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Cover image for "Upgraded from Hexo to Gatsby v2" - Blog post by Muhammad Rivki about Experience

Upgraded from Hexo to Gatsby v2

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This is my first post on my personal blog, and I'm using different technology or stack again. Previously, I created a blog on this domain using Hexo, but now I'm trying to switch to something different. I hope the technology stack I'm using works well for me.

This time, I'll introduce what stack I'm using for building my blog and main website. Okay, let's start with my blog first.

History

Why do I keep changing the stack on my blog? Maybe I just wasn't satisfied with the previous options, so I switched to something new. Let me explain the history of the stacks I've used one by one.

Express + React
Express + React Stack

Express + React

I first tried to build a personal blog in late 2015 using the React.js stack for the client side and Express.js for the backend. I used REST for data handling. The backend was fairly simple, just handling blog data like fetching blog lists, adding articles, deleting, etc.

Because it required effort and I wasn't focused enough, with too much experimentation and maintenance overhead, I decided to switch and use a new platform.

Hubpress
Hubpress Logo

Hubpress

After trying to build my own blog platform and realizing it was hard to maintain, I decided to switch to an existing, complete platform. At that time, Hubpress.io was trending. It was very easy to use—just fork the repository and follow the configuration described by Hubpress. When I opened my Hubpress blog hosted on GitHub, it was still there here.

In my opinion, Hubpress's installation and configuration were not difficult, but customizing it was quite troublesome. Maybe because my knowledge was limited back then, I decided to try something else.

Hexo
Hexo Logo

Hexo

Next, I tried Hexo.io, a framework focused on building blogs using the Node.js stack. Hexo was fairly easy to learn and matched my needs at the time since I was learning Node.js.

Gatsby
Gatsby Logo

Gatsby

And finally, I tried using Gatsby, and the first thing I noticed was that it's fast with great developer experience. The documentation is comprehensive, and for those already familiar with React or component-based libraries, it's easy to adapt to.

Gatsby also uses GraphQL, so if you want to learn modern technology, Gatsby is a great choice. Community support is extensive and plugins are comprehensive. If you want to learn about it, please read the documentation.


For those wondering where my blog is hosted, I use free Firebase hosting. You can read the full documentation here if you want to try deploying your static website on Firebase

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