I got a $348 renewal notice for a website that maybe 10 people visited last year. It looked fine. It worked. But it was basically a static brochure — and I was paying over $30/month to keep it online.

So what were my options? Eat the cost. Or fix it.

I've been messing around more with tools like GitHub, Render, Replit, and a Raspberry Pi I use as a sandbox. I figured I could probably rebuild the site myself — or at least get close — with AI's help.

So I tried. It worked. And now I pay $0 a year to host a better version of the same site.

If you're in the same boat — paying monthly for a site you barely touch — this might help.

The Stack I Switched To

• Eleventy (11ty): Static site generator, super simple
• Tailwind CSS: Utility-first styling, fast to iterate
• Render: Free static hosting with GitHub integration
• GoDaddy: Kept my domain, just repointed DNS
• Google Workspace: No email disruption, still using Gmail with my domain

No monthly fees. Full control. And a site that looks nearly identical to what I had before.

What I Actually Did

1. Cloned a Starter Repo to My Raspberry Pi

I grabbed a boilerplate 11ty + Tailwind repo and cloned it to GitHub then used my Raspberry Pi 5 to render the site locally and start iterating.

2. Rebuilt the Pages in Tailwind

• Homepage (index.njk)
• About Me (about.njk)
• Rolling Suds Service Page (rolling-suds.njk)

I didn't overthink the design. In fact, the original Wix layout was a blessing in disguise — it gave ChatGPT a visual reference, and I just rebuilt it block by block with cleaner HTML and Tailwind classes. Once it was on par with Wix I just need to publish.

3. Hooked It Up to Render

• Connected the GitHub repo
• Set npm run build as the build command
• Deployed the _site output folder

Now any time I push to main, Render automatically redeploys the site. No buttons to click. No file uploads. No invoices.

4. Updated DNS on GoDaddy

I removed the Wix nameservers, added Render's static IP, updated the CNAME, and boom — live site.

5. Left Google Workspace Alone

Email still works, nothing broke. I just ditched the hosting bill.

The Result

The site looks almost exactly the same as before — which is the point. But now:

• It costs nothing
• It loads faster (or so I'm told)
• I own the whole stack
• It's easy to update
• And I didn't have to shut the site down just to save money

The Bigger Point

The tools have gotten really, really good.

A couple years ago, I don't think I could've pulled this off. I would've hit a wall — either with the code, the config, or just not knowing where to start.

Now? With a $70 Raspberry Pi, a free GitHub account, and platforms like Render, you can teach yourself how to build and ship real things. AI helps you write the code. When something breaks, you can ask why — and actually fix it. That used to take hours of searching and guessing. Now it's minutes.

I didn't know how to move a website off Wix. But I knew it should be possible. So I asked ChatGPT, broke it down step by step, and it worked.

Playing around with the Raspberry Pi helped me learn how systems fit together — how dev environments work, how files are structured, what "static hosting" actually means. Once you start understanding the terminology, the rest comes together quickly.

This website move is just one example. But it's part of a bigger unlock: the gap between idea and execution is shrinking — fast.

Want to give it a shot yourself? Happy to share what I used.

From the Ruft is where I document what I'm actually building — tools, systems, side quests. Nothing fancy. Just trying things and learning.

— Jerry