Tech-Stack for interview-blog-like site?
I want to create a site similar to starterstory.com, created by @patwalls. I'm struggling to make a decision concerning the stack to use. SEO is a high priority, but also performance and the look of the site. My original plan was to use Gatsby( don't know it yet), but then i got worried when i read that it might not be suitable for larger sites with many posts, please correct me if i'm wrong! Ghost is also something i have thought about, even good old wordpress, although what worries me is the performance problems, and limitation in regards to customization of the site.
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Strongly recommend you just make a decision - any decision - and run with it for 6 months. You are possibly building the quintessential website the internet was built for - basic text content - so don't get analysis paralysis in this early stage! :)
I 100% recommend Gatsby if you do end up going down that path. Gatsby + Netlify is super simple/reliable
Agreed 100%
Would you say it scales well, and is well suited for bigger sites?
Gatsby? Absolutely. Netlify I'm not sure about. I'd use Netlify for free until you need to scale then move on to deploying to AWS or similar technology.
1 Netlify.com
2 NetlifyCMS.org
3 Stackbit.com
4 goHugo.io
Cost me $9/year for the domain.
This is a static site managed by Netlify CMS, delivered from a CDN.
Loads of great looking free templates.
I would use Kirby! It's perfect for such use case. If you want to get the job done quickly, nothing can beat Wordpress + a good theme.
From builtwith (https://builtwith.com/?https%3A%2F%2Fstarterstory.com%2F), he uses Ruby on Rails and that could be another option if you know how to use it.
Gatsby is great and if you can work with it, then go for it. However, if it's a technology you're not familiar with, then it may take you longer to build out your project and end up costing you more in the long term.
WordPress is good and offers tons of customisation, this can be a blessing and a curse. Many plug-ins are great, but some do have security issues. Hosting can also be very hit and miss. I've hosted a couple of WP sites with SiteGround and the speed started off great, but later slowed down to a point where I want to transfer to another host. The speed is usually no fault of WP itself and is usually down to the hosting provider, if you find a good host then you should be okay.
I also use Ghost for my company's website and the speed has been incredible, they really know how to optimise their codebase. Mine is also hosted on their platform since I didn't want to bother with server upkeep and their servers have been great. There is also a cheaper Ghost hosting platform called Midnight which you could look at (https://getmidnight.com/).
All in all, stick with what you know and keep it simple. You can always add more complexity later on if needed.
Great points! Regarding hosting for Ghost: how difficult would it be doing it yourself with let's say digital ocean?
It's really simple to host on Digital Ocean, they actually have a once click install droplet in their marketplace which you can see here https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/ghost?utm_campaign=marketplace&utm_source=marketplace
WordPress might be your best bet if you're thinking of scaling in the future. Out of the box WP has some performance issues, but if you're running it on a fast VPS and tweak your server caching and get a well-designed theme, speed won't be an issue.
I really like Gatsby but it is more suited for blogs and personal sites. Ghost probably isn't your best bet, mostly because it's not very flexible or extensible.
You're right. I might have underestimated the power of WordPress haha
Start simple. You can always change the tech later after you've validated the idea.
I switched CMS's 6-8 months after I had launched, and had over 50 blog posts, and it took me a weekend to get it all switched over.
Yeah, you’re right! I’m overthinking and analyzing too much, when I should ship content/code instead! Thank you, appreciate the advice!
Good luck!
Go with Webflow and their build in CMS. The hassle and time to do this with 100% custom code is just not worth it if you don‘t know if the idea works. You can stay way more flexible this way.
Webflow is really really good