Description: "Akhouri Systems is ending ACALCU and ANOTE with no further updates or maintenance. A solo founder explains the hardest strategic decision yet and teases ASNIPP, launching October 24, 2026."
The End of an Era: ACALCU and ANOTE Are Officially Discontinued
I've written a lot of announcements in my life as a developer. This is the hardest one.
Today, Akhouri Systems is officially ending ACALCU and ANOTE.
There will be no further updates and no further maintenance. As of today, both products are officially dead.
I'm Akhouri Anmol Kumar, Founder & CEO of Akhouri Systems, and I'm writing this with a heavy heart. Please read the whole post. You deserve a real explanation, not a corporate one-liner.
ACALCU: Where It All Started
ACALCU was the oldest product of Akhouri Systems. It's where the journey began.
It was built on one idea: a calculator shouldn't force you to use it the way someone else decided. It became the world's most customizable scientific calculator, with:
- 30+ themes, from Dark and Royal to Cyberpunk, Matrix, Sakura and Liquid Glass
- Scientific functions
- Buttons you could restyle with your own colors, fonts, images and videos
- Calculation history and full customization
ACALCU was the first thing that made me believe a solo developer from India could build software people would actually enjoy using. Every product after it exists because ACALCU came first.
ANOTE: The Notepad Killer
ANOTE was personal. It was the product that motivated me the most.
I wanted to compete with the apps Windows ships by default, and Notepad was the giant I was aiming at. So ANOTE became a premium text editor with:
- Multi-tab editing
- Syntax highlighting
- Password lock
- A built-in translator
- Meme mode
- Auto-save
I called it "The Notepad Killer." Building it taught me more about UX, performance and polish than anything else I've made.
Why I Had to End Them
Let me be completely honest.
I'm a solo developer and founder. There is no team and no department. It's me, a HP 240 G9 laptop.
Right now Akhouri Systems has five products in play: ATLOCK, APIC, ASNIPP, ACALCU and ANOTE. Maintaining all five at once is not possible without hurting quality. If I tried, this is what would happen:
- Updates would be delayed
- Updates would be poor, rushed and half-tested
- My mental health and focus would suffer
- You, the people who trust my software, would pay the price
I refuse to let that happen. A product that's maintained badly is worse than one that's honestly retired.
So I made the strategic decision as a founder, even though as a creator it hurts:
It's better to do three things excellently than five things poorly.
What This Means for You
I want to be clear and not leave you guessing:
- ACALCU and ANOTE will receive no further updates, features, bug fixes or any sort of update patches.
- Copies you already have keep running on your machine, but they're no longer supported by Akhouri Systems :(
- If you rely on ANOTE's password lock for anything important, please move sensitive data to a maintained tool. I'd recommend ATLOCK for that.
- Thank you. If you ever used either of them, you were part of this story.
The Future: Akhouri Systems Focuses on Three Products
From today, Akhouri Systems operates exactly three products:
🔐 ATLOCK
A total security suite built on Argon2id and AES-256-GCM, with a password vault, File Guard, hardware-key support, ransomware canary decoys and more.
👉 github.com/Akhouri-Anmol-Kumar/ATLOCK
🖼️ APIC (Desktop and Web)
The Advanced Image Processing Center: edit, convert, compress, resize and remove backgrounds with on-device AI. It's free, private, and nothing gets uploaded.
👉 Try APIC on the web
👉 Try APIC on desktop
🚀 ASNIPP
A brand-new product, and I can't tell you what it is yet. 🤫
Something New Arrives Tomorrow: ASNIPP
I won't spoil it today. But I promise this: ASNIPP will be revealed and released tomorrow, October 24, 2026, as the newest product of Akhouri Systems.
Ending two products is a goodbye. Launching ASNIPP is my promise that this wasn't a retreat. It's a reset with focus.
Come back tomorrow. Be there for the reveal.
A Final Thank You
ACALCU gave me my start. ANOTE gave me my fire.
Retiring them isn't giving up. It's the opposite: it's choosing to give ATLOCK, APIC and ASNIPP my full energy, so that every update you get from now on is on time and built with care.
To everyone who downloaded, tested, shared or simply believed in a solo founder from India: thank you. Truly.
Rest in peace, ACALCU. Rest in peace, ANOTE. You mattered. 🕊️
See you tomorrow with something new.
