Transitioning to Version Control and Self-Managed Hosting for an Existing Website
As a beginner coder, launching your own website is a significant milestone. Many new web developers start with user-friendly website builders, such as SuperHi, to create and publish their sites quickly. However, as your skills grow, you may find it beneficial to transition to a more flexible development environment—one that leverages version control systems (VCS) like Git and allows greater control over your files and hosting setup.
In this post, we’ll explore how to move from a hosted website built with an editor like SuperHi to managing your site files via version control and hosting on your own infrastructure, using an existing domain you’ve already configured.
Understanding the Current Setup
Suppose you’ve created your website with a beginner-friendly editor and have registered your custom domain through a registrar such as iwantmyname. You’ve also switched your domain’s DNS management to Cloudflare for enhanced control and performance.
At this stage, your website is live and accessible via your chosen domain, but your file management is tied to the editor’s platform. To enhance development flexibility, you want to:
- Use a version control system (VCS) like Git to manage your website files.
- Self-host your website, possibly on a remote server or hosting provider.
- Keep your existing domain and DNS settings intact.
Step-by-Step Guide to Transition
1. Prepare Your Local Development Environment
- Install Git: Download and install Git on your computer. This tool will allow you to track changes, collaborate, and deploy your files efficiently.
- Organize Your Files: Download your existing website files from the SuperHi platform or manually save copies of your current website. Ensure all assets, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images are organized appropriately.
2. Initialize a Git Repository
- Navigate to your website’s folder in your terminal or command prompt.
- Run the command:
bash
git init
- Add your files:
bash
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit of website files"
3. Choose a Hosting Provider
Decide where to host your website files. Some popular options include:
- Shared Hosting: Providers like Bluehost, SiteGround
- VPS or Cloud Servers: DigitalOcean, Linode
- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages (for static sites)
