Core topic
Hosting, databases, analytics, deployment and payments for indie builders
65 guides
mcp · model-context-protocol · stdioVideo
A practical, technically conservative guide to picking between stdio and HTTP-based transports for your Model Context Protocol server, with a focus on reliability, reconnects and how transport choice shapes monitoring for a one-person backend.
error budget · SLO · API reliability
What an error budget actually is, how to calculate one from a single SLO, and how to read burn rate without buying enterprise observability tooling.
api reliability · circuit breaker pattern · outbound api
A decision guide for indie developers and small teams on when a circuit breaker earns its complexity versus when a timeout and a retry are enough.
api reliability · timeouts · outbound api
A practical guide for solo founders on setting connect and read timeouts, building an upstream budget, and preventing one slow third-party API from cascading into a full outage.
cdn · small website · indie developer
A practical look at when a CDN actually pays off for a small site or app, when it is overkill, and how to weigh setup time against real gains.
cloud storage · object storage · pricing
A decision guide for solo founders comparing flat-rate subscriptions, tiered storage and pure usage-based pricing for cloud object storage — how each model actually bills, where egress and request fees hide, and how to estimate your real monthly cost before signing up.
log retention · small saas · indie developer
Choosing a log retention window for an indie SaaS without burning budget or losing the data you actually need. Storage cost, debugging value, and compliance exposure compared.
SaaS subscription audit · monthly software cost review · cancel unused SaaS subscriptions
A practical, repeatable monthly audit for solo founders and small teams to inventory every SaaS tool, measure real usage against cost, and decide what to keep, downgrade, or cancel.
saas pricing · indie founders · pricing tiers
A practical guide for indie founders on when to publish pricing, what to expose, how to structure tiers without overcommitting, and how to keep numbers current without turning every deal into a negotiation.
2fa · mfa · security
TOTP vs hardware key, recovery codes, and contractor access — a practical guide to choosing and rolling out two-factor authentication across your business accounts.
status page · saas operations · indie founders
A practical guide for solo founders on when a public status page is worth it, what the free tiers actually give you, and how to avoid turning it into another operational chore.
kubernetes · self-hosted · managed-kubernetes
A founder-focused decision guide on self-hosted vs managed Kubernetes for small production apps — operational attention, scaling complexity, cost predictability, portability, and when a simpler platform wins.
password manager · contractor access · small team security
Vault folders, password manager sharing, or ephemeral one-off links? How solo founders and small teams can hand credentials to contractors without leaving secrets in inboxes or chat.
ci-cd · github-actions · self-hosted-runners
A founder-friendly decision guide for choosing between hosted GitHub Actions, self-hosted runners and alternative CI services — covering free tier minutes, macOS premium, cold starts, and how to estimate real monthly cost before your team grows.
incident response · runbook · outage
A practical incident response guide for solo founders and tiny teams without on-call rotations: what to do in the first 30 minutes of an outage, how to communicate status, and how to write a blameless postmortem that prevents the next incident.
rate limiting · API security · API design
A founder-friendly walkthrough of rate limiting choices for a small public API: per-IP vs per-key vs per-tenant, fixed window vs token bucket vs sliding window, where to enforce limits, and how to keep things fair without overengineering.
code review · solo developer · indie founder
Should you do code review when you work alone? A practical guide for solo founders on self-review techniques, AI-assisted review, and lightweight checklists that catch real bugs.
api gateway · reverse proxy · nginx
A pragmatic decision guide for indie developers and small teams on when a reverse proxy is enough and when an API gateway starts to earn its keep.
databases · indie saas · postgres
An opinionated decision guide for indie founders comparing managed Postgres, managed MySQL, and SQLite-backed architectures by cost, backup ergonomics, migration ceiling, and the workloads where each actually pays off.
log aggregation · self-hosted vs managed · solo developers
How to choose the right log aggregation approach for your indie app, from simple host-level tailing to self-hosted and managed services, based on query needs, retention and cost.
vendor lock-in · SaaS · indie founders
A practical pre-signup checklist solo founders can run against any cloud or SaaS tool to score lock-in risk and estimate migration cost before it traps you.
backup strategy · indie developers · cloud backup
A grounded guide for indie developers and solo founders on what to back up, how often, and when automated cloud backups earn their cost over a manual routine.
saas pricing · indie founders · usage based pricing
How indie founders can compare flat-rate subscriptions and usage-based SaaS pricing, predict real costs over twelve months, and avoid bill shock before it hits.
