I'd rather rent build the tool. Developer in the Netherlands, making small tools for clients and for myself.
See what I builtI solve IT problems for businesses all day. When the fix is another subscription, another bloated app or another dashboard nobody reads, I usually write a small tool instead, and keep it.
Who I am. Twan Hoogveld, a Dutch developer. Most of my work is IT and automation for clients; the rest is tools I needed myself.
What I build. iPhone apps and widgets in Swift, Discord and web tools in TypeScript, Windows automation and security checks in PowerShell, and the WordPress sites around them.
How I work. Self-hosted where I can, one container where possible, no tracking unless someone actually reads it. Small enough to understand at three in the morning.
How to reach me. Email twan@hoogveld.me. Code lives on GitHub.
Six tools, all still in use.
Instead of YAGPDB Premium. Logging, moderation with case history, automod, role menus, welcome messages and a web dashboard to set it all up. One Docker container with SQLite built into Node. No paid tier, because there is nothing to upsell.
TypeScript, Node, SQLite, Docker
Instead of the YouTube app. My fork of an open-source SwiftUI YouTube client: no ads, sponsor segments skipped, Firebase and analytics removed, and cut down so it builds and signs with a free Apple ID.
Swift 6, SwiftUI, iOS
Instead of three weather apps. One home-screen widget with the hourly forecast, rain for the next two hours in five-minute steps, and the Buienradar map. Glance, and you know whether to take the bike.
SwiftUI, WidgetKit, Open-Meteo, Buienradar
Instead of a paid security audit. A read-only scan of a Windows PC and its owner's online footprint: Defender and BitLocker status, breached emails and passwords, and the mail records of every domain they own. It changes nothing and ends in one HTML report.
PowerShell, Have I Been Pwned, DNS
Instead of clicking through TeamViewer. Syncs my TeamViewer device list into PowerToys Run, so connecting to a client's machine is a keystroke and the first letters of its name.
PowerShell, Windows
Instead of wp-admin. A client's WordPress site, connected to Claude through an MCP adapter. Posts, code snippets and error checks happen in a conversation instead of the dashboard.
WordPress, PHP, MCP
Missing SPF or DMARC means anyone can send mail that looks like it comes from that domain. Lookups go to Cloudflare's public DNS; nothing is stored here.
Based inThe Netherlands
Works inSwift, TypeScript, PowerShell
Builds forClients, and myself
Most of what I build starts as a problem a client has, or one I have twice. If an off-the-shelf tool fits, I use it. If it wants a monthly fee for something a few hundred lines can do, or sends data somewhere nobody looks, I write the few hundred lines. The result is software that is small, mine, and still running a year later.
Tools I reach for
Photos, films, recipes, paperwork and the house itself run on two machines at home, not in someone else's cloud.
Plex, Immich, Paperless-ngx, Mealie, Home Assistant, Overseerr, Radarr, Sonarr, Glance and more, on Unraid and Proxmox.
Read about the homelab