How this site is built (and why it costs almost nothing)
A static Astro blog on Cloudflare Pages. Fast, free to host, and easy to update.
This site is deliberately simple. There’s no database, no server to run, and no monthly hosting bill. Here’s the whole stack.
The pieces
- Astro generates the site. I write posts as plain Markdown files and Astro turns them into fast, static HTML.
- GitHub stores the source. Every change is a commit.
- Cloudflare Pages hosts it. When I push to GitHub, it rebuilds and deploys automatically, usually in well under a minute.
- Cloudflare also handles DNS and SSL, both free.
Publishing a post
Adding a post just means creating a new Markdown file with a bit of front matter at the top:
---
title: "My new post"
description: "A one-line summary."
pubDate: 2026-06-13
category: tech
---
Write the post here.Commit, push, done. A minute later it’s live at simonyau.me.
Why static?
For a blog, there’s almost no reason to run a server. Static files are faster, cheaper, and far less likely to break at 2am. The only recurring cost is the domain name, which runs a few pounds a year. Everything else is free.