I Built a Privacy-First Study Toolkit in Plain HTML — No Backend, No Sign-Up

I'm Ali Hamza, a student. On 19 October 2026 I launched StudyKit Hub (studykithub.online) because I was tired of study tools that ask for an account before they will count words or flip a flashcard.

I wanted something I could open on my phone, use for an essay or a revision session, and close again — without pasting coursework into a stranger's server. So I built it myself, on a zero budget, with plain HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript, hosted for free on GitHub Pages.

This is a short build-in-public note for other students and for developers who like small, boring, reliable sites.

What it is

StudyKit Hub is a free set of browser-based study tools plus short guides. There is no account, no app install, and the tools process your text in your own browser.

The live tools hub is here: studykithub.online/tools/.

I think of it as a quieter alternative to big multi-tool sites (the kind of place people compare to TinyWow): fewer features, but also less friction and less data leaving the device.

The fifteen tools

Everything below is live today:

Revise and organise

1. Study Notes Organiser — notes with tags and search, saved only in your browser, with export to JSON, Markdown or plain text
2. Flashcards Maker — decks with flip / know / review practice, also saved only on your device
3. Pomodoro Study Timer — focus blocks with short and long breaks
4. Text to Speech Reader — uses your browser's built-in voices

Grades, marks and dates

1. GPA and CGPA Calculator
2. Percentage and Marks Calculator
3. Final Grade Calculator — what you need on the final for a target
4. UK Degree Classification Calculator — First / 2:1 / 2:2 / Third from module marks and year weights
5. Age and Date Difference Calculator

Write and plan

1. Word and Character Counter — works with many scripts, not only English
2. Reading Time Calculator — silent reading or speaking time
3. Citation Generator — APA 7 and MLA 9 for books, websites and journal articles

Format and tidy

1. Case Converter
2. Whitespace Cleaner
3. Duplicate Line Remover

There are also short guides next to the tools — for example how UK degree classifications work — written for the same audience: university students in places like the US, UK and Europe.

Why plain HTML and no backend

I had three constraints:

• Zero budget — no paid hosting, no SaaS, no framework lock-in
• Phone-first — I work from an Android phone a lot, so the site had to be light
• Privacy by default — essay drafts and mark sheets should not need a login

So the stack is intentionally dull:

• Static pages only (GitHub Pages + a custom domain)
• One shared stylesheet, small vanilla JS modules, no build step
• Unit tests in Node (node --test) for the pure calculation helpers
• A static checker (node tests/check-site.js) for titles, canonicals, JSON-LD, internal links and the sitemap

Most tool and guide pages also ship a strict Content-Security-Policy meta tag (default-src 'self', connect-src 'none', and so on). That is a product choice: the browser refuses unexpected third-party scripts and network calls on those pages. If an ad network or analytics product is added later, the CSP and the privacy policy will need to change first — on purpose.

There is still no application backend. Calculators, counters and formatters run in the page. Notes, flashcards and the word-counter draft use localStorage on the visitor's device; they are not uploaded and they do not sync between devices.

Honesty about third parties

I do not claim "zero third parties for the whole site."

• Hosting is GitHub Pages (they log visitor IPs for security; I cannot see those logs).
• The home page includes an optional Hostinger Reach newsletter form that I added myself. Tool and guide pages do not include it.
• Contact is a mailto: link.

The study tools themselves still do not require a sign-up. Details live in the privacy policy.

What I learned so far

1. Ship the boring version. A GPA calculator that works offline in the browser beat a half-finished "platform."
2. Tests pay off even on a static site. Pure functions for UK classifications, citations and text counts are easy to regress without node --test.
3. CSP is a feature and a commitment. It documents the privacy story for visitors and blocks accidental third-party scripts — which also means ads cannot be bolted on casually.
4. Students search for narrow jobs. "UK degree classification calculator" and "final grade calculator" are clearer promises than "AI study suite."

What's next

I'm still improving the guides, fixing SEO basics, and only planning ads after the site has enough real content and the policy pages match the behaviour. Nothing paid is required to use the tools today.

If you're a student, try the tools hub and tell me what is missing via the contact page. If you're a developer building something small on GitHub Pages, I hope the "no backend, strict CSP, tests for the maths" shape is useful — even if your domain is completely different.

Live site: https://studykithub.online/

Tools: https://studykithub.online/tools/

Repo: github.com/HamzaXali/studykit-tools

Thanks for reading.