Hands-on hobbies

Card model-making: a tiny building, a proper evening

Card model-making is building small 3D models, usually buildings, from printed card parts. A first kit like Metcalfe's £10.50 station shelter and only the tools its instructions ask for are enough to find out whether you enjoy it.

BY Doug Silkstone21/09/26

Life

Nerdy hobbies for adults: eight to try when scrolling stops being fun

A nerdy hobby is one with a learning curve and a community that cares about the details, such as miniature painting, card models or a Raspberry Pi. The way in is one first project: a free Warhammer shop session or £23.50 squad, a £10.50 card shelter or a £10 Pico kit.

BY Doug Silkstone21/09/26

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Tech

Klaviyo bill climbing? The best Klaviyo alternatives for UK Shopify shops, priced at 5,000 and 25,000 subscribers

Klaviyo now charges for every profile it can email, so a Shopify shop's bill grows with its checkout customers as well as its subscribers. Shopify Messaging covers the basics for little, Omnisend is the closest cheaper rival, and Privy suits shops whose first job is growing the list. Klaviyo is $100 a month at 5,000 profiles.

BY Doug Silkstone12/10/26

Tech

Outgrown the spreadsheet? The best CRM for a UK small business, free and paid

A CRM keeps every customer, email and deal where the whole team can see them. Pipedrive suits small sales teams, Zoho CRM gives the most for the least, Copper suits Gmail businesses and Capsule is the simple British option. HubSpot's free plan is fine for two, then the price climbs.

BY Doug Silkstone12/10/26

Tech

Is Substack's 10% worth it? The best newsletter platforms for UK writers: beehiiv, Kit, Ghost and more

Substack is free until readers pay, then keeps 10%; beehiiv, Kit, Ghost and the rest charge a flat fee instead. I work out which costs less at 1,000 and 10,000 subscribers, who brings you readers, who lets you leave with them, and what UK writers need to know about VAT and consent.

BY Doug Silkstone12/10/26

Tech

Paying too much for Typeform? The best Typeform alternatives for UK readers, free and paid

A form builder turns your questions into a page people fill in. Tally is the best free Typeform alternative for most people, Fillout suits forms that take payments, book calls or collect signatures, and SmartSurvey keeps survey answers in the UK. Typeform starts at £252 a year plus VAT.

BY Doug Silkstone12/10/26

Tech

Need web data for an AI app? The best web scraping APIs, priced for 10,000 pages a month

A web scraping API fetches pages and hands back clean data. For feeding an AI app, Firecrawl is the fullest toolkit and Context.dev costs less per page; for protected shops, ScrapingBee, Zyte and Bright Data do better. What 10,000 pages cost on each, and what UK law says.

BY Doug Silkstone12/10/26