Why I finally ditched WordPress for a static site

I've been using WordPress since its early days and to me, it's familiar and comfortable. It's always there when I needed it. And not to mention, it powers over 40% of the internet* for a reason.

But lately, I've been thinking that maybe it's time for a change as I don't need all the features that WordPress offers for my personal website.

Still love WordPress

Just to be clear, I'm not "breaking up" with WordPress. It's a great platform and it's still my go-to for client work. Clients are familiar with it and it's easy to use.

But for my own little corner of the web? I wanted something that didn't feel like I was managing a giant piece of machinery. I just wanted to write. No plugins to update, no database backups to worry about, no security patches that break everything on a Sunday night.

The search for a new home

While I was looking for a new home for my website, I went on a bit of a deep dive into the world of static site generators. I started with Jekyll, because it's widely known as the OG of static site generators (SSG). But it just didn't click with me. It felt like I was spending more time fighting the configuration with Ruby.

So I switched to Hugo. All the posts that I've read about how fast it was, it's true. It's like a rocket ship. But I'm not familiar with Go, and it felt a bit like trying to build a Lego set where the instructions were written in a language I only half-understood. Every time I wanted to do something a little custom, I felt like I was hitting a wall.

Then I found Eleventy (11ty)

And then, I found 11ty. It clicked with me immediately for some reason because building with it, it felt like I was back in the early days of the web - just me and some HTML, CSS and JavaScript. No magic, no hidden "blocks" I couldn't figure out how to move. Just a straightforward way to build a site that looks exactly how I want it to. It doesn't force me to use a specific language or a weird folder structure. It just works.

How it’s going

So far, I'm actually having fun again. Everything on here is a choice I made, not a default some plugin set for me.

I don't know exactly where I'm going with this website, but for the first time in a long time, I'm actually excited to find out. For now, I'm just enjoying the process, and transferring my old posts over.

Catch you on the next build! 🚀

* Accurate at the time of writing.