When it came time to rebuild Coral Orbit Studio (Formerly TGilbert Digital), I asked myself a simple question: why am I setting up a database and a massive PHP framework just to serve a portfolio and a few blog posts?
For years, the default for any new website has been to slap a CMS on it. WordPress, Webflow, and Ghost are fantastic tools. They are built so that clients who don't know how to code can safely update their about pages without breaking the site layout.
But here is the catch: I am the client. And I know how to code.
The Solo Dev Advantage
As an indie creator running a one-person studio, my needs are completely different from a corporate marketing team. I don't need user roles, complex editorial workflows, or WYSIWYG editors that generate bloated markup. If I want to write a journal entry, I just open my code editor, write the HTML, and push to GitHub.
By cutting out the middleman (the CMS), I get total control over the DOM. I chose to build the new Coral Orbit Studio entirely with static HTML, styled with Tailwind CSS, and sprinkled with vanilla JavaScript. The benefits were immediate.
Blazing Speed
Every time a user visits a traditional CMS-driven site, a server has to wake up, execute a script, query a database, compile a template, and then finally send the HTML. Even with aggressive caching, it's unnecessary overhead.
With a static site, the server just hands over a pre-built HTML file. That's it. No databases to query, no PHP to parse. The time to first byte (TTFB) is virtually zero. Combine that with highly optimized Tailwind CSS that strips out unused styles during the build, and the site loads almost instantaneously, even on sluggish mobile networks.
Dirt Cheap to Host
Running a backend means paying for compute time and database storage. As an indie creator, keeping overhead low is crucial for sustainability. Static files, on the other hand, can be hosted on Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) for pennies, or often for entirely free.
I don't have to worry about updating database versions, patching security vulnerabilities in plugins, or dealing with server outages. The code lives in a Git repository and gets deployed globally in seconds.
A Return to the Craft
Ultimately, stripping away the bloat felt like returning to the roots of web development. There is a certain purity in just writing HTML and CSS without fighting a framework or a database schema. It allows me to focus on what actually matters: the design, the content, and the user experience.
