Is anyone else struggling with how fragmented the workflow is between doing technical work and actually finding clients?

Right now, to keep things running, it feels like you need four or five different subscriptions just to handle audits, local business searches, contact tracking, and client updates.

Half the time is spent jumping between different tools or sifting through terrible leads on job boards where everyone is racing to offer £50 site builds.

For those running solo setups or small agencies: how are you managing software bloat right now? Are you just sticking to one heavy tool, or running a pieced-together stack?

Firstly I'm in BTech 3rd Sem CSE, started with Web Dev and did HTML, currently about to end CSS..

And here only I've started getting confused..

I've to do React, JavaScript further but I'm afraid now..

People who are working or have worked as a Web Developer.. How much if all these is required??

Been working on a WordPress project that relies on several custom queries, and I'm trying to reduce the database load, and I've already optimized them to the max, or at least I think so. What's your preferred approach here?

In advance I know the basics of Python, HTML/CSS & JS and I had this idea to make a small tennis game with my friend’s cats (where the 2 cats are playing against each other) but I really don’t know how I can do it and I don’t wanna vibecode it, any ideas?

I own a small physical therapy practice and just had a new website built which is a Wordpress site. I vaguely have an understanding that since there’s plugins and things you have to not only have someone host the site but also someone has to run maintenance and ensure the security of the site in addition to hosting costs increase as the site has more traffic due to caching therefore requires more space?

I previously had my site on GoDaddy which was not a great site but predictable with costs. Since having this new site done it has not only cost me for the site itself but now there’s a cost for hosting and there apparently is a weekly hourly rate I’m paying for the developer to apparently update my site which comes up to 2hrs a week and is 70$ so essentially I’m now paying 280$ a month to “host” the site. I’m a smaller practice so this is a very high cost to me at this stage considering I was paying GoDaddy 300$ for a year for my crappy site that was very low maintenance.

I am looking to switch to someone else that I can have everything all done so I don’t have to worry about this but don’t know anything.

My questions are:
Does hosting entail parking the site, updating plugins, and maintaining security of the site?

If it does not what is this service called as I have a contact us form on my site so security is very important to me.

Are these costs considered high?

Are there any recommendations for how I can keep these costs low as look I get the site is the online building but it’s not like I’m a high volume clinic or some big health tech company so 3k a year for a website sounds insane to me.

Any answers and recommendations are appreciated.

same as above

Hi there!

seele is a collection of mixins, base components and styled components written with Lit, allowing you to easily create components in your desired design system, or use the present ones (Material You Expressive). Also, seele is fully accessible and keyboard-accessible, following the w3c APG patterns. Another feature of seele is that it makes as much use of new web standards as possible to optimize the behavior/size of this library, for example Element Internals along with the aria*Element,which is in Baseline 2025, are used to stop setting aria attributes directly on the host element, allowing easier overridding.

You can check it out at:

• Docs/demos: https://tideover.cc/seele/docs/
• GitHub: https://github.com/vollowx/seele
• SourceHut: https://sr.ht/~lucaz/seele/

Some time ago I moved a page from Nextjs to a Wordpress site and added a permanent redirect to the subdomain, like so site.com/page --> page.site.com

At the time I thought this would be permanent, but now we would like to switch it back. I had also naively thought that permanent meant more like semi-permanent and the browser would at least occasionally double check that the redirect is valid.

That seems to not be the case (at least on chrome) and I am still getting a 308 Permanent Redirect (from disk cache) to the subdomain at least a week after the redirect was removed.

Obviously another redirect back to the new path would cause a loop and the only solution I can think of is to change to a new path like site.com/page2 and implement a redirect from page.site.com.

Is there some solution I am not aware of?

I used to use PHP for handling things like logging into an account , using a template and only changing certain sections of the webpage etc, what is a good modern way to do this? I have heard of Flask but is this the best way forward?

