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.
Self-hosted software and SaaS often appear to solve the same problems, yet they represent very different approaches to ownership, responsibility and product development. This article explores how both models work, why each has strengths and limitations, and why the right choice depends more on business goals than technology.
Laravel and pure PHP aren't competing technologies, they're different approaches to building applications with the same language. This article explores where each shines, compares their trade-offs and explains why I chose to build Cordinant in pure PHP despite Laravel's impressive ecosystem.
Traditional websites haven't disappeared, but their role has changed. This article explores how AI, web applications, customer expectations and digital ecosystems are reshaping business websites — and why a simple website is still the right solution for many companies.
PHP has supposedly been "dying" for years, yet it continues to power millions of websites and modern web applications. After building Cordinant and several self-hosted PHP products, I found the discussion far more nuanced than internet debates suggest. Here's why PHP still matters—and where it doesn't.
When I started building Cordinant, WordPress seemed like the obvious choice. It already handled content, SEO, media, and almost everything else through its huge plugin ecosystem. But as the project evolved, adapting WordPress to my workflow gradually became more difficult than building a CMS designed specifically for my needs.
Building digital products sounded straightforward until I started doing everything myself. From feature creep and database decisions to documentation, pricing, marketing, and launch anxiety, these were the biggest challenges I encountered while creating products like My Budget, Captain's Toolkit, and Cordinant.
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.
Explore articlesIdeas, planning, validation and product strategy.
Explore articlesDesign decisions, usability and user experience.
Explore articlesSearch visibility, content structure and growth.
Explore articlesUseful services, libraries and development tools.
Explore articlesThoughts, comparisons and new approaches.
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.