Freshcode's top insights

The global custom software market is booming, and finding the right development partner can make or break your next product. This guide breaks down the top 10 custom software development companies of 2026, with honest assessments of their strengths, tech stacks, and best-fit use cases.

Imagine you are preparing a holiday feast. Whatever the occasion, cooking meals, crafting cozy decor, and preparing garden zones are challenging tasks. How many guests? Photographer? What will be on the menu? 🤔It's the same story when building apps. Designing UI, creating effective architecture, and delivering the necessary functionality is a kind of software development fine art. Here's where requirements matter: functional and non-functional, they play a vital role in the software development process. Let's explore the reasons why.

Looking for the best AI development company? Compare leading AI software firms, services, expertise, and choose the right technology partner for your project.

Advanced project management, dedicated team, cost-effectiveness are key features that make you feel safe during project development. Read more about the topic in our article.

A curated list of podcasts on product management, SaaS growth, leadership, AI adoption, and cybersecurity — shows that offer real insight rather than recycled startup advice.

Various studies underscore several factors contributing to the failure of software development projects, regardless of whether web development is outsourced to Ukraine or the Philippines. Common issues like missed deadlines, scope creep, and budget inflation often originate from inefficient business processes within outsourcing service providers. To address these challenges and ensure secure outsourcing, Freshcode has established a 5-step delivery process following the discovery stage. Today, I'll walk you through each step and provide insights into what you can anticipate when selecting Freshсode for web development.

LIMS migrations fail when treated as product purchases rather than software issues. Learn why modernizing your existing system through custom development often succeeds where migration fails.

Learn how to build LLM agents in Clojure using data-oriented design. Compare with Python implementations and see why Clojure works well for production agent systems on the JVM.

A practical guide for startup founders on when Elixir makes business sense over conventional tech stacks like JavaScript or Python. Includes real-world case studies, cost analysis, and a decision framework based on infrastructure needs, team structure, and long-term operational goals.

Transform your Elixir GenServers from prototypes to production-ready powerhouses. This comprehensive guide covers performance optimization, state externalization, telemetry integration, and scaling patterns for high-throughput applications.

Complete guide to functional programming languages for enterprise development. Learn the strengths, use cases, and production stories of Clojure, Elixir, Haskell, and Scala to make informed technology decisions for your team.

Explore how Elixir's actor model and rich documentation create an ideal environment for orchestrating AI agents in agentic workflows, enhancing system reliability and collaboration.

What started as step counters has evolved into full-fledged wellness coaches, and millions of people now rely on fitness apps every day. If you’re thinking about creating one, you’re not late to the game—it’s just getting started. Our step-by-step guide walks you through the entire development process of the fitness app, from market research to launch.

Tired of scheduling chaos? This comprehensive guide walks you through creating an appointment scheduling app that transforms how you manage bookings. Discover the essential features, development steps, and cost considerations to build an app that delights customers while saving your business time and money. Includes practical tips, common pitfalls to avoid, and a real-world case study.

This guide unpacks the real costs of custom CRM development compared to off-the-shelf solutions. Learn why businesses investing in custom CRM solutions see returns within 12-16 months, saving $50,000+ annually. Discover pricing breakdowns by development stage, case studies, and the latest CRM trends for 2025 that could transform your business operations.

This guide presents a structured four-phase approach to integrating AI assistants into your business operations, taking you from initial planning through to advanced implementation that delivers measurable business value.

Are you building your online store? This guide cuts through the technical clutter to focus on what drives sales: user experience, reliable infrastructure, and conversion-optimized design. Drawing on insights from hundreds of successful e-commerce projects, we'll show you how to create a store that looks great and consistently converts visitors into customers.

Every app seems to need location tracking these days - but what does it take to build one? Learn from our experience to understand the costs, technical challenges, and opportunities that come with building location-based services. No technical jargon, just practical insights for business owners.

Learn how to effectively integrate AI tools into your development workflow. From planning to implementation, discover proven tactics for enhanced productivity and code quality.

Benefits of CRM in restaurant, modern tech solutions and management hacks to make your clients and staff happy.

