12 Essential Online Tools Every Salesforce Developer and Admin Should Bookmark

Whether you are building complex REST integrations in Apex, formatting SOQL queries, or auditing user permissions across profiles, having the right lightweight utilities at your fingertips saves hours of manual effort. Here is a curated collection of 12 indispensable online tools designed to streamline daily tasks for Salesforce developers and administrators.

In plain words: These free web-based utilities eliminate tedious developer chores—like converting JSON payloads to Apex classes, formatting list strings for SOQL IN clauses, diffing metadata changes, and decoding Base64 payloads.

1. JSON2Apex (Automatic Apex Wrapper Generator)

Building strongly typed Apex wrapper classes for REST API responses can be repetitive and error-prone. JSON2Apex automatically parses any sample JSON payload and generates a complete, production-ready Apex class along with accompanying unit test methods.

• Key Use Case: Generating deserialization wrapper classes for external REST integrations.
• Direct Link: JSON2Apex Tool

2. Delim.co (SOQL List Formatter & Delimiter)

When writing SOQL queries with WHERE Id IN (...) or WHERE Name IN (...), converting raw spreadsheet columns or lists into single-quoted, comma-separated strings manually is slow. Delim.co formats raw text into query-ready strings instantly.

Real-Life Example: Convert a raw column of IDs:

0015g00000XyZ1
0015g00000XyZ2
0015g00000XyZ3

Instantly format into SOQL-compatible syntax:

'0015g00000XyZ1', '0015g00000XyZ2', '0015g00000XyZ3'

• Direct Link: Delim.co Comma Separating Tool

3. Permission & Profile Comparator (Perm Comparator)

Auditing user permissions between conflicting profiles or permission sets is critical for security reviews. Perm Comparator connects securely to your org to compare User Permissions, Object Permissions, and Setup Entity Access side by side in a clear visual matrix.

• Key Use Case: Migrating legacy profile permissions to modern Permission Sets and Permission Set Groups.
• Direct Link: Perm Comparator

4. Salesforce Event Log File Browser (ELF)

Salesforce Event Monitoring generates rich log files tracking logins, URI visits, apex executions, and report exports. The ELF Browser simplifies downloading and analyzing daily or hourly event log files directly from your browser without custom Python scripts.

• Key Use Case: Security auditing, transaction monitoring, and diagnosing user performance issues.
• Direct Link: Salesforce Log File Browser

5. Base64 Decode & Encode Utility

Binary files, PDF documents, and image attachments are exchanged as Base64 strings during REST/SOAP callouts in Salesforce. Base64Decode allows you to inspect, verify, and decode payload strings without deploying temporary debug statements in Apex.

• Key Use Case: Inspecting raw API payloads, document attachments, and signed tokens.
• Direct Link: Base64 Decode Tool

6. Code Diff Checkers (Diff Checker & Text Compare)

Quickly identifying discrepancies between sandbox and production metadata, Apex triggers, or formula scripts is essential during code reviews and deployments.

• Diff Checker: Robust side-by-side comparison tool supporting text, images, and PDF comparisons: Diffchecker
• Text Compare: Fast, distraction-free browser-based diffing for quick snippets: Text Compare

7. Code Beautify (Multi-Utility Swiss Army Knife)

Code Beautify is an all-in-one suite offering JSON validators, XML formatters, SQL minifiers, URL encoders/decoders, and data converters in a single unified interface.

• Key Use Case: Pretty-printing messy XML metadata and validating complex API payloads.
• Direct Link: Code Beautify

8. UW CSE Indenter Tool

Messy code indentation increases technical debt and slows down code reviews. The UW CSE Indentation Tool cleans up spacing, nested logic, and braces across Java, JavaScript, HTML, XML, CSS, and C-like syntaxes.

• Direct Link: UW CSE Indenter

9. Certificate & Key Tools (X.509 Generator)

Setting up Single Sign-On (SSO), Named Credentials with mutual authentication (mTLS), or JWT bearer flows often requires generating or inspecting X.509 certificates and keys.

• Direct Link: Certificate Tools

10. Large Text & Log File Splitter

Salesforce debug logs and large CSV data imports can exceed local editor limits. Text File Splitter divides oversized .txt, .csv, and .log files into smaller chunks based on line count or file size without corrupting row data.

• Direct Link: Text File Splitter

11. Zamzar (Universal Online File Converter)

Converting documentation, requirements specifications, and legacy data exports between formats (PDF, Word, Excel, CSV) is painless with Zamzar.

• Direct Link: Zamzar File Conversion

Security Trap: Never paste sensitive production data—such as customer Personally Identifiable Information (PII), access tokens, or private encryption keys—into public online formatting tools. For production data, always use offline utilities or local IDE extensions.

Developer Toolkit Summary

Quick-Reference Utility Matrix:

• Integration & Parsing: JSON2Apex (Apex wrapper generation), Base64Decode (binary payload inspection).
• Data & SOQL: Delim.co (list formatting for SOQL IN filters), Text File Splitter (large CSV chunking).
• Admin & Security: Perm Comparator (profile/perm set diffs), Salesforce ELF (event monitoring logs).
• Code Quality: Diffchecker (code comparison), Code Beautify (XML/JSON formatting).

Core Takeaway: Combine these browser-based utilities with your local VS Code environment to automate repetitive formatting, accelerate debugging, and maintain clean metadata.