How we build i-love-tools.com
The tools on this site run entirely in your browser. When you calculate a mortgage schedule, work out a BMI, generate a QR code, or encode text to Base64, the work happens locally — your inputs are never uploaded to a server and never leave your device. We chose this architecture so that the cheapest, most private way to use a utility is also the default way.
Because every calculation is done client-side in JavaScript, there is no network round-trip for a result, nothing is written to disk, and no user data is logged. The tools keep working even on a slow or intermittent connection.
The tech stack
The site is built with Next.js 15 on the App Router, deployed to Vercel. Tool UIs are React components, styled with inline styles rather than a heavy framework so the page weight stays low, and every page that does not depend on per-request state is statically generated.
The calculators are plain TypeScript — the financial tools implement standard amortization and compound-interest formulas, and the health tools use published equations such as Mifflin-St Jeor for BMR. QR generation uses qrcode. Libraries are chosen for the same reasons throughout: permissive licensing, no telemetry, and small bundle size.
What we deliberately don't do
- No user accounts. There is no log-in flow, no email collection, no “sign up to use this tool.”
- No file storage. Files never persist between sessions — if a tool runs in-browser they never leave your device.
- No analytics tied to identity. Analytics measure aggregate traffic; nothing is tied to a personal identifier.
- No newsletter, no upsells, no “Pro” tier. Every feature is available to every visitor.
- No artificial limits. There is no “you have 3 free conversions left today.”
How tools get added
New tools are added when (a) the underlying task is clear and self-contained, (b) we can build a version that runs client-side or on a stateless server, and (c) the result is at least as fast and ad-free as the leading existing options. We deliberately avoid building thin wrappers around APIs — every tool needs to provide actual value beyond a UI for someone else's service.
The flagship tools (those with detailed explanations beneath the tool) are tools where the topic has genuine depth worth writing about — the math behind a financial calculation, the standards behind an encoding format, the practical conventions behind a measurement. Tools where there is little to explain stay simple and focused.
How we sustain the site
We display Google AdSense ads on a subset of tool pages and on category landing pages. Ads are non-intrusive (no pop-ups, no interstitials, no video auto-play) and are not personalized unless you explicitly consent via the cookie banner. We use Google Consent Mode v2 to ensure that until consent is granted, no advertising or analytics cookies are set, and only non-personalized ads are shown.
Ads cover server costs and pay for occasional development work. There are no affiliate links, no sponsored tools, and no “recommended” products inserted into tool flows. If we ever begin recommending a third-party product, it will be clearly disclosed.
Privacy in practice
The detailed privacy policy lives on its own page, but the short version is: we collect the minimum data needed to operate the site. We use Google Analytics 4 (aggregate traffic), Microsoft Clarity (heatmaps and session replays — IP and personal identifiers automatically masked), and Google AdSense for ads. Each of these can be disabled by withdrawing consent in the cookie banner at the bottom of the page.
We do not sell data, do not run our own retargeting pixels, and do not share any data with advertisers beyond what Google AdSense's standard cookie behavior provides.
Who is behind the site
i-love-tools.com is a small independent project, maintained by a single developer. There is no marketing department, no growth team, and no investors. The maintainer reads every email sent to hello@i-love-tools.com and replies personally — sometimes slowly, but always.
If you have a bug to report, a tool to suggest, or a correction to one of the deep-content explanations, please get in touch via the contact page. Feedback from users is the primary input for which tools get built or improved next.