DEV Community: Arshak Ahamed

Six days to launch, then zero users

Arshak Ahamed — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 09:11:18 +0000

Our first commit went in on September 29. Six days later the site was live. Four days after launch, it still had zero users.

This series is the build log of that site. It starts at the first commit and runs up to whatever we're fighting with this week. Expect the architecture choices, the bugs, the growth experiments and the money, including how little of it there is so far.

What Tintly is

Tintly is a free coloring site. You pick a picture, tap a shape, and it fills with color. There's nothing to install, and you don't need an account to start or to save your progress. Most people use it on a phone.

What it does today:

About 300 pictures, from easy ones with big shapes to detailed ones with a lot of small areas.
Tap to fill, or paint with a brush. Undo works, and your progress saves in the browser as you go.
Every free picture can also be printed as a PDF, on US Letter or A4.
There's a new picture to color every day.
No ads.

Under the hood it's a .NET backend with two APIs, a Next.js site, Postgres, and a coloring editor drawn on a canvas. Each of those gets its own post.

Two kinds of posts

The posts alternate between two kinds.

The origin episodes go in order. They cover why we built a website when the first plan was a mobile app, how the backend is laid out, why we swapped our auth provider on the second day, how a flat picture becomes shapes you can tap, and the launch.

The field notes come from the daily work. Usually it's a number that looked wrong and what we did about it, including the fixes that didn't work.

What we promise

The numbers are real and come from our own analytics, with our own visits filtered out. Some of them are small. A few are embarrassing. Over four days in October, 389 people started coloring a picture and 10 finished one. That number gets its own post.

When something went wrong because of a choice we made, we'll say it was our choice. We won't make up anecdotes or quotes. If we don't know why something happened yet, we'll say that too and come back to it when we do.

There will be code where it helps, mostly C# and TypeScript, kept short enough to read on a phone.

Who it's for

Mostly developers and small teams building their own products. If you work in .NET or Next.js you'll recognize a lot of it. If you're running something on a very small budget and wondering whether the boring choices hold up, this is our answer, one post at a time.

How often

A new post every week for the first month, then every two weeks after that. Follow us here to get them as they come out.

Coming up

We planned an app and built a website
389 people started a picture. 10 finished.
Free pages stay free
Eight seconds on a phone
Two front doors: a public API and an admin API

The first one is about the day the plan changed.

Auth0 vs Keycloak: What They Don’t Tell You (and When to Choose One Over the Other)

Arshak Ahamed — Tue, 06 May 2025 07:28:30 +0000

Auth0 vs Keycloak: What They Don’t Tell You (and When to Choose One Over the Other)

There’s no shortage of options when it comes to authentication — but let’s be honest: most of us end up Googling “auth for SaaS” and picking either Auth0 or Keycloak.

I’ve worked with both. And depending on where you're at in your product journey, either one could be the right choice — or the wrong one.

Let’s break it down, minus the fluff.

Auth0: Quick, Polished, Expensive

Auth0 is perfect if:

You want zero setup
You need a hosted solution with docs and UI
You’re okay paying a premium for convenience

Auth0 shines for early-stage teams who just want to move fast and not worry about token lifespans or identity providers.

But here’s the catch:

You hit pricing walls fast
Social logins, RBAC, custom claims = $$$
Migrating away is painful
Limited flexibility (especially if you need something non-standard)

I’ve seen teams paying $800/month for Auth0 before hitting 10k users.

Keycloak: Free, Powerful, Intimidating

Keycloak is great if:

You want full control and zero vendor lock-in
You’re building something that needs custom logic, SSO, or integrations
You’re okay with getting your hands dirty

Keycloak supports:

OIDC, SAML, LDAP
Social logins
Multi-tenant setups
Role-based access
User federation
Custom login themes

But here’s the reality:

The UI is confusing if you’re new
Docs are hit-or-miss
Theming is ugly out of the box
Upgrades can break things
Kubernetes deployment takes effort

When to Choose Which

Scenario	Use Auth0	Use Keycloak
MVP or early-stage SaaS	✅	❌
Need it live in 1 day	✅	❌
Tight budget / no per-user billing	❌	✅
SAML / LDAP / custom integrations	⚠️	✅
Don’t want vendor lock-in	❌	✅
Already using other open-source infra	⚠️	✅

TL;DR:

Use Auth0 to move fast.

Use Keycloak if you want control, scale, and freedom — but are ready to invest a little time upfront (or get help).

If You’re Going With Keycloak…

I help teams avoid the painful parts.

Migrations from Auth0/Okta
Clean Keycloak installs (with branding, staging, docs)
Setup for social logins, RBAC, SSO, and more
Support & handover — no mystery config

Check out 👉 https://pro.keycloakkit.com

Or just DM me if you want to chat about your setup — no pressure at all.

OAuth is hard. So I built a playground that isn’t.

Arshak Ahamed — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 09:03:32 +0000

Ever spent 30 minutes setting up Keycloak…

Just to test a login button that takes 3 seconds?

Yeah, same.

I got tired of:

Spinning up Docker
Configuring realms, users, roles, and clients
Forgetting a redirect URI (again)
Doing it all over tomorrow

So I built KeycloakKit — a one-click, disposable playground for testing auth flows without touching infrastructure.

👨‍💻 Why I Built It

I wanted to test a login — not manage an identity platform
I wanted a realm in 5 seconds, not 5 terminals
I wanted to focus on shipping, not spinning up

🧪 What KeycloakKit Does

✅ Spins up a ready-to-test Keycloak realm

✅ Comes preloaded with users, roles, clients

✅ JWT token viewer + copy support

✅ Export realm.json or Docker config

✅ Resets every 24 hours

✅ No login required

✅ Free to use → https://keycloakkit.com

🔥 Who It’s For

Frontend devs building login screens
QA teams testing user access & tokens
Backend devs prototyping OAuth flows
Solo builders & SaaS founders validating MVPs
Anyone learning how real-world auth works — without Docker

🤯 What I Learned After Launch

Posted it.

Got 17K views, 0 comments. Thought I flopped.

Then came 8 signups. Silent.

Then a DM:

“This is exactly what I needed. I’d pay for this.”

Now I know —

🧠 Devs don’t always talk. But they test.

🧠 Your Turn

If you’ve ever said:

“I just want to test this and move on.”

This was made for you.

Would love your thoughts:

What would make this a tool you’d use in every sprint?

Let’s make auth testing suck less — together.

🚀 Instantly Spin Up Keycloak Realms with KeycloakKit — No More Setup Hell

Arshak Ahamed — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 11:16:44 +0000

If you've ever worked with Keycloak, you know the pain:

Setting up a realm
Adding clients
Creating roles and users
Exporting configs manually

All just to test a simple OAuth flow? 😩

I got tired of repeating the same setup...

So I built KeycloakKit — a playground that lets you:

✅ Spin up a pre-configured Keycloak realm in seconds

✅ Includes users, roles, and clients

✅ Export realm.json or Docker Compose

✅ Auto-resets every 24 hours

✅ No login required

It's completely free, clean, and fast.

🛠 Built For Devs Who Just Want to Test Fast

Whether you're:

Testing login flows
Prototyping integrations
Teaching OAuth to your team
Showing off in a demo

KeycloakKit saves you 30+ minutes — every time.

🔗 Try it out here: https://keycloakkit.com

And if you have feedback, I'd love to hear it in the comments 👇