I Built AI Sense — A Free Directory of 80+ AI Tools You Can Use Directly

Hey DEV community! 👋

I got frustrated with AI tool directories that just list tools with links — you still have to navigate elsewhere to actually use them. So I built AI Sense, a free directory where you can use 80+ AI tools directly on the site.

What is AI Sense?

AI Sense is a curated directory of AI-powered tools covering:

• Writing — Cold emails, blog headlines, text summarizer, AI humanizer
• E-commerce — Product descriptions, Amazon listing optimizer, SEO meta tags
• Translation — AI translator supporting 10 languages
• Developer Tools — Markdown to social card, code explainer
• Foreign Trade — Customs declaration, payment terms advisor, quality inspector
• And 70+ more...

Key Features

✅ Use tools directly — No redirects, no signups needed for basic use
✅ 10 languages — English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, German, French, Korean, Russian, Arabic
✅ Daily updates — New tools and AI news added every day
✅ Free tier — Anonymous users get 3 uses/day, logged-in users get 30/day

Tech Stack

• Frontend: Next.js 15 + Tailwind CSS
• AI: GLM-5 (Zhipu AI) for tool generation
• Auth: Supabase + Google OAuth
• Hosting: Vercel + Cloudflare
• DB: Supabase (PostgreSQL)

What I Learned Building This

1. Next.js SSR is crucial for SEO — Google needs server-rendered content to index tool pages
2. AI tool economics are tricky — Free tier with rate limiting is the only sustainable model
3. i18n from day one — Building multi-language support from the start saved massive refactoring later
4. Directory sites need differentiation — "Use it here" vs "link to somewhere else" is the key differentiator

What's Next

• Working on a TradeAI-specific platform at trade.aisense.top for cross-border e-commerce workflows
• Adding more AI-powered tools weekly
• Building BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) mode so power users can use their own API keys

Would love your feedback! Check it out at aisense.top and let me know what tools you'd like to see next.