# 7 Developer Tools I Actually Pay For (And 3 That Are Free)

> Source: <https://dev.to/fadow/7-developer-tools-i-actually-pay-for-and-3-that-are-free-4f7k>
> Published: 2026-05-20 02:11:17+00:00

I'm cheap. I use Arch Linux, Neovim, and open-source everything. But some tools are worth paying for. Here's my list.
My AI coding agent runs on DeepSeek v4 Pro. Cheaper than GitHub Copilot ($10 vs $19/month). Better for Vietnamese context. I use it through Hermes Agent to build boilerplates, write tests, and debug.
DeepSeek Platform — $0.14/M input tokens
Full-stack hosting that just works. Docker Compose one-click deploy. Built-in MongoDB + Redis. No YAML hell. No Kubernetes.
Railway — free $5 credit
I sell my NestJS/Next.js starter kits here. Free to list. They take 10% only on sales. Built-in email marketing to past customers. PayPal + card payments handled automatically.
Gumroad — free to start
Domains. .dev, .app, .com — pick whatever. I use .gumroad.com for now but will switch when there's more revenue.
Namecheap — domains from $1/year
AI agent that runs in my terminal. Builds projects, manages Obsidian, schedules cron jobs. It wrote 80% of my starter kits while I was AFK. Works with DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic, local models.
My second brain. PARA method. Everything I know about NestJS/Next.js/Go lives here. Free. Offline. No vendor lock-in.
0.12 "Stale Earth" with native LSP. No VS Code. No JetBrains. Instant startup. Full control.
DeepSeek API: ~$10
Railway: ~$5
Domain: ~$1/month (annual)
Gumroad: free until sale
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Total: ~$16/month
$16/month to run a full dev setup with AI coding, hosting, and a storefront. Not bad.
Building a NestJS project? Save 7 hours of setup with my pre-configured starter kit.