Guides written from real work.
Plain guides, side-by-side tool comparisons and my own research on AI agents, automation and building software. Free to read, no email needed.
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AI agents and voice
How AI agents and phone agents work, and how to build ones you can trust.
10 articlesAutomation
Which tools to pick, and how to connect them so nobody copies data by hand.
9 articlesBuilding software
What custom software costs, how long it takes and when to buy instead.
23 articlesMarketing and AI search
Ads, content and SEO with AI, plus how to show up in AI answers.
19 articlesThe full list
- Guide What a web app costs in 2026 Real ranges for agencies, freelancers, and AI-assisted builds, what moves the number, and why almost nobody publishes theirs. Read time 5 min
- Comparison Web application vs website I build both. The real difference, the gray zone in between, and which one your project actually needs. Read time 4 min
- Guide Web application examples, 12 real ones Famous web apps grouped by pattern, plus six I built and shipped myself, with what each one teaches. Read time 4 min
- Guide How to use AI for SEO What held up when I built 58 pages with AI, and the three places it produced work I had to throw away. Read time 5 min
- Research I analyzed 866 ads from 30 custom software companies Screened from 585 advertisers running paid ads to US businesses. Three tiers, real prices, and the offers that have survived longest. Read time 7 min
- Comparison MCP vs function calling What MCP adds over plain tool calls, and when the extra moving part is not worth it. Read time 5 min
- Guide Programmatic SEO with AI I shipped 58 pages from one route and one data file. The method, the guardrails, and the part that decides whether it works. Read time 6 min
- Research Only 3 of 30 software companies publish a price Pricing is hidden almost everywhere in this market, which makes publishing one the cheapest way to stand out. Read time 5 min
- Comparison Supabase vs Firebase Ten shipped products on Supabase. The Postgres argument, and the places Firebase is still the faster call. Read time 5 min
- Guide Cold email with AI that doesn't read like AI The tells that get you deleted, and the personalization layer that actually earns a reply. Read time 4 min
- Research Only 4 of 30 offer a guarantee And three of those four run the longest-lived ads in the set. The exact wording of each. Read time 5 min
- Comparison Vercel vs Railway Both run production apps here. Where the serverless model helps, and where it quietly bites. Read time 4 min
- Guide AI lead enrichment that actually works I enriched 254 contacts and had to throw away 44%. Why, and the checks that catch it. Read time 5 min
- Research Ad longevity is a public conversion signal One ad ran 564 days on a single creative. Nobody keeps paying for a losing ad. Read time 5 min
- Comparison Astro vs Next.js This site is Astro. A client app is Next. How to pick without relitigating it every project. Read time 5 min
- Guide How to build an AI SDR A working sales agent: the tools it gets, the approval rules, and where a human stays in the loop. Read time 4 min
- Research The vibe-coding wall One company launched 80 ad variants in two weeks around a single idea: you already tried building it with AI, and hit a wall. Read time 6 min
- Comparison Lovable vs Replit vs Bolt Where all three get you in an afternoon, and the exact point each one stops. Read time 4 min
- Guide AI competitor research that works How I pulled and read 866 competitor ads, and what to do with the answer. Read time 5 min
- Research 10 hook patterns behind 33.1M plays 19 Instagram posts over 1M plays, transcribed and analyzed. The patterns, ranked by plays behind them. Read time 5 min
- Comparison OpenRouter vs the API direct Five models across live products. What the router buys you and what it costs. Read time 4 min
- Guide An AI ad creative workflow that ships Concept to rendered video, with the human decisions that cannot be automated. Read time 4 min
- Research TikTok and Instagram are not the same game Shares are the lever on one, not the other. Duration is bimodal. The middle is dead. Read time 4 min
- Comparison Resend vs Mailgun I moved a production CRM to Mailgun and hit a deliverability trap that has nothing to do with either product. How to pick, and what to check before you switch. Read time 5 min
- Guide Writing landing page copy with AI Where AI drafts well, where it flattens your voice, and the edit pass that fixes it. Read time 4 min
- Research Carousels are depth, not reach A tenth of the likes of a reel, and the same number of comments. What that means for what you post. Read time 5 min
- Comparison GoHighLevel vs HubSpot Client work in both. Which one fits an agency, which fits a sales team, and the migration cost nobody mentions. Read time 4 min
