Who we are
AppCrib is the free tools arm of Infinite Orchard, Inc. We make small, focused software tools. One tool per problem, built to the same quality bar as software you'd pay for, and given away for free.
The model is straightforward and slightly out of step with how most free tools work online. Pick a problem that should be solved in under a minute. Build a tool that solves it in under a minute. Refuse to stuff it with tracking pixels, modal walls, newsletter popups, or premium feature gates. Ship it. Move to the next one.
The catalog covers developer utilities, design tools, home and DIY calculators, and everyday essentials for finance, privacy, statistics, and health. And it keeps growing. Each tool does one thing and nothing more. A JSON formatter formats JSON. A paint calculator does paint. The point is that each one stays focused on its job instead of drifting toward some ambitious all-in-one platform nobody asked for.
The team
AppCrib is built by two co-founders. Carl Stein leads build and deploys as Head of Build. The build-in-public posts on the blog are his. His co-founder runs operations and the business side of the studio.
The parent company is Infinite Orchard, Inc., based in Texas.
A third “team member” worth naming: the studio's in-house build pipeline. It's a multi-agent system that drafts the per-tool launch posts on the blog, the same system that builds and ships the tools themselves. We designed it, we maintain it, Carl spot-checks output before publication, and we're accountable for what comes out of it — which is why those posts are credited to AppCrib rather than to an individual byline. Build-in-public essays are different. Those carry Carl's byline because he writes them personally.
What we believe
Most free tools on the internet are afterthoughts. Ad-stuffed wrappers around basic functionality, designed to rank in Google rather than to actually work. You search for a JSON formatter, land on a page with three interstitial ads and a chatbot popup, and maybe, if you scroll far enough, find the tool. That's been the baseline for a decade.
People deserve better. Free shouldn't mean ugly. Free shouldn't mean hostile. Free shouldn't mean “we'll trickle you the real features once you give us your email.”
Every tool we ship is built to the same standard as paid software. It loads fast, looks good, respects dark mode, and gets out of your way. No modal asking for your email before you've tried anything. No sign-up wall in front of the features. No “free” tier that turns out to be a glorified demo of a paid one. The tools are free, and when we say free we mean it the way the word used to mean it. Nothing is locked, nothing is timed, nothing is waiting for an upgrade prompt.
Privacy is part of the same commitment. Your data stays on your device. We don't collect it, we don't analyze it, we don't upload it to a server where someone could ask for it later. The tools run in your browser because that's the only way to make that promise credibly.
How we make money
Honestly: advertising. The free tools are supported by small, static ad units that don't chase your cursor, expand over the content, or pretend to be close buttons. Google AdSense runs on most pages. The ads are visible because this kind of software gets paid for somehow, and we'd rather be straightforward about it than dress the project up as “community supported” and quietly monetize in some less transparent way.
A few products on the platform offer paid tiers for specialized features aimed at professional use cases. That's a small fraction of the catalog, and the free tier on those products is always genuinely usable on its own, not a demo, not a teaser, not a feature-stripped trial.
We don't sell user data. We don't aggregate and resell analytics. The analytics we do run are consent-gated, minimal, and pointed at one question: which tools people actually use, so we know which ones to keep improving. You can decline and nothing breaks. Clear your local storage and you lose nothing that mattered. The tools aren't retaining anything on our end anyway.
How the tools are built
The technical philosophy is straightforward: static site, client-side execution, no server handling your data. Paste JSON into a formatter, enter dimensions into a drywall calculator, strip EXIF from a photo. All of it happens in your browser tab. Nothing touches a backend, because there's no backend to touch.
The stack is Next.js with static export, Tailwind, and a small pile of focused libraries for specific jobs. The real jq 1.8 compiled to WebAssembly for Jqbin. OKLCH color interpolation math for Graduo. Live token counting for Toklen. The tools load once, work offline, and don't ask you to wait for anything.
You don't need to understand the stack to use the tools, but knowing that everything runs locally and nothing hits a server is the only real way to trust a free online tool. We'd rather ship it that way and explain it clearly than hand-wave privacy with a policy nobody reads.
Get in touch
Have a question, an idea, or a tool you wish existed? Email us at support@infiniteorchard.ai.
We post launch notes and behind-the-scenes notes on the blog. New tool announcements come first there.
You can also find us on social. Two brands, each on two platforms: