From WordPress & cPanel to Clutch, React & Next.js: A Beginner’s Guide to Building and Deploying a Website

I’ve been using Bricks Builder for years, and before that, Oxygen Builder. I’ve always worked via shared hosting, which has been sufficient for my clients who serve only local markets, not global ones.

Now that I’ve discovered Clutch, and believe it may represent the future of web development, I’ve started diving into JavaScript, followed by React and Next.js. However, I’d really like to see a step-by-step video tutorial for people like me, those used to simply spinning up a WordPress site through cPanel, that explains how to adapt our workflow for Clutch.

Here are my main questions:

• Where do we host the WordPress backend? I assume this can still be done on a shared hosting platform?

• For the frontend, we can host it via Clutch or alternatively export everything and deploy the files to a hosting provider that supports Node.js right?

• How do we deploy the frontend as beginners so that the site goes live?

• Since Clutch is a desktop app, is it always connected to both the frontend and backend?

• What happens if my computer crashes, does Clutch remember my last revision once I reinstall the app?

• More generally, I’d love a beginner-friendly tutorial that walks through the entire process, from start to finish, of building a simple site (with a blog and contact form), putting both the backend and frontend online, and maintaining it afterwards.

  • How do we update the site from the backend?

  • How do we edit or update it from the frontend?

I’m eager to learn this new approach but would appreciate guidance tailored to someone coming from a traditional WordPress & cPanel background.