I build websites for a living, and I write down what actually works.
buildlog is my slow-moving notebook on website development — the decisions, trade-offs and small details that separate a demo from a product.
I'm Amanat Ali, a freelance full-stack developer. I build web applications end-to-end: frontend implementation, backend APIs, admin systems, and deployment. Most of my work lives in the Next.js, Node.js, Express and MongoDB stack.
I started this blog because the most useful things I've learned about website development were almost never written down anywhere: how to structure a Mongoose schema so it survives the second feature request, when server-side rendering is worth it, why a slow site is usually a data problem before it's a code problem. Each essay here is the article I wish I'd found when I hit that problem myself.
What I write about
- Frontend — React, Next.js rendering strategies, CSS that scales.
- Backend — API design, auth, Node.js services that stay up.
- Databases — MongoDB schema design and query performance.
- Shipping — deployment, monitoring, and keeping clients happy after launch.
If you need a dependable developer who can own both frontend and backend delivery, I'm available for freelance work — see the Fiverr profile or the projects page for work samples.