Building Humpff with Twill CMS, and Coolify

Describing how Humpff has been built

When I set out to build Humpff.com, I knew I wanted a website that would be both powerful under the hood and flexible enough to handle future growth. It wasn’t just about getting something online; it was about creating a platform that could scale, adapt, and make content management as painless as possible. After weighing my options, Laravel, Twill CMS, and Coolify became the perfect combination. Let me break down why and how I made these decisions.

Why Laravel?

First off, Laravel has been my go-to PHP framework for years. It’s reliable, modern, and has a huge ecosystem that makes development faster and more efficient. The framework’s elegance in handling routing, middleware, and database migrations gives me all the tools I need to build a robust backend without reinventing the wheel.

For Humpff.com, I needed something that could handle custom functionality—things like complex user interactions, API integrations, and performance optimization. Laravel’s flexibility allowed me to design the site’s architecture exactly how I envisioned it, without compromising on performance or scalability. And let’s not forget the community behind Laravel—having access to solutions, packages, and support made the choice a no-brainer.

If you're interested in trying out Laravel, have a look at their documentation (https://laravel.com/) or try their bootcamp (https://bootcamp.laravel.com).

Why Coolify?

Coolify (https://coolify.io) is an open-source hosting platform that simplifies deploying Docker containers. It’s powerful yet beginner-friendly, making it perfect for developers who want to focus on building rather than managing complex infrastructure. I chose Coolify for its seamless integration with Docker, automation capabilities, and clean UI.

With Coolify, I could package Humpff.com as a Docker container and deploy it effortlessly. The open-source nature of Coolify means it’s community-driven and constantly improving, which aligns perfectly with my needs for a reliable and flexible hosting solution. If you’re looking for an easy way to host your projects, I’d highly recommend checking it out.

Why Twill CMS?

Now, when it comes to managing content, there are a ton of CMS options out there, from WordPress to custom-built solutions. But Twill (https://twillcms.com) hit the sweet spot for me. Twill is built on Laravel, so it’s deeply integrated into the framework I was already using. That alone saved me time and effort.

What really stood out was how developer-focused Twill is. It’s not trying to be a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, it’s designed to be a head start for developers who want to create tailored admin panels. With Twill, I could set up a sleek, intuitive interface for managing content without sacrificing control over how the backend worked. Plus, its built-in features like media library management, drag-and-drop components, and form builders let me focus on the unique needs of Humpff.com rather than spending hours coding basic CMS functionality.

How I Built It

The process was pretty straightforward, though not without its challenges. I started by setting up Laravel and configuring the database structure. Then, I integrated Twill to handle the CMS side. Customizing Twill to fit the specific needs of Humpff.com was surprisingly smooth. I was able to define modules and features that matched the content requirements perfectly—whether it was managing blog posts, handling multimedia, or creating reusable components for the front end.

For the front end, I leaned on Laravel’s Blade templating engine and sprinkled in some Tailwind CSS for styling. This combination gave me full control over the design while maintaining simplicity and performance.

Finally, I deployed the site using Coolify. Its deployment pipeline allowed me to streamline the process, packaging the application into a container and deploying it with just a few clicks. Coolify also made it easy to manage updates and monitor the site’s performance, giving me peace of mind that everything was running as it should.

Final Thoughts

Choosing Laravel, Twill, and Coolify for Humpff.com wasn’t just about using tools I’m familiar with; it was about picking the best tools for the job. Laravel provided a strong and flexible foundation, Twill made content management a breeze, and Coolify simplified deployment and hosting. Together, this stack gave me the power to create a site that’s fast, flexible, and future-proof. If you’re a developer looking for a stack that balances control, efficiency, and reliability, I’d definitely recommend giving this trio a shot.