Why I diteched wordpress

Introduction

Hey there! Welcome to my blog! You know, it’s been a dream of mine for years to have a little corner of the internet to call my own. A place where I could share my artistic aspirations, dish out tutorials on mastering cool skills like 3D modeling and VFX, and just generally shared creative articles and news I found online. I initially hopped onto the WordPress train, like many others, but let me tell you why I eventually decided to jump off and board the Hugo express instead.

Why I Ditched WordPress

So, WordPress. It’s like the king of website building. Easy to use, tons of themes and plugins to enhance our site without needing to know a hint of code. I mean, it’s so popular that half the internet is powered by WordPress! But for me, there were a couple of deal-breakers.

Speed

First up, speed. You’d think with all its fame, WordPress would zip along like a Formula 1 car, but nope, my site was crawling from day one. I’m talking snail-paced, folks. Even with just a handful of posts, my page speed was giving me a big fat “D” grade. And that’s awful. If it’s slow from the start, what’s it gonna be like with a whole bunch of posts? Not a road I wanted to go down.

Security

And then there’s security. Every day, as I scroll through Chrome on my phone, bam, there’s another headline about a WordPress security breach. Sure, you can beef up security with plugins, but guess what? Those plugins are often the very doors those sneaky hackers try to pry open. One day, I got an alert from my hosting provider saying I’d been hacked. Me! With my measly three posts! That was my wake-up call.

Research of a Better Option

So, off I went on a quest to find something better. My first thought? Django. I have some coding, so why not whip up my own blog from scratch? Easy peasy, right? Wrong. Turns out, getting a Django project online was harder than I thought. Here I am, with a shared hosting plan, which is awesome for WordPress but not exactly ideal for other coding projects. Sure, I could opt for a VPS, but the setup seemed like a labyrinth, and without a guide, success wasn’t guaranteed. Especially considering my previous attempt at server managing … let’s just say it wasn’t a success story.

That’s when I realized I needed something simpler, something that could work with what I already had without the fear of diving into the complexities of VPS. And that’s how I stumbled upon static site generators

Hugo and Static Generator Websites

Talk about a game-changer! No databases, just good old HTML, CSS, and a sprinkle of magic. Suddenly, putting my site online was as easy as uploading some files. That’s my kind of simplicity.

Now, Hugo. This little gem caught my eye for a few reasons. First off, speed. I’m talking lightning-fast, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fast. In just ten minutes, I had a fully functional website ready to rock and roll. And get this, you don’t even need to be a coding wizard to use it. Sure, there’s a bit of command line magic and markdown know-how involved, but trust me, it’s a breeze.

But you know me (well not yet but you will ;), always overthinking and over complicating things . Instead of picking one of the pre-made themes and calling it a day, I decided to dive into the deep end and craft my own. Two weeks later, after more late nights than I care to admit, I had a theme that was uniquely mine. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Maybe not. But hey, I’m proud of what I’ve created, flaws and all.

Conclusion

And there you have it, folks. My journey from WordPress woes to Hugo happiness. Sure, there were bumps along the way, but isn’t that what makes the adventure worthwhile? With my new blog up and running, I feel like I’ve finally found my creative groove. So here’s to leaving the past behind and embracing whatever comes next. Let’s do this!