Let’s be real—if you’re a developer who only knows how to push code to managed services like Vercel, Netlify, or Heroku and call it a day, you’re missing out. Sure, they’re great when you’re starting, but the moment traffic hits or you need custom configurations, those “free” services turn into your worst nightmare (and your credit card’s, too).

It’s been six years since I started my journey as a software engineer, and let me tell you—it’s been a ride. From getting lost in endless tutorials to arguing with bugs that seemed to have a mind of their own, I’ve learned a lot (sometimes the hard way).