Issue #285  (Top Tools of 2018)01/03/19

This issue features the top 30 tools of 2018 based on clicks in this newsletter (as tracked via MailChimp). This doesn't mean these were the "best" or "most popular" tools, they're just the ones that you readers were most curious about. I'd say the majority are good, practical tools.

You can skip down to the tools section to start reviewing the list, but I'd like to take this opportunity to summarize all the different ways you can support this newsletter to help keep it going:

Open the newsletter and interact!
The more clicks and interactions I get, the more I can sell appropriate advertising and keep things profitable. Obviously, I don't want you to interact if there's nothing interesting to you, but it does help if you click organically inside the email that you receive. But again, only do it if it genuinely interests you.

Buy an e-book!
My e-books that compile previous content from this newsletter and other sources are found here. Many of you have purchased e-books and I really appreciate it!

Buy recommended third-party books!
In 2018 I started including links to my Recommended Reading page, all of which are affiliate links for developer books on Amazon and SitePoint.

Buy a course from Wes Bos!
Wes produces some of the best and most popular dev-related courses around. I've recently started including affiliate links to his courses, including Advanced React and ES6 for Everyone.

Tip me on PayPal!
If you don't want to buy anything specific but just want to toss me a few bucks, you can do so via PayPal here.

Thanks again for making 2018 a great year for Web Tools Weekly and let's hope this newsletter continues to grow and be practical and useful for thousands of developers in 2019.

Now on to the top tools of 2018 (starting from #30)!

Top Tools of 2018 (#30—#21)

Orion Icon Library
Online icon tool plus thousands of really nice looking free SVG icons.

PaperCSS
The less formal CSS framework. Elements have a hand-drawn comic strip feel.

Hooks Data
Real world data in real-time API. Get updates about thousands of topics in a single API.

Mockuptime
The ultimate collection of beautiful, realistic PSD mockups to showcase your work. Most are available for free.

Cool Backgrounds
A collection of tools to create compelling, colorful images (PNG format) for blogs, social media, and websites.

Mint
A refreshing language for the front-end web. A programming language that compiles to JavaScript.

Graphite
Work anywhere without worrying about your data. All your work, files, and messages—encrypted, shareable, and decentralized.

Front End Toolkit
A set of best practices from Devbridge Group, to start a project quickly without any JavaScript library dependency.

UnderExpress
A free, responsive, ready-to-use website UI kit built with Bootstrap 4.

Let's Enhance
Image upscaling supercharged. Remove JPEG artifacts, upscale 4X, preserve quality. One-click and free.

Top Tools of 2018 (#20— #11)

Milanote
A tool for planning creative projects. See your ideas, notes, and research side by side.

Scrivito
A user friendly, secure, and serverless JavaScript CMS.

Webdash
Helps you visualize, monitor, and manage your web project using community-driven plugins.

Unique
Easily get fonts that you'll never see anywhere else.

Super Tiny Social Icons
Miniscule (under 1kb) SVG versions of your favourite website and app logos.

Outline
Team wiki, documentation, meeting notes, playbooks, onboarding, work logs, brainstorming, and more.

swup
Enables CSS-powered animated page transitions. Define how your page looks in the transition state, and swup takes care of the rest.

Ceev
Transform your LinkedIn into a spectacular resume. Gives you the tools you need to design a resume, create an online portfolio, and find a job.

What is my day rate?
Enter your desired gross annual salary and this tool will tell you how much you should make per day and how much to charge per hour.

Meta Tags
Online tool to debug and generate meta tags for your website. Edit and experiment with your content then preview how your web page will look on Google, Facebook, Twitter and more.

Top 10 Tools of 2018  (#10—#1)

Carbon
Create and share beautiful images of your source code. Start typing or drop a file into the textarea to get started.

Rhythm App
A simple daily notebook, calendar, and task list.

All My Desktops
Remote Desktop from any browser. No need to install plugins or client software to connect. All your computers are always one click away from any browser.

new-computer
An extremely opinionated and highly personalized script to set up a new Mac machine, just the way this developer likes it.

Mustard UI
Not your average CSS Framework. A starter CSS framework that actually looks good.

Tapwater
App for creating a timeline of a project as it progresses. By easily logging the past, present, and future, it keeps everyone on the same page and gives you clarity to do your best work.

Delighters
A tiny JavaScript library to add CSS animations to delight users as they scroll down.

WickedCSS Animations
CSS animation library that includes some simple examples along with a number of "wicked" animations that aren't applicable in all situations.

Obnoxious.css
CSS animation library for the strong of heart and weak of mind.

Woah.css
A CSS animation library for eccentrics. This was the most-clicked tool of 2018.

A Tweet for Thought

The most-clicked tweet from this part of the newsletter over the past year was this Tweet making fun of old Internet Explorer.
 

Send Me Your Tools!

Made something? Send links via Direct Message on Twitter @WebToolsWeekly (details here). No tutorials or articles, please. If you have any suggestions for improvement or corrections, feel free to reply to this email.
 

Before I Go...

And finally, the most-clicked "Before I Go..." link of 2018 was, appropriately, Websites in 2018. Hopefully 2019 is better in the areas addressed in this mock project!

Thanks to all for subscribing and reading!

Keep tooling,
Louis
webtoolsweekly.com
@LouisLazaris