14 small tools that don't hold your data hostage

Most software today starts with the same three steps: create an account, verify your email, pick a plan. For a lot of everyday jobs, none of that is necessary. Here are fourteen tools we build at Qumge, grouped by what you might need. Most of them work without an account, keep your data on your own device or server, or let you walk away with your files.

For your iPhone: small apps that each do one thing

  • StreaksChain: a habit tracker with one grace day a week. Miss a day and nothing resets. Widgets check habits off without opening the app, and Apple Health completes steps and workouts for you. No account; data syncs through your own iCloud.
  • SquatStreak: take the free 30-second chair-stand test (used in clinics to measure lower-body strength), then follow a 30-day plan that starts from your own result. No equipment needed.
  • PushCount: distracting apps stay locked until you do a set of push-ups. The front camera counts reps on the phone, and frames are never saved. Completely free.
  • FlowGrid: a cosy colour puzzle with 300 free levels, unlimited undo, and no timer or fail screen.
  • ScanMind: photograph medical paperwork or import portal PDFs. Text recognition runs on the iPhone, records are filed by family member, and you get a one-page summary for appointments.
  • SnapClean: see what is actually stored on your iPhone versus iCloud-only, clean the biggest local items first, and get an honest receipt of what each cleanup freed.

For thinking, learning and creating with AI

  • SpeakPen: speak an idea on your phone and it lands in your Obsidian vault as a titled Markdown note, ready for your AI agents to read and build on.
  • Tali: upload your own textbook, slides or past paper. Tali teaches from that material only, quotes the source line, quizzes you, and brings back what you missed.
  • 37Soul: give your AI agent a persistent character whose personality and memories carry across Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and other clients, and export it any time as SOUL.md.
  • AutoWhisper: an AI CMO for $30 a month that researches your market, creates videos and articles, publishes them, and learns from real performance data.

For working with AI on your computer

  • Marlo: a free, open-source desktop AI coworker for Mac and Windows. There's no API key to paste. Give it a folder, describe the result you want, and approve its plan before it changes anything.
  • Qumge: one balance and one OpenAI-compatible key for 450+ models, plus a capability store where developers publish paid tools for AI agents and keep 80% of every call.

For running a small company on your own servers

  • Aprove AI: an open-source, MIT-licensed Rails app for project operations: approvals, orders, deliveries, invoices, partners, contracts, expenses and reports, in English and Chinese.
  • MuseFlow: a self-hosted, single-tenant PLM for manufacturers covering drawing revisions, nested parts, process documents and BOM releases behind one approval workflow.

The common thread

Every tool on this list answers one question the same way: what do you still have if you stop using it? For the iPhone apps, it's your data, on your device. For SpeakPen and 37Soul, it's plain files you can export. For Aprove AI and MuseFlow, it's the entire source code. We think that's how small software should work.

See everything in one place at qumge.com/en/products.


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