Hey developer tool teams, don’t copy these copywriting clichés!

Whenever we help early-stage dev tool startups establish a smooth, lead-generating content pipeline, the first step when crafting a tailored strategy and tactics is competitor research. (Yes, we offer this service!)

This usually means wading through dozens of products with questionable copy (trust us, we’ve been there, too) and so many dev tool websites have stunning designs but with copy that is …lacking. (AI tools may be the champions here.) Read on to see the most common missteps!

Disclaimer: the examples in this post have been inspired by real dev tool landing pages, but we’ve made efforts to anonymize them! But you see reflections of copy here, drop us a line just below!

Irina Nazarova CEO at Evil Martians

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Mistake #1: Focusing on awesome design while neglecting copy

We agree that picture-perfect design matters (and wins design awards). But when it comes to a dev tool’s website copy, the notion that “a design is worth a thousand words” is not a winning strategy. A beautiful or very functional website design is great, but if that’s not supported by the same level of good copy, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

Think about it: potential users find you via organic search using words, and that means you’ll have to facilitate that from your side, too. Despite this, a majority of early-stage devtool websites have extremely unclear copy. Specifically, they fail to explain what their product does, the problem(s) it solves, and the reasons it’s worth further exploration.

But what to do? Here’s a good starting strategy: pretend you’re talking with a fellow developer who is describing the exact pain they have when building or developing something that your product solves.

Then, write it out: what is the pain? Why can your tool help? Why does it fit better than similar products?

Next, explain how your product can help. As you write or dictate this out, maintain the same simple, friendly and professional language you’d expect talking with another developer (try to avoid profanity). Voila, you’ve got your starting point!

Mistake #2: Your copy is excessively marketing focused

Something odd can happen when a developer transforms into a dev tool founder. They start writing about their products, but judging by the texts they put out, it’s suddenly as if they’ve been bitten by a radioactive marketing bug from big enterprise.

“We’re thrilled to announce our best-in-class, trailblazing innovations for millions!”

As mentioned in the intro, no one is likely to stumbled across your product organically with these on your website, and this overly marketing stuff really doesn’t do yourself any favors, anyway.

But what to do? Knowledge is power! The best thing here is to train yourself to recognize some (very) common pitfalls and to begin to approach them in a more creative way. Let’s look at just a few.

Vague copy:

• Effortless ______ for developers (Really, be very careful with using or overusing “for developers”)
• Build the next generation of ______
• Empowering enterprise teams

Overly generalized copy:

• ______ for everyone
• Trusted by the best
• AI tools for every team
• The most powerful ______ for building AI products

Excessively overexcited copy:

• We’re on a mission to ______
• One solution, endless possibilities
• The future of ______ is here

Putting information behind an artificial wall:

• Want to know how our tool can help you? Fill out this form!
• Curious about what we’re building? Fill out this form to receive updates on our progress.

Copy written by a third-party agency:

Frankly speaking, we helps dev tool startups with content generation (and website copy), and so we believe this can be a good practice if you lack resources to create content on your own.

That said, we’ve talked with so many startups who say that it’s extremely difficult to find an agency or a freelancer who can understand their business and technology under the hood. As a result, they provide shallow and error-prone texts that also lack a voice. Of course, this is a two-way problem.

AI-generated copy:

Perhaps it’s hard to believe, but even in early 2025, as AI-generated texts are becoming increasingly sophisticated and professional-looking, they’re still pretty easily recognizable (and the subject of derision).

Check out this thread from Paul Graham which was quite viral:

The copy itself isn’t the only giveaway, as there are also tools which purport to detect this at a deeper level, as seen here.

Anyway, in the end authenticity still matters more than absolute perfection, and it’s your unique voice that sets you apart.

Mistake #3: Making unsubstantiated claims, “faster”, “better”, “stronger”, and so on

This point is strongly connected to the previous mistake. Here’s the thing: developers are detail-oriented and it doesn’t take too many missteps to peek their skepticism. Tough crowd! So, you’re going to need some form of proof for your claims. Avoid using the word “better”, it’s just bad practice. Show it!

In short: provide numbers! Both developers and your business audience (who are the folks that will be signing off on buying your tool) operate with numbers and trust them.

Mistake #4: Too many copy cliches

If you’ve ever been tasked with competitor analysis for developer tool copy, you’ll recognize some of these. Many of them were imported from the corporate world, but the developer tool community has creatively contributed some of their own. Here’s a selection:

• Built by developers for developers
• Lightning-fast
• Blazing-fast
• Community-driven
• …by design
• …first (mobile-first, privacy-first, and so on)
• Revolution
• Next-gen
• No vendor lock-in
• Future-proof
• Best-in-class
• Developer friendly
• Seamless developer experience
• Get started in minutes
• Let’s build together

Now, these aren’t necessarily bad. They’re just overused, and you see them everywhere. More pressingly, of course, they fail to highlight your differentiators from amongst dozens of similar tools. The vast majority of these phrases have little-to-no SEO value. So, if you need to stand out, you might want to come up with some other phrases.

Mistake #5: Copy that is too “wordy”, huge walls of text

People don’t really “read” texts on the Internet. That is, proper, careful reading done word by word.

In fact, according to research from the Nielsen Norman group, which included data gathered via eye tracking, people prefer to scan texts. (So, if you’re skimming this article, all is forgiven.)

Instead, readers focus on the beginnings of text segments, titles, featured details, and other eye-catching elements.

So, with big walls of copy, we have nothing for our eyes to focus in on. No option to scan means skipping. It’s understandable that you want to share so much about your product …but make your texts readable.

But how? Briefly, a standard rule is approximately 3 sentences per paragraph. (Even if it’s a very narrow column.) From there, the standard is 1 paragraph per section (like 1 differentiator, 1 feature, 1 client quote, and so on).

Mistake #6: Little mistakes and inconsistencies

A classic example of this is seeing “Github” vs. “GitHub” used within the copy, and with sometimes both versions used on the same page.

You might be saying: “who cares!? This isn’t some ‘spell-check’ contest”. Fair point. Well, until your visitors spot another little mistake. And then another one. A lack of attention to detail adds up. It’s death by a thousand website-copy papercuts.

Avoid these mistakes because that means more trust and respect from the most skeptical audience out there.

But how? One thing that AI excels at is analyzing your text for mistakes and inconsitencies like this. A surprising amount of them would pop up just by copying and pasting the text into Google Docs.

Alternative, sometimes simply engaging with a freelance editor for a one-time proofreading and editing task is enough, and it’s done!

And hey, this is the perfect chance to remind our readers to check out our tech marketing and writing service and schedule a call just below! Write on, everyone!