Writing

.NET & AI Blog

Practical notes on .NET, adding AI to real software, architecture, and the things I learn building complex systems.

Azure OpenAI or OpenAI? How to Choose for a Production App in 2026

Same models, two doors. Azure OpenAI and the OpenAI API differ in where your data goes, who can see it, how your app signs in and how fast new models arrive. Here's how they compare in 2026, with the .NET code that runs on both.

27 October 20266 min read

AIVibe CodingApp SecurityStartup

Built Your App With AI? 4 Checks Before Real Users Touch It

AI tools can get an app working in days. Working and safe aren't the same thing. Here are four checks you can run yourself before real users, real payments or real personal data go anywhere near it, and what to ask a developer if one fails.

27 October 20267 min read

AI.NETSemantic KernelMicrosoft Agent Framework

Semantic Kernel or Microsoft Agent Framework? What to Use for .NET AI in 2026

Microsoft shipped Agent Framework 1.0 in April 2026 and calls it Semantic Kernel's successor. Here's what that means for AI features already running on Semantic Kernel, what changes in the code, and three questions that decide which one to use.

27 October 20266 min read

WPFPerformanceDesktop AppsDevExpress

Why Your WPF App Freezes With Large Data Grids, and How to Fix It Without a Rewrite

A WPF app that locks up while it loads data, or shows "Not Responding" while a grid fills, almost never needs a rewrite. The causes are well known and usually fixable in days or weeks. Here's what's actually going on, in plain terms, and what a fix looks like.

23 September 20267 min read

WPF.NET 10MigrationDevExpress

Migrating a WPF App to .NET 10 When It Uses DevExpress, Telerik or Syncfusion

Moving a WPF app from .NET Framework to .NET 10 is mostly routine until you reach the third-party control suite. The grids, charts and themes from DevExpress, Telerik and Syncfusion usually decide the timeline and the budget. Here's what to check before you start, and what the migration looks like.

23 September 20267 min read

AI.NETBusiness AppsIntegration

Adding AI to an Existing .NET Business App Without Rewriting It

You don't need a new system to use AI. It can sit beside the software you already have, summarising, extracting, sorting and drafting, while your existing app keeps doing what it does well. Here's where AI actually helps in business software, where it doesn't, and how to add it safely, even to an older .NET app.

23 September 20266 min read

.NET 8.NET 10MigrationEnd of Support

.NET 8 Support Ends November 10, 2026: What Business Owners Need to Do Now

Microsoft stops patching .NET 8 and .NET 9 on November 10, 2026. Your app won't stop working that day, but it stops getting security fixes. Here's what end of support really means, how to check which version you're on in five minutes, and what moving to .NET 10 usually involves.

23 September 20267 min read

.NETLegacy ModernizationMigrationCost

Rewrite or Refactor? A Decision Framework for Legacy .NET Apps

Every legacy system eventually prompts the same meeting. Someone says the code is unmaintainable, someone else says a rewrite is career suicide, and nothing gets decided. Here's a framework that produces an actual answer — five diagnostic questions, the middle path most teams should take, and the three situations where a full rewrite genuinely is correct.

23 September 20268 min read

Legal TechClioLawmaticsIntegration

What Drives the Cost of a Clio and Lawmatics Integration — and How Long It Takes

Every firm asks two questions after "can this be automated?" — what does it cost, and how long does it take. Here's an honest breakdown of what drives the price of a practice management integration, the three shapes this work usually takes and how long each runs, and the costs nobody puts in the proposal.

23 September 20269 min read

BlazorReact.NETArchitecture

Blazor vs React for Internal Business Apps: Choosing Without Regretting It in Year Two

Most Blazor vs React comparisons benchmark bundle sizes, which is almost irrelevant for an internal line-of-business app. The decision is really about hiring, maintenance, and where your team's existing knowledge lives. Here's the framework I use with clients, including where each choice hurts eighteen months later.

23 September 20268 min read

.NET.NET FrameworkMigrationModernization

Migrating from .NET Framework to Modern .NET: Real Costs, Timeline & Risks (2026)

Still running .NET Framework 4.x? It's not just old — it's a growing business risk. Here's an honest breakdown of what it actually costs to move to modern .NET, how long it takes, and how to do it without a scary big-bang rewrite.

8 July 20266 min read

Claude AIAIDeveloper ProductivityPrompt Engineering

How Developers Should Use Claude AI in 2026: Minimal Input, Maximum Output

Most developers get mediocre output from AI because they give it mediocre input. Here's my end-to-end workflow for planning, documenting, and building projects with Claude AI so every prompt returns accurate, production-ready code.

2 July 20266 min read

GEOSEOAIcontent-strategy

AI Bots Are Reading Your Data. Here's How to Make Them Sell You.

GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot they're all in your server logs. Most developers block them. The smarter move is to make them work for you...

