r/DeveloperToolsHub

Every once in a while I find a debugging tool and immediately get annoyed that I did things the hard way for so long.

Could be for logs, APIs, frontend state, network requests, databases, background jobs, anything.

I’m not looking for the obvious stuff everyone already knows. More curious about the tool that quietly made debugging less painful for you.

What did you discover late that is now part of your regular workflow?

I get why companies need secret scanning, but I’m curious where solo devs draw the line.

If you’re building side projects alone, using private repos, and not working with a big team, do you still run secret scanning? Or do you just rely on not being careless with commits?

I’ve definitely had moments where I almost committed something dumb, so I can see the value. But some security tooling feels made for bigger teams with compliance needs, not one person shipping after work.

What’s your setup as a solo dev?

I’m comparing Postgres hosts right now and every option seems to have a catch.

One is cheap until you need an always-on instance. Another makes sense only if the rest of your app is on the same cloud. Then there are platforms that bundle auth, storage and a bunch of features I may never use.

I’m also unsure how much weight to give the database region. Most of my users are in Asia, so choosing a US or EU region because the host is cheaper feels like something I might regret later.

For anyone who has been running Postgres in production for a while, what ended up mattering most? Price, latency, backups, support, extensions, or how easy it is to manage?

I’m less worried about getting the perfect setup now. I mainly don’t want to migrate six months later because I picked based on the starter plan.

I’m comparing Supabase and RDS for a small production app and honestly neither feels like an obvious choice.

Supabase looks much easier to get started with, but I don’t really need auth, storage, realtime etc. I mainly need Postgres. once the app grows, the usage based parts of the pricing also seem harder to estimate.

RDS gives more control and I trust AWS for production, but then the bill is split across instance, storage, backups, I/O, networking and HA. it feels like a lot for a relatively normal Postgres workload.

What I actually want is pretty simple:

• always-on managed Postgres
• backups and maintenance handled
• predictable monthly pricing
• good regions in Asia
• standard Postgres so I can move later if required

Would you still pick Supabase or RDS for this, or is there a better middle option I should be looking at?

The biggest difference for me was adding proper error tracking early instead of waiting until the project felt serious.

When you are building alone, you don’t always have someone else noticing weird bugs or broken flows. Having errors show up clearly saved me from guessing based on vague user messages or checking logs manually.

What tool made the biggest difference for you as a solo developer?

Could be coding, deployment, docs, analytics, support, anything that made the work feel less lonely or less messy.

I don’t hate Postman, but I miss when API clients felt simple.

Open app, send request, save collection, done. Now every API tool seems to want accounts, sync, workspaces, teams, docs, monitors, mock servers, and 20 other things before I even send a GET request.

I’m mostly looking for something that feels fast and does not get in the way. Bonus if it works nicely with Git or local files.

What are people using that still feels lightweight?

I’m building a startup and trying to choose a database that won’t become expensive or hard to manage too early.

I’m looking for something reliable, affordable, and able to scale if the project starts getting real users. I’ve seen people mention Postgres, Supabase, Firebase, MongoDB, and managed cloud databases, but it’s hard to tell what’s actually best for a small startup budget and my users are mostly in asia.

What database did you start with, and would you choose it again?

This might just be me, but AI coding tools have made some PRs weirdly harder to review.

The code usually looks clean at first glance, but then you find small logic issues, overcomplicated helpers, weird edge cases, or tests that pass but don’t really prove anything. It feels less like reviewing someone’s thought process and more like trying to guess what the tool assumed.

I still use AI for coding, so this is not an anti-AI rant. It’s just that review feels different now.

Anyone else noticing this? How are you changing your review process?

For side projects, I’m trying to stop choosing tools based on what I want to learn and start choosing based on what I’ll actually finish.

My simple setup is usually a familiar framework, managed Postgres, basic auth, one deployment platform, and the least annoying monitoring I can get away with. I only add more when the project earns it.

What do you use when you want a side project to stay simple?

I’m choosing a managed Postgres host for a small production app, and comparing the options has been harder than I expected.

Some look cheap until you need an always-on database. Others include a full backend platform when all I need is Postgres. The larger cloud providers seem reliable, but it’s difficult to estimate the final cost once storage, backups, replicas, and networking are added.

The app isn’t huge, but it has real users, so I’d rather choose something I won’t need to move away from six months later.

For anyone running Postgres in production, which host are you using? How has it been for pricing, backups, performance, and maintenance?