Bento made link pages feel designed instead of dumped. For creators, that was enough. For developers, a polished link hub is only the start. If the visitor still has to imagine your projects, clone your repos, or trust stale screenshots, the page is not doing the hard work.
What a link-in-bio page does well
A link-in-bio page is a router. It gets people to your GitHub, LinkedIn, writing, resume, and side projects. Bento was good because it made that routing feel intentional and visual. Its sunset is a reminder that even beautiful link hubs can be temporary.
Keep that clarity. A portfolio should still make the next click obvious. But developers need a stronger default destination than a grid of outbound links.
What developers need instead
Developer portfolios are evaluated under time pressure. The strongest signal is not that a project exists somewhere. It is that the project can be opened, inspected, and understood in under a minute.
- Live demo: proves the app runs.
- Source link: proves the code exists.
- Stack and summary: explain what the reviewer is seeing.
- Screenshot: gives a quick preview without replacing the running app.
Use links, but make proof the center
A Hostlet portfolio still links out to GitHub, LinkedIn, and personal sites. The difference is the project card does not stop at "go elsewhere." It can show a verified Hostlet live demo, an external demo, or a source-only project with the proof tier labeled honestly.
That means your profile works even when your work is mixed: hosted web apps, open-source libraries, class projects, and external projects can sit together without pretending every link has the same level of verification.
If you are leaving Bento, rebuild around outcomes
- Keep the profile links people expect.
- Move your best projects above the link list.
- Deploy at least one app so the portfolio has working proof.
- Use one public portfolio URL everywhere.
Bento's sunset page lived at bento.me/bento-sunset. If you are rebuilding, use the moment to upgrade from a link hub to proof someone can inspect. Browse Hostlet's demo portfolio for the working-app version.