walid@portfolio:~/lab/fifty-useful-sites$
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01ideaSep 2026

Fifty sites, and the seven you will actually use

A bookmark list worth keeping — every domain checked, two had quietly moved

Fifty free web tools grouped by the job they do, rather than listed flat. All fifty were checked and every one is still up — but two have changed address since the list was written. The advice that makes it usable is in the list itself: do not try all fifty, pick the seven that match your week.

ToolsBookmarksFree toolsUtilities
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Read this before the list

A list of fifty is a list of none — you bookmark the lot, use nothing, and forget the folder exists. The instruction that makes it work: pick seven that match the work you are actually doing this week, put them in one folder called Tools, and ignore the other forty-three until a job asks for them. The groupings below exist so you can find your seven fast.

Group 1

Rescue, reference and learning

SiteWhat it does
archive.orgView any old website and deleted content.
wolframalpha.comSolve complex problems in mathematics and science.
gutenberg.orgRead thousands of classic books for free.
khanacademy.orgLearn math, science and school topics step by step.
alternativeto.netFind alternatives to a site or app you already use.
shortcuts.designKeyboard shortcuts for all the popular design software.
Group 2

Images and design

SiteWhat it does
remove.bgRemove the background of an image in a flash.
cleanup.picturesErase objects or people from a photo in a few clicks.
tinypng.comReduce image size while keeping the quality.
squoosh.appCompress images with fine-grained control.
photopea.comEdit photos in the browser like a full design app.
unsplash.comHigh-quality free stock images.
pexels.comFree videos and images you can use with less worry.
flaticon.comFree vector icons for design.
tineye.comReverse-search an image and find where it came from.
shots.soTurn plain screenshots into clean mockups.
canva.comDesign graphics and social posts without a design tool.
coolors.coGenerate colour palettes fast.
fonts.google.comFree fonts for any project.
excalidraw.comDraw simple diagrams that are easy to share.
carbon.now.shTurn a code snippet into a presentable image.
Group 3

Words, files and research

SiteWhat it does
deepl.comThe most natural-sounding translation.
grammarly.comCorrect spelling and grammar in English.
hemingwayapp.comCut sentences down until the writing reads easily.
quillbot.comRewrite sentences so they sound clear and natural.
smallpdf.comEdit and convert PDFs.
ilovepdf.comCombine multiple PDFs or split them apart.
tinywow.comPDFs, images, video and text from one toolbox.
notebook.google.comTurn your own notes and files into clear answers.
perplexity.aiSearch for information that comes back with sources.
elicit.comAsk a research question and pull answers from papers.
prompts.chatReady-made prompts that make AI answers better.
flowgpt.comBrowse prompts for work, study, posts and ideas.
Group 4

Developer

SiteWhat it does
github.comCode hosting and project backup.
gist.github.comSave and share snippets that stay easy to find again.
replit.comWrite and run code straight from the browser.
regex101.comTest a regular expression and see why it matches.
explainshell.comPaste a terminal command and get it explained piece by piece.
pastebin.comShare any text or code as a link.
pagespeed.web.devFind out why a page feels slow and what to fix.
Group 5

Safety, network and everyday

SiteWhat it does
haveibeenpwned.comCheck whether an email or password has been leaked.
virustotal.comScan a file or link for malware before you open it.
downdetector.comCheck whether a site is down, or just down for you.
fast.comMeasure real internet speed in one click.
10minutemail.comA throwaway inbox for sign-ups you do not want to keep.
duckduckgo.comSearch with less tracking, and jump straight to sites.
notion.comKeep notes, work and life organised in one place.
trello.comManage a project on a board without the overhead.
namecheap.comSearch and register a domain without the usual headache.
justwatch.comFind where a film or show is actually streaming.
!
Two of these have moved — the list still uses the old names

Checked live: notion.so now 301-redirects to notion.com, and notebooklm.google.com 301-redirects to notebook.google.com. Both old addresses still work, so nothing is broken, but the canonical names have changed and the tables above use the current ones. Every other domain on the list resolves — the handful that refuse an automated request are bot protection, not dead sites.

How to use them

Stack them by task, not by bookmark

The point of a list this size is not the individual sites, it is that a few of them chain into a job you do repeatedly.

TaskThe chain
Writingprompts.chat or flowgpt.com for the first draft, hemingwayapp.com to shorten it, grammarly.com for the mistakes, deepl.com if it has to change language.
Imagesunsplash.com or pexels.com for the photo, remove.bg or cleanup.pictures to clean it, tinypng.com or squoosh.app to shrink it, canva.com to place it.
Filessmallpdf.com or ilovepdf.com for PDFs, tinywow.com when you cannot remember which tool you need, archive.org when the page has disappeared.
Researchperplexity.ai when you want sources, elicit.com when you want papers, notebook.google.com when the material is already your own.
Safetyhaveibeenpwned.com on every address you still use, virustotal.com on anything that arrives looking odd, 10minutemail.com for a sign-up you will never return to.
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