I am a front-end developer and I have a project where I need to build 3-5 pages website. The main work is in javascript communicating with REST API but I do want to have partials, routing if possible and templating.
Right now, I am literally frustrated with amount of available frameworks but I really would prefer not to setup PHP backend as it is not required (Wordpress either).
I feel very comfortable with the following technologies and frameworks being able to build entire front-end:
So I started to look into Angular but it feels like an overkill and with possible SEO issues even if it is 3 pages website for now.
Then, I started to look into static generators such as Jekyll but I would never develop in Ruby or Go.
Then I started to look into JavaScript templating + Gulp such as Mustache or Nunjucks and that sounds interesting although no routing would be possible.
Now I started to think if I shell create a simple PHP routing + template class in the website folder without MVC and the rest just do through Gulp as I am used to.
From what I've seen, people recommend going with PHP framework such as Symfony or Slim but I am not a back-end developer and afraid this can take much time from developing front part.
I would appreciate any opinion about this and I apologise if for someone that does not make sense but I do feel frustrated and decided to ask the community and experts that being in similar situations.
Thank you!
This is not really a Stack Overflow question, as you ask for an opinion, but I am willing to answer you anyway.
Setting up a Jekyll website does not require you to write any Ruby. Jekyll is simple, but does have partials, templating and routing. Therefore it seems like a good choice. I would use vanilla JavaScript or jQuery for the API interaction.
I use Jekyll for all websites that are smaller than 100 pages.