10 Open Source Tools To Become The Ultimate Developer 🔥
Anthony Max

Anthony Max @anthonymax

About: 🐜 Fetch API enjoyer

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Sep 20, 2024

10 Open Source Tools To Become The Ultimate Developer 🔥

Publish Date: Jul 26
218 21

TL;DR

Every day we use different technological tools, already on automatism, although we have not heard about them before.

With the knowledge of the new, we gain that competitiveness in the market that will provide us with what we want, be it an online store or a simple calculator.

In this article, I have collected some tools, knowledge of which will help you become the ultimate developer.

Let's get started! 🏎️


1. 🐜 HMPL.js - Server-oriented customizable templating for JavaScript

Let's start with a small template language that allows you to get components from the server and display them on the client. Due to its syntax, applications are quite small.

The language is syntactically block-based and integrated with JSON5 and DOMPurify. Reduce the size of your javascript files and display the same UI as if it was written in a modern framework!

HMPL

💎 Check out HMPL.js


2. 🗒 Readme.so - An online drag-and-drop editor to easily build READMEs

The second tool will be a small but very useful visual editor for your Readme files.

Readme.so is an online editor to help developers make readmes for their project.

Readme.so

💎 Check out Readme.so


3. 🧠 GitHub Copilot - Your AI pair programmer

Recently, with the development of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence, Copilot has become an indispensable assistant in VS Code, as it comes with Microsoft's AI.

GitHub Copilot adapts to your unique needs allowing you to select the best model for your project, customize chat responses with custom instructions, and utilize agent mode for AI-powered, seamlessly integrated peer programming sessions.

GitHub Copilot

Previously, it didn't make much sense, but now it's so well integrated with the environment that it can already be considered part of VS Code. It only requires a registered account to work properly, but I think that's not a problem for such a benefit.

By the way, another advantage of this artificial intelligence is that it is based on GitHub repositories, so the code it produces is simply excellent.

💎 Check out GitHub Copilot


4. 🐈‍⬛ Nest.js - A progressive Node.js framework for building efficient, scalable, and enterprise-grade server-side applications

If you’ve ever wished Express had a bit more structure, Nest.js is the upgrade you’ve been looking for. It brings TypeScript, OOP, and a modular architecture to Node.js development.

Nest is a framework for building efficient, scalable Node.js server-side applications. It uses modern JavaScript, is built with TypeScript (preserves compatibility with pure JavaScript) and combines elements of OOP (Object Oriented Programming), FP (Functional Programming), and FRP (Functional Reactive Programming).

Nest.js

💎 Check out Nest.js


5. 🪨 Medusa - The world's most flexible commerce platform

If you are familiar with WordPress, when you did something on a freelance platform for a couple of hundred dollars, say, a vacuum cleaner store and used WooCommerce, then this platform will seem familiar to you. Only, with one condition - it is all tricked out and with modern capabilities of the SaaS platform.

Medusa is an ecommerce platform with a built-in framework for customization that allows you to build custom commerce applications without reinventing core commerce logic. The framework and modules can be used to build advanced B2B or DTC ecommerce stores, marketplaces, PoS systems, service businesses, or any product that needs foundational commerce primitives. All commerce modules are open-source and freely available on npm.

Medusa

💎 Check out Medusa


6. 📗 Storybook - The industry standard workshop for building, documenting, and testing UI components in isolation

Not a single serious project can be done without first making a component in StoryBook, and only then implementing it into the project.

Storybook comes with a lot of addons for component design, documentation, testing, interactivity, and so on. Storybook's API makes it possible to configure and extend in various ways. It has even been extended to support React Native, Android, iOS, and Flutter development for mobile.

Storybook

💎 Check out Storybook


7. 🦙 Ollama - Get up and running with large language models

Since we started talking about artificial intelligence, it is also worth remembering a project like Ollama.

ollama run example
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

This is a large, unique collection of popular AI models for downloading.

Ollama

💎 Check out Ollama


8. 🐇 Bun - Incredibly fast JavaScript runtime, bundler, test runner, and package manager – all in one

If you think that Node.js is slow today, then yes, you are right. I once said about Deno that it is one of the fastest environments, but probably Bun is the fastest today or was at least a couple of years ago.

Bun is an all-in-one toolkit for JavaScript and TypeScript apps. It ships as a single executable called bun.

Bun

💎 Check out Bun


9. ⚙️ MLX - An array framework for Apple silicon

If you are just starting to study machine learning, or have been doing it for a long time, then it will be useful for you and not only for you to know this framework from Apple.

MLX is designed by machine learning researchers for machine learning researchers. The framework is intended to be user-friendly, but still efficient to train and deploy models. The design of the framework itself is also conceptually simple.

