Moving my blog from WordPress to Jekyll - 3 reasons why
I plan to turn my blog into a static site using Jekyll.
Here’s why:
1. Cheaper hosting (or Free)
With WordPress, I’m tied to paid hosting providers like SiteGround or Hostinger, and the recurring yearly cost adds up. But with a static site, my entire blog lives as a simple files on Github for free. From there I can publish it using GitHub Pages or Netlify at no cost.
Yes, they do have paid plans, but my site is still small, and I don’t need any premium features yet. For now, this setup is basically free.
2. Sitting in the developer’s seat
Since I like learning web technologies anyway, I might as well use them to build my own site. Running a static site generator like Jekyll pushes me to understand the fundementals of the web, like:
- Command Line
- Git
- File structure
- Markdown
- Deployment pipelines
- HTML, CSS, JavaScript
so it’s building and learning at the same time.
3. Long-lasting and Portable
Nothing in this world lasts forever, but between WordPress sites and static sites, the latter simply have a higher chance of surviving long-term.
Why?
A static site built with Jekyll (or any static site generator) is just files. WorddPress, by default, needs a database + PHP + plugins + active hosting + updates.
Even when I’m gone, my Jekyll blog can still sit quietly on GitHub, and anyone can rebuild it. Whereas for WordPress, if a hosting plan expires, the database becomes inaccessible which results posts or writings being gone.
And because my site is just a folder of files, I can move it anywhere - Github Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, hosting providers, or even my own remote server. There’s no lock-in. No heavy content management system(CMS) pulling me in one direction.
Conclusion
I still like WordPress, and for many types of websites, it’s absolutely the right tool. But for my personal blog, I want something simple, lightweight, portable, and under my full control. Static site generator like Jekyll seems like the right choice.