A developer portfolio website with no build step, and how to build it

Every developer has a portfolio site half-built in a repository somewhere: a static generator, a theme that was going to be customized, a deploy that broke, a to-do to write the About page. This is the FolioPage guide for the other approach - a site that is edited in the browser, published on a global edge network, and never needs a build - for frontend, backend, full-stack, mobile and game developers, DevOps and data engineers, machine-learning engineers, indie hackers, open-source maintainers, WordPress and Shopify developers, freelancers, security researchers, embedded developers, technical writers and developer advocates. What the site has to do, how projects link to their repositories, the resume and its PDF, the blog with code blocks, custom code when you want it, the templates, the plan, and how to have it live tonight.

What a developer website has to do

The reader is a recruiter, a hiring manager, a potential client or a maintainer deciding whether to trust your pull request. They ask: what have you built, can I see it running or read the code, what is your stack and level, and how do I reach you. A GitHub profile answers "can I read the code" and leaves the rest to a README. A site answers all of it, in your order:

• Show the projects as projects, not repositories: what it does, for whom, what you built and why it was hard, with a screenshot, a link to the code and a link to the running thing.
• State the stack and the level in one line a non-engineer can read: "Backend engineer, Go and Postgres, seven years, mostly payments."
• Carry the resume, as a page and as the PDF the process will ask for.
• Make contact one click, with the profiles that matter: GitHub, LinkedIn, the package registry, the conference talk.

A site that does these four things and loads in a second is a better signal than any theme. Hiring managers open portfolios on their phones between meetings.

Why not just GitHub, or a static site you build yourself

Both work, and both have a cost that a portfolio should not have:

• A GitHub profile is written for other developers. A recruiter cannot tell a side project from a fork, a README is not a case study, and the profile has no resume page and no contact path except an email in a bio.
• A static site you build yourself is a project. It needs a theme, a deploy, a domain, a certificate, and an evening every time you want to add a project, which is why the last post on most developer blogs is from two years ago.

FolioPage takes the second job away and keeps the control you care about: the site is edited on the page, published behind a global edge cache, served with a certificate on your own domain, and open to your own CSS and scripts when you want them. Nothing to build, nothing to patch, nothing to keep running.

The pages that earn their place

A one-page site holds all of it for most developers: the projects behind it, the resume as a page of its own. Writers and maintainers want several pages.

Projects with a repo link and a live link

On FolioPage a project is an item in the Portfolio app: a cover, a gallery of screenshots, a description, a category, and custom fields for the facts. The custom fields are where the developer-specific part lives: a field holding a repository URL or a live URL renders as a link on the project page, so every project carries "View the code" and "Open the app" without a workaround. Add fields for the stack, the role, the year, the team size, and they show beside the images in the template's style.

Sort projects by what the reader wants: client work, side projects, open source, talks. The index filters by category without reloading. Ten projects and three categories on the Free plan, a hundred and fifty on Pro, unlimited on Max, and each project page has a layout picked from twenty-four, with thirty for the index.

Write the project description as a case study, not a README: the problem in one sentence, what you built, the part that was hard and how you solved it, what happened after. Keep the installation instructions in the repository.

The resume, and the PDF from the same content

The Resume app is the job-search half of the site. Fill in experience, education, skills and any sections you add - open-source contributions, talks, certifications - once, and it publishes a resume page on the site and generates a PDF from the same content on request, so the page a hiring manager reads and the file they upload to the applicant system never disagree. The PDF has real selectable text, which parsers read. The Free plan uses the default resume layout with six sections and three entries each; Pro and Max lift the limits and choose from seven layouts.

Writing, with code blocks

Developers who write get hired more, and the Blog app on the Max plan gives the writing a home on the same domain: posts with headings, lists, quotes, images and galleries, inline code and code blocks, categories, a search box and a sidebar, each post on its own page. It is the app for the "how I solved X" post that ranks for years.

Custom code, when you want it

The whole point of a site you do not build is that it stays out of the way, but a developer wants a door. On Pro and Max there are two:

• Custom CSS, applied site-wide over the template's stylesheet, for the details you want your way.
• Custom HTML in three slots - the head, the start of the body, the end of the body - injected on every page exactly as pasted: analytics, a script of your own, an embed. No filtering, no allowlist.

The design editor covers the rest without code: fonts, colors, the header and the footer, set once for the whole site. Every page has an SEO title and description and a switch to hide it from search engines; on Pro and Max a page can be password-protected, which is how a portfolio piece under an NDA is shown to one interviewer.

Your domain, with the certificate handled

On Pro and Max, connect a domain you own: the site checks the DNS records for you and issues the certificate, and the folio.page address keeps working alongside it. FolioPage branding comes off the page on the same plans.

What changes with what you build

Each of these deserves its own guide, and they will follow in the Guides section, one at a time.

Templates made for developers

Two FolioPage templates were built for this category so far, both one-page sites with the Portfolio and Resume apps switched on:

The Resume / CV templates suit a job-hunting engineer as well, and any template in the catalogue takes the Portfolio and Resume apps. Preview them live on desktop and on a phone.

The full set is on the Developer templates page, with more on the way.

The plan that fits

• Free is enough for a job search: the site, ten projects, the resume page and its PDF in the default layout, five links, a folio.page address. No card, no time limit.
• Pro, $12 a month or $108 a year, is for the developer who wants their own domain, custom CSS and scripts, no branding, a contact form, unlimited resume entries and layouts, and a hundred projects.
• Max, $24 a month or $216 a year, adds the Blog app for writing with code blocks, video uploads, larger media limits and unlimited pages and projects.

Writers go to Max; everyone else starts on Free and moves to Pro for the domain. The pricing page has the full comparison.

Build it tonight

The order that works, with screenshots of your projects at hand.

The longer version, with the schedule by the hour, is the guide on how to build a portfolio website in a day.

Keep it current

• Add the project when it ships, with the live link. A portfolio of running things beats a list of repositories.
• Update the stack statement when the work changes. It is the sentence a recruiter searches for.
• Retire the tutorial projects the day a real one replaces them.

Can I link each project to its repository and a live demo?

Yes. Add a custom field to the project with the repository URL and another with the live URL; each renders as a link on the project page.

Can I add analytics or my own scripts?

Yes, on Pro and Max. Custom HTML goes into the head, the start of the body and the end of the body of every page, exactly as pasted, and custom CSS applies site-wide.

Does the blog support code blocks?

Yes, on the Max plan. The editor includes inline code and code blocks along with headings, lists, quotes, images and galleries.

Can I point my own domain at it?

On Pro and Max, yes. Connect a domain you own; the DNS records are checked automatically and the certificate is issued for you.

Can I keep a project under an NDA private?

On Pro and Max a page can be password-protected and hidden from search engines, so an interviewer sees it with a link and a password and nobody else does.

Other fields have their own page in the Made for section, and every general how-to lives in Guides.