Blog
Notes on building products
Practical articles from RafayLabs on building MVPs, mobile apps, payments and AI features, written from products I have built.
- MVP
MVP Development Cost: How Much Does It Cost to Build an MVP in 2026?
MVP development cost with real price ranges: US$1,000 to US$6,000 at RafayLabs, what sets the price for a mobile app, web app, SaaS or AI product, and the costs most quotes leave out.
·9 min readRead - App Development
How Much Does It Cost to Build an App in 2026?
How much it costs to build, make or develop an app in 2026: what sets the price, with real ranges. How the cost changes for AI, food delivery, healthcare and fitness apps, and what you pay after launch.
·8 min readRead - AI
How to Add AI to an Existing Mobile App
Seven steps to add AI to an existing app: picking the use case, keeping keys on the server, streaming, grounding answers in your data and controlling cost.
·7 min readRead - Delivery apps
How to Build a Delivery App Like Foodpanda: Features, Tech Stack and What to Build First
A delivery app is three apps and an admin panel: the features each needs, the hard parts, the tech stack I used for GharTak, and what to leave out at first.
·9 min readRead - Delivery apps
How to Build a Super App Like Rappi: Features, Architecture and Where to Start
What a super app like Rappi is made of, the shared platform behind food, grocery, pharmacy and courier delivery, and why you should launch one service first.
·8 min readRead - Payments
How to Integrate M-Pesa STK Push in a React Native App
The M-Pesa STK Push flow for a React Native app: access token, payment request, callback, telling the app, the errors you will hit, and going live on Daraja.
·8 min readRead - React Native
How to Use Lottie Animations in React Native (Expo and Bare)
Add Lottie animations to a React Native app: install lottie-react-native in Expo or a bare app, play JSON and .lottie files, control playback with a ref, change colours and keep animations fast.
·7 min readRead - Design
Lottie vs GIF: Which Animation Format Should Your App Use?
Lottie vs GIF compared for apps and websites: file size, quality, transparency, performance and control, plus where dotLottie and video fit and when a GIF is still the right choice.
·6 min readRead - AI & Dev Tools
How to Use LottieFiles MCP with AI Agents (Cursor, Claude, Antigravity)
Connect LottieFiles Creator MCP to Cursor, Claude Desktop, and AI coding assistants. Search, create, edit, and insert 60 FPS Lottie JSON animations directly in your code without leaving the editor.
·7 min readRead
What I write about
Every article is written from products I have built and shipped, including the decisions behind them and the hard parts.
MVPs
What a first version should include, what sets its price, how long it takes, and what to leave for later so it actually ships.
Mobile apps
Building iOS and Android apps from one React Native and Expo codebase, from offline storage and performance to the App Store and Google Play release.
Payments
Stripe, in-app subscriptions and mobile money such as M-Pesa, including the server-side code each one needs and the errors you will meet going live.
AI features
Adding chat assistants, image recognition and search over your own data to an app you already have, without exposing keys or losing control of cost.
Delivery and booking apps
What goes into ordering, delivery and booking apps, drawn from building GharTak in Pakistan and GlanzGo in Kenya.