Tools24: netztools24.de, vorlagentools24.de, pdftools24.de

Why we built this

Everyday work constantly calls for small utilities: quickly check a DNS record, look at HTTP headers, format a JSON payload, merge two PDFs, draft a cancellation letter. What you find online tends to follow the same pattern: registration, daily limit, paywall from the third file onwards, plus the open question of where those uploaded documents actually end up.

We needed these tools ourselves, so we built them. What started as internal use became three public platforms.

Objective

Three independent offerings on one shared technical base, all following the same rules:

• no registration, no usage limits
• compute as much as possible in the browser so input never leaves the machine
• whatever has to run on the server is processed and then deleted
• fast to load, on phones too
• operated on our own servers, funded by ads so use stays free

Solution

netztools24.de. More than 29 tools in four groups: network (your own IP, DNS lookup, traceroute, ping, port scanner, WHOIS, HTTP headers, MAC lookup), security (SSL certificate check, password generator, email validator), development (JSON formatter, Base64, UUID, CSS minifier, HTML validator, diff, meta tags, robots.txt, sitemap, .htaccess) plus text and files (character counter, line sorting, hash calculator, QR code). Tools that do not need a server run entirely in the browser.

vorlagentools24.de. Templates for cancellations, work and applications, finance and payment reminders, dealings with authorities and self-employment. Instead of a download you then have to edit, you fill in a form and get the finished document. The entries stay local in the browser.

pdftools24.de. Conversion both ways (PDF to Word, JPG, PNG, PowerPoint, Excel and text; images and Word to PDF), editing (merge, split, reorder pages, rotate, watermark, forms, compare) plus optimisation and security (compress, protect, remove passwords, sign, edit metadata). Here an upload is required, and the files are deleted from the server automatically once processed.

A shared base. All three run on the same codebase with the same building blocks for layout, navigation and consent. Adding a tool is therefore an addition, not a new project.

Outcome

The three sites grew out of our own working day and get used there daily. They are also our proving ground: the building blocks we develop for client projects, form flows, file processing, consent management, run here under real load and real traffic. Whatever proves itself here flows back into the client work.