Guides

One page per question people actually ask. Each opens with the answer — no preamble.

One email a month. Only the apps worth your time.

What they do, what they don't, and whether they actually work offline — we check. No roundup of everything we listed, no affiliate links.

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AnkiWeb Download: Does It Work Offline, and Need an Account?

Looking for an ankiweb download? AnkiWeb is the free sync and review site; the Anki program itself is a separate download.

A Free AirDrop Alternative for Android and Windows

Looking for an airdrop alternative for android and windows? ShareDrop sends files peer-to-peer over shared Wi-Fi, no account, no upload.

How Does ScanCompta Work? Receipt Photo to CSV

Wondering how does scancompta work? You photograph a receipt, AI reads total, VAT, date and category, then your accountant gets a CSV.

Free Video Editor in Browser, No Install: Local or Uploaded?

Need a free video editor browser no install? OpenCut and VideoTrim process locally; Clideo uploads to its servers and removes files afterwards.

Free Pixel Art Palette Generator: Lospec Palettes and Tools

Looking for a free pixel art palette generator? Lospec offers free palette browsing and palette tools; pair it with PixelCraft to draw.

Free Online Code Editor, No Download Needed

Find a free online code editor no download install needed: StackBlitz runs full Node.js via WebAssembly, CodeSandbox offers instant frontend previews.

Is Remove.bg Free to Use? What the No-Cost Tier Covers

Is remove.bg free? The site advertises free background removal; check its pricing page for resolution, volume and commercial-use terms.

Is Notesnook a Private, Free, Encrypted Notes App?

Notesnook is a private notes app free encrypted end-to-end, with unlimited notes on its free plan and paid tiers for extra storage.

Can You Install Mastodon as an App on Your Phone or Desktop?

A mastodon app install works from any server's website: add it to your phone or desktop, though Mastodon needs a connection to work.

How to Optimize SVG File Size Online with SVGOMG

SVGOMG lets you optimize SVG file size online for free, using SVGO to strip metadata and simplify paths in the browser.

Free JSON Formatter No Install: Debug Webhooks & Convert Code

Webhook.site, JSON Crack, grep.app, Transform.tools, CodeImage and bundle.js: six free json formatter no install browser tools for developers.

Free Color Palette Generator With No Signup Required

Coolors, CSS Gradient, Fontjoy, Type Scale and Haikei form a free color palette generator no signup toolkit for colors, gradients and fonts.

A Free, Self-Hostable Airtable Alternative: Grist

Grist is an airtable alternative free of monthly fees, with relational tables, formulas and per-row access rules you can self-host.

Free Project Management App No Install Required

Taskade, Taiga and Grist are three PWAs offering a free project management app no install required, from mind maps to Scrum boards.

How to Use DevDocs Offline for API References

DevDocs offline caching lets you browse over 100 API docs without a connection once the first visit downloads them.

Is JWT.io Safe to Paste Your JWT Into?

Is jwt.io safe to use? Yes, it decodes JWTs in your browser — but never paste a live production token into any web tool.

Cron Expression Examples: A Cheat Sheet for Common Schedules

Cron expression examples for every-minute, midnight, weekly and monthly schedules, explained in plain English and testable live on Crontab Guru.

Is Bitwarden Free? What the No-Cost Plan Actually Includes

Is Bitwarden free? Yes, for personal use: an encrypted vault, browser extension and sync at no cost. Premium, Families and Business cost extra.

DeckDeckGo Alternatives: 4 Free Browser Tools for Presentations

DeckDeckGo is archived — the best deckdeckgo alternative depends on your needs: Canva, Google Slides, Slides, or Pitch.

Figma Alternative Free: Self-Host or Browser Picks

A figma alternative free to self-host or use online: Penpot for interface design, Graphite for procedural vector work.

Finance & Business PWAs: Invoicing, Budgeting and Signing Tools

Invoice Ninja, DocuSeal and MoneyTracker anchor this free, installable category — invoicing, signing and budgeting, limits vary by tool.

Social & Communication PWAs — Free, Federated Chat and Social Tools

Element, Mastodon, Pixelfed and PeerTube: free, installable, federated apps for encrypted chat, microblogging, photos and video.

