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10 posts on building side projects.
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- 3 min read
What Are APIs, and How Do You Build Your First One?
An API is a defined way for one piece of software to ask another for something, without either side needing to know how the other is built internally. When…
- #setup
- #tutorial
- 4 min read
AI Coding Tools for Side Projects, Compared
AI coding tools went from novelty to default tooling fast, but they're not interchangeable. Each optimizes for a different point in your workflow, and mixing…
- #comparison
- #tooling
- 3 min read
Getting Started with Tailwind CSS v4 in a New Project
Tailwind v4 changed enough that older tutorials will actively mislead you. The biggest shift: no by default anymore. Configuration happens in CSS. Installing…
- #tutorial
- #setup
- #tooling
- 3 min read
Choosing a Tech Stack for Your Side Project
The stack that ships is the right stack. Scalability, "best practices," whatever's trending this month, none of it matters as much as whether you'll actually…
- #setup
- #tutorial
- 3 min read
Astro vs Next.js for Content-Driven Side Projects
If your side project is mostly content, a blog, docs, a portfolio, the choice between Astro and Next.js comes down to how much interactivity you actually need.…
- #comparison
- 3 min read
Setting Up CI/CD for a Side Project with GitHub Actions
A few minutes of GitHub Actions configuration buys you a real safety net: nothing broken merges to main, and deploys happen without you running commands by…
- #setup
- #tooling
- #tutorial
- 4 min read
Picking a Database for Small Apps: SQLite vs Postgres vs Supabase
The database choice for a side project rarely matters as much as people agonize over it. What actually differs between these three is the setup cost and mental…
- #comparison
- #setup
- 3 min read
Deploying to Vercel vs Fly.io: Which Should You Pick?
Both show up constantly in side project deploy conversations, and they solve fairly different problems. Picking wrong doesn't usually break your project, but…
- #comparison
- #tooling
- 4 min read
Authentication Options for Indie Apps in 2026
Auth is one of those side project tasks that feels like it should take an afternoon and somehow eats a week. The good news is you almost never need to build it…
- #comparison
- #setup
- 3 min read
Cheap Hosting Compared: Where to Deploy Your Side Project on a Budget
You don't need a corporate cloud budget to ship a side project. Most of the options below have free tiers generous enough to run a small app until it actually…
- #comparison
- #tooling