Making a Blog: Static Site Generator or WordPress?

I’m writing this before setting up the actual blog.

I searched Hacker News for opinions on the best solution for a blog. I found this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20796729

The consensus seems split between WordPress and static site generators like Jekyll and Hugo.

I took a look at BlueHost, which claims to offer cheap managed WordPress hosting for $3/mo.

I took a look at Jekyll as well.

WordPress would be nice because it would allow me to spend most of my time writing. It also offers a lot of dynamic features that I can’t get on a static site like comments, letting users sign up for a newsletter, and more.

On the other hand, I’m really tempted to go with a static site because I love designing websites by hand and putting my own style into them.

It’s tempting to play around with making a simple static site for a few hours, and if I can get it to look decent I’ll try hosting it on Netlify. If I’m not happy with it maybe I’ll fall back to hosted WordPress.

Looking at the costs though, I realize all the hosted WP sites charge an introductory rate, and then increase that rate by about 5x after the first subscription period. For example, BlueHost offers $3/mo for the first year, but afterwards it’s $15/mo. Based on that alone, I’m going to go with Hugo on Netlify. It’ll be free, and I already have a domain.

And voila!

If you’re reading this, you’ll see that I chose something. And if you look at the footer of this page, you’ll see what that something is! Hugo with the Cupper theme, and hopefully deployed by Netlify. At the time of writing though, it’s still just hosted locally while I familiarize myself with Hugo. Part 2 will be out before you even read this!