Make & Deploy Your Own Website!

Building and running your own personal website may sound straightforward in principle, but the contrast between what many non-technical users end up with (often a feature-laden content management system (CMS) reliant on large databases, caches, and extensive JavaScript) and what engineers sometimes prefer (a minimal, static site with basically no javascript) reveals a curious imbalance. Usually, it is those with limited technical background who tend to wind up using heavyweight tools (wordpress, squarespace, etc.), while professionals sometimes opt for the simplest possible deployment.

The simplest route for newcomers is usually to reach for a comprehensive blogging platform or a well-known CMS because, on the surface, it eliminates guesswork. Major providers handle domain registration, hosting, and caching behind the scenes, and the user sees an easy interface to click “deploy.” By contrast, producing a static site—however polished the final result—often requires you to wade through seemingly esoteric steps: selecting and registering a domain name, finding a VPS, configuring DNS, choosing a static site generator (or crafting raw HTML by hand), and setting up automated deployments. This can be second nature for experienced engineers who leverage free hosting platforms with custom domain support such as GitHub or Cloudflare, but it remains a barrier for everyone else.

Countless individuals end up subscribing to bloated platforms that offer a long list of so-called “premium” features, most of which serve little real purpose. Under the banner of convenience, these services lock users into progressively higher-priced tiers and encourage them to adopt bells and whistles that they neither fully understand nor genuinely need. In practice, what might be achieved with a simple static site—sufficient for 98% of the cases—becomes a heavy, resource-intensive apparatus. From the user’s perspective, it often results in a confusing roster of underutilized add-ons, rationalized only by the sunk cost of “I’ve already paid for this, so I might as well use it.”

When organizations or individuals deploy heavy-duty frameworks—not just CMS, but modern web frameworks—in scenarios that hardly warrant their complexities, they ultimately hinge on specialized engineering expertise just to accomplish basic tasks. This dynamic erects an artificial barrier, making the open web feel more like a specialized domain than the universal resource it was intended to be. The issue here goes beyond a mere preference for minimalism; it concerns the principle that the web should remain inclusive, not exclusive to an elite class of developers steeped in complex toolchains. This reliance on overengineered solutions can deter newcomers or people who just want to write things down somewhere other than a diary, small businesses, and independent creators from establishing their own online presence

I find this situation unfortunate because the web belongs to everyone, not just software devs who know their way around it. As the web becomes more convoluted, everyday creators gravitate toward platforms that promise a personal “space” or blog, yet effectively enclose them inside a shared environment where metrics of attention, rather than genuine ownership, shape their online presence – at which point they’re not really writing or publishing for themselves, but for the social network they become trapped in.

Reversing this trend requires a shift in priorities. We cannot rely on corporate incentives alone to simplify the landscape, since large platforms are often driven by motives that do not emphasize empowering casual creators. Instead, we, as technologists, should endeavor to make static hosting and simpler site setups more accessible. Actually not even static sites, the web dev environment in general. We should promote a culture that values efficient use of resources, clarity in tooling, and reduced friction for anyone wanting to share anything. By doing so, we not only preserve what once made the internet such a diverse and interesting place, but also encourage more voices to claim a corner of the web that is their own.

A personal website need not be an engineering feat. One of the quickest ways to establish a personal site, without resorting to heavyweight frameworks or CMS, is to use a static site generator (SSG). An SSG is a tool that takes your source files (often written in a simple syntax called Markdown) and compiles them into fully-formed HTML, CSS, and minimal supporting assets. Because each page is generated ahead of time, you avoid the complexities of real-time rendering, database queries, or server-side code.

Why does this matter? It drastically reduces overhead and cuts hosting costs, resulting in faster page loads and easier maintenance. After choosing an SSG such as Hugo, Zola, or Jekyll, the core steps—buying a domain, configuring DNS, and setting up a small hosting pipeline—can usually be completed in under an hour. Once deployed, your static site will remain efficient and free of needless JavaScript that often clutters navigation and slows down browsing. Actually I can’t even be bothered to nagivate through modern javascript websites anymore; unless it’s documentation on some technology I am using, I usually can’t stand the bloat and lag and general lack of efficiency.

Markdown, in particular, is worth learning: it offers a clean, minimal way to format your writing without dealing with verbose HTML tags. You focus on the text content, and let the generator does the rest in regards to rendering it to html. If you ever need extra functionality (like forms, comments, or analytics), you can integrate lightweight third-party services without building an entire JavaScript framework around them. By keeping your website minimal and free from technical overkill, you retain genuine ownership over your content and avoid the performance pitfalls of modern, script-heavy sites.

LandChad is a great resource that walks you through on how to spin up a website (and you learn a great deal in the process!) in just a few simple steps that go over:

1. Domain name (name of your website).
2. Server (to put the contents of your site on).
3. Establishing a connection between your domain and server.
4. Setting up a webserver (software that serves your website to the visitor) on your server.