Gabe Fletcher from Makers Help Desk has a message: You don't need money to grow your dev tool. While most "experts" tell you to set aside 20% for marketing, here's the truth: your keyboard and brain are enough.Zero-budget marketing isn't just for broke bootstrappers. It's for smart founders who know paid marketing masks product issues. The most successful dev tools started with zero marketing budget. Not low – zero.Here's why this matters: Ad costs are skyrocketing, organic reach is dying, and developers trust paid promotions less than ever. But this isn't bad news – it's an opportunity to return to what works.The Community Infiltration Model is simple: Instead of targeting "software developers" on LinkedIn (hello ad blockers!), spend three hours solving a nasty memory leak in an open-source project. Document it. Share it. That's worth more than a $10k ad budget.Documentation is your product, not your marketing. Remember 2010? Path one: 1,200-page enterprise PDF, forty pages of XML schemas, Stack Overflow purgatory. Path two: Stripe's docs – instant working code, written by someone who gives a damn. The more your docs teach, even if someone never uses your product, the more they'll trust you.Engineer growth into your DNA. Git didn't need marketing – its branching model made sharing natural. Docker spread because its architecture encouraged collaboration. Don't market the tool – engineer scenarios where developers naturally share their expertise.Free tools? Make them complete solutions, not demos. Redis's memory analyzer wasn't crippled or promotional – it solved real problems. Genuine value creates its own gravity.Skip the automated outreach. Real relationships start with solving problems. Let your tool come up naturally in technical discussions.Measure what matters: Are developers building on your tool? Do universities reference your docs? Do senior devs recommend you?The zero-dollar approach requires authenticity. Build something so good developers can't shut up about it. Your marketing budget is better spent hiring another developer.Remember: The best developer tools didn't win through marketing budgets. They won by being genuinely, remarkably useful. Everything else is just noise.