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Discussion on: What tools would you choose to create a personal portfolio site if starting from scratch?

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Nabeel Sulieman • Edited

I run my blog/portfolio (nabeel.dev/nabeel.blog) site on DigitalOcean Kubernetes, with a few other sites. Most of the content is static, but there are some dynamic components that are pulled from a database:

  • Site is built in ASP.NET Core
  • I paid for a simple bootstrap-based HTML theme
  • Main pages are hand-crafted HTML
  • Blog posts are written in Markdown and "compiled" to HTML
  • Dynamic data is fetched by the C# code and returned to some simple JS code in the UI

I started on WordPress, then moved to Hugo for a while. Both are fine options, but I'm really enjoying my current setup. The advantaged that I see are:

  • The ability to use my favorite programming language.
  • Static and dynamic content are both really easy to do.
  • The education that comes with doing things from scratch.
  • It's really easy to experiment and add new features.
  • No more nginx/php-fpm/mysql, or messing with other people's code.

I'm not even sure if my current approach is harder or more time consuming overall. I may be starting at a lower layer than a CMS/SSG, but on the flip side I don't have to spend as much time trying to understand a complex system, its plugins, and dealing with the bugs and limitations that comes with all of that.