Introduction

In 2012, I embarked on my website journey with www.kailashvetal.com. Over the course of four years, I delved into various technologies to host my portfolio. In this article, I’ll narrate my journey from starting with a WordPress website, transitioning to a static website, experimenting with a Ghost blog, and ultimately returning to WordPress.

Why Move Away from WordPress?

In the past decade, numerous new technologies have emerged, each with its own perks and suitability for my needs. From the outset, I prioritized three main criteria:

1. Economical: Keeping costs below $30.
2. Flexibility: Ensuring flexibility in layout and themes.
3. Performance: Maintaining decent performance for the site.

However, I encountered difficulties with WordPress, particularly in achieving satisfactory performance on my shared host, Bluehost. Additionally, the process of creating posts using the visual editor was cumbersome. Emerging tools like Jekyll began addressing these issues.

Exploring Other Options

I embarked on a journey to recreate my portfolio using various technologies, including:

• Jekyll
• Netlify + Gatsby
• Netlify + Gatsby + Novela
• Netlify + Gatsby + Strapi
• Netlify + Firebase
• Jekyll + GitHub Pages
• Ghost
• Digitalpress
• Ghost Blog + Gatsby + Google Hosting (Firebase)
• Ghost Blog + Gatsby + GitHub Pages
• Publii
• Mobirise
• Notion

Though I explored numerous tools, none fully met my requirements.

Back to WordPress

After extensive exploration and experimentation, I ultimately decided to return to WordPress for my blog. The main reasons behind this decision were:

• Usability: WordPress remains free, open-source, and continuously improved over the last decade. While Ghost was a competitor, it lacked the flexibility I desired. Additionally, automating blog creation using Markdown files proved challenging with the Ghost platform.
• Static Websites: While static site generators offered advantages, there was always a risk of the framework becoming outdated. Not all frameworks provided the flexibility I needed.
• Professional Site Builders: Platforms like Weebly and Squarespace, or managed WordPress solutions, were considered. However, subscription models posed a risk of losing control to profit-oriented organizations.

Thus, after ten years of trial and error, I’m rebuilding my Webfolio on WordPress once again.

What About Old Data?

I’ll recreate the data by self-hosting the old website and manually transferring the data instead of relying on automated migration tools.