— Akhouri Anmol Kumar
Founder & CEO, Akhouri Systems
🔗 Founder's GitHub: github.com/Akhouri-Anmol-Kumar
🏢 Organization's GitHub: github.com/Akhouri-Systems
------------------The END (ACALCU & ANOTE)---------------------
Top comments (68)
@effessdev silent why?
I am doing something...
But I'll be with you on the release! 😊
okay it will be released tomorrow.
so you will be now online in discord or not just asking.
not online right now 😢 the reason why I am still commenting is that reconfigure, build, and flash takes a LONG time to complete. so I check the notifications during that time 😅
oh, so let's discuss something in this dev.to?
ok i'll come every time I build!
okay so, I can guarantee you are gonna be 1st user of ASNIPP 🖐️🤚🔥
I can guarantee that too! 🤣 Please inform me before posting... Wait when will you post it?
okay for sure...
bro you've heard about adsterra?
I'd heard of it but didn't know it until now.
Are you planning on running ads?
no no lol I've 0 ads but my one freind suggested me to publish my web app to it and run ads on my web apps to earn revenue he said that after I said that I want a monetization plan like he is also founder of his company and earns good amount of money.
AURA 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥📈☠️
Anyway, plenty of space on the right side:
for ads? like for what purpose you said this?
Just saying 🙄🤣
bro but what's your opinion on my other freind's suggestion?
My opinion is "not yet" I guess? That's kind of what your opinion is too right?
yeah like adding ads in APIC WEB is very risky approach but then it is the only way of monetization and earning for me as I have kept all apps and web apps free to use
Yeah. What are your thoughts?
uh 🫣I'm confused too much because I want money too for self motivation also for some personal issues but I need to follow akhouri systems policy too.
The thing is that there is no emergency. You've got plenty of time to think about it. 🙂
yeah so I should leave it for now?
also he has given me a 30days SEO roadmap bro please come discord a lot of things to discuss
Ok coming on Discord...
thanks
lol mustafa ERBAY surpassed xulingfeng how's that possible 🔥
Wt xulingfeng only 5 comments? 🧐
yeah I think he is upset
🥲
@xulingfeng why?
How @xulingfeng feels after using his signature meme 👆
🤣🤣🤣 Don't fire me bro...!
😭😭😭
I am on phone so i cannot send GIFs 😭😭😭😭😭
hmm,
but I can
😂
I said I'll handle it forever so i am going to handle it 😁
😂Peak Broness
🤣
bro this post is : 😭😭🥹🥲
how we are chatting in this post:
Yeah 👍👍🤣
That'll make it less sad i guess
no problem lol 😂I think this is more strategic decision than emotional one
Yup.
yeah, bro ASNIPP is 95% built just 5% polishing left.
The last 5% takes longer than the first 95% 😎
yeah, I will make it one of the best brooooo
thanks for understanding me
Understanding you? What did i understand about you? 🤔
like you understood acquring deal that thing.
What acquiring deal? 🤔🤔
bruhh leave it never mind
😂
Killing a product is the hardest founder decision because your identity gets tied to the thing you built. I kept a side project alive for a full year past the point where the usage graph said stop, and every one of those months was maintenance time stolen from the work that was actually growing. The part I respect most here is treating mental health and quality as one trade-off instead of two separate ones: a badly maintained product burns your users' trust and your own energy at the same time, so three products with full focus will always beat five with divided attention. Retiring publicly, with a clear migration note for ANOTE's password-lock users, is the professional version of this — your users never have to guess. With ASNIPP launching tomorrow, what is the one metric you have decided will tell you it is winning?
Thanks for your comment 👍 🙂
For ASNIPP, I consider it winning because unlike ACALCU and ANOTE it is not a 1k-1.5k line of code it is 7k line code making it my 2nd biggest product by LOC also if we consider LOC in side then ASNIPP is more mature product than both retired product... I don't mean that acalcu and anote were not good but they were not as much as capable as ASNIPP to solve problem of users as they were just a good to have products but ASNIPP is built to be default tool for users
At last, I hope you will try ASNIPP
Again thanks for your wonderful comment
The LOC comparison is a stand-in for something more honest that you name later in your reply: ASNIPP is the one that solves a real problem for users, while ACALCU and ANOTE were good-to-have. That matches my own rule after keeping a dead side project alive for a year — the honest signal was never the commit count, it was whether anyone outside me asked for the next version. "Built to be the default tool for users" is the criterion I'd steal from this whole exchange; default tools get pulled, nice-to-haves get pushed. One question I'd turn back on you: what signal would ASNIPP have to lose before it earns the same retirement? If it is usage, you have a metric. If it is something softer, it might be worth naming now, while you still have the clarity this decision gave you.
