20 Free Tools to generate Dummy Content for your SaaS
When developing a SaaS project, you need dummy content to build temporary profiles to see if the system stores and displays data correctly. The demos are also useful to show prospective customers how the end product would look like. But often, finding what to put as dummy content on your project becomes an overhead.
Today, several automated tools let you generate dummy content for your SaaS projects for free. Such tools save you time by offering templates and ready content that suits your business. But from the myriad options out there, which tool can you trust?
To make things easy for you, we have grouped the tools in a list here, allowing you to pick the right tools without any hassle. Browse through our comprehensive list and find tools pertaining to different use cases with ease.
Text
It is a well-established fact that a reader will lose focus on the design and structure when he comes across readable content. Hence, dummy text is useful to divert user focus on the right elements.
1. Lorem Ipsum
Lorem Ipsum is one of the oldest standard dummy text tools available since the 1500s. Developers use Lorem Ipsum for more or less distribution of letters. According to developers, the Lorem Ipsum text is a far better option than readable English words like – Content Here, Content Here all over the page. Lorem Ipsum dummy content consists of model sentence structures that look reasonable. You can generate paragraphs of dummy text or also generate dummy content in the form of several words, bytes or lists.
2. Fillerama
Fillerama is a bit different than Loren Ipsum. It offers formatted content of different themes like Star Wars, The Simpsons, and many more. Based on the niche of your SaaS project, you can select the content of any source (theme). Fillerama allows the user to generated simple formatted content, with HTML tags, and Markdown. You also get options of Headers, Inline, and lists in formatted dummy content.
Images
A dummy image is an image placeholder that is designed to draw developers’ attention towards the need for an actual image. It also allows the prospective client to know the places where images will appear on the page.
GENERIC IMAGES
3. PlaceIMG
PlaceIMG allows the user to create the type of image you need. User has to enter the height and width for the image and then choose category and filters. Once all required options are selected, you need to click on “generate image,” and the tool will generate the right type of image for you. The user then gets the option to download the image. You also get the src attribute specifying the URL of the image created.
4. Placeholder
Just like the name suggests, the Placeholder tool generates custom image placeholders on the fly. The process is quite simple. You have to specify the size of the image after the URL, and the tool will generate an image placeholder. The Placeholder tool can generate an image in varied formats like GIF, JPG, JPEG, and PNG. You can also specify text for your image, set background, and text color. With Placeholder, you can create Placeholder logos, Placeholder text, and Placeholder banner ads.
5. ImgPlaceholder
ImgPlaceholder works on similar principle like the one above. The only difference is the user can create image placeholder using Font awesome icons, Ion icons, and Glyph icons. User needs to specify the size of the image, select the background and font color, specify the font size and font family, and select any type of icons from the category. User can also specify the message to be included in the image. After entering the required details and selecting the right icons, the tool creates the image and makes it available for download. Besides downloading the image, you also get the direct link, HTML code, BB code, and Markdown code that can be used in HTML coding.
PHOTOS
6. LoremFlickr
The LoremFlickr tool allows the user to create an image of any subject and size. The tool works differently. User needs to specify the size of the image and subject in the URL, and the tool will fetch the image matching the attributes from the Flickr database. With LoremFlickr, you can create image placeholders with pictures of places, humans, animals, and any subject that you can think of. The tool generates a URL that can be used as an image placeholder on your page.
CELEBRITIES
7. Fill Murray
The Fill Murray tool provides custom size image placeholder images of Bill Murray. The tool does not provide the user with the option to select a photo. All you can do is specify the image size in the URL, and the tool will fetch an image of Bill Murray of the specified size. The image requested by the user is fetched in the browser. To get the image of the desired size, you need to copy the URL from the site, replace the values of height and width in the URL, and paste the URL in a new tab. The tool offers you Bill Murray image placeholders with a gray or calm background.
8. PlaceCage
The PlaceCage tool provides custom-size image placeholder images of actor Nicolas Cage. The tool works similarly to the one above. The user has to specify the size of the image needed in the URL, and the tool will fetch an image of Nicolas Cage of specified. The Placecage tool does not offer any tools to specify the size of the image. You have to copy the URL from the site, replace the height and width of the image with your values, and paste the modified URL in the browser to get the image placeholder with Nicolas Cage photo. The tool offers you Nicolas Cage image placeholders with Calm, Crazy, and Gray background. User can also get an image placeholder of Nicolas Cage in gif format.
9. Steven SeGALLERY
The Steven SeGALLERY tool also provides custom-size image placeholder images of actor Steven Segal. Just like the above tools, you have to specify the size of the image needed in the URL, and the tool will fetch the image of Steven Segal in the browser. Copy the URL to notepad, replace the numerical values of height and width with your desired values, and paste the modified URL in a browser tab. The tool will then load the image of Steven Segal from the gallery that matches the specified size. The Steven SeGALLERY tool provides two background options for image placeholder images- Calm and Gray.
