Soltech LLC

What e-commerce platform or framework are you using?

A lot of this depends on what your infrastructure already supports. Either of the options are a great choice so it comes down to what will be easiest to integrate and which search service is most affordable.

Elastic search is open source but you will need to configure and maintain it on your server. It may be more difficult to set up depending on the platform your app is built on.

Algolia has great documentation and is normally pretty easy to integrate but it can be pretty expensive.

I've never used Typsense but it seems like it would be a great option as well.

Tailwind is being used on a lot of large websites and is a great option.

That being said, make sure you compile and purge assets, as stated in tailwind docs, or, no, it will not perform well at all.

I love Nuxt. I'm using it for my own personal portfolio site, and as soon as I get the chance, I'm going to be utilizing it for a few of my clients site's as well as my own company's website.

As already mentioned, Nuxt is super easy to configure to build statically. The great thing about this is that api calls will all be made on the backend when your site is being built when content is released.

One thing that I recommend using a webhook to build your site statically each time content is updated in the CMS. In Netlify, these are called "build hooks", and pretty incredible to integrate.

I recommend checking out Algolia.

They have a very affordable entry-level plan and even a small, free level plan for new websites.

Their JavaScript API is pretty simple to implement as well.

I’d be happy to help set this up for you if you would like some help. I am booked through middle of February but I open up later next month.

I am not sure if I can recommend one or the other without knowing your exact needs and what plugins you are using. Is this just a company publicity website, or more of a web application with login functionality and a store?

But, Sharepoint doesn't seem like the best solution in my point of view for a public-facing website.

Hey there, so if you go with React Native, you are going to need something to serve the data and run the backend, so there is no reason why you couldn't build the website with Laravel, and the backend API for the React Native application with Laravel as well.

But, if you are only wanting a website first, then you will need to go with a web framework and if you have Laravel experience then I would definitely recommend that.

If you are only wanting to build a mobile app, then you will use React Native coupled with a backend API and you could build that with Laravel.

Either way, stick with laravel for the backend if you already have experience with it. (:

From what I can see, slate would be more for people that want a built, ready-made solution.

draft-js would be more for organizations that have more unique needs and want to have complete control over what they do.

If I was just interested in popping in a text editor for my project, I would go with slate.

Hey there! I admire you because I was in your shoes about 3 years ago. Congrats at having a dream and wanting to do it. That is awesome. Keep going.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend trying to do this on a no-code platform. I would use webflow for the design, and building of the html, and css, but then I would build your rating/review/forum platform on Laravel.

Laravel simplifies the application process and there are a ton of resources out there that can help you with development and learning the basics.

No matter what, you will have to learn some code for this project if you want to pull it off. In my opinion, setting up your project on a great web framework will set it up for success, especially if your app is used by a lot of people.

If you set it up on bubble or webflow, and then you get a lot of users, you are going to have to move to a web framework. Taking the hard road now will save you a lot later in the long run.

I just happened to write a blog about this very thing this morning, which is linked below.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or if you would like help with this! and good luck!

Hi Whitney, I would recommend using Webflow to design the marketing website, and use Laravel for the customer portal. You can also use Webflow for the design of the customer portal area, but as far as the marketing goes, I would keep your marketing site separate from your customer app, as you won't want marketing people to have access to customer info easily, and you will want to separate concerns to keep things easy to manage.

Your desire for employees to easily update site content is easy to do with Webflow, and will be the best cms for the marketing side.

Reason why I recommend Laravel for the customer app, is that it is secure, highly scalable, well designed, and you will easily find people to help with future development of the site.

If you would like help with any of this, I would be happy to help. I have a small web development and design company.

Hey Amy, Webflow makes it possible to design the site in the program, then export the html and css into Shopify. For instance, if you know the Shopify templating language, then you can design the site in Webflow, then export the site, and do the Shopify templating and upload to the Shopify site.

Now, if you are not into web development, and that looks like too much, then I would recommend purchasing a template from Shopify for them and update their site that way.

We would also be happy to help if you would like to outsource any of the work.

Hope this helps!