What’s the best way to create a static website?

Watch the video below to learn more about these key points.

1. Traditional website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Wordpress have poor page performance.

2. They lock you into using their system, so if you ever want to create a more custom website, it’s hard (or impossible) to export your website and move it somewhere else.

3. The free versions have watermarks and will require a monthly subscription to actually have a properly branded website.

The solution should solve all three of these pain points.

Performance, flexibility, and complete ownership from the beginning of your project.

How to set this up:

1. Create a github account
2. Create a builder.io account
3. Create a digital ocean account
4. Then follow the steps below.

Answer the account creation questions for each account however you like. Setting up everything else should take less than an hour!

Github Setup:

1. Go to this link: https://github.com/willgu29/StaticWebsiteBuider
2. Click “Fork”

3. Create Fork (name it whatever you like)

There’s a very small amount of code that connects to builder.io, but this is also what allows you to develop your application further with a hired developer if needed since the foundation of this project is code and not a website builder.

Builder.io Setup:

1. Create a page model called “Page”
2. Add 3 fields to it:
   • Title as Text
   • Description as Long text
   • Image as Url
3. Make sure the preview url is set to https://preview.builder.codes?model=page

Digital Ocean Setup:

1. Follow the instructions on the video.

---

Total Cost / What You Get:

1. Cost of Domain name (~$12/yr)
2. AFTER 10k/monthly views to your website, $19/mo for up to 100k views. (See builder.io pricing)
3. Everything else included for free.
   • Great performance
   • Visual editing
   • Custom code
   • Complete ownership

Performance Audit:

Performance audits done using https://pagespeed.web.dev/ and home page of relevant website.

Compared to Wix and/or Squarespace / others:

Which will cost you ~$20/mo+ to have a basic website setup without watermarks.

Example Wix Site Performance:

Example Squarespace Site Performance:

All this being said, website builders can be great if there are out of the box features that they have available that you’re website will likely have since custom code takes time and investment to build out.

But… If you know your website will need to be more customized in the future, and you want to start lean and without minimal upfront cost, it’s better to avoid site builders at the start and go this route instead!

---

Have any questions about the above?

As always, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] with any questions or if you need help extending the features of this setup.

---