A growing collection of articles, ideas, comparisons and useful resources about PHP development, UX design, SEO, websites and digital products.
Thoughts, experiments and observations from developing PHP applications, improving websites, creating content and building self-hosted software.
AI automation does not necessarily mean replacing an employee. For a small business, it can mean removing repetitive pieces of customer support, administration, content production, sales research and financial paperwork while keeping people involved where judgement matters.
An app prototype and an app design may look surprisingly similar, but they serve different purposes. Drawing on my experience building digital products independently, I explore what each one reveals, what it can hide and why the process is rarely as linear as it appears.
A website may look like a collection of pages, but underneath it is a network of templates, URLs, databases, content relationships and backend systems. Using Cordinant as a real example, I look at website architecture from a non-developer perspective and explain what is actually happening behind the pages visitors see.
Buying a source-code product is different from subscribing to software or hiring someone to build it from scratch. Developers, freelancers, agencies, founders and businesses can buy the same application for very different reasons. So what are they actually paying for?
Custom software and SaaS are often presented as competing solutions, but they serve different priorities. This article explores ownership, subscription costs, flexibility, maintenance and vendor dependence, alongside my reasons for building self-hosted software rather than operating a SaaS business.
I wanted to reduce automated submissions on the Cordinant contact form without making every visitor complete a CAPTCHA. The solution became a combination of small server-side checks: CSRF protection, a honeypot, submission timing, validation and rate limiting.
A collection of practical articles, product ideas, and resources on technical research, development, SEO and content for anyone interested in creating websites, apps and digital products.
PHP architecture, project structure, deployment and reusable solutions.
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Explore articlesThe principles discussed in these articles are applied in real self-hosted products, not only described in theory.
A self-hosted PHP and MySQL personal finance application with transactions, reports, goals, exports and an installer.
View My Budget →An offline-first marine operations PWA with voyages, fuel, maintenance, crew records, checklists and optional PHP backup tools.
View Captain's Toolkit →Browse installable PHP applications, self-hosted starter kits and practical developer tools created with the same principles discussed in the blog.