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The Elgrith Journal

Guides to build, launch and grow.

Straight-talking guides on websites, apps, SEO and AI search for the USA, the UK and India. Real numbers, every source linked.

102 guidesUpdated November 2026

FIG 02 · Archive

Latest guides

101 articles

  • Website Design

    2 min read

    Magento 2 Upgrade Guide for 2026

    The checks to run before a Magento 2 upgrade: support dates, PHP, extensions, staging and rollback.

  • AI Search

    1 min read

    How Kenerate AI Credits Work

    One credit balance across 200+ AI models, how an estimate works before each run, and what to check before you buy.

  • Website Design

    2 min read

    B2B Ecommerce Platforms Compared for 2026

    How B2B ecommerce platforms differ on accounts, pricing rules, ERP links and catalogue scale, and what to ask before choosing.

  • App Development

    9 min read

    How much does an ecommerce app cost to build in 2026?

    What decides the cost of an ecommerce app in 2026, without made-up price bands: the build drivers, the third-party fees you can check (Apple, Google Play, Stripe), why physical-goods sales skip store commission, app builders vs a custom app, and the running costs after launch (checked 24 Oct 2026).

  • Guides

    9 min read

    RAG vs fine-tuning in 2026: a decision ladder that starts with prompting

    How RAG, fine-tuning and prompt engineering differ, a five-rung decision ladder with triggers, cost drivers and evaluation for each, when long context replaces retrieval, OpenAI's dated fine-tuning wind-down, and prompt injection through retrieved documents.

  • App Development

    9 min read

    The mobile app development process in 2026, stage by stage

    Seven stages from discovery to post-launch iteration, each with typical durations, deliverables and the gate it must clear, plus the 2026 store rules most process guides miss: Apple's review guidelines, Google Play's closed test and target API level, and current store fees.

  • UI/UX

    9 min read

    How much does it cost to design an app in 2026?

    A design-only cost model for apps: what each deliverable is for, the drivers that move the price, dated tool and store fees, US designer pay, a labelled third-party range, an illustrative hours worksheet and the rework costs from App Review and accessibility that most guides skip.

  • Guides

    9 min read

    Next.js vs React in 2026: library, framework, or both?

    React is the UI library; Next.js is a React framework. This guide explains the difference with current versions (React 19.3, Next.js 16.4), React's own advice to start with a framework, the end of Create React App, rendering and SEO, hosting with or without Vercel, and a decision table by project type.

  • App Development

    9 min read

    How to build a marketplace app in 2026

    A decision-first guide to building a marketplace app: choose the model, design how money and seller data flow, meet INFORM, 1099-K, DAC7 and UK reporting rules, decide between Sharetribe, Mirakl and custom, scope an MVP around one transaction, and budget the running costs vendors actually publish.

  • SEO

    9 min read

    Enterprise SEO strategy for 2026: a plan your engineers will ship

    An enterprise SEO strategy built from Google's own documentation for large sites: crawl budget, faceted navigation, templates and JSON-LD, migrations, AI Overviews with independent click data, governance through engineering sprints, and a dated 2025–26 Google update calendar (checked 24 Oct 2026).

  • Guides

    11 min read

    The ecommerce CRO checklist for 2026: every check sourced, none from 2023

    A dated, sourced ecommerce CRO checklist organised by owner: measurement with GA4 key events, Core Web Vitals including INP, product pages, Baymard's checkout findings, WCAG 2.2, A/B test validity and US and UK consent rules, ending in a 40-row copyable table.

  • Guides

    9 min read

    Data migration checklist: every step, owner and go/no-go gate

    A phase-by-phase data migration checklist with an owner and a go/no-go gate for every step, including the parts most checklists skip: reconciliation with counts and checksums, cutover freezes, rollback triggers, parallel runs and decommissioning.

  • UI/UX

    10 min read

    The UX audit checklist for 2026, with the source behind every item

    A sourced UX audit checklist in six sections: Nielsen's 10 heuristics with three to five evaluators and a severity scale, WCAG 2.2 AA including the new criteria, Core Web Vitals at the 75th percentile, forms and checkout, content and navigation, and the legal dates to know.

  • Guides

    9 min read

    How much does custom software development cost in 2026?

    Clutch's average project cost, BLS and ITJobsWatch rates, vendor ranges labelled as vendor estimates, a worked estimate formula, fixed price vs time and materials, maintenance and the effect of AI coding tools.

  • Guides

    9 min read

    How much does inventory management software cost in 2026?

