ZZakuropicks

Only the good stuff, picked for you.

Where code lives and runs

Hosting, registries and the references you keep open all day. Ranked on how quickly you can leave, because the tools that are hardest to leave are usually the ones worth being careful about.

20 pickspublished 12 Oct 2026not yet re-checked since we launched
1

GitHub

MicrosoftTop pick

Where the code is, and that network effect is the whole argument. The parts worth being deliberate about are Actions and Packages, where leaving gets expensive.

hostinggit
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2

GitLab

GitLabTop pick

The one you can run yourself, which for regulated work settles the question before any feature comparison starts.

hostinggitself-hosted
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3

Codeberg

Codeberg e.V.Top pick

A nonprofit Git host with no advertising model, which is the reason it exists and the reason it stays small.

hostinggitnonprofit
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4

SourceHut

SourceHut

Deliberately minimal and fast, built on email-based workflows that predate the modern forge. Opinionated in a way that either fits how you already work or does not.

hostinggitminimal
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5

Vercel

Vercel

The shortest path from a repository to a deployed frontend, and the pricing is where the thinking needs to happen: the free tier is generous and the bill can surprise you.

hostingfrontend
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6

Netlify

Netlify

The one that made static deploys mainstream, and still the gentlest onboarding of the frontend hosts.

hostingfrontend
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7

Cloudflare Workers

Cloudflare

Edge compute with the most generous free tier of the major platforms, and Pages on top of it for static sites. Worth reading the pricing for storage before committing.

hostingedge
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8

Fly.io

Fly.io

Runs ordinary containers close to users without asking you to rewrite anything, which is the middle ground between a PaaS and a cloud.

hostingcontainers
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9

Railway

Railway

Deploy from a repository with a database attached in a couple of minutes. Best for prototypes and small services; worth watching the metered pricing as it grows.

hostingpaas
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10

Render

Render

A straightforward PaaS with a free tier and no yaml to learn, which is the whole pitch and it holds up.

hostingpaas
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11

Docker Hub

Docker

The default registry, and the one whose rate limits are most likely to interrupt a build at the worst time. Worth mirroring anything you depend on.

registrycontainers
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12

npm

npm

The registry everything JavaScript depends on, and a supply chain with a long history of incidents. Lockfiles and provenance are not optional here.

registryjavascript
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13

PyPI

Python Software Foundation

The Python package index, run by a foundation rather than a company, with two-factor requirements that actually took effect.

registrypython
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14

crates.io

Rust Foundation

The Rust registry, small enough to have escaped most of the supply-chain drama and strict about what it accepts.

registryrust
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15

MDN Web Docs

Mozilla

The reference for anything that runs in a browser, with compatibility tables that are the reason it beats searching for a blog post.

referenceweb
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16

DevDocs

Open source

Several documentation sets in one interface with one keyboard shortcut to search them all, which removes most of the tab juggling.

referencedocs
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17

Can I use

Can I use

Answers whether a browser feature is safe to use and, more usefully, what the fallback needs to handle. The data is on GitHub if you want it in a build.

referenceweb
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18

regex101

regex101

Explains a regular expression piece by piece as you type it, which turns the least readable syntax in common use into something you can debug.

referencetooling
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19

Excalidraw

Excalidraw

Hand-drawn-looking diagrams that are quick to make and, more importantly, obviously unfinished, which invites edits instead of deference.

diagramscollaboration
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20

Hoppscotch

Open source

An API client that runs in a browser tab and is open source, so a request collection can live in the repository next to the code it tests.

apitoolingopen-source
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Sources and method

The ranking is ours. Anything on this page that can be checked is checked against a named source, and the date we last opened that source is printed with it. If a figure and our verdict disagree, trust the figure and follow the link.

No site is listed twice. A listing means we used it for a month first, and a free tier only counts as free if it survives the trial period.

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