Building in public

Vibe Code Rescue

7 Cursor Alternatives Worth Your Money in 2026 (Tested on Real Projects)

Shopping for a Cursor alternative? I've run all seven of these — Claude Code, Copilot, Windsurf, Codex, Replit, Lovable, Bolt — on real client codebases. Here's the honest verdict per use case.

Vibe Code Rescue

Bolt.new Pricing in 2026: Tokens, Tiers, and the Real Cost

Bolt.new's Pro plan runs about $20-25/month — but Bolt meters in tokens, and token burn scales with your codebase. Here's how the pricing actually works and what a real project costs.

Vibe Code Rescue

Lovable Pricing in 2026: What It Actually Costs to Ship an App

Lovable's sticker price is $25/month. The real cost of shipping a working app is usually 2-3x that once credits, add-ons, and a pre-launch code review enter the picture. Here's the full math.

Vibe Code Rescue

GitHub Copilot vs Cursor: Which Fits Your Workflow in 2026?

GitHub Copilot vs Cursor in mid-2026: Copilot is the $10/mo GitHub-native assistant, Cursor is the $20-$200/mo AI-first IDE. I use both on real client codebases. Here's which one earns its seat.

Fractional CTO

CTO as a Service: What It Is, Cost & When Startups Need It (2026)

CTO as a Service gives you senior technical leadership on demand — strategy, architecture, hiring, vendor calls — without a full-time CTO's $300K+ cost. What it includes, what it costs, and when a startup actually needs it.

AI Automation

AI Automation for Small Business: Where to Actually Start (2026)

AI automation for small business means letting LLM-powered tools handle repetitive work without hiring. The 5 automations that pay back fastest, what they cost (DIY vs done-for-you), and how to tell if your business is ready.

Fractional CTO

7 Signs You Need a Fractional CTO (2026 Founder's Checklist)

Seven concrete signs it's time to hire a fractional CTO — and three signs it's still too early. A founder's checklist for knowing when senior technical leadership is worth $5K-$15K/month.

Vibe Code Rescue

GitHub Copilot vs Claude Code for Developers (2026)

GitHub Copilot vs Claude Code in June 2026: Copilot is editor autocomplete at $10-$19/mo, Claude Code is terminal-native agentic reasoning at ~$200/mo. Most senior devs should run both.

Vibe Code Rescue

Claude Code vs Replit Agent: Which AI Coder Should You Use? (2026)

Claude Code vs Replit Agent in June 2026: CLI pair programmer in your terminal vs cloud-based agent that ships a deployed app from a prompt. Pricing, tradeoffs, and the hybrid pattern most pros use.

AI for Business

Claude API vs OpenAI API for Developers (2026)

Claude API vs OpenAI API for developers in 2026. Real pricing, tool-use reliability numbers from production logs, and the routing pattern most builders end up using.

Vibe Code Rescue

Cursor vs Claude Code vs Codex: The 3-Way Comparison (2026)

Cursor vs Claude Code vs Codex in June 2026: honest pricing, where each wins and loses, and the 2-of-3 stack pro developers actually run. From a fractional CTO who bills with them daily.

Fractional CTO

Fractional CTO vs Technical Advisor: Which Role Do You Actually Need?

A technical advisor is a 5-hours-a-month equity-only sounding board. A fractional CTO is an embedded 5-15-hours-a-week operational role on a $5K-$15K/month retainer. Here's how to pick.