You know, I've been using the Bitbucket & Netlify ecosystem for my Wild Mind[1] website for a little over a year. I moved from a self-install of WordPress on Digital Ocean to the Victor Hugo[2] boilerplate and then used my own theme. It's been an absolute joy to build with and I've actually been excited to continue to write because the friction to doing so is largely gone. Really can't recommend Netlify or Hugo enough.
Beautiful! I've been loving Hugo for a while now, using it for a neighborhood organization, but I've yet to find a non-technical front-end for managing the content. I built this great thing but no-one else in the non-profit can contribute because they (understandably) don't want to or can't take the time to learn Markdown. Have you (or anyone) found a Hugo friendly front end?
I think even using WordPress.com would be considered "hosting your own" in this context.
I think most of the time, "host your own" means you can do more or less whatever you want with your site. Rather than putting your content somewhere like medium or Facebook or Instagram where you are in a closed and controlled system.
You can receive form submissions, which is very nice for some websites. You can also bundle assets and minify CSS, JS, etc. You can set header rules and cache settings. All of this is not possible with Github as far as I know.
idk if GH pages has added this, but Netlify lets you determine your build command and environment for deployments. You can also have different deployments per branch with easy rollback functionality. In short, its built for this exact problem where GH pages is a tacked on feature for repos.
This is a nice write-up, and it's great that it includes instructions for things like creating a GitLab account, which may be unfamiliar for non-developers.
But if you're going to maintain a blog as a set of markdown files, it'a worth considering using Netlify CMS (a web-based CMS for managing markdown files in a git repo).
This is especially the case if you don't use a command line or git often, e.g. if you're not a developer or sysadmin.
A good starter repo for a blog based on Gatsby, git and Netlify CMS:
Well Netlify does give you an option to add custom headers, redirects etc. Add CDN and cache busting along with branch deploys, that's something you cannot do with gitlab pages or github pages.
Also github pages takes a long time to get live for the first time (at least it did for me).
Unfortunately, the DNS provider (dns1) does not expose DNS over IPv6. Therefore your site is exposed over IPv6 by Netlify, but it will not be reachable by a (probably non-existant) IPv6-only client.
My mother for example does this. She’s writing her travel blog in Botswana, where internet connectivity is not a given and often spotty. She uses middleman as static site generator, hosted on an S3 bucket. That gives her the option to write the post, check it, commit and upload it. If the push doesn’t go through, try again (another day or hour sometimes). Try doing that with hosted wordpress.
We do it for our company website. Markdown makes it easy to have a pull-request-based workflow for reviews. It’s neat and uses the tools we as developers are used to. Another advantage is that the end result is static pages. We can literally host them anywhere, though we’re currently using netlify for convenience. They don’t need security patches either.
Does that make it superior to hosted WordPress? For our needs: yes. For other people’s needs? Don’t know.
I think the appeal is that you have complete control over your site/blog and should you choose to somehow monetise the content, e.g., adding singups and subscriptions to premium content or even ads, you can have complete control. With a combination like this you start at 0$/m for ever (or at least until Netlify stops offering free services) and take it from there. I probably won't do this for a travel-blog but its nice to have the choice and to be honest I wanted to try out a combination of the tech mentioned above and see how far I can take it for 0$.
I still have an old blog on Wordpress (http://pyscience.wordpress.com) and its done very well but I never liked the fact that Wordpress just sticks ads wherever it wants to unless I get the premium subscription.
For WordPress, I’ve to be always worried that it might go down unless hosted with a good dedicated provider. Unless it is complex and I want to do lots of things besides just writing/blogging, I try to choose something static than WordPress.
For the many many static sites that I throw out with either Jekyll or just plain HTML/CSS/JS, I know that once I drop them to something like S3 + CloudFront fronted by Cloudflare, it will very very unlikely go down.
They all have their time, places and circumstances.
Please avoid "why would you do X?" when discussing some tool or workflow. It's needlessly confrontational (and through that, restrictive of diversity, as different groups can have different needs and preferences), devoid of information (it doesn't explain the converse, why you shouldn't do X), and lacking in imagination (establishes tradition as a hard principle, and not just a guideline that can be broken depending on the context).
It's good to want to know why some people want to do X, but try to ask it in a way that doesn't make a negative assumption about the people taking a certain approach.
I wrote my own static page generator [1] because it feels easier to write in markdown in Emacs and less worries about updates/security. I've also managed to keep a continues stream of output for close to 2 months :-) [2]
That is pretty cheap ($10/year with own domain), but I pay $12/year for a full-blown VPS and it is pretty stable (would not use it if my life depended on it though but it is more stable then my Comcast Internet service)... found it here: https://www.lowendstock.com/
I've hosted several small apps with Netlify, and I recently setup my first blog/brochure type site using Netlify CMS. It's awkward, but it's amazing to me what you can accomplish with a (free) build server, a couple small 3p services, and a CDN with so little effort.
I guess this is might be easier to set up but you could get something similar on AWS by posting to an S3 bucket and putting pages into CloudFront CDN. Adding CodeCommit could automate deployment for $1/month or you could write a script to publish new pages for free.
