Notes from the work — across every stack.
Practical writing on CMS choice, performance, and the tradeoffs nobody talks about.
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Headless WordPress + Next.js: when it earns the architecture
Headless WordPress with Next.js is the architecture everyone is talking about in 2021. Here is when it is worth the complexity, and when it is not.
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Webflow vs Squarespace for design-led portfolios
Two of the most-asked-about no-code platforms for portfolio sites. The honest comparison for designers picking between them in 2021.
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Building B2B catalogs on WooCommerce: 18,000-SKU lessons learned
WooCommerce was not designed for B2B catalogs at scale. We shipped one with 18,000 SKUs this year. Here is what broke and how we fixed it.
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WordPress 5.5 native lazy-loading: what changes for image-heavy sites
WordPress 5.5 dropped native lazy-loading on August 11. Here is what it does, what it does not do, and the plugins you can finally retire.
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Custom Shopify themes vs ThemeForest: the 24-month TCO math
A custom Shopify theme costs more on day one. After 24 months the math flips. Here is the actual breakdown from three of our 2019 builds.
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ACF Pro vs Toolset vs Pods: which custom-fields plugin earns the build?
Three established custom-fields plugins, three different bets on how to extend WordPress. Here is which one we reach for first and why.
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Migrating WordPress to Shopify: the redirect-map you need before launch
The single biggest cause of organic traffic loss after a WordPress-to-Shopify migration is a sloppy redirect map. Here is the process we run.
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Page builders are a productivity trap. The WordPress dev rant.
Six months with three different page builders on real client projects. Here is what they actually cost the team, the client, and the site.
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Setting performance budgets on WordPress: the 200KB challenge
Most WordPress sites ship two megabytes before content. Here is what happens when you set a 200KB budget and refuse to break it.
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WordPress vs Drupal vs Joomla: the SMB CMS decision in 2017
Three open-source CMSes, three reasons to pick each one, and the honest answer about which one wins for small-business projects in late 2024.
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Why we don’t use ThemeForest themes on paid projects
ThemeForest themes look like a shortcut. On a paid build, they turn into the most expensive line item in the project — usually about month four.