How it was built
From a private tool to a shared one, by chatting.
Pace already existed inside my own CRM. The job here was to lift out the useful part, the pace maths, and rebuild it as a calm little tool anyone can use. Here are the sorts of things I asked for.
Step 1 · Keep the brain, drop the plumbing
My CRM version syncs a live clock across devices with a login and a database. For a free tool that felt like overkill on day one, so I asked for the whole pace brain, but running quietly on your own device instead.
I have a cull-and-edit tracker in my CRM. Rebuild the core as a standalone tool that runs in the browser and saves to my device, no login. Keep the important part: timing each phase, working out seconds-per-image, and a live time-left estimate.
Built a browser-based tracker that keeps your projects and times in local storage. Culling and editing each get a stopwatch, and it computes your seconds-per-image and an ETA as you log your progress. No account, nothing leaves the device.
Step 2 · The bit that makes it fun
The feature I actually love is the little nudge after each sitting. I wanted it to compare like with like: sneak peeks against sneak peeks, main gallery against main gallery, and only ever against the same wedding.
When I pause and log where I'm up to, tell me if that stretch was faster or slower than my average so far on this wedding. Track sneak peeks separately from the main gallery, since they run at a different speed, and never mix them up.
Added the faster/slower comparison. On each pause you log your running total; it derives how many images that sitting produced and compares your pace to your prior average in the same phase and stage. Sneak and main are timed and judged separately.
Step 3 · Drawing the Pro line
Same ethos as the other tools. The free version is honestly useful on one device. The things that need a login, or that only pay off across many weddings, are what Pro is for.
Keep the free tool fully working on one device. Add a gentle Pro teaser for the things that need more: syncing the same live clock across my phone and laptop, and learning my pace across every wedding with difficulty-matched benchmarks and targets.
Kept the free tracker complete, and added a tasteful Pro teaser plus a 'where it could go' section covering multi-device sync, cross-wedding benchmarks, targets, and turning your learned pace into an honest turnaround date.
The build log
And it keeps evolving.
Every change since launch, newest first. Tap any entry to read the thinking behind it.
LaunchThe first betaA cull-and-edit tracker that times each phase, learns your seconds-per-image, shows a live ETA, and tells you if a sitting beat your average. Free, no account, kept on your device.
Pace started life inside my own CRM, so I could stop guessing how long a wedding would take to cull and edit. This is that pace brain, pulled out as a standalone tool. Time culling then editing, split into sneak peeks and the main gallery, log where you're up to, and it works out your true seconds-per-image, a time-left estimate, and whether this sitting was faster or slower than your average so far. Everything stays on your device. Syncing the same live clock across your phone and laptop is the Pro idea.
Fancy building your own?
If you've ever wished a tool existed, you're closer to making it than you think.