ToolStash is a free collection of small developer utilities that, according to its creator Hammad Rasool, run in the browser rather than through a backend. Rasool laid out the reasoning in a DEV Community launch post dated September 18. This article summarizes that story: the problem he describes, the tools he listed, the privacy argument behind the design, and what the post does and does not establish.
The problem: small tasks, annoying sites
Rasool’s starting point is modest. Developers keep running into tiny jobs, and he names three of them: pretty-printing a blob of JSON, generating a UUID for a test fixture, and checking why two config files don’t match. He describes these as “five-second tasks.” That phrase is rhetoric, not a measured figure.
His complaint is that the sites offering these utilities are often slow, crowded with ads, or gated behind a sign-up. These are his own judgments. The post doesn’t include a systematic comparison or market study, so treat them as one developer’s experience rather than a finding about the whole category.
The pitch: entirely in the browser
Rasool wrote: “That’s why I built ToolStash — a small, growing collection of developer utilities that run entirely in the browser.” He says the tools are plain JavaScript with no backend for your input to pass through, and he ties that design to keeping pasted data from being uploaded.
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That matters for the sort of text developers paste into utilities, such as config files, SQL queries, and sample payloads. These can contain internal names or credentials. Still, “entirely in the browser” is the author’s description. I haven’t seen an independent security review, a network inspection, or a current privacy policy confirming it. If you plan to paste sensitive material, check for yourself. Open your browser’s developer tools, watch the Network tab while you use a tool, and confirm that nothing is sent when you paste.
The tools listed in the launch post
| Tool | What the post says it covers |
|---|---|
| Diff Checker | Line-by-line or word-by-word comparison |
| Hash Generator | MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-512, and NTLM |
| UUID Generator | Bulk generation, up to 100 at a time |
| JSON Formatter | Beautify, validate, and minify |
| YAML-to-JSON Converter | Converts YAML input to JSON |
| Markdown-to-HTML Converter | Live preview |
| SQL Formatter | MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, BigQuery, Snowflake, and SQLite |
| Regex Tester | Live match highlighting and capture groups |
The set maps back to the opening examples. The JSON formatter handles the blob, the UUID generator handles the test fixture, and the diff checker handles the mismatched configs. The rest extend the same idea to hashing, markup conversion, SQL, and regular expressions.
What was planned next
The post named three upcoming tools: base64 encode/decode, a cron expression builder, and a password generator. These were plans as of the dated post. I can’t confirm whether they have since shipped, and the same applies to any other change to the live site after September 18.
How to judge any tool site like this
Rasool’s story suggests a few criteria that hold up whichever site you use:
- Does it have the operation you need? For example, does the SQL formatter support your dialect, and does the hash tool offer the algorithm you want?
- Where does processing happen? A client-side claim is worth verifying with the Network tab, as described above.
- How much friction is there? Check for sign-ups, ads, and load time. For ToolStash these are the author’s own criteria, and I haven’t benchmarked them.
The post also invites readers to try the tools and suggest others. It mentions no paid plan.
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This is the story of why the project exists, told from the launch post. It isn’t a hands-on review. The post and the site couldn’t be re-checked for this article, so nothing here confirms the live feature set, current privacy behavior, or performance. The post offers no figures or comparisons that would support calling ToolStash better than alternatives.
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