Founder & Engineer, BrotCode
Babar Al-Amin
Babar Al-Amin is the founder of BrotCode and a hands-on product engineer. He writes about pragmatic software: where AI genuinely amplifies a small team, why simpler systems outlast over-engineered ones, and how teams in Berlin and across the EU ship reliable products without bloated budgets. His throughline is turning business problems into software that earns its keep.
Articles by Babar Al-Amin
Why We Still Choose Rails for B2B SaaS in 2026
Rails powers Shopify's $14.6B Black Friday. Here's why we keep choosing it for B2B SaaS, what Rails 8 changes, and when we'd pick something else.
Shopify Plus Pricing Explained: What It Costs and Who It's For
What Shopify Plus actually costs in 2026, the real total beyond the sticker price, and the point where upgrading pays off. A directional, no-hype guide.
Programmatic SEO: How We Generated 250,000 Pages From Open Data
A practical guide to programmatic SEO: how to turn a structured dataset into hundreds of thousands of indexable pages without building a doorway-page farm.
Semantic Search in Postgres with pgvector and Self-Hosted Embeddings
How to add semantic search to a Postgres app with pgvector and a self-hosted embedding model. The real tradeoffs, grounded in a product we shipped.
How to Hire a Shopify Developer: A Practical Guide
Where to find Shopify developers, how to vet them, what they cost, and how to scope the work so you don't get a nasty surprise. A hiring guide, not a pitch.
Shopify Headless: When Themes Aren't Enough
What Shopify headless commerce is, when it beats a standard theme, and what it costs. A practical guide to Hydrogen, the Storefront API, and the trade-offs.
Coolify, Kamal, or Just Push to Cloud Run? How We Pick Deployment for Each Client
Coolify, Kamal, and Cloud Run are the three deployment stories of 2026. Here's how we pick between them for SaaS, internal tools, and side projects.
Business Process Automation with n8n: A Practical Introduction
How to automate repetitive business processes with n8n, the open-source workflow automation tool. Real examples, setup guide, and ROI calculation.
CI/CD Pipelines Explained: Shipping Faster with Confidence
What CI/CD pipelines are, why they matter, and how to set one up. A practical guide for teams still deploying manually.
DevOps for SMBs: You Don't Need a 50-Person Platform Team
How small teams can adopt DevOps practices without massive infrastructure. CI/CD, monitoring, and automation on an SMB budget.
What Is a Design System? Building Blocks, Value, and When It Pays Off
A design system explained: the definition, building blocks from tokens to components, how it differs from a style guide, and when it's worth building for your team.
The European Accessibility Act: Website Compliance, Explained
The European Accessibility Act has been enforceable since June 2025. What the EAA requires, who it covers, and how to make your website compliant.
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