Web Frameworks

The choices for creating and deploying a website have exploded in the years since the author deployed his first website in high school circa 2005.

Wordpress

I maintain a Wordpress site hosted on AWS Lightsail. I’m not the biggest fan of Wordpress, but it is probably the option requiring the least technical expertise . . . if you want to do no modification to the default layouts and themes. I found modifying the site to be the most unintuitive. I also don’t really know anything about PHP.

Django and Django CMS

I also maintain a website using Django and Django CMS. I wanted a framework over which I had complete control, but which I could still hand over to the client who could add content with no technical knowledge. I like Python, and this was a good learning experience, but the site is a bit heavy, and only contains static content. I think the client would have been better served with Hugo, the static site generator. They would have had to learn Markdown, but I think I could have found a free hosting solution.

Hugo

This website is built with Hugo, and I think it’s my favorite solution for a static website. It’s much simpler to modify than both Wordpress and Django CMS, and I feel like I have full control over the look and feel of this site. Plus, I’ve figured out how to update the site with my phone. I’m excited to be able to do offline using the Markdown editor iA Writer and the iOS git client Working Copy.