If you’re building a static site - meaning, a site which does not have any forms which require backend functions - you should use a static site generator. If you’re not building a static site, I recommend starting with a static site. It’s just a lot less to keep in your head as a beginner.
My recommendation is Astro. I like it because it makes it easy and straightforward to create a static site. And, you will also learn JavaScript along the way, without building out a node backend or even anything on the front end.
But, if you really want to learn, I recommend noting. Yes, nothing. Just HTML files in a folder, a css stylesheet, maybe some JS files, and a web server. For deployment, you don’t need a web server config or a VPS. Just use cloud flare pages, link it up with GitHub, and boom, you have a static site.
Don’t be intimidated. If you do just HTML, you can learn a lot and you get the nitty gritty. You understand how the site actually functions from start to end.
What’s the best way to get the template?
If you’re not interested in hand-maintaining the code of the website(s), and you just want a nice GUI for publishing pages/posts/etc., then I’d say use some hosted platform like Squarespace.
For actually learning how to build websites, start with something more low-level and barebones like a static site generator (Jekyll, Hugo, Gatsby, etc.), or even plain GitHub Pages without a static site generator for the most “manual” experience.
In neither of those cases would I consider WordPress.
It sounds like you're fairly new to programming, so I would suggest a static site generator that is easy to install and use.
Zola[1] is less well-known, but it's easy to install and fast. I tend to use Hugo[2] the most these days, which is fast and has solid documentation, but its template syntax is really annoying compared to Zola.
[1]: https://www.getzola.org/documentation/getting-started/overvi...
If you just want a website for cheap: Bearblog, carrd.co, etc.
if you want all the bells and whistles on a platter: Squarespace, Wix, etc.
if you want to supply all the HTML/CSS yourself: Github Pages or Cloudflare Pages.
(Later, if you want to host the above (except the "bells and whistles" tier) yourself: Hetzner, Digital Ocean, etc.)
Personally, I would prefer a static site generator, simply because it requires zero maintenance to safely keep a static site online.
It might also be a good introduction to git and various deployment methods.
I run a website for a living, and moving to a static site generator is the best decision I've made.
I recommend looking at jamstack.org as they have a long list of options.
Personally, I enjoy Hugo, a Go based static site generator. Though if you're unsure then try a couple out and see which you like best.
Astro with a good understanding of how to build using a coding agent (my go to is the BMAD method)
From the Bearblog GitHub:
> Bear Blog has been built as a platform and not as an individual blog generator. It is more like Substack than Hugo. Due to this it isn't possible to individually self-host a Bear Blog.
Jekyll would an alternative for Hugo.
For a simple website it’s overkill.
For a serious website there’s not much else that has the extensibility. Woocommerce is nearly unrivaled. There isn’t another ecosystem like it. I would think this community would lean towards the open source leaning products to the shopifys.