lifetime key and decreased to $599.
url: http://fdt.powerflasher.com/
price: ranging from €59 for one month to €599 for lifetime key.
Manictime
I love this piece of software. The price is still the same, although they now also offer cloud-based subscriptions. But the reason I started using this is that this was one of the few that was not clould based.
url: http://www.manictime.com/
price: $67
Adobe
Back in 2013 Adobe transitioned to a subscription based model. Then there is this small issue.
Even though the Creative Cloud subscription has not increased much in price, it is still a lot compared prior versions. Photoshop CS6 was €950 ten years ago. The monthly fee for Photoshop was €24 and is now €12. So roughly estimated (€24 + €12)/2 * 12 months * 10 years = €2160. Which is more than double the CS6 price. Or compare ten years of subscription to CS4 (which is still more than sufficient for my needs) and must have cost me around €500. This is a price increase of more than 400%.
So here are good alternatives that are not subscription based: Affinity Photo €74.99, InkScape free or Affinity Designer €74.99
The new list
Kagi
Ever since Google ditched their 'don't be evil' motto, they've also been going downhill in search engine result quality. It got so bad I immediately switched to Kagi the moment I tried it.
I'm willing to pay for good search results and privacy. Here's other reasons why you should pay for search.
url: https://kagi.com/
price: free, $5 p/m (standard)
Termux
Termux is a Linux application for Android available through F-Droid. I use it to checkout Git repos, build projects, edit files using Vim, etcetera. You can read more about it here,
url: Termux
price: free, but you can donate
Awesome screenshot
This browser plugin records and captures screens and is available for Firefox and Chrome. I use it mostly to make screenshots for documentation, or for visual explanation in an email. It comes with a basic editor to add highlights and annotations.
url: https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/
price: free for images, $6 p/m for video
Standard Notes
A basic cloud based notes editor that supports Markdown. It has a webapp as well as native apps for Android and IOS. It has end-to-end encryption and is very easy to use.
url: https://standardnotes.com/
price: free, $15 p/m, $90 p/y
Stylus
Stylus is a well known browser addon that lets you add custom CSS to websites. Very handy for dark modes and such.
url: https://add0n.com/stylus.html
price: free
httpbin
The easy basic way to test REST reponses. You can run it online or locally through a Docker container.
url: http://httpbin.org/
tiny-helpers.dev
I could add a lot more web tools, but I'll suffice by adding tiny-helpers.dev, a site that lists a curated selection of very useful tools.
So what has changed these ten years?
Ten years ago Adobe switched their payment model to a subscription based one. A lot of software now follow this tactic. It is a way to create contininuous revenue from loyal customers. For a cloud based service this is a logical model for continuous costs. But for other software it feels like a scam. It is the reason I still use CS4.
It is cheap for non-loyal customers though, since they can now use software for one month when needed.
IntellIJ is no better than Adobe in this regard, maybe even worse since Adobe kept prices relatively low.
It does leave a very bitter capitalist taste.
Luckily not all software is subscription based. And a lot of it just keeps on working, even in 32bit.
Another difference, aside from cloud based services, is that there is a lot more software that simply runs in the browser. Thanks to the increased speed of browsers and machines, and faster internet.
Anything I missed?