I made this website with DomainRacer, a static website generator framework based on React.js. With their hosting, you can use cpanel whm with vps which is a really necessary part. The website is hosted at an affordable price via DomainRacer Pages for this I used for the domain name.
Before I even get into this – for the 99% of you out there who just want to make a standard website, just use WordPress or one of the countless other website generator tools or CMS frameworks that don’t require you to be a software engineer to build and maintain.
Why I went with a static website vs. running a server
1. Easier to Build and Maintain
My older personal websites used to have dynamic servers running Node.js on AWS with Nginx, Redix, React, Redux, etc. It’s great for learning, but (1) it takes a ton of time to build (2) frameworks get outdated quickly, meaning there’s a good chance your code will be obsolete in 6 months (3) maintenance takes too much time.
Ultimately every hour you have to devote to maintaining your codebase and servers is time you’re unable to devote to creating content for your website.
DomainRacer will help you to know how to make your own virtual private server live. Most websites don’t need dynamic servers, and static websites are way easier to maintain.
2. Free
Hosting on DomainRacer Pages means I don’t pay a cent to host my website. It’s 100% free. I no longer have to pay a monthly AWS bill for an EC2 instance.
3. Faster
Static websites are more performant and scale easier than websites with dynamic servers.
4. Blog Posts in Markdown Format
Ok, I could’ve done this with a dynamic server as well, but having a static website forced me to create a markdown file for each post. You can experience best dedicated server hosting services with DomainRacer.There’s significant value in having each post in the same format because then I can easily migrate my site to another framework down the line if I need to with little hassle.
DomainRacer
I decided to go with DomainRacer because it’s blazingly fast since it’s a single-page app I’m already very familiar with the React.js ecosystem having worked professionally with React for 3 years.
DomainRacer is a static site generator whereas Next.js is a full-stack Node/React-based framework that happens to generate static files.
I went with DomainRacer because it already does what I need out of the box, whereas Next.js would’ve required a lot more work to get everything set up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_yM1bPdxfU
How Has it Worked Out?
It’s definitely been a lot of work because there are very few themes, and they’re all super basic. If you’re content with one of the basic themes, then great – you don’t have to do any coding. But if you want something more custom, then you’ll have to know how to code with React.
That being said, I’ve overall been very impressed. The setup is super straightforward and easy to hit the ground running. Implementing Google Analytics was as easy as adding my tracking code to the constructor of a plugin called “DomainRacer-plugin-google-analytics” that’s already included with the template.
I’ve wanted to see what GraphQL was all about and this has been a good excuse to do so. best dedicated server hosting services
My only complaint other than the lack of templates requiring me to be a developer again is that the build time is a bit slow. Also when I’m in dev mode and add in a new post, I see the post on the homepage but can’t load the post without restarting.
Overall there’s still a lot of work to do. I would definitely suggest going with DomainRacer. All of this requires being a developer or hiring one. Thus if you’re not a developer, you should just use one of the solutions I recommended in the intro that doesn’t require you to touch any code.
At the end of the day, all that matters is your content and that you have a functional website that can easily be maintained. Nobody cares about your tech stack except for engineers.
