How to Quickly Build a Personal Website
GitHub Pages
I created my personal site using GitHub Pages, which offers free hosting for static sites.
GitHub Pages natively supports the following languages:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript/TypeScript (via Node.js)
- Ruby (via Jekyll)
- Go (via Hugo)
- Python (via MkDocs or Pelican)
Setup from Minimal Mistakes Template
- Visit mmistakes/mm-github-pages-starter
- Click “Use this template”
- Make the repository public
- Name it
<your-github-username>.github.io - Use VS Code to edit your site
Here is the full quickstart. The template uses Ruby and Jekyll which you will need to install on your computer to edit in VSCode.
Vercel + Vibe Coding
Vercel offers a free tier to host small sites built with JavaScript/TypeScript, Node.js, and Next.js. Their templates enable you to launch a site in minutes. Vercel also allows easy access to your codebase through VSCode and you will need to install Node.js. Next.js is a module published on npm (Node.js Package Manager) so it’s installed using “npm install”.
Instead of using their generic templates, I would recommend vibe coding, which is directing an AI to code for you. Lovable offers a free tier and creates very custom sites, but takes a while to master. The easiest option is using a personal website generator. Typefolio writes content for you based on your resume. Nextfolio deploys a less generic template to Vercel in seconds and directs you to write the text content of the site including images, math expressions, X and YouTube embeds, and Markdown.