I’ve been wanting to put together a personal website for a while — something simple to share a bit about me, maybe share some random things that I thought were significant or cool at the time. At first, I considered using a traditional web framework, but I quickly realized I didn’t have any server-side logic or sensitive data to hide. Just text and some links. So why overcomplicate it?
 

That’s when I decided to go static.
 

Static websites are fast, secure, and easy to host. Since all the content is pre-built and doesn’t require a backend server, there’s way less that can go wrong. After a bit of research, I landed on Hugo, a static site generator that’s super fast and easy to work with.
 

I paired it with Decap CMS, which lets me edit content from a nice browser-based UI anywhere. This also allows non technical users to edit content without having to know how to code.
 

Finally for hosting and authentication, I used GitLab Pages along with GitLab’s built-in PKCE OAuth flow, which let me set everything up for free, with a smooth login and editing experience.
 

Now I’ve got a fully hosted personal website that’s fast, secure, costs nothing, and I can update it anytime from a clean web interface.
 

If your site doesn’t need to be dynamic, static is the way to go.