Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Concise Encoding – a friendly data format for human and machine

The secure data format for a modern world

Concise Encoding is a data format designed for both human readability and machine processing. It provides an alternative to existing formats for storing and exchanging structured information. The format aims to be… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Concise Encoding – a friendly data format for human and machine launched in 2020; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   The Bare Message Encoding▲36

   2020 · drewdevault.com · its alternatives →

2. 2
   Age 1.0 – Simple, modern and secure file encryption▲494

   A simple, modern and secure encryption tool (and Go library) with small explicit keys, no config options, and UNIX-style composability. - Release age v1.0.0 🏁 · FiloSottile/age

   2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Untitled▲184

   An encrypted text/plain editor

   2024 · binhua.org · its alternatives →

4. 4
   Encrypt37▲80

   Safe corner for your words and files

   2023 · notenote.cc · its alternatives →

5. 5
   Codate▲265

   Easy date formats for any code

   2024 · codate.io · its alternatives →

6. 6
   ut – Rust based CLI utilities for devs and IT▲170

   Hey HN, I find myself reaching for tools like it-tools.tech or other random sites every now and then during development or debugging. So, I built a toolkit with a sane and simple CLI interface for most of those tools. For the curious and lazy, at the moment, ut has tools for, - Encoding: base64 (encode, decode), url (encode, decode) - Hashing: md5, sha1, sha224, sha256, sha384, sha512 - Data Generation: uuid (v1, v3, v4, v5), token, lorem, random - Text Processing: case (lower, upper, camel, title, constant, header, sentence, snake), pretty-print, diff - Development Tools: calc, json…

   2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Base24 binary-to-text encoding for humans▲116

   Programmer chronicles.

   2020 · kuon.ch · its alternatives →

8. 8
   Palform▲136

   Build and scale free end-to-end encrypted forms in minutes

   2024 · palform.app · its alternatives →

9. 9
   Comma Separated Values (CSV) to Unicode Separated Values (USV)▲208

   crates.io serves as a central registry for sharing crates, which are packages or libraries written in Rust that you can use to enhance your projects

   2024 · crates.io · its alternatives →

10. 10
    Jesth – Next-level human-readable data serialization format▲38

    Hi HN! I'm Alex, a tech enthusiast. I'm excited to show you Jesth, a next-level human-readable data serialization format. This project started out as a markup language for writing the docstrings of functions that would ultimately be consumed by a documentation generator. Basically the idea was to split a docstring into sections like Description and Parameters. Each section would consist of a header in square brackets and a body (lines of text between two headers). Here's what a docstring for a sum function would look like: This function takes in two integers a and b and returns their sum.…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

11. 11BA
    Base32H, a human-friendly duotrigesimal number system▲87

    2020 · base32h.github.io · its alternatives →

12. 12
    Enc – A modern and friendly CLI alternative to GnuPG▲90

    Enc is a CLI tool for encryption, a modern and friendly alternative to GnuPG. It is easy to use, secure by default and can encrypt and decrypt files using password or encryption keys, manage and download keys, and sign data. Our goal was to make encryption available to all engineers without the need to learn a lot of new words, concepts, and commands. It is the most beginner-friendly CLI tool for encryption, and keeping it that way is our top priority.

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

13. 13
    bef – a tool that encodes/decodes interleaved erasure coded streams▲59

    Block Erasure Format - An extensible, fast, and usable file utility to encode and decode interleaved erasure coded streams of data. - gbletr42/bef

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

14. 14SV
    Seal – Verifiable timestamp for your private ideas▲113

    2022 · docs.planet.ink · its alternatives →

15. 15SA
    SAN – a Safe and Nice TOML/YAML Alternative▲45

    2018 · astrocorp.net · its alternatives →

16. 16WA
    WSL, a clean text format for relational data▲23

    2016 · jstimpfle.de · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Bon – programming language designed for simplicity, performance, safety▲99

    Bon is a programming language designed with simplicity, performance, and safety in mind. - daniel-p-gonzalez/bon

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    LCON – Ludicrously Compact Object Notation▲35

    Ludicrously Compact Object Notation. Contribute to ar-nelson/lcon development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2014 · github.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    Text encryption▲5

    Text encoder encryption

    Dec 2025 · universalfreetools.com · its alternatives →

20. 20CD
    Consol – Desktop First Productivity with End-to-End Encryption▲45

    2016 · consol.io · its alternatives →

21. 21
    Binary-to-text encoding safe to pass through modern text processors▲7

    Binary-to-text encoding that is safe to pass through modern text processors - kstenerud/safe-encoding

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    RNDA▲63

    The data protocol where raw data is never stored

    May 2026 · rnda.io · its alternatives →

23. 23DS
    DBML – simple DSL language to document database schemas▲57

    2019 · dbml-lang.org · its alternatives →

24. 24
    USV = Unicode Separated Values▲32

    Unicode Separated Values (USV) data markup for units, records, groups, files, streaming, and more. - SixArm/usv

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →