Whether you’re a privacy-conscious tinkerer or simply want to spare your wallet from monthly subscriptions, self-hosted services are your best friends. But if you’ve already scoured the container landscape and are hungry for more useful apps you can run on local hardware, IT-Tools is my top recommendation. True to its name, it’s a collection of neat utilities you can access from your local machine, and here are five tools included in its web app that I use practically every day.

5 Syntax converters

JSON to YAML is my favorite of the bunch

Let’s say you’re used to working with Kubernetes but need to deploy a container using Docker for a specific project. If you’ve only got JSON files, you’ll have to rewrite the syntax in YAML and save it as a docker-compose.yml file before you can containerize the service.

IT-Tools can make this ordeal a lot more bearable with its JSON to YAML converter. For server admins and coders whose workflows involve dealing with TOML, XML, or CSV coding, you can switch their syntax to JSON/YAML formats (and vice versa) with their respective converter tools.

4 HTML WYSIWYG editor

Perfect for web devs

In my web development journey, the Live Previews extension is the sole reason why I can’t work with any other IDE besides VS Code. But after trying the What You See Is What You Get editor utility in IT-Tools, I must admit that it’s a decent alternative when I need to write HTML code without setting up VS Code on a new virtual machine.

As you may have already guessed from the name, the WYSIWYG editor displays your HTML code as it would appear on a webpage. The best part? IT-Tools lets you generate the HTML source code from your text, making it easy to create full-fledged HTML pages without writing a single line of code!

3 Chmod calculator

Simplify Chmod permissions with this cheatsheet

For the uninitiated, Chmod is a popular command in Linux distros that uses different numerals to assign read, write, and execute privileges to user accounts. While you could keep things simple by typing chmod 777 on a personal system, you’ll need to be more cautious when you’ve got different people who can access the same server or cluster environment.

The Chmod calculator utility in IT-Tools provides a checklist of different users and privileges, letting you generate the precise numeral for your specific permissions.

2 Docker run to Docker compose converter

To save Docker run parameters as config files

As someone who works with Docker containers on a daily basis, I’ve got dozens of docker-compose.yaml files stashed inside my home lab. Sure, the docker run command may provide an easy way to deploy a container, but the YAML-based config files make it easy to share my container setups with my friends and future self.

That’s where the Docker run to Docker compose converter in IT-Tools comes in handy. All you have to do is copy the docker run command alongside the image name, storage location, port number, and other parameters, and IT-Tools will generate the perfectly indented docker-compose.yml file for all posterity.

1 Crontab generator

The be-all-and-end-all tool for Cron automation

If the chmod command’s expressions seem weird, you’re not going to enjoy Cron’s syntax. While it’s great for automating backups, disk scrubs, and other management tasks, the Cron utility in Linux distros uses an even more confusing syntax to schedule your jobs.

Thankfully, IT-Tools’ Crontab generator lets you test your Cron expression’s scheduled time and frequency, making it easy to automate your home lab operations. As someone who works with Linux distributions frequently, the Crontab generator is easily my favorite IT-Tools utility of the bunch.

There's a lot more where that came from!

Considering IT-Tools packs eighty-six handy services, there are several net utilities you can integrate into your workflow. For instance, the Token Generator is really handy when you need to create a random string of characters as the password for your containerized apps. If you’re not familiar with Git commands, you can use IT-Tools’ cheat sheet to manage your source code more effectively. Then you’ve got the more casual tools, like the ASCII Art Text Generator and Emoji Picker.