AI & Software Development Blog | RaftLabs
Production lessons, cost breakdowns, architecture decisions, and the tradeoffs that disappear from polished case studies.
Jun 26, 2026
App Development
SevenRooms, OpenTable, and Yelp Reservations charge per location and keep your guest data. Restaurant groups with 4+ locations often hit the point where building a custom CRM costs less over three years and gives you full data ownership. Here is what that build looks like, what it costs, and when it makes sense.
By Ashit Vora · 12 min read
Jul 4, 2026
AI & Automation
HR teams spend 73% of their time on administrative tasks that software could handle. The question is not whether to automate. It is which workflows to buy off-the-shelf and which to build custom. Here is the decision guide.
By Riya Thambiraj · 17 min read
Nov 9, 2025
App Development
If Fiverr takes 20% and cannot handle your niche's compliance, trust, or contract needs, building your own vertical freelance marketplace is worth the math. Here is what it costs, what to build in each phase, and where most builds fall apart.
By Ashit Vora · 14 min read
Oct 4, 2025
AI & Automation
Choosing the wrong AI stack costs you 3-6 months of rework. The LLM is only one layer. Below it sits vector databases, orchestration frameworks, embedding models, and deployment infrastructure - each with a wrong answer for your use case. Here is the decision framework.
By Ashit Vora · 19 min read
Aug 22, 2025
Industry Playbooks
Most hotels should use SaaS. Some shouldn't. A real cost comparison over 5 years, a decision framework, and the hybrid approach that works best for hotel groups.
By Riya Thambiraj · 12 min read
Jul 23, 2026
Buyer's Guide
Gong costs $1,300-$1,920 per user per year before the mandatory platform fee, which adds $5,000-$50,000 annually. Here is a full breakdown of what you will actually pay, how Gong compares to Chorus, Salesloft, and Clari, and at what team size building your own conversational intelligence platform starts to make financial sense.
By Ashit Vora · 14 min read
Jun 21, 2025
Industry Playbooks
Discover how AI agents are changing hospitality: boosting revenue, fixing staffing gaps, and personalizing every stay. What does this mean for your property?
By Trinankur Bera · 15 min read
Jun 20, 2025
App Development
Construction job costing, restaurant COGS, law firm trust accounting - here is what it costs to build industry-specific bookkeeping into your product, and when Xero, QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and Sage all fall short.
By Ashit Vora · 14 min read
Jul 9, 2025
Loyalty Programs
A practical guide to planning and building a customer loyalty app: reward economics, mechanics, integrations, fraud controls, privacy, build-vs-buy, and realistic cost and timeline factors, grounded in real RaftLabs builds.
By Riya Thambiraj · 16 min read
Sep 1, 2025
Industry Playbooks
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) took effect June 28, 2025. It's broader than WCAG - it covers e-commerce, banking, transport booking, e-books, and more. Here's what you need to comply with, how it differs from ADA, and what happens if you miss the deadline.
By Riya Thambiraj · 15 min read
Dec 14, 2025
App Development
Custom video streaming platform development costs $80K-$320K and takes 10-26 weeks. This guide covers when to leave Mux or Cloudflare Stream behind, what V1/V2/V3 looks like in practice, and where media companies waste budget before a line of code is written.
By Ashit Vora · 14 min read
Jul 28, 2025
App Development
Planning live streaming app development for sports, fitness, or marketplace? This guide covers cost tiers, when Agora and Mux stop being enough, and what V1/V2/V3 actually looks like.
By Riya Thambiraj · 14 min read
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