13 February, 2026
I’m not particularly a web developer, but I dabbled in a lot of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, back in my high school days (2010s). Nowadays, I still do that, diving a little deeper into a few web stacks and it’s complexities, including ones with NextJS and Tailwind.
Truthfully, I have been using it pretty much every moment I have the time and interest to work on my personal website. And it has been a blast. You can check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gvaaUCr3
I started making this website around 2-4 years ago with a custom domain. I tried moving to a personal dedicated server (baremetal). I tried using user-friendly website makers as well as touching upon hosting on Cloudflare and a few other methods. Seems that customizing at the low to mid-level is the most fun for me.
NextJS helps keep your page-routing clean, providing full support for your JS/Typescript needs. I am not professionally a web developer, but using this has been quite a good experience. Some developers may argue that using pure CSS is the “best way to do it,” (which I agree if they are purists types, using CLI mainly with no-vibe coding and such) but I’d argue otherwise. The internet provides a lot of options when it comes to tech stacks, and the UI development factor can be easier with Tailwind. Tailwind is an easy-to-use library of CSS classes that speed up your front-end development process. In my opinion it’s good for people who enjoy designing via text editor.
If you’d like to know more about making websites from the ground up, (not using services like Wix or Wordpress) I recommend reading up on the big three (HTML, CSS, Javascript) as well as setting up NPM and a simple web stack like this one as soon as possible.