5 Underrated Apps for Programmers You Should Use Right Now

Here are some tools you should have under your belt, even if you’ve never heard of them!

Richard So
codeburst
Published in
6 min readJul 6, 2020

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Introduction

It’s ironic how developers use a plethora of apps and software to make…apps and software. Over time, we have developed strong preferences over a select few tools as part of their workflow. However, just because some pieces of software have become the norm that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t always be on the lookout for others! Here are some of the most underrated yet insanely useful apps that I’ve tried to use on a daily basis, and that I think you should use too!

Because I don’t want my recommendations to be focused towards a specific niche of programming, a noticeable fraction of apps shown below would be terminal-based, thus addressing the majority of programmers/developers.

Table of Contents

  1. Ungit
  2. Termius
  3. Alacritty
  4. Byobu
  5. Spacedesk

1. Ungit

It is notoriously difficult to manage your Git repository through the command line interface — everyone knows that for a fact. And when you have a project open with 20 or so different branches, it’s hard to keep up with recent commits through all of them, let alone follow a branching model. Even worse are beginners trying to use Git for their first time to perform version control; a CLI can’t let users comprehend what Git really is supposed to be.

Ungit solves all of these issues with an intuitive GUI for managing Git repos.

Ungit represents your repo like a spider web of commits and branches. Here’s what it’ll look like in action:

A quick look into ungit

Look at those branches! Also, making commits are easier than ever, and paired with the fun animations, lets you feel a commit was done — something the command line can’t induce:

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https://sorichard.com | BS/MS CS @ Georgia Tech, Class of ’25. Pursuing everything code. Always learning!