writing
we publish the numbers, not the opinions.
Cost studies, research and benchmarks from real engagements — the data behind the decisions we help founders make, with the working shown.
- 37
- articles published
- real
- engagement data
- no
- gated PDFs
- 2015
- shipping since
latest
the most recent working out.
- SEO 4
- AI 4
- WordPress 4
- React Native 4
- Shopify 3
- Supabase 2
- Laravel 1
- LMS 1
- Memberships 1
- Marketplace 1
the archive
every study, benchmark and teardown.
MembershipsThe 90-Day Cliff: Subscription Churn Math That Decides Build vs Rent for Your Membership Platform
Opens with the INSPIRELLE store-credit incident, then models platform fee drag vs custom-build cost across subscriber counts. PFD, D90S, DRR included.
MarketplaceAnatomy of a B2B Marketplace MVP: The 9 Features That Eat 80% of the Budget
Opens with one quarter of net-terms decisions at CREOATE scale, then breaks a B2B marketplace MVP into per-feature engineering hours. FCS, NRE, TTFT included.
TicketingThe Break-Even Ticket Volume: When Building Your Own Ticketing Beats Eventbrite's Fees
One Ontick replatform anatomised, fee maths across 8 ticketing platforms, and the annual ticket volume where a custom Stripe build beats Eventbrite. EFR, BETV, IRR.
Internal ToolsRetool at 5, 25, and 100 Users vs a Custom Admin Panel: The 3-Year TCO Model
A 3-year TCO model for Retool, Appsmith and a custom Next.js + Supabase admin panel at 5, 25 and 100 users. The 2026 repricing moved the break-even to 22 seats.
AutomationThe Real Cost of 10,000 Workflow Runs: Zapier vs Make vs n8n vs Custom Code
Opens with one ops team's $540 Zapier month, then bills three real workflows on Zapier, Make, self-hosted n8n and custom Node at 1K to 100K runs. EC10K, MTV, FRO.
AIVendor Says 76%, Reality Says 41%: Support Bot Deflection Rates We Actually Measured
We measured deflection on 14 production support bots: median 41.2% against an advertised 76%. Query-class rates, per-resolution cost maths, escalation design.
TallyIntegrating with Tally: Getting Data In and Out with TDL and the XML Gateway
Tally has no REST API. The mental model for real Tally integrations: the XML/HTTP gateway (port 9000) and TDL, how to read vouchers and ledgers out, import vouchers in, the version gotchas that break TDLs, and which surface to use per use case, Zoho, dashboards, Excel, e-commerce, CRM.
SupabaseWe Audited 25 AI-Generated Supabase Databases: RLS Holes, Missing Indexes, Billing Bombs
We audited 25 Supabase databases generated by Lovable, Bolt, Cursor and v0. Only 5 had correct RLS. The holes, the index debt, and the billing bombs.
WordPressWordPress to Headless Next.js: Faster, Fully Cached, and Immune to Downtime & Brute Force
Convert a WordPress news or blog site into a headless Next.js front end: read the content WordPress already exposes over the REST API / WPGraphQL, ship static + ISR pages cached at the edge, and lock the WordPress origin away from brute-force attacks and downtime.
React NativeVibe-Coded to Native: Converting a Lovable Web App into iOS + Android Apps (One Engagement, 14 Weeks)
How we converted GravityOne, a Lovable-built web app with a working Supabase backend, into native iOS and Android apps in 14 weeks. Code-sharing matrix, App Store rejection patterns, OTA strategy, and the per-phase engineering hours from one full engagement.
WordPressCloudflare R2 as the WordPress Media Library: SDK-Free SigV4 in Pure PHP
Replacing the local wp-content/uploads with Cloudflare R2 from a 200-line PHP MU-plugin, no AWS SDK, no Composer, with a custom SigV4 signer and the WP hooks that make it transparent.
Next.jsSSR on Next.js App Router for SEO: What to Render Where, with Measurements
Server Components, Client Components, Streaming SSR, and SSG: what each one does for indexability, TTFB and LCP, with measurements across six pages we migrated.
