Git commit -m "Publish first blog post"
The first thing I had to look up when I decided to start this blog was ‘What do people use to build their blogs in 2025?’
I had a few requirements for the blogging framework I wanted to use:
- Free and open source - To own my content, be able to self-host and not be locked into a platform, as well as avoid monthly fees.
- Customizable - To have full control over the look and feel of the blog.
- Markdown support - To write my posts in markdown, making the transition from personal notes to blog posts seamless.
- Developer friendly - To be able to maintain a clean codebase.
- Version control - To have my content under version control to track changes over time.
These are the options I considered:
- Hugo - Great option for static sites, Used it in the past.
- Astro - Supports Markdown natively, modern UI framework, and has a great developer experience. Fast.
- Gatsby - React-based with markdown support through plugins. Offers lots of customization options.
- Wordpress - While I’ve used Wordpress in the past and it’s a good option, I wanted more control over the look and feel of the blog.
I decided to go with Astro because it met all my requirements, and I liked the developer experience. I also appreciated that it was a modern framework with optional React support.
I’m still getting used to Astro, but I’m overall happy with the choice.