ANIMALS
10. placekitten
If you want image placeholders with cute kitten images, the Placekitten tool is right for you. The page offers you two URLs. All you have to do is replace the values of height and width with your desired image size. After you have replaced the values of height and width, you need to paste the modified URL in the browser tab to get the kitten image. If you want kitten image with a gray background, choose the second URL in the list which has “g” after placekitten.com.
11. placebear
Placebear offers you custom-size image placeholders with a bear image. The page contains two URL’s – one with regular background and one with a gray background. Copy the right URL from the page and paste it in notepad. Change the values of the width and height in the URL with your values. Now paste the modified URL in a browser tab to get the image placeholder with a bear image. To get image placeholder with a gray background, select the URL with “g” after placebear.com.
12. baconmockup
If you love pictures of tasty meat and want to create custom-size image placeholders with a bacon or meat image, you will love the baconmackup tool. This tool also works on the principle of Placebear and similar ones. You have to copy the URL from the page to a text editor and replace values for height and width with your desired image size. After replacing the value, you need to paste the URL in a browser to get the image.
13. Placebeard.it
If you like bearded pictures, you can create custom-size image placeholders with images with a beard. Placebeard.it does not give direct access to the image database, but you can get a rough idea about the bearded images displayed on the page. To create custom size image placeholder with beard image, copy the URL on the page to a text editor. Modify the values for height and width and paste the URL in the browser to get the beard image. The tool allows you to create image size placeholder with beard image with different backgrounds like color and greyscale.
14. Placezombie
If you want images of zombies as placeholders, Placezombie can help you get many zombie pictures. To create image placeholder with zombie image, copy the URL given on the page to text editor and change the values for height and width to get desired image size. Copy and paste the modified URL in a browser tab to get the zombie image of your desired size. You can use zombie placeholders with a color background or black and white. For zombie placeholders with black and white background, use URL that contains “g” after placezombie.com. The max size supported by this tool is 1000 by 1000.
AVATARS
15. Adorable Avatars
At Adorable Avatars, Avatars refers to randomly generated face drawings. User needs to provide a random identifier word; the size of the image placeholder and the tool will automatically generate a face drawing accordingly. For most users, the face drawings might look funny. Currently, the tool has a database of 5000 different avatars from supplied identifiers. The tool uses advanced API that can generate 9.6 billion possibilities.
16. UI Faces
If you want faces of real people as image placeholders, UI Faces can be a goldmine for you. The tool has access to several image sources like Pexels, Tinyfaces, Actors, and many more. Generating an image placeholder with a real face is quite easy. Select any desired source listed on the page, select age range, gender, hair color, and emotion and UI Faces will fetch the images of real people as per filter data. You can open any desired image from the result to get the URL of the image. Most of the times, you also get to know the name of the person whose image you are using.
17. This Person Does Not Exist
If you want fake people faces (AI generated faces) as images placeholders, This Person Does Not Exist is the right tool for you. When you open the thispersondoesnotexist.com page, you only see one image. If you want to see another face, click on Click for another person. If you like the image you see, get the URL of the image by clicking the link – Link to image.
NAMES & PROFILES
18. Designskilz Random Users
If you want fake user profiles for UI mockups or any other purpose, Random users from Designskilz is the right tool for you. The tool creates fake user profiles with a click of a button. Every time you click the “New” button on the page, the tool creates a male and female fake user profile with image. The fake user profile contains details like Name, Birthday, Job, Telephone Number, Company, Bio, Address, Password, and Location.
19. Fake Name Generator
As the name suggests, the Fake Name Generator tool creates a fake profile that can be useful in testing SaaS projects. Unlike Designskilz, it provides a fake user profile with more information. Beside basic personal details, it provides website name, tropical zodiac, username and password, visa details, physical characteristics, tracking the number of UPS, MoneyGram, Western Union, QR code, and little other detailed information. Fake Name Generator allows the user to select country, region, gender, and name set while creating fake user profiles.
20. Mockaroo
Mockaroo tool allows the user to create mock data to test your app. The tool lists basic fields (for user profile), and the user can also add desired fields to create mock user profiles. Some of the fields listed on the page are Id, first name, last name, email, gender, IP address. In a single instance, it creates mock data of 1000 users. The data is downloaded in CSV format. Users have the option of preview data before downloading. The tool also allows importing of fields from CSV file or SQL table. To save data schema, you need to create a user account.
Rounding Up
There has been major growth in several tools to generate dummy content for SaaS projects. The tools listed in the post are quite different from each other and serve different purposes in generating dummy content. There is no doubt that the tools mentioned in our list take away the pain of creating dummy content that is required for testing SaaS projects. We are sure you will find the tool that meets your need in our list. Don’t forget to tell us about your favorite tool in the comment box.
