[afavour]

And sometimes I hate the HN comment section.

Obviously you’re not paying $19 for hosts file editing. Obviously! SSL cert generation is a pain in the ass, a tool that automates all of that for you is a valid tool. And I find the mDNS stuff really interesting, I do a lot of testing on mobile devices and connecting to my dev server from a phone can be really annoying.

If you don’t like the price that’s fine: don’t pay it. The market will decide whether this price is appropriate or not. An independent developer has made a tool that scratches their personal itch and made it available for others to use for a fee. And gets heaped with scorn for it. This place is an absolute cesspit sometimes.

[EspressoGPT]

Start your app, put Caddy issuing TLS certs in front of it, put your PC's IP behind some name on your router (maybe using something like Zeroconf), and spend the $19 buying some flowers for your partner.

[afavour]

$19 would be a business expense so I don’t think buying my partner flowers with it would go down well.

In a professional context time is money. Setting up everything you’re discussing takes time and would need tweaking every time my network changes (not to mention require router access). $19 a year is a rounding error in terms of developer expenses. It’s entirely legitimate to pay for a tool to just do it for you.

[WorldMaker]

mDNS is proper standards name for what used to be called Zeroconf. This app is doing the same thing you'd do by hand, it's just saving you time by automating it. If it only takes you an hour to setup by hand, is your time less valuable than $19/hour?

[lostmsu]

  pip install https.server
  python -m https.server <port>

[afavour]

I guess you must have just omitted the line where the SSL certs are generated and the mDNS is handled?

Smart Alec replies are one thing but badly thought out Smart Alec replies contribute so very little.

[lostmsu]

SSL cert is generated (untrusted)

mDNS is a QoL feature I am not sure is that useful.