self-hosted-analytics · managed-analytics · plausible
A decision guide for solo founders and small teams choosing between self-hosted analytics (Umami, Plausible, Matomo) and managed services. Real costs, data ownership, accuracy trade-offs, and when each approach earns its overhead.
security · authentication · internal tools
A founder-focused guide to putting authentication in front of admin dashboards, internal tools, and side-project admin URLs — comparing basic auth, hosted identity, VPNs, and zero-trust approaches by effort, cost, and real protection.
cdn · cloudflare · bunny
A founder-focused comparison of self-hosted CDN setups versus managed services like Cloudflare and Bunny.net — covering cost at low traffic, control, setup time, and when each approach pays off.
transactional email · deliverability · DMARC
When transactional email quietly stops arriving, here's how to diagnose bounces, read suppression reports, warm a damaged sending domain, and set up monitoring so it doesn't happen again.
database backup · postgres · small saas
A practical, founder-friendly guide to backing up your Postgres database when you are a one-person team — comparing managed snapshots, cron-driven pg_dump, and point-in-time recovery, with realistic frequency and a restore-test routine you can actually run.
api rate limits · client side retry · exponential backoff
How indie developers and small teams can detect rate limit headers, retry intelligently, and avoid thundering herd patterns when calling third-party APIs.
CDN comparison · managed vs self-hosted CDN · indie developer tools
A founder-focused comparison of managed CDN services versus self-hosted solutions. Learn when the switch saves cash, when it eats your hours, and how to match the model to your traffic, skills, and growth plans.
deployment cost at low traffic · reversible deployment decisions · platform pricing behavior small projects
A founder's guide to understanding how managed deployment pricing behaves before traffic arrives, what hidden costs surface as requests grow, and which architectural choices are cheap to change versus expensive to undo.
managed deployment · best deployment platform for indie developers · indie builder deployment guide
Solo founders and small indie teams spend more time debating deployment platforms than building features. This guide compares self-publishing, publisher-assisted shipping, and AI-powered managed platforms by real cost, time-to-launch, and control — so you can pick the path that fits your budget and genre.
cloud backup · free tier · indie developer
A practical, no-fluff guide to automating backups for your small indie project using free-tier cloud storage — what to prioritize, which services handle which data, and the verification step most founders skip until it's too late.
backup · disaster recovery · cloud infrastructure
Most indie founders back up nothing until something breaks. This guide walks through what to back up—source code, databases, user data, configuration, and secrets—compares automated cloud backups against manual strategies across cost and recovery time, and helps you choose a plan proportional to your project's actual risk.
secrets management · solo founder · environment variables
Find out where the single .env file stops working, what a secrets manager actually changes, and when features like rotation and audit trails earn their cost.
cloud infrastructure · vendor lock-in · portability
Solo founders pick cloud tools for today's speed — then wake up to steep switching costs. This guide explains the four lock-in vectors and a practical checklist to keep your options open before you commit.
email deliverability · SPF · DKIM
Your domain is your brand. When emails from your business land in spam, you're losing leads, payments, and trust. Here's the plain-language guide to configuring SPF, DKIM and DMARC without hiring a consultant.
AI tools · cloud infrastructure · LLM hosting
Should you run your own LLM or use an API? This guide compares real costs at low volume, data privacy trade-offs, and when self-hosting actually makes sense for indie developers and solo founders.
infrastructure · self-hosted · managed hosting
Your app is ready for production. Now you face the choice that shapes everything after: self-host on infrastructure you control, or pay a platform to handle the plumbing. This guide walks through real cost, operational overhead, and data-control trade-offs so you can pick the model that matches your growth trajectory — not your wish list.
API security · incident response · secrets management
A developer discovers an API key is live in a Git repository. Before panic sets in, there is a clear sequence: revoke, audit, rotate, harden. This guide walks through the critical first hour so you can contain the exposure without losing sleep.
API management · AI traffic detection · cost optimization
Solo founders: AI agents now make up the majority of web traffic. Traditional analytics can't see them, and they can quietly inflate your API bills. This guide shows how to detect agent patterns, estimate cost impact, and set practical controls without over-engineering.
security · secrets management · API keys
API keys and database passwords are the #1 source of security incidents for small projects. This guide walks through what secrets management is, the spectrum from environment variables to dedicated vaults, and how solo founders can pick the right approach for their risk level.
