Navigating the Challenges of Freelance Web Development: A Personal Reflection

As a seasoned freelance web developer with over five and a half years of experience, I often find myself questioning whether I’ve truly mastered this craft. Despite having completed numerous client websites—primarily marketing and informational pages—I still grapple with a persistent sense of dissatisfaction regarding my development process. Does anyone else feel overwhelmed or tempted to throw in the towel sometimes?

The rapidly evolving landscape of modern web development presents unique hurdles, especially for freelancers balancing multiple responsibilities. Rising hosting costs, unexpected expenses due to tier changes, overage fees, and the complexities of DevOps—these factors contribute to a challenging environment. Coupled with the need to stay abreast of the latest tooling best practices, it can quickly become overwhelming.

To share some of my ongoing struggles, here’s a snapshot of my experiences:

1. Experimenting with CMS Solutions
   I initially tried Sanity for content management. It worked well until the client’s user base grew, triggering additional charges. I had hoped to streamline costs by offering a flat annual hosting fee, but when bandwidth or usage spiked, I needed to communicate extra expenses to the client—a less than ideal situation.

2. Self-Hosting and Custom CMS Development
   My journey with Payload CMS—self-hosted alongside static site generators like Astro—was driven by a desire to bypass SaaS subscription fees. After weeks of troubleshooting deployment issues to platforms like DigitalOcean, I finally had a functioning setup on two domains (e.g., example.com and admin.example.com). Yet, as I delved deeper into front-end development, new challenges emerged: lack of a reliable CDN for images, rendering rich text content, safely typing payload data without direct access to type definitions, and complicated data fetching via the local API. These issues have left me seeking guidance before I pull my hair out.

3. Evolving Tooling and Frameworks
   The tools of our trade are constantly shifting. I started with Gatsby, which was fantastic initially, but later became cumbersome. Next.js quickly gained popularity but now feels bloated and complex—particularly around caching strategies. Currently exploring Astro, I appreciate its simplicity, but worry about jumping between different stacks and the associated learning curves.

4. Hosting and Deployment Woes
   Vercel and Netlify are popular options, but explaining their