You’ve just reinvented netlify without the polish. But the polish is what makes it great. I’ve moved a few websites off S3 to netlify and the level of integration they offer is great. DNS, TLS certs via let’s encrypt, preview builds for PRs, ..., that’s exactly what I’m willing to pay for. And I know that if they make a business move I don’t like, I can always move off again. No lock-in except the polish.
just started using netlify after making my own tool that did something similar and being a holdout for awhile. it was a smooth experience and i am now a happy user. put up a mortgage calculator app: https://www.mortgagecalculator.io/
[+] [-] wildmindwriting|6 years ago|reply
[1]: https://www.wildmind.io
[2]: https://github.com/netlify-templates/victor-hugo
Edit: formatting
[+] [-] indigodaddy|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] giglamesh|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomcam|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] theNJR|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lone_haxx0r|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] egman_ekki|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ilaksh|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jjeaff|6 years ago|reply
I think most of the time, "host your own" means you can do more or less whatever you want with your site. Rather than putting your content somewhere like medium or Facebook or Instagram where you are in a closed and controlled system.
[+] [-] omerh|6 years ago|reply
https://blog.omerh.me/post/2019/05/17/first_post/
[+] [-] xondono|6 years ago|reply
https://xaviondono.com/
Now I just need to start writing
[+] [-] cimnine|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] phillc73|6 years ago|reply
I'm using Rstudio's Distill framework[2], writing RMarkdown, hosting on Gitlab and publishing on Netlify.
Netlify is dead simple to setup, even the domain name and DNS re-direction. I'm also using one of their contact forms.
[1] https://goodinplaces.net/
[2] https://rstudio.github.io/distill/
[+] [-] als0|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deftturtle|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anater|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rahimnathwani|6 years ago|reply
But if you're going to maintain a blog as a set of markdown files, it'a worth considering using Netlify CMS (a web-based CMS for managing markdown files in a git repo).
This is especially the case if you don't use a command line or git often, e.g. if you're not a developer or sysadmin.
A good starter repo for a blog based on Gatsby, git and Netlify CMS:
https://github.com/alxshelepenok/gatsby-starter-lumen
I used the above for my blog, with only minor changes:
https://www.encona.com/
[+] [-] neon_me|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gcells|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] acd|6 years ago|reply
https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/
Deploy a Blog site with Gitlab pages and Cloudflare https://blog.zenggyu.com/en/post/2019-02-08/deploying-a-blog...
[+] [-] noja|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pierreprinetti|6 years ago|reply
However:
> The site will have free TLS and IPv6
Unfortunately, the DNS provider (dns1) does not expose DNS over IPv6. Therefore your site is exposed over IPv6 by Netlify, but it will not be reachable by a (probably non-existant) IPv6-only client.
Try:
dig AAAA dns1.p04.nsone.net
[+] [-] indigodaddy|6 years ago|reply
bash-4.4$ dig @dns1.p04.nsone.net AAAA brainfood.xyz +short 2604:a880:400:d1::8b0:4001
[+] [-] cimnine|6 years ago|reply
But thanks for pointing this out!
[+] [-] lixtra|6 years ago|reply
EDIT: Feel free to downvote but please answer. TFA does not answer it.
[+] [-] Xylakant|6 years ago|reply
We do it for our company website. Markdown makes it easy to have a pull-request-based workflow for reviews. It’s neat and uses the tools we as developers are used to. Another advantage is that the end result is static pages. We can literally host them anywhere, though we’re currently using netlify for convenience. They don’t need security patches either.
Does that make it superior to hosted WordPress? For our needs: yes. For other people’s needs? Don’t know.
[+] [-] somada141|6 years ago|reply
I think the appeal is that you have complete control over your site/blog and should you choose to somehow monetise the content, e.g., adding singups and subscriptions to premium content or even ads, you can have complete control. With a combination like this you start at 0$/m for ever (or at least until Netlify stops offering free services) and take it from there. I probably won't do this for a travel-blog but its nice to have the choice and to be honest I wanted to try out a combination of the tech mentioned above and see how far I can take it for 0$.
I still have an old blog on Wordpress (http://pyscience.wordpress.com) and its done very well but I never liked the fact that Wordpress just sticks ads wherever it wants to unless I get the premium subscription.
[+] [-] skilled|6 years ago|reply
WordPress is good, but some see it as overkill.
[+] [-] indigodaddy|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scruffyherder|6 years ago|reply
Might as well be a Facebook page.
Why is the youth so adverse to owning their own data?
[+] [-] Brajeshwar|6 years ago|reply
For the many many static sites that I throw out with either Jekyll or just plain HTML/CSS/JS, I know that once I drop them to something like S3 + CloudFront fronted by Cloudflare, it will very very unlikely go down.
They all have their time, places and circumstances.
[+] [-] dictum|6 years ago|reply
It's good to want to know why some people want to do X, but try to ask it in a way that doesn't make a negative assumption about the people taking a certain approach.
[+] [-] snicker7|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jjjbokma|6 years ago|reply
[1] https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog [2] http://plurrrr.com/
[+] [-] cs02rm0|6 years ago|reply
This is free (domain aside), doesn't require managing upgrades and presumably has some redundancy.
[+] [-] dickeytk|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tarasmatsyk|6 years ago|reply
Here is my review of popular static site generators plus hosting: https://medium.com/@tarasmatsyk/how-to-kick-off-a-blog-in-2-...
[+] [-] meeb|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OrgNet|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skinnyarms|6 years ago|reply
Great dev experience, great user experience.
[+] [-] greenyouse|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Xylakant|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jimmyislive|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] leverage_55|6 years ago|reply
https://homemadegrow.com
[+] [-] tkjef|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jjmiv|6 years ago|reply
I use it with github. wanted to use github pages but was tired with having to use submodules in order for it to recognize the docs folder.
[+] [-] tchaffee|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] indigodaddy|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mothsonasloth|6 years ago|reply
Only last week I had to figure out why a file called btmp in /var/log was so huge.
Then I discovered fail2ban