Background
This site is built using Astro, styled using Tailwind CSS hosted on Cloudflare Pages.
When I was looking to launch this site, I wanted to build from scratch. Nothing against the many offerings out there that let you focus on content but I wanted to have full control over the build process and the final output.
Part of the motivator was for the joy of web development, showcasing some of my capabilities but not to the point where I was spending more time on the build process than the content.
In short, I wanted:
- A site that uses Markdown or something similar for content
- A site that loads fast as it’s mostly serving static content
- A site that’s relatively easy to setup and deploy
- A site that once built, allows me to focus on content
Astro
Astro’s use of MDX for content won me over as it gives me the flexibility to write content in Markdown but also include interactive components if I wanted to.
It’s Islands Architecture is a great way to keep a site fast and lean by only loading what’s needed when it’s needed. I’ve long held the opinion that modern sites can easily become over-engineered and slow to load if you’re not careful with what you’re loading.
I also found it’s documentation to be extensive, easy to follow and a generous amount of example themes to start which allowed me to quickly get up and running.
Cloudflare Pages
Since discovering Cloudflare Pages, I’ve become a fan of how easy of a developer experience it is to deploy a site. I’ve used it for a few projects now and it’s been a breeze to setup and deploy.
The fact that it’s free for personal projects and has a generous free tier for other projects is a bonus without the worry of costs.