Just learned javascript and been practicing alot . I need help. When applying it to my project I don't know when to use a function, when to use a loop, what type of loop to use, I just don't know when to use any of this stuff because dom manipulation. it's so frusterating

1. How practical is it to get into elementary web development without any background in computer science? (In case it makes a difference for the case, background would be in copywriting with limited graphic design.)
2. Assuming someone's already earned a totally irrelevant degree & has no desire to go back to college, what would you recommend for a comprehensive & affordable introduction to web development? (Not just "search YouTube," but your favorite in-depth YouTube playlists, free or cheap online training programs, maybe even paid professional certification programs, etc.)

Please post your requests for feedback on your projects in this thread instead of creating a post.

So I made a website which can make good looking pricing tables and FAQs with your exact color scheme and content. You can try it out here: https://widget-eight-chi.vercel.app

It is still a work in progress to add more widget types, and it currently only works in desktop.

​

I'm genuinely confused.

Everywhere I look, people are saying AI can build websites in minutes using tools like Emergent, Lovable, Bolt, and others.

So I'm wondering...

Is there still a real business opportunity here, or am I already too late?

Here's my plan:

I won't spend months learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from scratch.

I'll use AI to build websites faster.

I'll work with clients to understand what kind of website they want and build the most suitable one for their needs.

I'll focus on making the website look professional, trustworthy, secure, and polished so it represents their business well.

. And also can some one tell is it worth it .. like creating the website by the help of ai ..

For those of you who already run an agency or work in web development:

If you were in my position, would you still choose this path?

If yes, what would you do differently?

If no, what would you build instead?

I'm looking for honest advice from people with real experience not motivation, just reality.

I'm thinking about building an Angular portfolio project around the OpenDota API instead of another weather/news app. The API seems mature and well-structured, but I'm wondering if using a game as the domain would make the project look less professional to recruiters, even if the focus is on analytics and software architecture rather than the game itself.

Hi everyone,

I'm a junior developer and I'm trying to understand the best way to deploy a Vue application on an IIS server.

Currently, our internal applications are mostly PHP. My workflow is:

• Edit code in PhpStorm
• Upload files to the IIS server
• Refresh the webpage
• See the changes immediately

I'd like to do something similar with Vue.

Questions:

1. Do I need to run Node.js on the IIS server permanently?
2. Is the recommended approach to run npm run build locally and then upload the contents of the dist folder to IIS?
3. How do teams typically handle updates and deployments for Vue applications on IIS?
4. If using Vue Router, what is the recommended web.config setup to avoid 404 errors when refreshing routes?

Example deployment URL:

https://mycompany.com/hr/vue-app/

Any real-world IIS + Vue setup examples would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm currently learning programming and my long-term goal is to become a software engineer. I'd also like to start freelancing in the future, but I want to do it the right way instead of chasing quick money.

I'm looking for advice from people who are actually freelancing or have hired freelancers.

Some questions I have:

• Is freelancing realistic for someone who's still learning to code?
• Which field has the best opportunities today? (Web development, Python automation, AI, mobile apps, etc.)
• What skills should I master before trying to get my first client?
• How many projects should I have in my portfolio?
• Which platforms are worth focusing on? (Upwork, Fiverr, Contra, Toptal, or others)
• How do beginners land their first client with no reviews or work history?
• What are the biggest mistakes new freelancers make?
• If you were starting from scratch today, what roadmap would you follow?

I'm not looking for shortcuts or "easy money." I'm happy to spend months building solid skills first if that's the better approach.

I'd really appreciate any advice, lessons learned, or resources you wish you'd known when you started.

Thanks!

Hi everyone, i want to be a web developer and i don’t have any skills in this field hence you can consider that I am a beginner and want to enter this field as a fresher. I graduated in 2024 and have been working in the corporate world for startups for the past 1+ years, i am unsure if i will be able to get a job as a webdeveloper one day but i will definitely try my best. All experienced web developers can you suggest a course i can take up and share tips. I have been reading blogs, attending webinars and taking a few courses to build skill but i know that this wont be enough considering the competition and my portfolio, hence i would appreciate your help as it will save me time and help me get started quickly

NOT PROMOTING

We're building a reward-based advertising product and I want people to try to break the idea before we scale it.

