Over the festive period I'm planning to redo my personal website.
So, for a hit of inspiration, what tech did you use to build yours?
And feel free to shamelessly plug it if you answer!
Jacob Baker @thatonejakeb
About: lead developer // mentor & lecturer // pizza devourer
Location:
bristol, england
Joined:
Dec 9, 2019
What tech did you use to build your personal website/portfolio?
Publish Date: Dec 17 '19
83 80Comments 80 total
Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019How are you finding using Gatsby? It’s something I was considering when I redo mine.
- Pontakorn PaesaengDec 17, 2019
Great. It does a great job creating blogs. With Gatsby, you can use data sources you like. Customization is easy.
Gatsby also provides adequate starter kits and plugins. You don't need to worry about Webpack config so much.
Mitch StanleyDec 17, 2019My blog is currently using Middleman for static site generation and hosted on Netlify. Neovim for editing. I used HTML from a template on pixelarity.com/
I'm in the middle of a headless rebuild which uses Craft CMS for the backend - hosted on a tiny Dokku VPS, Nuxt.JS for static site generation, Netlify for hosting, and Tailwind for the CSS.
Link: fullstackstanley.com
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
Ah, I’ve been looking at possible CMS solutions this morning, how is Craft? Any other recommendations of ones worth looking at?
- Mitch StanleyDec 17, 2019
There's a lot to love about Craft. It's really easy to get an admin area set up fast. There's a decent plugin ecosystem available, and the free tier is pretty good for a single user website.
If you want to create HTML sites with it, the templating engine is Twig and it's pretty easy to use although requires building the HTML from scratch (Personally I prefer it this way so I can optimize stuff).
The downside is that if you need more than one user, or GraphQL support, then you'll have to pay for the Pro license. Personally, I just use the Element API plugin instead for generating JSON endpoints.
I've also used Ghost CMS (blog.snipline.io) which is pretty great too for a standard blog and includes everything you need out of the box. Theming is easy and it's self-hostable for free, also has good SEO out of the box so no need to worry about that. It's built in Node which is a little trickier to deploy than Craft (which is PHP) but nothing too bad.
Erkand ImeriDec 17, 2019Going to try Github, Netlify, Gatbsy and for the CSS TailwindCSS. A combination of this.
Marc Philippe BeaujeanDec 17, 2019I used (headless) wordpress and gatsby to build my blog @ byteschool.io. Wordpress is self-hosted, frontend is running on Netlify.
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
How do find using headless WordPress? I did a fair number of projects using WordPress in the past and being able to decouple the front & backend would have been nice.
- Marc Philippe BeaujeanDec 17, 2019
It was alright! A Gatsby plugin did most of the work in terms of hooking things up and fetching data.I'm not an expert at WordPress so customising some things was harder for me, but should be easier for you 😊
David KaplanDec 17, 2019The WordPress REST API is very good now. I built a site using WP as the backend for my client to manage custom post types and then Axios with VueJS for the front-end. For me at the time, not having to build a CMS was a good thing.
Nick TaylorDec 17, 2019I went with Gatsby since I wanted to mess around in React land. I also wrote it in TypeScript since I'm currently not using TypeScript at work. Here's the full list, iamdeveloper.com/thanks/
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
Looking like that's the path I'm going to go down. Do enjoy a bit of TypeScript.
I do like the thanks page as well; might do something like that for mine.
Drew TownDec 17, 2019The thanks page is really cool. I definitely should borrow that idea for myself.
- Drew TownDec 17, 2019
I used Gridsome because I really like the static site concept for a personal project and I like Vue. Additionally I used TailwindCSS for styling.
That's it... Hosted on netlify and done.
shushugahDec 17, 2019NetlifyCMS (also experimented with closed source Forestry.io) with a Jekyll static site, hosted on github and or netlify.
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
Really like that. Would you mind if I showed it to my students as a good example of an online CV? It's amazing the number of them that don't have anything online.
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
I've not come across AsciiDoc before, why are you thinking of switching to it from Markdown?
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
That sounds quite useful actually. I've a project due to begin in the new year that we were going to use Markdown for part of it, but I'll take a look at AsciiDoc as an alternative. Especially if it is easier to extend.
