Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Having fun making mini static site apps
I've been having a blast making multiple mini apps that run in the browser. I've been trying to see how far I can go without having a backend and relying on other services. I wrote these for fun and wanted to know what folks think.
This is a collection of browser-based mini apps built without a backend, instead leveraging external services to handle functionality. The apps are designed for anyone interested in lightweight, client-side web… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
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Backendless▲99Build scalable apps at lightning speed, coding optional
2023 · backendless.com · its alternatives →
- 3IM
Hi, Sometimes I want to wrap an existing website into an Android app quickly so I made a service that does just that https://html2apk.com/ If you find it useful I'll be happy to hear about that, if you have any other comments/suggestions I'll be happy to hear about that too. 10x, Gilad
2019 · its alternatives →
- 4LA
Happy New Year HN! I’m the co-creator of Orbiter, a dead simple tool for uploading and hosting static sites. We built Orbiter for ourselves and realized it would probably be useful for others. Static site content is some of the simplest on the web, yet hosting this content has gotten increasingly complex over time. Many of you are engineers and don’t have much problem with CI/CD pipelines as a mechanism for deploying a website. This is true for me as well. But there are times when I want to just upload a simple website. I might not even want to put it under source control. And I know…
2025 · orbiter.host · its alternatives →
- 5
My wife and I recently submitted to a mobile game jam on Newgrounds (yes, it's still around). What started as a question of whether we could do it somehow morphed into whether we could do without so many of the seemingly needless complications rampant in our respective industries. My wife thus did all the art as traditional frame-by-frame animation (no puppets or tweening) and I preceded without a game engine. I did use a pre-processor that gives JS a Lisp syntax (Parenscript), because C-syntax is gross. We hope the end result, while definitely of small scope, will serve to inspire some…
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 6
I couldn't find a CMS that met all my needs, so I built this prototype. It works for my purposes. I'm curious if anyone else finds it interesting or useful. If there's enough interest, I may continue working on it. Feedback welcome!
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 7WW
Over three months ago, I posted my book on HN and got tremendous +ve reponse. I am happy to inform that I have published the book to leanpub as per the comments I got on HN itself! It is pay as you go model, and the minimum is $0 because I wanted to contribute back to the FOSS Community
2016 · its alternatives →
- 8
For a while, I've struggled to really get into the Mobile ecosystem. With the duopology that Google (Android) and Apple (iOS) hold on the mobile ecosystem, it's very difficult for developers to build and maintain decent mobile apps, especially when you're a solo developer and UI/UX isn't exactly you're fore anyway. So I built (after some experiments with a friend @xuu) a little Go application framework that combines HTMX, DaisyUI/TailwindCSS and Service Workers with a little hack that works remarkably well that I've been able to build 3 quite nicely polished mobile apps (PWAs you…
Jul 2026 · swag.mills.io · its alternatives →
- 9
Hey Hacker News, I'm the maker of Kopage, a free & self-hosted Website Builder. While working on new, cool features (AI, of course), it would be great to hear some HN feedback :) Thanks, Simon
2024 · kopage.com · its alternatives →
- 10
Howdy friends! Tell me if this is an atrociously terrible idea - I've been working on building a leetcode for clientside devs so we can practice React and Javascript interview questions in a more concise way, I call it clientside.dev I just finished a beta version of it yesterday and plan on releasing it with many more problems on Jan 1st but it's there if you wanna play with it open to any ideas / feedback however mean or nice it may be :)
2022 · vacation-call-335691.framer.app · its alternatives →
- 11BW
2023 · cocreate.app · its alternatives →
- 12HA
A minimalist but powerful static site generator
2017 · hastysite.h3rald.com · its alternatives →
- 13
This is a model I’ve been thinking about lately. It demonstrates a pattern that I’m wondering could exist, where terminal applications, BBS-style shared user boards, and other expressions of creativity and sharing are created with web technologies but rendered into the terminal and accessed over SSH. I like that this brings back some kind of old days of the internet feeling and uses web technologies but sidesteps the public World Wide Web, even though it’s still on the internet. You can try it out too right now, and I’m thinking about making the self-hosting specialized applications part a…
Jul 2026 · duetbrowser.com · its alternatives →
- 14
Hi HN, I built smollaunch.com, a lightweight launch platform for developers who want to share projects without the noise, voting games, or marketing theatrics of bigger launch sites. I’ve shipped a lot of small tools and noticed that most launch platforms are built around growth-hacking rather than genuine discovery. Many devs just want a clean place to publish something they built and get feedback from peers who care about the craft. So I made a simpler version of that. What it does: - Post your project with a short description and link - Get a clean, minimal launch page and profile - Other…