Are you looking for the answer on how to start a TeleHealth business? Our team has done the research for you and prepared a plan for the product launch.

When companies consider offshore development, they first consider cost reduction. However, successful offshore partnerships go far beyond cost savings. This article delves into the nuances of offshore development, guiding you through the discovery process, establishing trust and transparency, and setting up your offshore team for long-term success.

There's something curious about Clojure. While those who use it often speak of its elegance, power, and the joy it brings to programming, it remains relatively niche in the industry. Why isn't such a capable language more widely adopted? Is there something we're missing?

Double recognition from Clutch? Yes, we're amazed too! See how Freshcode earned the 2024 Fall Global Award and Champion status through real client success stories and practical software solutions.

The GenServer is a powerful abstraction for managing stateful processes and harnessing concurrency when working with Elixir. Often, not only newcomers but also experienced engineers are struggling with GenServer testing. In this article, we'll dive into ideas on how to properly design and test GenServers.

Team morale isn't just a feel-good bonus. TL;DR: Happy teams get more of the result, and there are things you can improve. Whether you're herding cats in a startup or trying to keep a corporate behemoth from imploding, let's discuss the messy art of keeping your team sane and happy and getting stuff done.

You know Docker, everybody knows Docker. But Docker and Clojure aren't always best pals. In this guide, we tried to cut through the fluff to get you up and running.

Finding the right talent can make or break your company's digital initiatives. This guide offers strategic insights into hiring the best developers for those considering Elixir for their next project.

Data transformation has been fundamental since the dawn of programming. But what if you could make these transformations more efficient, composable, and versatile? That's what transducers are in Clojure.

Software migration — transitioning from outdated or limiting systems to more robust, efficient, and scalable solutions — is a strategic decision that can impact your organization. We're about to dissect software migration's when, why, and how. Let's get ready to migrate!

Pursuing new ideas without proper validation can lead to costly mistakes. Proof of Concept (PoC) offers a solution to this challenge. Let's unpack PoC strategy and common pitfalls.

Assembling and nurturing a top-notch JavaScript team is both an art and a science. Drawing from our hands-on experience and proven success, we're excited to share our blueprint for building a JavaScript dream team.

Clojure offers a unique combination of developer productivity and performance potential. However, one of the recurring questions among developers considering Clojure is its performance. How does Clojure stack up in terms of speed?

Clojure is a powerful and expressive language that offers a compelling solution for transforming outdated infrastructure. However, finding and retaining top Clojurists can significantly challenge many companies. How do you attract skilled developers in a niche market? Let's dive in.

We explore Clojure design patterns, showing how they adapt to functional programming. We demonstrate how Clojure's strengths in immutability and higher-order functions simplify traditional patterns, providing practical examples to help developers write more maintainable and efficient code.

In this article, we explore ClojureScript and its advantages for front-end development. We break down its features, compare it to JavaScript, and highlight real-world applications to show why it's an excellent choice for modern web projects.

Clojure's unique combination of simplicity, robustness, and the power of functional programming makes it an exceptional language for web development. Let's explore some popular web frameworks in Clojure's ecosystem, examining their features, strengths, and use cases.

We believe that the applied usage of Elixir paves the path for its adoption. Setting aside Elixir's technical advantages, we still need to build usable and maintainable systems that deliver value to the client because, at the end of the day, The Spice Must Flow. How do we do that? And what are the obstacles?

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) has become the standard of data transmission on the web due to its simplicity, readability, and lightweight nature. For a language like Clojure, which is renowned for its robustness in building web applications, having efficient tools is essential to maintain popularity and suitability for any project.

Building complex user interfaces with Phoenix LiveView can be challenging. Let us introduce Web Components as a powerful solution. Explore how these standardized, reusable UI components can seamlessly integrate with LiveView, enabling you to create framework-agnostic, composable interfaces. Examples are included!

