API Rate Limiting Done Right: A Complete Guide
Learn how to design rate limits that protect your API while maintaining good developer experience.
Best Practices
Patterns for retries, validation and limits, and the bugs that taught us them.
Best Practices 18
Email Validation Regex vs Real Addresses: 18 Tests
We ran 18 addresses through three popular email regexes and our own validator. Three of the four rejected a real address, ours included.
The Timezone Bug That Cost Us a Client
A scheduled email went out at 3 AM instead of 9 AM. The client wasn't happy. Here's what went wrong.
7 Content Moderation Mistakes That Sink Apps
Your app allows user content. Here are the moderation mistakes that get apps pulled from stores.
Domain Expiration Was Not On Our Alerting Checklist
The domain expired on Saturday. By Monday, competitors bought it. Here's how to avoid this disaster.
The DNS Migration Checklist Nobody Talks About
DNS propagation takes 24-48 hours. Except when it doesn't. Here's the zero-downtime DNS migration checklist.
Email Deliverability is Not Your Email Server's Problem
Your email server works perfectly but emails go to spam. Here's why IP reputation matters and how to avoid blacklists.
The Developer's Guide to API Vendor Lock-In
Every API integration is a bet. Here's how to recognize lock-in traps before you're stuck, and how to build your way out.
What Happens When Your API Provider Shuts Down
The email lands in your inbox: 'Service Discontinuation Notice.' Now what? A guide to surviving API provider shutdowns.
API Documentation: Good, Bad, and Unusable
You can tell everything about an API from its documentation. Here's how to read the signs before you commit to an integration.
The Hidden Cost of Free APIs
Free APIs sound great until they aren't. Here's what that $0 price tag actually costs you in reliability, support, and midnight debugging sessions.
429 Too Many Requests: 2 Meanings and How to Tell
A 429 means slow down, or on many APIs, out of quota. How to tell them apart, a Node.js pacer that avoids them, and why rate limits are never exact.
Why Your API Integration Keeps Breaking
APIs break in production. Here's why it happens and how to build integrations that survive the real world.
Build vs Buy: When to Use an API Instead
You could build it yourself. But should you? Here's how to decide when an API makes sense and when rolling your own is the right call.
Choosing an API Provider: What Actually Matters
Not all API providers are equal. Here's how to evaluate them before you're locked in and regretting it.
Scalable API Architecture: Monolith to Microservices
Learn how to design and build API architectures that scale with your business, from initial setup to handling millions of requests.
API Caching: The Cheapest Performance Win
Every duplicate API call is wasted money. Here's how to cache responses properly—and when not to.
Retry With Exponential Backoff: 7 Errors, 2 Retries
Which API errors are worth retrying? We ran a Node.js retry client against seven failures and it retried two. The code, and the bugs that shaped it.