I Built a Free QR Menu SaaS with Laravel 12 & React — Here's What I Learned

Smarteyeapps.com — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:11:32 +0000

A few weeks ago, I challenged myself to build another micro SaaS.
Instead of creating another AI-powered tool, I wanted to solve a simple, real-world problem.
Restaurant owners still spend time and money printing menus every time prices change or new dishes are added.
The solution seemed straightforward: build a QR Menu Builder that lets restaurants manage their menu online and generate a QR code for customers.
The idea was simple.
Building it wasn't.
In this article, I'll share some of the architectural decisions, challenges, and lessons I learned while building it with Laravel 12, React, Inertia.js, and Tailwind CSS.
The Tech Stack
I wanted a stack that I already trusted.

Backend

Laravel 12
PHP 8.4
MySQL

Frontend

React
Inertia.js
Tailwind CSS
Vite

Laravel remains my first choice because it allows me to move quickly without sacrificing code organization.
React + Inertia gives me a modern SPA experience without maintaining separate frontend and backend applications.
For a solo developer building multiple micro SaaS products, this combination has been extremely productive.
Designing the Database
One mistake I've made in previous projects was coupling everything together.
This time I kept the database simple and modular.
restaurants
├── categories
│ └── menu_items
│
├── qr_codes
│
└── scans
The relationships are straightforward.
Restaurant

hasMany Categories

Categories

Menu Items

QR Code

Settings

Analytics
I intentionally avoided adding dozens of menus and settings.
Restaurant owners don't want complicated software.
They just want to:
update prices
add dishes
hide unavailable items
print their QR code
Sometimes fewer features create a better product.
Mobile First
One lesson I've learned from previous SaaS projects:
Never treat mobile as an afterthought.
Restaurant owners often update their menu from their phones.
Every page was designed to work comfortably on smaller screens.
Tailwind CSS made responsive layouts much easier than my previous Bootstrap projects.
Performance Considerations
Even a simple menu can contain hundreds of items.
To keep loading fast, I:
eager loaded relationships
optimized database indexes
cached public menus
optimized images
lazy loaded admin components
The public menu should feel almost instant because customers scan it while sitting at a table.
SEO Matters More Than I Expected
Initially, I treated this like a typical SaaS landing page.
Then I realized most restaurant owners search for phrases like:
Free QR Menu
QR Menu Builder
Digital Restaurant Menu
Restaurant QR Code Menu
So I spent time improving:
semantic HTML
structured headings
FAQs
landing page content
internal linking
metadata
Good SEO takes longer than building features—but it's worth the investment.
What I'd Do Differently
If I started again, I'd probably build:
multi-language menus from day one
menu templates earlier
image optimization pipeline
analytics dashboard sooner
Building real software teaches you things that planning never will.
What's Next?
Some features I'm currently working on include:
📊 Scan analytics
📱 WhatsApp ordering
🍽️ Multiple menu templates
🌍 Multi-language support
📅 Pre-order menus
⭐ Featured dishes
I'm trying to keep the product simple while solving genuine problems for restaurant owners.
Final Thoughts
Building small SaaS products has become one of my favorite ways to learn.
Every project forces me to think about architecture, UX, SEO, performance, and deployment—not just writing code.
This QR Menu Builder started as a weekend idea and has grown into a practical project where I can experiment with Laravel, React, and product development.
If you're building your own micro SaaS, I'd love to hear how you structure your projects and what stack you're using.
You can also check out the project here:
👉 https://www.smarteyeapps.com/qr-menu
Tags:

Stop Copying Phone Numbers One by One: Build a Simple WhatsApp Contact Extractor

Smarteyeapps.com — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:56:40 +0000

As a developer, I often find myself collecting contacts from business directories, PDFs, websites, and documents.
The workflow was always the same:
Copy a phone number
Save it as a contact (or copy it again)
Open WhatsApp
Send a message
Repeat...

After doing this hundreds of times, I decided to build a small tool to automate the repetitive part.
The Idea
The tool accepts any block of text and automatically extracts phone numbers.

Once extracted, each number can be used to:

💬 Open a WhatsApp chat
📞 Make a phone call
📩 Send an SMS
📥 Export contacts to CSV

No manual copy-paste for every contact.

Example Workflow
Copy text from a business directory, website, or PDF.
Paste it into the tool.
Click Extract Mobile Numbers.
Start messaging contacts immediately.
How It Works
The core logic is intentionally simple:
Parse plain text

Detect phone numbers using pattern matching
Remove duplicates
Normalize numbers
Generate action buttons for WhatsApp, Call, SMS, and CSV export
Everything runs directly in the browser, so there's nothing to install.

Remove duplicates

This isn't a complex SaaS or an AI-powered application.
It's a small utility that solves a real problem I faced almost every day.
Sometimes the simplest tools save the most time.

What's Next?

I'm planning to add:
Name detection
Duplicate contact merging
Better international phone number support
Contact grouping
Copy-to-clipboard improvements
I'd love to hear your feedback and ideas.

👉 Try Contact Grabber:
https://www.smarteyeapps.com/contact-grabber

DEV Community: Smarteyeapps.com

I Built a Free QR Menu SaaS with Laravel 12 & React — Here's What I Learned

Backend

Frontend

Stop Copying Phone Numbers One by One: Build a Simple WhatsApp Contact Extractor