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About this directory
A public directory of small, independent software for people who want to depend a little less on the largest companies on the internet.
This website is an independent project inspired by Ivan Illich's book, with no connection to his estate or publisher.
We review tools from independent makers, from one-person vibe-coded experiments to established open-source projects, and score them on how much they put the possibilities in your hands. Now and then we review one of the giants too, as benchmarks, so there is something to measure against.
Who makes this
I'm Jeff Humble, a tech and UX guy based in Berlin. I started this site as a way to show off the tools I like: small, honest ones that do their job and leave you free to go. For years I couldn't say what they had in common, until I read Ivan Illich's book and found the word for it.
It matters more now that AI can help almost anyone build software. There will be far more tools, and we need a new standard for judging which ones deserve our time. I wanted to reward the tools that protect the people using them, so that makers have a reason to build that way.
If you find the directory useful and want to help keep it running, you can buy us a coffee with a one-off tip through Stripe. The tip is entirely optional, it buys no influence over scores, and the site stays free and ad-free either way.
About the book
The book is Tools for Conviviality, published in 1973. This website is an independent project inspired by Ivan Illich's book, with no connection to his estate or publisher. We paraphrase its ideas and quote it rarely and briefly, with a source.
Please read the book itself. You can find it in a library near you, buy it from an independent bookshop through Bookshop.org, or order it from your local bookshop.
About the reviews
Scores reflect our judgement on the date shown on each review and may change as tools change. We don't take payment for listings or reviews. If that ever changes for a link, the page will say so.
Tools marked Made here are built by the site's founder and are scored with the same rubric as everything else.
Corrections
If you make a tool we have reviewed, or you spot a mistake in any review, including the benchmarks, tell us through the suggestion form or at hello@toolsforconviviality.org and we will check it and correct it. Reviews state our opinion and rely on public sources, and where something is only alleged, we say so and keep it out of the score. Product and company names belong to their owners, and we are not affiliated with any of them.
Pictures
Logos and screenshots on this site belong to the people who make the tools. We show them so you can recognise what you are reading about, and each screenshot says where it came from and when it was taken. A script fetches them from each tool's own public page, identifies itself as ToolsForConvivialityBot, and skips any site whose robots.txt says no. If you make a tool listed here and would rather we use a different image, or none, write to hello@toolsforconviviality.org and we will change it.