The "defaults" are smart: they'll build you a page based on public info (I think mine was from Twitter and Gravatar), and they focus on a single simple, clean layout. Best of all, it takes only a minute or two more to hook it up to an existing domain (no futzing with DNS) or buy one yourself.
It took me less than 5 minutes to get https://herzigma.com up and running!
Kudos to the team for being super focused and executing to well. This is now my go-to recommendation for professional websites/landing pages.
Tech stack is Rails with Hotwire on the frontend. I'm hosting on Render.com, and using their custom domains support to issue certificates.
It looks like I had an MVP done in May [1], then spend the Summer doing lots of testing and refinement. Speed was a big focus - I wanted sites to be ultra-quick. I do this with a mix of caching in Memcached, image optimization source sets, CDN, and more. Plus, I'm dynamically generating OpenGraph images for each page using headless Chrome.
I also use a couple fun technologies for custom domains:
- If you already have a domain - I use https://entri.com to connect it, which is a new product that's like Plaid for domains
- If you don't have a domain - I use Google Domains Express Checkout API [2], which lets you directly purchase a new domain and automatically connect it to Postcard
Let me know if you have any other questions!
[1] https://www.philipithomas.com/posts/sharing-a-project-i-buil...
You can click on the example apps in there to see them on mobile/desktop.
Discourse is great forum software. And Wordpress is great publishing software. Qbix integrates with those too. I can see your site to eventually attract a lot of people who want to get paid for their products or services.
(However, I realize they can use calendly for booking events, zoom for the actual videoconferencing, youtube for videos, stripe for selling subscriptions, and maybe a Facebook/Telegram/Discord group for customers to connect… but then they also wouldn’t need Entri since they can make a Facebook or Linktree profile.)
I started Postcard when I deleted most social media, but still wanted a way to keep in touch with friends and my network.
When I worked at Webflow, it became clear to me that most website builders are way too complex for individual users. So, I drew inspiration from social media - where all you need is a couple photos and text fields to get a great site online. So, I think I’ve about achieved a site builder that even my Mom could use.
The product seems simple, but there are many under-the-hood optimizations. There's caching, CDNs, custom domain support, TLS certificate issuance + management, dynamically-generated open graph images, image optimizations, email sending, full-text RSS feed, email reputations, and more. It also uses a couple new products to make the domain connection process easy.
Let me know if you have any feedback or questions!
PS - Rumor is that Twitter is shutting down Revue. If you want help transferring content and subscribers over to Postcard, just email me!