FckSignups: 174 open-source tools, zero signups
No accounts, no email walls, no tracking. Just tools that work, curated by one person with excellent taste.
174 open-source, no-signup tools in one directory, built by one person for free. Here is why we back it.
Every week we hit a tool that wants an account before it will even show us what it does. Email, password, confirm the email, now pick a plan. FckSignups is that instinct reversed all the way: a directory of 174 open-source tools you can use right now, in the browser, no account anywhere. One person built it and keeps it current. We back that kind of project, so here is why.
What it actually is
FckSignups is a directory, not a tool of its own. Open it and you get a search bar, nine categories, and a wall of cards: Excalidraw for a hand-drawn whiteboard, CryptPad for encrypted docs, PairDrop for sending a file to the laptop next to you, Stirling PDF for splitting and merging PDFs, WebLLM for running a language model straight in the browser tab. 174 tools at last count, each card linking straight to the live thing, no detour through a landing page that asks for an email first.
Every card shows a GitHub star count and a license badge, so you know what you are getting before you click through. One GitHub user, BraveOPotato, built and maintains it, taking submissions through a "Submit a tool" button and GitHub issues.
Why we back it
The premise is our own hard guarantee, pointed at tools instead of briefs: do not make someone wait, or hand over something they did not agree to, for a thing they have not even tried yet. We answer every brief within 24 hours or refund the site fee. FckSignups asks the same question of software: why does trying a whiteboard need my email address?
We already reach for a few of these directly. Excalidraw for a quick sketch mid-call. CryptPad when a client wants something encrypted without us standing up our own stack for it. Stirling PDF for the paperwork every project seems to generate. Having them in one searchable, starred, licensed list beats keeping a scattered folder of bookmarks.
The honest tradeoff
It is one person's judgment, not a committee's. The site says every tool is "independently verified" without spelling out the process, and the directory itself does not carry a visible license or terms, only the tools it points to do. If a small project listed here goes quiet, that is on that project's own maintainer, not on FckSignups.
None of that changes the value. One person curating 174 useful, no-signup tools and keeping the list current is exactly the kind of unglamorous, useful work worth pointing at.
Next step: open FckSignups next time something wants your email before it has shown you anything. More of what we reach for is on the tools page.