    A dated price table read from vendors' own pricing pages (inFlow, Cin7, Fishbowl, Sortly, Katana, Zoho Inventory, Odoo), the hidden costs most guides skip, how per-user, flat-rate and order-based pricing compare, and when custom inventory software makes sense.

  • App Development

    9 min read

    SwiftUI vs UIKit in 2026: a decision by deployment target

    A practical way to choose between SwiftUI and UIKit in 2026: decide by deployment target and team, using Apple's own adoption data and submission rules, the interop APIs that let both live in one app, a screen-by-screen migration plan, and the facts behind the 'UIKit is deprecated' rumour.

  • Guides

    9 min read

    Is web scraping legal? What US, UK and EU law says in 2026

    A primary-source summary of web scraping law in the US, UK and EU: Van Buren and the CFAA, how hiQ v. LinkedIn really ended, the Meta and X cases against Bright Data, copyright and AI training, GDPR, ICO and CNIL guidance, database rights and robots.txt. General information, not legal advice (checked 24 Oct 2026).

  • App Development

    9 min read

    How much does app development cost in the UK in 2026?

    Sourced 2026 UK app development costs in pounds: named agency ranges, developer day rates in London and the regions, VAT, App Store and Google Play fees, running costs and onshore vs offshore teams.

  • App Development

    9 min read

    Supabase vs Firebase in 2026: now that both offer Postgres

    Firebase now offers managed Postgres through SQL Connect, so "SQL vs NoSQL" no longer settles it. A dated side-by-side of free tiers, Pro and Blaze pricing, database, auth, realtime, functions, lock-in and cost traps, with a decision matrix by app type.

  • App Development

    9 min read

    React Native vs native app development in 2026

    React Native vs fully native Swift and Kotlin as of October 2026: what the New Architecture changed, performance, cost and team size, when native wins, iOS or Android first (US vs UK data) and the hybrid option.

  • Website Design

    9 min read

    Headless CMS vs traditional CMS in 2026: which should you choose?

    A vendor-neutral comparison of headless and traditional CMSs: how they differ, what W3Techs says about market share, SEO and editing trade-offs, dated Sanity and Strapi prices with a worked example, Sanity vs Contentful, headless WordPress and when headless is the wrong choice.

  • App Development

    9 min read

    Flutter vs Kotlin Multiplatform in 2026

    A decision guide that separates Kotlin, Kotlin Multiplatform and Compose Multiplatform before comparing them with Flutter: dated versions, official stability levels, rendering and platform feel, hiring data from the 2025 Stack Overflow survey, Google's position on KMP, and Kotlin vs Swift for teams that stay native.

  • Guides

    9 min read

    Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 in 2026: which suits your business?

    Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 now cost the same at US list price: $7, $14 and $22 a user a month. This guide compares current prices (USD and GBP for Google, USD for Microsoft), Gemini vs Copilot, storage, desktop apps, Teams vs Meet and what switching really involves (checked 24 Oct 2026).

  • App Development

    9 min read

    How much does MVP development cost in 2026?

    Sourced 2026 MVP cost ranges by type, where the budget goes by phase, SaaS and mobile MVP costs, a first-year running-cost table built only from official pricing pages, and how to cut cost without cutting quality.

  • SEO

    9 min read

    How much does SEO cost in the UK in 2026?

    Sourced 2026 UK SEO prices with every figure attributed: agency retainers, freelance day rates, a global benchmark, London vs the rest of the UK, VAT and contract terms, and the red flags in cheap packages.

  • Guides

    10 min read

    AI agent vs chatbot: what actually differs, and which one you need in 2026

    Chatbots answer and AI agents act, but most businesses need something in between. A vendor-neutral guide to the chatbot-to-agent spectrum, the failure data vendors leave out, the legal rules from Air Canada to the EU AI Act, pricing models and a decision checklist.

  • App Development

    9 min read

    Telemedicine app development cost in 2026: build drivers and real run costs

    What drives the cost of building a telemedicine app, and what it really costs to run: per-minute video prices from Twilio, Zoom and Amazon Chime SDK, BAA plan gates, a worked example, app store rules for consultations, and the Medicare, DEA and HIPAA dates that change what you build.

  • Guides

    10 min read

    Snowflake vs Databricks in 2026: which should you choose?

    A workload-first comparison of Snowflake and Databricks with dated 2026 product facts: how credits and DBUs bill, Gen2 warehouses, Iceberg and catalogs after Polaris graduated, CoWork and CoCo, Lakebase, where BigQuery fits and how to run a fair proof of concept (checked 24 Oct 2026).

