Ask HN: What apps have you created for your own use?

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Programmers describe a wide range of tools they built to “scratch their own itch,” from personal finance trackers, habit and health apps, and home-automation scripts to developer utilities, language-learning aids, and highly niche hobby projects. Many of these began as quick fixes for gaps in existing software—avoiding ads, lock‑in, privacy issues, or clunky workflows—and some later evolved into polished open-source projects or small commercial products. Collectively, the thread highlights how personal needs and experimentation quietly drive a large amount of inventive, highly tailored software.

Scratch-your-own-itch tools

  • Many projects began from irritation with existing tools: complex or slow FIRE calculators, flaky uptime monitors, clunky budget software, bad PDF viewers, or heavyweight note apps.
  • People routinely replaced spreadsheets or ad‑hoc scripts with small dedicated apps (time tracking, expense sharing, crypto tax, bookkeeping, clothing usage, guitar practice, swimming/breathing practice, etc.).
  • Several built app-specific “glue” for workflows: e.g., fast Monte Carlo retirement sims, automatic DHCP test clients, or personal CLI frameworks.

Personal productivity & life tracking

  • Numerous habit trackers, Pomodoro timers, routine checklists, journaling tools, and task managers—often opinionated and minimalist.
  • Many focused on health and wellbeing: breathing/meditation timers, eye‑strain breaks, posture/eye‑closing detectors for toddlers, sleep/feeding trackers for babies, diet and calorie tools, exercise planners, and digital eye‑break or hyperfocus helpers.
  • Others logged broad “life data”: diary-in-local-storage, daily micro‑journaling, time‑since‑last‑break counters, or detailed time‑tracking file formats.

Developer & sysadmin tooling

  • Heavy emphasis on dev tools: static site generators, CLIs for APIs, OpenAPI-to-CLI generators, text and diff tools, Vim/Emacs plugins, keyboard layout utilities, compose‑key/diacritics helpers, and custom git helpers.
  • Infrastructure tools: lightweight LDAP, Nebula control planes, firewall GUIs, Kubeconfig managers, secrets managers, network and connectivity exporters, backup orchestration, and custom monitoring/configuration systems.
  • Many used projects as sandboxes to learn Rust, Go, Clojure, Swift, Phoenix LiveView, etc.

Automation, monitoring & hardware hacks

  • Home automation and hardware integrations are common: garage‑door controllers with passkeys, ESP32 sensors, BLE beacons to unlock laptops, Raspberry Pi camera and scanner frontends, thermostatic/boiler controllers.
  • Monitoring tools: uptime and cron monitors, ISP quality tracking, podcast ad blockers via audio fingerprinting, IP camera systems, gas‑price scrapers, and smart‑home integrations.

Learning, creativity & entertainment

  • Games and creative tools: Half‑Life level pipelines, text‑driven music DAWs, type/word games, Flashcard/Anki helpers, crossword/maze/puzzle generators, and drawing or pen‑plotter tools.
  • Language‑learning and accessibility: color‑blindness aids, dictionary/reader apps, bilingual ebook generators, Ram Dass search, and tools to surface lecture highlights.

Privacy, self‑hosting & monetization

  • Strong interest in privacy: local‑first notes, self‑hosted media/backup, job boards avoiding recruiters, OAuth‑to‑IMAP proxies, and content blockers that don’t touch history.
  • Several tools grew into small businesses or open‑source projects; others remained strictly personal due to narrow use, maintenance burden, or ethical/monetization concerns.