StripeStripe Webhooks End-to-End: Signature Verification, Idempotency, Replay, Dead-Letter
The five guarantees a production Stripe webhook handler has to give you: verification, idempotency, ordering, replay, observability, with TypeScript code and the SQL schema we ship.
React NativePush Notifications on Expo + FCM + APNs: The Setup That Actually Delivers
End-to-end push setup for React Native apps on Expo, FCM and APNs: token registration, delivery measurement, and the 12 failure modes we see most often when delivery rates drop.
RAGBuilding a Production RAG Pipeline: Chunking, Embeddings, Retrieval, Caching
Stage-by-stage architecture for a RAG pipeline running in production: chunk size choices, embedding model tradeoffs, retrieval, reranking, semantic cache, and the cost per 1M queries.
ShopifyShopify Functions for Custom Pricing: B2B Tiers, Volume Discounts, Member Rates
Three production patterns for custom pricing built on Shopify Functions: Rust source, metafield design, checkout integration, and the gotchas Scripts users hit.
DevOpsZero-Downtime Push-to-Deploy on DigitalOcean App Platform vs Vercel, Render and Fly
Anatomy of one deploy, side by side, on four PaaS platforms: timings, traffic-shift mechanics, rollback paths, and the real cost of zero-downtime at 100 RPS.
MVPWhat an MVP Actually Costs in 2026: Three Founder Stories + 31 Engagements of Data
Three founder stories of 2026 MVP builds, fintech, AI SaaS, marketplace, followed by aggregate cost and bandwidth data across 31 engagements.
React NativeOTA Updates in Production: EAS vs CodePush vs Manual, 47 App Cost & Latency Study
OTA cost, adoption-after-release curves, and rollback cost across EAS, CodePush, and manual update strategies on 47 production RN apps.
WordPressWordPress Performance Optimization: What Actually Works (Data-Backed Study)
We analysed 100 WordPress websites: 78% failed Core Web Vitals. A data-backed study of what actually slows WordPress down (page builders, plugins, hosting) and which fixes deliver real ROI.
ResearchTech stacks clients pay for vs what developers actually want, 2026 data report
12 web stacks compared across usage, developer preference, admiration, client demand, and freelance rate, with four original metrics (DPGI, SMS, HRR, Legacy Lock-in) computed from Stack Overflow, State of JS, W3Techs and salary data.
React Native41 React Native App Submissions, Three Rejection War Stories
Three specific rejection narratives from the App Store and Google Play, plus the aggregate rejection-reason data behind 41 RN submissions.
ShopifyReplatforming to Shopify: Anatomy of One Magento Migration + 23 Engagements of Data
Opens with one specific Magento 2 to Shopify Plus migration end-to-end, then aggregates cost and timeline across 23 replatforms.
ShopifyShopify Plus vs Advanced: A Cost-Per-Order Analysis at 7 Revenue Tiers
Real CPO math for Shopify Plus vs Advanced across $500k to $50M GMV, and the GMV at which the upgrade pays back. 24 audited merchants.
AIPer-Token Economics: What an AI Feature Actually Costs in Production (47 SaaS Sample)
Real per-MAU token cost data across 47 production AI SaaS products. CPMU by feature class, model-tier routing, and the unit-economic decision.
SEOSchema.org for SaaS: Which JSON-LD Types Actually Move Rankings (57-page A/B Study)
90 days, 57 SaaS pages, 10 schema types. FAQ delivered 22% CTR lift; Article delivered noise. Schema-by-schema breakdowns.
SaaSThe Multi-Tenant SaaS Architecture Decision: Cost & Engineering Hours Across 4 Patterns
Per-pattern cost, isolation, and onboarding eng-hours for the four common multi-tenancy approaches. TIC, AOC, BCM metrics.
AILovable / Bolt to Production: The Real Cost & Timeline (20 Engagements, 1 Anatomy)
Opens with a deep teardown of one specific AI-prototype-to-production engagement, then aggregates cost and timeline across 20 projects.
SEOIndexing Decay: A 217-Page, 12-Month Panel on When Google Drops Stale Content
We tracked 217 pages across four content types for a year. Decay curves, half-lives, and the refresh cadence that recovers traffic.
