Most developers don't have a portfolio problem. They have a maintenance problem.
You build something, deploy it, feel good for a week. Six months later it still says you work at a company you left in January. The tech stack section lists libraries you haven't touched since a tutorial.
I've been thinking about this a lot while building getfolio.dev, and I wanted to write the comparison I wish I'd found when I was evaluating options myself. Not a sales pitch. An honest look at three real approaches developers use, what each one costs you in practice, and where each falls apart.
Option 1: Custom Static Site (Gatsby, Hugo, Next.js, plain HTML)
What you get: Full creative control. You own every pixel. You can show off your frontend skills in the portfolio itself, which is a legitimate flex for frontend roles.
What it costs you: Every update is a manual commit. New job? Edit the JSON or markdown, push, wait for the build. New project you're proud of? Same loop. Want to add your latest blog post? You're either building an RSS integration or copy-pasting.
Where it breaks down: The update friction scales linearly with your career activity. Junior devs shipping projects every week will fall behind fast. Senior devs who change roles or stacks will let it rot because editing a side project feels low-priority compared to actual work.
Realistic maintenance cost: 15-30 minutes per update, assuming you remember to do it. Most people don't.
Option 2: Notion / Google Sites / Carrd
What you get: Fast setup, no code required, easy to update text and images. Notion portfolios in particular have gotten popular because the editing experience is so smooth.
What it costs you: You're limited to their layout primitives. No GitHub graph, no live repo data, no language breakdowns unless you screenshot them manually and paste them in. Custom domains range from possible (Carrd) to hacky (Notion with Super or Fruition).
Where it breaks down: It doesn't feel like a developer portfolio. It feels like a doc with links. There's no programmatic connection to your actual work. A recruiter scanning it sees formatted text, not evidence of what you build.
Realistic maintenance cost: 5-10 minutes per update, but updates are still manual. You'll forget.
Option 3: GitHub-Synced Portfolio Generator
This is the category getfolio.dev falls into, so I'll be transparent about my bias. But the approach itself is worth evaluating regardless of tool.
What you get: Your portfolio pulls live data from GitHub. Contribution graph, pinned repos, star counts, language distribution. When you push code, your portfolio reflects it without you doing anything. Some tools (getfolio included) also sync blog posts from DEV.to or Hashnode.
What it costs you: Less creative freedom than a fully custom build. You're working within themes and layout options, not writing CSS from scratch. If you want a portfolio that itself demonstrates your design ability, this might not be the move.
Where it breaks down: If your best work isn't on GitHub (private repos, work under NDA, non-code contributions), the auto-sync only tells part of the story. You'd need to supplement with manual sections, project descriptions, case studies.
Realistic maintenance cost: Near zero for anything GitHub tracks. 5-10 minutes if you want to update the "about" section or add a project that isn't in a public repo.
The Actual Decision Framework
Forget which tool is "best" in the abstract. Ask yourself two questions:
How often do you realistically update things? If the answer is "when I'm job hunting," go with whatever is fastest to set up and hardest to forget about. Auto-sync wins here.
What does your portfolio need to prove? If you're a frontend dev applying to design-heavy roles, a custom site is the portfolio. If you're a backend dev or full-stack generalist, recruiters care about what you've built and how recently. Live GitHub data communicates that without you writing a word.
There's no universal right answer. A Notion page that's current beats a gorgeous Next.js site that's two years stale. A synced portfolio that runs on autopilot beats both if accuracy matters more than aesthetics to your audience.
Where I Landed
I built getfolio.dev because I kept watching the same pattern. Developers spend a weekend on a portfolio, mass-apply to jobs, then never touch it again until the next job search. The portfolio becomes a snapshot of who they were, not who they are.
The free tier gives you a GitHub-synced portfolio with five themes. Pro adds custom domains, analytics, blog sync. Setup takes about 60 seconds. But honestly, if you'd rather build your own static site and you'll actually keep it updated, do that. The worst portfolio is the one that lies about you by being outdated.
Originally published on getfolio.dev.