Honestly if users still doesn't liked asnipp to make it there installed tool then I'll try it updating and updating but if people loved the app as secondary tool after my efforts then either I've to accept that my tool can be best secondary tool only or I've to retire ASNIPP but I think user will 90% possibility that they will make it default not secondary tool
Release day first — shipping is the part most people skip, so congratulations are in order. On the secondary-tool question: I'd take 'best secondary tool' over retirement without hesitation. The honest metric isn't primary-vs-secondary, it's whether anyone reaches for it at all — my own rule came from keeping a dead side project alive a full year past the usage graph saying stop, and the question that finally ended it wasn't 'is this the main thing' but 'would anyone notice if it disappeared.' If ASNIPP's users would notice, it earns its maintenance. What are you watching to know whether they reach for it — installs, or something softer?
Man, I completely relate to this. As a solo dev, it’s so hard to let go of the very first tools you built because of the emotional attachment, but trying to maintain too many projects at once just leads to burnout. Shutting down ACALCU and ANOTE to keep the quality high on ATLOCK and APIC is definitely the right founder move.
Can't wait to see what ASNIPP is all about tomorrow! Also, 'It's better to do three things excellently than five things poorly' is going on my sticky note today. Keep pushing, bro.
Thanks brother to relate to me I'm really happy to hear your words and today is release date just few hours left....
Happy release day — the update-and-update instinct is a good one as long as it's pointed at the users who asked for the next version, not the silence. Hope launch day treats you well.
yeah just now launched ASNIPP.
thanks Bro, also can you try ASNIPP?
Congrats on getting it out the door — shipping on launch day beats waiting for "ready" every time, and most tools die in the polish loop, not in production. I'll give ASNIPP a spin. The detail I'd judge a snippet tool on first is paste-and-go speed: if I can't go from clipboard to saved snippet in under five seconds I'll fall back to a scratch file, which is where every snippet manager I've tried has lost me. What's the fastest path in ASNIPP — one shortcut, or a full workflow?
This is a heavy but incredibly mature decision, Akhouri. As a solo founder building an AI SaaS (GrantPro AI), I completely understand the trap of building multiple side projects.
The hardest part of being a solo founder isn't writing the code — it's the mental overhead of context switching between different products, handling support, and keeping the infrastructure alive. Retiring a product to focus your energy on one thing that actually moves the needle is usually the right call.
Respect for sharing the real side of indie hacking. What’s the main focus for you now?
the main focus for me for now is to make ANOTE & ACALCU retirement meaningful, means to make ASNIPP a great product.
by the way bro thanks for commenting, and your GrantPro AI seems to be a great product can you tell me more about it?
Retiring a product is a maintenance decision before it is a strategy decision, and solo founders feel that first because maintenance is the one line of work with no finish line. A feature ships and is done; upkeep never is, it just queues behind whatever is newer. The honest math you ran is the same math bigger companies avoid by assigning maintenance to a team, which only works until someone asks what the team costs. Saying it out loud, in public, with the reason attached, is rarer than it should be.
yeah maybe I'm unique 😆
@technogamerz
what's your views on it 👇
youtube.com/shorts/xrwz1ymlZr0?si=...
Retiring products in public takes more nerve than launching one, and the line about doing three things excellently instead of five poorly is the honest version of most portfolio decisions. It is rare to see a founder explain the trade in hours instead of hiding it.
EffessDev's reply about the last 5% is the part I would watch with ASNIPP. On client work we have learned to write the finish line before the polishing starts: the three or four things that must be true on launch day, and a short list of things that are allowed to wait. Without that list, polish expands to fill whatever time is left, and a product at 95% can sit there for a month.
Fewer products also frees attention for support and fixes, which early users tend to value more than another feature.
What made you choose these two to retire rather than folding their best parts into the remaining three?
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