The latest articles on DEV Community by fiveday launch (@fiveday_launch_e064494c4b). https://dev.to/fiveday_launch_e064494c4b https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4025533%2Fe2ba72b5-96e8-4d9e-ac49-e368e69cf13a.png https://dev.to/fiveday_launch_e064494c4b en fiveday launch Sat, 11 Jul 2026 20:29:21 +0000 https://dev.to/fiveday_launch_e064494c4b/hi-im-building-fivedaylaunch-a-website-studio-for-local-service-businesses-2imh https://dev.to/fiveday_launch_e064494c4b/hi-im-building-fivedaylaunch-a-website-studio-for-local-service-businesses-2imh <p>I've been building <a href="https://fivedaylaunch.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">fivedaylaunch</a> for the past couple of months. This is my first DEV post, so figured I'd share what we're doing and what I've been learning.</p> <h2> The idea </h2> <p>Local service businesses — plumbers, salons, cafes, dentists, photographers — usually end up in one of two bad spots:</p> <ul> <li>Try Wix/Squarespace and give up after two weekends because they don't have time to learn a builder, or</li> <li>Pay a local agency $2,500–$8,000 upfront for a site that still looks generic</li> </ul> <p>Neither is great. What we do instead: a real hand-designed website + owner portal delivered in 5 business days, starting at $25/mo. No upfront fee, no annual contract.</p> <p>If you want to see it, <a href="https://fivedaylaunch.com/instant" rel="noopener noreferrer">try /instant</a> — put a business name in and you get a real preview site in 60 seconds. No signup, no card.</p> <h2> The tech stack (probably more interesting to this crowd) </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>Server:</strong> Node.js + Express (customer portal) + a small Python service for AI-assisted content generation</li> <li> <strong>DB:</strong> SQLite with WAL mode. Yes, in production. It's plenty for our current scale and eliminates a ton of ops overhead.</li> <li> <strong>Hosting:</strong> the whole thing runs on a single 2 GB DigitalOcean droplet right now (~$12/mo). We'll horizontally scale when we outgrow it, not before.</li> <li> <strong>AI:</strong> Claude Haiku for the daily content pipeline, with a template + heuristic fallback when determinism matters more than creativity</li> <li> <strong>Front-end:</strong> hand-written HTML/CSS with a schema-driven templating layer. No React, no build step, no bundler. Ships in ~15 kB per page.</li> </ul> <p>Deliberately unfancy. When your daily customer volume is measured in the tens, boring tech is the correct choice.</p> <h2> What I'll be writing about here </h2> <ul> <li>Small-business tech stack decisions</li> <li>SQLite in production (I'll die on this hill)</li> <li>AEO / GEO — getting your product cited by ChatGPT / Claude / Perplexity, which is a different beast from classic SEO</li> <li>Build-in-public updates from the studio</li> </ul> <p>If any of that sounds interesting, hit follow. And if you run a small business (or know someone who does), /instant is free to try.</p> webdev startup buildinpublic smallbusiness