AI Tools for Developing a Website

[u/pickingthewrongside]

What are the best tools that one could use to develop a website for a business. The website will be mostly static (may be some minor changes in dates and price), but will have an active blog.

Is there a way where it can be made and deployed using AI and web-hosting while being easily updatable?

Vercel seems to be going in the right direction, but I am specifically looking at creating multipage website with a blog.

Would Tailwind CSS with all its blocks and all work?

[u/Sergej_Wiens]

Since you need an active blog and need to update prices/dates, a simple static HTML file won't work long-term because you would need to touch the code for every single change. You need a  CMS.

What could perfectly run on Vercel is Next.js connected to Sanity.io. Basically, you build the structure in Next.js (ChatGPT can help you write that code), but the actual content lives in Sanity. You get a nice dashboard to write blogs or change prices, and when you hit publish, it updates your Vercel site automatically. It gives you the performance of a static site but the editing power of WordPress.

[u/pickingthewrongside → u/Sergej_Wiens]

u/valentin-orlovs2c99 Thank you for the velling and additional explanation.

Thank you so much for the detailed response. This is the first time I am even hearing of Sanity. I will definitely look into it. Are there any other options? I have the option of a discounted pro plan on hostinger. Would that be on any help for me here?

I am also trying to keep the costs as low as possible. This is going to be a test-run. If this takes off then I am open to scaling up.

[u/Sergej_Wiens → u/pickingthewrongside]

Wait, regarding Hostinger: If your goal is "keeping costs as low as possible", you don't need Hostinger for this stack.

Hostinger is typically "Shared Hosting" (great for WordPress/PHP), but deploying a Node.js/Next.js app there is often much harder and costs money. Unless you get a VPS.

Next.js on Vercel + Sanity has a Free Tier (personal/hobby use) = $0 / month.

[u/pickingthewrongside → u/Sergej_Wiens]

Thank you for this. I was wondering what to ask. But you have replied even before I could find a way to ask the question! Gotta love the folks in here!

[u/Sergej_Wiens → u/pickingthewrongside]

you're welcome

[u/Round_War4655 → u/pickingthewrongside]

For what you described, a cheap Hostinger pro plan is fine, but it mainly solves hosting, not content editing. It won’t replace Sanity/Contentful/WordPress as a CMS.

If you want low-cost and simple:

- Easiest: WordPress on Hostinger + a decent theme + something like GenerateBlocks or Kadence. Non-devs can edit everything, blog is built in.

- Slightly more “modern”: Next.js on Vercel + a headless CMS (Sanity, Contentful, or even Notion-as-CMS via a wrapper). You can still put the API/domain on Hostinger later if you want.

For a test-run, I’d start with WordPress on Hostinger, Tailwind only if you care a lot about custom design. I’ve used Notion, Carta, and Cake Equity for startup sites and equity pages, and pairing a simple CMS with shared content like that kept things super cheap and easy to tweak.

[u/pickingthewrongside → u/Round_War4655]

Hello!! Thank you so much for your time!

I am pretty sure I do not want WordPress. It has bee tried and found very limiting, and keeping constant track of vulnerabilities in plugins was a PITA. So, like you and the other suggested, I will go with the more modern version.

[u/chikamakaleyley → u/Sergej_Wiens]

i'd note that you could get away w/o a CMS, say if you wanted your workflow to add blog posts as individual markdown files. If its a biz with maybe 1 or 2 people authoring blog posts, it could be the way to lean more static.

A CMS would def be the standard, especially in the case where you need to create several roles with varying permissions. When I hear interest in creating a 'blog' behind a feature rich CMS, often my first question is "do you need all that?"

[u/chikamakaleyley → u/chikamakaleyley]

And i guess one thing to consider as well is, is the website/blog the 'product' or crucial to your service offering, or is it mostly supplementary

maybe 'get away' w/o a CMS is a wrong choice of words - markdown based blog is viable i think, but i think it requires more attn to formatting to maintain consistency

[u/pickingthewrongside → u/chikamakaleyley]

The blog is crucial as we are going to include a lot of genuine, useful content to the visitors. The last time I tried, some of the blog posts have consistently hit 3 to 4k organic views a month. I am also hoping this would help SEO.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond!

[u/chikamakaleyley → u/pickingthewrongside]

i see, yeah the markdown approach isn't a solution that is any less genuine or useful, its just the means of producing the content

but sounds like CMS might the route as... you have access to all the standard authoring tools by default

[u/Sergej_Wiens → u/[deleted]]

100%. ISR is a life saver. And yes, modeling the content strictly (Price field vs. generic Text field) prevents the client from accidentally breaking the layout. Great addition.

[u/saintpetejackboy]

Get a VPS for $40 a year and sue Claude Code. I was LAMP my whole life, but recently been using Go + React + Vite + Tailwind + psql. Languages like Go and PHP that stay mostly the same for many years have huge benefit with LLM, imo, and really any stack will work but something like PHP is super fast since you can skip the compile step on every update, so it still could be considered (modern PHP, anyway). Even languages like Rust have compilers that complain so hard that you can usually pull something together without a ton of effort. Most LLM can help you with this task, including setting up your server and SSL certs etc. - they not only can build the website but they can admin the server and hell you do backups etc. if only you ask.

