15 Free Online Tools for Web Designers on a Budget

Posted by Henry Jones on Oct 28, 2009 | 58 Comments

About two years ago when I became a full time freelance web designer, I made it a point to operate with little overhead. Even though I was confident I could make it as a freelancer, there was some fear that things might not go as planned. Because of this, I didn’t go out and spend lots of money on equipment and expensive software. My focus was on being frugal and saving money where I could. One way I was able to do this was using free online tools or web apps to perform my everyday tasks as a web designer. Here are 15 free online tools that you will find very useful.

Pixlr

Pixlr is a powerful online image editing application. Although it can’t do everything Photoshop can do, it has some very impressive features considering it is all done within the browser.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is probably the most popular free analytics tool available. It has loads of features including custom views and reports, access sharing, and integration with adsense.

Typetester

The Typetester is an online application for comparison of the fonts for the screen. Its primary role is to make web designer’s life easier. As the new fonts are bundled into operating systems, the list of the common fonts will be updated.

CSS Type Set

CSS Type Set allows you to visually and interactively style text and it generates the CSS.

net2ftp

net2ftp gives you a fully featured ftp client within your browser. There’s even a skin designed for the iPhone.

WhatTheFont

WhatTheFont allows you to scan in or provide the URL of a font and it will tell you what it is.

Color Scheme Designer

Color Scheme Designer has been around for a while, but was just recently updated with a brand new interface and a new color scheme generating engine.

Fontstruct

FontStruct lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks.

Kuler

Kuler is a community driven web app that lets your browse color palettes created by others. You can also create your own by using the color wheel, harmony rules, and color sliders.

Bespin

Bespin is an online code editor by Mozilla. It allows you to write and edit code, share projects, and connect to existing open-source projects.

Adobe BrowserLab

Adobe BrowerLab gives you the ability to preview and test your websites in multiple browsers and operating systems. Since building a website to be cross-browser compatible is one of the more annoying aspects of web design, this should be a valuable web app to all of us.

W3C Markup Validation Service

The Markup Validator is a free service by W3C that helps check the XHTML and CSS validity of Web documents.

ViewLikeUs

ViewLikeUs allows you to check out how your website looks in the most popular resolution formats. It’s all powered by Ajax & PHP.

ColoRotate

As well as being a useful way to choose colors, ColoRotate looks cool and is actually fun to use. Instead of using two dimensional viewers, it presents color palettes to you in 3d and in real time.

Pingdom Tools

Pingdom Tools allows you to run load time tests on your web pages. It mimics the way a page is loaded in a web browser. The load time of all objects is shown visually with time bars. You can view the list of objects either in load order or as a hierarchy. The hierarchy view allows you to see which objects are linked to in for example a CSS file.

Here's some other articles that you will definitely find useful.

58 comments

w3planting
October 28, 2009
awesome collection.
Reply
Architela
October 28, 2009
Useful tools. Thanks.
Reply
Web Design Maidstone Kent
October 28, 2009
thank you, off to investigate “What the font”
Reply
Good Time Tribe
October 28, 2009
some excellent web tools! thanks for the free info
Reply
D'Juan
October 28, 2009
Awesome list!

I hate to be a downer, but BrowserLabs is misspelled.

Other than that, it’s a fantastic list! Typetester, W3C, & Kuler are indispensable.
Reply
jeroen
October 28, 2009
Lovely post for designers on a budget! I would also like to see such a post about free online time management, invoices etc. big help! tnx
Reply
Michelle Foldes
October 28, 2009
This is a great reference. Great way to get some things done more efficently. Thank you!
Reply
Rudolf Bos
October 28, 2009
I hardly ever see any 3D tools that are free for use. I would love to see some simple 3D applications that can do simple 3D effects with text or vector shapes with a bit more power and functions than the Illustrator 3D tool.

Hope you can help me in the future!
Reply
Jeff Walden
October 28, 2009
Great tools for a designer on a budget!
Reply
designfollow
October 28, 2009
thanks for this great post
Reply
KDzyne
October 28, 2009
Very nice set of tools. A few I didn’t know about, thanks!
Reply
Salt City Candles
October 28, 2009
I wasn’t aware that something like adobe browser lab even existed! That is definitely going into my web design toolbelt. Stumbled.

