Hello, DEV!

Source: Dev.to

I’m Mat, a Solutions Architect who thinks in systems, writes about intentional living, and recently shipped my personal site: matbanik.info.
This is my first DEV post, so I figured I’d share the stack and lessons from building it. Maybe it’ll help someone starting their own portfolio.

Stack

Total hosting cost: $0 /month

I evaluated Next.js, Hugo, and 11ty before landing on Astro. Here’s why:

• Content Collections — Type‑safe Markdown with Zod schemas. My blog posts validate at build time.
• Zero JS by default — Ships HTML/CSS only. JavaScript is opt‑in per component.
• File‑based i18n — I just duplicate pages under /es/ for Spanish. No complex routing config.
• Island Architecture — Interactive components hydrate independently (though I barely needed this).

What I’d Do Differently

• Start with Pagefind earlier — client‑side search is a great UX addition.
• Use CSS Custom Properties from day one — makes theming and dark mode trivial.
• Set up CSP in report‑only mode first — I’m still validating before enforcing.