My first attempts at asking the same question on reddit, HN were auto flagged :) Hope I fare better on dev.to :)
Anyhoo, here goes. I am building a web host which is going to use Dropbox for file sync. If you wanted to a simple static web host. What are the features you'd look for in it?
I'd really appreciate feedback on this :)
Thanks Ben. By the way, I had fun listening to you speak on the stack overflow podcast. That is where I learnt about dev.to :)
I have to agree with Ben. Workflow and ease of use are important for me. I've been trying to automate more and more of my front end deployment work so I've personally been using Firebase (but have used and loved Netlify too).
On a separate note, in regards to automating the process, Netlify makes it really easy because when you push to GitHub they will auto build with whatever commands you want. (Which is a big plus)
Thanks. Do you see anything missing in the current static site generator tools landscape? Would love to hear more about how you are using Firebase too. Are you using it to store collection data like blog posts, products etc,.
Well, I'm not 100% sure what you mean when you say "current static site generator tools," I think of things like Webflow and other WYSIWYG generators. And for those, I end up not liking because of some experience at work being handed these sites that are impossible to dig through because of all of the useless functions in the JS bundle and CSS that never get used so they just bloat the site.
As far as Firebase is concerned, I've been in love with it so far. I've been using it as a storage bucket for assets I show on my personal website, as well as a sort of CMS where I update my portfolio there and it's reflected on my website. I am looking at it now for doing a webstore sort of thing so I'd have to get back to you on that.
I am really enjoying Now's perspective for better static site hosting. It serves via CDN, instantly provides SSL, easy deployment via a cli and has rollbacks when needed.
Yeah, it seems like a very polished app. However, they seem to need you to install nodejs to be able to use it. Which I guess is not such a big issue as most people use it for some kind of asset munging.
Nope, you don't need nodejs anymore!
From zeit.co/download :
We offer pre-built binaries of
now(1)for 64 bit systems. They even work on devices without Node.js installed!
It helps if it integrates well into my workflow and is easy to get in and out of plans and manage. GitHub pages has served me well in these regards, but it is a bit rigid in terms of how it might grow with me.
Netlify offers a lot of powerful features and integrations like CDN and SSL stuff.
This post and comment thread might give you some insight:
dev.to/_evansalter/github-pages-an...