I’m currently working on building my web developer portfolio. Using purely HTML, CSS, and JS I’ve redone my dad’s small business website and put it on the web and have created my portfolio website (not live yet).
I’m about to start creating my mom’s business website and I’m wondering if I should change my method of development. Should I use a CMS like Wordpress or continue to develop using the basic building methods? Just for some context, it will be a rather small website with no user authentication or blog or anything like that.
If you’re a working web developer I would be interested in hearing what you use and your workflow.
I mean, there are many ways to do something in our “world”, but both have advantages and disadvantages.
For a CMS:
You can easily add many features by just installing a plugin | This is a disadvantage too, since it adds load time to your site.
WordPress can help a lot with SEO (search engine optimization) by using plugins.
A CMS can be dangerous if there are users involved (the content they upload, for example). This is, of course, a benefit too, since it will allow you to have users, whereas having users on a static site is a problem (or, at least, lengthy to develop).
You can transform a CMS into an Online Shop, easily. A static website doesn’t allow you to do this.
It may be hard to create a Single Page App for CMS. It’s possible, don’t get me wrong, but in the end it gets too complex, IMHO.
A static website:
Your website will be as fast as the speed of light (it’s an exaggeration, but it will be fast ).
You will not have to learn the complexities of a CMS. WordPress, as easy to learn as it can be, it’s still time consuming to learn. You could skip the learning time by purchasing a theme, but I assume it’s not the idea (although one may argue that you could use a free theme + something like Elementor or Visual Composer).
I may be wrong, but I don’t know of any tools for static websites that help You with SEO. I know there are tools that help you with any site, but not something “integrated” (like, for example, generating facebook, google or twitter previews–Yoast SEO plugin).
You can easily create a Single Page App.
The contact form can be a problem. You’ll need a backend service to deliver the mails, which would mean You have to program it or use an external service (sendgrid.com is one I’ve used).
Now, no matter what You choose in the end, be sure to use something like cloudflare.com, which will protect your website from DoS (Denial of Service) attacks, plus You’ll be managing the DNS from one place (for free), which means less downtime (or none at all) whenever you have to switch a hosting.
Please, don’t take this as a fact. It’s just my opinion mixed with some knowledge .
Forgot to add a very good reason to use a CMS or a static website (or any other stack of technologies): learning.
If You have only programmed static websites (HTML + CSS + JavaScript) but learning to use a CMS seems interesting to You, then do it ! The same applies for the other way around.
Hey @skaparate, thanks for your insightful and detailed response! I think I’m going to go with Wordpress for the sake of learning it :). Appreciate it!
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