10 Developer Tools I Used to Swear By (That I Completely Replaced in 2026)

Source: Dev.to

Your dev stack from 2 years ago? Yeah, half of it is obsolete.

I’m not even being dramatic. I looked at my setup from early 2024 and genuinely laughed. Tools I would’ve gone to war for on Twitter are just… gone from my machine. Uninstalled. Forgotten.

And that’s fine. That’s how it should be.

We get attached to our tools like they’re part of our identity.

“I’m a VS Code guy.”
“I use Postman, fight me.”

Then something better comes along and suddenly you can’t remember why you were so loyal in the first place.

Below are 10 tools I completely replaced this year, what I switched to, and why I’m not looking back.

Postman → Bruno

I used Postman for years. It was the default. You needed to test an API? Postman. Every tutorial showed it, every job listing mentioned it.

Then Postman started requiring an account. Then they added workspaces, then teams, then collections sync. Suddenly a tool for sending HTTP requests needed a cloud account and wanted me to pay $12 / month for… sending HTTP requests.

Bruno is open‑source and stores your collections as plain files on your filesystem. That’s the whole pitch. Your API collections live right next to your code, you can commit them to Git, and you never need to create an account. It loads fast because it’s not trying to be a collaboration platform.

I still open Postman maybe once a month when I’m dealing with some weird legacy workspace a client shared. But for my own projects? Bruno all day.

VS Code → Cursor

This one hurt to admit because VS Code was basically my home. I had it customized with 30+ extensions, knew every shortcut, had my snippets set up perfectly.

But Cursor changed things. It’s built on VS Code (so all your extensions work), but the AI integration is miles ahead of any VS Code extension I’ve tried. The tab completion doesn’t just autocomplete function names – it understands what you’re building, reads your other files, and picks up on your patterns.

The “apply” feature alone saves me probably 30 minutes a day. You describe what you want changed, it shows you the diff, you hit apply. Done. No more manual find‑and‑replace across 15 files.

I keep VS Code installed for quick config edits and when I need a clean editor without AI suggestions. But for actual coding sessions? Cursor is the daily driver and I don’t see that changing.

Notion → Obsidian

Notion was my everything app. Notes, tasks, databases, wikis. I built entire systems in Notion. I even sold Notion templates (still do, actually).

Then Notion got slow. Like, noticeably slow. Opening a page took 2‑3 seconds. Searching took forever. And they started shoving AI features into every corner of the interface. “Notion AI can summarize this page!” Cool, I didn’t ask.

Obsidian stores everything as plain markdown files in a folder on your computer. No servers, no sync issues, no loading screens. It works offline. If Obsidian disappears tomorrow, you still have all your notes as .md files. Try exporting 500 pages from Notion sometime – it’s painful.

I still use Notion for shared databases with other people because the collaboration is solid. But for personal notes and my own knowledge base? Obsidian wins and it’s not close.

Slack → Discord

This might be controversial if you work at a company with a Slack contract, but whatever.

Slack was in every workspace I had – work channels, community groups, even personal project chats. Then I hit the free‑tier message limit and lost months of conversation history. That was the moment.

Discord gives you unlimited message history for free, voice channels that actually work well, screen sharing, and no paywall on any of it. The developer communities moved to Discord years ago, and the vibe is completely different. Slack feels like you’re at work. Discord feels like you’re hanging out with people who happen to also write code.

I still use Slack when a company requires it – that’s literally the only reason. If you’re building a developer community or an open‑source project, Discord is the obvious choice. The thread system in Discord got way better too.

Docker Desktop → OrbStack

If you’re on a Mac and still running Docker Desktop, I feel sorry for your RAM.

Docker Desktop was eating 4 GB of memory just sitting there. Starting containers took 30+ seconds sometimes. My fans sounded like a jet engine. And the GUI was clunky on top of all that.

OrbStack is what Docker Desktop should have been. It uses way less memory, containers start in seconds, and the macOS integration feels native. I went from constantly checking Activity Monitor to just… not thinking about it.

The switch took me about 10 minutes. Everything worked – all my docker‑compose files, all my images, no issues. I honestly don’t understand why anyone on Mac would still use Docker Desktop at this point. OrbStack has a free tier for personal use too.

Heroku → Railway

Heroku was the “just push and deploy” platform. It was great while it lasted. Then they killed the free tier in November 2022 and a million side projects went dark overnight.

