In today’s digital landscape, having a personal website is more than just an online presence—it’s a portfolio, a blog, and a hub for your professional identity. After using various platforms and frameworks over the years, I’ve settled on Jekyll for my personal site, and in this post, I’ll explain why it’s an excellent choice for developers.

Why Jekyll?

Jekyll is a static site generator that strikes the perfect balance between simplicity and flexibility. Here are some key advantages:

1. Speed and Security

Static sites are inherently fast and secure. With no database or server-side processing needed, Jekyll sites load quickly and have a minimal attack surface. This means:

  • Lightning-fast page loads
  • No database vulnerabilities to worry about
  • Lower hosting costs (or even free hosting with GitHub Pages)

2. Developer-Friendly Workflow

As a developer, I appreciate Jekyll’s workflow:

# Install Jekyll
gem install jekyll bundler

# Create a new site
jekyll new my-awesome-site

# Serve locally with live reload
bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload

The ability to work with plain text files, use my favorite code editor, and leverage Git for version control makes the development process smooth and enjoyable.

3. Markdown-Based Content

Writing content in Markdown is a joy. It’s:

  • Clean and distraction-free
  • Easy to learn and use
  • Portable across different platforms
  • Great for including code snippets with syntax highlighting

Custom Theming

While Jekyll comes with a default theme, creating a custom theme allows for a truly personalized site. The theme system is based on Liquid templates, which provide a good balance of simplicity and power.

For my site redesign, I focused on:

  • A dark coding theme that reflects my developer identity
  • Responsive design that works across all devices
  • Fast loading times with minimal JavaScript
  • Clean typography for optimal readability

Content Organization

Jekyll’s content model makes it easy to organize different types of content:

  • Blog posts: Chronologically organized articles
  • Project pages: Showcase for my development work
  • Photography gallery: Portfolio of my best photos
  • Static pages: About me, contact info, etc.

By using collections, I can organize related content and define custom layouts for each type.

Deployment and Hosting

One of Jekyll’s biggest advantages is its seamless integration with GitHub Pages:

  1. Push your Jekyll site to a GitHub repository
  2. Enable GitHub Pages in the repository settings
  3. Your site is live at yourusername.github.io

This eliminates the need for separate hosting services and simplifies the deployment process. Every time you push changes to your repository, the site is automatically rebuilt and deployed.

Conclusion

Jekyll may not be the newest or flashiest web technology, but it excels at what it’s designed to do: create fast, simple, and elegant static websites. For developers and content creators who value simplicity, control, and performance, Jekyll remains an excellent choice in 2023.

Have you used Jekyll for your personal site? What has your experience been? Let me know in the comments or reach out on social media!