Functional Programming focuses on writing functions that produce predictable outputs based solely on their inputs. Clojure, a Lisp-like programming language running on the JVM, fully embraces the functional paradigm, offering developers powerful tools for building clean, maintainable codebases with rapid development cycles. Let's take a look at key functional paradigm concepts and how you can use them with Clojure.

As the popularity of web development in Elixir grows, its ecosystem matures and offers tools for building full-fledged SaaS solutions. While the Phoenix Framework has become the standard for web development in Elixir, the ecosystem has a wealth of other open-source libraries that can significantly boost your productivity and enhance your application's capabilities.

When you start a machine learning (ML) project and select the technology stack, you expect it to provide data immutability, great parallel programming features, and excellent data manipulation and encoding capabilities. That’s exactly what Clojure brings to the table. Although it’s not the most popular choice for ML projects, its functional paradigm and the entire Java ecosystem behind its back can make it a game-changer.

Despite both languages leveraging JVM, they're different, and there is much to consider when choosing between them. While Java has long been a staple in enterprise development, Clojure, a much younger language, brings its unique strengths to the table. Let's compare Clojure and Java based on a few key points I consider important when choosing a programming language for your project.

The first question is simple – Elixir is a high-level, general-purpose, concurrent functional programming language that runs on the Erlang VM (BEAM). You may have heard this piece of trivia before, so let’s dissect the topic further: what Elixir is used for, Elixir's core strengths, capabilities, and scenarios where it can be a valuable asset. We'll also explore its limitations to help you decide whether Elixir fits your project.

As your business grows, your software systems must adapt and expand to meet new requirements. Whether you add new product offerings, expand into new markets, or integrate with new partners and vendors, your technology must evolve alongside your business. The challenge is that changing your software's core parts can be risky, time-consuming and costly. We believe that protocols in Clojure are just the feature for the task. Let’s see why.

Two powerful dialects of the same language yet so different — Clojure and Common Lisp — each have their own fans and haters. Let’s look at what’s so adorable about these technologies, when to use them, and how easy it would be to find the team to support your web project using Clojure/Common Lisp.

It has been three years since the release of Vue 3. Meanwhile, the Vue.js Team announced that Vue 2 will reach End of Life on December 31st, 2023. So, how can we welcome 2024 with Vue 3, and why should businesses hurry up and upgrade ASAP? In this blog post, we will share with you: the key reasons to migrate brand new features in Vue 3 and the differences between Vue versions, our migration stories on how to migrate even complex projects smoothly 

Discover the FemTech industry, its trends, and business challenges for 2025-2026 with our comprehensive overview.

Why the implementation of the business process is important? How to understand what have to do first? How to find out the pain points?

Set on democratizing software development for businesses, Airtable combines the advantages of spreadsheets, databases, project management systems, and more. Let's check its benefits and a couple of impressive use cases.

In this ETL tools comparison, we will look at: Apache NiFi, Apache StreamSets, Apache Airflow, AWS Data Pipeline, AWS Glue.

How to understand what type of notifications do you need for your mobile app? We've tried to explain the difference between push notifications and in app messages to help you make this decision.

A software project is a team effort. While developers are crucial for the technical side of things, and designers work on usability and recognition, it's a project manager whose role is so often undeservedly overlooked. It might seem like a PM doesn't bring anything valuable to the table. If you ever wondered, "Do I need project management?" I can show you how much trouble your project can get without it. Let's go over what you can expect from a PM and the numerous benefits you get to reap.

Are you tired of unnecessary complexity, unmanaged state, and tangles of spaghetti code? Just join the Clojure side! We at Freshcode have been using Clojure for 7 years and are happy. In this blog post, we want to share with you why Clojure became our choice and how we embarked on our unexpected Clojure journey

Have you ever heard about Proptech? We've made research and gathered together the main trends of the Real Estate to help you to understand the market today.

While some businesses have embraced Clojure for their products and enjoyed its benefits, others often seek clarification and additional analysis when choosing different technologies. Before deciding to adopt Clojure or any other programming language, we at Freshcode recommend that our clients thoroughly consider the pros, cons, specific features, and use cases. The goal is to ensure that the choice will suit future development, encompassing scaling, integrations, increased load, and other factors. In this blog post, I want to briefly overview Clojure's key features and advantages to businesses.