8 June 202614 min read

Claude APIAnthropicFree APIC#

Free Claude API Access: Anthropic Console, Free Tier & Your First API Call

Anthropic doesn't offer a permanent free API tier but there are three legitimate paths to free Claude access depending on who you are and what you're building. This guide covers the ~$5 trial credits, the claude.ai free chat tier, and the Open Source program, with working C# code and honest limits.

28 May 202611 min read

Free APIClaude APIGemini APIGPT-4o

Free AI APIs for Developers : Claude vs Gemini vs GPT-4o vs Grok (With C# Code)

Google is the only provider with a truly permanent free API tier. Everyone else offers credits, trial windows, or conditional programs. Here's an honest breakdown of all four real limits, real C# code, and which one to actually start with depending on your use case.

28 May 202613 min read

OCRLeadToolsOpenAIAnthropic

LeadTools OCR vs AI Vision APIs. Which One Actually Holds Up in Production?

I spent the better part of two years shipping document extraction pipelines with LeadTools before a client pushed me to evaluate GPT-4o. Running both on the same invoice set was humbling in some ways and reassuring in others. Here is what actually changed — and what did not.

20 May 202615 min read

AIGeminiFreeAPIGoogleAIStudio

How to Get Free AI API Access with Google Gemini and Where It Actually Makes Sense to Use It

Most developers assume AI API access costs money from day one. It doesn't have to. Google's Gemini API offers a free tier through Google AI Studio with real model access, meaningful rate limits, and zero billing setup. Here's what you get, how to get it, and where it fits into your actual development workflow.

11 May 202617 min read

WPFAIdotnetCSharp

Building an Interactive Cohort Analysis Chart in WPF and What Happens When You Ask AI to Do It Instead

A cohort analysis matrix sounds simple it's just a grid. But keyboard navigation, live cell updates, row/column highlighting, and a buy/sell popup make it one of those UI components that exposes exactly where AI-assisted development hits its limits. Here's how I built it in WPF, and what happened when I asked AI to reproduce it.

5 May 20269 min read

AINext.jsWebDevTypeScript

I Built a Full E-Commerce Site with AI. Here's Where It Broke Without an Engineer.

I built Craftura Fine Furniture — a complete Next.js 14 e-commerce platform with admin panel, analytics, and B2B ordering using AI as my primary tool. Here's the honest account: what AI shipped fast, the four bugs it would have pushed to production, and why an experienced engineer is still the difference between a demo and a live store.

4 May 202617 min read

AI.NETLegal TechSemantic Kernel

How AI Is Transforming Legal Practice Management: Contract Analysis, Call Summaries, and Intelligent Matter Insights with .NET

Law firms sit on mountains of unstructured data — contracts, call recordings, case notes, emails. AI can read all of it, extract what matters, and surface insights that would take a paralegal hours to compile. Here's how to build AI-powered legal features using Semantic Kernel and .NET.

30 April 20267 min read

.NETAIAzure OpenAIOCR

AI-Based OCR in .NET: Extracting Structured Data from Documents Using GPT-4o Vision

Traditional OCR struggles with real-world documents — skewed scans, varied fonts, handwriting, inconsistent layouts. Learn how to use Azure OpenAI's vision API in a .NET app to extract accurate, structured data from any image with a single prompt — and why AI beats regex every time.

28 April 202613 min read

Blazor.NETHangfireLegal Tech

Building a Legal Tech Automation System: Syncing Clio, Lawmatics, Zoom & Box Using .NET Hangfire

A deep dive into how we built a fully automated data sync pipeline for a law firm — connecting Clio, Lawmatics, Zoom, and Box using ASP.NET Core, Hangfire background jobs, and OAuth 2.0. Real architecture, real code, real problems solved.

28 April 202610 min read

.NETABP.ioBlazorSaaS

Building a Multi-Tenant SaaS with ABP.io and Blazor: A Practical Guide

Multi-tenancy is the foundation every SaaS sits on — get it wrong and you're facing data leaks and a rewrite. Here's how to build a scalable, secure multi-tenant platform with ABP.io and Blazor, using the patterns I apply on real client SaaS builds.

24 April 20269 min read

.NETPricingFreelanceSoftware Development

How Much Does Custom .NET Software Development Cost in 2026?

Ask three developers to quote the same project and you'll get three wildly different numbers. Here's an honest, itemised breakdown of what .NET software actually costs in 2026 — real ranges, where the money goes, and how to spot a fantasy quote.

24 April 20266 min read

Blazor.NETWPFMigration

How to Migrate a WPF App to Blazor Server in 2026

WPF apps are powerful — but they need installing, updating by hand, and office-network access. Here's my step-by-step approach to migrating a WPF app to Blazor Server, screen by screen, without throwing away the business logic you've already paid for.

24 April 20267 min read