Why I Created This Blog (with Next.js)?

Why?

I was previously using Tistory, which is a great blogging platform, but there were two major issues.

First, there were limitations in design. It was inconvenient to add and manage specific features on the homepage myself.
Second, there was an unusual policy where a blog could be suspended with just a simple report. While filing a report was easy, proving that the report was unjust and appealing a suspension was quite difficult. Since many people faced this problem, I couldn’t ignore it either.

Beyond these issues, I felt a strong need for a new blog for another reason. I was compiling my troubleshooting experiences and study notes in a scattered way—sometimes in Notion, sometimes in my notebook, sometimes in specific GitHub repositories, and occasionally on my old Tistory blog.

I know, it's quite complex. 🤦‍♂️

So, I decided that I needed to consolidate everything into one blog.

How?

The new candidates were as follows:

For service-based blogs, there were concerns about my posts being subject to various constraints and the need to migrate elsewhere if the service ever shuts down. I considered the advantage of having data stored both locally and on GitHub if I created the blog myself, so I eliminated service-based platforms (like Google, Medium, Naver, etc.) from the list.

WordPress

I decided against WordPress due to my unfamiliarity with PHP, which might limit scalability.
Additionally, the initial costs for domain and hosting were a factor.

Ruby + GitHub Pages (github.io)

The cost is free!
Jekyll integrates very well with GitHub Pages.
To use Jekyll, you need to install and set up a Ruby environment. However, I'm not familiar with Ruby. Managing Ruby-related dependencies and the Gem setup process is cumbersome. Having to learn something new is a big disadvantage when trying to get started quickly
There weren't any Jekyll templates that I liked.

Gatsby

The cost is free!
As mentioned earlier, having to learn something new is a disadvantage, but since I have experience with React-based projects, Gatsby isn't burdensome for me.
Gatsby relies on too many plugins. One of the well-known drawbacks of Gatsby is that when you upgrade the version, many of the existing plugins break.

Next.js + Vercel

It offers very powerful routing features!!
(Currently) the cost is free!
It’s less vulnerable to dependency issues compared to Gatsby.
Maintaining a personal blog requires more time than expected, so using familiar tools is a big advantage. Since I’m already familiar with Next.js, I can effectively leverage my skills, which makes this option very appealing.

Sevlte

The cost is free!
It's lightweight and fast!
I considered this option until the end, but the smaller community compared to Next.js was a deciding factor for me.