Navigating the Challenges of Freelance Web Development: A Reflection on the Evolving Landscape
As a freelance web developer with over five and a half years of experience, I have had the opportunity to craft numerous client-facing websites, predominantly focusing on marketing and informational content. While I take pride in my work, I often find myself grappling with feelings of dissatisfaction and frustration regarding the development process. This ongoing struggle stems from the rapidly changing web development ecosystem, which presents a unique set of challenges, especially for freelancers juggling multiple responsibilities.
The Complexity of Modern Web Architecture
One of the primary hurdles I face is the complexity inherent in contemporary web development. The landscape is continually evolving, with new tools, frameworks, and best practices emerging at a breakneck pace. While this innovation is exciting, it also introduces steep learning curves and integration issues. For freelancers like myself, who often manage everything from development to deployment and maintenance, these complexities can become overwhelming.
Cost Management and Infrastructure Challenges
Hosting costs remain a persistent concern. For example, when experimenting with solutions like Sanity, I encountered unforeseen expenses as client demands grew—additional users triggered extra charges, complicating budgeting and client communication. Initially, I attempted a flat yearly fee model, but cost spikes due to bandwidth surges required me to explain these to clients, often complicating relationships and project scopes.
Exploring Alternative Content Management Systems
To mitigate SaaS subscription costs, I shifted to self-hosted options such as Payload CMS, integrated with static site generators like Astro. While self-hosting offers more control and potentially lower ongoing costs, it introduces a new set of hurdles: deploying to cloud providers like DigitalOcean involved weeks of debugging, and front-end development became increasingly complex. Issues such as image delivery without a robust CDN, rendering rich content safely, and data fetching without comprehensive API tooling have all contributed to a persistent battle with the platform’s limitations.
Evolving Toolchains and Frameworks
The front-end ecosystem is in constant flux. I transitioned through frameworks like Gatsby, which initially impressed but eventually fell out of favor as features and community support waned. Next.js became the dominant choice, yet it too is showing signs of bloat and added complexity, especially around caching strategies and serverless deployment. Currently, I am exploring Astro—finding it promising—but I worry about bouncing between different stacks, which can hinder productivity and consistency.
Hosting and Deployment Woes
Hosting solutions such as Vercel and Netlify are reliable, but pricing and understanding the distinctions between