We've made research and found the best platforms for low-code no-code development. Keep on reading to learn more and choose the best one for your business.

We've created an MVP development guide for startup founders and anyone interested in building a new software product to speed up this process and help you grow your business rapidly.

Learn about the new black in the healthcare industry, the most recognizable healthcare startups, and Freshcode's experience in developing one.

Do you still think that it is difficult and expensive to work with Clojure developers? Follow reading the article to make sure otherwise.

2026 was a rollercoaster of a year with the AI boom and massive layoffs. It taught us many things: patience, taking innovations with a grain of salt, and considering risks alongside opportunities. Before we dive into the next round, let's take a breather and reflect on what seeds year 26 planted for year 26.

Welcome to my tutorial, which briefly describes the settings of the .emacs configuration. Enjoy Emacs and have a great time with Clojure or another Lisp.

Liberty London with its charming Tudor exterior or Christmassy Harrods, with 10k+ lights — these are good examples of how the shopping experience can be outstanding. Regarding online stores, their wow factors are primarily embodied in good UX and appropriate functionality, including user-friendly navigation, a streamlined checkout process, precise product categorization and search function, reliable payment options, and personalized recommendations. How can you stuff your eCommerce business with the best features while saving resources? Why are Magento and Shopify the most usable eCommerce platforms worldwide? Finally, which one is best for your business? Let's explore all these Hows and Whys together.‍

Uncover the experiences of top companies that use Elixir and discover seven case studies showcasing the development of real-time Elixir apps and the optimization of backend architectures.

Learn more about the software outsourcing market to understand better how to choose an offshore software development vendor and bring your ideas to life.

Discover how startups boost their productivity by building Elixir apps. Uncover 13 real-world examples to achieve efficiency and scalability for your business.

Are you looking for the right way to estimate the cost of software development? Read the article to find out how to do this in a few easy steps.

The success of any software development project is heavily reliant on the structure and strength of the team. This article delves into the six key roles for a development team.

Well-set-up budgeting plan fuels IT product development. It predicts possible risks, road pits, and route changes. How to write a budget document and drive your project in top gear?

The desire to help people overcome health challenges is a powerful incentive. Here are 7 business ideas for healthcare startups in 2026.

Learn how to enhance your app's safety and establish users' trust with mobile app security best practices.

Learn about logistics industry trends and how to create MVP for efficient supply chain management

Full of challenges and aha moments, the tester's career path is something worth stepping on. Here I share my thoughts on how to do it with joy, and what tools to use.

My name is Ilia Dozorenko, and I am the Clojure Lead at Freshcode, with over 11 years of programming experience. In this article, I want to share why Clojure is one of the best discoveries during my coding journey. Also, you'll find real-life cases and tips for beginners on how to start with Clojure.

The Flutter vs. React Native argument is nothing new, but things change with time. Find out which framework is better for 2024-2025 with our fresh review.

Nearly any discussion of OOP and AP programming paradigms produces a wide variety of holy wars. We want to break this vicious circle! Let's sit down at the negotiating table

Read the IT project management guide to learn how to manage a project and how to overcome challenges.

Learn what is usability in web design and how to make a user-friendly website interface in the new Freshcode article

What is a discovery phase and why should you care? The purpose of scooping or discovery phase, its benefits and pitfalls.

Time-management and personal productivity books have long since taken over the Amazon and NYT Bestsellers lists. Most productivity systems call for digital tools to set goals, list tasks, and track progress. Many people, from students to Wall Street businessmen, use productivity apps. Despite the number of existing platforms, the demand grows steadily as users look for clean design, intuitive interface, and seamless synchronization. We are discussing creating a task management app going from idea to MVP. We'll also cover MVP cost and duration estimates of the mobile task management app.

Discover how to choose the right design strategy for your project in our latest article. Explore key design thinking steps and methodologies that make it an invaluable approach for creating user-centric and groundbreaking solutions.

How to write tech documents professionally and why should you care? Let's find it out.