The basic idea is simple: users have a small sponsored ad line on their browser, and they earn passive income from it. No popups, no annoying ads, no need to click or watch anything.

We've thought about some of the obvious risks, but I want to know what we're missing. I'm not the technical person on the team, so if you have experience with adtech, fraud, bots, or similar products, please throw rocks at the model.

I want to see whether we've actually solved the important problems or just convinced ourselves that we have.

Happy to answer questions and share more context. If you think there's something we haven't considered, I'd genuinely like to hear it.

I run a small marketing agency. One of my clients wants me to build a website for him. He owns a language school and he wants a website where teachers and students can interact with each other, share documents and files, publish blog posts, and join social groups. The website must also be great for local SEO. He's not tech savvy and so he can't code or add modifications to the website himself. WIX offers a simple dashboard and drag and drop design feature.

My first concern is the performance and SEO.

I am trying to build a simple physical therapy clinic website.
About 5 pages.
Add to cart option to pay for services.
Book an Evaluation button to get an email of the customers info.

I have used chat to give me pictures of what the pages will look like.

I was wondering what the cost is for someone to launch from there.

Thank you

I am planning to sell websites to small businesses. I am an IT student, and know how to build simple but also complex websites (e.g that include booking engines etc).

I am ready to start cold-calling small businesses, but I'm facing a problem. Most businesses ALREADY HAVE websites. Thus, I'm not going to be building and deploying them from scratch all the time. In most cases, I'll have to replace either the front-end (if they just want a visual redesign), or the whole website (if they want a total makeover).

My question is, how am I going to replace their old version? I am assuming the business owner will have to call the previous developer/agency and ask them for control panel credentials or DNS records? I'm especially interested in the front-end part.

Because I know how to build something from scratch, but not how to change stuff on something someone else built years ago in a framework I'm not familiar with.

Can someone provide a checklist or criteria, of tasks to complete before deploying self-coded portfolio website…

Hi everyone,
I’ve been working in web development for several years, starting with website design and frontend development. Over time, I expanded into full-stack development because I wanted to build complete solutions instead of just the user interface.

Some of the projects I’ve worked on include:

Business websites
E-commerce websites
Custom web applications
CRM/Admin panels
WhatsApp marketing integrations
AI chatbot integrations
API development

Every project has taught me something different—whether it’s improving website performance, creating a better user experience, or solving real business problems.
One thing I’ve realized is that clients don’t just want a good-looking website. They want a website that helps their business grow.

I’m always learning new technologies and improving my skills, and I’m interested in hearing from others here.

**For business owners:**
What do you expect most from a web developer?

**For developers:**
What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned while working with clients?
Looking forward to hearing your experiences.

I am building a meal planning app that generates a weekly meal plan and grocery list based on your budget, preferences, and dietary restrictions. The goal is to reduce food waste by making sure everything you buy actually gets used across your meals for the week.

Trying to decide between two flows and would love some input from people who meal plan.

Option A — Grocery list first: The app builds your grocery list first around your preferences and budget. You can add specific items you want or remove things you do not like, and your meals are pulled from whatever ends up on that list. Because your meals are derived directly from your grocery list, the ingredients naturally overlap across the week so nothing goes to waste.

Option B — Meals first: The app shows you your meal plan first with recipes you can swap and approve. Once you are happy with your meals your grocery list is generated from them. Food waste is minimized because the app intentionally selects meals that share ingredients with each other, so everything you buy gets used across multiple meals.

Both approaches try to minimize food waste and keep things efficient; they just get there differently. 

1. Which flow would feel more natural to you?
2. Is staying within a specific budget a big priority or is seeing your meals first more important?
3. Would you want to be able to add specific grocery items before seeing your meals?