Productivity PWAs: Office, Notes and Collaboration Tools

ONLYOFFICE DocSpace and CryptPad lead this free, installable category — office suites, notes and encrypted collaboration, offline support varies.

PWA games: install browser games without an app store

Browser games you can install like an app, some playable offline — separate from our dedicated offline PWA games guide.

A list of progressive web apps worth installing

A working list of progressive web apps, grouped by what you would actually open them for. Every entry was opened in a real browser; offline capability is measured, not claimed.

Websites that install like apps

Sites that offer to install themselves, keep an icon on your home screen, and often work with no connection. What separates them from an ordinary bookmark.

Free apps that install from the browser

Progressive web apps that cost nothing, install from the address bar, and in several cases work with no connection. Which ones are free as in no payment, and which are free as in open source.

Browser games you can install

Games that install from the browser with no store and no download. Chess, puzzles, word games and card games, with which ones keep working offline.

Developer tools that install from the browser

References, validators and converters that install from the browser — several of them, DevDocs first, keep answering with no connection at all.

Whiteboards that run in a browser tab

Drawing and diagramming tools that install from the browser. Excalidraw, tldraw, Penpot and the rest, with what each is actually for and which ones survive a lost connection.

Photo editors that run in the browser

Image editors that open in a tab and install from the address bar. Photopea for PSD files, Squoosh for compression, Polarr for adjustments — and which ones process your files locally.

Music and audio tools that install from the browser

Audio editors, players and instruments that run in a browser tab and install to your home screen. AudioMass, Mixxx, BitMidi, Bandcamp and Radio Garden.

Note apps that install from the browser

Notes, documents and knowledge bases that install from a browser tab. Notesnook, AppFlowy, Anytype, AFFiNE and CryptPad, with which ones encrypt and which ones work offline.

Health and fitness apps you install from the browser

Workout builders, habit trackers, nutrition logs and meditation tools that install from a browser tab — several of them without an account, and several that keep working with no connection.

Does Calcumber work offline?

Yes. Install Calcumber from the browser and the notebook keeps calculating with no connection. What works offline, and the one part that does not.

Is Calcumber free?

Yes — Calcumber is free to use, runs in the browser and needs no account to start. What you get, and what a calculation notebook is actually for.

Is there a calculator that handles units properly?

Most calculators make you strip the units off first. Calcumber keeps them through the calculation, converts between them and refuses inconsistent dimensions.

Do you need an account for Paper Critters?

No. Open the studio, decorate a 3D paper toy, print the sheet and fold it. No sign-up, no email, and the studio keeps working offline.

How do you make a printable paper toy?

Decorate a 3D model in the browser, print one page, cut and fold. No account, no special paper, and the studio works offline once loaded.

Does Paper Critters work offline?

Yes — the studio keeps working with no connection once it has loaded, and installs like a desktop app. Only the printing step needs hardware.

Can you play card games with your own photos?

Yes. 52Cards.app lets you upload your own images as the deck — family photos, pets, inside jokes — across ten classic games, in the browser.

Does 52Cards.app work offline?

No — 52Cards.app needs a connection today. It installs to your home screen and plays ten card games, but a flight is not the moment to rely on it.

Where can you play Hearts and Spades online free?

52Cards.app runs Hearts, Spades, Gin Rummy and seven more in the browser — free, no app store, and playable with a deck of your own photos.

Can you play solitaire without signing up?

Yes. TrySolitaire opens straight into the game — no account, no download, no app store. Solitaire, Mahjong, Sudoku and 2048 from one page.

What else can you play on TrySolitaire?

Beyond Solitaire, TrySolitaire carries Mahjong, Sudoku and 2048 — four classics in one browser page, free, with no signup and no download.

Where can you play Mahjong free in the browser?

TrySolitaire runs Mahjong in the browser — free, no account, no download — alongside Solitaire, Sudoku and 2048, on phone, tablet and desktop.

We read 386 PWA manifests. One was complete.