What is common between Clojure and Python? What Lisp features did Python acquire in the context of DS? If Lisp is so great, why do we keep needing new approaches?

How healthcare industry can benefit from Clojure today? Let’s look at 7 HealthTech companies using Clojure, innovative data-driven solutions and direct-to-employer strategies.

How does business intelligence software development help to move your business goals forward? Find out 3 top problems that BI tools solve by providing relevant and actionable data.

Discover the top 10 technology trends shaping 2026. Stay informed on innovations, digital transformation, and key tech shifts affecting businesses and consumers this year.

How quarantine changed the HR work and why hiring Clojurists is a joy — about all this and a little more, we talked with Julia Savchenko, Clojure explorer and the master chef of the HR kitchen at Freshcode.

According to Clutch ranking filters, Freshcode takes first place as the best Node.js company in the region and seventh place in Ukraine.

We are glad to announce that Freshcode was included on Clutch's list of the 1000 best IT firms globally.

Discover how to manage a team and what communication tools to choose when working remotely. We've gathered together the most important tips for solving possible problems.

High demand is a long-life dream for every business. However, one of the most epic pitfalls is the inability to keep up with rapidly growing demand. Before you know it, you've lost your customers, vendor relationships, and a good reputation too. Every company looking forward to a bright future should be ready for growth. Today, we'll discuss scaling an engineering team, which is crucial for every digital company. You'll face several important questions to consider. What team structure fits your project? What roles do you need? How to maximize the effectiveness and minimize costs without compromising the quality? Spoiler: no formula, panacea, or one-stop solution will make everyone happy and successful. The most experienced entrepreneurs make missteps, learn from them, and innovate their approaches. So, you just need to be prepared and be aware. Forewarned is forearmed! (we love rhymes and proverbs so much)

What is the curse of Lisp and how it affects Clojure? Is it bravado, myth, or a real phenomenon? What curses and powers did Lisp-family languages inherit? Let's dispel the myths together!

Is this article a professional guide on how to overcome burnout? No way. Just a non-professional's point of view on professional burnout. Just a first-hand dev story.

Is Lisp worth learning in 2026 and beyond? Why are Lisp concepts gaining popularity? What Lisp dialect is the most widely used nowadays?

Do you have a business idea and a vision of how to implement it, but not sure where to start? The best way is to get an IT consulting and validate all your hypothesis before investing money.

Today we asked our JS developer to share his unique experience of switching to Clojure for half a year.

Are you thinking about the development of appointment scheduling software in healthcare? Read the article to find out the answers to all your questions.

The topic of the Clojure toolbox is controversial. We've talked to the main Clojure enthusiasts to find out which side they are on and what ways they see in solving tool challenges.

We asked our React Native team leader to share his experience of implementing mobile push notifications. Here you can see his project case, what challenges he faced with and how they were solved.

FinTech is an area where serious errors might be costly in every sense. How to develop and support a financial platform without wasting resources? You will find the answer in this article.

Find out how to create a voice app like Clubhouse without losing core features and benefits. Are you ready to develop a real-time audio application?

What is HIPAA compliance and why does it matter in the context of app development – let's find out it together!

How to understand if you really need a Chief Technical Officer for your project? We have tried to answer this question and suggest alternatives in the article.

Easy to use, user-friendly interface, the ability to socialize - everything that modern users need. Clubhouse became the most talked-about app of 2021.

Learn all about creating a Twitter social media aggregator in the article. Get answers to the questions of why a custom aggregator is better and how to monetize your app.

If you want to cover more % of customers, you need to know about cross platform mobile development. Choose the solution that works best for you.

We are proud to announce that Freshcode was ranked in the Top 1000 Service Providers for 2020 in Exclusive Clutch.co 1000 List.

We are proud to announce that Clutch has named Freshcode the leading developer in Ukraine for 2021. In this article, we share what this recognition means for our team, highlight some standout projects, and reveal why Freshcode is trusted by clients worldwide.

Have you ever wondered why you needa a QA? We've answered questions of what does a QA engineer do and how he can reduce project risks. Read more in the article.

