There are 2 reasons I would do a side project and they influence how I choose:
If I'm trying to learn a technology
If I'm trying to make an idea come to life
In case 1 I will pick as many options to minimize friction around what I'm trying to learn (i.e. if I'm trying to learn Chart.js I won't also try and use React since I'm not very familiar with it).
In case 2 I'm going to use my preferred stack that aligns with the goal - as a JS developer that probably means JS in one form or another (Vue, Node, or NativeScript 99% of the time).
To answer your question about a portfolio page
There's absolutely nothing wrong with just using Wordpress, Squarespace, etc... but those take away the ability to play around and develop your site into exactly what you want.
Depending on what your goal is:
If you want a blog - I'd recommend a Static Site Generator like Gatsby (React) or Gridsome (Vue) - starting with one of their "Starters" and building from there to make it your own!
If you want a single page site - I'd recommend starting from scratch, maybe use a UI library like Bootstrap
A portfolio is a great place to experiment and express yourself - and it's fun to build on over time when motivation strikes!
As for hosting - I can't recommend Netlify enough! If you've never used it before, I wrote a walkthrough on setting it up with a custom domain:
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts & process - it helps so much to see how other people approach a topic! I will give Netlify a go, read so many good things about it already, thanks for sharing your article!
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How I choose
There are 2 reasons I would do a side project and they influence how I choose:
In case 1 I will pick as many options to minimize friction around what I'm trying to learn (i.e. if I'm trying to learn Chart.js I won't also try and use React since I'm not very familiar with it).
In case 2 I'm going to use my preferred stack that aligns with the goal - as a JS developer that probably means JS in one form or another (Vue, Node, or NativeScript 99% of the time).
To answer your question about a portfolio page
There's absolutely nothing wrong with just using Wordpress, Squarespace, etc... but those take away the ability to play around and develop your site into exactly what you want.
Depending on what your goal is:
A portfolio is a great place to experiment and express yourself - and it's fun to build on over time when motivation strikes!
As for hosting - I can't recommend Netlify enough! If you've never used it before, I wrote a walkthrough on setting it up with a custom domain:
Website Deployment with Hover & Netlify
Tyler V. (he/him) ・ May 30 '19 ・ 8 min read
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts & process - it helps so much to see how other people approach a topic! I will give Netlify a go, read so many good things about it already, thanks for sharing your article!