Founder guides
Process, hiring, stack choices, and cost — written for people about to hire a team. Cost tables by app type still live under /cost; these guides cover the decisions around them.
Process
MVP Development Process
Most MVP projects slip because the process is vague. Discovery never ends, design is never approved, and engineering starts on a moving target. This is the proc…
Decision guide
MVP vs Prototype
Founders mix these up and burn runway. A prototype answers 'does this interaction make sense?' An MVP answers 'will someone use (or pay for) this in the real wo…
Tech decision
React Native vs Flutter for an MVP
For most startup MVPs, both React Native and Flutter can ship iOS and Android from one codebase. The decision is about hiring, your web stack, and whether you n…
Architecture
Best Tech Stack for an MVP
The best MVP stack is the one your future hire can maintain and that gets the product in front of users this month. Ours is boring on purpose: TypeScript, Next.…
Hiring
How to Hire an MVP Development Agency
Hiring an MVP agency is a procurement problem with a product deadline. The wrong partner costs you a quarter and a messy repo. Use this checklist on the first c…
Before you build
How to Validate an App Idea Before Development
Building is the expensive way to test a sentence. Validate the problem and the willingness to change behavior (or pay) before you fund a 21-day sprint. This is …
Cost guide
Cost to Build an Uber-like App
Search results that quote '$50,000 to $300,000 for an Uber clone' are mixing a three-sided logistics company with a first version you can test in one city. Here…
Definition
What Is a Production-Ready AI App?
Short answer: a production-ready AI app is software you would let strangers create accounts on. How it was written — Cursor, Lovable, Bolt, Claude Code — is irr…
Comparison
Lovable vs Bolt
Short answer: both are AI web builders for demos. Pick on export quality and the stack you want to keep. Neither replaces production engineering when you need s…
Comparison
Cursor vs Claude Code
Short answer: both are coding agents. Cursor is an IDE. Claude Code is a terminal-first agent. Production risk is identical if you merge unreviewed diffs. Choos…
Comparison
Supabase vs Firebase for an MVP
Short answer: pick Supabase if you want Postgres and SQL you will still like in 18 months. Pick Firebase if your team already lives in Google’s client SDKs and …
Comparison
Next.js vs React for an MVP
Short answer: React is the UI library. Next.js is how most teams ship a production web app in 2026 (routing, server rendering, a default host). A Vite SPA is fi…
Decision guide
AI Builder vs Agency
Short answer: use an AI builder to learn the flow. Use a production team (agency, freelancer, or hire) when you need owned code, stores, tenant-safe data, or a …
Decision guide
Freelancer vs Agency for an MVP
Short answer: a trusted senior freelancer wins if you can spec, review, and wait. An agency wins if you need design + web + mobile + QA on a date and do not wan…
Web
How to Build a Web App in 2026
Short answer: build a web app with Next.js (or a Vite SPA if it is login-only), hosted Postgres, real auth, and a host you can roll back. Do not start with micr…
Web
Next.js SaaS MVP
Short answer: a Next.js SaaS MVP is App Router, server-side auth, Postgres with RLS, Stripe, and one workspace model. Not a dashboard template with 40 feature f…
Comparison
ChatGPT vs Claude for Coding
Short answer: Claude is often stronger on long-repo refactors; ChatGPT is fine for snippets and product copy. Neither is a production environment. The repo, tes…
AI decision
RAG vs Fine-Tuning
Short answer: use RAG when the answers live in documents you can retrieve. Use prompting when the job is a short, owned FAQ. Fine-tune only after a hosted model…
AI decision
OpenAI vs Anthropic for a Product
Short answer: run the same 20 product questions on both. Pick quality × latency × price. Abstract the client so a vendor outage is a config change, not a rewrit…
Web
How to Build a SaaS MVP
Short answer: a SaaS MVP is auth, one org/workspace, Stripe, and one job table. Next.js + Postgres. Cut the 40-feature “platform” and the AI theatre unless the …
Web + mobile
How to Build an App (Web & Mobile)
Short answer: decide web vs mobile first, then build one loop — auth, the job, payments if you charge — on Next.js and/or React Native. Do not start with two na…
Mobile
How to Build a Mobile App
Short answer: most startup mobile apps should be React Native + Expo — one codebase for iOS and Android — with a real API, store-compliant payments, and a TestF…
iOS
How to Build an iOS App
Short answer: an App Store-ready iOS app needs a complete loop, a reviewer account, privacy nutrition, and StoreKit if you sell digital goods. Expo gets most st…
Android
How to Build an Android App
Short answer: don’t hire an Android-only team for an MVP if you also need iOS. React Native + Expo ships both. Kotlin when a device API Expo cannot wrap is the …