The world is witnessing an AI revolution propelled by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence technology. This seismic shift is no longer confined to large corporations and tech giants; it has permeated every industry, offering small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) unprecedented opportunities to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and gain a competitive edge. As generative AI and other cutting-edge AI capabilities become increasingly accessible, SMBs have a unique window to embrace this technology early and position themselves at the forefront of innovation. The time is ripe for SMBs to harness the power of AI and unlock new levels of efficiency, growth, and success.

Leading businesses are developing their own highly intelligent IoT systems, with other leaders following suit. Let's figure out the opportunities of IoT implementation in healthcare industry on the example of smart vending machines.

Let's take a look at new MedTech approaches to diagnostics, monitoring, and treating medical conditions that are already changing the face of medicine.

IoT as one of the booming business technologies has taken over the world. How to benefit from these new digital solutions within procurement sector?

If you have no valid business model that solves a pain point you are taking big risks. That's why we should adopt a methodology of customer development.

Check these seven Airbnb startup strategies you can apply to one day turn your enterprise into yet another unicorn.

V8 JavaScript engine as the best runtime environment for JS: how it works and how it has changed since 2008

What is the lean startup method? How to speed up the development process without sacrificing quality? Let’s go over the Lean Startup summary together

Read on to understand why requirements matter and how the team goes from your business needs to scenarios, test cases, and the system requirements specification (SRS).

The benefits of Google Developers Tools. Google OR-tools use cases for your business and its adoption barriers.

Clojure language has many technical benefits: homoiconicity, functional approach, immutable data structures and Java ecosystem.

On-demand multiple delivery app pros, cons and tech pitfalls. How to create the best Uber-like app in the USA? Advice by software developer.

Looking for working ways to set up your own business? Find out the startup checklist template to grow up your project from scratch in the article.

Startup funding: stages, risks, ideas for finding investors. Stop relying on personal savings - get answers on all questions on the financial side of starting new business.

FinTech potential and requirements. Why are banking apps popular? Why are they interesting for your business? Answers by experienced financial expert.

Optimization of microservice systems is a great challenge for software development team. Let’s see how to improve performance and build effective custom reporting tool.

Strong corporate identity: reasons for its building and real examples. Cases of Nike, Starbucks, Chanel and other world-leading brands. Marketing concepts and the most common branding mistakes.

Pros and cons of ActiveMQ and Redis Pub/Sub. Although these solutions aren't very suitable for processing big data, they provide a strong basis for creating small business analytics tools.

Clojure libraries, frameworks, and other open source solutions. Top 6 tools by experienced Clojure developer.

As applications grow and teams scale, reliable asynchronous communication between services becomes critical. Message brokers solve exactly that, and two tools dominate the conversation: Apache Kafka and RabbitMQ. This guide breaks down the key differences between Kafka and RabbitMQ, covering architecture, performance, use cases, and how to choose the right one for your system.

Generate profit and loss statement using our free template. We also recommend a popular web app to handle your finances in the article.

Marketing strategies for startups - HubSpot, IKEA, Pixar, Netflix, Google approach. How to create unique marketing strategy?

What Is Cash Flow and Money Management? How much time do you spend on financial management? How automatization can help you with managing of Cash Flow, P&L and Budget in your business

Checklist of key security features for your Saas application. Advice for improving the security of Saas applications.

Learn more about IT outsourcing companies in Ukraine, their services, primary industries they cater to, and their preferred marketing strategies. Choose the one to try partnership.

We’ve prepared a short guide to GDPR that will explain what every web development company and business owner needs to know about the new regulations.

Most EdTech startups fail because they hurry at the onset of the project. Today we’ll explain the basics of creating a system requirements specification and share an SRS template example

Discover the essential steps to craft a comprehensive system requirement specification document.

Today we’ll share our take on the main steps to get in on the EdTech action and go from an idea to an MVP to a money-making product.

System Requirements Specification (SRS) is one of the most important documents you need to create if you plan on developing a software product. This document is an outline of what you need and expect your product to do.