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I am going to create a personal website. I am a software engineer with a good amount of experience in web development, so I can use any frameworks / languages at my disposal.

I wish to have a balance between flexibility and not having to re-invent the wheel. Wordpress would be too plug and play, but straight HTML is a waste of time, so I am looking for something in the middle.

I like the look of Django, and I have a little experience developing with it, so it would save some time.

There won't be too much dynamic content, but I would likely want to include a blog and possibly other features.

What framework would you recommend?

To add some details, here is what I plan to present in my website:

  • Resume
  • Personal projects
  • Hobbies
  • Blog
  • Contracting / coaching services offered
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    Welcome to Software Recommendations, James! This site does not answer whether a given X matches your needs – but recommends you software that does. I've adjusted your question accordingly. If someone thinks Django would be a good choice, you should get an answer saying so and giving reasons. If not, there might be other frameworks better fitting your needs – and I guess that would be fine with you. Meanwhile, you might wish to edit the post again and include your specific requirements: Which features do you need? Any price or license restrictions?
    – Izzy ♦
    Apr 12 '16 at 16:01
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    No problem, that's what we're here for (to help each other) :) Please check if everything's fine, and whether you can "narrow it down" a bit by explicitly naming things important to you. The better you describe your needs, the better answers can fit them. Good luck!
    – Izzy ♦
    Apr 12 '16 at 16:04
  • Given the minimal amount of content you plan on posting, it seems like you'd be better off using the design software that many web hosting services offer. Unless you're planning to do more than you list here, Joomla seems like overkill in your case.
    – rrirower
    Apr 12 '16 at 17:39
  • @rrirower I wish this also to be a learning experience. I have a decent amount of web development experience but would like to get better, which is another factor that makes me lean towards a more flexible framework.
    – James Wierzba
    Apr 12 '16 at 18:25
  • I know you mentioned Wordpress is "too plug and play" - there is a lot of dev you could do on Wordpress to make it work the way you want it to. I won't write an answer for it since you mentioned you didn't want it, but I'd be happy to have a go at seeing if it would meet your requirements if you wanted to elaborate on what you don't like about the plug and play aspect.
    – Tim Malone
    May 9 '16 at 4:47
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I recommend Joomla.


It's pretty easy to learn, very flexible and has a ton of really powerful features. There are plenty of free themes out there, and alot of other great themes you can pick up for just a few dollars.

The other benefit to Joomla is that once you implement Joomla once for yourself, you'll know enough to be able to quickly drop it down for those family and friends who ask you to whip up a quick site for their hobby or small business or religious group or sports team. Using Joomla you can have them up and running with dynamic content that meets their needs in a few hours and walk away without turning it into a major undertaking.

Here are some reputable Joomla theme sites I have used for themes:

Other things to remember:

  • You need to purchase a domain name (I only use GoDaddy)
  • You need to find a hosting site (There's tons of great inexpensive ones)
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  • Great! thanks for the suggestion. Is this framework proprietary? Open source?
    – James Wierzba
    Apr 12 '16 at 17:33
  • Open Source (joomla.org/about-joomla.html)
    – Baronz
    Apr 12 '16 at 17:34
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    Another good point on the hosting: I always pick a hosting service that offers a control panel with automated installs (I prefer CPANEL). Most of them have a simple few clicks to install Joomla on your hosted account.
    – Baronz
    Apr 13 '16 at 19:42
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I would recommend Drupal and here’s why…

I had the opportunity to build a web site using both Joomla and Drupal. I found the Joomla learning curve to be more elevated than Drupal. Joomla seemed more cumbersome.

If you know PHP, you’ll have no problem learning Drupal. And even if you don’t, the amount of custom (plugin) modules available make it very easy to work with. There’s also lots of documentation to explain the core and custom modules.

Drupal provides a site building guide to get you started on the right path. There’s lots of available modules to get you started building your blog. And, like Joomla, Drupal is open source and can be hosted locally on some NAS devices.

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    This is a solid alternative recommendation. I've had the opposite experience from yours (Where it felt like Drupal had fewer customization options and was more cumbersome), but I suspect that's more an issue of people who prefer Coke vs Pepsi.
    – Baronz
    Apr 13 '16 at 19:40
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    Thanks for the suggestion however I am leaning towards joomla, as I have a few web-business ideas that I want to get started on after I make my personal website, so I'm thinking using joomla for my personal website will be a good introduction to it before I try a much larger project.
    – James Wierzba
    Apr 14 '16 at 14:43

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