Dec 2025 · smollaunch.com · its alternatives →
- 15
A crazy-small framework for building brutalist web applications - crisdosaygo/brutal.js
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 16IM
I am excited to introduce my solo project, a platform built with the frontend development community in mind. It's an interactive environment aimed at refining debugging skills through exposure to real-world bugs. This project stems from the need for a hands-on, practical method of learning to debug. The site features a variety of intentional bugs for users to solve, mirroring the types of challenges faced in professional settings. Over the coming weeks, I will be adding many more exercises and new features to enhance your learning experience further. Check out CodeMender at…
2024 · codemender.io · its alternatives →
- 17
Hi everyone, the other day I was here cause I thought I came up with a neat way of creating HTML via JavaScript [1] - After some iterations, I'm quite content with the code I wrote. Since I intend to use this in my personal projects, I thought others might as well. 1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41451559
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 18IB
After fine-tuning GPT for a personal project, I realized how tedious it is to write plain text in a massive JSON file. That's why I built this app for my own use, and I want to see if others could benefit from a tool like this as well ;)
2024 · finetuna-ui.com · its alternatives →
- 19
A while ago I started this side project to test if I could build a rich User Interface that would have about the same level of responsiveness than a "SPA-like" app, but using only htmx[1]... I still have plenty of stuff in my roadmap, but today it's in a playable state and I thought it could be interesting to share it - as it may be a nice demonstration of a relatively rich user interface powered by htmx :-) --> https://zakuchess.com As for the stack: it's built mostly with Django, htmx and Tailwind CSS. It uses a SQLite database, and is hosted (for free) at Fly. The characters'…
2024 · zakuchess.com · its alternatives →
- 20
If you want to write web apps in C with mainly server side html, this might be the project for you! I've been using/developing it for a project to sell photos/videos at surf camps. test site: https://beta.fluffyspork.com Highlights: * builds to a single AppImage for deployment * all code included that's not a standard linux library * mostly don't have to write html, generated with code There are many things in the currently private project that aren't yet moved to fu due to time.
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 21DD
Myself and three friends, for the last year have been building our own side project, the aim of this side project was to show off the creative side of developers. One of my bug bears with Reddit is how quickly things get buried. The bug bear has turned into the basis for what I been building on the side called The Full Stack. A platform to show off developer projects basically. Another bug bear of mine over the years has been trying to find open source or just cool side projects to work on with others, and even find teams to join. So that's another thing we've built, an easy way to find…
2023 · thefullstack.network · its alternatives →
- 22
I built a minimal opensource CMS, I use it myself for my blog and for other SaaS. l love blogging, and sometimes I post random thoughts on my blog. The only thing is, I always did it with .md files, which is fine too However, I was excited about the idea of using a CMS that was very minimal and avoiding the option of connecting something like WordPress or other big platforms. Open source (if you want to fork it or contribute) and free to use (unless I see you have a million views haha). Star the repo if you like it!
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23IM
Hi HN! I've created [UFreeTools](https://www.ufreetools.com/), a collection of developer utilities (60+ tools and growing) that's completely free, ad-free, and runs entirely in the browser. No data leaves your device - everything is processed locally. ## Background As a developer, I found myself constantly searching for simple utilities like JSON formatters, UUID generators, and color pickers. Most existing options were cluttered with ads, required sign-ups, or sent data to servers. I wanted clean, fast tools that respected privacy. So I built UFreeTools as a modern SPA using…
2025 · ufreetools.com · its alternatives →
- 24IM
Hey everyone! I'm really excited to share a side project I've been pouring my heart into lately. As a developer with over five years of experience, I've taken on my fair share of freelance web development projects. In the beginning, I always coded everything from scratch, but as I juggled more projects simultaneously, I started using Webflow to save time. While Webflow was definitely a lifesaver, I couldn't help but wish for an even faster way to set up a website – something that would allow me to start with a template and then easily customize it to my heart's content. The problem with most…
2024 · instawebai.com · its alternatives →
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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 →