Maksum RifaiDec 17, 2019i'm using material-ui kit, github and netlify for deploy my personal website:
maksumrifai.github.io
maksumrifai.netlify.comusing Wordpress CMS & Hostinger for business website:
desainerhub.com
tris timbDec 17, 2019I've been working on one with Vue.js, the one it's replacing was just an HTML file. I think both were good solutions to what I wanted.
Brian EmiliusDec 17, 2019I'm on the JAMstack as many others. I use Gatsby/React with markdown files (markdownRemark).
On top of that, I use images I make myself or some I find on places like freepik.com where you are required to attribute the creator.
For image editing, I use Gimp or PS as needed, and for vectors, Illustrator.
Furthermore, I am fond of hemingwayapp.com and grammarly.com for proofreading.
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
Hemmingway App is interesting; haven't seen that one before. I'll give it a go-- thanks!
mark l chavesDec 23, 2019Cool. Ya, I love the Hemingway app. Been using it for years. Grammarly is great too. If you need a headline analyzer, I'm digging this one at the moment. headlines.sharethrough.com/
Enjoy!
drmikecroweDec 17, 2019Personal pet project: factualsearch.news
- React website (TypeScript)
- Plop to create components (node + handlebars to template anything)
- AWS S3 for static hosting
bealearnscodeDec 17, 2019Good old HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS. I actually used Materialize for my UI.
JoëlleDec 17, 2019This is really nice, I like the simple and clean design. I am starting to learn and about to start JS and it's good to see what people are creating.
Kim Arnett Dec 17, 2019Wordpress. And I'm extremely not sorry.
When I first built my super simple site, I used PHP, and customized everything. I wanted to show off my skills I learned in college, etc etc.
I didn't follow the web developer track - I went into mobile. After doing so, I realized a few things about maintaining my website.
- Recruiters do not care what your website was built with. Even most managers couldn't care less.
- I needed something that maintained itself, because I no longer had time to maintain it every year (after getting hacked).
- Having a blog was a huge driving factor for me... I want perspective employers to be impressed with the content I'm creating, not focused on what version of JS I'm using.. or whatever web people look at now a days :P
Today my website is 100% blog. I'm hoping to add a store to sell some of the things I've designed. But Wordpress has made it a no-mess no-stress task for me, and completely meets my needs for now.
- David KaplanDec 17, 2019
That's awesome Kim! WordPress and PHP used to, maybe still do, get a sideways look sometimes but they are solid, aren't going anywhere and are solid. I'm trying to take my PHP scrappiness over to Laravel. You might check it out if you like WP.
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
No judgement here! My long-standing website is currently WordPress with a custom theme because it was the quickest & easiest thing for me to do at the time to get something out there with my name on it.
Your reasons are so on point.
Omar Gaston ChalasDec 17, 2019I used Gatsby, I think if you have any knowledge of React then Gatsby is the best tool for the job.
I built this a time ago.
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
That's really cool, good job! Really is looking like the Gatsby rabbit hole is where I'm about to jump.
<A.BONFIGLIO/>Dec 17, 2019My portfolio is develop with React and Reactstrap with bootstrap components.
Suzanne AitchisonDec 17, 2019I used Gatsby for my site Up Your A11y for very specific reasons that I wrote about here
I'm using Gatsby again now for some other side projects, and I gotta say I do love it. It gives you so much speed optimisation for free and it plays nicely with lots of CMS options.
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
Thanks for that!
As an aside, definitely going to keep your site bookmarked to reference when it comes to a11y.
- David KaplanDec 17, 2019
Hi Jacob. I went with VueJS. I want to move over to Laravel, saw that VueJS is a recommendation, and went off to learn that first. workalicious.com I'm using Foundation for a CSS framework.
- Jacob BakerDec 17, 2019
Do you think there is a benefit to using one over the other? Or is it more a case of a learning experience?
- David KaplanDec 17, 2019
For me it was learning experience and my available time to learn something new. I started to learn Laravel back in v4 (I think it was). When I finally got back around to learning a version of 5x I saw VueJS and that sent me off to find out about VueJS.
I'm a freelancer, trying to stay billable, but dedicate some other time to learning. Repeating is the hard part in that case. I'd get busy and not get back to the learning for a while. I'm hunkered and deteremined now to make Laravel/VueJS LAMP my stack. One thing that has changed for my daily work is to keep logs of what I do within a project, huge help to go back and read stuff where I'm explaining to my future-self what I did.