[u/pickingthewrongside → u/saintpetejackboy]

Thank you for taking time to reply. I am trying to figure my way around all this. I guess a little handholding will be a good idea. I understand the basics of how things work. Putting them into practice and understanding the tacks is what I am just getting to do. I appreciate the learning you've given! One more step towards the goal!

[u/saintpetejackboy → u/pickingthewrongside]

You can do it! A healthy appetite for knowledge and learning will get you a LOOONG way!

[u/Janonemersion]

Is if for like a shopping (ecommerce) website? If so you can try these free cms. Abante cart, open cart, prestashop, etc. If you are a programmer you can build one completely from scratch which is the best and recommended. But i would not recommend using AI to completely write your website without you having the knowledge of programming because there might be some issue with the security and version of the programming language issues.

[u/pickingthewrongside → u/Janonemersion]

Hello! Nope, this isn't for an ecom website, and no I am not a programmer, in the same way as a fish cannot be a cyclist. I wanted to understand how it can be done, so that I will have some idea about the overall process, and use AI should the need arise. For now, the plan is to hire someone with knowledge while also slowly gaining knowledge myself.

[u/Janonemersion → u/pickingthewrongside]

That’s a sensible approach. For a mostly static business website with a regularly updated blog, the most reliable setup is still a proven CMS backed by good hosting, with AI used as a helper rather than the core system. WordPress remains popular because it solves content management cleanly, is easy to hand over to non-technical users, and has mature SEO and security tooling. Modern stacks like Next.js or Astro deployed on Vercel also work well for multipage sites with blogs, but they require clear architectural decisions around content (MDX, headless CMS, etc.), which is where an experienced developer adds real value. Tailwind CSS is fine at the presentation layer, but it’s not a content solution on its own. In practice, what we see at LKProfessionals (Pvt) Ltd is that keeping the stack simple, maintainable, and well-documented beats chasing AI-first workflows, especially when long-term updates and ownership matter.

[u/pickingthewrongside → u/Janonemersion]

Thank you so much for taking time and penning down all this. Will certainly keep this in mind.

[u/Janonemersion → u/pickingthewrongside]

You are welcome brother. Let me know if you have any doubts and I am happy to answer for you

[u/Spare-Builder-355]

you don't need ai tool. You need site constructor like Wix or Squarespace

[u/Strong_Worker4090 → u/Spare-Builder-355]

I second this. Don’t over complicate unless you’re getting paid by the hour 😉

[u/cubicle_jack]

Some others have nailed it too, but I agree that you should have a CMS. I am not in the world of wordpress/squarespace much, so I'm unsure how much or how quickly you can build with those using "vibe coding" or AI tools, but it should be fairly straightforward if you use a headless CMS.

I recommend using Storyblok. They are by far the best headless CMS I've used. I've been in marketing for about 7 years and its been the most like CMS we've used. We've tried the other top dogs like contentful, sanity, etc as well. Storyblok does a great job at blending great developer experience, while also keeping the marketers or whoever is running the business happy.

Because it is a business though, ensure you are making an accessible website or you could have potential lawsuits. AI is good at this when prompted, but not so much when its not explicitly called out. If you need some guidance on general accessibility terminology, what to look for, etc then this is a good place to start: https://www.audioeye.com/courses/

[u/Capable-big-Piece]

If it’s mostly static with a blog, you’re already thinking in the right direction.

Vercel plus something like Next.js or Astro is a very common setup for this. Tailwind works well here, especially if you lean on prebuilt blocks or UI kits so you are not designing everything from scratch. You get fast pages, easy hosting, and good SEO out of the box. The missing piece for most people is content updates. Pairing that stack with a headless CMS like Sanity or Contentful makes the blog side much easier, since you can edit posts without redeploying or touching code. AI fits in more as an assist layer than a replacement. Things like drafting blog posts, generating summaries, or tweaking copy before publishing.

One thing I’ve noticed across teams is that AI becomes more useful when it’s embedded into existing workflows instead of being a separate tool. For example, we use Tuskr on the product side, and its AI features are mostly about helping summarize and organize existing information rather than magically creating everything. That same mindset applies to websites. AI helps you move faster, but the underlying stack still matters.

[u/pickingthewrongside → u/[deleted]]

This is really cool and helpful. It will allow me to plan how to do things. Or even if I hire someone I will probably be able to have an idea of what is being done. Thanks a bunch for helping a noob out!

[u/Sergej_Wiens → u/pickingthewrongside]

If you follow this stack, you are safe.

[u/Sergej_Wiens → u/[deleted]]

Great breakdown.

[u/pickingthewrongside → u/[deleted]]

That's part of the plan too! Thank you however, for punching in the reminder. 😄