# The Journey of a Golang Indie Hacker: Building a Web Framework from Scratch ## 🧠 10 Years of Coding — 5 Years of Building a Foundation In a world already full of frameworks — **WordPress**, **Django**, **Laravel**, **Rails** — why would anyone decide to build their own? That’s the question I’ve asked myself for years. Ten years ago, when I first learned programming, I was obsessed with understanding how others wrote such complex code. I started with **Blogspot**, downloading and tweaking themes, convincing myself that I “knew web development.” But that was only the surface. Later, I discovered **Angular**, and that changed everything. I realized a website isn’t just a pretty interface — it can become a **powerful, living application**. That’s also when I began learning about **SEO** and **User Experience (UX)**. UX isn’t just about placing a button in the right spot to improve conversion rates — it’s about delivering genuine value to users. It doesn’t have to be beautiful; it just has to **work and solve a need**. ## 🔧 Why Not Use Existing Frameworks? I currently use **Fiber (Golang)** — a framework inspired by **Express.js** — but not in its original form. I rewrote several core parts, especially the **template engine**, based on **database mapping principles**. This allows me to query and render data similarly to **Shopify’s Liquid**, but in my own way. I don’t think I’m smarter than anyone else — I just want to **understand and control everything I build**. ### Why not use a JavaScript framework? I’ve been there too. I once wrote my own JS framework, but I realized it took too much time for too little gain. Building from the **server-side** made more sense — I could handle **security** and **control** much better. So I started developing a **Web Component system** using **Vanilla JS** — fast, minimal, and dependency-free. I wanted something that could **run by embedding a single script tag**, not an entire build process. ## 🌀 Starting Over (2020) In **2020**, I decided to start over — from zero. I had no money, no stable job, no connections. Just a dream of **technological independence**. For six months, I worked on a custom **DNS system**. I still remember showing a friend my first generated ID: ``` 2wjqpur0ife35a49yklnxbc6g1dohz78vstm ``` It was just a string — no interface, no frontend — but I was ecstatic. Then came the next challenge: managing **node inheritance** in a system hierarchy. In **JavaScript**, it’s simple. But in **Golang**, pointer management can be brutal. I hit what’s known as the **Diamond Problem**, where multiple inheritance causes cyclic references. Solving it in Go was… a rite of passage. After that, I wrote my own **template engine**, studied **Shopify Liquid**, **ASP.NET**, **Angular Pipes**, and **Vue/React Routers** — and built a system that worked for me. Not perfect, but *mine*. > In programming, nothing is perfect. > We write code → it breaks → we fix it → we grow. From there, I developed APIs, Web Components, search systems, a **QR code generator**, and a **URL shortener**. I dove deeper into **databases**, **indexing**, **query optimization**. Not an expert in everything — just enough to build something that works. ## 💡 Hopes of an Indie Hacker Once the core framework was functional, I added automation — a **data crawler**, a primitive **UI**, basic **string interpolation**, and later, **Go templates** for rendering. If you’ve worked with Go, you’ll notice similarities with **Hugo**. I love that minimalism — it helps me understand how everything connects at the root level. When I launched my first real product — a **price comparison website** — it quickly reached the **Top 100 E-commerce Websites in Vietnam**. But the setup? Just a tiny VPS: **1 core CPU, 2GB RAM, 20GB SSD.** It was a victory… until it wasn’t. The server couldn’t handle the load. I lost uptime, users, and momentum. Still — that experience was **priceless**. ## 🔗 Building Tools for Growth After that, I built a **URL shortener** to track my **affiliate marketing** links. I wanted to measure **CPC**, **EPC**, and understand scaling efficiency. It taught me how to optimize campaigns, interpret data, and think like a systems architect — not just a coder. Every tool I built became another piece of my framework — another module in my growing ecosystem. ## 🌍 The Vision — and The Why I am a **Golang Indie Hacker** — no team, no funding, no fancy marketing. But I dream of one day raising funds to scale this framework into something that can truly **empower local businesses**. A platform that can **replace WordPress, Odoo, or Shopify** — giving Vietnamese entrepreneurs the power to **own their websites, data, and brands**. That’s why I’ve spent **five years (since 2020)** developing this framework — alone, but not lost. I don’t know what the future holds. What I do know is that I love this journey — the quiet joy of solving problems that matter. I’m not an expert. I’m just a kid who fell in love with code. To me, programming isn’t just about writing logic. It’s about creating **real value** for others — and believing that automation can make human work more meaningful. And that’s what keeps me coding. ## 🧭 Notes - Article originally published in **2024**, reposted in **2025** - **AI-powered English translation** - Read the original Vietnamese version here: [https://hnq.vn/blog/hanh-trinh-cua-mot-golang-indie-hacker-xay-dung-web-framework-tu-so-khong](https://huynhnhanquoc.com/blog/hanh-trinh-cua-mot-golang-indie-hacker-xay-dung-web-framework-tu-so-khong) ## 💌 More About Me - **Blog:** [huynhnhanquoc.com](https://huynhnhanquoc.com) - **GitHub:** [github.com/huynhnhanquoc](https://github.com/huynhnhanquoc) - **Open Source:** [github.com/kitmodule](https://github.com/kitmodule) - **Buy me a Coffee:** [buymeacoffee.com/huynhnhanquoc](https://https://huynhnhanquoc.com/blog/hom-nay-la-mot-ngay-dep-troi-e-viet-code) - **Keep me Dreaming:** [ko-fi.com/huynnhanquoc](https://ko-fi.com/huynnhanquoc) Thanks for reading Huỳnh Nhân Quốc’s article! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.