This post provides a high-level list of components and services we use to deliver this site.

Infrastructure

The prod servers are at DigitalOcean and Hetzner and run Debian. The cloud APIs of those two providers are very similar, and it is easy to switch from one to another.

We use Docker containers to run the Nginx, MySql, PHP-FPM.

To orchestrate the testing and deployment, we have TeamCity (also dockerized incl. the agents) and use Git with submodules. There is a Selenium server (in a docker container) with the PHP language binding for automated testing. For the local test environments, we use VMware or KVM.

The site is secured, as shown on the server-testing reports from SSL Labs or Hardenize.

Technology

There is a standard set of languages and engines used: PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, MySQL, Bash scripts, and a tiny bit of Python.

The base was WordPress; nowadays, it has many modifications, customizations, plugins etc. We do use a very lightweight design to perform well across mobile and slower networks around the world.

There are online APIs involved, particularly Analytics, Indexing, Sitemaps and AdSense from Google, WP Rocket Cache and the RocketCDN, Blog2Social, Stripe API, Forpsi mail, GeoIP2, reSmush.it.

We also like the Lambdatest, GTmetrix, Pingdom and PageSpeed Insights services for cross-browser/platform or performance testing.

Process

We use the red/black (aka blue/green) deployment model and release new code daily. Git submodules are there to cascade through the different levels of change complexity.

It is a work in progress, and we will keep updating this post as the site evolves.