Recommended tools

CMS

Now in 2022 there's a pool of CMS options. So picking a CMS that can scale with your site's growth is important.

Here was my criteria when selecting a CMS:

• Large community
• Great plugin library selection
• A killer WYSIWYG (this is a must!)
• REST API

Let's go over each one of these critieria items.

CMS: Large community

This is important because somewhere in your journey you're going to hit an obstacle that you need to look up the answer to.

With a good CMS community, finding answers in Google will make it easier to solve your problems.

CMS: Plugin libary

The open-source community is great. I don't want to personally spend every minute developing a new feature on the site when I got bigger fish to fry. Finding a plugin that can solve my problem allow me to move swiftly and worry about the important things when running this blog.

CMS: WYSIWYG editor

The CMS I choose MUST have a great WYSIWYG editor. Anyone that is going to spend some serious time writing content needs a grade A WYSIWYG editor.

The last 4 years, I've spent 90% of my time in the WYSIWYG editor.

CMS: REST API

An intuitive REST API was another important feature for my CMS because it will serve as a headless CMS for linguinecode.com.

Blogging platform of choice: WordPress

WordPress is my #1 recommendation as blogging platform.

The reason WordPress is my top choice is because it's an all aroung great blogging platform.

WordPress has a large community, has a minimal effort for installation and setup, has a very intuitive interface, a great plugin library and WYSIWYG editor.

Since starting this site, I've spend 90% of my time in the WYSIWYG. Having a great writing experience has been a critical factor to the success of this site.

Besides it being a great CMS platform, it provides an intuitive REST API, which I use myself, to fetch post and data.

CMS plugins

Advanced Custom Fields

The ACF plugin is a must for my WordPress site. ACF allows me to add custom fields to my pages or blog articles.

Front-end tools

To render the UI of the site, I wanted to use Node.js, React with TypeScript.

React makes a great templating tool, and Node.js is a great proxy, and performant server. I also like the idea of of using JavaScript in the front-end and the back-end.

Next.js

Next.js is my go to React framework. It provides me a fantastic developer expereince, TypeScript support, great bundling, and no config is needed.

I use Next.js to make API calls to my WordPress REST API, and render the content to my readers.

Hosting services

CMS hosting

Over the last 7 years, I've tested different hosting providers, and here are the 2 hosting providers I recommend depending on where your site traffic is.

For new sites: Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)

Bluehost is a great platform for new website getting under 100,000 pageviews per month.Bluehost has a great user interface, an awesome customer support team, and their plans are CHEAP.

You get all that for just the starting price of $3.95/mo (49.43% off). You get more perks depending on the tier your choose. And if you click the link below the other tiers can go up to 63% off.

Click to get $3.95/mo discount.

For established sites: WPX (www.wpx.net)

I recommend WPX for established sites or for those who want grade A fast hosting.

The price is very fair for established sites. WPEngine and Pantheon.io cost WAY more than WPX. If you're site is new, I recommend Bluehost as it's way cheaper.

Here's why I recommend WPX:

• Inexpensive for large, established websites.
• Really great server response times.
• Clean and easy to use interface
• Their customer support is top notch.

Click to get WPX.

now --prod