  • Guides

    9 min read

    HubSpot vs Salesforce in 2026: which CRM fits your business?

    A neutral HubSpot vs Salesforce comparison using official October 2026 pricing: a worked 5-seat and 20-seat cost table, onboarding fees, ease of use, customization, AI, small-business fit and where Zoho CRM fits.

  • Guides

    9 min read

    SharePoint vs OneDrive in 2026: me, team or conversation?

    OneDrive is for me, SharePoint is for the team, Teams is for the conversation. The 2026 storage limits, where Teams files really live, the unlicensed OneDrive rules for leavers, and a decision table, all from Microsoft's own documentation.

  • Website Design

    10 min read

    ADA website compliance checklist for 2026 (WCAG 2.2 AA)

    A WCAG 2.2 AA checklist grouped by principle, with the criterion number and a test for each item, the corrected DOJ Title II dates, US, UK and EU rules in one table, WebAIM's 2026 failure data and the evidence on overlays.

  • Guides

    10 min read

    React vs Angular in 2026: a version-accurate comparison

    A comparison pinned to React 19.3 and Angular 22: architecture, signals and zoneless vs the React Compiler, SSR, Stack Overflow 2025 usage, dated npm downloads, support windows, AngularJS, a three-way Vue table and a team-fit decision matrix.

  • Guides

    9 min read

    AI agent development cost in 2026: the build bill and the run bill

    An AI agent has two bills: the build and the run. This guide explains what drives build effort, then works the run bill on official October 2026 list prices from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, with caching, batch discounts, voice minutes, price cliffs and the hidden costs that sink agent projects.

  • SEO

    10 min read

    International SEO checklist for 2026

    A ten-step international SEO checklist in the order you'd actually do the work: markets, URL structure, hreflang with x-default, no IP redirects, localisation, canonicals, sitemaps, country reporting and AI search, each step backed by Google's own documentation (checked 24 Oct 2026).

  • Website Design

    11 min read

    Drupal vs WordPress in 2026: a date-stamped decision guide

    Drupal 10 reaches end of life on 9 December 2026 and Drupal 12 ships the same week. A neutral, dated comparison of Drupal and WordPress on versions, content modelling, security, hosting, cost drivers and migration, with a Drupal-to-WordPress checklist.

  • Website Design

    10 min read

    How long does it take to build a website in 2026?

    Typical timelines for brochure sites, business sites, online stores, web apps and MVP apps, with phase tables that add up, the delays that really move the date, and the fixed waits for App Store review, Google Play testing and Google indexing.

  • Guides

    11 min read

    MCP vs API: why MCP is a layer on your API, not a replacement

    MCP is a protocol for AI clients that sits on top of your API. A spec-led guide to the 2026-07-28 stateless revision, transports, OAuth, the security risks and a decision matrix for building an API, an MCP server or both.

  • Website Design

    9 min read

    Shopify vs WordPress in 2026: which should run your site?

    A dated, sourced comparison of Shopify and WordPress with WooCommerce: what each costs to run, how transaction fees work, B2B on non-Plus Shopify plans, SEO, maintenance, the India picture (UPI, Razorpay, INR plans) and a decision table by business type.

  • Guides

    9 min read

    n8n vs Zapier vs Make: which automation tool fits in 2026?

    A plain comparison of n8n, Zapier and Make using each vendor's October 2026 pricing page: how each one bills, a worked 5-step × 1,000-run cost example, licences, self-hosting, AI features and when to bring in an agency.

  • Website Design

    9 min read

    How much does website maintenance cost in 2026?

    Sourced 2026 market ranges for website maintenance by site type, with a UK column, a line-by-line breakdown of what you pay for, DIY vs freelancer vs agency, and a monthly checklist.

  • Website Design

    9 min read

    How much does a website redesign cost in 2026?

    Named US and UK price ranges for a website redesign in 2026, side by side: what moves the quote, redesign vs rebuild vs refresh, the hidden cost of an SEO migration, and a checklist for reading quotes.

  • App Development

    9 min read

    Flutter vs React Native in 2026: which should you choose?

    An agency's comparison of Flutter and React Native as of October 2026: rendering, UI control, hiring, over-the-air updates, web reach, AI features, cost and a decision table, with every fact linked to its source.

FAQ

About the blog

The Elgrith blog covers costs, strategy and how-tos for businesses in the USA, UK and India. Topics include website and app development budgets, SEO and local SEO, UI/UX, social media, and answer-engine optimization for Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT. Market cost ranges are taken from published guides, and every article links to its sources.

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