- Jacob BakerDec 18, 2019
Oh I like the idea of keeping a log of what you do to refer back to in the future. So much can get lost in the haze of a project.
- Jacob BakerDec 18, 2019
I like it! Only thing is the image on the homepage could do with nudging down a little, the top is being cut off by the banner.
Saurabh Daware 🌻Dec 18, 2019Hi, I just went for plain HTML, CSS, JavaScript.
Usually, my portfolio is something that I use to test my skills. Before this, my portfolio was built in Vue since I was learning Vue back then.
This time I just wanted to see how far can I go without a dependency (and I had a lot of free time :D) and I do not regret it. I loved working in vanilla JavaScript.
Here's the website: saurabhdaware.in
- Jacob BakerDec 18, 2019
I think it's good to know how things work at a vanilla level, certainly if you've the time to learn.
emptyotherDec 18, 2019My blog is currently NOT using a Metalsmith static website generator where the build script and my plugins are written in typescript. Seems most plugins for it is out-of-date, but its darn easy to write plugins for it myself.
I'm just about to publish it but I'm stuck on styling it. As usual.
WaqasDec 23, 2019I went with a static site/blog generator jekyll and used minimal mistakes as theme. It's hosted on github pages and all I have to do is push a commit and my website automatically gets updated
- mark l chavesDec 23, 2019
Thanks for sharing your experience with Algolia, Diane. :-)
I've got Lunr running on my Jekyll site. It was a cinch to set up. But, I'm not getting the same precision results with my Google Custom Search implementations. So, I thought about giving Algolia a try. Just like you mentioned, Algolia is more of a kludge to get up and running. But, it's still on my queue to give it a go.
I'll let you know if I ever get around to it.
Dana OttavianiDec 23, 2019I like using VueJS and came across Gridsome. It gives you the option to use GraphQL. I didn't create the design though, it was a premade template.
- mark l chavesDec 23, 2019
Thanks for kicking off this interesting thread, Jacob :-).
CloudCannon
Just to share. I'm currently moving my website/portfolio from WordPress to CloudCannon. More on the why behind this move here if you are interested.
Jekyll has built-in support for Liquid. Liquid comes from the developers of Shopify.
If I'm not mistaken, this site (DEV.to) uses Jekyll dev.to/p/editor_guide
I used the Jekyll Minimal Mistakes theme (excellent theme BTW). My customisations so far are in JavaScript and SCCS.
Here's the work in progress caughtmyeye.dev
Netlify
I'm using Netlify to host my PWA work. These projects aren't fully baked yet. But, here's a preview.
Comments are welcomed! ;-)
- mark l chavesDec 23, 2019
Great job. Thanks for sharing your work. Your site is very clean, minimal, and "performant".
Question though--I noticed you opted out of showing some of the images on a mobile viewport. Namely the "staggered" layout ones and your portrait photos.
Was this by design? What was your motivation behind this decision, if so?
Thanks!
David GomesDec 24, 2019Where's the Hugo crowd? I fell in love with that framework. Push to Gitlab, host in Render for free. All automatic. The hardest part is coming up with content
Gergely PolonkaiDec 24, 2019- My blog was a custom PHP site from the early 2000s up to 2011.
- In 2011 i built a new engine based on the Symfony framework.
- In 2013, i switched to Python and rewrote my blog’s engine using the Django framework.
- Somewhere between 2014 and 2015 i switched to GitHub Pages, using GitHub’s Jekyll version
- In 2017 i went back to self-hosting, but still with Jekyll (although not GitHub’s version)
- In 2019 i switched to Pelican, as it’s written in Python and i can hack it easier than i could Ruby
Today my site is available on https and dat (Dat browser like Beaker or DatFox is required). I also plan to make it available on IPFS soon.
Vasily BelolapotkovDec 25, 2019Using Gatsby + Netlify CMS + Gitlab Pages hosting. Works nice so far. vbelolapotkov.com
ArneDec 26, 2019Just set my new blog online (ophasnoname.de). After years with Wordpress or Hugo i decided to use something other. My new blog runs with Laravel (PHP Framework) and some packages to parse Markdown. The blog runs without any database, anything is based on the filesystem.
C. PureDec 29, 2019I built mine with html, css, and js for the mailchimp sign up form. I wanted to really hone my basic skills so I went vanilla with this site.
It is hosted on GitHub pages.
My website and portfolio are still incomplete but I can provide my stack thing.
For the old one