Developer tools have a very predictable Black Friday. The small indie Mac apps take 25 to 40% off, hosting companies push their lowest intro prices of the year, and course platforms run their biggest sales. Meanwhile JetBrains, Sublime Text, ChatGPT and most cloud platforms do nothing at all.
Knowing which is which saves you money twice: you wait for the tools that will discount, and you stop waiting for the ones that never will. This page lists what each tool did last Black Friday, what it costs today, and how likely a 2026 sale is. From November 20 we add the live 2026 deals as they are announced. For business tools such as SEO, email, site builders and writing apps, see our Black Friday SaaS deals.
How developer Black Friday sales work
- New customers only. Most indie tool discounts do not apply to renewals or upgrades. If you already pay for a tool, the sale usually does not help you.
- Short windows. Most run from the week before Thanksgiving (around November 21 to 25) to Cyber Monday or a few days after (December 1 to 7). Hostinger is the exception and starts in October.
- New code every year. Codes follow a pattern like
BF2025orBLACK_FRIDAY_2025, so last year's will not work. Check the vendor's site, X account or newsletter. - Intro prices on hosting. An 80% off hosting deal is the price for your first term only. Always check the renewal price, and consider paying for a longer first term if you plan to stay.
- One-time vs subscription. A few tools (TablePlus, CleanShot X basic) sell a one-time licence. A discount on those is worth more than a discount on the first year of a subscription.
Mac and desktop dev apps
The most reliable Black Friday category. These are small studios, and most of them have run a sale every year.
| Tool | What it is | Black Friday 2025 | Regular price (Sept 2026) | 2026 sale? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tower | Git client for Mac and Windows | 30% off any plan, new customers, November 25 to December 7 | Basic $69/yr, Pro $129/yr | Very likely |
| TablePlus | Database GUI | 25% off with a code | Basic $99 one-time | Very likely |
| Proxyman | HTTP debugging proxy | 30% off with a code | Standard $89 | Very likely |
| Kaleidoscope | File diff and merge | 40% off the first two years | Check the site | Very likely |
| CleanShot X | Mac screenshots and recording | 30% off the app and Cloud Basic, 50% off Cloud Pro first year | Basic $35 one-time, Pro $10/mo (yearly) | Very likely |
| Raycast | Mac launcher with AI | 30% off Pro for new subscribers, until December 1 | Pro $10/mo or $96/yr | Very likely |
| Setapp | Mac app subscription | No extra discount found in 2025 | From $14.99/mo, about 40% less billed yearly | Possible |
| JetBrains | IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm) | No sale | See JetBrains pricing | No |
| Sublime Text and Sublime Merge | Editor and Git client | No sale, ever | See the Sublime store | No |
JetBrains has said publicly that it does not do Black Friday. It runs its own promotions at other times of year, and it has free licences for students and open source projects. Sublime HQ's sales FAQ says it does not discount, apart from upgrade pricing after a major version.
Hosting, domains and cloud
| Provider | Black Friday 2025 | 2026 sale? | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | Its biggest sale of the year: roughly 80 to 85% off intro prices plus 2 to 3 free months. Ran from mid October to early December | Certain | Renewal prices are much higher than the intro price |
| Namecheap | November 21 to December 5: big discounts on first-year domains, around 80% off shared hosting, 50% off email | Certain | First-year domain prices only. Check the renewal price per TLD |
| Porkbun | .com domains for $7 while stock lasted, late November to early December | Very likely | Limited stock, gone in days |
| DigitalOcean | No real Black Friday sale. Its new-account credit is the same all year | Unlikely | The "$200 credit" many roundups call a deal is the normal signup offer |
| Cloudflare | No sale. Domains are sold at cost all year | No | Nothing: the normal price is already the floor |
| Vercel, Netlify, Render, Railway | No sale | No | Free tiers are the "deal" |
If you are moving a domain to save money long term, a transfer to a registrar that sells at cost (Cloudflare, Porkbun) often beats a first-year Black Friday price that renews at double.