Maskable icon: 41%. An id: 11%. Shortcuts: 8%. Screenshots: 11%. We fetched and parsed the manifest of every app in this catalogue and counted what was actually there.

PWA examples: 578 tested, 243 kept working with the network off

Most lists of PWA examples are lists. We opened all 578 apps in this catalogue in a real browser, cut the network, and recorded which ones survived.

3,800 AI citations, zero visits: which assistants actually send people

Microsoft Copilot cited this directory 3,800 times in three months and sent zero visits. ChatGPT sent 136 without being measurable at all. Here are both sides of the chain.

Where to submit your PWA — and which directories a machine can still read

Four PWA directories still answer. We fetched each one the way a crawler does — no JavaScript — and counted what came back. One of them serves 33 bytes.

Your PWA does not work on iPhone

iOS treats installed web apps differently from every other platform. Four differences explain almost every report, and none of them produce an error message.

Your PWA looks wrong on Android

Android installs web apps more willingly than any other platform, which is why its failures are quieter — a wrong icon, a stale name, an update that never arrives.

Your PWA does not load at all

Not loading and loading blank are different failures with different causes. Here is how to tell them apart in thirty seconds, and what each one means.

Your PWA opens to a blank screen

An installed PWA that opens white is almost always one of four things. Here they are in order of how often we actually see them, with the check for each.

The install prompt never appears

Chrome only offers to install an app when a specific list of conditions is met. Here is that list, in the order they actually fail, and how to see which one is blocking you.

Your update never reaches installed users

You deployed. Installed users still see the old version, sometimes for weeks. Two different causes, one of which permanently orphans everyone who installed before the change.

Your app icon sits in a white circle on Android

Android puts your square logo inside a white blob because the manifest has no maskable icon. It affects most PWAs — we measured. One extra icon fixes it.

Are PWAs still relevant?

Everyone answers this with an opinion. We opened 386 installable web apps in a real browser and cut the network. Here is what the ecosystem actually looks like.

How many PWAs are actually broken?

We opened 386 installable web apps and read every manifest we could reach. Most have at least one defect their author does not know about. Here is the breakdown.

Do PWAs actually work offline?

Being installable and working offline are different things, and most installable apps do not do the second. We measured 386 of them to find out how many.

Why did PWAs fail?

The question is asked constantly and answered with opinion. We measured 386 installable web apps. The failure is real, but it is not the one people describe.

Why is my PWA not installable?

Chrome withholds the install option silently when any one condition fails. Here is the list in the order they break, where the browser names the culprit, and what it never tells you.

Does Excalidraw work offline?

Yes. Excalidraw keeps working with no internet once you install it as an app, and your drawings stay on your device. Here is how to set it up, and what stops working.

Excalidraw download: there is no installer — and you don't need one

There is no official Excalidraw installer for Windows, macOS or Linux. Installing it as an app from your browser takes ten seconds and gives you the same thing: an offline icon in your dock.

Does Photopea work offline?

No — Photopea runs entirely in your browser tab, but it registers no service worker and caches nothing for later. Here is what that means once the connection drops.

Is Excalidraw free — including for commercial work?

Excalidraw is free and open source under the MIT licence, commercial use included. Excalidraw+ adds hosted collaboration — the editor itself costs nothing.

How to send large files without uploading them anywhere

You can send a 10 GB file to someone without it ever being readable by a server. Here is how browser-side encryption works, and which tool to use.

Free audio editors that run in your browser

Trim, fade and normalise audio without installing anything, and without uploading your files to a server. What browser audio editors do well, and where they stop.

How to install a web app on any device

Chrome, Safari, Edge, Android, iOS — the exact steps to turn a website into an app with its own icon and window, and what changes once you do.

What is a PWA, really — and how to tell if a site is one

A Progressive Web App is a website that can install itself and keep working offline. Here is what actually makes one, and how to check whether a site qualifies.

Games you can play with no internet, straight from the browser

Games that install from the browser and keep working with no connection. What makes a game genuinely offline, and which ones are worth the home-screen slot.

Compress and convert images without uploading them

Resize, compress and convert images entirely on your own machine — no upload, no account, no watermark. How browser image tools work and when they beat desktop software.