SEOJavaScript SEO Reality Check: We Crawled 103 Funded SaaS Marketing Sites
41% of funded SaaS marketing sites are not reliably indexable. Original metrics RDI, CBE, JSC quantify the gap, and how to close it.
WordPressWordPress Plugin Vulnerability Risk: A 217-Plugin Security Audit
Open with the incident response that started this report. 217 plugins audited across 14 categories with PVR / MFI / RAI scoring.
EngineeringSeries A Code Audit: Inside 23 Funded SaaS Codebases
Patterns from 23 SaaS codebase audits: opens with one anonymised takeover, then aggregates the rubric findings. TDS, KPC, MTS.
AIWe Audited 31 Lovable / Bolt / v0 / Cursor Codebases. Here's What Survives Production.
A code-level teardown of 31 AI-generated SaaS prototypes: three proprietary metrics (PSR, TDR, RCM) and a 10-mode failure taxonomy.
SupabaseJio Supabase Issue: Why Apps Break on Jio and How to Fix It Properly
Supabase apps work on Airtel and office WiFi but fail on JioFiber and Jio mobile data: Failed to Fetch, WebSocket timeouts, broken auth. Diagnosed as ISP-level DNS / routing filtering, with four production-grade fixes.
The engagements this writing comes from
UK · Europe · Worldwide
selected work
where these numbers came from
Every study above is drawn from live production work.
01B2B commerceThe engineering partnership behind a cross-border wholesale marketplace.
Next.js storefront, Python ingestion pipelines, DynamoDB data layer and AWS infrastructure.
02
Event technologyA commission-free ticketing platform built for ownership and scale.
Multi-organiser commerce, Stripe instalments and two native apps in one connected platform.
03Global logisticsEmbedded product engineering for a global shipping platform.
Rate, tax and duty calculators, server-rendered courier pages and a custom MongoDB CMS.
04A course-commerce and learning platform wired into one system.
WordPress and WooCommerce, a Moodle LMS, Stripe deposits and Zoho CRM, tied together with Zapier automation.
05A bespoke platform that finances aesthetic machines on Direct Debit.
A lead-to-billing system on GoCardless Direct Debit, provider certification, and a React Native app for machine owners.
06
Luxury commerceA custom furniture marketplace engineered from storefront to infrastructure.
Server-rendered Next.js commerce over a Laravel API, bespoke operations tooling and re-architected AWS infrastructure.
07An AI-native operating system that runs a consultancy lead to invoice.
Discovery briefs, e-signed contracts, Stripe deposits, delivery milestones and time tracking in one operational system.
08
Home servicesA conversion platform for a growing UK boiler-cover provider.
Custom plan configuration, postcode-qualified lead journeys, CRM synchronisation and campaign landing pages.
09
Beauty commerceA custom Shopify store for a French beauty brand.
Custom theme, customer accounts, loyalty rewards, referrals and gift-with-purchase offers.
10
Home improvementMade-to-measure shutters with live pricing.
A seven-step product builder with live previews, sample orders and supplier tools.
11AdvertisingA self-service advertising platform for venues.
Campaign creation, audience targeting, in-app ads and reporting linked to venue check-ins.
12Social eventsAn events app with the tools to run it.
Mobile app, backend, advertising tools, a digital marketplace and website.
13
Social mobileTwo mobile apps for real-time companionship.
Customer and buddy apps with per-minute billing, wallets, moderation and admin tools.
14
Grassroots footballPlayer profiles and discovery for youth football.
Verified profiles, video highlights, coach discovery and safeguarding on web and mobile.
15
Geospatial AIWebsites and a talent platform for DeepSpatial.
Corporate and investor pages, the Xploor talent platform and ongoing releases on AWS Amplify.
16TravelTour bookings with a custom mobile-first checkout.
A multilingual website connected to the booking API, with deposits, coupons and affiliate tracking.
17
Energy brokerageOne platform for tenders, contracts and accounts.
Supplier tenders, contract management, brokerage accounting and client records.
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