AI coding and AI tools
AI tools are where you most need to be careful. Plenty of coupon sites list "Black Friday deals" for Cursor, Windsurf or Bolt that the companies themselves never announced. We only list offers we could trace back to the company or a trusted outlet.
| Tool | Black Friday 2025 | Regular price (Sept 2026) | 2026 sale? |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | No discount, any year | Plus $20/mo | No |
| Claude | No Black Friday discount. November 2025 had one-off Claude Code credits for Pro and Max users, a launch promo, not a sale | Pro $20/mo | No |
| GitHub Copilot | No discount | Pro $10/mo, Pro+ $39/mo | No |
| Cursor | No official sale. Users asked on the Cursor forum in November 2025 and got no staff reply | Pro from $20/mo | Unlikely |
| Midjourney | Never runs sales. Yearly billing saves about 20% | From $10/mo | No |
| Perplexity Pro | 50% off the first purchase (up to $50) through PayPal, November 28 to December 1, new subscribers | $20/mo | Possible, through partners |
| ElevenLabs | Starter plan for $1 for the first month (2024, confirmed by ElevenLabs) | See pricing | Likely |
| Raycast AI | Included in Raycast Pro, see above | Pro $10/mo | Very likely |
The big AI subscriptions have never discounted for Black Friday. If you need one, the free tiers and student plans are the real savings. See how to use Claude Code with free models if you want to try an AI coding agent without paying.
Courses and learning
Learning platforms run some of the best dev deals of the season, often 40 to 60% off a whole year.
| Platform | Black Friday 2025 | 2026 sale? |
|---|---|---|
| Master.dev (formerly Frontend Masters) | $100 off a yearly membership. The same $100-off sale is already live in September 2026 | Very likely |
| Boot.dev | 40% off annual (2025), 50% off the first year (2024). Prices vary by country | Very likely |
| Laracasts | Around 50% off subscriptions, including the lifetime plan | Very likely |
| Manning | 50% off all ebooks and courses, 40% off print | Certain |
| Pluralsight | Around 60% off individual plans | Very likely |
| Educative | Around 55% off Premium Plus, ended November 29 | Very likely |
| Coursera Plus | 40% off the annual plan, through December 1 | Very likely |
| Udemy | Courses from about $9.99 to $12.99 | Certain, but Udemy runs this price many times a year |
Udemy is the classic "do not wait" case: its $10-ish course price comes back every few weeks, so there is no reason to hold off until November.
UI kits, templates and boilerplates
| Product | Black Friday 2025 | 2026 sale? |
|---|---|---|
| Tailwind Plus (formerly Tailwind UI) | About 20 to 33% off, until December 1, plus bonus AI agent rules and editor themes | Very likely |
| shadcnblocks | 30% off, no code needed | Very likely |
| shadcn/studio | 30% off sitewide, November 24 to December 1 | Very likely |
| Aceternity UI Pro | Discounted yearly, lifetime and team plans, November 24 to December 1 | Very likely |
| daisyUI store | 40% off | Very likely |
| ShipFast | No Black Friday sale. Its "limited-time" discount is always on | No need to wait |
Do not wait for these
If you need one of these tools now, buy it now. None of them has a Black Friday history, so waiting only costs you a month of use.
- Editors and IDEs: JetBrains, Sublime Text, Sublime Merge.
- AI: ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Copilot, Midjourney, and most likely Cursor.
- Cloud and hosting platforms: Vercel, Netlify, Render, Railway, Cloudflare.
- Always "on sale": Udemy and ShipFast, whose discounted price rarely goes away.
Live developer deals for 2026
We add confirmed 2026 deals here from November 20, with the date we checked each one and the code if there is one. Tools that normally discount usually announce a day or two before Black Friday, on their site, X account or newsletter.
For VPNs, password managers, cloud storage and creative apps, see our Cyber Monday deals. For gadgets, consoles and TVs, see our main Black Friday deals page. If you are a VS Code user, our best VS Code extensions list covers the free tools worth installing first.
Does JetBrains have a Black Friday sale?
Do GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude have Black Friday deals?
When do developer Black Friday deals start?
Are Black Friday hosting deals worth it?
Do Black Friday deals apply to existing subscriptions?
Sumit
ContributorHi, I'm Sumit, Being an introvert I have always been obsessed with technology-computers and reading dozens of posts to learn, find answers out of my curiosity. I love to write as I explore more.
