USING A WEBSITE BUILDER OVER HARD CODING

5 min

I spent 2 days trying to use website builders to build my portfolio, and found it very stressful and inconvenient. Therefore, I coded my entire website on Visual Studio Code, and hosted it onto GitHub. The convenience of being able to change anything, without having to worry about a block of text messing up the layout that I want, was nice.

At first, I thought builders like Webflow or Squarespace would make things easier. Drag and drop, templates, no coding. But I quickly ran into issues: limited customization, awkward spacing, and weird mobile responsiveness. I’d try to move something over just slightly, and suddenly the entire layout would break.

What frustrated me the most was that I knew exactly how I wanted things to look. I just couldn’t get there with the builder’s restrictions. That is when I realized I’d rather deal with code than deal with those limitations.

Switching to Visual Studio Code was a breath of fresh air. I had full control over my layout, styles, and interactions. I could write media queries the way I needed. I used GitHub to host my site, which not only felt more professional but gave me the freedom to update my portfolio anytime, without waiting for a builder's UI to load or behave.

Yes, hand coding takes more time up front. However, the flexibility and control are worth it. I could debug things more easily, and I actually learned a lot more about HTML, CSS, and responsive design just by doing it myself. In the end, building my site from scratch was the most frustrating and satisfying part of the portfolio process. I’m glad I gave myself the time to figure it out.