Reference
Searchable reference material, encyclopedias, and databases.
187 curated websites
All websites Academic Research Online Learning Practical Tools Creative Tools Explore the World Developer Tools Fun & Games Cultural Heritage Science Exploration Health & Living Career Development Shopping & Deals Social & Community Design Inspiration
Academic Research
9 websites
Internet ArchiveA US non-profit digital library known for the Wayback Machine web archive, with free collections of texts, audio, video, and software.
Semantic ScholarA free academic search engine from the nonprofit Ai2, indexing more than 200 million papers with AI-generated TLDR summaries, citation intent and influence labels, plus a free API and datasets.
PerplexityPerplexity is an AI answer engine that responds to questions with direct, source-cited answers instead of a list of links. Core features are free; Pro and Max subscriptions unlock stronger models and higher limits.
Metaso (秘塔AI搜索)A Chinese AI search engine by Shanghai Metaso that answers questions with ad-free, source-cited structured summaries, including academic search and a free Deep Research mode.
arXivA free, open-access preprint archive hosting over three million scholarly articles across eight subject areas including physics, mathematics and computer science. Reading requires no registration; content is not peer reviewed.
Wolfram|AlphaA computational knowledge engine launched in 2009 by Wolfram Research: instead of returning web links, it computes answers to math, science and factual questions from a curated knowledgebase. Basic queries are free; extras need Pro.
WikipediaA free, multilingual online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, launched in January 2001 and sustained by reader donations to the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation; as of 2026-09-02 it spans 348 language editions with over 68 million articles.
Google ScholarGoogle's free scholarly search engine, launched in 2004, indexing papers, theses, books, preprints, patents and US case law across publishers, with citation tracing, author profiles and venue metrics. Search needs no account.Online Learning
1 websites
Practical Tools
7 websites
Have I Been PwnedA data breach lookup service by security researcher Troy Hunt. Enter an email address to see whether it appears in known breaches, check passwords against leaked corpora, and get breach alerts. Core searches are free and need no account.
iFixitA free repair knowledge base and community: hundreds of thousands of step-by-step teardown repair guides, a Q&A forum and repairability scores, plus a tools and parts store and Right to Repair advocacy.
Terms of Service; Didn't Read (ToS;DR)A nonprofit community project, online since 2012, that breaks major sites' terms of service and privacy policies into plain-language "points" and grades each service A–E, published as open data with a browser extension and public API.
Xiachufang (下厨房)A Chinese recipe-sharing community launched in 2011, where home cooks publish step-by-step photo recipes and post their results. Its counter shows 3.58 million recipes; free to browse without an account, plus membership and courses.
timeanddate.comA free online time-and-date toolkit run by Norway's Time and Date AS since 1998: world clocks, time zone conversion, calendars and holidays, sun and moon astronomy, eclipses and weather. No sign-up; optional ad-free subscription.Creative Tools
2 websites
iconfontA Chinese vector icon platform run by Alibaba's Alimama experience team, offering icon search, multi-format downloads, icon-font generation and team project workflows, plus illustrations, Lottie animations and official fonts.
MobbinA Singapore-based UI/UX reference library of screenshots, flows, and motion videos from real, shipped apps and websites, searchable by screen pattern, UI element, and in-screenshot text; the full library and AI search require a paid plan.Explore the World
3 websites
Atlas ObscuraA US travel and exploration platform founded in 2009 that catalogs 30,000+ hidden places and unusual foods through community submissions vetted by editors, plus paid small-group trips, events, and a membership program.
WikivoyageFree, volunteer-written travel guide hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, covering destinations, itineraries, and phrasebooks anyone can edit. Forked from Wikitravel in 2006, a Wikimedia project since 2013, in 27 language editions.
NumbeoA crowdsourced cost-of-living and quality-of-life database launched in 2009, covering prices, rents and purchasing-power indices for 12,000+ cities. Free to browse with a comparison tool and paid API; data is not official statistics.Developer Tools
3 websites
Can I UseA free reference for checking browser support of front-end web technologies, with per-version support tables, usage statistics, known issues and openly licensed data.
Stack OverflowThe Q&A site for programmers, created in 2008 by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky and acquired by Prosus in 2021; voting, reputation, and accepted answers have archived 24M+ programming questions under CC BY-SA.
MDN Web DocsFree, open-source web platform documentation maintained by Mozilla: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Web APIs, and HTTP, with per-page browser compatibility tables. Online since 2005, edited on GitHub with Open Web Docs and volunteers.Fun & Games
10 websites
LetterboxdA New Zealand–founded social network for film lovers since 2011: log films in a diary, rate on a five-star scale with halves, write reviews, build lists, and check where to stream. Free with ads; Pro/Patron tiers remove ads and add stats.
Douban（豆瓣）A Chinese online database and interest community for books, films and music, launched in 2005, where user ratings and reviews aggregate on subject pages that anyone can browse without an account.
