Eleventy. It’s a static site generator that’s super stable, they take backwards compatibility very seriously so you can count on it for a long time. It’s lightweight so you don’t have to install a million dependencies to get it working, and it’s the only one of the big SSG projects that’s independently funded so they’re not chasing VC-backed hyper growth.
Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?
91–100 of 137 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haven’t tried Astro myself, but AFAICT it’s compatible with AWS Amplify – which in my book is a huge plus. The Amplify hosting platform is very easy to get started with. I use it with Hugo, it’s super-convenient, IMO. https://docs.astro.build/en/guides/deploy/aws/
How much are you getting charged each month for Amplify?
My traffic is minuscule, so for two Hugo blogs it’s something like $1/month.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?
#93Eleventy. It’s a static site generator that’s super stable, they take backwards compatibility very seriously so you can count on it for a long time. It’s lightweight so you don’t have to install a million dependencies to get it working, and it’s the only one of the big SSG projects that’s independently funded so they’re not chasing VC-backed hyper growth. https://www.11ty.dev/
In 2024 the ONLY reasonable way to keep a blog is your own personal site. EVERYTHING else will eventually get sold or turn to crap when they need to monetize.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?
#94If you don’t want to self-host then Ghost or wordpress.com might be worth checking out.
Ghost has a solid self hosting story as well. Upgrading is easy, changing and updating themes isn’t hard, and you don’t need many resources to run it.
Out of curiosity, is there any specific hosting provider you would recommend for Ghost? For example, would DigitalOcean suffice?
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?
#95Jekyll, hosted on github pages is what I use
Currently using a theme from here https://jekyll-themes.com/free
When I'm travelling I could just edit the markdown/upload photos on the phone browser
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?
#96Github pages + HTML/CSS. Maybe with a markdown converter.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?
#97You could probably get far with Wordpress. Why? Because if you're technical you can navigate the tricky setup well, and it's made in a way to support a lot of things for non-technical people. Of course you gotta get it running (or pay people like WP Engine), but you're going to end up with a thing that will work. That or dev.to is a good spot I think.
I run a Wordpress instance on my home server. An extract job regularly exports a static version of the site. I host it on a DO droplet with a bunch of other static websites.
This is really an underrated option. WordPress is amazingly powerful, and if you don't have any interest in coding the layout and stuff yourself, there is an abundance of pre-written stuff that you can buy for cheap, and there's plenty of options that are free as well.
I definitely wouldn't use WordPress to serve the site permanently though. It is just a lot of maintenance, a huge security footprint, and overall something that you have to routinely think about.
Where The Sweet spot is, is using WordPress to manage the content and define the layout and everything, but then exporting the site into a static form which you can then host with nginx or something similar. This is really a killer setup that is underrated.
Note: do as I say, not as I do. I did this setup for one site, but I don't do it anymore and won't, mainly for probably silly reasons: I really dislike the WordPress ecosystem, and while there are phenomenal developers who are involved in WordPress and who work on it, the vast majority produce hacked together code that barely works. Everyone is trying to make a business out of it, so it's the most highly commercialized framework I've ever seen. That sort of thing really repulses me, which is why I don't use it. Technically, it is the most capable and mature solution. Fortunately, when it comes to personal projects and sites, I can be petty and impractical about what technologies I choose :-D
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?
#98Use a Static Site Generator like [Hugo](https://gohugo.io) and use GitHub pages or even Netlify which allows for CI/CD + Custom Domain with HTTPS/SSL certificates.
I've been using Hugo + Netlify combination for more than 4 years now and It's a breeze.
If you want to go with a full no-code solution, I'd recommend [feather.so](https://feather.so/) (I haven't used personally but heard good things about it in the past)
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?
#99Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to author blogs in 2024?
#100You could probably get far with Wordpress. Why? Because if you're technical you can navigate the tricky setup well, and it's made in a way to support a lot of things for non-technical people. Of course you gotta get it running (or pay people like WP Engine), but you're going to end up with a thing that will work. That or dev.to is a good spot I think.
I run a Wordpress instance on my home server. An extract job regularly exports a static version of the site. I host it on a DO droplet with a bunch of other static websites.
What's a good way to extract a static version? I currently use a plug-in that claims to create static pages, but the management is still on Wordpress. Is that good enough?
Would the static pages extracted support commenting?
Thanks.