Thanks,
Jack P
Reply
Kat Thompson
October 29, 2009
Thanks for this list, many that I hadn’t come across before but will be using from now on.
Reply
Stickers Deco
October 30, 2009
Thanks!! I’m so happy when i stumble and get into a site like this: you made my day.
Reply
N-Designs
October 31, 2009
great tools. thank you very much.
Reply
kissmo
November 1, 2009
Thanx…Saved my search time…Will try the tools..
Reply
Steve
November 1, 2009
Not a free tool, but inexpensive. Great file sharing and presentation service that for designers that focuses of files like PSD, AI, TIF, etc.

http://contentcube.com
Reply
monica from hola!design
November 3, 2009
this is a life saver! thanks a lot!
Reply
Vector Man
November 3, 2009
Thanks. It realy useful collection! I try from your links two tools for fonts arrangement. Keep it!
Reply
Stone
November 3, 2009
As someone who will soon be undertaking a business partnership with another, in which, I will be responsible for a great deal of the visual marketing – crafting, formulating, designing, implementing all of those vital elements/vehicles/etc. that get your name and product out to the world….for the first time!!!! (in the sense of not being indentured to someone else’s “GIG”)
I will be greatly served (THANK YOU!)by tools, such as these. It will no longer be a head-scratch, half-mission, “I’m trying to…..” mental death wrestle when trying to render ideas, colors, styles, and pictures of the mind to life. This makes many necessary known and unknown design tools free, and accessible, and allows me to dream, and produce a top quality, competitive product…..SOONER RATHER THAN LATER!
Reply
crusher
November 8, 2009
Really very useful tools for web designers. Thank you for presenting the links nicely. I’ve added in my Stumble Upon blog and shared it with Delicious.
Reply
Sudeep Mukherjee
November 8, 2009
Great site, if i had found this earlier it would have made my life much easier and those frustrating hours much shorter. Thanks man
Reply
Crazieshamrock
November 8, 2009
Man I have been looking for these browser tools everywhere. Thanks a lot.
Reply
carl
November 9, 2009
Really useful collection of tools!Thanks
Reply
Lokesh
November 11, 2009
Really good tools… most of us were aware of google services, w3c validator and adobe…

Thanks for providing info about other tools..

Please provide some similar Offline Tools for web designers.. (Freewares)..
Reply
Kebstein
November 11, 2009
This is really good, it will help me in my design career..

thnx a lot
Reply
Garret
November 11, 2009
Thank you for CSS Type Set. I was looking for one that came recommended earlier and was directed here.

Pingdom Tools is an added bonus.
Reply
Nick - digital designer Sydney
November 14, 2009
Whatthefont also have an iPhone app that can make your life that much easier by giving you direct access to the site anywhere and time you spot a font you might like. I know I find it very useful.
There are a few in this list I will be checking out as well
Reply
PAULA
November 25, 2009
Excelente, gracias!
Reply
Steve
November 25, 2009
i missed https://browsershots.org/ to test a website in different browsers or browser-versions and/or different resolutions on different operating systems. maybe similar to the adobe service?
Reply
Calgary web
November 27, 2009
Great useful list. I will need to spend some time going through each of those

Thanks
Reply
Djdesignerlab
December 7, 2009
Very cool collection. I have seen some of the sites before but most are new to me, thanks…
Reply
Sheryll
December 14, 2009
What a great collection! The net2ftp tool will come in very handy for clients, I never new such a program existed.
Reply
Adrienne Trapani
January 2, 2010
Thanks for the contribution! Love the font detective and resolution screening sites.

Cheers!
Reply
chicago web design
January 15, 2010
Great list. Some of these are incredibly useful to me!
Reply
Andrew Odendaal
January 25, 2010
Great list! Thanks!
Reply
George
February 18, 2010
Do you know a tool online to manage projects and deal with clients, were you can upload your art and they can lift comments??

Thanks a lot
Reply
Phil
February 26, 2010
OMG, I have been searching for this information. Technology always gets the best of me when I need it most.
Reply
Lakiesha Lechel
April 29, 2010
lol, I could not agree more
Reply
Healthcare Reform
May 8, 2010
Very useful tools. I especially like the adobe browser lab! With so many people using different browsers that tool has a lot of power.
Reply
ARTisani
May 10, 2010
Very useful tools indeed.
Liked the colorotate the most.
Reply
Stickers
May 12, 2010
What The Font is awesome. So many time we get artwork we have to recreate for our sticker designs and finding a similar font can be tedious.

Another one you can add to your list is VectorMagic.com for simple raster to vector conversions online.
Reply
Czeslaw
May 16, 2010
Great list it can realy be helpful.
Reply
Sharif khan
May 20, 2010
Really cool list. Helps me a lot.
Reply
burak
June 20, 2010
Excellent tools. Thanks for the summing them up.
Reply
Rob
June 30, 2010
These are all very helpful, and I could put these to use with a site I need to work on.
Reply
Calgary Web Design
August 27, 2010
Good list of tools – Google Analytics and Pixlr for sure if you’re starting out (or beyond when it comes to Analytics frankly).

Good suggestion on the CSS Typeset – I’ll have to take a peak at that, thanks!
Reply
njmehta
September 24, 2010
Very useful.
Reply
njmehta
September 27, 2010
Some of these tools are really valuable, others are crappy.
Reply
Brad Maver
October 3, 2010
Great collection! Alot of those are very useful and come in handy all the time. Well done.
Reply

Web Design Ledger

Related Posts

58 comments

Steve

Stone

Sudeep Mukherjee

Kebstein

Steve

George

Czeslaw

Leave a Reply

Subscribe