CDN · cloud infrastructure · website performance
Indie developers: before adding a CDN to your stack, understand when it actually moves the needle on latency, security, and reliability — and when it's just overhead you can skip.
API security · input validation · JSON Schema
A practical, opinionated guide to input validation for indie developers and small teams building public APIs. Learn when to use JSON Schema, how to reject early, and what pitfalls to avoid.
API Security · CORS · Web Development
A practical guide to Cross-Origin Resource Sharing for indie developers and small teams. Learn how preflight requests work, why Access-Control-Allow-Origin wildcards break with credentials, and how to configure CORS without opening your API to abuse.
API Performance · Rate Limiting · HTTP Headers
Learn how to implement RateLimit-Limit, RateLimit-Remaining, and Retry-After headers using the IETF draft standard—reducing support tickets while keeping abuse vectors contained.
API operations · secrets management · environment variables
A no-fluff guide to environment variables, .env files, and secrets management for indie developers and small API teams who need security without overengineering.
API Design · REST · Data Modeling
A practical guide for indie developers and small software teams on modeling API resources—choosing between flat and nested responses, using hypermedia links wisely, handling polymorphic types, and avoiding the trap of over-normalization.
API security · OWASP API Top 10 · small teams
A technically conservative guide to API security testing for indie developers and small teams — static analysis, dependency scanning, manual injection testing, and what the OWASP API Security Top 10 means in practice.
API Operations · API Analytics · Observability
A practical guide to API analytics for indie developers and small teams—metrics that matter, consumer attribution, and when log-based tracking is enough.
cybersecurity · solo-founder · small-business
A practical, no-fluff guide to securing your online accounts as a solo founder or small business owner. Two-factor authentication, password managers, app permissions, and recovery plans — explained plainly.
API changelog best practices · communicating API changes to developers · API version announcement strategy
A practical guide to maintaining an API changelog developers use—what to document, how far back to go, when to announce breaking changes, and which channels reach your consumers effectively.
API Design · REST · HATEOAS
A practical guide to choosing between simple JSON envelopes, HAL, JSON:API, and HATEOAS for small teams building APIs. Understand the trade-offs, not the hype.
API Design · API Deprecation · API Versioning
A practical guide to planning API deprecation, setting sunset timelines, communicating breaking changes through headers and changelogs, and managing the transition for your public API consumers.
api performance · http caching · etag
A practical, opinionated guide for indie developers on implementing ETags, If-None-Match, and Cache-Control headers in small public REST APIs, with trade-offs and pitfalls.
API Security · OAuth 2.0 · JWT
A practical guide to choosing and implementing OAuth 2.0 and JWT-based authentication for small public APIs — understanding grant types, token lifecycle management, and avoiding common security mistakes without over-engineering.
API Design · REST · Small Teams
A practical, no-fluff guide to REST API design for indie developers and small teams. Covers resource modeling, naming consistency, pagination, and when to adopt patterns like OpenAPI or webhooks without overengineering for scale you don't have yet.
API documentation best practices · developer-friendly API docs · interactive API documentation
A practical guide for indie developers and small teams on treating API documentation as a core product feature—covering structure, interactive tools, and maintenance habits that reduce support burden and improve adoption.
API error response design · consistent error codes API · debugging API errors
Learn how to design consistent, actionable error responses that help developers debug quickly, without leaking sensitive information or overwhelming them with technical jargon.
API monitoring basics · alerting for API errors · latency monitoring API
A practical guide to setting up API monitoring and alerting for small teams—tracking latency, error rates, and uptime without overcomplicating things with enterprise-grade tooling.
API security · authentication · authorization
A practical guide to authentication, authorization, input validation, and CORS for indie developers building APIs without a security team.
API economics · cost optimization · API monitoring
Third-party APIs are essential but can quietly drain your budget. Learn how to track usage, cache responses, batch requests, and negotiate better rates with providers.
idempotency · API design · retries
Learn how to implement idempotency keys, handle retries, and set timeouts without overengineering your public API. A conservative approach for indie developers and small teams.
content calendar for solo founder · simple content planning system · how to plan content as one person
A no-fluff guide to building a content calendar that fits your real schedule as a solo founder — minimal tools, flexible planning, and a system that survives when life gets in the way.
digital asset organization · file naming system · solo founder productivity
Stop losing hours searching for files. A no-fluff, operational system for naming, storing, and retrieving your business assets so you can find anything in under 60 seconds.