I built a free alternative to iLoveIMG — no login, no ads, no paywalls

#showdev #sideprojects #tooling #webdev

We've all been there.

You need to quickly compress an image. You Google "free image tool", land on iLoveIMG, upload your file — and boom.

"Sign up to continue."

You just wanted to resize a photo. Not create another account you'll forget about in 3 days.

So after hitting this wall one too many times during a side project, I did what any developer does.

I built my own. 🛠️

Introducing ihateimg.in

ihateimg.in — a completely free image toolkit. No account. No ads. No "upgrade to pro" popup appearing right when you need it most.

Just open the site and get things done.

What it does

Tool	What it's for
🖼️ Crop	Trim your image exactly how you want
📐 Resize	Custom dimensions in pixels or percentage
🗜️ Compress	Reduce file size without killing quality
💧 Watermark	Add text or image watermarks in seconds
🔍 Upscale	Increase resolution without heavy blur

The part I'm most proud of — Pipelines ⚡

Most tools make you do this:

Upload → Edit → Download → Re-upload → Edit again → Download → Repeat 😤

With ihateimg.in, you can chain multiple edits into a single pipeline.

Compress + Resize + Watermark — all in one go. Upload once, get your final result. Done.

This alone saves me several minutes every single time I work with images.

How it stacks up against iLoveIMG

Feature	iLoveIMG	ihateimg.in
Login required	✅ Yes	❌ Never
Ads	✅ Yes	❌ Never
Paid plan	$60/year	Free forever
Pipeline / batch edits	Limited	✅ Yes
Compress, Resize, Crop	✅	✅
Watermark	✅	✅
Upscale	✅	✅

iLoveIMG is a solid product — but it's built around converting free users into paying ones. Nothing wrong with that as a business, but it's not what I wanted as a user.

ihateimg.in is built around getting out of your way.

The honest backstory

I needed a quick image tool for a side project. Every popular option either had ads, required signup, or locked the exact feature I needed behind a paywall.

So I spent a weekend building something I actually wanted to use.

It's been live for a while now. I've been quietly adding features and fixing bugs. Today felt like the right time to finally share it with the dev community and get real feedback.