MLX

💎 Check out MLX ☆


10. 🦕 Deno - modern runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript

Deno is what Node.js might look like if it were built today. It has better defaults, built-in TypeScript support, and a strong focus on security. Your files can be executed in other environments. As an example: $ deno test server_test.ts

Deno is a JavaScript, TypeScript, and WebAssembly runtime with secure defaults and a great developer experience. It's built on V8, Rust, and Tokio.

Deno

💎 Check out Deno


✅ Conclusion

Knowing all these tools and using them at the right time, you can pump yourself up and become a real ultimate developer! And, regardless of what language you program in.


Thank you very much for reading this article ❤️!

What other open source tools do you use? It would be interesting to know!

P.S. Also, don't forget to help me and star HMPL!

🌱 Star HMPL ☆

Comments 21 total

  • Anthony Max
    Anthony MaxJul 26, 2025

    I made a small list. I hope it will be interesting to learn something new.

  • Key Master1
    Key Master1Jul 26, 2025

    Great list!

  • Alex
    AlexJul 26, 2025

    Tools won't make you "ultimate".

    Like driving an F1 car won't make you the best driver.
    Be critical of information that tells you the opposite.

    • Anthony Max
      Anthony MaxJul 26, 2025

      Well, it's a matter of time. Compare a simple junior with Cursor and Senior with Notepad++, the code of the former is worse, but more tasks are done.

      • Alex
        AlexJul 26, 2025

        How did you measure that? And why even bother giving a senior a PC? Let him write on paper to show that your tool matters.

        • Anthony Max
          Anthony MaxJul 26, 2025

          I haven't measured it. It's an empirical assumption. I want to write code on paper too 🕶

          • Alex
            AlexJul 26, 2025

            With no assumptions, if you compare apples to apples, there is still no evidence that productivity increases with assistance in the form of code generation.
            Therefore, it's not even certain whether the same junior will experience an increase in real-world productivity (which includes code support/bug fixing time, or incident cost) with Cursor

  • Lydia Wheeler
    Lydia WheelerJul 26, 2025

    All New Collection T-shirt Available

  • Alex
    AlexJul 26, 2025

    Important detail: Deno is not npm compatible in same way as Bun is. That makes transition from Nodejs to Bun easier (in many cases without any code changes).

    Also, Buns' standard library has several useful features built in (worth checking out; it could save you from extra dependencies).

    Bun is less stable than Nodejs, I encountered some bugs (it was a year ago, but obviously it's less mature then Nodejs).

  • emwadde
    emwaddeJul 27, 2025

    None of these tools will make you an "ultimate" developer. This is just the author's stack. The only way to become better is by learning.

    • Anthony Max
      Anthony MaxJul 27, 2025

      Well, with such tools it will definitely be easier

      • emwadde
        emwaddeJul 27, 2025

        None of these tools are a real gateway to "learn programming"

  • sachin bisht
    sachin bishtJul 27, 2025

    Tools can help making us ultimate but only if polish core skills in parallel to take best of both.

  • Jaideep Parashar
    Jaideep ParasharJul 27, 2025

    Months back, I also came up with this query that tools could make us great developers, and if yes, then which tool would help us?

    After much brainstorming, I thought to test it and get real feedback. So, I published a book, ChatGPT Prompts for Coding, and the book got a good response and became a bestseller. The response was so good that people asked for more such prompts.

    Now, more and more people are opting for tools to get faster results and outcomes. I also agree with the author and the article that now tools are driving better results, and companies have started tool integration. We all should learn different tools besides our own knowledge.

    Book Reference: ChatGPT Prompts for Coding

  • Martijn
    MartijnJul 28, 2025

    Medusa is nice, but I find developer experience a bit nicer with Vendure. (+ Vendure is built on top of Nest.js, #4 on this list!)

  • Dave Derrick
    Dave DerrickJul 28, 2025

    "Not a single serious project can be done without first making a component in StoryBook" that's where you lost credibility.

  • Arnaud Delante
    Arnaud DelanteJul 31, 2025

    Could you stop spamming random AI generated list of tools just to promote your lib ?

    • Anthony Max
      Anthony MaxJul 31, 2025

      Yes, I can. Only, I wrote it myself, not AI. I think, like a robot, I just do them out of habit, taking blocks from previous articles. I've already done about 10 of them, I think that's enough. I'm tired of doing such nonsense myself. The thing is that I did more or less serious articles like this one - dev.to/anthonymax/the-concept-of-a..., but no one needs them.

    • Anthony Max
      Anthony MaxJul 31, 2025

      What's the point of me doing a 10-page analysis of reactivity (and I can do it), if in the end the article will be read 100 times and then forgotten? Since Cample, I've been doing cool articles that in the end no one needed, although the content there was more interesting than all the lists. I can do 10-hour analyses on the topic of frameworks and performance, because I spent 3 years on it, but no one needs this topic. Vue-vapor came out, which will completely change web development, and everyone except a couple of people who understand what it is, doesn't give a shit.

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