Confidence levels used on this page
- Hands-on Used in real production projects
- Hands-on, cautious Used, but limited or mixed experience
- Tested lightly Tried in a demo or short experiment, not production
- Research only Evaluated through docs and community. Not built with.
Current main stack
Most of my production projects run on this configuration. I manage it myself.
It is not the easiest setup to start with. It is the one I understand well enough
to fix when something breaks.
- VPS provider: Vultr Hands-on
- OS: Rocky Linux
- Web server: Nginx with FastCGI cache
- PHP: PHP-FPM
- Database: MariaDB
- Cache: Redis (object cache for WordPress)
- SSL: Let's Encrypt via Certbot
- Deploy: Custom shell scripts over SSH
- Astro build target: Static files served via Nginx on the same VPS
Hosting and domains
| Tool | What I use it for | Level |
|---|
| Vultr | Primary VPS for all main projects | Hands-on |
| Hostinger | Used for shared hosting on earlier projects | Hands-on, cautious |
| Azdigi | Vietnam-based VPS experiments | Hands-on, cautious |
| Namecheap | Domain registration. Most of my domains are here. | Hands-on |
| GoDaddy | A few older domains still registered there | Hands-on, cautious |
| Cloudflare | DNS management and free CDN layer | Hands-on |
| Kinsta | Managed WordPress hosting. Not used personally. | Research only |
| Cloudways | Managed cloud hosting. Not used personally. | Research only |
WordPress themes
| Theme | Context used | Level |
|---|
| ReHub | Affiliate product sites, price comparison, coupon sites. Production use across multiple projects. | Hands-on |
| WoodMart | WooCommerce client stores. Production. | Hands-on |
| PremiumPress themes | Used on affiliate projects. The sites felt heavy and Core Web Vitals were difficult to manage. | Hands-on, cautious |
| Flatsome | Client WooCommerce sites on earlier projects. Not my preferred workflow now. | Hands-on, cautious |
| Blocksy | Tested on a smaller project. Positive impression, limited use. | Hands-on, cautious |
| GeneratePress | Evaluated through docs and demos. Good reputation. Not tested in production. | Research only |
| Astra | Evaluated through docs and demos. Not used in production. | Research only |
| Kadence | Evaluated. Not used in production. | Research only |
| Divi / Elegant Themes | Familiar from the ecosystem. Not used in personal production. | Research only |
WordPress plugins
| Plugin | Context used | Level |
|---|
| WP Rocket | Caching on multiple WordPress sites. My primary recommendation for this job. | Hands-on |
| Rank Math Pro | SEO on all current WordPress projects. Switched from Yoast, found this fits my workflow better. | Hands-on |
| ACF Pro | Custom fields on client sites and affiliate projects. Production use. | Hands-on |
| Content Egg | Affiliate product data feeds for ReHub. Production on several projects. | Hands-on |
| External Importer | Bulk product import for affiliate sites. Production. | Hands-on |
| Simply Static | Static export of WordPress sites. Used on docgia.vn. | Hands-on |
| Elementor | Client site layouts. Used in production. Not my preferred approach now. | Hands-on |
| WooCommerce | Small to medium client stores. Production. | Hands-on |
| TooMuchNiche | Affiliate niche plugin. Used on specific projects. | Hands-on, cautious |
| WPForms | Contact forms on client sites. | Hands-on, cautious |
| Fixed TOC Pro | Table of contents. Used on a couple of projects. | Hands-on, cautious |
| WPBakery | Client sites that came with it bundled. Not chosen by preference. | Hands-on, cautious |
| Yoast SEO | Used on earlier projects. Switched to Rank Math and stayed there. | Hands-on, cautious |
Search
| Tool | Context | Level |
|---|
| Typesense | Custom site search on docgia.vn. Self-hosted, integrated with static export. | Hands-on |
Astro and static stack
| Tool | Context | Level |
|---|
| Astro 5 | Framework for this site and other current projects. Content Collections, MDX, YAML. Still learning by building. | Hands-on, cautious |
| Tailwind CSS | Styling on all Astro projects. | Hands-on |
| MDX | Content authoring with components. Production use. | Hands-on |
| Next.js | Familiar from documentation and community. Not used in production. | Research only |
| Webflow | Familiar from the ecosystem. Not used in production. | Research only |
| Framer | Tested in demo. Not used in production. | Tested lightly |
AI tools in my workflow
I use AI heavily for coding, content structure, and workflow automation.
It writes a lot of code for me. It does not decide what I build or whether
a project needs a CMS or a static site. That part is still manual.
| Tool | How I use it | Level |
|---|
| Claude / Claude Code | Primary coding assistant for Astro development. Content strategy and structured writing workflows via Claude Skills. | Hands-on |
| ChatGPT | Research, analysis, content generation, cross-checking. Custom GPTs for structured content tasks like YAML generation and product pages. | Hands-on |
| Gemini | Secondary research and cross-referencing when I want a second opinion. | Hands-on, cautious |
| Lovable | Tried for quick UI prototyping. Limited use. | Tested lightly |
Cloud platforms (trial use)
| Platform | Context | Level |
|---|
| Google Cloud | Tried during free trial. Not in active production use. | Tested lightly |
| AWS | Tried during free tier. Not in active production use. | Tested lightly |