PrintHive vs. WhateverYouWant3D: this is the marketplace — it matches your print job to independent local makers. WhateverYouWant3D is the storefront that turns a text description into a custom object and prints it for you.
The problem
3D printing is fragmented. Customers can't easily find a qualified local maker, and operators have idle machine time. Generic marketplaces don't understand the thing that actually matters — build volume, materials, precision, geography — so matching is guesswork. PrintHive's job is to make that match precise.
The approach
I built it engine-first. The matching algorithm is pure TypeScript with zero framework dependencies and a full test suite, so it can be reasoned about and trusted in isolation. It ranks shops on six factors — capability fit, material match, proximity, turnaround, price, and reputation — and weights them by what each customer says they care about (quality vs. speed vs. cost). Only once the engine was solid did the service layer wrap it with orders, payments, file handling, and email.
The stack
Next.js and TypeScript on a Prisma/Postgres schema covering the full marketplace lifecycle — users, shops, printers, listings, orders, reviews, messages, payouts. Stripe Connect Express handles multi-party payments and automatic fee splits; NextAuth covers email and Google sign-in; Vercel Blob stores STL uploads, with metadata extracted on the way in.
Where it's at
The core marketplace is functional end to end — matching engine, database, services, and a frontend with customer and shop dashboards, order flow, messaging, and Stripe-hosted shop onboarding. The matching engine is the part I'm proudest of: a piece of business logic clean enough to test exhaustively, deliberately kept independent of the framework around it.