- Guide AI content that ranks vs content that gets ignored The difference is not the model. It is what you can say that nobody else can. Read time 4 min
- Research 44% of enriched contacts were wrong Measured across 254 contacts at 100 companies. Two failure modes, and the check that catches both. Read time 5 min
- Comparison AI SDR vs hiring an SDR I built a working sales agent. An honest read on what it replaced and what it absolutely did not. Read time 4 min
- Guide Automating a CRM with AI Eight AI-backed functions in a production CRM, and the two I turned back off. Read time 5 min
- Research The false-zero machine Ad-library search ranks the wrong page first and returns a confident zero. How to detect it before it poisons your analysis. Read time 5 min
- Comparison Custom CRM vs GoHighLevel I used GHL for years, then built my own. The three conditions that justify building. Read time 4 min
- Guide AI voice agents for follow-up What a voice agent does well on inbound, and the failure modes to design around. Read time 4 min
- Comparison Claude vs GPT for coding Both run daily against real repositories. Where each is stronger, measured on actual tasks. Read time 4 min
- Guide GEO for local business How AI answers handle local intent, and the parts of your presence that feed them. Read time 4 min
- Comparison Firecrawl vs Apify vs Puppeteer All three are in my stack for different jobs. A decision tree instead of a winner. Read time 4 min
- Comparison Row-level security vs app-layer auth RLS shipped on several products, including the mistakes. Why the database is usually the right place. Read time 4 min
- Guide How to measure AI’s impact on marketing Attribution that survives a cookieless setup, and the vanity metrics to drop. Read time 4 min
- Comparison Supabase functions vs Vercel functions 98 edge functions on one product. Where each runtime belongs and how they fail differently. Read time 5 min
- Guide An AI marketing stack for a small team The actual tools I run, what each replaced, and what I pay for them. Read time 4 min
- Comparison AI phone agent vs chatbot vs live chat I shipped a voice agent for a roofing company. Which channel actually books the job, by lead type. Read time 4 min
- Guide Prompt engineering for marketers The handful of patterns that carry production work. No prompt library required. Read time 4 min
- Comparison Zapier AI vs n8n AI agents 20+ workflows across both. Where the managed version saves you and where it traps you. Read time 4 min
- Comparison Twilio vs WhatsApp Business API Both wired into live products. Deliverability, cost, and the template approval reality. Read time 4 min
- Comparison Stripe Checkout vs Payment Links Live billing on both. The fastest path to a first paid customer, and when to upgrade. Read time 4 min
- Comparison Shopify vs custom ecommerce Client builds on both. The revenue point where custom starts to pay for itself. Read time 4 min
- Comparison WordPress vs Astro I have migrated sites off WordPress. What you gain, what you give up, who should not move. Read time 4 min
- Comparison n8n vs Make: the deep cut Past the feature table, into error handling, versioning, and what breaks at scale. Read time 4 min
- Comparison AI phone agent vs answering service What each one actually does with an after-hours call, and what it costs. Read time 2 min
- Comparison Lovable and Replit vs hiring a builder Where the AI builders get you, and the point they stop. Read time 2 min
- Guide Why you still need a person when AI does the building Six defects AI shipped for me that passed every check, what each cost, and the review layer that catches them. Read time 9 min
- Guide How to build an MCP server A working server in about 30 lines, then the parts that actually break. Read time 5 min
- Comparison n8n vs Zapier vs Make Shipped 20+ workflows across all three. How they differ and how to pick. Read time 5 min
- Guide Postgres row-level security Turn it on without breaking the app, plus the three gotchas that bite every time. Read time 5 min
- Guide How to build an AI agent with Claude Code and MCP A working pattern: one job, a few tools, clear approval rules, and real tests. Read time 6 min
- Guide GEO and AI search: what actually helps The useful parts of AI search optimization, without the llms.txt myths or schema tricks. Read time 5 min
- Guide How to show up in Google AI Overviews in 2026 Google’s current guidance, translated into a practical checklist for your site. Read time 3 min
- Guide What is MCP? A plain Model Context Protocol guide What MCP connects, how clients and servers work, and where the USB analogy falls short. Read time 4 min
- Guide How I ship a web app in days with AI The small-scope workflow I use to move from an idea to a reviewed, live app. Read time 6 min
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