Railway picked up where Heroku left off. You get $5 in free credits every month, which is enough for most hobby projects. The deploy process is just as simple: connect your GitHub repo, push, done. The dashboard is clean and the logs actually make sense.

I’ve also used Fly.io, and it’s great too, especially for anything that needs to be globally distributed. But Railway is my go‑to for “I just want this thing running somewhere.” The developer experience is honestly better than Heroku ever was. Database provisioning takes one click. Environment variables just work.

Heroku still exists and some companies still use it. But for personal projects and startups, Railway is the move.

Create React App → Vite

This one isn’t even controversial anymore. Create React App is officially dead. The React team themselves said to stop using it.

CRA would take 30+ seconds to start a dev server. Hot reload was unreliable. Build times were painful. And good luck trying to customize the webpack config.

Vite flips the script: lightning‑fast dev server, native ES‑module support, and an out‑of‑the‑box build that’s dramatically quicker. The plugin ecosystem is thriving, and the config is a single, readable file.

Switching a project from CRA to Vite is usually a matter of a few npm installs and a tiny config tweak. The performance boost alone makes it worth it.

(Continue the list as needed…)

Vite (no‑eject config)

• Fast startup – Vite starts in milliseconds, not seconds.
• Instant HMR – Hot Module Replacement is immediate.
• Human‑readable config – The config file is easy to read and edit.
• Framework agnostic – Works with React, Vue, Svelte, or anything else.
• Rollup‑based build – Produces smaller bundles.

If you’re starting a new React project in 2026 and you reach for Create React App, you’re actively choosing to suffer. Use Vite.
Or pick Next.js if you need SSR. But please, not CRA.

Redux → Zustand

I spent way too many hours learning Redux: actions, reducers, action creators, middleware, thunks, sagas… The boilerplate was insane. Setting up a basic global counter required 5 files and ≈80 lines of code.

Zustand is a global‑state library you can set up in about 10 lines:

import { create } from "zustand";

const useStore = create((set) => ({
  count: 0,
  increment: () => set((state) => ({ count: state.count + 1 })),
}));

• No providers wrapping the whole app.
• No dispatch.
• No connect.

If you need atomic state management, Jotai is also excellent.

I wouldn’t rip Redux out of an existing production codebase just because.
But for any new project? There’s zero reason to choose Redux over Zustand unless your team already knows Redux inside‑out.

Jest → Vitest

If you’re already using Vite (and you should be after reading #7), Vitest is the obvious testing pick.

• Same API as Jest → migration is almost copy‑paste.
• Much faster – uses Vite’s transform pipeline instead of its own.
  • Jest: 15‑20 s start‑up on large projects.
  • Vitest: near‑instant, watch mode is truly usable.
• Config is simpler; often you don’t need a separate file because Vitest reads from vite.config.ts.
• Compatible with most Jest plugins and matchers out of the box.

I still use Jest on projects that aren’t using Vite, because it’s not worth migrating the build tool just for testing. But every new project gets Vitest – the speed difference alone is worth it.

Google Search → Perplexity / Claude

“OK this one is the spiciest take on the list, and it happened gradually.”

My old workflow:

1. Google “how to center a div”, “React useEffect cleanup”, “TypeScript generic constraints”.
2. Click a Stack Overflow link from 2019.
3. Read an answer that uses class components.
4. Scroll down to a comment: “this is deprecated.”
5. Find another answer. Repeat.

Now I just ask Claude or use Perplexity. The answer:

• Gives the current best practice, not a 4‑year‑old snippet.
• Understands the context of my project.
• Lets me paste actual code and ask “why is this breaking?” – I get a real answer, not a barrage of follow‑up questions.

I still use Google for:

• Non‑dev stuff.
• Finding specific documentation pages.
• Human opinions on topics like “which hosting provider is best for X” where AI can be too diplomatic.

But for straight‑up coding questions and debugging? AI search wins by a mile.

Closing Thoughts

Your tools should work for you, not the other way around.

• Don’t cling to a tool just because “it’s what I know” or “it’s industry standard.”
• Industry standards change. What was standard in 2022 is collecting dust in 2026.
• Try new stuff. Give it a real chance (at least a week, not 20 minutes).
  • If it’s better, switch.
  • If it’s not, go back.
• There’s no loyalty program for developer tools. Nobody’s giving you points for sticking with Redux for six years.

Half of this list will probably be outdated by 2028 – and that’s fine. I’ll write another one.

If you found this useful, I share more stuff like this on Telegram and sell developer toolkits on Boosty.