DevCheap

Curated developer deals, promos, and free tiers for cloud, databases, APIs, AI & LLM, and dev tools — 230 deals across 21 categories. Six Top Picks (hand-curated, affiliate-supported) sit above the full grid.

The site is built and operated under a documented 6-month strategy with a 5-person committee model (Mitchell / Dharmesh / Lenny / Bret / Sahil). For the strategic frame, decision criteria, and the editorial voice rules, see:

• STRATEGY.md — why we build what we build, who owns what, the 6-month plan of record
• VOICE.md — the Sahil Bloom persona system used for AI-generated use-case pages and pillar articles
• AGENTS.md — operational sync instructions for AI agents and contributors

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Site

Visit the live site: https://devcheap.click

• RSS feed: feed.xml

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Project Structure

devcheap/
├── .github/workflows/   # CI/deploy pipelines (Cloudflare Pages)
├── css/                 # Stylesheets (light/dark theme)
├── data/
│   └── deals.jsonl      # Deal database (JSONL format, 197 lines)
├── functions/api/       # Cloudflare Functions (email subscribe)
├── js/                  # Search, category filter, affiliate tracking
├── scripts/             # Utility scripts (feed generation, data entry)
├── tests/               # Vitest: schema validation, UI, HTML, a11y
├── AGENTS.md            # Agent sync instructions (auto-aware bots)
├── CNAME                # Custom domain (devcheap.click)
├── CONTRIBUTING.md      # Contribution guide
├── README.md            # This file
├── index.html           # Main page
├── feed.xml             # RSS feed (auto-generated from deals.jsonl via scripts/generate-feed.ps1)
├── category/             # Category SEO landing pages (auto-generated via build.js — do not hand-edit)
├── sitemap.xml          # Sitemap (auto-generated from deals.jsonl via scripts/build.js — do not hand-edit)
└── package.json         # Scripts: validate, test, lint

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Categories

Category	Deals
AI & LLM	46
Developer Tools	42
Hosting & Cloud	31
Database	17
APIs & Email	6
Productivity	6
Monitoring	7
Design & Collaboration	8
Web Analytics	5
Domains & Hosting	4
CI/CD	3
Customer Support	3
APIs & Payments	3
Security	3
AI	2
Auth	2
APIs & Search	2
Media & Images	2
Storage & Cloud	2
Testing & QA	2
Sales & Marketing	1

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Filters

The site offers filter chips below the category buttons:

Chip	Behaviour	Group
Recommended	Shows only deals tagged recommended. Independent toggle — combinable with any other filter.	None (standalone)
Spotlight	Shows only deals tagged spotlight. Independent toggle — combinable with any other filter.	None (standalone)
Expiring Soon	Deals with an expires date within the next 30 days. Mutually exclusive with No Expiry.	Expiry
No Expiry	Deals with no expires field. Mutually exclusive with Expiring Soon.	Expiry
Coupons	Shows only deals with a copyable coupon code (excludes automatic/link codes). Independent toggle — combinable with any other filter.	None (standalone)
Free	Shows only deals with pricing: free. Mutually exclusive with Trial, Paid, and Lifetime.	Pricing
Trial	Shows only deals with pricing: trial. Mutually exclusive with Free, Paid, and Lifetime.	Pricing
Paid	Shows only deals with pricing: paid. Mutually exclusive with Free, Trial, and Lifetime.	Pricing
Lifetime	Shows only deals with pricing: lifetime. Mutually exclusive with Free, Trial, and Paid.	Pricing

Category buttons for categories present in data/deals.jsonl but not hardcoded in index.html are generated dynamically on page load. Deals tagged recommended show a star badge and deals tagged spotlight show a sparkle badge on their card. Every deal also shows a pricing badge (Free, Trial, Paid, or Lifetime).

All filter state is persisted in URL query parameters (e.g. ?recommended=1&free=1).

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Top Picks

Above the full deals grid, the homepage renders a 6-card Top Picks for Developers strip. The selection is computed at build time by scripts/build.js:

1. The minimax-week deal is pinned to slot 1 while its expires date is in the future.
2. Remaining slots are filled with active, high-rated affiliate deals (sorted by rating desc).
3. If fewer than 6 affiliate deals qualify, the strip is topped up with the highest-rated non-affiliate deals.
4. The strip is capped at 6 cards.

Affiliated Top Picks render with a gradient accent on the left edge; non-affiliated picks render with a single-color accent. Click events are tracked with link_type: 'top_picks_claim' so you can measure Top Picks CTR vs. the full grid.

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Local Development

git clone https://github.com/hasitpbhatt/devcheap.git
cd devcheap
npm install
npm run validate:jsonl   # validate deal syntax
npm test                 # run test suite

Serve with python -m http.server 8000 or VS Code Live Server.

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Quick checklist:

1. Add/update deal in data/deals.jsonl
2. npm run validate:jsonl && npm test
3. npm run build (regenerates index.html, deals/<id>/index.html, and sitemap.xml)
4. pwsh scripts/generate-feed.ps1 (regenerate RSS feed; the build does NOT cover it)
5. Update README deal count + category table if counts changed
6. Commit and push

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Maintainer: @hasitpbhatt