GoodreadsAmazon's social cataloging site for books, launched in 2007 and reporting more than 150 million members by 2023, known for bookshelves, ratings, reviews, and the annual Reading Challenge.
WhoSampledLondon-born database, launched in 2008, mapping how songs connect through samples, interpolations, covers, and remixes; entries are community-submitted and human-moderated, 1.37M+ songs as of 2026-09-02. Owned by Spotify since 2025.
MyAnimeListLaunched in 2004, MyAnimeList is the largest English-language anime and manga database and community: user-maintained entries, 1–10 scoring, twice-daily weighted rankings, and an official API. Owned by Tokyo-based Gaudiy since May 2025.
BoardGameGeekBoard game database and community launched in January 2000, built almost entirely by its users: 150,000+ games with ratings, reviews, and images for ~4 million registered users, plus the BGG Rank, the hobby's most cited leaderboard.
IMDbAmazon-owned database of movies, TV shows, video games and the people behind them, covering 12M+ titles and 16M+ names, best known for weighted user ratings and Top 250 charts. Free and ad-supported; most data is user-contributed.
ZhihuChina's largest Q&A-inspired content community (per the company), built around long-form answers, columns, roundtables, the paid Yanxuan membership and the Zhida AI search. Homepage and hot list require sign-in; Explore pages are public.Cultural Heritage
2 websites
Project GutenbergThe oldest eBook library on the Internet, founded in 1971, offering works whose U.S. copyright has expired — free, no registration, readable online or downloadable as EPUB, Kindle, and plain text.
Zdic (汉典)Free online Chinese dictionary launched in 2004: each entry combines the Kangxi Dictionary, Shuowen Jiezi, Mandarin Dictionary, phonology, dialects, and glyph origins on one page, plus classical text, poetry, and calligraphy sub-sites.Health & Living
3 websites
MuscleWikiMuscleWiki is a free online exercise library. Click any muscle on its interactive body map to see matching exercises with short filmed video demos and step-by-step instructions — no account needed.
MSD Manuals (Consumer Version)The free online consumer edition of the MSD Manuals, a medical reference first published in 1899. Written and reviewed by medical experts, no registration or ads, with an official Chinese edition at msdmanuals.cn.
ExamineAn independent, evidence-based nutrition and supplement research database founded in 2011: researchers read the primary literature and grade supplement–outcome evidence A–F. No ads or industry funding; free base content, paid tiers.Shopping & Deals
2 websites
SMZDM (Shenme Zhide Mai)SMZDM (smzdm.com) is one of China's largest consumer decision communities and shopping-guide platforms, aggregating user-submitted deals, product reviews, and buying guides for Chinese e-commerce.
RTINGSAn independent Canadian review lab that buys every product it tests at retail and measures it against a public, versioned methodology across 28 categories; review text is free, full scores are members-only since March 2026.Design Inspiration
15 websites
AwwwardsA web design award platform run by Awwwards Online SL since 2009. An international jury scores submitted sites on design, usability, creativity, and content, up to Site of the Year. Browsing is free; submission is paid.
Lapa NinjaA landing page design archive curated since 2015, keeping 7,300+ real pages as full-page screenshots, scroll-through videos, and font and color metadata. Browsing and search are free; accounts add Boards, and Pro removes limits.
ReferoRefero is a reference library of real product interfaces: 142,000+ screenshots from 400+ web and iOS products, searchable by page type, user flow, UX pattern, and UI element.
DribbbleDribbble is a designer community launched in 2009 around bite-size "shots" of design work, with a freelance and job marketplace on top. Majority-owned by Tiny since 2017; browsing is free, publishing requires approval or an invite.
Page FlowsA library of recorded user flows from 300+ real apps across iOS, Android, web and email, with step-by-step annotations and searchable screenshots. Some flows are free to watch; full access requires a subscription.
FWAFWA (Favourite Website Awards) is a UK website and digital creativity award naming one FWA of the Day since May 2000, via a 500+ member international jury voting on paid entries. Browsing is free; judging is watchable live.
SaaS Landing PageA gallery of SaaS landing page design run by Italian product designer Davide Pacilio, claiming 880 full-page screenshots filterable by page section, with fonts, color palettes, and tech stacks annotated. Free to browse.
SiteinspireA web design inspiration gallery personally curated by Daniel Howells since 2009, featuring over 8,000 real, live websites browsable by style, type, subject, and platform, with all entries selected on merit rather than payment.
LandingfolioA landing page design reference site by Danny Postma, run by Postcrafts (Singapore) since 2015: a curated gallery of real landing pages plus 800+ copy-paste Tailwind, Webflow and Figma components. Browsing is free; full access is paid.
HttpsterHand-picked web design inspiration gallery founded in 2012 by Dominic Whittle in Tasmania, Australia, favouring minimal, typographic and brutalist work. 3,116 sites as of 2026-09-21, browsable by style and type tags; free, no accounts.